Whispering Verse

"Is this a proverb? The road ahead is the passage to death. It is indeed a dead end."

Shade reached out and touched the stone tablet to confirm that it was just an ordinary item. But based on Shade's understanding of the Witches' Council, it is likely that after this incident is over, this stone tablet will be taken away by the great witches for collection.

"It's really fun."

He went around to the back of the stone tablet and found that there were also words on the back. But unlike the neatly written letters on the front of the stele, the words on the back are like traces left by a rough mathematician on the corners of the paper at hand while doing calculations.

Even the words on the front and back are not the same:

"This is."

He squinted his eyes and looked closer, and found that this was a broken sentence:

".Go deep into the border and kill the resurrected ones. Before death"

He read out these words and frowned after thinking for a moment:

"Fragments of a psalm?"

Although the texts are very short, the grammatical structure is very similar to what Schade had seen on Mr. Pasuolo's funerary stone figurines.

"This is not like a sentence to judge the identity of the chosen one, but rather like the requirement of the chosen one's ceremony that the location of the ceremony needs to be in the boundary between life and death, and the person who performs the ceremony must kill those who have risen from the dead. Then, it needs to be in Do something before you die."

He wrote these words down, maybe they will be useful.

Continue walking inward, and after leaving the platform, there is another long and narrow passage. The howling black wind containing the power of death was almost at the same level as the depths of the Hazama Natural Church at this moment.

There had obviously been a fierce battle here. The ground was covered with a layer of black dead bones. Silver powder and holy water used to ward off evil spirits were sprinkled on the dead bones. It looked like traces left half an hour ago. Although Miss Aurora and the others entered earlier, it seemed that it took a long time to solve the troubles that Shade did not encounter.

When we first entered the passage, it was very narrow, but after a few dozen steps it opened up. Different from the passage outside, the passage here is surrounded by flat stone walls, and there are vague traces on the wall that cannot be identified.

The wind containing the power of death forced Shade to stretch out his right hand to block his face. He vaguely saw a bright light in front of him.

After speeding up the pace, he soon saw the witch's followers stopping in the passage. Two-thirds of them were casting spells to resist the howling black wind. Among them, the ninth-level lady even held a green orb to resist death with the power of nature.

Mia the cat will probably like these round beads.

The remaining one-third used special black ink with the scent of cinnamon and roses prepared in advance to smear the mottled ritual symbols on the walls.

The black wind couldn't dissipate the strong smell, at least not from close range.

After more than two thousand years of baptism, the ancient runes and murals that originally existed on the walls have become very blurred. These are the outermost ritual arrays of this seal, which are equivalent to the silver lines and the charms and bells on the silver lines that Shade saw in the natural church.

"Miss Swift! Where are Miss Aurora and Granny Cassandra?"

Shade asked, the crowd moving aside so he could get to the wall.

Mother-in-law Cassandra's young apprentice, Miss Rita Swift, was directing the sorceresses to restore the ritual traces on the wall in accordance with the records of the Council. She replied:

"Mr. Hamilton, why did you come in? The teacher and Miss Aurora walked forward. The core of the ceremony is in front."

"I want to go inside and take a look. Do you have anything you want me to tell you?"

Seeing that Shade wanted to move forward, the young girl with flaxen hair hurriedly stopped him:

"Please don't move forward. The teacher said that the front is not a place we can get close to. There is really only a thin line between death and death."

"It doesn't matter."

Shade shook his head:

"Grandma Cassandra showed me the seal on the top of the mountain. I can't resist it."

It was not curiosity that made him want to go inward, but he thought that since he had seen the passages at the foot of the mountain and the top of the mountain when rescuing Priest Augustus and reunited with Helen and Grace, he wanted to look at the passages on the mountainside again. It’s not like I wasted most of the autumn at Fort Midhill.

"Well, please be more careful."

Seeing that Shade was very persistent, the young girl threw him an oval smooth gray rune stone.

There are huge glowing runes on the front and back of the rune stone. The front side looks like a spiral tree pattern, and the back side looks like the veins of a leaf.

These are runes in the Elvish language, meaning "life" and "health" respectively. This kind of rune stone can help resist the wind of death. According to the knowledge of elves that Shade has obtained, he believes that if the materials are complete, he himself Similar alchemical products can also be made.

"Please be careful with it!"

"rest assured."

Shade waved his hand and continued to move forward despite the strong wind.

The area where Miss Swift and her group were located was the widest part of the passage. Moving forward, the passage narrows again, and the power of death becomes more intense.

When the cold wind left the first wound on Shade's face, and when the golden light inside the wound dragged out the glow toward the back, he knew that he was almost at the end.

The emergence of the afterglow of divinity made Sha De become even more powerful at this moment. Therefore, when there was a rustling sound in front of him, and a pile of bones that had obviously been broken up not long ago were reassembled into dark skeletons, Shade did not feel panic:

"Can the undead be resurrected?"

Any monster that can exist at this extreme level, close to the death zone, must be taken seriously. Shade frowned, holding the [Night Watch] in his right hand and looking at the black bone sword in the black skeleton's hand.

The two charged towards each other almost at the same time, and the two swords touched each other at the moment of the exchange. After a crisp sound, [Night Watcher] and the black bone sword were bounced away at the same time.

The black skeleton sprayed a stream of black mist towards Shade, but before the mist could touch Shade, it was dispelled by the glow of the afterglow of divinity.

He held the sword in one hand and thrust forward, accurately hitting the bones of the skeleton's right hand. After flying the black bone sword, Shade took a step back, held the sword in his right hand and slightly moved it to his left chest, took a deep breath, then unleashed all his strength and quickly thrust the sword forward.

Relying on the strong physical quality and the power that jumped at this moment, the three swords that were thrust out in an instant almost turned into afterimages in the black wind. The golden marks on his arms formed thick golden light pillars in the air at this moment.

With the [Blade of Chaotic Time and Space], the six swords appeared almost simultaneously within one second. [Night Watch] demonstrated its power against evil brilliantly. As Shade sheathed his sword and held down his wrist, six points on the surface of the skull showed signs of fragmentation, and then it was scattered again into a pile of dead bones.

Braving the wind, he walked quickly to the black bone sword and found that the bone sword was also scattered into bone fragments. This made Xia De, who thought he could get a bargain, disappointed. Then he continued to move forward. As the golden marks on his body became brighter and brighter, there were even light spots like flaming embers dragging behind Sha De:

"How did Miss Aurora and Granny Cassandra end up here?"

Even he found it very difficult to move forward.

After walking for more than twenty steps, the temperature on the Detection Witch badge hanging on his chest finally defeated the temperature of the black wind, allowing Shade to feel its presence. Continuing forward, the passage continues to narrow, finally ending in front of a stone door that only allows one person to pass.

There is a seal on the stone door itself, but it has been broken by the witches. At this moment, the door was pushed open, and there was a symbol like a holy emblem on the door, and the main body looked like an upside-down question mark. Shade suddenly had a feeling that this symbol was the holy symbol of the ancient god [Chaos Witch].

After walking out of the stone door, outside the passage is a circular space about the same size as the [Witch Council] venue.

The dark wind was lingering in it, and Shade could only see it when he squinted his eyes. There was a well in the center of the space. The well is located in the center of the circle, and violent black wind blows out from it. This is the passage on the mountainside.

The place is very empty. Apart from the well and the opened stone door, there are only mottled ritual traces on the wall, garbage on the wall, and a bronze skeleton on the wall opposite the stone door.

Miss Aurora and Granny Cassandra were standing in front of the metal skeleton. Because of the sound of the wind and the strong power of death, they did not notice Shade's arrival. It was not until Shade approached that they were surprised to see the dense golden cracks on Shade's body.

"Defulin also behaved like this, but it was fiery red. Did she share the flame with you?"

Granny Cassandra asked, and Shade shook his head.

Only then did he notice that both witches were wearing jewelry that could directly open the passage of the parliament. Miss Aurora’s is the [Ancient Witch’s Gold Ring, first on the right], and Granny Cassandra’s is the golden button on her chest. This must be the [Ancient Witch’s Gold Button] among the thirteen pieces of witch jewelry.

It was these two pieces of jewelry that helped them successfully arrive here.

"Xia De, why are you here? No, how did you get in?"

"Since Miss Carina can take a fancy to me, I naturally have something special about me."

He stretched out his fingers, and even the silver light on his fingertips seemed to be swayed by the wind. The rusty bronze skeleton in front of him looked very familiar.

"Xia De, this is"

Granny Cassandra wanted to introduce it, but Shade had already recognized the thing in front of him:

"This is a soul-casting skeleton, a forbidden alchemy weapon made by people in the Second Era using ancient knowledge. It is the same as the 'Giant God Soldier' ​​found in the underground ruins of Tobesk. It is the servant of the ancient extraordinary beings. Oh, the fifth How could the Witch Emperor at the end of the era be able to come up with such a thing?”

Although the details are slightly different, the thing in front of him is of the same type as the skeleton guarding the "Yager Scroll" that Shade saw in the Valley of Death in the Fifth Age. Only this time what was held by the skeleton was not a stone slab, but a stone box.

"You also know this? Then there is no need to explain. My mother-in-law and I think this is a gift left by the Witch Emperor Violet Marshall for those who come after her."

Miss Aurora didn't look very good. She couldn't stand it after being in this place for a long time:

"But we are all living people. If we take the box away, we will definitely fight with this skeleton. In a place like this, we don't want a fight to break out."

"It doesn't matter, I'll do it."

Shade said and stretched out his hand.

In the fifth era, Miss Olanode asked Shade to touch a skeleton once on the grounds that "you have not been born yet, so you are not considered a living person". At that time, Shade understood that this thing had no ill intentions towards him, definitely not because of time, but because he had entered the land of death.

Sure enough, after reaching out, he was only stopped by the skeleton instead of being attacked:

"Answer me, in the nothingness before the birth of the world, what else was there except those ancient gods?"

The Witch Emperor probably reprogrammed the language for this skeleton. It spoke the ancient language of the Fifth Age. The question this time was different from the one Shade heard last time, but he also had an answer:

"Primal Flame."

Mr. Edmond of the Guiding Light Monastery said that the "Primordial Fire" was used by the ancient gods to illuminate the world before the birth of the world.

The skeleton resisted Sha De's arm and was retracted. The bronze hand bones held the stone box and lifted it towards Sha De.

"See, it's easy."

He said to Miss Aurora with a smile, and then the three of them saw the stone box turning into powder in the black wind.

Only three items were left on the skeleton's hand bones. A comb with an iridescent glow, made of something like ivory; a wooden key, which looked very familiar to Shade; and finally a roll of parchment, which looked better than the "Pink Book" of Desire for Shade. The codex is even longer.

None of the three items rotted in the dark wind, but only the wooden key was a relic.

"Time key?"

Shade was slightly surprised. Judging from the sparseness of the wood grain on the surface of the key, this key was still the time key to the fifth era.

"Since it's the time key, it's yours."

Miss Aurora reminded, reaching for the comb:

"What is this? It doesn't look like a relic, but... it's beautiful."

"It is a replacement for the ritual core left by the guardian of Widun."

Grandma Cassandra took the parchment and unfolded it and said. The old witch stood next to Shade and used the light from his body to squint in the wind and read the contents of the parchment:

"Here is a letter from the emperor to the later ones. It contains some historical information, some knowledge, and yes, at the end, it is the complete seal content. In order to make it easier for later people to repair the ritual, she condensed the core of the ritual into this Comb. Throw the comb into the well and use the witch's power in conjunction with the guidance to repair most of the ritual. But if we want to completely repair it, I think we are not prepared enough."

"Then what other materials are needed for the ceremony? Do you have to repair such a large-scale ceremony with just this comb?"

Shade asked.

"Of course not. We have prepared some things to be used in advance. In addition, the ritual materials include this."

Miss Aurora flipped up her long hair:

"The hair of the great witch can be used as a material for casting spells, especially in rituals in the witch system. Hair is often used as a ritual material. Although the ring magicians in the sixth era don't know this, this is common knowledge in the fifth era."

Seeing that Shade hesitated to speak, the lady with long curly brown hair added:

"I know what you are thinking, oh, young knight, controlling the growth rate of hair is the most commonly used secret technique by witches. Except for the vicious 'bald head curse', nothing can prevent us from having beautiful hair. "

Seeing that Shade was really fine standing in such a place, the witches gave Shade the blue lizard blood ink and the special Nimu silver alloy thread in the ritual materials, and asked Shade to help restore the dilapidated ceremony venue. Part of the knowledge in [Witch Reverberation: Feliana] also helped Shade better understand the work to be done.

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