"Flames... people who died of cold... match girl? Huh?"
Xia De thought in surprise, and suddenly he realized something.
At this time, the two of them had returned to the seemingly normal corridor. Miss Louisa glanced at the golden cracks on Shade's body that had not yet faded, and Shade learned from the woman in his heart that there was still a strong whispering element nearby.
Just as Miss Louisa was about to raise her hand for the third time, she suddenly looked up:
"careful!"
Black mist rushed towards Shad from the ceiling of the corridor above his head. Miss Louisa raised her hand to block it. Although Shad's reaction was not as quick as the sorceress, he also raised his hand in time to block it upwards.
But before the trace of moonlight took shape in his hand, the golden glow all over his body suddenly flickered.
The black mist screamed, then disappeared into the floor. In the real world, the divine afterglow state can only make Shade's magic and spells stronger, but in the spiritual world, no evil can get close to him.
The blonde holding hands glanced at Shade with a smile and said teasingly:
“A very nice decoration.”
"Um... ... "
"No need to explain. Since it has taken the risk to attack us, it means that we will be able to escape from the dream soon. This is a good sign. Detective, concentrate. We will be back to reality soon."
The two runes that lit up this time were The Writer and The Dream.
Ripple-like runes floated out from Miss Louisa's fingertips and merged into the space of the dream. As everything in front of them shattered like a glass plate, when the two people holding hands came to their senses, they returned to the normal corridor on the third floor again, and the golden cracks on Shade's body had completely disappeared.
They all breathed a sigh of relief as they were reminded that the dense whispers around them had all disappeared. Only when they left the dream and returned to reality could they deeply feel the difference between dreams and reality.
Xia De let go of Miss Louisa's soft hand without leaving a trace:
"What should we do next?"
"Detective, follow me. I want to show you how to deal with a relic that is out of control. Really, I told you that this trip would be fine, but it still went wrong. That pen is really..."
Miss Louisa lifted her hair and summoned the life ring behind her in reality. Then she looked around, came to the door next to the stairs, lifted the hem of her skirt and kicked the door open.
A cold and fishy wind immediately rushed out of the room, and when Xia De caught up, Miss Louisa had already rushed into the room.
This place is similar to a warehouse or collection room. Other antiques collected by Professor Manning are placed on shelves against the wall, and the precious collections are covered with glass covers.
Now the professor himself was lying on the floor, curled up, with dark smoke coming out of his head, connecting to the black cat standing on the professor. On the professor's wrist was a kind of uncapped fountain pen, which was black but decorated with red lines.
Interpreting the lines as words, Shade understood their meaning:
Blood weaves dreams, you own me.
The tip of the pen directly inserted into the professor's blood vessel, absorbing blood and causing the blood vessels in Manning's right hand to bulge severely.
Looking at the pen, the voice in her ear lazily reminded her of the appearance of the "whisper" element. Miss Louisa frowned and pointed at the black cat:
"This is the nightmare born from Professor Manning's dream!"
"But why a cat and not a person?"
Xia De did not forget to ask questions at this time, but he did not expect that the black cat would give the answer. The sound of the black cat was like scratching glass with its nails:
"Because the image he invested his blood and love in is a cat."
"Um?"
Imagining what might have happened in the dream in which the relic Joyful Dream Pen was born, Shad looked at the unconscious Professor Manning with awe and fear.
"Ringmaster, we have no hatred. Why are you taking me away from him? I love him and he loves me too."
The slender black cat didn't move its mouth, but the sound was clearly heard by the two men.
"Do you think we are ignorant guys? Once the people who hold you can't stand the temptation, how many people will not be drained by you?"
As she spoke, the miracle spirit rune flame lit up in the life ring behind Miss Louisa. The golden flame flew out from her hand, and then the flame seemed to burn the space, making the sound of glass breaking in the room.
The collection room in the sun disappeared. It was an illusion. What appeared in front of Shade was a dark bedroom with heavy curtains and a strong odor. The floor was covered with black cat hair. Professor Manning was still lying on the floor with a pen on his wrist, but the nightmare cat was gone.
“Here!”
The writer held the golden flame in his hand and flew towards the ceiling. He looked up and saw the black cat attached to the ceiling as if it had been beaten into mud and then pulled into a flat surface. The ceiling originally had a starry sky pattern, but now it was completely covered by translucent black cat skin. Huge cat eyes emerged from under the cat skin, as if the starry sky had opened countless strange eyes and looked down at the two of them.
Xia De felt instinctively uncomfortable. The distorted shape and the power of mental pollution were so strong that if an ordinary person took one look at it, they wouldn't even need to be sent to Dr. Schneider. He felt uncomfortable in his stomach and had dizziness in his head, but fortunately the divine light was protecting his spirit.
What was even worse was that, although the golden flames successfully touched the abnormal monster on the ceiling, they did not cause any damage to it. In the mud-like cat, clusters of small flesh buds gradually grew out, and then, with a numbing cry, those small flesh buds grew into long tongues with flesh thorns, licking downwards.
Xia De didn't want to look up again, but when he heard the voice above his head, he still endured the nausea and turned the silver moonlight in his hand into an arc-shaped light blade and hit it upwards. In such an attack, it still only blocked the tongues but failed to hurt them.
"It's semi-solid, and part of it is still in a dream. Look at me! What you just saw were all simple magic. Now I'm going to use my most skilled magic of my own creation!"
Miss Louisa said as the Core Spirit Rune Writer and the Inspiration Spirit Rune Match lit up at the same time.
She pulled a rolled-up piece of parchment from her pocket and threw it into the air. As the spiritual light flickered, the paper burned in the air.
Miss Louisa chanted the spell softly. This spell was the common language of Delarion:
"Crossing reality and illusion, in the dim light of a match, let me witness your story."
The burning firelight was like the flame of a lit candle, and in this light, a short barefoot figure gradually became clear. Her legs were blue and purple from the cold, and there were five or six patches on her single clothes. Her long golden hair was tied up as if it had not been washed for many years, and there were several boxes of matches in the basket in her hand.
The only thing that was not clear was the face, but I could vaguely make out facial features similar to those of Miss Louisa.
Xia De narrowed his eyes slightly. He was now completely sure that the ancient fairy tale "The Match Girl" was the story he was familiar with.