Whispering Verse

Shade knew he had found the place.

The chain hanging outside the broom closet looked like someone had opened it, but the door was closed. Shade tried to pull, and the thin wooden door was immediately opened through a gap.

Subconsciously, he reached for the revolver at his waist, but after hesitating, he touched the Rhodes card in his pocket. This is a school after all, and Shade doesn't want to make too much noise by shooting. And the bullets don't turn, but his Rhodes cards can even draw traces of five-pointed stars in the air.

Looking around, Shade ducked into the broom room while no one was paying attention. Probably because mops are often put in without drying, there is a sense of moisture in the large space inside. The overall area is about the same as the cloakroom of Shade's house. . .

In order to prevent Henry Val's secret room behind the wall, Shade held his breath and slowed down as much as possible.

Without touching the gas light switch on the wall, Shade squinted his eyes to see in the darkness, and then watched the bloody halo disappear in front of the deepest wall of the broom room.

There are shelves in front of the left and right walls, and long brooms and mops in front of the wall where the red halo disappears. The wall where the halo disappeared was the only wall where nothing was placed.

"Is there a secret passage? But where is the mechanism?"

But if there really was a mechanism, it would definitely make a loud sound, so Shade used a simple method:

"Feliana's Witch's Light!"

The right palm lit up with golden light, and then like inserting a hot poker into an ice cube, Shade inserted his right hand into the stone wall in front of him. As soon as the front end of his arm entered the wall, he vaguely heard voices coming from behind.

"very good."

He withdrew his arm, then lay on the wall, pointed his ear at the hole that could almost penetrate the stone wall, and listened to the sound below:

"In praise of death."

It was the sound of prayer, but because the sound was somewhat distorted through a stone wall, it was impossible to tell who it was. But Shade could at least tell that the sound came from far behind, rather than just separated by a wall.

So, he put up a finger and stretched it towards the hole, melting through the last wall with his finger. He lay down at the entrance of the cave and looked behind him. After confirming that there was a narrow passage behind him, he completely melted a gap big enough for him to pass sideways, and then used [Breath of Time] to restore the wall to its original shape.

"Are there any traces of elements?"

【No. 】

The passage behind the wall is flanked on both sides by gray stone brick walls. Five or six steps forward is an iron door. The red halo leads there and the sound of prayer comes from there. At the same time, Shade also smelled a smell, which was the smell of decayed corpse materials:

"I hope the scene I will see soon will not affect my appetite for dinner."

I thought about little Mia for a while, letting the image of the cat lying on the windowsill with its front paws in the sun and taking a nap, to dilute the disgusting image in my mind. Shade controlled the footsteps, paying attention to the continuity of the prayer sounds, and then approached the iron door.

Press your hand on the door. If the [Door Key] is invalid, it means the door is not locked. After confirming that there are still no traces of elements, close your eyes and imagine the source of the sound of prayer in the space behind the door. He held the cards in his left hand and took out a revolver that he didn't intend to use in his right hand. He opened his eyes, took two steps back and slammed open the door:

"No one is allowed to move!"

He knocked open the door and pointed his gun at the young man kneeling on the ground, seemingly praying to the bronze jar in front of him.

He was wearing a black robe. The bronze jar was suspended in the air by several iron ropes. Below it was a small coal-burning stove used for heating in the countryside. The stench came from the bronze jar. It seems that there is a vent here, otherwise he would have been poisoned by gas.

The candles standing on the ground were the source of light in the secret room. Henry Val stopped praying, stood up silently and then turned to look at the detective holding a gun behind him. The space here is larger than the broom room outside, but except for Captain Rades lying against the wall, as well as the bookshelves and desks beside the wall, there is not much here.

"You found me?"

he asked, staring at the muzzle of the gun.

Shade glanced at the bronze jar:

"What are you cooking?"

The young man smiled:

"what you think?"

"Were you responsible for the serial murders in the city?"

"Yes."

He actually admitted it.

"Why? Don't tell me that you have a fiancée in the country who is seriously ill or has died, and you want to use this method to extend her life."

Shade looked into the other person's eyes, Henry Val was indeed an ordinary person, and the ritual-like scene in front of him had no power at all. But the disregard for life and the lack of panic that this man showed now made Shade understand that this guy was probably a madman.

Speaking of which, the evil things he has seen done by ring magicians in this world seem to be less than those done by ordinary people. This is probably because outsiders still see too little of the world.

"No, no, I won't take such a risk for other people's lives."

Henry Val glanced back and looked at the cooking pot:

"I'm dying of a brain disease, but I can't die."

"Why?"

"Isn't this an obvious thing? How could someone like me, who was destined to do great things, die so young?"

Xia De thought that the other party was a lunatic, but he did not expect that the other party would be so shameless.

"So you think your life is more important than other people's lives? Using other people's lives to extend your life is a valuable thing?"

Shade asked, and the young man in black robe looked at him in surprise:

"Oh, you actually understand this?

Yes, a month ago I was introduced to a very magical boy who can accurately predict a person's way and time of death. The boy told me that I would die from a brain disease in the first snow of the winter. Therefore, I spent a lot of money to buy ancient documents, and after translating them, I got the formula for a medicine that can extend life. I have always believed that I can control my own destiny. "

"Well, you don't actually need to go into such detail."

"No, no, I have been holding back these words for a long time. I could only tell them in my diary in the past, but then I told them to the corpse who gave me their life, and now I can finally tell them to a living person."

Shade confirmed that the other party was a madman:

"You have the captain's gun, right? I guess it's in the sleeve of your robe. Now stretch out your hands and raise them above your head. I'll count."

Henry Val raised his gun and pointed it at Shad, and Shad, who was well prepared, flew out the cards in his left hand the moment the opponent made a move to raise his gun.

He didn't keep his hand, and the card in his hand directly cut off the finger that wanted to pull the trigger. Because the speed was so fast, Henry Val did not realize that his finger was missing until he pulled the trigger several times but failed to fire the bullet.

"Ah~"

As soon as the screams came out, Shade strode over and punched him in the face:

"Mind blast!"

The power of Mind Blast depends on the opponent's mental strength, and the closer the hand is to the opponent's head, the more powerful it is.

With one blow, Henry Val's head did not explode like a watermelon. He seemed to be hit by a cannonball with huge energy. He instantly flew backwards, and the back of his head hit the bronze tank hard, making a "boom" sound. "After the sound, his body slipped softly to the ground and passed out completely.

Shade shook his hand in disgust and found that under the candlelight, the other person's eyes, nose, ears and mouth were bleeding. Although he was still breathing, he probably would never wake up again.

"It turns out that [Psychic Blast] has such a strong effect when used on ordinary people."

[This time, I was really merciless. 】

"She" chuckled in her ear.

"Anyway, he said he has a diary, so I don't need to ask for more details. And what should I keep this kind of person for?"

Shade asked, pulling Captain Rades' pistol out of the other man's hand and thrusting the fingerless hand into the hearth of the stove under the bronze jar. After burning for a while, he took out the hand.

On the one hand, this is to confirm whether the other party is really unconscious, and on the other hand, it is to cover up the injury of the finger being instantly cut off by a sharp weapon. He was still thinking about using the prisoner's body in exchange for the reward.

Finally, I looked at the evil spirit "lying" behind the young man. She became more transparent, and the pale green spirit became dimmed little by little:

"You can leave now."

He stared at the soul and said, drawing a vertical line in the air with his right hand, and then the black mark left by his fingertip expanded into a dark crack. Behind the entrance of the cave, the extreme cold and the light of the dark moon penetrated, and behind it was the place of death.

Most of the souls in Fort Midhill would be sucked away by the [Chamber of Life and Death], so Shade opened the door to true death so that the poor man could leave directly.

It seemed that it was affected by the black wind blowing from the land of death. The pale green light gradually faded from the weak evil spirit.

It gradually returned to the appearance of a normal human woman, with a slightly green face lowered, and looked blankly at its own hands, at Henry Val on the ground, and then at the young detective in front of it:

"Thank you."

Bowing slightly to Shade, she turned into a white light and entered death.

The entrance to the cave disappeared, and Shade breathed a sigh of relief:

"I did another good deed. I can reward myself by taking Mia to eat some good food tonight."

He was thinking in his mind, and was about to check on the tied up captain, but suddenly stopped:

"Wait a minute, Henry Val was hit hard by my [Psychic Blast], and the back of his head hit a heavy object just now. He must not be able to wake up. Judging from this injury, he is likely to suffer from a big injury. Brain dead, totally dead this winter.”

【so what? 】

"She" is chuckling.

"Although there was something wrong with the formula of the medicine that Henry Val bought, the so-called 'boy who predicted death' was right. He would indeed die in the winter due to a brain disease. But it was not because he had a brain disease, but because he thought I have a brain disease, so I kill people randomly, so I..."

Shade narrowed his eyes slightly and accurately predicted the time and method of his end, but even the thaumaturgy provided by Priest Augustus couldn't do it.

"Fort Midhill actually has a prophet who can predict death? It seems that I need to pay attention to this matter."

[I have a very interesting idea. 】

"What?"

"She" chuckled, as if she was opening her lips in Shade's ear at this moment:

[The other party predicted that Henry Val would die in the first snow this winter]

"Is such that."

Shade looked at the young man slumped next to the stove.

[Then, do you want to give it a try - kill him now. 】

PS: This chapter was not updated on time, but was blocked by the website. The author made slight modifications before it was released.