Chapter 2389: Light Lion Armor

Chapter 2389: Chapter 2389: Light Lion Armor

Even the wind in this Sand Sea was scalding hot, but compared to his first arrival in the Gravel Golden Sea, Shard felt his tolerance for the sun and the glimmer had clearly improved a lot.

Last time he had only felt that he, like Mia with her tail on fire, could absorb some sunlight; now he even felt his whole body was spontaneously absorbing the sun’s light and slowly transforming it into his own Spirit.

"This shouldn’t just be my imagination, right?"

[It isn’t.]

"So is it that my soul talent is just ridiculously high, or is this body simply way too powerful?"

Letting his thoughts run wild made the boring, painful journey seem much shorter, and before long Shard saw the familiar temple standing ahead.

His pace quickened, desperately hoping to get inside the temple and enjoy a moment of shade. But after striding forward several dozen steps, Shard’s pace slowed down again.

It wasn’t that he had encountered some danger he couldn’t push through, nor that his body felt too unwell to go on, but that the blinding daylight from just now was steadily growing dimmer.

The scorching heat that had left him nowhere to hide faded along with the weakening light, and the faint wind over the Sand Sea even carried a hint of coolness, making the sweat–soaked Shard involuntarily shiver.

"What’s going on now?"

He looked up, and saw the sky that had been so abnormally bright just moments ago now blooming into a halo of sunset light with a speed like time acceleration. In the blink of an eye, light that had been harsher than the midday sunshine shifted into a strangely orange-red sky. There were no clouds at all in the bizarre sky over the Sand Sea, but as the daylight weakened, the originally glaring white sky still completely defied optical laws, changing color as a whole.

The twisted orange-red made Shard feel nauseous, and when he lowered his head to look at the glowing golden gravel underfoot, he realized that it wasn’t only "daytime" that was dangerous here.

The suffering of "daytime" came mostly from physical torment, whereas the scenery of this "dusk" had turned into psychological torture brought on by the eerie sky.

Shard had never seen such a strange "dusk," but that also meant that his third appearance in the year 4260 of the Fifth Era was finally about to meet the rare "night" of the desert.

The blinding sun of "daytime" could now be looked at directly in this extremely brief "dusk" phase. The sun at the moment was just its normal ruddy color, only inexplicably shrouded in a dirty gray halo.

It did not sink toward any direction, still hanging right overhead just as before. So the bizarre orange-red colors the sky displayed right now absolutely were not caused by the sun setting.

This dusk phase passed extremely quickly; by the time Shard, welcomed in by the excited Mermaid Girl Miss Sander’s waving hand, officially stepped into the Sun Shrine, dusk was already nearing its end point.

The dim sky did not make the interior of the dilapidated Sun Shrine go dark as well, because the moment Shard entered, he looked up and saw, on the altar deep in the temple, the rectangular chest housing that set of Golden Lion Armor, glowing with a soft and holy golden light.

The dense Miracle Elements made Shard gasp in surprise, and though the light emitted by the chest was nowhere near comparable to the sun, it was enough to illuminate the inside of the temple. Looking to his companions—Miss Sander, Old Lady Sianod, Miss Nate, and the barefoot Miss Mister—they all seemed safe and sound as they greeted Shard.

Shard had no idea how long it had been since he left last time. Thanks to the supplies he’d provided, Old Lady Sianod and the three ladies didn’t look much different, only Miss Sander’s left wrist was wrapped in bandages, and the way Miss Nate stood suggested her right leg was somewhat unwell.

Shard released Mia first, then sat down to talk with them. After the cat returned from toy form to her feline appearance, she immediately recognized where they were. She first looked toward the glowing armor chest, then jumped onto Shard’s shoulder and peered out of the temple.

Obviously, this cat was very disappointed that it was no longer "daytime."

"Welcome back, Mr. Hamilton!"

Compared to the visibly exhausted Old Elf, Miss Nate’s eyes seemed too drowsy to open, while the Mermaid Girl was much more enthusiastic, taking the initiative to explain their current situation.

Judging from her manner, her mental state was clearly somewhat abnormal too; this kind of manic excitement shouldn’t appear in a girl trapped in the desert for so long:

"After you left, a long~ long~ time passed again, and during that time we kept preparing for the next time we’d leave here together. But it seems most of those preparations aren’t necessary anymore."

Because outside it was now the "night" phase; though the Sand Sea’s nights were bitterly cold, at least, unlike "daytime," even Circle Sorcerers or Witches couldn’t stay active for long.

"But after you left we did run into a few things. The first was that someone else showed up nearby and found us."

"A sixth person?"

Shard immediately looked around, but there was neither an extra corpse nor an unconscious living person in the temple.

"Not a normal person."

Old Lady Sianod said tiredly:

"I couldn’t tell what it was, either. At first everyone thought it was a new companion, but after it appeared, all of us started getting tired faster, and the loss of memory became much more severe. Fortunately Miss Mister noticed the danger in time and drove that thing out of the Temple. Once it was exposed under the sunlight it kept wailing, begging us to let it back in. In the end, it turned into a mass of black mist and disappeared."

Shard then looked at that "God of Mist"; the lady with light brown skin smiled and nodded to him:

"I happen to have a secret technique specifically for that kind of thing."

"Miss Sander, were your injuries and Miss Nate’s all caused back then?"

Shard continued to ask with concern. The Lady Knight subtly drew back her right leg, while the Mermaid Girl shook her head:

"That’s the second matter. In order to gather Ritual Materials, Granny Sander and I went out again. The trip itself wasn’t a problem, but we seem to have brought back something invisible. That thing kept absorbing spiritual power, and it could Transform its own shape as well."

Speaking of this, she still warily glanced around:

"If it weren’t for the fact that once that thing gets close to your Armor it shows partial colors, driving it away would absolutely have cost us more than these minor injuries."

"Armor, huh?"

Holding the cat in his arms, Shard once again looked at the glowing box. By now it was fully Dark outside the Temple. Although the Temple itself seemed able to block those chilling winds—so that even without doors or window glass it wouldn’t become frighteningly cold—the silent, pitch?black Sand Sea still made one’s skin crawl.

"We’re fine, it’s just that the wounds caused by that invisible monster are slow to heal. After being treated with the Holy Water you brought, these are all minor issues."

The blue?haired Mermaid Girl shook her hand as proof, and Miss Nate also softly stated that the injury to her foot did not affect her movements.

Though this time Shard could stay in the Gravel Golden Sea for a full hour, besides searching for the third piece of Compass Fragments, he also had to rely on the Compass to find the "Heart of the Oasis."

Time was actually not very plentiful. Since Shard had arrived, the ladies, already prepared to leave this "Sanctuary" with him, were going to set off in the Direction indicated by the first two fragments of the Compass.

The final matter before departure was for Shard to reclaim his set of Armor. The Armor still rested upon the Altar; after Shard left last time, the ladies who remained here hadn’t touched it.

Now that the blinding Sunshine had vanished, the Moonlight streaming through the cracks in the Temple roof illuminated that glowing box.

The Moonlight in the desert was of course abnormal, too, but at least this abnormality was entirely within the range Shard could tolerate. It was only three or four times stronger than the Moonlight at Moon Bay last night.

Shard briefly inspected the box. The ordinary object had, due to its prolonged exposure to the Sunshine of the Sand Sea, now acquired four kinds of elements attached to it. Among them, the Miracle Element was somewhat stronger, though it was unclear whether, once taken away from here, it could still maintain its current level of elements.

The "Smiling Sun Emblem," "Sword and Shield," "Golden Cat," and "woman’s face encircled by twisting patterns" on the four sides of the box’s walls were all glowing, making the box appear even more splendid and extraordinary.

And when Shard carefully opened the box, the Armor proper inside—a Golden Lion?shaped set standing upright—was indeed glowing as well. Though the box itself shielded it from Sunshine, the traces of elements accumulated on each part of the Armor were in no way inferior to those on the box itself.

"Miss Gawder said she’ll come visit me at the end of this month or the beginning of next month. When she does, I must remember to thank her for this gift."

Shard thought to himself as he withdrew his hand from the Warmth of the Armor’s components. At that moment Miss Mister’s voice came from behind him. Her very sparingly clothed "dancer" outfit would clearly be cold in the desert night:

"I’m curious. Obviously this is a large cat?shaped Armor, so why do you keep insisting it’s a lion?"

Old Lady Sianod and the other two were still doing their final packing. Most of the supplies would soon be turned into toys by Shard and put away, while they carried only light essential items and their personal valuables.

"Well... honestly, I still think it’s a lion, not a cat. Besides, wearing ’Cat Armor’ is really too... mm... anyone with a reputation wouldn’t do that."

Shard replied, patting little Mia’s head when she tried to reach out and touch the Armor.

Miss Mister chuckled softly behind him:

"But aren’t cats the best mascot for you? Don’t you seem very fond of your own cat?"

"There’s no problem with wearing a cat pendant or carrying a cat around, of course, but when it comes to Armor... compared to a cat, a lion is clearly more imposing."

"Meow~"

The cat on his shoulder suddenly cried out. Shard had no idea what it meant, but he still patted it a few times, and only then did the cat quiet down.