Whispering Verse

"Obviously, they didn't find Darkness."

At eight o'clock on Thursday morning, in the restaurant on the second floor of No. 6 Saint Teresa Square, Shade said this to Luvia at the table.

The martial law was lifted at 3 o'clock this morning. Newspaper offices and milk companies have been affected, so the delivery of newspapers and milk and goat milk has also been postponed. When Luvia came to the door, Shade had just started eating breakfast with the cat who was currently enjoying breakfast.

He had already told Luvia what happened last night. Fortunately, Shade was not too involved, and with the help of Bishop Owen of Dawn Church, he was allowed to go home after just signing a confidentiality agreement. The church Didn't embarrass him. The very unfortunate little Dimock is still forced to stay in the church after being rescued.

"Darkness has appeared in Tobesk. He was most likely guided by the [Puppet Operator Script] last night to obtain materials for the Chosen One Ceremony."

Shade expressed his judgment and stirred the milk in the bowl with his right hand. Last night, his right hand rashly entered the mouth of a demon that seemed capable of devouring everything, and was seriously injured as a result. But fortunately, since it was just a skin injury with no attachment elements, and with [Food of Fullness] and [Silver Moon Gift of Cyndia], it was cured even before the church arrived.

"Although [The Puppet Operator Script] can affect destiny, this relic tends to make those who try to control destiny face greater misfortune, such as the 'Heart Collector'. So guide Darkness to the appointment Del Palace even made him meet the 'Iron Right Hand' and you, maybe the negative characteristics of the relic itself are at work."

Luvia said that the Prophet Association has done a lot of research on such relics.

"Yes."

Shade nodded, frowned and said:

"Even through my connections in Yodel Palace, I can't figure out what was stolen. The worst guess is that Darkness has already gathered the materials for the ritual, and after leaving Yodel Palace last night, he directly entered the [Dark Realm] ]."

"That would be troublesome."

The purple-eyed girl also looked serious, knowing that the last moment had arrived.

"So, I guess we have to take some risks. At least determine where Darkness is now."

Shade was wearing a shirt at home. He took out a corked glass bottle from his shirt pocket and put it on the dining table. Hearing the sound, the cat who lowered his head to lick the goat's milk immediately raised his head, but when he saw the bottle, he was no longer interested.

It had sniffed this thing last night and was pretty sure it wasn't food.

There is a small layer of clear water inside the bottle, and a group of black and red things can be vaguely seen in the clear water. The red is very light, and the black mixed with the red looks like some kind of thick pus:

"This is Darkness' blood. I don't know why there is such a disgusting thing in his blood. But [Blood Echo] has the best effect on fresh blood. If it is delayed any longer, the blood will no longer be usable. "

"You want to put this stuff in your eyes?"

Luvia was very surprised by Shade’s thoughts:

"The black liquid in his blood is obviously human pus. Are you going to drip human pus into your eyes?"

"Of course not, I won't do anything risky. Luvia, please close your eyes."

Shade said, pointing his finger at the bottle:

"Silver Moon!"

When the female soothsayer opened her eyes again, the black pus mixed with the blood in the bottle had completely disappeared.

"that's it."

Shade said, then pushed the bottle to Luvia:

"Please control the droplets from entering my eyes. We must act as soon as possible. If it is confirmed that Darkness is still in the city, report his news to the church immediately. If he went outside the city, we will pack up and set off this evening. Go to the [Dark Realm]."

"No problem, we have been waiting for this day for more than half a month."

Luvia uncorked the bottle and looked at the blood inside with her purple eyes:

"It's a pity that Iluna was arranged for search by the Church of the Sun. Otherwise, if we acted together with her, the security would be higher."

"We can't always get the people together when we need to act together, and that's normal."

Shade said, then he held the table with both hands and raised his head slightly to look at the ceiling. Luvia walked up to him and pointed her finger at the liquid in the bottle. Large drops of liquid flew up in clusters like pearl necklaces.

"I have estimated that an ordinary drop of blood can maintain the effect of [Blood Echo] for about an hour. Last night, I was worried about being discovered, so I didn't get much blood in a hurry. Remove the human pus that was removed just now, and then In addition, the blood has deteriorated slightly after a night, so these liquids can only maintain the effect of [Blood Echo] for three hours at most."

As the liquid dripped into Shade's eyes, Shade explained.

Luvia used spells to precisely manipulate the liquid, but she was still distracted talking to Shade:

"Three hours are enough. If the other party is still in the city, we can follow his trajectory and find his whereabouts."

After all, the church launched a city-wide manhunt shortly after last night's incident, and there was no way Darkness was wandering around the city.

"So where do we start?"

Luvia asked. After making sure that the bottle was completely empty, she corked the bottle and placed it on the dining table. After eating, the dishonest cat immediately jumped on the table and rolled the bottle around. It has always been fond of round things.

Just like [Metamorphosis Ring].

"Start near Yodel Palace and look for the other party's leaving figure."

Shade raised his head and kept opening and closing his eyes, adapting to the raw feeling caused by the large amount of liquid entering his eyes.

Due to thaumaturgy, part of the fluid was expelled from the eye and slipped from the corner of the eye. In fact, there are very few liquid components that are useful for [Echo of Blood], and Thaumaturgy actively absorbs them. The blood that flows out is still blood, but it no longer has the ability to cause "reverberation", so it is rejected by thaumaturgy.

"Luvia, let's leave immediately."

He stood up from the chair, blinked and turned around through the kitchen window, looking at the bustling Silver Cross Avenue and Yodel Palace not far away:

"We must determine Darkness's whereabouts today."

From St. Teresa's Square to Silver Cross Avenue, Shade easily captured the human movement trajectory composed of a series of blood-red halos in the air. But the trajectory was heading in the direction of Yodel Palace. In other words, this was Darkness' figure when she entered Yodel Palace.

After going around the Yodel Palace, we finally saw Darkness jumping over the wall from the back garden on the street behind the palace complex, Felixer Pastoral Street.

"Felisher Pastoral" means "mythical wonderland" in the Delarian language, and further west on this street is the Terrarel River that crosses the entire city of Tobesk.

Darkness was indeed moving towards the Terrariel River. Shade took Luvia all the way to the west, and finally saw Darkness disappearing on the river ramp on the east bank of the Terrariel River.

Stairs descend from the streets along the river, where residents living nearby wash clothes or dump domestic sewage. The blood-red halo ended here, and there was no trace left.

"Did Darkness jump into the water?"

When Xia De looked around, Luvia guessed.

"No, even if I jump into the water, I can at least see the other person's figure when he enters the water."

Shade stood on the steps with his hands in his pockets and looked at the cargo ship on the river. The Terrarel River has a large volume of water during the summer flood season, and the city's waterways can also allow large steam cargo ships to pass through.

It sounded its whistle, and as it drove south from the front, three large chimneys dragged black smoke toward the rear. The black smoke gradually blended into the misty air, forming the northern pearl of the steam capital. An ordinary river scene in the city of Tobesk.

Because it will soon be docked to unload cargo, the sailors on the deck are busy. But there were also some idle people lying on the deck looking towards both sides of the river.

The rude sailors whistled at the women who were washing clothes by the river, and laughed with their companions after getting scolded by them. Naturally, some people also noticed Shade and Luvia who were standing on the steps leading down the river. They were whistling. Shade took out a pistol from his waist and raised it towards the deck, and those sounds disappeared immediately.

"Darkness can move through the darkness, but the distance is short enough for him to cross the river directly to the west bank."

Shade reasoned while putting the pistol back, while Luvia understood somewhat:

"So, in order to prevent being caught by the church, he passed through the black whirlpool and entered the water directly?"

"Yes, that's why I lost his figure."

Shade nodded. Fortunately, unlike when he and Dorothy chased the [Mercury Blood] member carrying the fish-man scales, running water now could not hinder the [Echo of Blood] from functioning.

The best way is to go into the water and look for the blood halo, and then track it in the water.

But once you get into the water, it will be inconvenient to move around later. So Shade asked Luvia to do some divination, and then the two walked a certain distance upstream of the river, and about 1,200 feet (about 365m) north of where Darkness entered the water, they saw each other near the water. traces appear.

Darkness should not have spells such as "water breathing", but as a sixth-level warlock, he should have other means to stay underwater for a long time. The purpose of floating up was to observe whether there were any pursuers, and this move just facilitated Shade and Luvia's search.

Darkness' figure walked upstream, so Shade and Luvia also walked along the river towards the northwest of the city. In this way, the two of them traveled from the center of Tobesk to the intersection of the West District and the North District. When passing the Disk Bridge across the river, Shade also talked to Luvia about the first time he helped the witch pick up goods. At that time, he didn't realize that the witch was testing his gender.