"Come to think of it, the Black Mist Camp is also full of chains of sin..."
Xia De thought about this again, and then decided to ask his current question:
"Is there any reason why you ask me this question?"
"The chains you hold are not a power that anyone can hold. Cherish this power. You may not understand what it means now, but one day you will realize what kind of gift the person who gave you this power gave you."
This answer is basically equivalent to no answer, but at least it shows that the Chains of Sin are a very unique power... ...Shad knew from the beginning that it was unique. After all, this was the only magic that could directly affect the life ring of a ringmaster that he had come into contact with so far.
You know, even if it is a relic that can directly affect the ring wizard's life ring and "another self", so far he has only seen the mirror in the underground ruins of Tobesk.
The deal was done, and in the blazing flames at the other end of the rift, to the right of Mr. Richard Jackman, who had originally used his spirit to seal the rift, a corpse lying on the ground appeared in the flames, and that corpse was clearly exactly the same as the soul.
The soul could not move because of the sealed crack, and the body naturally could not move either. But in the eyes of Shade and Miss Higgins, the two were gradually getting closer until they merged into one.
"Is space overlapping? Or is the earth moving?"
Naturally, no one answered this question. After regaining his body, the man who was suffering in the flames actually stood up. The god on the top of the bell tower waved his hand, and a golden light appeared, temporarily blocking the crack in the ground that was spewing flames.
Although the fire was still burning behind the crack, the young knight with scars all over his body still staggered under the flames and came step by step to the crack opened by the gods. He could see everyone on the top of the bell tower through the crack, and naturally he could also see the elderly Mrs. Miles.
Even though his soul was in severe pain, and even though this long-dead body had no power at all, he still relied on his last wish and a lifetime of guilt, took difficult steps, and finally arrived at the bell tower.
The promise made half a century ago, after years of waiting, after countless sunrises and sunsets, was finally realized in this dilapidated and strange clock tower. When she saw the figure that had appeared in her dreams countless times walking out of the fire, and heard the heavy footsteps in the clock tower, even though Mrs. Miles had prepared for this moment her whole life, she still trembled all over, and the tears that suddenly welled up blurred her vision:
"Richard!"
The staggering knight also called out that name:
“Sarah!”
Shade frowned slightly. The young knight who walked out of the crack, although his soul and body were reunited, did not look like a living person at all. It was just a body controlled by the soul.
However, the soul can be said to have gained freedom in this way, which is at least much better than sealing the cracks in the demonic fire.
At least Miss Higgins didn't care whether the man was alive or dead. Because she was moved, she returned the rusty knight's sword in her hand to the man who still smelled of strong sulfur. Shade reached into his pocket, took out a wreath that could be worn on the head, and handed it to the trembling Mrs. Miles.
The two agreed that Mrs. Miles would weave a wreath of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme blooming at the intersection of her hometown to welcome her lover's return, but Shad could not know this in advance, so his wreath was woven with roses, laurel, baby's breath and tulips. It was not even made by him, but bought from the flower shop run by Ajelina's maids on Silver Cross Avenue - wreaths are also commonly used ritual symbols.
Mrs. Miles took the wreath with trembling hands and watched with tear-filled eyes as the young knight hung his sword back around his waist.
Then, they both walked towards each other. The young Richard Jackman bowed his head slightly, and the old Sarah Miles put the wreath on his head.
The two pairs of eyes looked at each other, and then they hugged each other tightly:
"I'm back, Sarah."
"Welcome back, Richard."
The words that should have been said many, many years ago were finally spoken only now.
The gods watched this scene with a smile, and were very satisfied with the story presented by the mortals, which was more precious than gold. Miss Higgins's yearning for love emerged again, and at the same time she blamed herself for not actively pursuing the beautiful girl around her when she was young.
At this moment, Shade also had many new ideas in his mind. He really admired the two people in front of him. Whether it was Mrs. Miles who spent her whole life waiting for a promise that was unlikely to be fulfilled, or the young knight who used his soul to block the terrible demonic flames in order to fulfill the promise of reunion, these were enough to be written into poetry and sung and praised for thousands of years.
"Is this what loyalty to love is?"
He thought silently in his heart, and then thought about himself and his feelings with the girls. However, he was no longer confused. Even if he could not do what the two people in front of him did, thinking about only one person in his heart for his whole life, he could do it. In order to wait for someone and to fulfill the promise he made, he would never let anyone down even if he exhausted all his strength.
The two people who were hugging each other were sobbing. They had waited too long for this scene. They hugged each other so hard that it was as if they wanted to rub each other into each other's bodies and never separate again.
"oh!"
Miss Higgins suddenly sighed with some fear, because she really saw that the living body of Mrs. Miles was merging with the dead body of the knight. The souls that missed each other wanted to hug each other tightly, so the bodies that separated the souls really merged according to their thoughts.
First the chest, then the arms, and then the head. They slowly sat down by the fire, their bodies gradually hunched over, until their bones touched each other and forcibly fused with a sound that made their teeth ache.
"That's why I say this is a horror story."
Shade thought to himself, and stopped Miss Higgins to prevent her from getting closer:
"Look carefully, this is not something we can stop."
Black smoke floated out of the two twisted bodies, and the choking smell of sulfur became even stronger than before. The knight's soul with the flame of the devil was so hot that when the temperature of the soul itself burst out because of emotion, that temperature melted the body, conforming to the master's wishes, so that they would never be separated.
Mrs. Miles did not resist. The melting of her body could not prevent her from touching her lover's soul. The gradually radiating scorching temperature forced Shade and Miss Higgins to retreat, and the black flames completely engulfed them. When the flames dissipated, all that was left beside the bonfire were two white bones fused together.
Since the Green Lake incident, Shade had seen many different fusion monsters. But only the skeleton he saw at this time, in his opinion, was not scary or weird, but rather had a holy meaning.
The skeletons twisted and intertwined, bone spurs intertwined with each other. The skeletons themselves had the color of white jade, with a strong sense of miracle and blasphemy.
Next to the skeleton, the souls of Mrs. Miles and Mr. Jackman, holding hands, looked at their bodies blankly. The god smiled and pointed at the strange-shaped bones, and brought them to the front of Ms. Shade and Miss Higgins:
"Do you understand?"
The two men touched the bones with their hands respectively, and then different visions appeared behind them.
Behind Miss Higgins, the phantom of the tenth step slowly appeared at the end of the original nine steps. And behind Shad, in the thick steam mist, accompanied by the sound of whistles and bells, a huge brass wheel slowly emerged, and a brass aura symbolizing "enlightenment" appeared on it, like a copper sun appearing on the top of a dim clock tower.
If you love someone, you will wait for her all your life; if you love everyone, you will protect all happiness. The attraction between souls, the fusion of bodies, and loyal love can span long time and distant space. The furthest distance in the world is the longing between souls.
Stranger, you have witnessed the story of "Clock Tower Lovers".
All this happened naturally, just as it should have belonged to Shade:
Outsider, you have inscribed the Brass Rune of Inspiration - Clock Tower Lovers.
Unsurprisingly, the last spiritual rune of Xia De's six rings appeared the moment his hand touched the skeleton.
He turned to look at his life ring and realized that this spiritual rune was the power formed by the fusion of his true understanding of "loyalty" and the emotion of witnessing this story.
The puzzle lock had not yet appeared, which meant that he only understood the story, but had not yet understood the power of the story. But this was enough. Xia De had countless words in his heart at this moment, and he wanted to say them to his girls. Other people's stories ended, but his story had just begun.
"Your soul can exist in the material world for 365 days, and then it will come to an end."
The god spoke to Mrs. Miles and the young knight, and they bowed deeply to express their gratitude. Then, Shad and Miss Higgins also bowed together to express their gratitude to the god.
As for the fused skeleton, it slowly floated towards the still existing crack, and then replaced the original knight's soul, blocking the huge crack in the ground. The pitch-black flames wanted to burst out of the crack, but were absorbed by the skeleton, making them embrace more and more tightly, and also causing them to gradually melt and merge with the crack.
Finally, the holy white skeleton completely filled the cracks and perfectly blocked the flames' exit. As for the remaining black flames on the ground, they were all absorbed by the strange skeleton.