Whispering Verse

The raindrops took away the heat on the body, and the fatigue made Shade have an unprecedented desire to lie down and never be separated from the night. This wasn't the most serious thing. He actually heard a familiar voice calling him in the deep night. The first voice came from Miss Feliana:

"Shad, you showed up again! I asked Fiona to be the bait, and I caught you out!"

"Um?"

Shade subconsciously wanted to look to the left, but the red dragon girl slapped his arm hard with her tail:

"Don't look into the night, look at me, and don't be distracted! It's all fake, everything is fake! Only I am real!"

The last sentence is quite hysterical. Before Shade appeared, the young witch who lived alone in this city probably experienced a lot of things.

"Yes, I remember!"

The first candle had almost been extinguished while they were talking, and the dying firelight dyed the two people's clothes black in large swaths of darkness. This is not an adjective, but their clothes and exposed skin have really turned dark. Shade even feels that part of his body has been integrated into the vast and indescribable giant "night".

But fortunately, the second candle was lit in time, and the warm firelight illuminated them again, driving away the darkness.

It was at this moment that a feeling of panic that could not be described in any words appeared in my heart. The surrounding night turned into a physical monster in an instant, but thanks to having seen more terrifying things, Shade immediately realized that this was completely an illusion. But Fiona froze in place, so this time it was Shade who reminded her:

"Don't pay attention to the night, look at the light of the candles, it's all fake!"

He grabbed Fiona's right hand and ran forward desperately. When the latter recovered from the panic and panic, the second candle burned out, and the last candle was pulled out of Fiona's maid skirt by Shade. Take it out of your pocket and light it, but the power of the initial fire cannot make the light last longer.

The last candle represents the last ten seconds of safety. The night has not done any harm to them, but Shade feels that he has never known that the night can be such an oppressive thing. At this moment, the outsider seemed to have returned to his childhood, back to the age when he was afraid of the dark, afraid of closing his eyes, and afraid of shaking shadows. But this time there was no quilt to cover him, only the girl who was traveling with him.

The candlelight in my hand gradually shrank, even to the size of a grain of rice. The light was not enough to cover the two of them, so they held candles together to prevent each other from melting into the dark night.

The small piece of light at the entrance of the clock shop is right in front of them, but according to the current progress, it is absolutely impossible for the two of them to reach it. Just a second before the last candle was about to go out, Fiona tried hard to throw Shade forward. Unexpectedly, Shade was faster than her. When she reacted, her body was already staggering. The bright entrance to the store.

The candle was completely extinguished.

The girl who stood firm by holding on to the wall looked behind her at the dark night without any light. She could not see the light or Shade's figure. She covered her mouth in horror, and then she saw Shade's hand stretching out from the edge of the night.

His whole body seemed to have turned black, but the surface of his body was slightly glowing with silver. And as Shade came to the place illuminated by the light, the layer of black also quickly receded:

"Oh, I was really scared just now. I almost forgot that I would shine by myself. Although my friends look down on this ability, it has saved me many times."

He staggered out of the night, feeling like his whole body was freezing. The red dragon girl immediately hugged him again, and her emotional ups and downs made her unable to control her tears.

Of course, Shade was not completely fine as he said. The moment he stayed in the dark for a brief second, something like a tentacle touched his left arm, so that he could barely control the left half of his body. Although he can still stand, he is unconscious.

But fortunately, when you return to the present from the past time, although the spirit cannot be replenished, any damage suffered - except for the mental damage caused by looking directly at God, will be healed. This is the right that all time investigators have.

[Outlander, you have some understanding of "night" and "shadow". 】

This is already the second time that Shade has gained insights into "Shadow", according to the information accumulated by the academy. No matter how poor your talent is, if you understand the same spiritual rune three to five times, more than 80% of the spiritual runes will come.

One voice in her ears disappeared, but the other voice never sounded. She just hugged Shade, and even wrapped her tail around Shade's waist.

“Let’s go in first, there’s no need to get wet in the rain here.

Shade persuaded, and Fiona softly said "Hmm~", wiped her tears, and followed Shade into the brightly lit watch shop.

The interior of the store resembles the decoration style of the old era before the Sixth Age of Steam. The old interior uses dark golden wallpaper, and wall clocks of various colors and sizes are hung on the walls. There are even more diverse shapes, and there are even cat-shaped wall clocks. The pendulum is also made of a variety of materials, including metals and gems. The wall clock by the door even uses a skull as the pendulum. Every time the skull is shaken, the green fire in its eyes will pull out a line of fire.

The store is filled with low, two-tiered shelves filled with various small clocks. Clocks were stacked like cabbages on the left side of the wall near the door of the store, and pocket watches were randomly placed in glass cabinets and showcases, with watch chains almost all intertwined.

All the clocks showed different times, even the speeds were different, but they all pointed to the fact that it was night. The only store Shade had ever seen that was messier than this was probably Old John's Pawn Shop.

Only the shops that trapped outsiders had other people, but there was no one here. Trying not to touch anything, they found their way between the clocks and arrived at the deepest counter. On the wall behind the empty counter, there was actually an oil painting of a golden throne that was obscured by a transparent curtain.

The product brochure was placed on the corner of the counter, and compared to the exquisite menu in the cafe, the product brochure in the watch shop was a bit too shabby.

"I don't have much time left. Let's see what I need to exchange for this time. Maybe I can bring it."

Shade urged. Fiona Drago had never been the kind of girl whose actions would be affected by her emotions. She suppressed her emotions and quickly flipped through the catalog, and quickly found her target:

"it is this."

It's still the same style as explained on the right side of the picture on the left, except that inside the cafe there are exquisite color pictures, but here it's just a rough black and white picture, which is a huge gear:

[The Lost Clock Wheel, after holding it, is immune to the effects of some time powers, and its own aging speed is halved. 】

[The gears of a certain clock in the monarch's palace, nothing more. 】

[You need to pay for 4 ounces (approximately 113.4 grams) of the Sand of Time infected by the night. 】

"Sands of Time?"

This is a very famous relic that Shade encountered twice during the Sixth Age. The first time was at the cold water port, when she and Lesia, who was aliased as Miss Princes, participated in the cruise ship auction (Chapter 321). The second time was last winter, when Iluna played the [dice game] and cooperated with Shade to catch the man at home. After the hateful thief [Jack Thief], one of the three optional rewards given by the latter (Chapter 988).

But both times Shade had only seen it rather than obtained it. [The Sands of Time] was a Keeper-level relic, its body was a desert outside the material world, and the sand itself was just a derivative of the relic. Once this kind of sand is spilled, it can affect the flow rate of time in a certain area depending on the amount used.

However, due to the time involved there are always various problems, so it is mostly used for research rather than combat.

Acquiring this kind of relic is not particularly difficult, but Shade doesn't quite understand the prefix "infected by night".

Ask Fiona for advice, but the red dragon girl doesn’t know. There was something like this among the various possible materials that Miss Feliana had prepared for her, but unfortunately she had lost it.

"No problem, I will bring this material next time I come back."

Shade assured her, and the young witch was obviously a little disappointed:

"Are you leaving now?"

Shade knew it was cruel to leave her alone in a place like this, but he couldn't decide such a thing.

While there was still some time, he restored the toys in his pocket and built a small camp using tents, quilts and other items in the corner of the wall where there was not much debris. As long as Fiona got into the tent, she would be covered by layers of quilts, and all around her would be the food and drinking water he left behind.

In the night of Yongye City, there would be no hunger or thirst. Shade only left these things to reassure her.

"Try not to leave this store until I get back."

Shade warned, the white mist around him was rising little by little, which was a sign that he was about to leave.

"You will definitely come back, right?"

The red dragon girl pursed her lips and asked. Those eyes looked at Shade and he couldn't bear to leave, but he couldn't find the Sands of Time without leaving.

"Yes, I will definitely come back, accompany you to see the king, and then send you away safely. This is my promise."

Fiona nodded slightly:

"I still can't remember what I came here for, but it seems to be related to the college that the teacher and the teacher's teacher want to establish. You must come back."

She tugged on Shade's sleeve, and then asked rather embarrassedly:

"Can you leave me your coat? I'm not afraid, it's just"

Shade didn't let her continue, but took off his coat and handed it to her. Fiona hugged the piece of clothing silently, and the two looked at each other until Shade was swallowed up in the white mist.

Normally, the gods of the Fifth Era could see the white mist, but mortals couldn't, but this time Fiona could see it.

The life ring and the golden staircase slowly appeared behind her. The young witch timidly looked at the clocks around her, then curled her tail and retracted into the quilt in the tent, determined to "hibernate" until Shade came back. .

On the life ring, the [Time] spirit rune that had been engraved on it shone brightly. Fiona buried her head in Shade's coat and completely covered herself with the quilt:

"The traces of time, it turns out to be like this."

All kinds of clocks clicked, and the rain pounded on the windows. The night is thick and there is no daylight in this city.