Fortes stared at the shadow of the mountain, which was distinctly peculiar in the midst of such a flat rainforest.

At this moment, sporadic footsteps could be heard from inside the camp - and the giggling of sirens.

"You're back!"

Fortes, who was a little oblivious to his gaze, was soon pulled back to reality by this lovely welcome.

"What about Mr. Darcis?"

"Report to your lord! Here you are—the leader you want to see, representing the entire Celestial Serpent Clan, Darcis, is right in front of you. ”

The short index finger of his right hand unscrupulously pointed directly at the old man of the Celestial Snake Clan, Darcis, who was standing on his right.

When they first met, the two sides did not show much hostility or goodwill, let alone flattery.

Both nodded their heads at the same time.

And Darcy was the first to say hello to Fortes.

"When we first met, the old man's name was Darcis, and his full name was 'Darcis. Abesir. The Celestial Snake is the elder of the 'Abesir Family', who holds the authority of the Lord among the many families of the Celestial Snake Clan, and is also the head of this village. ”

Forts didn't listen carefully to the follow-up self-introduction, and only stopped at "Darcis. Abesir. The full name of "Celestial Serpent" is not interested in the Abesil family, but I didn't expect the small group to divide into families.

I didn't know what to do, so I nodded slightly and signaled to the other party to understand.

"I'm sorry to come here so suddenly. I'm sure you've learned my identity through my men. I am none other than the ruler of the last two visitors, Fortes, without a surname. ”

Fortis looked indifferent, bowed his head and apologized.

"There is no surname...... Is it easy to know where you came from? ”

"Unfortunately, I don't have anything to tell you, and I didn't deliberately hide it, because there really isn't anything that can help you understand me better, so please forgive me for being rude."

With that, Fortes lowered his head again, even lower than before, to apologize.

This act left Darcisse at a loss - the man in front of him could obviously kill himself, or even the entire village. That's right, I don't know if it's deliberate, but from time to time there will be a strange smell overflowing from him, and I've never encountered it.

One thing is clear, if you fight against him, you will definitely not have the slightest chance of winning! It is the breath of the strong.

But this soft attitude is completely inconsistent with the dangerous aura of the body. In order to let your guard down? No, there is no point in doing so.

Suspicious of Fortes' attitude, Dacis shook his head and looked at Fortes' subordinates -

Luckily, they didn't show any dissatisfaction, they just watched calmly.

"Woo woo woo ......"

At this time, the children behind Forts finally couldn't suppress the sadness and tiredness in their hearts, and began to cry.

"Woo-ahh——————!h

One cry after another rang out, and Dacis's gaze immediately shifted to behind Fortes.

The elite's eyes immediately fixed on a cold corpse in the children's arms—Darcis's eyes widened in anger.

In an instant, Darcis's eyes changed from calm to anger, condensing the spatial element-

"The kid...... It's the children of our village...... Isn't it, Mr. Fortes, ...... you? ”

Tension, rising with the spatial element overflowing with Darcis's fists, Fortes calmly observed.

His eyes began to reveal curiosity that he had never felt before.

With the body and power of gluttony, there is no enemy who exudes the power that can interest him, except for his father and Grossar—and yet, Darcy in front of him is the third.

Sure enough, normal logic and thinking will preconceive that they are the murderers of their children.

Although for the sake of future cooperation between the two parties, it should be immediately and appropriately explained. However, I also want to compete with this old man with both wisdom and strength, and I can just adapt to this atmosphere and have a fight.

At this time, Fortes's eyes slowly glanced at Unodal beside him—soon, Unotal turned his head, unwilling to make any eye contact with Fortes, who had been mistaken for a murderer, and obviously didn't want to say more.

Sure enough, the kid didn't intend to explain for himself.

yes.

"If it were me—what would you do?"

Deliberately throwing out vague rhetorical questions, Fortes' intentions were obvious - he wanted to provoke Darcis.

At the same time, it is also an unabashed rhetorical question, which sounds to Dacis's ears as a round-the-turn acknowledgement.

The fists clenched even tighter.

But—

Obviously, sanity is still slightly superior. Darcis, whose face was ugly, tried to suppress the anger in his heart, and tried to use a calm tone as much as possible, and his mature and aged face became calm, and began to call the other soldiers in the village—

"Bring the injured child into the village to heal – and one child who died."

"The children's injuries have been taken care of by my men."

Fords' sudden interjection seemed to inadvertently remind Darcisse of something. When Forts blurted out, his face naturally showed a little remorse, as if he regretted the reminder just now.

Suddenly, Dacis seemed to understand something. The look of resentment on his face was mixed with some doubt.

There is no doubt about him. The children wept and ran to the arms of the soldiers, while the girl of the Celestial Snake Clan who died was quietly laid flat on the cold ground by the soldiers, covering the last "quilt" in grief.

Fortunately, there were no villagers at the scene, otherwise the village would inevitably cause a lot of fluctuations. However, the faces of the Heavenly Snake soldiers were also quite stunned, and they couldn't stop sobbing tears.

The distance between the two sides is only a few centimeters, but it is "forever" apart.

Fortes stood politely and waited for the children to finish their work—and just as Fortes took the initiative to speak, Darcis's request was the first to be made—

"Is it convenient for us to move the place where we are talking?"

The mysterious and whispered plea, the anger that had just now seemed to fade somewhat.

Forts, who didn't say anything, quickly nodded in agreement, and then turned to look at the Nightcourt and Kurt—

"Standby, first stand by in the Heavenly Snake Village."

"Yes."

The two of them bowed in unison.

"Sirens - care and follow up on the girl's family, I will personally visit the house later to condole."

"Yes."

It wasn't until Fortes' order reached Darcis's ears that his angry countenance seemed to change somewhat.

Led by Darcis, Forts traveled through the center of the village, shuttling through one stone house after another, carefully observing the environment of the capital, and not knowing how many villagers he had made eye contact.

The eyes that looked at him showed full fear, cringe, and exclusion.

It's normal to have such a reaction, and I believe that Darcy didn't reveal what happened to the villagers, but the atmosphere in the village is not welcoming to humans, so maybe this is the reason for such a reaction.

About ten minutes away, Darcy and Fortes were silent, but not embarrassed. Darcis's thought earnestly, while Fortes observed intently, and both had their own thoughts, and naturally they didn't care about silence.

In the end, Darcy stopped at a simple thatched hut on the far left side of the village, and it wasn't the stone house he had seen all the way.

Expressionless, Darcis, stretched out his wrinkled right hand and cautiously turned open the wooden door, which was mostly corroded by moisture, as if to prevent the broken doorknob from being wrung by himself—

"Squeak squeak—"

The shrill and unbearable sound of the door opening sounded very uncomfortable, and Forts couldn't help but frown.

The door was wide open, and there was no light to welcome - only a bottomless darkness and an even stronger smell of dampness. There is no floor for people to tread, but a staircase that leads to the ground.

It turned out that the thatched hut was just a decoration, but in fact, it was the entrance to the basement.

"Please follow me."

With that, Darcy stretched out his right hand, and a fireball quickly ignited between his palms, which served as a light source to go to the basement.

"No problem."

Fords, who was not afraid of any traps set by the other party, nodded in agreement.

Darcis, politely instructed, and led the way down the stairs. The stairs are also made of ordinary wood, and in this kind of moisture-dense environment, there will inevitably be serious corrosion - and the stairs under your feet are not unexpected.

Each step would make a heart-piercing "squeak" sound than just opening the door, and the step made Fortis a little frightened, even if he no longer felt any pain, but the loss of pain did not mean that the damage would disappear.

Now Fortes, on the contrary, is more afraid of injury than when he was a human, because without the reminder of pain, his body will be tormented by a small injury that he has neglected at any time, and even cause greater danger.

However, the creaking sound did not frighten Darcis, and it seems that he often walked this thorny path.

Darcis, unsuspecting, turned his back to Fortes, while being in the dark, seemed to be quite relieved of Fortes. It's also possible that he's confident that he won't lose to Fortes, but it's highly unlikely.

No matter how you look at it, everything about this subspecies old man in front of him is hidden and makes him curious.

Soon, Fortis unconsciously stepped on a flat staircase instead of a slight staircase, and in front of him was no longer an endless underground, but a new wooden door with no signs of corrosion.

Darcis's knob turned slightly.

"Please come in."

The fireball in his palm was tucked away, and the door was wide open - this time, there was already candlelight to welcome Fortes.

The small round study room, which is not very large, is surrounded by several bookcases that are densely packed with colorful parchment books, and there are stacks of books that cannot fit into the bookcases on the ground that have been paved with logs.

It's messy.

There was also a table in the study, with two wooden chairs on the side, which appeared to be the seats for Darcy and Fortes. On the table, there are tea and snacks prepared in advance, as well as candles for the entire study to be lit.

The study was filled with the smell of books and a faint smell of dampness, which could not have been more slight than the outside, replaced by the pleasant smell of books and a certain perfume.

As the owner, Darcis, he took the initiative to pull open one of the wooden chairs and stretched out his hand to point to the empty seat—

"You may be seated."

"Thank you."

Fortes sat down first, and Darcisse sat down opposite.

The two sides glanced at each other, and this moment was the picture that Darcis's mind expected, but it was not the situation that Darcis's wanted.

Ill-intentioned.

"I apologize again to my subordinates for their rude offense."

Forts suddenly began to apologize again, bowing his head earnestly.

Darcisse didn't respond to this, but he didn't accept it, just watched quietly.

"Please look up."

"Yes."

Fortes looked up quickly, his face expressionless, in sharp contrast to his apology. It's obviously just a formality, but I'm not really sorry emotionally.

Maybe there is, or maybe I just don't know how to express it.

But there is no need to force anything, the other party is the supreme existence of all kinds of strong people, and there is not much involved in this kind of humble etiquette, and it should be unfamiliar. Just accept it yourself.

"So suddenly...... Or maybe I didn't come to visit you at such a strange time, it was just a matter of time, and I couldn't find a better time to visit you, for me. ”

"I understand – the difference in strength between us and you, we didn't have the choice to decide from the beginning."

"Very open-minded thinking. It is right for me to have such reverence for me, but I still don't mean it, and I don't like you to see us that way, at least, I don't despise you. ”

“…… You are as quiet and peaceful as I imagined. ”

"Huh...... It's no wonder that all of my subordinates around me are acting aggressively, and you must have been terrified and frightened when you first came to your land! ”

"Indeed."

Darcis's uneasiness was suppressed, because he was oppressed by the peerless strong aura of the man in front of him, and his breathing seemed to become unsmooth, but the child's death was still firmly imprinted in his mind.

The order to remove Fortis from being a suspect just now mitigated his suspicions about Fortes - but who did it?

The restless eyes rolled two more times, finally stopping and focusing on the cold man in front of him.

"Excuse me...... The cause of the girl's death ......"

"I am their savior."

It seemed that he had already guessed this question from Darcis's expression, and Fortes confessed without thinking.

"The girl was killed by someone else, and the cause of death was ill-treatment. I didn't immediately confess to you at the entrance of the village, mainly because I was worried that the news of the girl's death would spread in the village, and secondly, ...... I wanted to use the misunderstanding to ignite your anger and prompt us to have a reasonable exchange, but I didn't expect me to blurt out, and you also guessed, a superb analysis. ”

After calmly explaining, Fortes rested his right elbow on the table, his fist propped up his head, his cheeks dragged as if in contemplation, and his two deep, dark eyes stared straight at Darcis.

"How do you know...... I unravel my misunderstanding of you from your statement? ”

"I don't have any good qualities as a person, but I'm very sensitive to changes in 'expressions'."

Disapproving the explanation, he crossed his legs and continued to stare at Darcis.

"Yes."

Darcy nodded, understanding—but still something he couldn't understand.

"Can you please tell me about the girl's killer?"

"Until then—"

Fortes suddenly and slowly raised his left hand, which had been lying flat on the table, deliberately slowing down, just to reassure Darcis, that he was not about to make a move that would make him suspicious.

But Darcis's nervous stare was still unconcealed.

Raised to the center of Darcis' line of sight, his left middle finger and thumb tightly closed, ready to snap his fingers.

There was a loud snap of the fingers—the "black mist" belonging to Fortis burst out from all sides, like a curtain rising from the ground, quickly enveloping the figures of Darcy and Fortus.

The surrounding scene and sight are instantly pitch black, not only the vision disappears, but even the perception is deprived, as if the physical body no longer exists, and all that remains is consciousness and other intangible things.

Not only the actual sense of the body, but also the power has been hollowed out, and it is so fleeting, that it can no longer be felt.

Daxis was shocked, and his expression did not know what to become, so he must have been terrified.

The visual deprivation of the Black Mist only works on all species except Fortes, in other words, Fortes looks at the expression of Darcis, who is sitting at him from a short distance, and is unsurprisingly shocked.

"Please don't panic, this is my ability, to be honest, I still don't know if this power is magic, because it is an innate power, not like a tool that needs to be learned."

"It feels...... The ability to take away the senses? ”

The ensuing feeling of emptiness made Darcis's eyes widen in surprise and muttered to himself.

Fortes' figure was certainly not in Darcis's eyes, after all, he was temporarily deprived of sight. Now he could only hear the sounds, but the voice of Fortes seemed to exist in his head, and the reverberations could not be dissipated.

Balanced smearing in Darcis's consciousness.

Fortes did not make any unnecessary explanations for this behavior, and the darkness was hidden in his gaze calmly and calmly.

"Forgive my faux pas, although you should not pose any threat to me, but act cautiously, I deliberately eliminate your power, you cannot cast any magic during the existence of the black mist, and you cannot touch me."

"No...... No way, it's not magic, it's a miracle. ”

The admiration of his eyes and his incredibly high voice all met Fortes's eyes

"Because of this, I still haven't fully grasped the truth of this ability, and I can only use it, but I don't understand the meaning, after all, I seem to have this power since birth, and I have no burden to use it."

"Don't you...... Do you want to demonstrate to me the difference in strength between you and your subordinates? ”

"As I said, I am guarding against any of your small means, I can have an equal dialogue with you, and even communicate, but it does not mean that I will easily trust any stranger, and usually, I should be a little defensive about others."

"But...... This embankment is too trivial, isn't it? ”

"Huh? What are you kidding, I've tried my best to release the water, I didn't expect you to be disturbed by this? ”

I don't know if it was a real surprise inquiry, or a tactful display of his strength, in short, a thought flashed through Darcis's mind - even if all the creatures gathered in the wetlands were not necessarily Fortes's opponents.