Whispering Verse

Two-color gold and silver means that one cover is gold and one cover is silver.

Megan gently squeezed the pendant and shook it slightly. The small pendant turned into a huge book in her hands:

"When I was on the island last time, I told you that I had an angel-level relic weapon. Look, this is it."

This book is different from the "Smallville Code" written by Miss Pavo, vice-president of the Truth Society. It cannot fly away from its owner, but this does not prevent Shade from feeling the power of an angel-level relic.

"Can you tell me, besides enhancing spellcasting, what other properties does it have?"

Shade asked, and Megan motioned for Shade to follow her, and walked with her on the deserted street in the rain. The sound of crashing continued all around, and the rain became heavier than in the morning.

The coldness spreads outside, but fortunately this is spring and not autumn, and every rain represents stronger vitality in the near future.

"The angel-level relic [Book of Desire] is written on it with complete knowledge of thaumaturgy, incantation, or magic that one has fully mastered, ahem, including how to learn power, spell casting effects, etc., and then use this relic to Using the recorded thaumaturgy and incantation, extraordinary abilities can be stored in it, so that you can use this book to cast spells later with only a small amount of mental energy. If you spend some extra money, you can even store it. The power of others.”

Shade raised his eyebrows. Although Megan claimed that this relic was not as good as the Godcaller's [Night Watch], this feature alone was useful enough:

"I think the restrictions on this book should be the storage quantity and the consumption to maintain the storage state... Since it is the Tome of Desire, it should also affect you."

"Yes, it will make me thirst for more and more knowledge. If I don't control it well, I will be the chosen one with crazy knowledge and wisdom. Fortunately, I still have a lot of troubles. In the past I have been mentally disturbed for decades and am unable to concentrate on my studies, which makes this book have little impact on me."

As she walked forward, she lowered her head and touched the big metal-covered book she was holding, and did not shy away from talking about this with Shade. On the golden side of the book, there is a complete ancient symbol representing "wisdom", and on the silver side, there is a circle composed of five stones similar to "Wise Man's Pyroxene".

"In addition to storing and releasing, it can also analyze the effects of other people's spells at close range. I was able to use this relic when I was in the eleventh ring. But when I was almost out of control some time ago, I couldn't touch it. So I landed on the island the first two times. , I almost took the risk with nothing.”

"Now you can use the power of this book?"

"Part of the power. How strong I was at my peak is something a six-ring warlock like you can't imagine. I admit that you are very powerful, but your level still limits you."

A smile appeared at the corner of Megan's mouth, one hand held the book from below, and the other gently placed it on top, with the palm covering the symbol representing "knowledge":

"Then, let's look at me next."

Invisible wind spreads outward from the sorceress's body, causing the curtain-like rain curtain to be pushed aside by a large transparent hand.

The metal-covered book emitted a soft light, and the whispering elements were transformed into Megan and Audrey's unique four-element fluctuations, which indeed reached the level of a high-level warlock/high-level witch.

At this time, the two of them had arrived at the door leading to Bad-Eye Barry's lair. If they opened the door, they would find the gangster territory in the slums shaped like "back". Shade asked the lady next to him with his eyes if he needed to open the door now, but she shook her head slightly:

"That's enough."

The light on the book became brighter and brighter, and the light also deformed, until the entire book transformed into a large metal bow of gold and silver. The entire bow is covered with sky-blue gemstones. Even if there is no sunlight now, the metal and gemstones are still shining.

She pointed at the sky and drew the bowstring, and at the same time, shapeless arrows like white mist appeared at her fingertips.

Whoosh!

The white mist-like arrows flew into the rainy sky, and then exploded silently in the air. Then, the effects of the arrow began to affect the entire neighborhood, and even Shade felt a little groggy.

The surroundings seemed to be a little different. It was still a rainy street with no one, but the sound of rain became lighter and the scenery faded a little. Xia De subconsciously felt that it would be better not to stay here.

"What kind of thaumaturgy is this? I feel the effects of large-scale coma, idler expulsion, and silent door."

He asked curiously, the long bow in Meghan's hand had turned back into a book. Seeing her expression stagnant, Shade knew that this was not the power of the Ring Warlock, but the power of the witch, and the lady with brown shoulder-length hair also explained:

"This is thaumaturgy - [No Man's Land]. The effect is to put all life in the area to sleep, and expel all people who enter this area within a certain period of time. It's normal that you haven't heard of it. This thaumaturgy It's hard to learn, so it doesn't have a great reputation, yeah, that's it... Oh, the book has two modes, the book and the bow, but it can only be transformed into a bow when the power stored in it is released, so This is not a weapon."

Shade could hear what Megan wanted to cover up, but he didn't ask any more questions, but took the initiative to open the door in front of him.

Not only was the door locked from the inside, but there were two top bars behind the door. Shade's [Door Key] only works on locks, but fortunately, pure power works on everything.

Pushing the door and entering, you will see a winding narrow alley in front of you divided into two sides by a low and dilapidated building in the center. The alleys on the left and right sides are covered with black rags. I don't know whether it is to prevent peeping from high places or something else. What does it mean.

Only a few people with umbrellas were outside on a rainy day, and by this time these people had already passed out. Shade kindly walked over to check their identities and threw them into the houses with open doors nearby. These two-story houses are also very dilapidated. Some rude-looking people gathered inside, either drinking or playing cards, but they all passed out.

The best-looking building near the entrance is the one on the left after entering. Although it is a street-facing building, there is no door facing out to Goroje Street. Instead, there is a glass door facing inside.

The wall where the glass door is installed is also made of glass, just frosted glass. Therefore, from the outside, you can only see the scene inside the room. Shade opened the door curiously and took a look and found that there was a store inside.

All kinds of high-end gold and silverware were displayed in the cabinets, and he even saw special rules Rhodes cards displayed on the shelves against the wall. However, he did not take the card away. Although the foreigner likes Rhodes cards, he only likes the cards he has won or bought. He will not use the cards he snatches. He feels that it will taint his deck.

"This is the most high-end black market under Bad-Eye Barry. It is specially used to pawn off high-value items."

Megan followed Shade into the store. She reached the deepest part of the store with ease, and then motioned to Shade to help her open the safe hidden behind the floor-length mirror.

Gold nuggets, banknotes, land deeds, and documents and contracts filled the entire box, but Meghan just took out a zipped cloth bag from the top. After opening the bag, he poured the black pearls inside into his palm.

This pearl is far smaller than the one Shard gave to Queen Diana last year, but the rarity of the black pearl itself determines that its value is definitely not low. Shade is not an expert in jewelry appreciation, but he heard Miss Carina and Tifa talk about similar topics. The price of black pearls is related to the size, roundness, smoothness, and whether the color is deep.

As for the one in Megan's hand, apart from not being very big - it was actually a quarter of the size of Shade's fist, and all other indicators were perfect.

Even if he has seen Miss Carina and Lesia's jewelry box, he must admit that this pearl is quite good.

"The second key requires a flawless, round black pearl. I can buy black pearls myself, but I'm not very satisfied with them. Some time ago, I heard that there was one here in Bali, and I originally planned to buy it through Paradise Island Pharmaceuticals. I bought the identity, and since you said he was a cultist, you also saved me a lot of money."

Megan said with a smile, put the pearl back into the bag, and then put it into her pocket:

"I only take this pearl, the rest are yours."

She said to Shade again, but Shade did not take action. Unless necessary, he rarely takes other people's money when breaking into a house, and it's not like he almost couldn't afford to eat at the beginning:

"This money is too dirty, I don't want it. If we have time later, let's take it away and donate it to the church. I hope the poor people in Green Lake City can have more meals."

Leaving the store, the two of them walked deeper along the road on the left. A few hundred meters away, where the roads on the left and right rejoined, there was Bad Eye Barry's "office building".

The term "office building" is strange, but Shade can't think of a better way to describe it.

It is a three-story building and the only three-story building here. The first floor was like an open tavern, with long tables filling the room one after another, and various firearms, daggers, and swords hung on the walls.

The second floor is the office area. The leader of the gang also needs to check accounts, personnel lists and deal with relationships with other gangs. Shade and Megan briefly looked through it, but found nothing related to the Ring Warlock.

There is obviously a third floor, but there is no staircase leading to the third floor on the second floor. However, there was no need for Shade to turn into a butterfly and fly to the third floor. Megan, who had already checked the situation here in advance, rotated the candlestick on the east wall, and the bookshelf rumbled to reveal a door. Behind the door It's a narrow staircase.

"It's such an old-school mechanism...I'd consider adding one to my home."

Shade looked at the secret door.

"Why, you have something to hide? Isn't it more convenient to hide it with a ritual than a mechanical device?"

The sorceress asked curiously, Shade shook his head:

"I have nothing to hide, I just think this looks good."

Megan smiled and motioned for Shade to go upstairs with her:

"Only Bad-Eye Barry himself can go up to the third floor. There must be valuable clues here."

With that said, he entered the secret door.

Of course, as a ring wizard, you will not rely solely on mechanical secret doors to protect your property and secrets. Bad-eyed Barry also set up some safety measures on the stairs on the third floor.

Those are three human eyes embedded in the wall on the side of the stairs. The eyes seemed alive and could even rotate in the wall.

"This is not a thaumaturgy, it is an alchemical item. On the one hand, it can make people with weak mental strength fall into coma when they look at each other. On the other hand, it can record the information seen. It can also allow the creator to receive a reminder when the eyes are damaged. .The only drawback is that to make this kind of alchemical item, you need to remove the eyeballs directly from the eyes of a living person."

Megan introduced that the great witch of wisdom and knowledge is well-informed and knows how to deal with this.

She waved her hand at those eyeballs:

"Go to sleep."

The three eyes turned toward the inside of the wall, and Megan motioned for Shade to continue walking up with her.

When we arrived on the third floor, we discovered that this room with only one window was actually a laboratory. The room was exceptionally clean, with reagent bottles and other common alchemy equipment placed on a professional metal laboratory table.

What is less common is the operating table on the west wall and the various specimens of human organs and fish carcasses placed in the closet.

Shade frowned and looked at the human fingers sewn onto the fish in the antiseptic liquid:

"There are very few ring magicians I know who are good at undead abilities. Do all such ring magicians like to do such disgusting experiments?"

"There are only a few members. It seems that he is conducting experiments to artificially create specific water ghosts."

Megan flipped through the experimental records on the table, and then checked the densely marked books next to them. Ring magicians are like scholars themselves, so even cultists must have undergone various trainings:

"It turned out to be the idea of ​​grafting organs and limbs. This experimental idea was abandoned by the [Truth Society] more than thirty years ago. However, the Truth Society wanted to use experiments to graft organs of heterogeneous organisms into the human body, thereby trying to make human beings He has the natural racial talent of a heterogeneous creature, and Barry wants to make the resurrected corpse more powerful... He still has some ideas of his own, but unfortunately not many. But considering that he is only of a low level, this talent is enough Praise."

Although she didn't like this kind of experiment as much as Shade, she still looked through the other records on the desk:

"The following are...oh? I see, they are made from the human body..."

"What?"

Xia De turned his head abruptly:

"Is that what I understand it to mean? Create life? He is just a low-level warlock, how can he do it?"

Although the highest masterpiece of alchemy is the "Philosopher's Stone", creating life through alchemy is actually the highest goal pursued by alchemy. There is even a saying that the Philosopher's Stone itself is the most basic form of life, because the elixir of life contained in the real Philosopher's Stone can repair defects in the soul and body at the same time.

There are even manuscripts written by ancient alchemists that indicate that the Philosopher's Stone can be directly integrated with the human body through a specific method and become a part of the human body in a very harmonious way - this is somewhat similar to Shade's thaumaturgy of "active clay" . However, this characteristic was not recognized in the Sixth Age, because no one could reproduce the phenomena recorded in those materials.

"Barry is not creating a complete life, it is very low-level. He uses living life forms to infect the corpses of the dead to form living undead. This is a strictly prohibited experiment. It does not look like a low-level warlock. It can be made... hmm? What is this?"

Amidst the sound of rain outside the window, she broke the padlock of the desk drawer and took out a document bag. After taking out the files inside, the flipping speed became faster and faster:

"Come here, look at this. The human body is made!"

"You've already said this once."

Shade walked over, but the witch shook her head, with a serious expression this time:

"It's not a rudimentary technique for sewing corpses. What I have in my hand is a real attempt to make a living human body. This material is very simple. I can tell that it was given to Bad-Eyed Barry by someone else to help him. The one who completed the undead experiment. In other words, behind Bad-Eyed Barry, there is an extremely skilled alchemist. Although I don’t believe that the other party can really create life, he has definitely reached the forefront."

Shade frowned slightly:

"Is there such a powerful person in the Order of the Drowned?"

When he came into contact with the Three Cults of the Ocean in Coldwater Port, he had never heard that the Order of the Drowned was so powerful. Their level should be similar to that of the already crumbling Scarlet Order. The two have been evenly matched for many years.

"No, it shouldn't be the Order of the Drowned that gave him this information."

The witch said with an ugly expression, twirled the paper, and then looked at the words in the manuscript:

"This kind of special manuscript paper is commonly used in our family. Many of the family's past letters left by my father are on this manuscript paper. I have never seen similar paper other than this. This kind of handwriting is also used by my father. I have seen it on the book below, and someone wrote down their thoughts on reading in this handwriting. This information on human body refining comes from the Edwards family. These information perfectly fit Barry's research, and it is impossible for him to pick it up when he landed on the island. "

"this......"

This was information that he had never expected. Shade looked at the lady in front of him in surprise:

"That is to say, we have been able to confirm that the cultists appearing locally are really related to your family. Wait, one of your ancestors may be an artificial human?"

"Oh, of course it's impossible. To truly create life from scratch is the authority of the gods. Even the most brilliant alchemist can only use human models as a model and make certain additions and deletions. I suspect that one of my The ancestors were refined through the human body, so the prophecy that everyone will return circulates in our blood."

The witch gave the most likely guess, and Shade frowned and thought for a moment:

"Wait a minute, isn't your father, Alphonse Edwards, an adopted son?"

"It is suspected that he is an adopted child. No one can be sure about this. Moreover, the mysterious Edwards family suddenly adopted a child. Is this normal?"

The witch asked back, but she thought of more things:

"My father rarely talked about family matters when he was alive. I originally thought he was an illegitimate son adopted as an adopted son, but in fact he is still of Edwards' blood. Now that I think about it..."

Her lips were pursed, and her face looked a little ugly:

"Father, is he also a so-called experimental subject?"

"Ma'am, we don't have any evidence now, so don't make random guesses."

Shade comforted and then made suggestions:

"If you believe me, when we separate at night, you give me some of your blood and I will verify your bloodline."

There are relics to verify bloodlines in Fort Mi, and those relics have verified the bloodlines of both Shade and Mia. But blood is also the best medium for curses, especially blood that is voluntarily donated. Therefore, you must be very cautious when giving your own blood to others.

This is a more dangerous move than giving the keys to your home to someone else.

Audrey nodded slightly:

"We'll talk about it in the evening and then look around to see what else is here."

She took away the information on human body refining, which was also one of Edwards' relics. Then, she continued to check the desk and the bookshelves with various documents and materials nearby, while Shade checked other parts of the laboratory.

The items on the surface are all ordinary goods. A few potion materials may be valuable, but they have nothing to do with their goal this time.

Shade tried to find out more about Bad-Eye Barry's connection with the Edwards family and the religious order he belonged to, but he could only occasionally see prayers carved with sharp blades on the walls and experimental tables.

But Shade's excellent perception still showed its effect. When he pressed against the wall and touched every inch of the wall with his hands, "she" in his ear suddenly reminded:

[Underfoot. 】

Shade's current location was the southeast corner of the room, so he bent down and knocked on the solid stone floor, and said to the witch who was looking for documents:

"There are defenses here that I can't untie."

Of course violence can be solved, but Shade is worried that it will trigger the vigilance of Bad-eyed Barry.

"Look, there are things you can't do."

The witch came over and knocked on the floor a few times like Shade. After confirming the traces of elements, she took out a bottle of black magic potion from her bag and poured it into the palm of her left hand. Then she dipped some of it with her right index finger and applied it like ink. The potion was smeared on the floor.

Soon, the black ritual matrix was outlined:

"Use fossils to make mud on the ground on the side, and then dig out a hole from the side. Be careful not to damage the area of ​​the floor where I draw the ritual."

Shade did so and quickly took out a small safe from under the floor.

There were also traces of ritual processing on the safe, so the witch once again used her knowledge and experience to crack it. In just over ten minutes, the safe was opened.

In the safe, the pale heart was encased in a glass jar. The solution in the container was pale yellow, and small bubbles were constantly popping up around the pale heart. It is alive, and fluid is constantly being sucked into the ventricles by the heart and then ejected from the other end. The liquid formed a circulation like blood, and this scene looked extremely strange.

Next to the glass jar, there were some letters and documents.