The Whispering Verses Chapter 202: Glowing pages
To be precise, the time when the knock on the door rang was 2:27 in the morning on Saturday. The sleeping Shade was not awakened by the sound downstairs, but by the cat sleeping next to the pillow.
This timid cat is particularly alert when sleeping. After being awakened by the knocking on the door downstairs, it lowers its head and scratches the pillow with its paws to make noise. After Shade woke up, Mia immediately got into the thin blanket he was covering, with only her little head exposed and looking out alertly.
"It's okay, don't be afraid...Oh, who is coming to see 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 his feet, but when Shade came to the foyer, the orange cat 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 yawned. Open the anti-theft chain:
"Good evening, Miss Anat."
Even a ring wizard has to sleep, and Shade wants to get back into bed now.
"Good evening, Shad."
Miss Anat was obviously in high spirits. She had 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."
Xia De is no longer sleepy now.
The gas lamp 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 took out the cubic metal box from the paper bag.
"Shad, 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, 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.
Xia De studied it carefully under the gas lamp. The six sides of the box were different pictures. In the corner of each picture, there were ancient characters as dense as tadpoles.
After he read it in detail, he separated the six aspects into a clear order before he started to explain:
"This is probably about the process of ancient people sealing this item. The first two pictures are about a **** holding a scale falling from a high altitude, so all the statues of this **** 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 languages were recorded incorrectly during the recording. According to my understanding, The general meaning is that the things in the box were originally weapons given to mortals by the gods, but with the departure of the gods, the power of the weapons went out of control and caused a lot of damage... What was inside was a long-handled weapon. 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 Holy Bell]. The body is a bell. The effect is that after ringing the bell, the Ring Warlock will use it next time The power of thaumaturgy and incantation will be greatly enhanced."
"What about negative traits?"
Xia De asked while looking at the words against the light. The cat lay beside him and pretended 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, easily angry people will become calm, greedy people will be indifferent to fame and wealth, and kind people will tend to evil. In general In other words, the more prominent traits in the character are reversed, and then reversed again after the three-phase cycle, which will make the extreme emotions more extreme. Ineffective, her 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 also turned into a disaster. People paid the price with their lives, so that the ancient... This word has no equivalent in modern times, probably a wise man It means. Let the ancient wise man build this box to contain the Holy Bell and warn future generations not to find out the truth about the ancient god's fall..."
The text behind this is so shallow that it is almost impossible to read against the light. He could only take a pencil and paper, press the paper on the surface, and quickly scan it with the pencil to get clearer marks:
"The truth about the fall of the ancient gods is not that they met the enemy, 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 gods left voluntarily...for the sake of this world."
He looked at Miss Anat:
"What does this 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. But a certain view of "The Whispering Cantos" believes that the thirteen The Witch Emperor left the "Mumbling Poem" and 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 about the size of a palm and a half. The surface of the long-handled rattle has wonderful spiral carvings, but they are only decorations rather than words, so they cannot be deciphered.
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 a more distant place in this quiet night. The echoing sound made the cat lying next to Shade look around.
The full sense of power made Sha De even feel that the spirit turned into substance and surged inside his body, so he actively activated the thaumaturgy [Mystery 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 dancing snowflakes in surprise, she saw the shadow of a little girl carrying a basket appearing next to Shade. But it took less than a second and disappeared before his eyes.
Snowflakes were falling from the ceiling, and Shade looked at the bell in surprise:
"It's so powerful. It not only enhances the effect of thaumaturgy, but can even use thaumaturgy beyond the level of the ring wizard."
But it's still not enough for Shade to fully use the Mystery Lock.
Miss Anat closed her palms, 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:
"Shadow, something is glowing in your study."
Shad turned his head and saw that it was the desk drawer. The faint white light flickers like the frequency of breathing, soft and quiet.
"Glow? What is it?"
He thought in surprise, carefully walked into the study, opened the drawer, and saw that the glowing page was actually the [Poet Cohen's Manuscript] page that could contact the academy.
There is an extra line of words on the page:
[Shadow, please dress more formally when you go to Bill Schneider's study session tomorrow afternoon. Your request to view the Tome of Ascension has been approved, and the librarian, Ms. Danister, wants to see you. ――Hessenger Garcia】
When Shade finished reading the last letter, all the words on the page disappeared and the page no longer glowed.
He was stunned for a moment, 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 any privacy questions.
On the contrary, Shade asked seriously after picking up Mia again:
"Miss Anat, did the college give you a task to monitor the rest of the team?"
"Surveillance? Others?"
Miss Anat looked at him and asked in confusion:
"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 each other had allowed him to gradually develop trust in Miss Anat, Miss Louisa, Priest August and Dr. Schneider, and he planned to reveal this matter at the appropriate time.
And now is a good opportunity to reveal it to Miss Anat.
He did not 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 was indeed related to the accident involving the unknowable (level 0) relic out of control, and he did want to investigate the truth of that accident. But even I don’t know what kind of power the priest has... I just know that the priest has a strong self-healing ability."
"How strong is it?"
Xia De asked curiously.
"A conservative estimate is that as long as you don't die, any injury can be fully recovered within ten minutes."
Xia De was frightened by this "conservatism". He didn't know anything now three weeks ago. He knew very well that this level of self-healing ability was beyond the normal range.