Whispering Verse

"Are you surprised that I have cards myself? As I said, I can satisfy all your desires, including playing cards of course."

The woman with her head sticking out of the water said with a smile, still pushing the deck of cards to Shade with one hand, but Shade still didn't see her shoulder.

"Want to come over and check it out? I don't have any special cards."

"No, I don't think so, but I have special cards."

Shade shook his head. He would never take the initiative to approach that pool before winning the card game.

"It doesn't matter, just add your All Things Impermanence card to it, it will be more interesting."

The woman chuckled, and Shade glanced at her in surprise. He put his hand into his pocket and put [Origin·Balance] and [Origin·Silver Moon] into the deck. In this way, there are eight special rules cards in Shade's deck of 54 cards.

This woman actually knew about the [All Things Impermanence Card], and even knew that he had the All Things Impermanence Card on him. Her danger level was higher than Shade thought.

To this day, outsiders still don’t know what they are facing. The only thing that was certain was that the other party was a relic, but he didn't know anything about the danger level, characteristics or even the most basic appearance.

There was no record in the book he snatched from the fishman, so Shade could only vaguely guess that the other party was related to desire. Wealth, strength, body, this woman can stir up the most primitive desires and emotions in people's hearts, but fortunately, Shade's goal is very clear, and the other party cannot satisfy his desire to become a god.

The woman asked:

"So, how are you going to play cards?"

She gently stroked the top of the deck with her fingertips. Then, because she only had one hand sticking out of the pool, she simply pulled out the cards from the middle of the deck and placed them on top. After going back and forth a few times, she stopped shuffling the cards. .

Shade also stopped shuffling the cards with his hands, thought for a moment, sat down holding the door frame, put his stack of cards in front, and then looked at the beautiful woman's head:

"We play the most basic rules, play three games, best of three. If there is a tie, then the tie does not count."

"OK."

The woman smiled, and she drew the card first, but instead of using her sleeveless arm to draw the card, she bit the first card on the top of the pile with her mouth. She shook her head slightly, and as her long wet hair splashed a few droplets of water out of the pool, the cards in her mouth flew to Shade's face.

Three of the Moon, the card face is of course not a pattern representing numbers, but a special pattern. It was a gorgeous lady's dress worn on a puppet. Even though Shade was a man, he admired the design style, color matching, and small decorations on the cuffs and skirt of the dress.

Shade also drew a card, Moon 5.

The two sides continued to draw cards, and the woman's second card was Star 13. The face of the card was a ruby ​​placed on a velvet cushion in a wooden box. Xia De is Flower 7, which is [Origin and Balance]. Holding this card, if the card is busted this round, then he can discard all cards and start again.

"Oh, everything is impermanent."

The woman sighed softly, and the smile on her face became more and more obvious:

"Your current burst of emotions is very interesting. This card is related to your ultimate desire. I can feel it. This desire is so wonderful."

Shade didn't say anything, and then the two of them drew cards again. The woman was the Sun 6, and unfortunately her card failed. Xia De had flower 5, and the three cards totaled 17 points. He won the first round.

No one on either side cheated, it was just luck. Shade didn't understand why the other party could still smile so happily when he won. It was not a fake smile, but a smile from the heart.

"What do you get by playing cards with me?"

He couldn't help but ask.

"I can see through your heart and see your desires."

This answer was as expected. Shade did not start the second round directly, but asked again:

"So what do you think of my desire?"

"You are the greediest person I have ever met."

Because it is a best of three games, if Shade wins again, he will really win. When he was drawing cards, he felt that even if he didn't have the good luck brought by the two founding cards, the woman still couldn't beat him this time.

As expected, the first card Shade drew was the king.

The woman faced this result with a smile. Although she could try to win the king by drawing 21 points, she gave up directly:

"You win, you can leave."

The iron door opposite the pool opened automatically with a creak, allowing more sea breeze to flow in. The sound of waves could be vaguely heard, and it was obvious that the door behind was very close to the exit.

"Can you open the door yourself? Are you really imprisoned here? What do you want to do?"

Shade put away his cards and asked with a rather puzzled frown.

"I originally wanted to seduce you to get a new soul and get myself out of here. But it's enough. I tasted your desire, and that's enough for me."

"You can leave too?"

Shade subconsciously took a step back:

"It still takes a little time, but the seals of those smelly fish people are no longer effective. Speaking of which, even they don't know what I am."

"So what exactly are you?"

"You can come and see for yourself."

The woman's deck of cards turned into a puddle of water, and her hand was withdrawn into the pool, leaving only her head looking at Shade at the edge of the pool.

"No, sorry, my curiosity is not that serious."

The length of the pool is about six or seven meters, and the limit distance of [Raglai's Jump] is ten meters. As long as he calculated the distance, he could move directly to the other side of the pool and rush out, trying to avoid getting too close to the woman.

"I feel that you are regretting and you are afraid. No, even if you don't show up, the seal will be ineffective. They don't know my power, they just happened to use the power of God to imprison me. If that thing stays here all the time , I definitely can’t leave, but that golden pearl has returned to the old temple in the abyss of the sea.”

The woman said softly, looking at Shade's face with her beautiful eyes:

"You, want to know how to get it?"

Shade's whole face was trembling. He tried hard to restrain himself from saying "want". The woman accurately discovered his desire this time.

"I still want to be one with you, but it is also interesting to let you go to the end of your desire step by step and watch your desire become stronger. Promise me a request, and I will tell you how to get the pearl. Method, I can also give you a gift. Of course, you can also leave directly."

"any request?"

Shade asked in a low voice. He knew that he shouldn't ask at all. He should leave directly at this moment.

"Get closer to the pool, look at me carefully, and tell me what exactly you see."

Shade knew completely that now was not the time to let the darkness of greed occupy his heart. He should treat the woman's words as air and leave directly. But when it was his turn to face the situation, his feet showed no intention of moving.

"Look~"

The head that looked like a work of art chuckled:

"No one has desires. And I am [desire]."

The voice in her ear said nothing, she would not interfere with Shade's own thoughts. Shade also weighed the current situation repeatedly in his mind. In the end, he did not leave, but took a step forward.

There is still a drop of divinity in him, so he must take a gamble on this opportunity no matter what. A few weeks ago, he even dared to face the gods in the blood feast for a drop of divinity. At this time, it was just a relic. He did not lack the courage to face it, but he was just thinking about whether it was necessary.

"Courage, arrogance, caution, greed, desire, fear, hesitation and determination. Your emotions now are really too rich."

The thing in the pool laughed, and its head went back under the water. Without the charming woman's voice, the dark room regained a moment of silence.

The water gurgled, and blue and white light shone from the bottom.

In the sound of whistles and bells, the life ring behind Shade slowly emerged. In his heart, "she" was ready to ignite divinity at any time, and the stranger took a step forward again.

At this moment, he actually heard the sound of his own heartbeat. You know, even after meeting Miss Feliana for the first time, when he rushed to the charity dinner in the blood mist, he was never so nervous.

"So, who is that woman?"

The answer was revealed immediately, because Shade took another step and he clearly saw the appearance of the entire pool.

Unlike the illusion that the pool leads to a bottomless abyss, the depth and length of the pool are about the same. The water quality was relatively clear, allowing Shade to directly see the flat ground under the water.

He saw the beautiful woman's head, her hands, her feet. But what he saw was not a human being. What he saw was a lump of meat, a huge piece of meat made up of a head, dozens of hands and dozens of feet.

It completely violates human aesthetics, completely violates the laws of nature, and completely violates the most basic rules.

If you were to say specifically what it looked like, it could barely be considered a mermaid. The upper body of a human, the lower body of a fish. It's just that the upper body is made of hands that are constantly shaking, and the lower body is made of densely packed legs.

After just one glance, Shade almost fell into the water due to the strong dizziness.

He covered his forehead and shook his body a few times. Even if you close your eyes, the image of the "mermaid" that can induce the most primitive fear is still swaying in front of your eyes.

There is no spring at all under the pool, and the gurgling sound is the head exhaling upwards.

The beautiful face looked at Shade under the water, and the strange hands and feet slapped the water body. She was not sorry that he did not fall:

"Please look at me carefully. What exactly do you see?"

At this point, there was no need to leave. After stabilizing his mind, Shade opened his eyes and looked at the thing again. He himself didn't notice that [Gluttony] and [Greed] were glowing at the same time on the life ring behind him.

If when he first entered the darkroom, Shade was only affected by the desire to induce darkness in his heart, then seeing the strange flesh-and-blood creature at this moment directly affected his body. No matter who created this terrible thing, the strange beauty and complete chaos combined, the balance of the body will be affected by the mere gaze of mortals.

Even if the soul remains awake, a mortal body is a mortal body.

"What did you see?"

The head asked as if humming.

Shade noticed that the skin on the exposed back of his hand was already dissolving and blood was about to seep out. He also realized that looking at it at close range, the dark illusions in his heart began to emerge again.

The stranger stood there gritting his teeth, his eyes, nose, mouth and ears bleeding at the same time:

"I saw"

He wanted to describe the appearance of this monster, but as the halo of the pool shook, the scene he saw actually changed. The monster disappeared in the pool, and the water became increasingly turbid. Then, like an oil painting, another picture appeared.

"What do you see?"

The voice was still asking, but it seemed that it was no longer in the pool, but in all directions. Shade looked at the scene displayed in the pool in shock, even the physical and mental pain was ignored at this moment:

"Is this my desire?"

"What did you see?"

The voice was still asking questions, this time the source of the voice was from behind Sha De:

"Seeing me, if a mortal does not collapse, you can see your truest desires, which will make you completely understand what you want. The most true."

A pair of women's hands, dripping with water and painted with red nails, climbed onto the rotating life ring behind Shade. [Gluttony] and [Greed] exuded the ultimate aura.

What Shade saw was not that he had become a god, not that he had endless wealth, not that he was surrounded by girls, not that he had Rhodes cards and cats, or even that he was gradually giving up on the idea of ​​returning to his hometown.

What he saw was that he was standing in the bathroom on the second floor of Saint Teresa Square, facing the mirror. There was Shad Hamilton outside the mirror, but in the mirror, there was actually a looming woman with long silver hair.

He held his breath:

"I saw another me?"

The foreigner was stunned as if struck by lightning. He did not expect such a scene.

"Interesting, the truth corresponding to your endless desire is actually the desire for yourself. Is your desire for yourself?"

That charming voice sounded in Shade's ears. But unlike usual, this time there was something really behind him, and he could even feel the sweet-smelling breath blowing against his ears.

"What I want is myself?"

Shade's eyes widened and he stared at the picture in the pool, trying to see clearly what the woman reflected in the mirror looked like.

After a foreigner comes to this world, the first question he has is "who is she?" At this moment, he vaguely understood that perhaps his greatest desire was to become a god, but the deepest desire in his heart was actually that he felt extremely ridiculous.

"I know the Ring Warlock system of the Sixth Age. Although your 'other self' is a bit strange, she is you and you are her. You actually have desires for yourself?"

The woman's voice was still whispering, with a smile in her tone:

"I see, that's why there is that terrible intensity of desire. Id and ego and superego, me and another me, the front of the soul and the back of the soul. Narcissistic self-love, crazy and pathological pursuit, desire for oneself, The desire for one’s own desires, and the desire for desires’ desires.”

Shade's ears were itchy because of the woman's breathing.

The stranger stood by the pool, but at some point, the "mermaid" had escaped from the pool, and the terrifying fleshy body wrapped around him like a python. The pairs of legs were clasped together, the hands were grabbing his life rings, and that beautiful head was right behind him, and its slender eyes were extremely weird at the moment.

The "mermaid" is hunting, but the prey beside the pool is motionless.

In the dark room, only the bottom of the pool glowed with blue light. It clung to Shade's body, sighing softly, and seemed to be singing in a low voice:

“[Gluttony], addicted to oneself, unable to extricate oneself.

[Greed], never satisfied, thirsting for oneself.

If you can be born in the First Era, you are qualified to compete for the Mark of Sin;

If you could be born in the second era, you might

If you can be born in the third era, you will definitely become an evil spirit and demon after your death;

If you could be born in the Quaternary Age, the chaotic dark ages would be more interesting;

If you could be born in the fifth era, even the witches would lament how terrifying this man is.

It's so interesting that you were born in the Sixth Age. "

Dangerous and slender arms wrapped around his neck:

"Man, please tell me, why are you included in the story of the Sixth Age?"