To be precise, the knock on the door happened at 2:27 a.m. on Saturday. The sleeping Shade was not woken up by the noise downstairs, but by the cat sleeping next to his pillow.
This timid cat was very alert when sleeping. After being awakened by the knock on the door downstairs, it lowered its head and kept scratching the pillow with its claws to make noise. When Shad woke up, Mia immediately crawled into the thin blanket covering him, with only her little head exposed to look out alertly.
"It's okay, don't be scared... Oh, who is looking for me so late at night?"
After Shad took the revolver from the bedside table, he yawned and walked downstairs in his slippers. The timid cat got out of the blanket and followed him, but when Shad came to the hallway, the orange cat stood at the corner of the stairs and looked down with a worried expression.
"Who is it?"
The gas light in the hallway was dim, and Shade stood behind the door and shouted to the outside. He did not lose his vigilance because of sleep, and while holding the gun in his right hand, the silver moonlight in his left hand also lit up.
"Shad, it's me."
Judging from the tone of voice, it was Miss Anat, so he opened the door a crack, pressed his body against the door, and looked out from the side. After seeing that it was indeed Miss Fortune Teller with short brown hair, he yawned and pulled the anti-theft chain:
"Good evening, Miss Annette."
Even a ring wizard needs to sleep, and Shad really wants to go back to bed now.
"Good evening, Shad."
Miss Annat was obviously in high spirits, with an excited expression on her face. After being welcomed into the house by Shad, she smiled and pointed to the paper bag 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 with Old John to pick it up."
Now Xia De was no longer sleepy.
The gas lamp in the living room was turned to the brightest, and Miss Annat and Shade sat on the sofa facing each other. Miss Annat put her coat on the back of the sofa, wearing a white shirt with lotus leaf sleeves, and excitedly took out the cubic metal box from the paper bag.
"Shad, I remember you said you could 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, but the things inside it are. The box itself is a special object for storing relics. It was sold to Miss Anat along with the relics. It is also an antique.
Xia De looked at the box carefully under the gas lamp. The six sides of the box showed different pictures. In the corner of each picture there were ancient characters as fine as tadpoles.
After reading it in detail, he sorted the six aspects into order before beginning to explain:
"This probably talks about the process of how the ancients sealed this object. The first two pictures show a god holding a scale falling from a high altitude, and then all the statues of this god in the material world collapse."
"This should be the process of the fall of the ancient god, the upside-down judge."
Miss Annat analyzed, and with an expectant look in her eyes asked Shad to continue explaining.
"The next two pictures talk about the loss of control of this item. This box should not be the original box. It was copied by the later discoverer, so some of the words were recorded incorrectly. According to my understanding, the general meaning is that the thing in the box was originally a weapon bestowed by God to mortals, but with the departure of the God, the power of the weapon got out of control and caused great damage... ... Is there a long-handled bell in it?"
"Yes, that's right. It's a bell."
Miss Annat smiled and nodded. This was the first time Shade had seen her so excited since he met her.
"I am lucky to be able to buy this relic. This is a keeper-level relic, the Inquisitor's Holy Bell, which is a bell. The effect is that after ringing the bell, the power of the next magic and spell used by the ringmaster will be greatly enhanced."
“What about negative traits?”
Shade asked as he observed the words against the light. The cat lay beside him, pretending to be asleep... or maybe it was really asleep.
"Exposing the bell for a long time will cause the user's personality to shift. Calm people will gradually become irritable, people who are easily angered will become calm, greedy people will be indifferent to fame and fortune, and kind people will tend to be evil. In general, it reverses the more prominent traits in the personality, and reverses again after three monthly cycles. Each reversal will make extreme emotions more extreme. But this does not work for Iluna Beias, her talent for balance restrains this negative trait."
At this time, Xia De also interpreted the meaning of the last two pictures, which 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 sacred objects also became disasters. People paid the price with their lives, and the ancient... ... This word cannot be found in modern times, probably means wise men. The ancient wise men created this box to contain the holy bell and warn future generations that the truth of the fall of the ancient gods... ... should not be easily explored."
The text behind it was very faint and could hardly be read against the light. He could only take a pencil and paper, press the paper against the surface, and quickly scan it with a pencil to obtain a clearer trace:
"The truth behind the fall of the ancient gods is not that they encountered an enemy, but that they left voluntarily... Hmm?"
"What's wrong?"
Miss Anat asked in confusion. She saw the surprise on Shade's face. Shade also read out the last sentence at this time:
"The ancient gods left voluntarily... for this world."
He looked at Miss Annette:
"What does this mean?"
"The time when the ancient gods fell is too long ago. No one can tell the story of the original thirteen gods in detail. But some people believe that the thirteen witch emperors left behind the Whispering Poems because they were 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 Annat answered cautiously. Shad knew that she didn't know much, so he didn't think about it anymore. Instead, he opened the lid of the box and took out the bell placed in the soft straw.
This is not a small bell for decoration, but a golden bell that is half the size of a palm. There are strange spiral carvings on the surface of the long-handled bell, but they are just decorations and not words, so they cannot be interpreted.
When you pick up the bell, it doesn't make any sound. The bell can only make a sound when you hold the long handle tightly and shake it.
“Can I try it?”
He asked the owner of the bell, and after getting permission, he clenched his right hand and shook it gently:
Ding Dong~
In this quiet night, the sound seemed to spread to a farther place, and the echoing sound made the cat lying next to Shade look around.
The feeling of fullness of power made Xia De even feel that his spirit had turned into substance and was surging in his body, so he took the initiative to activate the magic maze - the Little Match Girl, which was the magic that he could not fully use.
Snowflakes were falling from the sky. When Miss Anat reached out to touch the fluttering snowflakes in surprise, she saw the shadow of a little girl carrying a basket appear beside Shade. But it only took less than a second before she disappeared.
Snow fluttered down from the ceiling, and Xia De looked at the bell in surprise:
"Amazing! It not only enhances the effects of magic, but can even enable magic beyond the level of a ring sorcerer."
But it was still not enough for Shade to fully use the maze.
Miss Anat closed her palms, feeling the coldness and wanted to ask what kind of magic this was, but she was stunned for a moment, then tilted her head and looked towards the study room with the door open:
"Shad, there's something glowing in your study."
Xia De turned his head and saw that it was the location of the desk drawer. A faint white light flickered at the same frequency as breathing, soft and quiet.
"Glow? What?"
He thought in surprise, walked into the study carefully, opened the drawer, and saw that the glowing page was actually the manuscript page of the poet Cohen that could be used to contact the college.
There was an extra line of words on the page:
Shade, please dress a little 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 Miss Danister wants to see you. - Hesenger Garcia
When Shad 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 Annat was putting the holy bell back into the box. She looked very curious, but out of politeness, she did not ask about Shad's privacy.
Instead, after Xia De picked up Mia again, he asked very seriously:
"Ms. Annat, has the academy given you the task of monitoring the other members of the team?"
"Surveillance? Others?"
Miss Annat looked at him puzzledly and asked back:
“Why spy on other people?”
"Well... Let me tell you a story that I haven't told you before. Before today, I always thought that it was possible that they said those words to all five of us."
When Shade first accepted the task of monitoring the other four people, he did not fully trust the four people in the team, so he did not tell them about this matter. But after two weeks of getting along with them, he gradually developed trust in Miss Annat, Miss Louisa, Father Augustus and Doctor Schneider, and planned to reveal this matter at the right time.
And now is a good opportunity to reveal it to Miss Annat.
He did not hide anything about the content of the conversation that night, and told them the problems of the other four people, including Miss Annat, one by one.
Miss Anat was aware of Miss Louisa's "abnormality", but was completely unaware of Dr. Schneider's question. As for Father Augustus' question, she thought about it for a while before explaining:
"The Academy's opinion is correct. The reason why Priest Augustus joined Saint Byrons was indeed related to the uncontrollable accident of the Unknown Level (Level 0) relic, and he did want to investigate the truth of the accident. But I don't even know what kind of power the priest possesses... I just know that the priest has a strong self-healing ability."
"How strong?"
Shade asked curiously.
"According to a conservative estimate, as long as the person survives, any injury can be fully recovered within ten minutes."
Xia De was shocked by this "conservatism". He knew nothing like he did three weeks ago. He knew very well that this level of self-healing ability was beyond the normal range.