The sky was pitch black, the Milky Way that had seemed to float across the heavens vanished. The twinkling stars were also gone.
Even the sometimes-glittering stars were obscured, and tonight, only a crescent moon hung in the inky blackness of the sky.
This was the night Alka and his companions had been waiting for.
Seeing this night, Alka and his companions quickly said their goodbyes. They gathered their belongings, hurried on, and left the Demon Hunting Fortress.
They seemed incredibly hurried.
This time, they didn't leave through the city walls, but instead departed directly from the rear of the fortress, heading into the desolate wilderness.
While this might require a longer detour, it wasn't a problem for them.
They could perform the Moon Power ritual within the fortress, but performing such an obscure ritual in a place like the Demon Hunting Fortress, which was relatively repulsive to pagan beliefs and demons, would easily lead to suspicion and questioning. While their reputation could prevent such things, why bother?
Moreover, they themselves had no idea of the wide-ranging impact of this ritual.
So, Alka and the others quickly departed. Fifty kilometers from the fortress, it was only mid-night.
It was the time when the moon was at its brightest.
During the day, the sun remained motionless, the sky as still as the surface of water. Only at night could the dynamics of the world's stars be felt.
Urulius produced the treasure that she had never fully mastered, which could enhance the ritual.
The puppet girls and Alka and the others bustled around, preparing various materials and the already carved statues.
The preparations were swift, taking less than half an hour.
The entire ritual was complete.
A complex incantation representing the moon, along with prayers and spells written in the language of the white crocodile, lay on the ground.
The grass in this area had been freshly cleared during the ritual. Alka had even used Earth and Fire tiles to reshape and burn the area into hardened earth.
Above, a statue was placed on a moon pattern.
Around it were various occult materials.
Urulius then controlled the treasure to the edge of the ritual.
Seeing this, Sofia took a deep breath, calmed himself, and then moved to the center of the magic circle.
He made a gesture similar to praying to the moon and closed his eyes.
Alka blinked and began to observe the entire ritual more closely.
"Boundless darkness, heartbreaking pain. Night shall come!"
"White moon, light of salvation. Bearing reverence!"
"By the power of the moon, in the name of the moon..."
Urulius chanted the incantation in the language of the white crocodile.
As the ritual progressed, Sofia's body shone with a light as bright as the moon.
This shimmering light brought a sense of tranquility to everyone around them.
The mind calmed.
Even their senses became unusually sharp, as if they could take in everything around them.
That feeling of clarity and clarity.
The shimmering light began to converge and converge on Sofia's body.
Then, the light shifted and appeared on Sofia's face.
A white crescent moon symbol appeared at the corner of her eye and on her cheek.
A crescent moon symbol adorned Sofia's face, complementing her silver hair.
An inexplicable aura emanated from her, a calming aura.
Alka watched the entire ceremony unfold.
After it concluded, Alka's expression became as if she were constipated.
Jason, who had been standing beside Alka until the ceremony was over, only looked at her and noticed something was terribly wrong with her expression.
"What's going on? What went wrong with this ritual?" Alka's expression was truly misleading.
Jason's words drew everyone's attention.
Everyone looked at Alka.
"Nothing. I just feel... we shouldn't blindly engage in religious worship."
Hearing Alka's sigh, everyone was puzzled.
Alka explained, "We thought the most important weather for the entire ceremony was a night like this." He pointed to the sky.
Then he said gravely, "That's completely unimportant, because the entire ceremony has nothing to do with the moon in the sky."
In his eyes, which had just seen through the secret, the entire ceremony didn't have even the slightest connection to the moon or the weather.
In other words, the so-called need to perform the ceremony under such circumstances was merely a tedious process required by some religious beliefs.
In short, it was a useless means for these religions to enhance their prestige.
In reality, it had no real impact on the entire ceremony.
Although it still had the characteristics of moonlight, it had no connection to the moon in the sky.
A night sky like this wouldn't bring any substantial improvement or effect; it would only elicit reverence.
In other words, their waiting for so long was in vain, meaningless.
In fact, if they had known then, they could have performed the ceremony directly, allowing Sofia to become a Moon Power.
After hearing Alka's explanation, everyone also felt a bit uncomfortable.
Having their time wasted for no reason was truly irritating.
But the problem was that if the ritual didn't proceed, they couldn't guarantee that this wouldn't happen again.
Because the entire ritual was indeed related to the moon.
"Alright, alright, enough of this. The ritual has been successful, but the most important step hasn't even begun yet."
Looking at the annoyed expressions on everyone's faces, Sofia said with a smile.
Alka waved his hand, and a large mirror appeared at their feet. Everyone boarded.
Alka controlled the mirror, and a turquoise wind token appeared beside him.
The mirror flew swiftly through the sky, like a magic carpet.
"Do you feel anything?"
Hearing Alka's question, Sofia frowned and shook his head.
"I don't feel anything at all. Nothing has changed, except for the new pattern."
Sofia pointed to the white crescent mark on her cheek, below her left eye.
Hearing this, Alka looked at her, then touched the mark on her face, feeling nothing.
"You can't say there haven't been any changes. Your temperament has changed a bit. Hmm... more charming?"
Alka thought for a moment and said.
Lucilia, sitting on Alka's shoulder, nodded at this, and everyone else couldn't help but chat.
Just as Alka had described, it seemed that this change had indeed occurred.
However, such a change clearly didn't match the conditions and materials required for the entire ritual.
This ritual was clearly a preparation for the treasure.
...
After several days of rapid flight, even with the long detour, Alka and the others quickly arrived at their previous camp.
The simple camp they had built earlier had long since turned to ruins.
It looked like some wild beast had caused it.
They didn't linger for long.
They went straight to the ruined temple they had left earlier.
"I feel it."
Upon arriving, Sofia immediately felt something different. The crescent moon mark on her face flickered with a faint white light.
It was still night, but the sky had returned to its normal state.
With that, Sofia headed straight for the ruins.
Alka and the others followed in a group, a few of them plus a large group of puppet girls, including Wu Yaya.
They passed the ruins and arrived directly at the statue they had seen earlier.
Sofia stood beside the statue, gently closed her eyes, and raised her hands slightly.
There were no special effects, no strange features. The statue before them slowly slid. The entire statue moved backward, and a staircase leading downwards appeared before everyone.
"Is there space underneath?"
The question was naturally raised by Sofia, who had explored this area before.
She had clearly explored this area before, and found nothing but solid earth below, no so-called space. And now reality reappeared before her: a staircase leading downwards.
She hadn't even detected this staircase before.
Silver ripples appeared before everyone, clearly undulating towards the staircase.
As the ripples rippled, Sofia's expression grew slightly surprised.
"Impressive! I can't even scan it. It feels like earth."
They had never encountered anything like this before.
"Let's go down and take a look," Alka said.
With that, everyone formed a line and headed down the stairs.
They hadn't walked long, but they could sense the staircase led down to a depth of about seven or eight meters.
As they descended, a large, empty area immediately appeared before them.
The entire area emanated a faint, soft glow, allowing them to clearly see the entire surroundings even without using darkvision.
It was a place roughly the size of a football field.
Aside from the pillars arranged in the center, the entire area was unusually vast, yet also unusually empty.
"It seems... it's not yet finished?" Simon said, taking a quick look around the area.
From the half-carved statues to the various utensils displayed, everything indicated that the area was still under construction.
They even saw a large pile of materials stacked in a corner not far away, along with various tools.
However, there was one area within the entire site that was already completed: the innermost part.
On an altar.
A sphere emitting a soft, gentle glow floated gently.
Everyone looked at each other and slowly walked toward the altar.
As they approached, they realized it wasn't a sphere, but a crescent-shaped ornament, roughly the size of a palm.
The material of the ornament was completely unidentifiable, resembling something like crystal or jade.
The glowing sphere was a result of the light it emitted being concentrated, then diffused.
To Alka's eyes, the crescent was encircled by an orange frame.
This was the treasure they needed.
Simon reached out, curious, wanting to touch it.
Alka immediately stopped him.
"Don't touch it. There are protective measures in place."
He was referring to the sphere of light emanating from the crescent.
After saying this, he turned to look at Sofia.
The meaning was self-evident.
Sofia took a deep breath. Slowly, he reached out and gently touched the surface of the radiant ball of light.
Feeling no attack, he confidently reached in, grasped the crescent moon, and took it out.
The ball of light continued to float there.
Sofia looked at the crescent moon in her hand, as if it were an ordinary ornament, no difference at all.
The treasure's restrained nature was once again on display.
But the crescent moon symbol on her cheek continued to gleam.
"Is the treasure suitable?" Alka asked from the side.
After all, the protagonist of the entire ceremony was Sofia.
Sofia channeled her magic power into the treasure, and the crescent moon shimmered with light, echoing the symbol on her face.
After completing all this, Sofia said, "Not only is it appropriate, it's inexplicably appropriate, but it shouldn't be this appropriate."
It was a very strange feeling.
"It seems this is the effect of the ritual. After all, such a complex ritual and the materials used couldn't just add a little bit of charm," Urulius said from the side.
It seemed that this treasure was no longer debatable; it was Sofia's.
So, once Sofia mastered this treasure, he would have essentially collected all the treasures.
What followed was a long wait for the red treasure, a treasure he might never encounter in his lifetime.
"Master it."
Sofia nodded, closed his eyes again, and channeled his magic power into the crescent moon.
As the magic power flowed into the crescent moon, the emanating lunar vibrations actually propelled Alka and the others away.
Not allowing them to come, they were forced to move slightly further away, pushing Sofia into a circular space approximately five or six meters wide.
In this space, the crescent moon's light could be seen flickering.
Then, the crescent moon merged into Sofia's body, and everyone could even see where it had merged. It moved to the crescent moon mark beneath Sofia's eye.
It became the white crescent moon mark.
When Sofia mastered the treasure and opened her eyes,
The strange eyes emanated a faint white light, as if transformed into the night sky.
A real night sky.
Twinkling stars, dotted with crescent moons.
Caught by this gaze, everyone inexplicably froze in their spots.
Because their hearts were silent.
The silence of their hearts suddenly brought them peace and tranquility, making them unwilling to move.
Sofia immediately closed her eyes and slightly restrained the power. Suddenly, everyone suddenly realized something, feeling as if they had just woken from a dream.
"Impressive," Porro couldn't help but exclaim.
Because this ability was still suitable for Sofia.
And this was clearly not its primary function, but merely a secondary quality.
"How does this treasure feel?"
"Very suitable, very interesting," Sofia said with a smile.
As she spoke, she raised her right hand, grasped the air, and pulled downward.
It was like pulling a rope from the sky.
Of course, the ceiling was above them.
And just like that, a ray of moonlight cast a shadow on the ceiling.
The moonlight bathed everyone.
The same feeling of spiritual cleansing she had experienced before reappeared.
"This moonlight can calm the soul, cleanse the mind of poison, alleviate the pain of the soul, and protect against any spiritual pain," Sofia explained her abilities.
As she spoke, a white light resembling the moon appeared around her.
The white light clung to her body, and as the moonlight passed, equipment unexpectedly appeared on her body.
Silver armor, pure white like the moon, was constructed across her body. It was a complete set of armor.
It looked incredibly beautiful, like a work of art.
The moonlight gathered in her hands, transforming into various weapons and equipment, condensing into silvery solids.
They resembled actual metal swords.
It was a shame, Sofia preferred to attack with her bare hands.
"This is just temporary power. To truly master it, I need to become familiar with it and fully understand how to use it," Sofia said after using it for a while.
But it was basically certain that this treasure gave Sofia spiritual power.
And it possessed a strong adaptability.
Using this moonlight to attack could also impact and damage the enemy's mind.
It could also provide a wide range of spiritual benefits to nearby allies.
It's unclear whether fighting during the day or at night would yield different bonuses.
After all, it seems to be connected to the moon, so perhaps it could unleash even greater power at night. Of course, this is just Alka and the others' guess. The specific effect can only be known after Sofia masters it himself.