Three skeletons sat around two black stones placed on the snow, and on the stones were engraved the language of the devil - death.
The three skeletons were undead creatures who were not afraid of the cold and snowy weather. They must have been sitting here for a long time, and a layer of snow covered their shoulders and bald skulls.
Normally, when encountering such a thing, Xia De would choose to go around it, but today he came here to look for clues, so he walked over, but the skeletons ignored him and stared at the two black stones covered in the snow.
Undead, but corrupted by demons, with their souls imprisoned within their bones.
"She" reminded softly, and Shade stopped with his suitcase in hand:
"Gentlemen, what are you doing?"
After asking the question, I got the answer. Among the three skeletons, the one wearing dark red clothes had its jaw moving up and down;
"We are allocating death quotas."
"What's the meaning?"
The skeleton in black said:
"We are hunters from a nearby village. We came here to hunt a pheasant when we entered this forest a year ago. The three of us shot at the pheasant, which had hidden in the bushes. When we looked for it, we found it lying at the feet of a man. We threatened him to hand over our prey, and that's how we ended up."
When he spoke, there was actually a flavor of an operatic monologue.
"Aren't you already dead?"
Shade asked again, and the last skeleton in dark blue clothes said:
"The man let us die, but he couldn't leave us completely. He said that since we like to suspect that someone took our things, let us decide for ourselves who it belongs to. He turned the pheasant into two stones, which allowed two of us to die completely and the remaining one to continue to be tortured."
When the three skeletons spoke, they never looked at Xia De, but stared at the two stones, as if they were afraid that their companions would take them away first:
"So, we're trying to ration out the deaths."
"Um... ... "
This curse, which is quite evil, does seem to be the work of Goethe, the stone mirror demon:
"So, you guys have been at loggerheads with each other for a year?"
"Yes."
The skeleton in black clothes was the first to speak:
"We balance each other and restrain each other. No one dares to reach out to the stone first, otherwise they will be attacked by the other two. Now we are competing to see who has more patience, but the good news is that we all have infinite life to wait."
This sentence makes the sense of black humor even stronger:
"Have you ever thought that your stalemate and waiting are themselves part of the eternal torture?"
The crimson-clothed skeleton said:
"Of course we know, but what can we do about it? Who can selflessly sacrifice themselves and let the other two leave?"
The three skeletons nodded in unison, and none of them took their eyes off the two stones in the snow.
"Do you want me to help you?"
Xia De suggested in the snow, but the three skeletons probably misunderstood his meaning. The black-clad skeleton spoke first:
"I have some heirloom treasures in my family. Help me capture one of them, and they will all be yours."
The Red Skeleton said:
"Don't trust his treasure, it's just a crude clay pot. I have a beautiful daughter, help me entangle one of them, she will be yours."
The blue skeleton finally said:
"Oh, sir, his daughter is stronger than a wild boar and wilder than a brown bear. I have the gift of a sharpshooter. Help me to entangle one of them, and I will give you a part of my soul."
"That's a lie. If he had outstanding talent, he wouldn't come here to hunt with us. Don't believe his lies, sir. What I'm offering is the most valuable gift."
The black-clad skeleton said again, and then the three skeletons asked together:
"So sir, who are you going to help?"
"Wealth, beauty and power, one of the three?"
Shade asked, still holding the suitcase in his left hand, and silver thunder exploding in his right hand:
"How about this, three? I don't want any of them!"
Instantly, a flash of lightning flashed across the sky, and the lightning spear hit the center of the three skeletons at close range. As the stones, snowflakes and soil exploded, all three skeletons were ejected. At the same time, a large hole was blown out on the ground, and the silver arc of electricity continued to jump on the snow.
In the large pit on the ground, there were dozens of skeletons like them:
"It is common sense for ring sorcerers not to make deals with demons. It is also common sense not to make deals with things corrupted by demons."
The skeletons picked up their broken limbs and pieced them together, struggling to stand up from the snow. Some black shadows quickly slid under the snow, split into three groups and rushed into the bodies of three skeletons. Then, strange black stones clung to those skeletons, and six black flames appeared in their eye sockets.
A stone sickle appeared in the right hand of the black-clad skeleton, the red-clad skeleton raised his right hand, and mud bullets appeared in his palm. The blue-clad skeleton grew larger, giving off a full sense of oppression.
While they were feeling the power, Shade opened his suitcase and took out a small bottle. He uncorked the bottle and hooked it with his hand. The spell to control the water flow made the holy water in the bottle fly in front of Shade like a flying snake. As he opened his mouth and blew forward slightly, the holy water in front of him slowly froze in the snow, forming a complete ice spear:
"I haven't even started yet, and you dare to resist?"
The black skeleton was the fastest, and it seemed to be sliding on the snow, holding a sickle and smashing at Shade. But Shade just turned sideways and easily dodged it, and then, as if dancing with a sword, he used the ice spear to cut off its skull. He broke off one-third of the ice spear and stabbed it into its left eye socket, then continued to move forward.
His movements in the snow were smooth and fluid, and the encounter lasted no more than two seconds.
Then came the huge blue skeleton, which came close to Shade like a wild bear. But Shade didn't think of dodging, he bent down slightly to lower his center of gravity, and with a slightly serious expression on his face, he activated the spell "Power of the Red Dragon" and collided directly with the blue skeleton:
“Oh!”
After a powerful confrontation, Shade kicked the skeleton over:
"You dare to resist?"
Shade raised the ice spear high and stabbed it into its left eye socket, then broke it inside the blue skeleton's skull and kicked the immobile skeleton aside.
He turned his head slightly to avoid the black mud bomb flying from the front, weighed the last piece of ice spear in his hand, moved his right foot back, raised his left foot, leaned his body backward, raised his right hand high, stepped forward, twisted his waist and threw forward.
As the ice streaked across the snowy forest, the holy water ice spear pierced into the right eye socket of the red-clothed skeleton with a sound of breaking through the air, and then flew backwards with it. With a thud, it was nailed to the pine tree, shaking off the branches and snow, and with a crash, it buried the skeleton directly in the snow.
The wind blew snow through the gloomy woods. Standing in the open space beside the path, Xia De hummed, clapped his hands, turned around and picked up his suitcase again. Just as he was thinking about continuing to walk towards the manor not far away, the sound of applause came from behind him.
Shade frowned and turned to look, only to see Stone Oxenfurt, wearing a brown robe and black boots, walking out of the woods clapping his hands:
"It's really good. It's really good."
But this was definitely not Stone Oxenfurt. Although the two looked exactly the same, the careless smile on his face and the slick tone were not what Stone Oxenfurt, who looked more like a robber, could show. His eyes, which looked pure black even in the daytime, and his slightly dull skin directly pointed out what was in front of him.
The devil's body.
And so, at this somewhat unexpected time and place, Shad encountered the demon of the Randall Valley for the first time.
"No, unless I burn my divinity, I have no chance of defeating it now."
Xia De was very clear about this. The doctor had said that the opponent was the kind of enemy in knight novels that would only appear at the last level before defeating the devil.
"Oxenfurt? No, you're not him."
Shade said, still holding his box in his left hand, and reaching into his pocket with his right hand, he took out a silver cross pendant with a silver chain. One end of the cross was extremely sharp, and a silver snake was coiled around the cross itself, with a ruby on its head that seemed to glow in the snow.
The keeper-level relic, the Profane Cross, pierces the chest of an extraordinary humanoid creature, sucking and imprisoning the other's soul. It can even absorb the soul into its own body, forming a special blasphemous spirit rune.
Xia De raised the relic in his hand towards the demon, and the latter really stopped slowly, but the smile on his face did not change at all:
"Silver cross? It seems that you have already found out my identity."
"Since I dared to accept Stone Oxenfurt's commission, I naturally would not do anything without investigating. I am not interested in you, and I am even less interested in the relationship between you and Stone Oxenfurt. I just want to complete the commission and get Oxenfurt's reward."
The demon folded his arms across his chest and looked up at Shade in the snow. This posture was very similar to the real Oxenfurt:
"You are a foreign ring sorcerer, but you are not as loyal as you say. Since you promised to help Stone Oxenfurt obtain the three items, why did you hide it from him and accept Hela Oxenfurt's commission?"
The devil really knew what happened in the manor. Fortunately, Dr. Schneider had already told Shade what might happen, so Shade was not particularly surprised:
"When a beautiful woman asks me for help, even takes my hand to touch her chest, and I feel that I can do it, then I have no reason not to agree to her request."