To be precise, the knock on the door was at 2:27 a.m. on Saturday. Shade, who was sleeping soundly, was not awakened by the sound downstairs, but by the cat sleeping next to his pillow.
This timid cat is extremely alert when sleeping. After the knock on the door downstairs woke it up, it lowered its head and scratched the pillow with its paws to make noise. After Shade woke up, Mia immediately got into him.
Under the thin blanket, only his little head was exposed, looking out alertly.
"It's okay, don't be afraid...Oh, who is looking for me so late?"
After Shade took the revolver from the bedside table, he yawned and walked downstairs in slippers. The timid cat got out of the blanket and followed him. But when Shade came to the hall, the orange cat
But he stood at the corner of the stairs and looked down with a worried expression.
"who is it?"
The gas lamp in the foyer was slightly yellow, and Shade stood behind the door and shouted to the door. He did not lose his vigilance due to sleep. While holding the gun in his right hand, the silver moonlight in his left hand also lit up.
"Xia De, it's me."
Judging from the tone of voice, it was Miss Anat, so she opened the door a crack, leaned against the door, and looked out from the side. When she saw that it was indeed Miss Anat with short brown hair, she opened the door while yawning.
Anti-hotlink:
"Good evening, Miss Anat."
Even a ring wizard has to sleep, and Shade really wants to get back into bed now.
"Good evening, Shade."
Miss Anat was obviously in high spirits, with an excited expression on her face. After being welcomed in by Shade, she smiled and pointed to the paper bag she held in her hand.
"Look, I got it."
"What did you get?"
"A relic with the power of an ancient god. I just went to the train station to pick up the goods with Old John."
Now Shade was no longer sleepy.
The gas light in the living room was turned to the brightest, and Miss Anat and Shade were sitting on the sofa opposite each other. Miss Anat put her coat on the back of the sofa, wearing a white shirt with ruffled sleeves, and excitedly put the bird in the paper bag
Take out the cubic metal box.
"Shade, I remember you said that you can understand any text, that's why I came to you so late. Please help me see, what is written on the box?"
The metal box is not a relic, but the contents inside are. The box itself is a special device for containing relics. It was sold to Miss Anat along with the relics. It is also an antique.
Shade studied it carefully under the gas lamp. The six sides of the box were different pictures, and in the corner of each picture there were ancient characters as detailed as tadpoles.
After reading in detail, he separated the six aspects into a clear order and then began to explain:
"This is probably about the process of ancient people sealing this item. The first two pictures are about a god holding a scale falling from a high altitude, so all the statues of this god in the material world collapsed."
"This should be the process of the fall of the ancient god, the hanging judge."
Miss Anat analyzed and asked Shade to continue explaining with expectant eyes.
"The next two pictures are about the loss of control of this item. This box is probably not the original box. It was copied by a later discoverer, so some of the language was recorded incorrectly during the recording. According to my understanding, the general meaning
Yes, the items in the box were originally weapons given to mortals by gods, but with the departure of the gods, the power of the weapons went out of control and caused great damage... What is inside is a long-handled bell?"
"Yes, that's right, it's a bell."
Miss Anat smiled and nodded. This was the first time that Shade was so excited to see her since he met her:
"I am lucky to be able to buy this relic. This is the Keeper-level relic [Judge's Sacred Bell]. The body is a bell. The effect is that after ringing the bell, the ring magician will use it next time.
And the power of the spell will be greatly enhanced."
“What about the negative traits?”
Shade asked while looking at the words in the light. The cat was lying next to him, pretending to sleep...or maybe he really fell asleep.
"Long-term exposure to the bell will cause a shift in the user's personality. Calm people will gradually become irritable, angry people will become calm, greedy people will be indifferent to fame and wealth, and kind people will tend to evil. In general,
, is to reverse the more prominent characteristics of the character, and then reverse it again after the three-phase cycle. Each reversal will make the extreme emotions become more extreme. But this is not effective for Iluna Beas, she
The balance talent restrains this negative characteristic."
At this time, Shade also interpreted the meaning of the last two pictures. The last two pictures involved the process of the [Judge's Holy Bell] being hidden by the ancients:
"The departure of God caused the church to collapse, and the original divine object turned into a disaster. People paid the price with their lives, so that the ancient... This word has no equivalent in modern times, and it probably means a wise man.
Let the ancient wise men build this box to contain the Holy Bell, and to warn future generations that the truth behind the fall of the ancient gods... should not be easily discovered."
The text behind it was so shallow that it was almost impossible to read it against the light. He could only take a pencil and paper, press the paper on the surface, and quickly scan it with the pencil, and got a clearer trace:
"The truth behind the fall of the ancient gods is not that they met their enemies, but that they left voluntarily... huh?"
"What's wrong?"
Miss Anat asked doubtfully. She saw the surprise on Shade's face. Shade also read the last sentence at this time:
"The ancient god left voluntarily...for the sake of this world."
He looked at Miss Anat:
"What does it mean?"
"The fall of the ancient gods is so long ago that no one can tell the story of the thirteen original gods in detail. However, a certain view of "" is that the thirteen witch emperors left behind "
", I was inspired by the remaining power of the thirteen ancient gods. As for the reason why the ancient gods left, this is the first time I heard that they left voluntarily."
Miss Anat replied cautiously. Shade understood that the other party didn't know much, so he didn't think about it anymore, but opened the lid of the box and took out the bell placed in the soft straw.
This is not a small hanging bell, but a golden rattle that is about the size of a palm and a half. The surface of the long-handled rattle has wonderful spiral carvings, but it is only a decoration and not a text, so it cannot be
Interpretation.
When I picked up the bell, it didn't make any sound. The bell could only make a sound when I held the long handle and shook it.
"Can I try it?"
He asked the owner of the bell. After receiving permission, he clenched his right hand and shook it gently:
Ding dong~
The sound seemed to spread to more distant places in this quiet night. The echoing sound made the cat lying next to Shade look around.
The full sense of power made Shade even feel the spirit turning into substance and rushing through his body, so he actively activated the thaumaturgy [Mysterious Lock-The Little Match Girl], which was a thaumaturgy that he could not fully use.
Snowflakes were falling from the sky. As Miss Anat stretched out her hand to touch the fluttering snowflakes in surprise, she saw the shadow of a little girl carrying a basket appearing next to Shade. But it only lasted less than a second.
, and disappeared from sight.
Snowflakes were falling from the ceiling, and Shade looked at the bell in surprise:
"It's so powerful. It not only enhances the effects of thaumaturgy, but can even use thaumaturgy beyond the level of a ring wizard."
But it's still not enough for Shade to fully use the Mystery Lock.
Miss Anat closed her palms together, feeling the cold feeling and wanted to ask what kind of thaumaturgy it was, but she was suddenly stunned for a moment, then tilted her head and looked at Shade's open door study room:
"Shadow, something is glowing in your study."
Shade turned his head and saw that it was the desk drawer. A faint white light flickered like the frequency of breathing, soft and quiet.
"Glow? What?"
He was surprised to think that he carefully walked into the study room, opened the drawer, and saw that the glowing page was actually the page [the manuscript of the poet Cohen] that could contact the college.
There is an extra line of words on the page:
[Shadow, please dress a little more formally when you go to Bill Schneider's study meeting tomorrow afternoon. Your request to view "The Book of Ascension" has been approved, and the librarian, Miss Danister, wants to see you.—
—Hessenger Garcia]
When Shade finished reading the last letter, all the words on the page disappeared and the page stopped glowing.
He was stunned, locked the drawer again, and then turned back to the living room. Miss Anat was putting the Holy Bell back into the box. She looked very curious, but out of politeness, she did not ask Shade.
Private issues.
Instead, Shade asked seriously after picking up Mia again:
"Miss Anat, did the academy give you a task to monitor the rest of the team?"
"Surveillance? Others?"
Miss Anat looked at him doubtfully and asked:
"Why spy on other people?"
"Well... let me tell you a story that has not been told before. In fact, before today, I always thought that it was possible that they had said those words to all five of us."
When he first accepted the task of monitoring the other four people, Shade didn't fully trust the four people in the team, so he didn't say anything about it. But the two weeks of getting along with him made him gradually understand Miss Anat, Miss Louisa, and
Priest August and Dr. Schneider had developed trust and planned to reveal the matter when the time was right.
And now is a good opportunity to reveal it to Miss Anat.
He didn't hide anything about the content of the conversation that night, and told the problems of the other four people, including Miss Anat, in turn.
Miss Anat was aware of Miss Louisa's "abnormality" but was completely unaware of Dr. Schneider's question. As for Priest August's question, she gave an explanation after thinking about it:
"The college's view is correct. Priest August's joining of St. Byrons is indeed related to the accident involving an unknowable (level 0) relic out of control, and he indeed wanted to investigate the truth of that accident. But what exactly did the priest do?
Even I don’t know what kind of power he has... I just know that the priest has a strong self-healing ability."
"How strong?"
Shade asked curiously.
"A conservative estimate is that as long as you don't die, any injury can be fully recovered within ten minutes."
Shade was frightened by this "conservatism". It's not like he didn't understand anything three weeks ago. He knew very well that this level of self-healing ability was beyond the normal range.