Whispering Verse

Just like before, Shade also placed the puppet pistol on the oil painting. As expected, it melted in the painting and then appeared at the door of the model house.

The puppet associated with Shade walked up to the pistol but did not bend down to pick it up. Mr. Freeman's puppet also looked at the pistol, but did not pick it up.

"Certificate."

The priest thought for a while and suddenly said, and Shade suddenly realized that the MI6 ID and the gun license were turned into puppets and sent into the oil painting. The puppet corresponding to Shad first picked up the ID, and then finally bent down to pick up the toy pistol, and even made an obvious movement with his fingers to confirm the bullet.

The puppets in the oil paintings are not replicas or have any soul connection with the real people, but they can only transfer the harm. The Marionette cannot use the Ringmancer ability like Shad, but the Marionette can at least fire a gun.

However, by passing weapons in this way, the puppets made by Shade can only be used by himself, and cannot be used by Freeman.

But it was enough, leaving Mrs. Freeman and the boy in the hall while Shade and the priest went upstairs with the painting.

The gun puppet in the oil painting also moves towards the second floor of the model, and meets the bandage puppet in the living room on the second floor.

The oil painting made no sound, and the two people outside could only see the action of the puppet raising a gun in the painting.

But it's a pity that even with weapons like revolvers, the gun puppets still can't beat the bandage puppets. The opponent is not only tall, but also has excellent evasion ability. When in the same room as the victim puppet, he is able to move short distances within the model. Even if he was shot, it did not affect his movement at all, and he even gave Shade's puppet a knife.

So after the bullets in the pistol were empty, Shade, who was injured again, could only temporarily return to the foyer on the first floor to take shelter.

And because of the fight just now, the bandage puppet has already arrived on the stairs and can enter the foyer in about half an hour.

The gun puppet throws the papers and revolver out of the model house, where they immediately emerge from the surface of the painting. Shade refilled the pistol with bullets, but did not feed it into the painting again.

"The intelligence level of ordinary puppets is too low to compare with the bandage puppet. I think your puppet needs other helpers."

The priest suddenly said.

"You mean Mr. Freeman and the little boy? Let them fight against my puppets?"

Shade pointed to the two puppets nestled together in the oil painting, shook his head and reminded:

"The boy was too weak, and Freeman's puppet, although of normal intelligence, had too little strength."

"I mean myself."

The priest said calmly:

"I know you can't turn me into a puppet, but I can take the initiative to touch the painting and make more puppets corresponding to me appear in the painting."

Shade immediately shook his head:

"Priest Augustus, having more people may not be useful, but it will definitely put you in danger. Let me think about it."

He looked at the pistol in his hand and then at the oil painting.

The revolver was covered again with a handkerchief, but the size of the wooden toy that appeared afterward was almost exactly the same as the original one, instead of being the size of a thumb.

Shade threw the one-to-one scale wooden toy towards the oil painting again. This time, the pistol did not appear in the house model, but appeared on the table next to the model. Moreover, the pistol in the picture actually returned to reality. pistol. It's too big to fit into the house model.

The bold attempt allowed Shade to understand another rule: puppets that are large enough to enter the house will maintain their puppet form and enter the house model. Puppets that are too large to fit into the house model will appear on the table and take the form of real objects.

"Can this gun still be taken out?"

Seeing this happening, Priest August asked curiously.

Shade shook his head and said he didn't know. His eyes scanned the picture more carefully, and then he saw very light text on the curtains that served as the background of the oil painting.

The curtain itself is in the sun, and the color of this line of text is very similar to the curtain, so I didn't notice it at the first time:

[The inside and outside of the oil painting, the inside and outside of the painter. 】

When I read this line of text, I was thoughtful, hesitated, and read the text softly. Then, Shade's hand touched the oil painting, and that hand actually reached into the painting.

"oh?"

Priest August looked at this scene curiously, and Shade also frowned.

He first reaches for his pistol and then manages to withdraw it from the frame.

"Does this mean"

The priest whispered. Shade nodded and reached into the screen again, but was stopped by the priest:

"I'll do it this time."

He didn't ask Shade how he understood those strange words. After all, Shade had shown the ability to know words because of [time and space] in the study meeting before.

Shade told Priest August the specific pronunciation of those ancient letters, and the priest succeeded in putting his hand into the picture after trying twice.

He stretched out his hand towards the model of the house, and as expected, he couldn't touch it, as if there was a glass cover outside the model blocking the priest's hand.

Then the priest reached for other objects on the table in the picture. He still cannot touch the house model with these objects, but these objects can be taken out.

But whether it's a vase, a rotten apple, a statue that looks like an ancient god [Crack in the Distance] or a small pendant, these are all ordinary items. So the two guessed that this was a test object thrown into the oil painting by the previous owner when he tried to fight against the house model.

It is currently unknown what the production conditions are for puppets that can be thrown into oil paintings, except for Shade's [Toy Making]. In a certain sense, this painting actually has the function of turning the puppet into a real existence.

"I can't touch the model with my hands, should we think of other ways?"

The priest fell into deep thought again, but Shade had already found a way, with a relaxed expression on his face:

"Priest, please go out again, go to my house and bring Mia."

Thinking of the cat at home, Shade added:

"Oh, it may not want to be held by you. You can tell it something happened to me like last time, and then use clothes to lure it to the carriage."

Shade handed over the key to his home and the blood-stained coat. Seeing that the priest was still confused, he reminded:

"Priest, although we can put our hands into the painting, strictly speaking, we are still outside the painting, so we cannot touch the house model inside the painting. And when we hold something in the painting, it is very likely that the thing It is judged to be the same thing as our bodies.”

"Inside the oil painting? Outside the oil painting? Could it be possible for your cat?"

The old priest smiled and nodded clearly. After telling Shade to be careful, he took the keys and Shade's coat and went out.

While Priest August left, Shade also told Mrs. Freeman, who was waiting on the side, not to tell anyone about the incident after it was over.

Of course Mrs. Freeman understands that it is not a good thing if she encounters a supernatural event in her family. Telling it about it may affect her children's future marriages. She immediately took her son with her and swore to God that she would not tell anyone about the whole thing.

But Shade still thought that if there was time, Dr. Schneider would come and let the psychiatrist use his ability to make the Freeman family forget all this.

Doctors cannot completely erase the memory, as that would cause permanent damage to the brain. But he was able to dim the Freemans' memories of the event to the point where they suspected years later that it was just a dream.

It would be best for ordinary people to forget their contact with the mysterious and the supernatural.

Including the carriage ride and seducing the timid and alert cat in St. Teresa's Square, the priest's round trip took more than an hour.

During this time, the bandage puppet in the model house had come up the stairs to the foyer. In order to avoid it, Shade used thaumaturgy to open the door of the landlord's house on the first floor and went inside to take shelter temporarily.

Although it's a bit bad to do this, the group will not mess with other people's things, so this is a last resort.

I don't know if it was Shade's action of reaching out and trying to touch the house model that made the relic feel a greater crisis, and the bandage puppet's movement speed accelerated again. Before the priest came back, he had already blocked the three dolls in the large bedroom on the first floor in the model.

Shade sent the pistol into the painting again, and the three puppets were forced to deal with the bandage puppets. The smaller puppet runs first, and the two larger puppets work together to wrap around the bandage puppet, and then leave the room one after another just like reality.

But even when three puppets were fighting against one, the Bandage Puppet still had the upper hand. Although Shade was not injured this time, the puppet housing Mr. Freeman's soul was seriously injured because it had been protecting the little puppet at all costs.

Fortunately, Mr. Freeman is already dead, and the puppet in the picture is only injured.

"Is father back?"

For safety reasons, Shade has never allowed the little boy to touch or view oil paintings. But the child, who was held by his mother's hand, felt that Mr. Freeman was protecting him.

When the group of three people moved back to the second floor, the little boy was still looking around, as if expecting his father to suddenly walk out of the room with a smile. But it is impossible for the painter to come back. If he really comes back, Shade will be even more troubled.

In short, the oil painting seems to sense that people outside the painting have a way to deal with it, so it gives more power to the bandage puppet in the painting.

As the bandage puppet moves faster, Shade and the boy affected by the relic become more and more dangerous. The whispering element of the relic is already affecting the boy. Even with Shade watching over him, if this matter is not resolved as soon as possible, the best outcome is that the boy will become a madman.

Fortunately, Priest Augustus successfully brought Mia back.

As expected, the vigilant orange cat refused to let Priest August hold him, and instead jumped up the stairs behind the priest. Seeing Shade sitting in the living room, the cat immediately pounced on him excitedly.

Shade, who had been nervous, finally smiled when he saw the familiar cat. Holding Mia in his arms, he kept stroking the cat's head. The orange cat meowed "Meow~", and as Shade stroked it, its furry little head also shook, allowing him to touch it better.