Chapter 22 The Tale of the Ancient Castle (2) - What is a Miracle?
Is it alive?
Neferty's fingers trembled slightly. Although Naira warned her not to come to Verona for the camping trip, the Marquis of Odessa believed that she had not obeyed the obligations of her brother who was a few seconds older than her. Moreover, she had no idea.
Ming had a premonition that missing this trip would make him regret it for the rest of his life.
The wind direction outside the window is changing drastically.
Thick clouds hang low on the roof and tower of the castle, huddled together like a hibernating snake, never dispersing. The dense atmosphere lingers and shrouds. The faint light flickers on all the ground objects around it.
above, flashing under the large masses of rolling mist.
Neferti was oppressed by some indescribable and unbearable feeling, like a poisonous snake lurking near a little rabbit, and she couldn't breathe. At this moment, a bolt of lightning struck the spire of the tower, illuminating the room.
It's bright.
"ah!"
Neferti gave a soft cry.
"what's the situation!?"
Desai, who was traveling with him, ran over. He was on guard in the corridor, and all the blood in his body had evaporated.
Neferti hesitated for a moment. When she saw clearly the sergeant who had disrupted her destiny, she straightened her chest and looked like a marquis:
"nothing."
Desai looked at her and said nonchalantly:
"Captain Ophelia's Reserve Assault Squadron asked everyone not to leave too far. If there are any clues about the Viscount's family, they need to be compiled as soon as possible."
Neferti glanced at him: "Byelan's military order is only effective for brave officers and sergeants. And I, as a glorious citizen of Odessa, am not bound by you."
"Miss Marquis is right," Desai responded as if he was endorsing her. "Then, as Captain Griffith's agent, I would like to remind Miss Marquis that the captain will come to join us at any time."
"Will the knight come!?" Neferti cried out in surprise.
Ah! How could I say such words, as if I was looking forward to him coming... Neferti suddenly blushed and lowered her head.
"..." Desai also didn't expect that the title of captain was so effective. He was stunned for a moment until Neferti handed over the diary in her hand.
"If you can't read, I can teach you how to read."
"Thank you, Miss Marquis. My education in the sergeant school has made me qualified for my job, so I won't worry about it."
Neferti immediately blocked it and said:
"Oh~ I never thought you soldiers had something else in their heads besides muscle and obedience~
"It's a good idea. Otherwise, with a barren brain and a stuffy lid, the top of your head will be barren before long!"
This was not very pleasant to hear... Desai grinned and tried to laugh it off. He suddenly felt that the helmet seemed really annoying, so he took off the heavy protective gear and prepared to calm down and retort.
Before he could say anything, Neferty suddenly touched her pink mouth with her index finger.
"Shh! Did you hear something?"
The rags and broken wooden poles on the wall were blown by the north wind, fluttering back and forth on the wall, rubbing uneasily against the stone surface. For some reason, maybe out of instinct, when the strong wind stopped for a while, a kind of sound came from nowhere.
Suppressed muffled sounds.
Desai listened carefully. Soon, he heard something.
"Hissing!"
This is an ethereal, long and illusory flute sound.
Along with the howling wind, an inexplicable fear seeped into his body and weighed on his heart. He gasped, struggled to shake his body, tried his best to get rid of this strange feeling, and stared out the window.
There's something out there!
Like a rattlesnake, it vibrates its deadly body with a trembling sound, distant yet near. This sound seems to be passing through the sky.
The windows of the castle suddenly dimmed. In an instant, it seemed as if extremely fast dark clouds blocked the dim light in the sky, plunging everything into darkness.
It came and went in a hurry, and when the light returned to his field of vision, Desai saw a long shadow flash across the floor illuminated by the light from the window.
"Hissing!"
This rattlesnake-like flute sound quickly disappeared from the top of the head, and it made people feel that it would come back at any time.
"let's go!"
Desai and Neferti said at the same time. They ran out of the study and went to join the others.
The two walked through the corridor and found that along the way were portraits of the Crozier family's ancestors that had not been taken away. Near the end, Ophelia was looking up at a portrait.
"Captain Ishtar, Miss Marquis found a diary." Desai reported.
However, Ophelia did not respond to him, but continued to stare at the portrait. She felt that her mind was a little confused and her mind was not clear.
The two of them also looked at the painting and saw a calm and resolute middle-aged man in the painting.
There is a brief introduction to him beside the portrait.
"Count Wesker de Crozier"
He was the father of Viscount Isius de Crozier, a well-known and outstanding figure, but his ending was tragic. He died silently during an investigation in the southern jungle. His fall brought Crozier to the forefront.
The Er family was pushed down the steep slope of decline and has not been able to recover until now.
"Someone come quickly!"
At this moment, someone from another place shouted.
"Here is the wizard's workshop!"
The first year students who were traveling together finally found the secret vault of the Crozier family behind a corner wall. If you are lucky, you can collect some casting materials, or use the magic circle here to ask for help from the rear.
Everyone was in high spirits. After leaving the necessary support staff, Ophelia took Neferty, Desai and some people into the secret room.
Through a hidden staircase, they walked down until they reached the basement deep in the castle.
Tiny mildew spots and gray-white spider webs covered the walls like vines. There were some dents and damage left by demolition of the walls between the support columns in the basement. It seemed that someone had repeatedly expanded the place. Many broken wood chips and pieces of wood were also found on the ground.
Glass, and some large wooden barrels containing one-third of the remaining wine. Everyone searched carefully, but did not find the magic circle or precious materials.
"The owner here dares to use this secret room as a wine cellar," a first-year student said disappointedly. "The country nobles value their wine more than their lives. We can only find some empty wine barrels here!"
"No, there."
Ophelia's magic eye quickly found traces of psychic energy. She found a movable stone slab, which was twenty centimeters thick and fit perfectly with other parts of the ground. When it was closed,
Unless outsiders lift up the entire foundation, there is no way they can find the basement hidden deep inside the mansion.
There is another endless stone staircase that extends all the way to the prehistoric cave underground.
Everyone went down there and found bones scattered on the ground, and the weird people in the air were disgusting.
"There is an echo circle here!" Several first-year students cheered. They found a usable circle on the floor. As long as they added materials, they could contact the reinforcements from behind.
This good news inspired everyone. Despite the harsh environment, this carefully hidden vault must have been used for some occult purpose.
Some people started to charge the magic circle with enthusiasm, while others carefully groped forward and found some huge broken glass vessels. The turbid liquid flowed all over the floor, and the strange smell came from them.
"These glass jars are so big!"
"If you dare, you can pretend to be a ten-year-old child and go in."
Neferty followed Ophelia and Desai closely, not daring to move around casually. Only when the light of everyone's wands illuminated the surroundings, she discovered a large glass jar standing in the corner.
The curious boys and their Shutoral also noticed that and immediately gathered around.
"Nothing, nothing..."
They almost pressed their faces against the glass and looked inside from different angles.
The huge container contained some kind of liquid, and it started to sway as it was pushed by the crowd. At this moment, a group of objects suddenly rushed towards everyone's faces from the darkness.
"Wow!"
Everyone was so frightened that they took two steps back. The thing hit the inner wall of the vessel and bounced back.
Someone boldly raised his wand and looked there...
He saw a stooped and deformed creature like an ape floating in the liquid, with a human-shaped skeleton, an extremely weak face, and a horrifyingly twisted face.
After seeing this thing clearly, Neferti almost fainted from fright, and even Desai took a deep breath.
"I have seen aliens from the east and fish-men from the west sea," Ophelia said, rubbing her forehead, "but I have never seen anything like this."
"Come and see here!"
Someone shouted in panic and anger.
Behind the glassware, he found a square stone trough, with a pipe of unknown material connected to the glassware. There were many human bones, or bones similar to human shapes, piled in the stone trough.
Some relatively intact skeletons were lying on the ground outside the stone trough, trying to crawl outward.
This filthy and extremely evil sight made everyone extremely frightened.
All of this actually happened in the castle of Viscount Beyeland. Just when everyone was about to start a frightening association, Ophelia suddenly shouted:
"Retreat. Everyone, get out of here!
"Contact Berthier and other teams, everyone gather, we want to..."
"ah!"
Her words were interrupted by extremely miserable screams. The people left at the entrance above screamed and begged for mercy. Then, their voices turned into vague reverberation in the throat, and finally, there were several spine bending sounds.
and weird crackling sounds.
Without any orders, everyone took up arms and formed a battle formation with the extraordinary Ophelia as the core.
"Do you know where this place is? My lovely guests."
The sound of footsteps came from above and towards them. What followed was a cold and depressing and crazy voice:
"Oh this sweet smell, Miss Neferty, is that you?
"It seems that fate is indeed on my side, hahahaha."
The brilliance in Ophelia's demonic eyes shines, and the pure spiritual energy turns into a scarlet moon sickle, tearing apart the space and lashing towards the evil enemy above.
"Boom!"
There was a loud sound in the air as the shield was shattered, followed by a crisp sound of falling. A silver mask fell down the steps to the floor.
"Who are you……"
In the darkness, Ophelia was the first to witness the true face of her enemy.
"Let's stop this useless resistance, it's too late, Ophelia," said the creature on the steps, "Don't you want to know?
"Behind the endless desire,
“Pursuing crazy dreams in the name of progress,
"The stories of fools.
"After all, lovely Miss Neferty, you are also one of the miracles of this miserable world.