"Here's the plan."
After greeting the happy cat, Shad asked the priest to sit down with him, while Mrs. Freeman sat on the single sofa farther away with the boy in her arms.
"Don't move."
Keeping the cat quiet on her lap, Mia stared with wide eyes as Shade covered her with a pillowcase. After a few seconds, the pillowcase moved down slightly, as if Mia had become smaller out of thin air. When the pillowcase was removed, Mia's wooden toy, which had shrunk by about one third, appeared on Shade's lap.
The painting was placed on the coffee table, and Shade placed Mia's wooden toy on the painting:
“We outside the painting cannot interfere with what is inside the painting, but things inside the painting can interfere with what is inside the painting.”
He let go of his hand, and Mia's lifelike and cute puppet with big eyes immediately melted into the oil painting. Because the puppet was too big, it did not enter the model of the house, but came to the table and changed from puppet form back to normal form.
Suddenly appearing in an unfamiliar environment, the cat showed fear again. But before it could get angry, Shade reached into the painting and gently patted the cat's head.
"Meow~"
Now the orange cat was no longer afraid. It squinted its eyes, lowered its head and licked its paws. The cat believed that there would be no danger where Shad was.
"This, touch this."
After patting the cat a few times, Xia De pointed his hand at the toy model house on the table. Because he didn't know whether the sound outside could be transmitted inside, Xia De also gestured a few times.
The cat, who had become smarter recently, immediately looked in the direction of the finger, which was the house model. But because the pet cat had always been well-behaved, it did not have the habit of destroying things at will. It squatted there, stretched its head and rubbed against Shade's hand, staring with wide amber eyes, but did not move.
"In that case..."
Xia De thought about it and reached out to touch the house model again. After his hand was blocked by an invisible barrier, he shook his hand in the painting, pretending that his hand was injured. After a weak wail outside the picture, he dropped his hand to the table, twitched, and the hand became motionless as if it was dead.
Father Augustus was trying not to laugh.
"Meow!"
Mia immediately showed a look of fear in the picture. She stretched her head and rubbed her "dead" hand. Seeing that it was indeed motionless, she immediately stood in front of Shad's hand and made a threatening gesture towards the house model.
Seeing that the other party did not move at all and did not roar at it, the cat suddenly became bolder. With its head lowered, the orange cat charged forward and directly knocked the house model two inches (about 5.08 cm) towards the edge of the table.
Seeing that the other party still did not move, the cat became even bolder. He used his head to butt against the model and slowly pushed it towards the edge of the table. With more than half of the model's chassis hanging in the air, it finally fell to the ground outside the painting and disappeared from the range that Shade and Priest Augustus could observe.
For the first time, a sound came from the screen, which was the sound of the house model crashing.
Xia De took the cat out of the oil painting. The cat cried excitedly, rubbed Xia De's right hand, and wagged its tail, as if it was happy to have done something big for itself.
"Is it over?"
The priest asked with a frown. After all, destroying the house in the picture could eliminate the influence, which was just their guess.
But at least when the house fell to the ground, neither Shad nor the boy were hurt, which means that at least their passive relationship with the puppet of bearing harm has been resolved.
"Wait. Quick, Mrs. Freeman, take the child and get back to the wall!"
Black smoke suddenly floated out of the oil painting. The priest and Shad stood up immediately, but the middle-aged woman was a step slower to react.
The black smoke had already fallen to the ground. A strange man who was over two and a half meters tall, with bandages wrapped around his body, only one eye exposed, and a tattered black hat on his head, appeared in the real world.
It seemed to be completely irrational. After coming to the real world, it first raised its head and roared, then with its right hand wrapped in black smoke, it stabbed the boy in Mrs. Freeman's hand, who was closest to it, with a knife.
Shade raised his hand and swung out the moonlight, but the priest was faster and the gray ball of light in his hand also flew out. However, even if neither of them took action, the boy would not be in trouble, because another puff of black smoke flew out of the oil painting, and Mr. Freeman, in his undead state, blocked the weapon of the tall weirdo with his soul.
This is a real undead. It seems that as the house model is destroyed, not only the bandaged puppets, but also the undigested souls in the painting can escape. However, the soul looks very weak, and it is even weaker after being slashed by the bandaged monster in the real world.
He turned away sadly, and Mrs. Freeman and the boy could not see him in his soul state.
Shade's moonlight and the priest's gray light ball had now arrived behind the monster. The moonlight cut off its head, and the gray light ball directly exploded its chest.
This thing was so weak that after suffering such an injury, it slowly turned into ashes and disappeared.
Looking at the painting again, the bandaged puppet stood alone in the place where the house model was originally, motionless like a real puppet. I think that when the painting is brought back into the new building and the painting itself is touched by someone, it will once again show its own characteristics.
After waiting for a while and confirming that the matter was completely resolved, Shad and Priest Augustus finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's over, Mrs. Freeman. Don't worry. It's over."
The old priest consoled him.
"In the future, will it be possible..."
The middle-aged woman was really scared.
"Don't worry, this matter is completely over, but we will take this painting away. If you are still worried, you can go to the church to pray... Oh, I remember that you don't believe in our Lord, Mr. Dawn. Madam, would you like to listen to our Lord's teachings? May the light of dawn always shine on us!"
Father Augustus said cheerfully while drawing the holy emblem on his chest, while Mrs. Freeman smiled awkwardly and said to Shade:
"Thank you for your help, please take this painting away. We dare not leave it behind."
She held the boy's hand and wanted to bow to thank them, but the boy looked around, but no matter how hard he looked, he could not see Mr. Freeman who was standing helplessly by the side watching them.
He was already dead, and his soul had not yet been completely absorbed by the relic, so he could be rescued. But dead is dead, and a weak soul cannot be seen by ordinary people.
While Shad held the cat, Reverend Augustus briefly explained the whole story to Mrs. Freeman, letting her know that the matter was completely over.
Then the priest winked at Shad and asked him to take Mrs. Freeman and the boy to Dr. Schneider's clinic to pick up the little girl, while Shad would be responsible for dealing with the painting.
When the group separated at the bottom of the rental apartment, Mrs. Freeman was still holding Shad's hand and thanking him. After they left, Shad held Mia in one hand and the painting folder with the other hand, and then looked at the soul standing beside him in the shadow of the house.
To deal with this relic, we still have to go to the doctor. Father Augustus did not go with Shad so that Shad would stay to deal with this soul and persuade it to continue moving forward instead of staying here.