Shadow Apostle

Eyes facing each other.

Silence spreads.

Looking at the eyes that lit up again, Horst's muscles all stiffened, and he felt like he could dig out four rooms and two living rooms on the ground with his toes.

His sea-blue eyes were crystal clear, and his watery gaze swept across Horst's face.

"What are you doing, Mr. Horst?"

"I...cough, I'm here, collecting money, yes, I'm collecting money, the task is over, Shenghui fifty rukka, please pay the bill as soon as possible, settle in cash, no credit, I..."

As if he could speak, he turned to his hand that was still being held, his eyes narrowed, the corners of his mouth turned up, and there was a faint smile in his voice: "Your way of collecting money is really special."

"Isn't it because I'm afraid you'll run away? I'm still waiting for you to pay the bill."

"But I didn't evade the bill. I'm not a evader." Miss Berndt bit her lip and smiled. She held Horst's hand and stood up, saying softly, "I'm sorry, Mr. Horst. I'm back."

Horst suddenly felt an inexplicable joy and touch in his heart. Like a true Nordland gentleman, he held Miss Berndt's hand and bent down deeply: "Welcome back, my lady, let us use this victory to Welcome your return."

"Thank you for your bravery and persistence, my knight. This is your victory and our common victory."

"Huh? Knight? Three gold Georges a month?"

"You are really..."

Miss Berndt puffed her lips, like a little girl whose dreams were shattered, and glared at Horst angrily for a long time. She moved her feet, as if she had resisted the urge to kick him, and lowered her head to check. The mother and brother beside him no longer looked at Horst.

"If three Golden Georges are too high, two will do, or one? As you said before, you can't go back on it."

"No, not even half of it. That person promised you to go to the Kingdom of Hades to find him."

Jessica lowered her head to check the physical condition of her mother and brother. Horst naturally held up a lantern to illuminate the situation, but before he could see Jessica's movements clearly, he heard her lowering her head and whispering. road:

"If you had wavered a little bit just now, I'm afraid the entire Burnt family would have perished. I'm sorry, I was wrong when we met yesterday."

"Do you know what happened?" Horst frowned, "Were you still alive at that time?"

"It can't be considered alive. My soul has been sucked into the Kingdom of the Underworld, and theirs are about to be sucked into it." Miss Berndt's body trembled, and she explained with lingering fear, "Now I understand that this ritual itself is a kind of deception. I don’t know the specific effect, but according to my estimation, it should be to use the souls of the entire clan as sacrifices to deceive the law of the dead, making them mistakenly think that they have taken back that person’s soul. If our souls are all sucked in, the ritual will finally be completed. , there will be no chance of recovery, and even if the God of Death discovers that he has been deceived, he will not correct this mistake again."

"Then you..."

"Death is one of the fairest things in the world, and so are the God of Death and the Law of Death. I guess the Law of Death successfully pulled back his soul, causing the ceremony to be interrupted. The soul sacrifices that had been sacrificed were also returned to the original route, and I was lucky enough to return. to your own body.”

While explaining, Jessica knelt down on one knee and put her hands on the chests of her mother and brother.

"Holy is the mercy of the Lord."

This was Horst's first time witnessing a Soul Awakener using his own characteristics.

An undetectable faint red mist enveloped the three of them at the same time, connecting the three of them into one body, while two more solid mists were flowing from Jessica's body to the other two.

The ethereal hymn seemed to come to my ears again.

“Holy, holy is the mercy of the Lord, I am with you in all the sufferings of this world.”

As the fog shifted, the two comatose mummies became much calmer at a speed visible to the naked eye, while Jessica's face became noticeably more haggard, and her body even swayed when she stood up.

"It's okay. This is another use of my compassion trait. I will temporarily share my vitality with them. I will be able to recover after a while." Holding Horst's stretched out hand, Jessica said softly tiredly. He gasped and explained, "Soul awakening is a mutation of the soul. If it is not my soul, it is impossible to use my awakening characteristics."

"Sorry, I'm paranoid." Horst didn't say anything more. He took off his hat, bowed slightly, and smiled apologetically: "So how are they doing?"

"William and Margaret are dead, but mother and Connor are fine. The influence of the magic circle has ended. They will wake up after a while, but if they want to recover, they need to cultivate slowly. I estimate it will take at least a month or two to fully recover.”

Jessica took a deep breath and showed a truly relaxed smile for the first time since they met. She playfully tilted her head and lifted the hem of her skirt, and curtsied briskly:

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Horst. You helped the Berndt family survive a huge crisis. The family will not forget our friends who helped us. The Berndt family will pay the agreed remuneration in full and will always The remuneration is increased to two gold Georges to express our gratitude. In addition to this, as agreed, we also..."

"Click."

A small voice, which was particularly noticeable in the dark cave, directly interrupted Miss Berndt's words.

The sound seemed to come from under my feet, and when I followed the sound, there was nothing there.

But both of them had an ominous premonition, because it sounded like the sound of rock cracking.

"It should just be thermal expansion and contraction, a natural phenomenon, haha, a natural phenomenon."

"Well, it is said that when the ceremony is interrupted, the backlash caused by the mystery is not as powerful as a gas pipe explosion, but it can occasionally destroy the internal structure of the attached object." Miss Berndt's voice was a little stiff, "You I just said, maybe this is underneath the villa?"

"Click, click, click."

The sound of rock cracking became more pronounced.

"Find a way out first."

Horst picked up the mummified countess on his back, threw the little earl behind Jessica, and walked around the cave with the lantern, finally finding another gap opposite the entrance.

"Let's go, the escape route can't be a dead end. There must be a way around it, at least to get out of this unstable area."

In front of the gap, Horst waved anxiously. Miss Bernt carried the little earl on her back and hurriedly squeezed past Horst. The two of them got into the deep tunnel one after another. The sound of footsteps quickly disappeared. The empty cave and four corpses were left behind, proving that what just happened was not just a dream.

"Chu, cah, hoo."

When the footsteps faded away and the cave became silent again for a long time, the sound of matches rubbing together suddenly sounded in the darkness.

Along with the smell of burnt wood, a faint fire light came on, and a candle remaining on the ground was relit.

Yet there was no one around, just like a candle that lit itself.

The candle flame danced for a moment, then gradually stabilized, and the messy lights and shadows around it stopped dancing chaotically.

However, right next to the candle, the edges of a black shadow were still twisting and swaying, as if they were alive.

puff.

The candle's light exploded slightly, and the candle light suddenly brightened for a moment, and then dimmed again quickly.

However, in the blink of an eye, the black shadow had twisted into a mysterious man in a black robe with a strange smiling mask on his face.

The location was exactly in the direction where the count had called for help before being sucked into the whirlpool.