"earthquake?"
When the ground beneath his feet began to shake, Shade thought of the terrible future that might come if he encountered an earthquake underground. But then he realized that it was not an earthquake, but the maze itself that was shaking.
Looking closely, the surrounding walls were slowly moving, some turning on the spot, while others were moving towards the center, and the sound of stone bricks rubbing against the ground was sharp and harsh.
Miss Anat, who was walking in the front, looked unhappy.
"Someone is manipulating that clerical-level relic labyrinth candle. We are finally going to meet the ringmaster. Come on, follow me, and don't fall behind."
But even though she said this, the speed at which the maze walls changed was far beyond the three's expectations.
After running a few steps forward, the wall beside him suddenly swung to the side, blocking Miss Bei Ya Si, who was walking at the back, behind the wall.
Hearing the sound, Shad was very rational and did not try to find Miss Beatrice behind the wall, but continued to run forward with Miss Annat.
Unexpectedly, as soon as I turned the fork in the road ahead, a blood-red fog surged up:
"It's thaumaturgy!"
Miss Anat shouted, pinching a handful of powder from her pocket and sprinkling it forward. But this had no effect, and instead, several red-eyed bats flew out from the blood mist:
"This is not the magic of the Silver Eyed One, Detective, please stand back for now. I will handle it."
Shade then retreated back to the fork in the road behind him, but the walls of the maze continued to change. Shade retreated, but Miss Anat did not, and the two were about to be separated by the premise in front of them:
"Detective, don't follow me, let's proceed according to the original plan."
She left only these words and rushed into the blood mist in front of her.
Xia De wanted to follow, but stopped. The light of the silver moon flew out of his hand, but it could not leave any trace on the wall in front of him. He tried to shout a few times, but did not get any response from behind the wall.
Shade stood still, listening to the harsh noise coming from everywhere. After two minutes, all the walls stopped moving. In the new maze, the three of them separated and there was silence all around. Shade's left hand tightly grasped the gold necklace around his neck, but his face was not panicked:
“As expected, this is the situation.”
The plan made before breaking into the ruins had already taken into account the possibility that the three people would be separated for various reasons, among which getting lost in the illusion created by the maze candles was the most likely scenario.
In this situation, the strategy that Miss Annat and Miss Beas arranged for Shad was to find a relatively safe place to hide and wait for the two ladies to solve the problem before coming out.
They seemed to think that Shade was weak alone and should just protect himself and not think about doing anything more. The significance of Shade following in was only to help solve the mirror that attacked "another me". But now the matter of the mirror was over, and in the minds of the two ladies, it was a good thing for Shade not to face the final battle.
"But now..."
He looked at the passage in front of him, took a few steps forward and came to a fork in the road:
"Where are we going?"
I touched the door pendant on my chest, but now is not the right time to use it:
"Feel whether you can find the location of the maze candle."
You can find it, but you can't touch it. The maze formed by this relic is not a real illusion, otherwise people outside the illusion would have shot you directly and you would have died. This is an almost incomplete maze. The only way to leave is for you to find the exit of the maze.
"Incomplete puzzle?"
Xia De frowned and thought for a moment:
"This is troublesome... I was clearly attacked just now, why didn't anyone come to sneak attack me?"
He stood there and waited for a while, and then he was very sure that there was really no enemy coming to find him.
"Is it true that there are only strangers from the Blood Spirit Sect and the Silver Eyed Ones deep in the maze? Do they think I'm too weak and don't intend to pay any attention to me?"
He put his hands on the wall of the maze, but still found nothing new. Of course, Shade would not be willing to just wait here, but it was even more impossible for him to use his divinity because of the current situation.
You have other options.
“I noticed you used affirmations.”
Your mood swings are too small.
In such a solitary environment, it is really nice to have a trustworthy voice to talk to oneself. Although the "other self" is the price of gaining power and will be entangled with the soul throughout the life of the ring warlock, at least it means that the ring warlocks will never be alone.
Taking a deep breath, the hot and musty air rushed into his nose, and Xia De said in his heart:
"Since there is no way to solve the maze, why not think about it in a different way? The ruins belong to the mortal cult of the innocent creator, so will the cult leave some conveniences for new cults in the future?"
You don't have the divine power of that god, so it won't be easy to call upon the resonance of the same source of power.
She reminded quietly.
"Yeah, I don't have any magic, but I have my last words."
Xia De looked around and said softly:
“Toy makers always dream of creating innocence.”
Nothing happened.
Shade thought about it, and suddenly the face of Priest Augustus appeared in his mind. The only thing missing from the three major schools of thaumaturgy in mysticism was the content related to prayer and divine arts:
"If you want to invoke the power of God, you must pray." (Note)
As he spoke, he closed his eyes and drew the holy emblem of the pure creator of the old gods on his chest with his fingers. Using the technique he learned from the August priest, Shad prayed softly:
“Toy makers always dream of creating innocence.”
The wind blew past his ears, and Shade heard a sigh. When he opened his eyes again, a pure golden butterfly took off from his shoulder and flew away in front of his eyes.
"What elements?"
He stared at the butterfly that seemed to be seducing him.
Miracle.
Shad knew his plan had succeeded.
The extinct cult would never have guessed what kind of relic someone would use in the ruins, but this butterfly, which was suspected to be a guide, did have the function of pointing the right path.
Xia De followed the fluttering golden butterfly and kept moving forward in the maze. Ten minutes later, a stone wall appeared in front of him, which meant that he had entered a dead end. But the butterfly did not stop, but went straight through the wall and disappeared.
"Is this the exit?"
Thinking doubtfully, he touched the necklace around his neck and then lit the few remaining Bordeaux candles again.
I reached out and touched the wall in front of me, but my hand did not pass through the wall. Instead, I felt a real obstacle.
Xia De was stunned for a moment:
"I see."
He increased his strength, and although the wall did not change, his hand did push open a stone door. After the stone door opened wide enough, Shade stepped forward, passed through the wall, and entered the next room.
The maze ended, and the new ruins room no longer had walls made of large stone bricks, nor were there other relics blocking the way.
The golden butterfly fluttered up and down in the darkness, and finally exploded into golden particles of light in front of Shade's eyes, illuminating the small room with dots of light.
Unlike all the ruins spaces that we had just experienced, this one only had the door that Shade had passed through. The size of the space was about the same as the space in front of the original stone door. There were no marks on the wall, but there was a sarcophagus in front of it.
This place should not be accessible by normal means. The sarcophagus has not been moved, and it seems that the people with Mercury Blood have not been able to find this place.
Shade hesitated for a moment, and only approached the ancient coffin after making sure there was nothing here except the coffin. There was only a name engraved on the stone coffin - Joel Ode Carlis. It seemed that this was the tomb of one of the last three people to stay in the ruins.
Under normal circumstances, Xia De would not touch other people's coffins casually, but since the golden butterfly guided him here, he could only go inside the coffin to seek the answer.
"Feel sorry."
He apologized to the sarcophagus earnestly, and then pushed the sliding cover of the coffin. Although no one had touched it for more than a thousand years, the sliding cover was still easily pushed open.
There was no corpse inside, only an exquisite stone box, a roll of parchment and a silver ring.
“May your soul rest in peace.”
Xia De said in a low voice that he actually admired the three people who stayed at the end.
Then he picked up the parchment and found that it was a letter. The characters used were still the ancient characters on the wall.
The beginning of the letter stated that the person who left this letter was Gina Angela Sewell, the last of the three people who stayed behind to guard the ruins. She explained that the stone box was the urn of Joel Ode Carris, one of the three people, and hoped that the later generations would not move it. She also prayed for her two deceased companions in the letter.
Finally, he drew a map of the ruins on a yellowed parchment scroll, and marked the locations of the three coffins, secret passages, anti-theft mechanisms and some relics, hoping to help those who come after him.
Of course, the most important thing is the dangerous relic sealed in the ruins, which is called the Secret Keeper-level relic Corpse Tree on the parchment.
Although it is only at the level of a keeper, it has the ability to move in space, create large-scale collective hallucinations, manipulate the dead, manipulate life puppets, etc. Once this relic has a problem, it can destroy a city in a short period of time. However, if it is not "fed" for a long time, its power will decline on its own, so it was suppressed by the cult in the ruins.
The letter did not mention too many specific characteristics of the corpse tree, but repeatedly emphasized that those who enter the ruins should not touch the corpse tree. At the same time, if abnormal wood whiskers are found gushing out of the wounds of their companions, it means that they are infected and must be killed immediately.
The third item in the coffin, the silver ring next to the urn, was a relic of Carlis. It was not a relic with a whispering element, but a personal relic, just an ordinary ring.
Miss Sever, who left the letter, hoped that later generations would not touch the belongings of the three people. This was their only wish as guardians.