The man holding the notebook took a step forward and appeared directly in front of Shade. He stretched out his open right hand facing Shade's chest, but then he suddenly hid back.
The scarlet dagger left traces of light in the air, and the red [Moonlight Sword] cut off the stranger's clothes, but still allowed him to hide away.
The stranger's retreat was just to make it easier for him to grab Shade's outstretched hand, but Shade, who remembered the reminders of Luvia and Miss Belindel, immediately used "Raglai's Jump" to get out of the way.
When his figure disappeared, the bloody mist released by Mr. Albert and Mr. Bernhardt immediately swallowed the place where the stranger stood.
This highly toxic mist was of course useless to the notebook as the relic itself, but amid the permeating corroding sound, the human skin of the stranger standing in the red mist was actually rapidly dissolving.
He immediately floated out of thin air and wanted to rise into the sky, but Shade appeared above him and opened his mouth and spit out another mouthful of red mist:
"Corruption Blood Mist!"
The poisonous mist specially designed to corrode flesh and blood once again accelerated the decay of the body, but even though the human skin dissolved and the flesh and blood rotted, the stranger still stretched out his hand in the poisonous mist toward Shade's chest as he fell.
The moment his hand was placed on Shade's chest, Shade felt the badge on his chest vibrate. The power of the angel of death helped him resist the first death judgment, and then
The heart contracts suddenly, and the power of [Heart of Stone] is also taking effect.
The spirit poured into the long sword in his hand, and as the blood mist dispersed, the phantom of a pure white angel appeared behind Shade out of thin air. The stranger, who had completely turned into a "bloody man" due to corrosion, still held his hand reluctantly.
Pressing on Shade's chest, its free right hand shattered the red "moonlight dagger" in Shade's right hand, and then raised it up. With the sound of its own bones shattering, it blocked the angel's energized pure white holy sword.
.
The black notebook floating next to it began to shake crazily at this moment, and the spiritual light emerging from it weakened rapidly. This was enough to prove that the power of the sage-level [Richard's Notebook] was far inferior to that of the angel-level [Angel Right].
arm】.
The body of the "bloody man" also paused at this moment, and the silver cross sword in Shade's right hand directly penetrated his body.
The angel shadow cooperated with Shade and slashed off the "bloody man"'s right arm with his sword, then raised his hand and slashed at the "bloody man"'s head with the lightsaber.
This time it had to dodge, and the blood mist that Mr. Bernhardt and Mr. Albert continued to create had completely compressed the view in the barn yard to the limit.
It couldn't dodge the angel phantom's lightsaber, and had to raise its left arm to block it again. At this time, the floating notebook hit Shade's face, and Shade touched it with his hand.
He held the red dagger again.
The color of the blood mist was really similar to that of the weapon in Shade's hand. In addition, he had already used the red moonlight dagger just now, and the [Angel's Right Arm] that penetrated the "bloody man"'s body seriously interfered with its perception.
Therefore, it did not block the short sword this time, but concentrated on blocking the lightsaber swung by the angel's shadow with its left hand.
As a result, the red crystallized dagger [Madeline's Love] pierced the notebook that was trying to pounce on Shade. At that moment, it seemed that even the red mist surrounding it had solidified.
The pink crystals quickly spread around the "wound" on the notebook, and in the blink of an eye, the notebook's surface was covered with a thin layer of crystals.
At this moment, the "bloody man"'s left arm was cut off by the lightsaber wielded by the angel's shadow. The sword continued to slash without stopping, splitting the entire human body in front of Shade into two pieces.
When the unknown man's body was possessed by the consciousness in [Richard's Notes], he was actually dead, so Shade did not murder an innocent person.
"This weapon turns out to be an assassin sent by her."
The corpse fell to the ground and burned with pure white flames. When Shade withdrew the [Angel's Right Arm] from the corpse, a sound came from the pierced notebook.
At this moment [Madeline's Love] has completely dissolved in Shade's hands, and those crystals are clinging to the notebook, as if to completely transform the notebook into crystals.
The trembling notebook suddenly rose into the sky, flying away from the red mist in the barn courtyard like a shooting star, and flew towards the distant night.
"It's trying to escape!"
Shade jumped up and turned into a swarm of red butterflies and chased after him. Just when Mr. Bernhardt outside the mist was about to chase after him, Mr. Albert had already taken the lead:
"I'll go help him. You can comfort Mrs. Jude here."
"why me?"
"You're better at socializing with people than I am."
With that said, the coroner also transformed into a swarm of bats and chased after them, leaving Mr. Bernhardt standing there watching the three red lights being swallowed up by the night.
Although the [red butterfly incarnation] state has been mastered by Shade very skillfully, in fact, although the flying speed of the red butterflies at the current stage can exceed the speed of human running and carriage, it is not the same as the speed of the real "walking in the form of light"
It's still quite a bit worse than that.
But fortunately, the target that Shade wanted to chase this time did not fly very fast. Although [Madeline's Love] failed to achieve the one-hit kill that Shade imagined, the notebook had obviously reached the end of its power.
They chased and fled, leaving two traces of light above the dark fields. But soon the notebook flying in front could no longer hold on, and it fell beside the river channel in the country not far from the barn and the orphanage.
.
When the notebook, whose surface had been completely crystallized, hit the ground heavily, a group of red butterflies transformed by Shade also appeared beside it.
Before his feet even landed on the ground, he immediately threw the [Sin Chain] towards the notebook that was constantly shaking as if it was going to explode. Unexpectedly, the notebook could barely dodge, and the chain was like a long snake,
When trying to attack it again, it tried to fly into the night sky.
A ray of blood-red light suddenly flew from a distance. Mr. Albert reached out and struck down the already shaky notebook again.
This time it had no chance, and the [Great Sin Chain] immediately wrapped around it, but Shade unexpectedly discovered that the sins of this thing were actually very few:
“So how exactly is sin judged?”
Then Shade held the sword with both hands and used the silver cross sword in his hand to firmly nail the crystallized notebook to the river beach. The original indestructibility of most relics has now disappeared in [Richard's Notes]
It's almost gone, which means it's really coming to an end.
Amidst the sound of running water, the notebook trembled twice for the last time, and then became completely motionless.
The bat swarm landed behind Shade, and the coroner in a burqa also appeared to be human. The two stood together and watched an unstable white light rising from the notebook, followed by a tall man in a robe.
The man appears in the white light.
His body is very unstable, and the scholar's dress does not look like the dress of the current era of the Sixth Age.
"Richard?"
Shade asked alertly. The phantom-like man nodded, and then looked down at the notebook that was gradually crystallizing completely. There was no expression on his face at all:
"I lost. After such a long time, the ending came so suddenly. Finally, I want to talk to you alone about her."
"Why should I talk to you alone?"
Shade asked pretending to be surprised, and Richard spit out one word:
"Mermaid."
Shade then took a deep breath, and then looked at Mr. Albert beside him, who nodded knowingly:
"I'll wait for you nearby."
Then he turned around very neatly and walked towards the rice fields by the river.
Shade is not opposed to talking to the other party. After all, he is really curious about what happened in the past:
"Does the 'her' you want to talk to me about refer to Madeleine, or does it refer to the mermaid?"
"Richard" is about the same height as Shade, and has a medium build. He has only very short stubble on his head, so Shade can't even judge his specific hair color at night. His nose is small, but deeply concave
The eyes that go into the eye sockets are very lively.
What he appears at this moment is not an entity. The "Richard" whose whole body is covered with the fading whispering elements is actually just a phantom, a phantom projected by a consciousness that is about to disappear.
"All refer to."
The man answered Shade's question. Shade hesitated and let go of the sword in his hand. Five pebbles flew around the notebook with his outstretched fingers, and then silver moonlight thorns emerged from the ground and entangled the five pebbles.
A pebble completely covered the notebook.
Shade then took a few steps back, holding his knees and sitting on the big rock by the river, watching the man dressed as a scholar talking to him under the moonlit night.
The flowing river is a perfect match for this quiet night. Shade, who has been ambushing and busy all night, can finally take a little rest:
"Do you want to tell me your own story? Before this, I only knew you as a 'fool who has worn a mask for so long that he can't take it off, a fool who thinks he is righteous but always brings disaster'."
Richard's back was facing the river, and his slightly luminous body was not very conspicuous under the long night:
"Did the mermaid say that?"
He paused for a moment before continuing to speak.
"My story happened in the past far away from now, in the chaotic era of the Fourth Era. Madeleine and I are both believers in the Church of Eros. We only got to know each other after joining the church and fell in love with each other.
After receiving the blessings of our Lord and other believers, we were supposed to get married."
Shade didn't interrupt and listened quietly to the story of his loss long ago.
"The situation in that long-ago era was completely different from what it is today. Maybe you thought the city was chaotic enough last Sunday night, but that night last week was worse than most nights I've spent while I'm still alive.
Quiet."
Shade didn't show any expression. The Fourth Age was called the age of darkness and chaos, and it was certainly no joke.