Toby put his hand on Mark's forehead, closed his eyes, and frowned. A strange soul wave came from Mark's body and flowed through his perception. This soul wave was chaotic and violent, but it also had a strange sense of familiarity. Toby opened his eyes suddenly, and a trace of shock flashed in his eyes. "Soul Taker Avella..." He muttered to himself, with a hint of disbelief in his tone. This soul wave remaining in Mark's body is highly consistent with the breath of Soul Taker Avella.
What on earth is going on? Toby recalled his encounter with Mark in the past timeline. In his memory, Mark and Avella had no intersection.
Countless questions swirled in Toby's mind, and he had to find out the truth of the matter. He took out a peculiarly shaped dagger from his waist, and the blade flashed a faint blue light, as if it contained some mysterious power. He carefully cut Mark's finger and collected a drop of bright red blood. The moment the blood came into contact with the air, it emitted a faint red light, like a firefly, which was particularly eye-catching in the dim valley. Toby put the drop of blood into a special crystal bottle. The crystal bottle was transparent, with complex runes engraved on it, emitting a faint energy fluctuation. He carefully put the crystal bottle away and prepared to take it back for research.
He stood up and walked to a huge rock in the center of the valley. The surface of the rock was covered with ancient runes, exuding a mysterious atmosphere. Toby pressed his hand on the rock, and a stream of energy surged from his body and injected into the rock. The runes on the rock began to flicker, emitting dazzling light, and a complex teleportation array gradually appeared. In the center of the array, a vortex emitting a light blue light slowly rotated, like a portal to another world.
Toby carried the unconscious Mark and walked into the center of the array. The figures of Toby and Mark disappeared in the valley, leaving only empty rocks and the sound of wind echoing in the valley. The runes on the rock gradually dimmed, and the teleportation array disappeared as well, as if it had never appeared.
The valley fell into silence again, with only the mountain wind whistling, rolling up the fallen leaves, and making bursts of sobs, as if telling the fierce battle that had just happened. A crow flew up from the treetops, and its black figure crossed the night sky and disappeared between the mountains in the distance. The moonlight shone through the sparse clouds and sprinkled on the ground in patches, adding a bit of mystery and desolation to this desolate battlefield.
An ancient altar, its existence seemed to be forgotten by time, lying quietly in the dust of the years. The altar was built of huge stones, and each stone was engraved with unrecognizable runes. They flashed a faint blue light in the moonlight, as if they were the relics of some ancient civilization. There was an unsettling atmosphere in the air around, as if countless whispers were floating in the wind, but no specific sound could be captured.
Around the altar is a forest shrouded in darkness. The trees grow twisted and their branches stretch out to the night sky like painful arms, as if praying for something. The leaves rustle in the wind, like countless whispering creatures, or like forgotten dead people telling their unfinished stories. Occasionally, a nocturnal beast will rush out of the forest, its eyes flashing green in the darkness, and then quickly disappear into the night, leaving only a series of low roars.
In the center of the altar is a bottomless black hole, which is like the mouth of the earth, swallowing all light and sound. Around the black hole, the runes engraved on the stones are more dense, and they flash strangely in the moonlight, as if performing some unknown ritual. There are still traces of dried blood on the stone surface of the altar, which appear a strange purple in the moonlight, as if telling the horrible sacrifice that once took place here.
At the edge of the altar, there are some broken pottery jars and decayed offerings. They have become unrecognizable under the erosion of time, but you can still feel their former sacredness and solemnity. These offerings make a slight collision sound in the wind, as if they are making the final witness for those forgotten rituals.
The entire altar is shrouded in a strange silence, only the occasional sound of the wind and the howling of wild beasts in the distance break this tranquility. However, under this tranquility, there is a palpitating power hidden, as if something is awakening in the shadow of the altar, and its existence has plunged the entire forest into an inexplicable panic.
In a corner of the altar, there is a stone tablet standing alone. The words engraved on it are blurred, but you can still feel the antiquity and mystery it exudes. The stone tablet casts a long shadow in the moonlight, as if it is a silent guardian, quietly guarding this forgotten holy place.
The air around the altar was filled with a damp and corrupt smell, mixed with the smell of soil and fallen leaves, which made people feel depressed and uneasy. This smell seemed to remind everyone who approached the altar that this was a cursed land, a land full of unknowns and dangers.
Toby, carrying Mark, suddenly appeared on the altar.