Whispering Verse

"As expected, I am the lowest undead creature. Although my strength and agility are amazing, my intelligence is at the level of a beast. Can't you see how dangerous I am?"

Shade thought in his mind, and drew the moonlight sword from the air with his right hand. As the corpse approached, he thrust a sword in front of him.

"Blade of Chaotic Time and Space!"

The corpse nimbly twisted its body in the air to avoid Shade's first sword, and was then stabbed directly through the head by the second sword thrust out of the air.

Its "vitality" was extremely tenacious. Even so, it still rushed forward towards Shade's neck, but Shade easily dodged it.

With a swipe of moonlight in his hand, the arc-shaped light blade cut the fallen corpse into two pieces. The two corpses squirmed and tried to escape at the same time, and a foul-smelling black-green liquid leaked from the wounds on the corpses.

After a long time, it stopped moving completely, and Shade confirmed that the other party had finally entered "death".

He squinted his eyes and looked at the disgusting corpse on the ground:

"Although Priest Augustus is in the second level, he is not good at fighting. Facing this kind of ghoul that can be called an 'elite', he will indeed be forced into the catacombs. But it is absolutely impossible for him to die because of this. The priest probably There are backup options, but there is too much movement, so you have to find a place where no one is around to use them.”

He used the sword in his right hand to stir up the hideous corpse on the ground. This mutated, relatively powerful "ghoul" could actually separate quite a lot of alchemy materials and potion materials. But this requires professional techniques and professional equipment to complete the harvest. Although [Witch Reverberation Feliana] gave Shade a lot of basic knowledge, including simple material separation techniques, he did not have professional equipment.

This is not just a sword, just a piece of meat.

So, he chose to open the door of the ancient tomb that was locked on the side, pressed his palms on the ground, used "Feliana's Witch's Light" to "melt" a large hole in the ground, and threw the body that was divided into two parts. Go in.

Care must be taken when handling the corpses of undead creatures, otherwise it will lead to greater trouble. The best way to deal with it is to use oil such as [Heart of Fire] used by Priest August to completely burn the body to ashes, but Shade did not have such a magic potion, so he buried the body first and came back later. deal with.

After burying the body, he returned to the wall where the priest last disappeared, and pressed his hand on the wall. The surface of the cold earth wall was uneven, but it was not strange either:

"What did you find?"

[Nothing was found. 】

"The real witch light of Feliana."

The palm emitted a golden light, and then the wall was "melted" by this light like butter. Shade controlled the power of thaumaturgy and just let his hand penetrate the inside of the wall.

But until his elbow was inserted into the wall, the back was still solid.

"This is troublesome. There are no traces of elements, and it's not a mechanism."

He pulled his hand away and took a sharp breath. As the invisible air flow rushed from the wall into Shade's nose, he restored the wall to its original state at the cost of losing less than two seconds of life.

"Did the priest really evaporate out of thin air?"

Shade looked around again. There seemed to be no other clues in the cold and damp underground tomb area:

"Do you want me to lick the floor and walls?"

[No need, because using the thaumaturgy "Breath of Time", you have a deeper contact with the space in front of you and obtained detailed information. 】

"[Breath of Time] still has this kind of benefit?"

It seems reasonable to think that the thaumaturgic effect is to inhale a stream of air representing "past time" into the nose:

"I knew that a thaumaturgy that uses lifespan as a casting material cannot only have the effect of changing time. What do you know?"

[An area similar to a space anomaly zone briefly appeared here. Your friend has most likely fallen into an abnormal zone in space. 】

"Priest Augustus was transported to another place?"

Shade thought of him and Luvia in the cornfield in the dark realm, passing through the space fracture zone and arriving directly at the door of Miss Carina's manor.

[The information perceived is not much, but the opposite side is not the material world. I felt distortion, malice, and pure death. 】

Shade thought for a while, and then confirmed that with his knowledge, he had no idea what this meant:

"Could it be that Priest August fell into the underworld? But in the mythological system of this world, there is no underworld at all."

After people in this world die, if they are not picked up by gods or pulled up to build a wall (referring to the wall of the unbelieving), they can only "continue to walk on". The concept of "reincarnation" in the hometown of outsiders does not even exist here.

"Isn't it some kind of subspace where evil things are sealed?"

This is the most likely outcome.

Since there were no further clues in the underground cemetery, Shade left the foggy cemetery and took a carriage back to the "House of the Blind" in the city. By the time he knocked on the door of No. 15 Rufu Lane again, it was already close to five o'clock in the afternoon.

At this time, the effect of [Shad's Blood Echo] completely disappeared, and the clue Shad had was that the priest finally disappeared in front of the deepest wall of the underground tomb area at the foot of Mount Sikal.

It was not Ms. Michelle who opened the door for Shade this time, but it was probably with Ms. Michelle's permission that the young nun, who also had a cloth wrapped around her eyes, took Shade directly to the third floor.

Ms. Michelle's eyes have returned to normal, but instead of covering her eyes with linen again, she covered her eyes with the silver crown-like eyepatch that Shade had seen once.

When entertaining Shade to sit down, Ms. Michelle also told Shade that in the [Spiritual Order], only monks who are formal nuns can wear such eye patches. Among the strongholds of the "House of the Blind", she is the only one who is qualified.

The two still met in the reception room, and Shade told each other what he had just experienced. Ms. Michelle frowned slightly when she heard "ghoul". When Shade said that he discovered that the priest fell into a strange space using a method that was not convenient to disclose, the middle-aged woman in her forties frowned even more. He raised his eyebrows:

"Sorry, I'm not doubting a powerful ring warlock like you."

She probably had some misunderstanding about Shade, but before Shade could explain, the nun continued:

"Excuse me, are you sure that it is a twisted, malicious place full of death?"

"very sure."

"So do you know the local myths and legends?"

"I don't know anything except what the coachman said. Every autumn there is inexplicable fog in the Sikal Mountains."

Shade said honestly, thinking that he could go to Mr. Edmond, the tower guard at Coldwater Port and a self-proclaimed folklorist, to inquire about the rumors about the city.

"Actually, there is a very old rumor in this city, and it's hard to tell whether it's true or not."

Ms. Michelle lowered her head and said cautiously:

"The first thing that needs to be emphasized is that situations like that of Priest Latte Augustus, who suddenly lost his trace in a certain place, occur frequently every one or two years in this city. He suddenly disappeared while walking. He lost sight of him, or he was talking to his companions, but he just turned his head and his companions disappeared."

This sounds like an urban legend from the steam age. Once Tobesk's tabloid couldn't find a suitable topic such as "The Duel between the Grand Dukes and Lovers," it liked to fill the space with such horrific stories, and even Someone with good intentions collected and published these stories, which is also an illegal publication.

"Mysteriously disappeared?"

Shade frowned slightly:

"It seems that there are similar rumors in many places, but they are just bizarre cases that are difficult for the city hall and the police to solve."

"But in Fort Midhill, this is real. I originally thought that Priest Augustus just encountered an accident, but I didn't expect this to be the case."

“Has the church ever explained this situation?”

"There are rumors that in Sikal Mountain"

Shade looked at the window. From the window on the third floor, he could directly see the mountain range that was now shrouded in fog. The Sikal Mountains are part of the Rommel Mountain System. The continuous mountains are like giant dragons in the hometown of foreigners, lying in the distance of the city.

"Under Mount Sikal, there is an ambiguous area that connects the world of the living and the world of the dead. The church calls it the [Narrow Room of Life and Death]."

Although there is no "underworld" in this world, there is a clear boundary between the living and the dead because the dead will continue to move on. This kind of "border" is just a conceptual thing. Shade has never heard of it. There really is such a place:

"This is not normal and this kind of place shouldn't exist."

Shade pointed out and the nun nodded:

"This is indeed abnormal. There should be no connection between death and the material world, nor should there be a passage connecting the two. However, there are indeed similar narrow spaces in the material world. Most of them are small, and Midhill Fort , built on top of the largest known boundary between life and death. Including the white mist that must appear every autumn in the Sikal Mountains and the inexplicable disappearance of people, these are all blurred boundaries, resulting in direct direct contact between the world of the living and the dead. Caused by overlap.”

Ms. Michelle sighed softly:

"And once you fall into that boundary, it is almost equivalent to death; once you enter a special door in the [narrow space of life and death], you truly enter an irreversible death. There, the concept of death is really connected. itself."

"Are these rumors you mentioned local legends?"

These things are not mentioned at all in the folklore-related courses of second-level warlocks.

"No, a lot of evidence proves that this is true. Mr. Watson, the cult has determined a long time ago that there is indeed something under the Sikal Mountain, this volcano."

Shade was stunned:

"Volcano? Sorry, please forgive my rudeness, is Mount Sikal a volcano? Although my geology and geography are not good, this place does not look like a volcanic terrain."

"This is indeed an extinct volcano."

Ms. Michelle said that although she was wearing a crown-like eye patch that prevented Shade from seeing her eyes, the woman was clearly not joking:

"The Orthodox Church knows about the [Chalet of Life and Death] under the Sikal Mountain, but they do not disclose any information to the outside world. The Church believes that it is actually an extremely dangerous relic."

"Angel level?"

Shade asked tentatively, but Ms. Michelle shook her head slightly.

"Unknown level?"

His eyes widened.

"The Order thinks so. There are some things that are inconvenient to tell you, but in fact, the Order has been exploring the secrets here. We worship death, and we perceive spirituality. You can peek into its appearance, and even peek into the distortion The terrible power of death, and the fact that nothing seems to be happening at all, is really incredible to me."

Ms. Michelle concluded:

"Judging from the current information, Priest Rat Augustus did not enter the door in the [Narrow Room of Life and Death], but just fell into the [Narrow Room of Life and Death]. And the ghoul you encountered is It emerged because of blurred boundaries.”

"That's actually the case. Then you can help dispose of the corpse of the ghoul. The valuables on it will be considered as reward."

Shade put his hand on his head and said, this situation is really an unimaginable big trouble. Just one day ago, with Tifa's help, he was making final preparations for the Big City Players Finals, but 24 hours later, he heard another terrible rumor here.

Today is Thursday, the 19th of the Harvest Moon. After more than half a month of rest from the leisurely period at the beginning of the month to now, the outsider knows that his own adventure is about to begin again.

The nun said softly:

"Thank you for your generosity."

It is not difficult to dig out the buried corpses, and the materials that can be separated from the mutated and powerful corpses are indeed valuable. The most valuable items are the ghoul's brain and the ghoul's lungs, which can be sold for at least 20 pounds at Mr. Copps's in Tobesk.

Shadeken gave it to the other party, not only to express his gratitude, but also because he was in this city and probably needed more help from the [Spiritual Cult].

"So suppose the priest does fall into that kind of place, is there any way to get him out?"

Shade asked again.

"You can only come out on your own. The area where life and death are ambiguous is not something we living people can interfere with. But once you have not been able to leave for a long time, or you have truly crossed the boundary, crossed the door of the boundary between life and death, and entered There is really no way out of the world of the dead."

Shade nodded, he almost understood the meaning of the priest's "dead but not dead" state. The priest thought he could not get out, so he used his last strength to enter Shade's dream to say goodbye to him.

"Then I will stay in Fort Midhill for the next period of time until I rescue the priest."

Shade stood up and walked to the window, looking at the mountains in the setting sun:

"Most definitely."

"Good luck to you."

Ms. Michelle said softly.

It's not that she's unwilling to provide direct help, it's just that she's really helpless.