The raindrops took away the heat on his body, and the fatigue made Shade have an unprecedented desire to lie down and never be separated from the night. This was not the most serious thing, he actually heard a familiar voice in the deep night.
Calling myself, the first call came from Miss Feliana:
"Shad, you showed up again! I asked Fiona to be the bait, and I caught you out as expected!"
"Um?"
Shade subconsciously wanted to look to the left, but the red dragon girl slapped his arm hard with her tail:
"Don't look into the night, look at me, and don't be distracted! It's all fake, everything is fake! Only I am real!"
The last sentence is quite hysterical. Before Shade appeared, the young witch who lived alone in this city must have experienced a lot of things.
"Yes, I remember!"
The first candle had almost been extinguished while he was talking, and the dying firelight made the night darken the clothes of the two of them. This is not an adjective, but their clothes and exposed skin have really turned black. Shade even
It feels like part of my body has been integrated into the vast and indescribable giant "night".
But fortunately, the second candle was lit in time, and the warm firelight illuminated them again, driving away the darkness.
At this moment, a sense of panic that could not be described in any words appeared in his heart. The surrounding night instantly turned into a physical monster, but thanks to having seen more terrifying things, Shade immediately realized that this was completely an illusion.
But Fiona froze in place, so this time it was Shade who reminded her:
"Don't pay attention to the night, look at the light of the candles, it's all fake!"
He grabbed Fiona's right hand and ran forward desperately. When the latter recovered from the panic and panic, the second candle burned out, and the last candle was pulled out of Fiona's maid skirt by Shade.
Take it out of your pocket and light it, but the power of the initial fire cannot make the light last longer.
The last candle represents the last ten seconds of safety. The night has not done any harm to them, but Shade feels that he has never known that the night can be such an oppressive thing. At this moment, the strangers seem to have returned.
As a child, he returned to the age when he was afraid of the dark, afraid of closing his eyes, and afraid of shaking shadows, but this time there was no quilt to cover him with, only the girl who was traveling with him.
The light of the candle in their hands gradually shrank, even to the size of a grain of rice. The light was not enough to cover the two of them, so they held the candle together to prevent each other from melting into the dark night.
The small piece of light at the entrance of the clock shop was right in front of them, but according to the current progress, it was absolutely impossible for the two of them to reach it. Just a second before the last candle was about to be extinguished, Fiona suddenly tried to pull Xia away.
De threw it forward, but she didn't expect that Shade was faster than her. When she reacted, her body had already staggered to the bright door of the store.
The candle was completely extinguished.
The girl who stood firm by holding on to the wall looked at the dark night behind her without any light. She could not see the light or Shade's figure. She covered her mouth in horror, and then she saw Shade's figure.
The hand stretched out from the edge of the night.
His whole body seemed to have turned black, but the surface of his body was slightly emitting a silvery light. And as Shade came to the place illuminated by the light, the black layer also quickly receded:
"Oh, I was really scared just now. I almost forgot that I would shine by myself. Although my friends look down on this ability, it has saved me many times."
He staggered out of the night, feeling that his whole body was about to freeze. But the red dragon girl immediately hugged him again, and the emotional ups and downs made her unable to control her tears.
Of course, Shade was not completely fine as he said. The moment he stayed in the dark for a brief second, something like a tentacle touched his left arm, so that he could hardly control the left half of his body.
.Although he can still stand, he is no longer conscious.
But fortunately, when you return to the present from the past time, although your spirit cannot be replenished, any damage suffered - except for the mental damage caused by looking directly at God, will be healed. This is the right that all time investigators have.
[Outlander, you have some understanding of "dark night" and "shadow". 】
This is already the second time that Shade has gained insights into "Shadow". According to the information accumulated by the academy, no matter how poor his talent is, if he has comprehended the same spiritual rune three to five times, more than 80% of the time, the spiritual rune will come.
of.
One voice in her ears disappeared, but the other voice never sounded. She just hugged Shade, and even wrapped her tail around Shade's waist.
"Let's go in first, there's no need to get wet in the rain here.
Shade persuaded, and Fiona softly said "Hmm~", wiped her tears, and followed Shade into the brightly lit watch shop.
The interior of the store resembles the decoration style of the old era before the Sixth Age of Steam. Dark golden wallpaper is used in the old interior. Wall clocks of various colors and sizes are hung on the walls, with various shapes, and there are even cat-shaped wall clocks.
The pendulum is also made of a variety of materials, including metals, gems, and the wall clock by the door even uses a skull as the pendulum. Every time the skull is shaken, the green fire in its eyes will pull out a line of fire.
The store is filled with low two-tiered shelves, with various small clocks placed on the shelves. Clocks are stacked like cabbage on the left side of the wall near the door of the store, and pocket watches are randomly placed in glass cabinets.
Inside the display window, the watch chains are almost intertwined.
All the clocks showed different times, and even the speeds were different, but they all pointed to night. The only shop Shade had ever seen that was more messy than this was probably Old John's Pawn Shop.
Only those shops where outsiders were trapped had other people, but there was no one here. They tried not to touch anything, and found their way through the gap between the clocks to the deepest counter, and there was no one behind the counter.
On the wall, there is actually an oil painting of a golden throne hidden by a transparent curtain.
The product brochure was placed on the corner of the counter, and compared to the exquisite menu in the cafe, this watch store's product brochure was a bit too shabby.
"I don't have much time left. Let's see what I need to exchange for this time. Maybe I can bring it."
Shade urged, Fiona Drago had never been the kind of girl whose actions would be affected by her emotions. She suppressed her emotions and quickly flipped through the catalog, and quickly found her target:
"it is this."
It’s still the same style as explained on the right side of the picture on the left, except that inside the cafe there are exquisite color pictures, but here it’s just a rough black and white picture, which is a huge gear:
[The Lost Clock Wheel, after holding it, you are immune to some of the effects of time power, and your own aging speed is halved. 】
[The gears of a certain clock in the monarch's palace, nothing more.]
[You need to pay for 4 ounces (approximately 113.4 grams) of the Sand of Time infected by the night.]
"Sands of Time?"
This is a very famous relic that Shade encountered twice in the Sixth Era. The first time was in Cold Water Port, when he and Lesia, who was aliased as Miss Princes, attended the cruise ship auction (Chapter 321), and the second time
The first time was last winter, when Iluna played the [Dice Game] and cooperated with Shade after he caught the abominable thief [Jack Thief] at his house, and the latter gave him one of the three optional rewards (Chapter 988).
But both times Shade had only seen it rather than obtained it. [Sands of Time] is a Keeper-level relic, its body is a desert outside the material world, and the sand itself is just a derivative of the relic. Once this kind of sand is spilled,
Depending on the amount used, it can affect the flow rate in a certain area over time.
However, due to the time involved there are always various problems, so it is mostly used for research rather than combat.
Acquiring this kind of relic is not particularly difficult, but Shade doesn't understand the prefix "infected by the night" very well.
Asked Fiona for advice, the red dragon girl didn't know. There was something like this among the various possible materials that Miss Fiona had originally prepared for her, but it was a pity that she had lost it.
"No problem, I will bring this material next time I come back."
Shade assured her, and the young witch was obviously a little disappointed:
"Are you leaving now?"
Shade knew it was cruel to leave her alone in a place like this, but he couldn't decide such a thing.
While there was still some time, he restored the toys in his pocket and built a small camp using tents, quilts and other items in the corner of the wall where there was not much debris. Fiona only had to get in
The tent can be covered with layers of quilts, and all around it is the food and drinking water he left behind.
In the night of Eternal Night City, there is actually no hunger or thirst. Shade only left these things to reassure her.
"Try not to leave this store until I get back."
Xia De warned, the white mist around him was rising little by little, which was a sign that he was about to leave.
"You will definitely come back, right?"
The red dragon girl pursed her lips and asked. Those eyes looked at Shade and he couldn't bear to leave, but he couldn't find the Sands of Time without leaving.
"Yes, I will definitely come back, accompany you to see the king, and then send you away safely. This is my promise."
Fiona nodded slightly:
"I still can't remember what I came here for, but it seems to be related to the college that the teacher and the teacher's teacher want to establish. You must come back."
She tugged on Shade's sleeve, and then asked rather embarrassedly:
"Can you leave me your coat? I'm not afraid, it's just"
Shade didn't let her continue, but took off his coat and handed it to her. Fiona hugged the dress silently, and the two looked at each other until Shade was swallowed up in the white mist.
Generally speaking, the gods of the Fifth Era can see the white mist, but ordinary people cannot, but this time Fiona saw it.
The life ring and the golden staircase slowly appeared behind her. The young witch timidly looked at the clocks around her, then folded her tail and retracted into the quilt in the tent, determined to "hibernate" until Shade came back.
.
On the life ring, the [Time] spirit rune that had been engraved on it shone brightly. Fiona buried her head in Shade's coat and completely covered herself with the quilt:
"The traces of time, it turns out to be like this."
All kinds of clocks were clicking and the rain was hitting the windows. The night was thick and there was no daylight in this city.