"So what needs to be done now?"
Xia De, who fully understood the current situation and adjusted his mentality, asked that the current situation did not seem more dangerous than when someone pointed a gun at his head just now.
"Find the node of the ritual."
Miss Anat pulled up her skirt to cover her feet and took out a pinch of glittering powder from the small pocket at her waist. She put the powder in the palm of her hand and blew gently with her lipstick-coated lips, and the powder scattered and seemed to float in the air under the light of the gas lamp.
The blood mist had already blurred everything in front of him, and now with the dust, the corridor became even more hazy. Miss Anat took off the ruby hairpin she was wearing, tapped it lightly with her fingers, and handed it to Shade:
"I will use the clerical-level relic Dust of Truth to enter the illusion and work with my other self to find the ritual node from different perspectives. This will take about five minutes. During this time, you must hold my token and point me in the direction to return, otherwise I will fall into the narrow crack of the illusion."
“Just hold it?”
Shade asked, clenching his hairpin.
"You can't go too far from the third floor, otherwise I will lose contact with the token. The token can only be held by a sober living creature. If I hadn't found you just now, I would have gone to the garden to catch a cat or a fish. Remember, detective, there are only seven minutes before the evil god, the Lord of the Blood Feast, descends, and I will stay in the illusion for five minutes. During this period, don't contact anyone and wait patiently."
She paused, her expression becoming serious:
"If I don't come back within five minutes, leave here through the main staircase. The Orthodox Church Ring Warlock team below can protect your safety. I'm sorry, detective, I shouldn't have involved you, who only has one ring."
She pursed her lips.
"It's okay, I'm here too after all."
Shade held Miss Anat's hairpin tightly, his face serious. He didn't know what would happen next, but since he was already standing here, there was no reason to leave:
"Although I have just awakened from my blindness and stupidity and have not been in contact with this civilization for a long time, since I cannot leave, I am also a part of this place, and I should do what I should do."
Of course, this is also because it's not as dangerous as it sounds.
The fortune-teller girl with purple eyes smiled, blinked, and said as if she had made up her mind:
"If I don't come back and the doctor and the others are killed, then the only safe place tonight is the ring wizard team under the Sun and Earth Church of the True God Lantern Old Man."
They were the team of dozens of people, and Shade had encountered them twice tonight.
"To be more precise, the safest place is with the youngest lady in the team, Iluna Beas."
"Why?"
Shade also thought of the somewhat nervous girl with long brown hair, Miss Iluna Beyath, whose hair color was very similar to Miss Annat's, but the fortune teller had short hair.
"Because she is the chosen one, the protagonist of the first section of the poem "Whispering Poems"... ...one of the thirteen chosen ones."
"What?"
Xia De raised his head and asked back, vaguely realizing the importance of this information:
"Thirteen again? No, that's not the point. What is the Whispering Verse?"
"I haven't even told the doctors these things, but if we survive, I'll be happy to explain them to you later. Right now, there are more important things to do."
The fortune teller with purple eyes shook her head slightly, then turned and walked towards the corridor where the crystal powder was suspended. Her figure, along with the illusory powder and phantoms, disappeared in the bright yellow light and shadow, and the blood mist refilled the space that the crystal powder had just occupied.
Here only the surprised detective is left:
"What do you mean? Is Miss Iluna Beias the chosen one? Ancient gods, sinful gods, witches, relics, sublimated words, whispering poems... What is going on in this world? It seems that something big is about to happen in this era I have come to."
At this moment, it seemed as if Shade was the only living person in the deadly manor. There should be a battle going on on the second floor, but there was no sound. Standing in the blood mist in the corridor, the tingling sense of danger forced Shade to find a place to hide.
But Shad did not dare to enter any room. He just found the banquet hall on the third floor, which was the room where Dr. Schneider and his two companions confronted Mrs. Lazoya.
As soon as he approached, the voice in his head reminded him of the appearance of the four elements. And Shade saw dense rune chains on the magnificent double-opening golden door.
He did not dare to decipher the runes, fearing that he would faint at such a critical moment.
"Miss Anat will be back in four minutes."
Xia De thought to himself, standing nervously at the door of the banquet hall waiting. The banquet hall was facing the central main staircase of Lake View Manor. He was very worried that the cultists would break into the third floor after defeating the Orthodox Church's ring warlock team.
"It's not even midnight yet. Does this count as good luck for tonight?"
He was thinking about unimportant things and kept looking at his pocket watch to check the time.
I wanted to take out the puppeteer Happy's script and take a look at it. Maybe I could find a way to resolve tonight's events from the last chance to use this Secret Keeper-level relic.
But perhaps Shad's good luck had finally run out, and before he took out the little book, the silent manor finally made a sound.
The next moment, a shocking explosion was heard from the banquet hall next to him, breaking the tranquility of the moonlit night.
The two golden doors were smashed in the flames and smoke, and Shad, who was standing at the door, was knocked out directly, spitting blood and crashing into the wall on the side of the stairs. He and the portrait of the bearded nobleman that was originally hanging on the wall rolled to the cold ground.
"oh!"
He wanted to get up in the smoke and dust, but he felt that his body was out of control. He must have suffered internal injuries.
At this time, the truth of the explosion was finally discovered. The blonde writer flew out of the banquet hall in the explosion, and it was her body that broke the two doors. Now Miss Louisa was lying at the stairs not far from Shade, half of her body was in a pool of blood, and her long blonde hair was gradually stained with blood.
"I knew it wouldn't go well."
Shade endured the severe pain in his left arm and chest and climbed up. He touched the blonde girl's face and used a fake immortality spell to ensure that she would not die within half an hour.
He wanted to help Miss Louisa escape to the other end of the corridor. Although his pocket watch had been damaged in the shocking explosion just now, he also knew that Miss Annat would soon return, so he could not leave the third floor now.
Another loud noise was heard in the banquet hall, and the white steam from the life ring dispersed the blood mist, almost covering the entire doorway. Shade heard the roar of Priest Augustus and his prayers to Mr. Dawn, and he could not imagine that the old man had such strength.
"You go!"
Dr. Schneider's voice was heard further away in the banquet hall, speaking to Reverend Augustus, but the next moment, the life ring behind the priest was hit by a silver beam of light, and he stumbled out of the room and into the corridor, where he also saw Miss Shad and Louisa.
Although Shad had changed his clothes and was wearing a mask, Father Augustus knew it was him:
"How did you ..."
"It's very... ahem... complicated to explain."
Not only Shade, but even Priest Augustus coughed up blood, and the smell of blood in the air suddenly became strong:
"Oh no, the God's Descent Ceremony is about to begin, let's go quickly."
The priest wanted to help Shade and Miss Louisa up, but he was also seriously injured and was just holding on. He fell down heavily after taking just two steps and actually fainted. So Shade reached out and touched the priest. He now had a very bad premonition.