Whispering Verse

"right here."

After meeting the familiar unicorns, the elf lady took Shade and continued walking towards the east. She seemed to be in a good mood. When walking beside the unicorn with her hands behind her back, Shade even saw her occasionally jumping a few steps.

There are low woodlands nearby, and beyond the woodlands are plain pastures for unicorns. Farther away are the shadows of snow-capped mountains lying low in the night.

The two of them didn't go far when they saw a simple wooden watchtower on the outskirts of the forest:

"This is the tower we use for observation when we usually do ecological research on heterogeneous organisms."

Emilia explained, and she flew up on her unicorn, while Shade climbed up the ladder with his cat.

The view at the top was quite wide, but Shade still did not observe any spatial anomalies.

"This passage is quite old. I don't know what era it is from, but it is definitely not the sixth era. This is probably the last time I will take this road, but since the past things will not be investigated, I think it is also good. result, so you don’t have to apologize to me.”

The elf girl said, patting the little beast beside her:

"The entrance is hidden and can only be found at night. Moreover, I have only found that the unicorn of a female unicorn can reveal the entrance. I also once chased Lianna and found her coming I didn’t know about this entrance until I got here. I have always suspected that the rumors about unicorns in the Randall Valley were spread because they sneaked out."

The young unicorn was able to understand Emilia's gestures, so it lowered its head and shouted "high", and then its golden horn began to shine brighter.

Shade thought for a moment:

"If I remember correctly, the horn of a unicorn has a very strong effect of breaking illusions, purifying, and opening seals. And the females in the unicorn population have stronger power than the males."

"Yes."

The elf girl nodded, while Shade was thinking about how he could get a horn and bring it to the Eternal Night City in the fifth era. But if you think about it carefully, after the unicorn died, the body must have been disposed of by St. Byrons. Maybe Miss Daniste could let him get one.

But in the end, this rescue adventure was not the mission of the tree father, so even if the road in front of him really existed in the Eternal Night City in the fifth era and he could still find it, could he reach the third place with such a powerful item? In the fifth era, it is still a big problem.

And the next moment, these thoughts are completely unimportant. Because Shade saw the little beast shake its neck slightly, and then at the top of the watchtower, the glowing horn seemed to lift an invisible curtain in the air.

[It is not an invisible curtain. 】

"She" reminded gently.

It was indeed not an invisible curtain. What Shade had not noticed before was actually the night itself, lifted up by the golden horn. Its single horn lifts the curtain of night.

"Um?"

While Shade was surprised that the shape and color of the curtain looked very familiar, Emilia said quite proudly:

"After Liana led me to discover this passage, I also checked a lot of information in the academy. In fact, there are many secret ways to leave the academy without permission, but I bet that in our current era, I am the first The only one who discovered this path!"

She lifted her chest slightly and raised her head.

"So has anyone discovered this before?"

Shade asked curiously, and the elf girl nodded:

"There are some things left by students in the past era inside the passage. One of the notebooks written in 351 of the Sixth Era mentioned that two conditions are needed to open and use this passage: first, it is enough to lift the curtain. A tool, which requires a horn similar to that of a female unicorn, or at least a sage-level sword relic. Secondly, it must possess one of the [Space] and [Night] spirit runes."

The elf girl in front of her had a space spirit rune, and she asked Shade to help her go to Coldwater Port to purchase materials for the space ceremony.

"According to the information left by predecessors, the formation of this passage must have a lot to do with [dark night]. Therefore, this place can only be used at night. The usage time varies in different seasons. I usually only use it after it is completely dark. Will come."

The elf was still talking, but Shade had already stretched out his hand and touched the "night curtain" opened by the unicorn's glowing horn.

[Yes, that’s the piece. According to your timeline, about half an hour ago, this curtain was wrapped around Fiona Drago's waist when you were packing your luggage. 】

"She" directly gave the answer that Shade wanted to know, and Shade took a deep breath. From this point of view, his idea is correct:

"Let's go, Miss Daniste is still waiting for us on the other side. Speaking of which, is the road inside very long?"

Shade asked curiously. He remembered using this curtain. It was obvious that after passing through it, he would reach his destination. There was no passage for storing notes or the like.

"It's not long, you can finish it in a minute or two. But..."

Emilia warned again:

"There are some parts of this passage that have been eroded by the power of the night. Even the most powerful individuals in Lianna's species cannot come into contact with that kind of night, otherwise they will be assimilated by the night. So, you must follow me closely for a while. This It’s no joke, it’s really dangerous.”

"Meow?"

Little Mia, who was squatting on the unicorn's head, shouted.

The unicorn lifted the curtain and walked in first, as if it had disappeared into thin air. Then came Emilia, and finally Shade.

After passing through the curtain, we did not reach the Randall River Valley directly. Shade originally thought he would see a scene similar to Eternal Night City, but he was completely wrong.

The ground beneath his feet was covered with white ash, leaving clear footprints of elves, Shad and unicorns. The long and narrow ancient brick and stone corridor extends from the foot to a place that cannot be seen in the distance. Dim torches were stuck on the walls, illuminating the ancient ruins that had gone through so many years.

But even those torches couldn't illuminate the large black areas in the corridor.

Those are the colors of night. Far from destroying the integrity of the corridor, they add a strange and confusing atmosphere to the already ancient corridor.

The darkness of night erodes this corridor, but the darkness of night is not evenly distributed. The closer you get to the St. Byrons end, the more areas of erosion there are, and as you look further into the distance, the black areas are noticeably smaller and smaller, as if someone had splashed black paint from the entrance to St. Byrones.

"That passage in front of the Witch Council?"

Shade was shocked, and then realized that although they were not exactly the same, the architectural style, atmosphere, and even the appearance of torches and masonry were very similar. In other words, the passage in front of the Witch Council that can only be reached by singing and the corridor in front of you are like corridors in different locations in a large ruins.

Of course, Emilia didn't know what Shade was thinking, she was still talking to herself:

"It's going well. Let's keep moving forward. I don't like this place very much. It feels very dangerous to me. Let's not stop here."

Shade nodded in shock, but there were more and more questions in his heart. He hugged the cat that jumped over the unicorn's head, followed Emilia, and advanced carefully in the corridor.

Although the night eroded part of the corridor, there was still enough space to continue moving forward. Miss Elf meant to move forward directly, but Shade suddenly stopped her.

They were now at a quarter of the passage, near a relatively large night shadow. After Shade stopped the elf girl, with her shocked eyes, he walked directly into the dark area with the cat in his arms.

But Shade did not disappear, his body and Mia's body radiated light together. And in the light of the sun and moon, these sourceless nights actually gradually faded away.

"How can it be?"

The young elf girl could not understand the scene she saw, and Shade, who had been in close contact with the night, was completely sure that although the danger level and traces of miraculous elements in these nights were far weaker than those in Eternal Night City, The source of these powers is definitely Eternal Night City.

In other words, in the last era, when he escaped with Fiona, he most likely used this passage.

"Emilia, you've been really helpful."

As he continued to walk forward, Shade did not forget to thank the elf girl again. The latter was still in shock. After shaking his head to express that it was okay, he asked curiously:

"There are only two of us here, Lianna and your cat, so can you tell me why you want to know about this passage?"

She blinked and looked at Shade. Although she lost her "secret passage" tonight, such a "big adventure" was actually not bad. Compared with the comfortable student life of St. Barrons, even if there is no fighting tonight, just participating in things outside of school is interesting enough:

"If it's a secret, you don't have to tell it."

She didn't forget to add.

"It's no secret, it's really about helping a friend."

"A very important friend?"

The elf girl asked again, Shade nodded, and heard "her" laughter again.

"Why are you laughing? Am I right?"

Shade asked in his heart, "she" did not answer immediately, because Shade felt something squirming in his pocket.

"Mia!"

His first reaction was that the cat's tail was rubbing against Mia again, but after warning Mia in a low voice, he looked down and saw the cat staring up at him with its big, innocent eyes.

"Not you? Then what is moving in my pocket?"

So he signaled Emilia to stop again, and then under the latter's curious gaze, he took out a small glass bottle with an oak stopper from his pocket. And inside the bottle was a small golden stone that kept hitting the bottle wall.