Whispering Verse

The square stone table only prevents the general area from being illuminated by the oil lamp. There is a round stone bench next to the table, and it seems to be fixed on the ground and cannot be moved.

Mr. Riddle lifted up his robe and sat down, with Shade standing behind him.

As Mr. Riddle sat down, a soft pop came from across the table. In the thick darkness of the other half of the room, which was completely unilluminated, a faint yellow glow appeared.

Almost in symmetry with the kerosene lamp in Mr. Riddle's hand, a short burning white candle appeared on the edge of the table on the other side of the stone table. The candle once burned and the wax oil accumulated at the bottom of the candle.

Its light was still about the size of a soybean grain, but it illuminated at least the other half of the table, and also illuminated the figure who appeared on the other side of the table wearing a black robe and a hood.

This scene was particularly terrifying. Before this, the darkness in the other half of the room was completely impossible to see through. Therefore, neither Mr. Riddle nor Shade could confirm whether this figure had been sitting here quietly watching the conversation between the two, or whether it had just appeared.

The appearance of the stranger made the air in the room seem to turn from gas to solid in an instant, and the entire room was frozen. Not only did his body feel restrained, but the pressure he felt mentally made Shade frown.

Mr. Riddle even groaned and fell down on the stone table in front of him. It took him a long time to raise his head while holding on to the table.

Some subtle golden light appeared on the surface of Shade's clothes and skin, and the information provided by Mr. Riddle was actually correct. This table really summons God.

However, the pressure put on the two of them when the other party appeared was not even as strong as the "Innocent Creator" who claimed to be "powerless". Shade guessed that this was because the method of summoning the gods was not ritual, but the use of this unknowable relic.

The other party is not the true body of God, not a saint, and can only be regarded as the shadow of God. But this is also very reasonable. After all, judging from Mr. Riddle's statement, the purpose of calling the gods is to carry out gambling, and if the gambling cannot be carried out because of the appearance of gods, then it is putting the cart before the horse.

The light of the bowl-like black porcelain oil lamp and the short candle finally allowed Shade to fully see the tabletop in front of him.

The surface of the stone square table is uneven. There are ten rectangular grooves in front of the black-robed figure and Mr. Riddle.

Twenty grooves are arranged in two parallel rows. On the side of all the square grooves toward the center of the square table, small grooves extend. The twenty densely packed grooves are connected to each other, making the surface of the table look like Complex circuit patterns that outsiders have seen in their hometown.

"god!"

Shade and Mr. Riddle nodded to each other and saluted each other. This was the most basic respect. But there was no sound or any movement from the black-robed figure.

On the contrary, under the terrifying pressure that froze the air, the corpses beside the wall were infected by this power and actually sang together in a low voice. This scene really made Shade's scalp numb.

"This is the game of life!"

"Ten opportunities to place the pictures of your life in sequence."

"Sad life."

"A deplorable life."

"A ridiculous life."

"A terrible life."

“God will use the believer’s life to compare with you.”

“Every life interacts with one another.”

"Until the end."

“Ten lives versus ten lives.”

"The winner gets to leave!"

"Praise my Lord!"

The corpses neatly repeated this sentence three times in three different tones before stopping.

This is probably the rule of the bet. Not only do you have to compare your ten lives with each other, but your own lives will also chain with each other, creating a stronger force.

But Shade still doesn’t understand:

"What is victory? What is comparison in life?"

But the corpses didn't answer at all. Mr. Riddle, who was sitting, raised his hand to indicate that Shade didn't need to talk any more. He said in a dazed tone:

"I probably understand that using all the wonderful moments of my life to fight another person's life..."

He placed his hand on the first groove on the left hand side and took a long time before moving his hand away.

And in the originally empty groove, there was actually a card that happened to be embedded in it. It was a colorful card. On the card, Mr. Riddle was huddled under the tombstone, and behind the tombstone was a terrifying large shadow. It was obviously a flat pattern, but to Shade it seemed quite three-dimensional, and even the shadows seemed to be crawling on the card.

Gold-plated words appear little by little on the top of the card. After deciphering them, the meaning is [Resurrection of the Dead].

"I have encountered powerful evil spirits."

Mr. Riddle looked down at the card, and Shade showed a surprised expression. It seemed that this gentleman had more life experience than he thought.

"That was about ten years ago. In order to obtain some precious wild medicinal materials, I entered the eastern mountainous area of ​​the Southern Continent alone and lived with the villagers living in the small mountain village for three months, but... "

"You discovered that those villagers were long dead, and you were actually living with the dead for three months under the hallucination."

Shade said.

"how do you know?"

Mr. Riddle was quite surprised.

"Well...this is a very common story where I come from. Sorry to interrupt your story, but Mr. Riddle, how did you escape?"

It's not that Shade looks down on the ancient prophet in front of him, but with the strength of ordinary people, he may not be able to fight even ordinary evil spirits, let alone the undead village in the mountains.

The middle-aged man looked puzzled:

"How did I escape...I'm sorry, my memory is a bit fuzzy. After living here for a long time, I seem to have lost a lot of my memory."

Fortunately, Mr. Riddle thought about it for a while and finally gave the answer:

"It was one evening when I came back from collecting medicine and stood at the entrance of the village. I suddenly used a mirror to look at the village, and then I found that I was actually standing in a dilapidated cemetery. I was so scared that I huddled under the tombstones and dared not Move. Those evil spirits called my name and spied on me, but they couldn't catch me. I didn't dare to move, and I didn't escape in a hurry until it was dawn again. When I met the adventure team entering the mountain, I was almost hungry. Dead... Later I asked the witch from the association, but she didn't know how I survived. People followed the map I provided to find the cemetery, but they couldn't find it. "

Shade didn't know how to evaluate Mr. Riddle's experience, but it sounded very much like he encountered a powerful relic. According to the description, the scope is so large and contains so many relics of evil spirits, and the rating will definitely not be lower than the sage level.

While the two were talking, in front of the black-robed god across the table, the first square groove lit up, and a card also appeared in the groove. It was a scene of a beautiful woman, also known as a witch, raising her right hand and pointing to the sun in the sky.

The black light flows from the groove of [Resurrection of the Dead] and follows the slender grooves on the table; the golden light flows from the groove of the card pointed at the sun by the witch and follows the grooves on the stone table.

Two streams of flowing light met in the middle of the table. The moment black and gold met, a large phantom of evil spirits appeared from above [Resurrection of the Dead], and a small phantom of a woman appeared from above the groove in front of the god.

Two illusory images, like projections, flew to the center of the table in Shade's surprised eyes, and then actually started fighting. The battle lasted for five minutes, and then they each retreated to the slots filled with cards, waiting for their companions to appear.

Shade was stunned, not that he was surprised by the scene just now. After all, he had read all kinds of strange stories in his hometown. He just felt that compared to the previous two time exploration experiences, this time was really... so interesting.

"Mr. Riddle, do you have any other strange experiences?"

Although he knew that this emotion was wrong, Shade still asked his companions around him excitedly, hoping to get more stories.

The middle-aged man with thick eyebrows in a brown robe frowned, and then suddenly raised his hand and patted his head with sparse hair:

"Sorry, I know I have experienced a lot, but I am really...a dragon! Yes, I have encountered a dragon!"

In Shade's surprised and excited expression, the man in brown robe placed his hand on the second groove beside his hand.

After Mr. Riddle took his hand away, the colorful card was embedded in the groove. The pattern on it was of Mr. Riddle running wildly in the forest, with a huge creature breathing fire in the sky behind him.

Gold-plated text appears on the top of the card, appearing like flowing fire, meaning [Dragon Disaster].

Unlike the pigeon-like dragon Shade saw in Mystery-Desolation and Wildness, the dragon that appeared on the card was a true pure-blooded dragon. There are no sighting records of this creature in the Sixth Age. Even the textbooks of St. Byrons only use sketches to describe the general appearance of the dragon. Therefore, this can be regarded as the first time Shade saw the true appearance of the dragon. Appearance.

That dragon was uglier than Shade thought. It looked like the painting in St. Byron's textbook had been beautified.

"This is what I experienced when I was twenty."

Mr. Riddle held his forehead and tried hard to dig out information from his head:

"That year I... went on vacation to the Black Forest in the southern part of the Eastern Continent with my friends."

Shade had a hard time imagining who would vacation in a forest with such a name. However, based on this gentleman's life experience, he is probably quite keen on this kind of adventure.

"We found a cave entrance on the cliff of a forest hill, and we bet on what kind of animal's nest it was. We couldn't argue, so we climbed in together to check, and then..."

He showed a sad expression, but the memory became smoother:

"Only I survived. The dragon probably thought we were going to steal his things, so he chased me for a long distance before being driven away by the witch who lived in the black forest. But the witch said that I was the one who caused it. The dragon burned down the forest and forced me to sign a contract to replant a hundred saplings in the forest every year until I die or make up for all the losses. If I don't go, my soul will always feel the burning pain. Pain... I finished replanting this year's share before setting off to start this trip. Next year, the year after, and the year after that, I will continue to do it. This has become my lifelong responsibility, so I can Remembering this experience.”

Shade made no comment with a sullen face. Judging from the Fifth Age Witch's dislike of men, Mr. Riddle was only fined to replant saplings every year, which was really a very light punishment.