Whispering Verse

Shade and Eluna followed the downward slope to the end, and at the end, they finally saw the red door dripping with blood.

The metal gate completely blocked the passage, and the two doors on the left and right clearly drew the current map of the material world including the New World, the Old World and the Ocean.

The strange red color on the surface of the door is not paint, but the color of the metal itself. Blood was constantly seeping out of the metal and flowing to the ground. When Shade and Iluna arrived, the ground in front of the door was simply a pool of blood.

The ends of roots are drilled into the left and right walls of the passage and embedded into the door panels, integrating the metal with the tree roots. The pattern of tree roots guards the central map of the physical world from all sides of the gate, but it also seems to be roots extending out of the void, peering into the world described in the map.

At this time, eleven keys had been inserted into the thirteen keyholes scattered on the door. The key handles were parallel to the ground, which meant that the twisting was completed.

"Look at where the keyhole is."

Iluna reminded, and then Shade noticed that six of the keyholes were located in Tobesk City, Coldwater Port, Fort Midhill, Lake Pantanal in the center of the Pantanal Swamp, and Land Er River Valley and today's Green Lake area.

"Are the keyholes corresponding to the keys that symbolize the thirteen chosen ones on the stage where the story takes place?"

The two went to look at the locations of the other seven keyholes, but found that those keyholes did not indicate the location of the chosen one next.

Because the first six keyholes fall directly in the center of the area, this clearly indicates the location. The next seven keyholes are either in uninhabited deserts, oceans, primeval forests, or other uninhabited areas, or at the intersection of multiple cities. It is obviously impossible to specify the exact location.

Shade and Iluna still wrote down those positions, so that whenever the seventh chosen person appears in the future, they can verify the correctness of other positions. Although Shade had the last two keys in his hand, he still chose to try to use the "Door Key" to force the door open first.

The tip of the "Night Watch" sword penetrated one of the keyholes, and Shade tried his best to turn his wrist while launching thaumaturgy. The long sword did not move at all. Instead, the tree roots embedded in the red metal door seemed to be squirming vaguely. As Shade persisted, roaring sounds came from deep underground, and the ground seemed to vibrate violently again in response to Shade's movements.

In the end, Shade gave up:

"I feel like I'm moving the entire island."

He said to Iluna beside him:

"This door is like the core of the entire island, and it is also one of the cores of Edwards' magic. Forcibly opening the door is equivalent to destroying everything here, and it is also equivalent to directly releasing the sealed island, allowing the space collapse to be directly transmitted to the material world ."

He took out two keys, and Iluna twisted one of them:

"Then come together and witness all this."

The two of them inserted the keys in their hands into the last two keyholes at the same time. As they turned gently, a huge clicking sound came not from the inside of the door in front of them, but from the depths of the earth beneath their feet.

The deafening sound was louder than anything Shade and Iluna had heard on the island so far. Beyond this sound, Shade and Iluna looked at each other and both felt that the space where the island was located had undergone fundamental changes.

As the last two keys were turned, thirteen keys and keyholes glowed simultaneously on the blood-red door in front of them. Then, as the tree roots at the four corners squirmed and spread toward more parts of the door, the tree roots eventually "swallowed" the two metal doors, and the tree roots themselves were dyed a brighter blood color by the metal.

In the light, the red metal door itself was melting. When the wooden part finally completely replaced the metal part, it formed a structure similar to the arches that often appear in ancient ruins, thus showing Shade and Iluna a way to move forward.

"Arch", a common occult symbol, has the typical meaning of "crossing borders" and "dividing space". For example, the three ancient arches in the Night Temple in Randall Valley are meant to divide the boundaries between gods and humans.

And when Shade and Iluna crossed the archway deep in the passage together, they felt that although they were still underground in the old Edwards house, they seemed to have entered another strange space.

“Create space.”

Iluna whispered the content of the "Space Chosen One" ritual, but Shade shook his head:

"It's not that far yet."

Although there is still a passage deep underground wrapped in tree roots ahead, it is getting wider and wider. After the chandeliers on the wall - Shade had only seen similar things in the Fifth Era - were lit one by one, they saw that on both sides of the passage behind the arch, there were some stone bookshelves scattered with piles of bookshelves. In addition to the densely packed parchment rolls and slates, there are only a few normally printed books.

At the end of the passage was the banquet hall door, which was open to the crack. The door was made of ordinary metal, but it had the overlapping patterns of "Reunifier" and "Family Genealogy" on it.

The passage behind the arch is not long, and the door that opens a gap can be reached in just a few steps.

But since there was a scene similar to a library, Shade stretched out his hand:

"Library search - books related to the Philosopher's Stone, the end of the world, and the birth of the soul."

Only a parchment roll tied with a ribbon flew into Shade's hand. The surface of the roll was imprinted with a bright red "Philosopher's Stone" symbol pattern. Shade opened it and took a look, only to see that the first line read:

[The Philosopher's Stone itself can make the elixir of life, but the original meaning of its creation was the pursuit of "perfect eternity". 】

This is knowledge about the Philosopher's Stone. Shade put this unexpected surprise in his pocket and continued with Iluna to the door at the end. There was an even dazzling light shining behind the crack of the door, and Shade asked Iluna:

"Are you ready?"

The girl with long brown hair, who will celebrate her eighteenth birthday in a few hours, nodded:

"It has been prepared for a long time. This scene is familiar, isn't it? It's you and me again."

There was a mixture of joy and nervousness in his eyes.

"Yes, it's you and me again."

The two didn't exchange anything more. Shade inserted his free right hand into the crack of the door, and the door opened.

Before that, Shade had guessed several times what the banquet hall where the final "Edwards Family Banquet" would be held would be like.

Perhaps it was a splendid place, as luxurious as when the great nobles of Tobesk held banquets;

Perhaps it is the underground space that is full of mystery and decorated with various strange murals, but is also cold and slippery;

Maybe it’s an open space in the woods, like the “Feast of the Earth Mother” two months ago;

Perhaps it is beyond the imagination of outsiders that there are other shocking and beautiful places that have exhausted human imagination.

But he guessed wrong. When the door finally opened, Shade and Iluna saw a rectangular basement without any decoration and surrounded by gray stone walls. They saw many people sitting on the same stone floor. One side of a long table.

Laplace Klein Edwards was located in the center of the long table. On the left and right sides, his descendants sat in order according to their blood relationships, all facing the direction of the door. The table was covered with gold cups, silver plates and sumptuous meals, but even though there were golden candlesticks and bright candles, it still couldn't hide the fact that this place was really shabby.

Apart from the long table, the food on the long table, and the people around the long table, there was probably only dust left here. The room was of medium size, but because it was empty, it seemed extra large.

And counting the people around the table, everyone is here except the eldest son of the third generation, Envy Edwards, who transcends time and space. But apart from the fortune teller in the center, wearing a golden robe with an Ouroboros pattern on the chest, there are only the second son of the second generation, the tentacle man Sloth Edwards, and the third generation's youngest daughter, the demon dragonman Gratonne Edwards. , Jarvis Edwards, who believes in the [God of Tyranny] in the fifth generation, is awake.

However, there was an obvious bruise on Gratoni Edwards' face, as if she had been hit by something rectangular.

These three people truly support their ancestors, while the others are in a coma. Of course Shade saw Megan in it. She wore a cat-shaped mask on her face and was lying on the table like other unconscious people.

In addition to Megan, just like the oil painting that Shade once saw, the six people in the sixth generation also wear masks. Those masks were obviously specially made alchemical items, specially used to restrain these family members who had never landed on the island and were controlled by their ancestors.

As for the fifth-generation Maria Edwards and the second-generation little girl Rust, of course there is no such thing as "coma" in their souls. They just sit there lifelessly, with no expression on their faces.

Tree roots, a large number of tree roots were wrapped around the table and the backs of everyone's chairs. When Shade and Iluna appeared, the spreading roots of the giant trees were spreading out from the gaps in the wall little by little. The door behind the two people closed silently, and the roots quickly sealed the door completely.

But Shade and Iluna didn't care either. Iluna even said mockingly:

"It's even shabbier than I thought. Don't you even have the gold pounds to install the gas lamp?"

The sitting fortune teller ignored the topic and looked at the two of them with his brown eyes:

"It's really amazing. Although I had already guessed that there would be someone who could influence Edwards' magic, I didn't expect that it would be two people."

He didn't say who he originally expected:

"Thank you for everything you have done on the island. The ceremony is about to be completed. Godcaller, Chosen One of Balance, please take a seat. The banquet is about to begin. It is not shabby here, you will understand soon."

Seeing that the two of them didn't move, he smiled again:

"I'm not being polite to you. If you don't sit down, you may fall down soon."