Whispering Verse

Shade thoughtfully:

"Be prepared, huh? No problem."

"Of course, it's not just you who have gained something, I have gained something too."

The doctor smiled and said:

"I have also finished processing the corrupted gardener's body you brought. While we have time, how about we go to the memory of the deceased to take a look? Maybe there will be something to gain. Of course, this won't It took too much time, but after reading Memory we can go have lunch together and talk about preparations for fighting 'Goethe'."

It was not difficult to enter the memory of the body corrupted by the demon. The doctor brought a copper basin, placed it on the fire of the fireplace, and waited for the water to be boiled. Then, he took out two glass bottles each containing a pure black eyeball. One of them was handed to Shade, and the two of them dropped their own blood into the bottle.

The eyeballs in the bottle immediately began to rotate. When the color of the blood faded, they poured the eyeballs and the slippery liquid in the bottle into the boiling water basin together. Immediately, green smoke with a faint odor spread out and soon enveloped the entire room.

The two of them found places to lie down indoors. The doctor lay on the elegant leather chair behind the desk, while Shade lay on the sofa. When little Mia saw Shade lying down, she immediately jumped on his chest, and then looked down at Shade as he slowly closed his eyes and entered the dreamland.

Shade had been in more than one dream state with Dr. Schneider, so he was very experienced with it. Only this time, when he realized that he was dreaming, he immediately felt that something was wrong with the scene around him.

In the dream, I felt the cold feeling, and there was a dark sky above my head.

Looking around, this is undoubtedly the Oxenfurt Manor in the Randall Valley. The more precise location is outside the gate of the manor. It's night, but there always seem to be white shadows dancing at the edge of the field of vision in the night. Looking inside from the fence gate, the semi-deserted manor is full of weirdness in the silent night. Looking up at the sky, among the three moons, the red moon and the yellow moon each have a huge eye in the center that is constantly blinking, as if looking for something, and the silver moon has turned into a strange closed eye. human face.

The stars dimmed, and the few stars connected in the sky formed a complete sentence of Kasenlik:

"You're going to die, and I'm watching you!"

Shade suspected that he had entered some horror story.

"The alienation is really serious."

At this time, the doctor's voice came, and Shade realized that the doctor was beside him. Shade's clothes were still the same as before, while the doctor changed into an outfit that looked more like an out-of-town detective.

"I'm good at the power of dreams. I can change my clothes at any time in my dreams. Isn't it normal?"

The doctor said, and then introduced the surrounding situation:

"The original scene in the dream was definitely not like this, but because of the torture of the soul and body, the memory has also changed, so that the scene we see now is formed. What a poor guy. He must have suffered a lot before and after his death. He committed a lot of sins.”

"I did not see the gardener's soul."

"Probably still trapped in the manor you mentioned. Since the body has been made into a demon ghoul, there is no reason to directly consume the painful soul."

The doctor pushed the fence door in front of him, and with a slight creaking sound, the door was pushed open:

"Let's go and see this last memory before death."

Even the best horror writer probably couldn't describe the scene in the manor courtyard at this time. Bloodstains of unknown origin flowed on the cobblestone paths. Crazy women's laughter and whispers kept coming from the surrounding bushes. The cold night wind mixed with the smell of corpses spread around, and in the big house, lights The light in the window kept flickering, and a figure stood behind the curtain, as if looking at the people in the yard.

But the doctor told Shade not to worry. Just like what he said, they were indeed not in danger. The owner of the memory, the unlucky gardener, lived in a small house in the corner of the garden behind the courtyard, and the two of them found him easily.

Compared with the severely alienated courtyard scene, the gardener's cabin seems much more normal. He did not fall asleep that night. Instead, he sat next to the dimly lit oil lamp the size of a rice grain on the wooden table, reading a pirated book with more pictures than words.

This is not the gardener's dream, just the gardener's memory, so even if Shade and the doctor break into his house, he will have no reaction.

Before Shade could exchange opinions with the doctor about the book, the gardener put the book down tiredly. He stood up and looked out the window, then picked up his coat and walked into the garden.

Shade thought he had something to do, but unexpectedly he just found a corner and whistled in an uncivilized manner to water the flowers. Suddenly the ground shook, as if an earthquake had occurred in his memory, and the gardener looked up at the front yard:

"Mr. Oxenfurt is back?"

"It wasn't an earthquake, it was the sound of horse hooves. But in the memory, it was distorted into an earthquake by the intense pain."

The doctor explained to Shade.

The gardener was curious about his master's return at night, so he walked carefully to the front yard in the strange night. It was obvious that he was quite familiar with the yard he was taking care of. He walked around the path to the front yard and hid in the bushes to peek at the conversation that was taking place.

At this time, all the surrounding light became dim, and the moonlight, like a spotlight on a stage, converged on Oxenfurt, who was standing next to the horse in the courtyard. There was no need for the doctor to explain this time, and Shade knew that this was just a distortion of memory.

To be precise, there was not one Stone Oxenfurt standing next to the black horse, but two. One of them is the person Shade knows. Although the other one is wearing the same clothes as the previous one, his skin is slightly darker, and his eyes are pure black, and the whites of his eyes cannot be seen at all.

"The devil's true form? Appears in the image of Oxenfurt."

Shade asked the doctor, who also appeared in the description of the old curator Fernandez.

"should be."

The doctor nodded cautiously.

"You did a great job."

The abnormal Oxenfurt said to the normal one. The normal Oxenfurt covered his forehead and looked exhausted:

"I will do what we agreed on, and you don't have to come to see me often."

"You are not one to keep your promises. I will always urge you to fulfill our contract."

said the abnormal Oxenfurt.

"How dare I break my contract with you? You are a devil."

Stone Oxenfurt said tiredly, and the gardener who peeked at this scene actually screamed in horror after hearing the word "devil".

So, the two Oxenfurt looked at his location together.

The scene was completely frozen, as if the world was covered with a layer of gray, and as if someone had stopped time.

The doctor and Shade did not remain still. The blue-eyed psychiatrist sighed softly:

"Originally, there was supposed to be another period, that is, what happened after he was discovered. But the torture he suffered was too great, and he subconsciously forgot what happened next. Fortunately, the remaining memory is enough for us to judge that the devil's body is, or is close to it. Something that looks like Stone Oxenfurt. The Stone Mirror Demon likes to appear in the image of his contractor, which can be regarded as proof of its identity. Next, the focus of your investigation is how to lure the opponent out and let him The other party takes the initiative to appear in front of you."

Shade nodded, but he didn't expect a third voice to appear in this still world:

"I really didn't expect that I would encounter such interesting things."

"Um?"

Shade and the doctor looked towards the center of the courtyard. Oxenfurt, who had slightly darker skin, was looking at them.

"Doctor, this."

"There is a small amount of demonic power attached to the gardener's body. Don't worry, I can solve it."

"Will he be discovered by the devil himself?"

"If others take action, they will; if I take action, they won't. This is the dream I built."

While he was speaking, the devil had already walked towards the two of them, as if he had not heard their previous conversation at all:

"So, you two, do you want to play with me? If you win, I can give you a great gift, a longer life, an eternal fire, a stone that turns anything into gold, or, what do you want? Something else?"

The demon looked at the two with a smile, a smile that Shade had never seen on the real Oxenfurt's face.

"It's just the devil's little power and can't give us anything. Of course, even if we lose, we don't have to pay the price. Detective, play with it and see what its game is."

The doctor said, taking a step back and coming behind Shade, who nodded to "Oxenfurt":

"Okay, I'll play with you. What do you want to play?"

"It's simple, guess the cards."

The devil said as three glowing cards appeared in front of it. Those are three Rhodes cards, namely Sun 1, Moon 1 and Star 1:

"I'll change the positions of the cards, and you can guess where Star 1 is."

As he spoke, the three cards overlapped and quickly moved in the air to swap positions.

Shade watched this scene in silence. After the three cards separated and floated upward in the air, he reached out and revealed the leftmost one:

"Not this one."

After opening it is [Origin·Darkness].

Then he opened the middle one:

"This one is obviously not one either."

After opening it is [Creation·Death].

Shade smiled and opened the last one:

"Not even the last one."

After opening it is [Origin·Balance]:

"So, the answer I give is that Star 1 is not among these three cards at all.

The demon was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.

The laughter was extremely sharp and harsh. In the laughter, the surrounding scene disintegrated like glass. The doctor put his hand on Shade's shoulder:

"Detective, it's time to wake up from the dream."

Only the devil who laughed loudly still stood where he was:

"It's really interesting. I look forward to you meeting my true form."

Its entire body turned into a black stream of light in the dream that was about to disintegrate, rushing towards Shade's face.

PS: Completing this morning’s chapter.

Asking for votes.