"No, I'm not those guys, but it's almost the same." The mysterious man ignored the shadows around him. He walked to a nearby dining table, put the suitcase in his hands at his feet and sat down. "Okay, I'll tell you.
It’s okay, I belong to another department, investigator, and I’m still in the internship period.”
Lu Li noticed that he still had the suitcase with him.
"I can tell."
Lu Li holstered the flintlock gun but did not release the handle.
He didn't think that the night watchmen or official investigators who had been in contact with weird things all year round would maintain the optimism of the mysterious man.
"So can you tell me what happened?"
"Okay. I'm surprised by your calmness. Are you an exorcist?"
"Yes."
"Then it's okay to tell you." The mysterious man put the palm holding the match on the table. "We were targeted by two evil spirits... Do you know about evil spirits?"
"Understand something. Is this related to the trouble we are encountering at the moment?"
"Yes, we are in their ceremony."
"ceremony……"
This term reminded Lu Li of what Hades once said about the "sense of ritual" unique to evil spirits.
"Are you sure now is the time to speak? And..." Lu Li retracted his gaze from observing the surroundings and fell on the burning match in the mysterious man's hand, but did not say the last sentence.
How long can a match keep burning?
"This match is of the same origin. It can burn for a while. We are safe before it goes out." In order to prove this, the mysterious man deliberately shook his palm wildly. The weak flame flickered on and off, but it did not burn like a normal match.
extinguished.
"But don't think about igniting other things. It's useless. If we want to get out of trouble, we can only ask others for help. So sit here and let us find a way out of the ritual."
Lu Li remained silent and walked to another empty wooden chair next to the dining table and sat down.
He noticed that at the edge of the faint light, an illusory long skirt followed him, very close.
Anna, who had been hiding in the other world, showed her outline in the light of the matches.
So the match is a homologue similar to the candle?
"You want to know what happened, right?" The mysterious man ignored Anna, perhaps because he knew about her existence. He simply let go of his fingers and let the match fall freely and land on the wooden table.
This match, which smelled of sulfur and burning wood and looked like any other match, was still burning, just like the wooden table.
A faint light of uncertain brightness spread across the entire dining table. Two figures sat opposite each other, and there was something eager to try in the darkness outside.
"I began to think that what attacked us was from the bottom of the abyss. Its ritual is to pull a person into the abyss projection, just like our current situation. It is pitch black and cannot see anything, except for some special props that allow us to see light. By the way
By the way, we are actually still in the real world, and the real world is normal. At this time, the streets outside should be brightly lit, and the tavern hall should be lit with the light of oil lamps——"
"In other words, the current situation is that we are sitting in a bright hall, and there are people passing by on the street outside, but we are excluded because of the attack from the bottom of the abyss. If someone is in the tavern, he can see our faces
All actions include conversation, but we cannot see them."
"Completely correct."
The mysterious man nodded approvingly and continued: "But you just said that before attacking us at the bottom of the abyss, you saw a strange claw like a dry black shadow stretching towards the oil lamp, and then the oil lamp went out. This is the shadow of the stolen fire.
Ritual. It will appear from the darkness and extinguish nearby fire sources. Well... Speaking of which, these two evil spirits have appeared more and more frequently recently. Before the disaster of night came, they would only make people a little distressed, but now
…”
But now there are some troublesome things in the darkness.
Lu Li asked: "How to deal with it?"
"The bottom of the abyss is very simple. You just need to contact people or creatures who have not been drawn into the ritual. As for the Shadow of the Stealing Fire..."
A strange scene appeared. A dark and slender, withered ghost claw, like a baby's arm, appeared on the edge of the light. It climbed up the table along the table legs and spread towards the burning match lying in the middle of the dining table——
Snapped!
The mysterious man suddenly stretched out his hand and slapped the ghost claw of the shadow of the Thief of Fire. As if frightened, the shadow of the Thief of Fire suddenly retreated a large distance and retracted into the invisible darkness.
"like this."
"..." Lu Li fell into silence.
This was somewhat different from what he imagined as the evil spirits that would be promoted to evil spirits.
"Is this your first time coming into contact with evil spirits?" the mysterious man guessed Lu Li's thoughts and asked.
"perhaps."
Maybe the girl holding an umbrella I met once was also an evil spirit.
"No wonder."
As if he had answered his doubts, the mysterious man suddenly showed enlightenment and waved his hand, causing the flames to sway: "Evil spirits are not as scary as you think... but they are still scary. You think it is simple because you know their rituals.
In other words, the terror of evil spirits lies in the unknown. You have no way of knowing what the evil spirit is that attacks you, what its rituals are, or even whether it is an evil spirit that attacks you. If you are the only one being pulled into the ritual now, what will happen?
Without me telling you this, how long do you think you can last in here?"
"Either you run out of bullets and fall into darkness, or you rush onto the street and get saved." Lu Li answered.
The possibility of the latter is very low, because Lu Li's fourth bullet was aimed at the Ying Chuo people, and the consequences of pulling the trigger are unlikely to be good.
The mysterious man spread his hands: "This is the information that generations of people have exchanged for their lives."
Lu Li lowered his head slightly, and his tone was as calm as ever: "Thank you for letting me know."
The mysterious man might just be mentioned in passing, but it would save Lu Li, who knew nothing about these things, from making many detours.
"this is nothing."
The mysterious man waved his hand and heard Lu Li on the opposite side continue: "But don't we think of a way to leave the evil spirit's ritual now?"
"It's not the time yet... It's rare to come into contact with evil spirits in a relatively safe area. I want to observe for more time." The mysterious man replied. "Are you scared?"
It sounds like there is a big difference between a night watchman and an investigator. The former avoids knowing too much, because the more you know, the faster you will die. The latter wants to know as much as possible - the more you know, the more likely you are to survive.
Lu Li couldn't tell which one was correct. Maybe they were all correct. Ignorance and erudition were the key factors for their survival respectively.
Lu Li looked around: "It's not that I'm afraid, it's just that I'm worried that if I delay it any longer, it will be too late."
"What...? Why do you say that?" The mysterious man had a bad feeling.
"Because they seem to be getting closer to us."
In the darkness, the surrounding shadows seemed to be closer than before.
The mysterious man's face turned ugly and he shouted: "You go first! Leave me alone!"
"good."
Lu Li nodded and fled towards the exit of the tavern without hesitation.
