Whispering Verse

The corridor is not filled with nameless strange creatures, nor is it a terrifying evil spirit with a transparent body, nor is it even anything with a visible form.

There was nothing in the candlelit hallway.

And deep in the corridor where the fire was completely extinguished, the wall exuded a dim light, which was almost connected to the darkness, flickering at a frequency similar to the beating of a heart.

Just looking at those dim lights for a moment, Shade really felt like he heard the sound of a huge heart beating. At this moment, his body and soul were completely frozen in time and space, and he vaguely understood something.

What he was looking at was the Dreadfort, and nothing had been chasing him from the beginning. The thing that exudes fear, that seems to drive away any outsiders, is the Dreadfort itself.

Those deep dim lights represent the Dreadfort itself. The so-called "Fortress of Terror" actually has consciousness. It is a living creature.

The fear that exceeded the limit made Shade almost completely unconscious for a moment. The impact of fear even made him feel that he was about to fall into a deep sleep from which he would never wake up.

“No, am I afraid of fear?”

Under the trees of the Forest of Thousand Trees, after the gods temporarily left, memories of him and the two witches facing the boundless terrifying darkness flooded into his mind. This fear seemed to inspire some kind of power latent in the soul, and the [Tree Kiss] spiritual rune, which had never been associated with any thaumaturgy, trembled slightly in the soul.

This moment was close to a fragile moment of complete emotional collapse. The primitive fear that the body fell into and the awakening of the soul from courage formed a distinct sense of dislocation, which made Shade clearly feel the strangeness of his soul for the first time.

Not only were two drops of divinity protecting him in his soul, but he also felt that there seemed to be something warm but a little cold hugging him from behind.

"That is"

Even though facing the source of fear in the Dreadfort froze his body and soul, the momentary impulse and desire miraculously made him turn his head.

In front of him was the Dreadfort, but what he saw when he turned around was endless white mist. In the glowing white mist, there was a huge tree whose full view couldn't be seen even if he looked up.

The tree seemed to connect heaven and earth, and seemed to support heaven and earth. The roots are well developed, the crown is luxuriant, and the tree patterns on the transparent trunks seem to record the story of the entire civilization.

Looking at the tree, a warm feeling washed over his body and soul, allowing him to quickly wake up from the negative state of seeing the source of fear. But at the same time, the most authentic soul feeling that the soul felt at the edge of brokenness also disappeared.

The transparent crown of the tree swayed gently in the white mist. Shade stretched out his hand with a sense of loss and took two green leaves that were swirling and falling.

"What I felt just now was you?"

he asked softly.

The white mist around him shrank towards the door of the door-shaped pendant that appeared at his feet at an unknown time. The scene of the open space in the center of the dark cornfield slowly emerged as the white mist disappeared, and darkness was encroaching on the space around Shade's body.

When he received no response, he sighed and wanted to bend down and pick up the [Twenty-sided Dice of Destiny]. After all, the battle with that powerful demon was not over yet.

But unexpectedly, before the white mist around him completely disappeared, a demon holding a black fire human bone rushed up, as if it was impatient to let Shade sleep here forever.

[Outlander, you have returned to the present time. 】

[Message from the ancient god "Father of the Infinite Tree": ]

"Aren't you willing to answer my question?"

Shade kept bending down to pick it up, preparing to stand up and throw the dice. Because after the dice is thrown, it must be twenty o'clock.

【Infinite time protects you. 】

The demon that enveloped the darkness and suppressed the light of the silver moon on Shade finally came to him.

At this time, the last few wisps of white mist around Shade had not completely disappeared, and the appearance of the devil seemed to disturb something. Behind Sha De, the shadow of a giant tree that seemed to have disappeared as the white mist disappeared unexpectedly reappeared at this moment.

Thick mist suddenly poured out from behind Sha De, as if he had returned to the [Time Corridor] again. But the target of the white mist was not Shade. As the giant branch behind him swayed, the white mist swooped forward, swallowing the demon in front of Shade, and then quietly disappeared from the surroundings.

The disappearance of the white mist allowed darkness to return, but there were no demons around, and there were no traces left.

"What does it mean?"

Shade held the entry dice and straightened up, looking at the metal door pendant at his feet. It had returned to normal.

【Infinite time protects you. 】

She repeated this sentence, and Shade nodded thoughtfully:

"So, every time I complete the task of a key and return from the past time, if I want to attack me at this moment, I will be counterattacked by the remaining power of the [Father of the Infinite Tree]?"

But this seems to be useless at all. Not only does this kind of treatment only occur every time the key is completed, but also not every time a fool will attack Shade at such a time.

"But in short, it is a good thing to deal with the enemy."

He bent down to pick up his own relics and spell-casting materials from the ground, and then looked at the two leaves held in his hands.

After thinking for a moment, he casually covered one piece on his right eye.

The veins on the leaves flashed with golden aura, and the aura gradually gathered and entered Shade's right eye, and new power poured into Shade's soul.

"Breath of Time?"

It took him at least half a minute to take off the blade in his hand, and the voice in his heart was already prompting specific information about the thaumaturgy.

[Breath of Time] corresponds to the thaumaturgy of [Time and Space] spiritual runes. This is an active release thaumaturgy that requires casting materials.

There are two thaumaturgic effects, corresponding to the actions of "exhale" and "inhale" respectively. When Shade uses thaumaturgy and "sucks", he can restore an old object to its appearance from an earlier time.

Shade took out his pocket watch that was damaged by water in Coldwater Harbor, summoned the life ring behind him and activated the thaumaturgy. As he took a deep breath, some gray air flow split into two streams from the pocket watch and entered his nose. The pocket watch, which had some rust marks on its surface, peeled off and the hands began to rotate again.

"Ordinary items, with my second-level spirit, can be restored to the state they were in three months ago at most. It is invalid for relics, but effective for living creatures and other special items, because what I interfere with is not the item itself, but time, but the spirit consumption More."

Of course, Shade's interference with the pocket watch only brought him back to the moment when he jumped off the ship with Lesia. He could not waste all his soul just to test thaumaturgy.

When Shade uses thaumaturgy and performs the "call" action, the target items can be quickly corroded by time. This is not about bringing the object's point in time into the future, but rather allowing it to naturally decay. If the target is in the air when using thaumaturgy, it will be quickly oxidized, and if it is in the wind, it will be quickly corroded.

Although I didn't waste any more energy trying, it was easier to accelerate the target time than to restore it. If the restoration of ordinary items currently takes up to three months, then the acceleration can reach up to one year. Of course, corrupting the target can also be used on living creatures and some special items, but the corresponding difficulty level will be much greater.

The most critical information about [Breath of Time] is that the casting material is lifespan. Casting a spell once a month requires no materials, which is the time that Shade just did. Before the end of this natural month, that is, before the end of today, the influence time will consume one-tenth of the life span of the influence time as casting materials.

"Although it sounds magical, and it can even allow a low-level warlock like me to directly affect time, but is the price too high? Even if the spirit is enough, the longest time that can be affected at one time is only about a thousand years. Well, so Come to think of it, it doesn’t seem like the price is high.”

Shade sighed in his heart, but did not put another leaf representing [a true message - the dark dungeon] in front of his eyes to read. Ye Zi could only be used once, but he had no intention of memorizing that complicated information right now.

No matter what help this information can give him, he plans to wait until the adventure in the [Dark Realm] is over before investigating.

After confirming that all the items were picked up, Shade turned around and entered the cornfield, and found Luvia huddled next to the [God's Gift Box].

She was sleeping soundly, and Shade was horrified, thinking that she had fallen into that eternal sleep again. But when she heard the footsteps, Luvia woke up slightly. Although her mental state was still very bad, she was actually better than when Shade left.

She forced a smile to Shade:

"You're back? Oh, I actually fell asleep."

"Something happened, but there is no danger anymore."

Shade carefully helped Luvia up, then turned around and put the box back on her back. [God's Gift Box] shines very quietly, with nothing unusual about it.

"Follow me, I have found the location guided by your divination."

Having Shade by her side made Luvia feel much better. The two of them returned to the center of the cornfield where Shade had fought the demon just now. Shade also briefly explained what he had experienced in just a few minutes.

Later, Shade, who was particularly sensitive to spatial traces, found the spatial gap connecting the unknown location. They held hands and stepped into the gap together. Just like using [Ragrai's Jump], there is no special feeling at all.

When you raise your legs, you are surrounded by cornfields, and when your legs touch the ground again, you are surrounded by smooth roads in the dark.

There are woods behind him, and the road extends on both sides. There are some figures from the past floating around, which are blurry and difficult to identify. Shade raised his finger and pointed forward. With the dim light, his eyes could barely see a manor standing quietly in the deep darkness.

"This is Miss Carina's manor, we have arrived at Miss Carina's manor!"

The witch's manor was without any light like the surroundings, but seeing the familiar buildings in the darkness still put a smile on Shade's face. He didn't believe it at all. This manor had also fallen into darkness.