Whispering Verse

Breaking through the heavy fog, the group arrived at Cassandra Auction House at 2:30 in the morning. For the sake of safety, the dreaming ceremony was performed in the room in the basement of the auction house. There were many rooms hidden under the auction house using illusions. It was unknown what Granny Cassandra wanted to do.

The room selected for the ceremony was much smaller than the room where Grace and Helen were. A full-sized four-poster bed sat in the center of the room, and a burning fireplace provided light - there was no gas light, as the gas pipes would have made the room's seclusion pointless.

The old witch's maids were still making arrangements, and the floral scent of the "Death Sleeping Flower" in the room almost made Shade sneeze. Taking advantage of the waiting time, the witches informed Shade of the precautions after entering his dream, and told him that in order to prevent Joey Barton from using the three passages to enter death and recall the dead, the church entrusted the witches' council to perform the sealing ceremony While the "Scar of the Holy Tree" is being held, guard the seal on the mountainside.

Mother-in-law Cassandra and Miss Aurora planned to wait until Shade came back from his dream, then invite Sister Devlin to re-enter the narrow room with them, and wait at the seal on the mountainside until the church ceremony was over.

As for the seals of the natural churches at the top and bottom of the mountain, it is up to the church to guard them.

It was close to three o'clock in the morning. Shade took off his coat and shoes and lay on the bed wearing a white shirt. The witches had spread white "Sleeping Dragon Grass" all over the bed. .

Under the pillow is a half-section of the umbilical cord specimen from the clown's life. I don't know how Grandma Cassandra got it before the Orthodox Church did. In addition to the "devil's amulet" given by the doctor, Shade also had three relic rings given by the witches.

The rings were placed in three velvet cloth ring boxes of different colors but exactly the same style. Two of them are clerical grade and one is secret keeper grade.

"One of the common sense of ring magicians is not to carry too many relics with you, let alone use more than three relics that affect you at the same time."

Miss Aurora said, sitting on the edge of the bed and opening the ring boxes:

"You ventured into the narrow room and should not have used the relics, but in order to ensure safety, you had to use so many rings in conjunction with the ritual. And Carina mentioned that your resistance to the whisper element is far higher than that of ordinary ring warlocks. Otherwise, your mother-in-law will only allow you to wear one at most."

She motioned to Shade to put all those rings on her left hand:

"This one is [Dream Feast], a clerical relic. Wearing this ring to dream, the ring warlock can slowly increase the upper limit of his spirit in his sleep. And for dreaming into the narrow room, it means that he can resist the narrow room slightly. , the negative effect of the spirit recovery speed is greatly reduced. The negative effect of the ring is that there will be a slight feeling of hunger in the dream, and as time goes by, the hunger will become stronger and stronger until the user is lost in the dream. But Owners of spiritual runes such as [Gluttony] have strong resistance to its negative effects."

Shade took the ring and found that [Mengxi] was a golden ring with a small emerald ring face. The outer ring of the ring is made of interconnected spiral patterns, while the inner ring is engraved with ancient runes——

[After entering the dream, the dream is a feast. 】

"This one is [Soul Ring], Keeper level. When held by a spirit body, it can add an invisible energy shield to itself. The negative effect is that the holder will hear whispers and is extremely changeable. It is an evil spirit, but wearing it for a short period of time is not a big problem.”

[Soul Ring] is a very beautiful silver ring, and the style even looks like a wedding ring. There are letters from the Fifth Age on the outer surface——

[I would like to accompany you forever and become your strongest shield. 】

"The last one is [Apprentice's Ice Ring], a clerical-level relic. This is the relic of a transcendent apprentice in the Fourth Age. The effect is very inconspicuous. It can allow the ring warlock to stay awake in dreams, and in the dream It has the power to manipulate ice. But this power can only be found in dreams, so it is basically useless except for special circumstances like today. The negative effect is that it will freeze the soul and release the apprentice's unwilling resentment. My mother-in-law and I will look after you. , so don’t worry about that.”

[Apprentice's Ice Ring] is really made of ice. The outer ring of the ice ring is inlaid with extremely small purple gems. The ring was unusually cold, and when you put it on your finger, you could even feel the chill running down your arm toward your heart. There are no letters or engravings on the inside or outside of the ring, but when you hold the ring up to the light, you can see the sentence composed of tiny gem particles frozen inside the ice -

[Please bless me with the power of ice, even if it is only in a dream. 】

All three rings were put on Shade's fingers. As for the black crystal amulet he was holding, the witches only asked about its general purpose and didn't care about it anymore.

"Anyway, be careful in your dreams. Don't worry about Joey Barton seeing your face, the ritual will blur your image."

After drinking the orange-flavored sleep-aid potion and the soul-stabilizing requiem potion with milk brought by Granny Cassandra, Shade lay on the pillow under the gaze of a circle of people around him. . As the maids lowered the surrounding black gauze curtains, the fire in the fireplace was extinguished little by little, and the view above the head became blurry.

Outside the curtain, someone was chanting a mantra softly, and someone else was singing softly. Shade heard the sound of the bell and heard the murmur that seemed to come from a dream.

The bed was so comfortable that it was like a quagmire that was swallowing up Shade's body. He felt sleepiness welling up in his heart, so he closed his eyes.

The body fell in the darkness, and the consciousness felt some strange pull. Shade meditated in his mind on the appearance of the clown who had fought with him on the icy lake under the moon. The secret skills of the witches drew this imagination and twisted it into a strong longing, and used this to communicate the meaning of life and death. narrow room.

"Shadow, now."

Grandma Cassandra's vague voice came to her ears, and a black door suddenly appeared in the deepest part of her consciousness. There was no door panel, and black gauze swayed in the door frame.

Shade stretched out his hand forward and pushed aside the black veil. Behind him was the cold white mist.

The momentary feeling of soul peeling off gave him the illusion that his shackles had been broken. When he realized that the surrounding scenery had turned into a decaying narrow space, he immediately asked in his mind:

"What do I look like now?"

[It’s still Shad Hamilton. 】

"But."

[Outlander, this is your dream, not a soul leaving the body. You still haven't fully grasped those basic knowledge in first grade. 】

While "she" chuckled in her ear, Miss Aurora's voice seemed to come from an extremely distant place, separated by several layers of glass:

"Shadow, can you hear me?"

"You can hear it, but it's not very clear."

Shade answered in his heart that he knew there would be contact before falling asleep.

"How is the situation now?"

Shade looked around and found that the scenery in the thick fog looked very familiar:

"I was on the streets of downtown Fort Midhill, and the narrow space was scarier than when we entered it last week. The fog here was very thick, and I didn't see the Joker or Joey Barton, and I wasn't affected by it for the time being. attack."

"There is nothing wrong with my mother-in-law's ritual. The target should be nearby. Please pay attention to safety and search nearby. We will meet again later."

The sound stopped suddenly, this contact could not continue forever.

The red butterfly gifted by Grace and Helen can detect the location of the "nail" at close range. When confronting the clown and the earl, Shade used a butterfly respectively. Now that the last nail has been caught by the church, the last red butterfly is once again used by Shade to search for the clown.

He should be very close to the clown's position now. The red butterfly on his shoulder was faintly agitated and wanted to fly out, but it didn't reach the point of flying out. The most indispensable thing in the narrow land is the patrolling undead, so Shade did not walk boldly on the street. After appearing at the corner of Oak Street in the city center, he stepped on the mud on the ground and carefully stuck to it in the mist. He walked against the wall and entered the store facing the street.

In the real world, this is a tobacco shop, and Priest August even bought tobacco here, but in the narrow room, this is just a dilapidated three-story building that looks like it will collapse soon.

The darkness inside the room was unimaginable, and large black-gray mold spots were scattered on the peeling walls, just like the corpse spots on the body of a deceased person. Corpse grass grew over the gaps between the walls, and the lingering white mist even made it impossible for Shade to see clearly where the indoor walls were at a glance.

There is no danger on the first floor, but the undead fat woman carrying a heavy ax wandering on the second floor is the first opponent Sha De encountered on this trip.

Her waist was about three or four times as thick as Shad's. When she dragged the bloody, rusty ax back and forth, it was hard to tell whether the sound of the ax or her footsteps was louder. Of course, the sound will be attenuated in the narrow room, so Shade didn't hear the sound until he reached the second floor.

She walked back and forth in the spacious living room on the second floor. Furniture remains with a terrifying black appearance and a corpse that had long since become a mummy were scattered along the wall.

As soon as Shade, who struggled to jump up from the broken stairs, appeared, the fat woman stopped. The evil spirit's rotten face roared at him, revealing its dark teeth and rotten mouth, and then the woman rushed over in stride. .

Shade subconsciously wanted to slash the moonlight forward, but stopped after thinking about it:

"Ice and Demons."

Taking a slight step back, he disappeared in front of the stairs, and then the huge ax struck directly on the fragile floor. The huge force seemed to be able to collapse the entire building.

Shade had already appeared behind the woman at this time, and unexpectedly discovered that the back of the spirit body was completely embedded with a rotten pig's head. The pig head looked at him with wide eyes. At the same time, the woman seemed to have eyes on her back, struggling to swing the huge blood ax towards the back.

Shade did not dodge, but held his right hand tightly. The hand in the dream did not have the doctor's demonic talisman, but there was a demonic symbol on the palm. At this moment, squirming black pus spread from the palm to the entire arm. The pus immediately wrapped Shade's right hand, making his arm seem to have swelled.

At the same time, the ice power from the relic ring also penetrated into this giant hand, and the coldness made even the user Shade feel terrible.

"Ah!"

His thick right hand was raised high, holding the giant ax forcefully. The abundant sense of power made Shade pull hard and actually snatch the ax from the fat woman's hand.

The evil spirit was obviously stunned for a moment, and then rushed over like a chariot with a shrill howl. The black pus swelled again, and Shade stretched out his right hand and grasped it suddenly, completely holding the fat woman in his palm.

The cold air overflowed, and when Shade let go of his palm, only a lifelike ice sculpture was left on the spot. His fist hit the ice sculpture, and the ice shattered along with his soul. Because the thaumaturgy [Psychic Explosion] was used during the attack, the evil spirit's shell peeled off and the remaining soul was revealed. It was a middle-aged woman with a normal figure:

"If I could understand during my lifetime, my appearance is actually enough."

She left her last words and left.

"Are you so strong?"

The black pus gradually faded away, and the thick black threads pulled out slowly poured into the demonic symbols in the palm. Shade's right hand returned to normal. He looked at the palm of his hand and sincerely thanked Dr. Schneider for his help.