"Who?"
The servants and maids subconsciously protected Margaret, and Shade also stood in front of Margaret. But seeing that the old man really fell down, they squatted down and tried to help him up. The old man was not unconscious, and he also wanted to struggle to stand up, but even if he held Shade's hand, he still couldn't get up:
"Oh, young man, I can't seem to feel my right leg."
He said while groaning.
"Your right leg is still there, but you have no feeling in it? Let me knock on it, can you feel it?"
Xia De then patted the old man's right knee with his hand, and just as the old man expressed that he had no feeling again, "she" gave the answer.
The right leg showed signs of petrification.
"What?"
He was startled, but there was no sign of Crazy Earth around the Stonemasons Guild. So after getting the old man's consent, Shade rolled up his trouser legs. His right leg was not petrified, but still flesh, but the color was very different from that of his hands and face.
It is most likely the influence of the crazy earth, but the symptoms are very mild.
This was a serious matter, and the association's staff quickly rushed to the scene and sent the old gentleman to the hospital.
Shade originally thought that the old man had come into contact with the black mud somewhere, and he only needed to investigate the corresponding location and purify it, which could even allow him to obtain another Holy Grail. But the result was worse than he thought. When Margaret said goodbye to him and he was alone in a carriage on the way to the Wilde Opera House, he chatted with the coachman, and the coachman also told Shade something similar:
"This afternoon at around 2 o'clock, I was waiting for customers outside the Prophet's Association in the city center when I saw people carrying out a young man wearing the association's uniform on a stretcher. I heard that he suddenly became paralyzed and had no feeling in his entire lower body."
This gave Xia De a very bad feeling.
After rushing to the Wilde Opera House, Shade quickly found Miss Bernardine in the director's office on the third floor. When Miss Bernardine saw Shade coming, she immediately confirmed Shade's guess:
"Shade, bad news. Since noon today, ordinary people with petrified limbs have appeared in the city. It's not complete petrification, it seems to be some kind of physical disease, but the church has determined that this is related to the twisted madness of the earth."
Her expression was serious:
"This is something else that we don't know about. The current number of cases has exceeded 200. These people live in various locations in the Randall River Valley and have nothing in common."
"Has the water source been polluted again? Or is the earth completely out of control?"
Shade asked in shock.
“It’s unclear what the situation is at this point.”
Miss Lathers, who came in from the door, said:
"There's news from the black market intelligence dealers that the patients whose limbs have been petrified have been taken over by the church. They are not completely petrified, but their muscles or bones have shown abnormal hardening. The church has spread the word that this disease is called the 'petrification plague' and explained as a bone disease. It will probably be published in the newspaper tomorrow."
"Plague? Is it contagious?"
"Probably not."
“Will the symptoms continue to get worse?”
"meeting."
Miss Lathers said, turning and closing the door:
"The first case occurred at 12:35 noon, and then similar cases appeared in various areas of the city. Because of the large number of similar cases in a short period of time, it attracted the attention of the Five Gods Church in this diocese, and then it was investigated and found to be related to the earth."
The young girl had a worried look on her face:
"I am very worried. This is a sign that the earth is going crazy."
The witch frowned slightly:
"I will go to the parliament first and report the situation to the speaker. Since there are 100 cases today, there may be more tomorrow. We cannot assume that the church can control the situation in a short time. Really, although I thought such a serious problem would arise sooner or later, I didn't expect it to happen so soon."
After saying that, she stood up and walked to the corridor outside. Miss Lathers asked Xiang Xiade:
"Can you contact the guardians as soon as possible? At least we need to know the current situation."
Xia De shook his head slightly:
"I can't get in touch with them. They are unwilling to show up easily. Besides, I doubt that even if they were the ones to do it, they probably wouldn't be able to solve this matter."
Originally, Shade and Luvia had agreed to go to the city tonight to meet the elf girl and get back the "pure water of the elves" that Shade wanted. However, Luvia arrived at the opera house 20 minutes later than scheduled, and she started by talking about the large number of abnormal cases in the city:
"The association is organizing a large-scale divination ceremony tonight to locate the possible location of the Crazy Land. Shade, I can't go out of the city with you tonight."
The purple-eyed girl apologized, and Shade shook his head.
"It's okay, I can go by myself. But what's going on? Has the Crazy Land appeared in the water source again?"
"I hope so."
Luvia and Miss Lathers' concerns were surprisingly consistent:
"The association has communicated with the local church and it is not a contamination of some source, but more like ... a plague."
She uttered the word with great difficulty:
"The earth is sick. The essence of the mad earth is a local phenomenon caused by the madness of the earth. And now, this phenomenon has become more and more intense, so that even in areas where no strong symptoms have appeared, additional impacts have also occurred."
Shade and Miss Lathers looked at each other.
"No treatment?"
"Hold the Ceremony of the Chosen One."
Luvia looked at Shade:
"From the current situation, we can only suppress it, not reverse it. According to the news from the association's headquarters, the first Randall flower will normally bloom in two weeks, in the first half of March. Before that, no one knows what will happen."
"Witches, they should be coming to this city soon, right?"
Miss Lathers suddenly asked, Xia De nodded, and Yin Luna would probably be here soon.
When Shad rode out of the city, Miss Benanis had not returned from the parliament. Therefore, only Miss Lasser stayed in the opera house to wait for news, while Shad went to see the elf lady Emilia alone.
This time nothing unexpected happened. Xia De lit a bonfire in the snowy forest. After waiting for less than twenty minutes, he heard a "Ang~" sound.
He stood up immediately, and saw the pure white little beast emitting soft light, jumping out of the woods with the elf girl sitting sideways on it. The young unicorn was very excited to see Shade, but before running over, it carefully observed his surroundings, and no one knew what it was looking at.
"You're here again?"
Shade smiled and stroked the top of the little beast's head. The little beast's blue eyes were filled with excitement, and it lay down beside Shade docilely. The elf girl also greeted Shade and handed the bag to Shade:
"These should be enough for the materials you requested."
Inside are small glass bottles, each filled with "the elf's pure water".
"That's enough, maybe even too much."
Xia De immediately said, and the elf girl waved her hand to indicate that it was okay. However, she did not get up and leave immediately, but looked around vigilantly:
"Did something happen in the past two days? Why do I feel that this place is a little different from when I came here on Monday? It's hard to say what it feels like, but anyway, something is wrong."
"hold head high!"
The little beast also barked to show its agreement.
"Your inspiration is quite sharp. The curse of the earth is spreading."
Shade briefly described what happened in the city today, and the elf girl was greatly surprised:
“I didn’t expect that what was predicted would actually happen.”
"prophecy?"
Xia De was stunned, thinking that the other party also knew the whispering poems.
"According to the prophecy of the elves, after the world tree disappears, the power that stabilizes the foundation of the earth will also disappear. Therefore, the earth of the material world beneath our feet has gradually become unstable during the changes of the eras, until it has become completely crazy. And the people living on the land will gradually become one with the earth in this process, and the initial manifestation is the plague that is almost petrified."
In order to describe it more accurately, she used modern Elvish to tell these things:
"You and that lady should not stay in the Randall Valley. Leave here quickly. Even though the resistance of a ring warlock is much higher than that of an ordinary person, if you stay in this land for a long time, problems will arise sooner or later."
"The Randall River Valley is believed by mystics to be the center of the earth in the material world. This disaster will sooner or later spread to other places."
Shade's hand gently stroked the hair on the unicorn's back. The elf looked at Shade's profile in the firelight and felt that at this moment, Shade's eyes seemed to be glowing:
"you want... ... "
"Let's see what method the church will use to solve this matter. If I can do something, I will also lend a hand. This is a major event that may not happen once in an era. Even if I take these risks, it is worth staying... However, I can't let Miss Danister see me. After all, I am leaving the base without reporting."
“Is this the life of a correspondence student?”
The elf girl thought hesitantly, looked at the burning bonfire in front of her, and stretched out her hands to feel the heat:
"Speaking of which, I was accepted by Miss Danister as a temporary assistant to the librarian."
She suddenly said, and then whispered her thanks amid the crackling of the bonfire:
"Miss Danister said it was her student who gave the suggestion. Was it you?"
"It's just a small matter. Miss Danister happened to ask me, and I happened to see your application."
Xia De said indifferently. In the light of the campfire, the elf girl thanked him again with a slightly blushing face:
"Since we met, you've always been the one helping me. I feel a little embarrassed."
"Aren't these for you to help me?"
Xia De pointed to the small bottles around him:
"Also, you'd better not show up in the Randall Valley so often recently. Many terrible things will happen here before spring comes. I hope this will be the last time we meet before spring."