Stray: Chapter 109 dark forest

Ann sat down behind the dead bushes, while Parrish, the knight of judgment, was tying his horse to the charred trunk. After Oliver left, they stopped talking until—

"Your choice is very wise." The female warrior said suddenly, she tied the bag of preserved fruit and tied it back to the Fuller goat. "Be kind and cooperate to gain trust, bring us here with kindness, and wait for our battle strength to be dispersed... Can we temporarily truce? I quite like this sheep."

Parrish's act of securing the reins froze.

" Quietly remove the guardian circle, let me and it accidentally 'die in an accident'." Ann touched the part between the two horns of the goat's head, she was still in the rippling state In the protective cover, but the protective cover has been separated from the judgment knight - there are only two light **** left on the candlestick of Parrish. "I guess it's not that easy to meet a second Crow...cough. You judge knights are always like this, of course, I understand."

Parrish Sherman took off her and Fuller Goat's shields while Ann relaxed, but the shields did not disappear immediately. The female warrior maintained it herself, not rotting to death in shock. The expression on Parrish's face disappeared, and the original helplessness and smile all turned into alertness. With a brief metallic scratching sound, he pulled out the silver sword.

"Are you sure you want to fight?" An casually continued, "Then it can't be an accident?"

"For the glory of Danny." Parrish took a breath and clenched his hands. "I'm very sorry, ma'am. But the mission is not to be missed, and I must rule out any insecurity."

"It seems that you are quite sure that our regiment leader will not be able to come out in time, which is interesting." Ann turned the spear in the air, "Do you mind another information exchange, Mr. Upright Knight?"

Parrish ignored her trade request this time, the judge knight firmly stuck the candlestick on his waist, raised the sword and attacked directly. His offensive was fierce and firm, without any hesitation in his actions. The body of the spear and the blade of the sword collided, and as An deliberately adjusted the angle of the hunting spear, a string of sparks formed between the metals. The lightning climbed up the silver sword, and was immediately shattered by the light array covering the blade.

Ann whistled.

Parrish's movements did not stop, the silver sword stabbed the female warrior's throat, and the latter narrowly avoided. The blade left a shallow bloodstain on the side of Ann's neck, but the judgment knight paid a greater price - Ann's attack arrived almost at the same instant, he avoided it with a strong twist, and his eyes were almost scorched by lightning. The lightning struck his forehead, leaving a terrifying black mark.

Parrish held the sword in one hand and continued to attack the weak point of the female warrior's leather armor, and quickly drew a magic circle with the other hand. Kean was faster than him - the identical white circles collided in the air, and the difference in magic power was very obvious. Parish took two steps back, but he still didn't stand still. He tried his best to regain his balance with a roll, but in the face of evenly matched opponents, a small mistake could be fatal.

The female warrior stepped on his throat and wiped the blood from his neck. Lightning flashed joyously sparks along the armor of the knight of judgment.

"Even if you kill me, there will only be new ones—" Parrish hissed.

"I know? If killing you is really worth it, I will do it as soon as our head of the regiment leaves." An raised his eyebrows, "I just want to make sure of one thing - you just said Regarding the content of her mission, she never once said that she was a recorder, nor did she wear the silver badge of the recorder of Ladd. Then..." She swiftly tore off the buckle of the judgement knight's cloak and looked at the hidden magic circle below. . "It turned out to be the inspector of the Heresy Tribunal, disrespect."

"You seem to know a lot about Laddism."

"The next thing is just my personal guess." Ann ignored him and rubbed his chin. "Your story doesn't sound like a fake. According to the temperament of the old tortoises of the Rad Cult, they will definitely secretly record the battle between Orori and the Church of the Abyss."

"But you are the inspector of the Heresy Tribunal, and at the same time, for the so-called 'safety', you are willing to kill my black stamp first... Interesting, they want to do it?"

Parrish stared at her from the bottom up, expressionless.

"Looks like I guessed it right." An Heng smiled and moved his feet from the neck of the Judge Knight. "I'm still saying that, would you mind another exchange of information, Mr. Knight of integrity?"

“…are you crazy?”

"I said, it's not worth it to kill you - anyway, there will be new people immediately. I see you carrying a sacrificial dagger, is it a big deal?" Without putting down the hunting spear, "You will sacrifice your body as a teleportation coordinate, and I can't stop that."

"You... what do you want to know?" Parrish clenched the sword in his hand. He couldn't guess the purpose of the woman in front of him. If she is from the Abyss Church, she knows enough to go back and report. However, she had no intention of taking any action.

"O'Lorean is weakening, right? You want to take advantage of them when they both lose."

"This doesn't seem like a problem."

"That's right." The smile on Ann's face disappeared, "My question is, who will come from the Rudd, Orman or Garland?"

“…where are your chips?”

"If you tell me." The female warrior stood up straight, a little more awe-inspiring. "I swear not to sabotage your actions against the members of the Church of the Abyss."

Parrish laughed outright: "You?...Although it's a bit rude to say that, but it's up to you?"

"Single person teleportation is fine, but if you plan to use the coordinates of the corpse to provide a teleportation destination for the army, you must match the corresponding magic circle."

"Yes. But I have to say, those circles will never leak to-"

"Although I don't know which one it is." There was no smile in the female warrior's eyes, "But they don't require much magic power, and they can afford to try one by one."

Behind her, countless small white circles were suspended in the air. Parish's eyes widened, his lips quivering a little. The blood in the whole body seemed to be filtered by ice cubes, and it became extremely cold in an instant. He clearly found the pre-agreed signal array in it, and there were even many that he had never seen before - and according to the composition of the incantation, those strange arrays were definitely not fabricated out of thin air.

"The leader is the bishop of Alban's precepts." Parish explained quickly.

The face of the female warrior suddenly became very ugly, she didn't even try to hide this, letting vigilance and worry mixed on her face.

This woman is too dangerous, Parrish thought. Their plan can't be broken by an inexplicable black stamp. And her focus is also very strange. Usually, even if she knows the leader at this time, it will not have any impact on the upcoming extermination operation.

In order to expose myself for a trivial intelligence, this black seal in the end—

"Look at me." A cold, hoarse female voice suddenly sounded. Parrish raised his head subconsciously, gripping the hilt of his sword. She had been trained, and the charm spell didn't work on him, so she couldn't play any other tricks.

Then he froze.

The white circle behind the female warrior disappeared, replaced by a huge pattern. It glowed softly on the dead ground, and he was all too familiar with it. But it was impossible, that was all he had left in his mind.

This is not possible.

"I order you." The female warrior took a few steps forward, grabbed the hair on the back of Parrish's head, and maintained eye contact forcefully. "Parrish Sherman, Inspector of the Inquisition, I order you to forget everything - your mission is smooth, you have not encountered any black seals, the wounds are all caused by guard demons. You will remain on standby, waiting for the war. horn."

"...As ordered." The eyes of the judge knight gradually became blank.

At the same time, the upper crypt.

"Go kill it...it really makes sense." Oliver pondered, "I suggest looking at the situation first, what are your plans?"

They crossed the platform and emerged from a small gap that collapsed. The entrance of the cave is only half a person high, as if it was forcibly broken open a long time ago, and there are thick dust and stone chips scattered everywhere.

"Like you, take one step at a time. After all, it's completely useless, it's just the difference between 'now' and 'decades'." Nemo said, "It's really not us Things that can rashly intervene.”

Saving and killing, which side is the real goodwill, only the demon itself can be judged. After all, they are just bystanders and have no power to make decisions for it.

There was a strong miasma outside the hole, Oliver frowned. Nemo immediately took the armoured hand and was very displeased with the cold touch. "Don't force it."

"They can't hurt me, but the smell is too fishy." Oliver said, "I'm not made of glass, don't worry. If you look like that, I can't help but put the armor on the armor. Cut off the thorn."

Nimo stared at the thorns, looking approving.

"Mr. Vergil will be suspicious." Oliver added, with a smile in his tone.

But the sight in front of them quickly wiped away the smiles on their faces. In the tumbling miasma, the brown-yellow bones were formed into tall and neat cubes, and sporadic jewels shone among the bones. A tall, thin shadow sat beside the Bone Cube, and frightened translucent fingers stroked the skulls one by one, as if counting. Its movements were slow and focused, not the least bit interested in the light reflected by the torches.

"Don't worry about it." Nemo lowered his voice, "We are not here to rob the tomb, it will not attack us actively."

"The enemy that Mr. Vergil said... ah, I see." Oliver raised the sword of rest, "What are these things?"

"The residue," Nemo said bitterly. "A kind of lower-level demon, it's not really strong."

Remains after a large sacrifice. Not the ghost of the dead, but the remnant of the body that was still alive after being dominated by abyss magic—

A shriveled mass of flesh wriggled in front of them. It was as if someone had roughly put human hands, feet and heads on pieces of meat and made them rot into a pile. It—or they reached out to them, groaning indistinctly. And before it could move, it was held down by another residue and torn into pieces.

The deformed shadow picked up the scattered limbs on the ground and carefully stuffed it into the bone cube. Nemo let out a careful breath. The scum immediately screamed and crawled away in a strange posture.

“…Is the defense here too loose?” Oliver didn’t have time to shoot. He also looked around, but found no living creatures other than long shadows and residues, not even a demonized mouse.

"Fergil's passage should avoid most of the guards outside," Nemo said. "After all, this place is open at least once a month. I think the focus should be on the guards at the lower entrance."

As if in response to their words, the torch suddenly increased its speed and moved forward at full speed. Oliver put on his helmet, and the two of them ran along the torch. After passing over an unknown number of corpse cubes, they finally reached their destination.

A group of oddly dressed people...or something, wearing oddly large cloaks and metal pointed hats that cover their entire heads, circle the circular room intently . In the center of the circle was a purplish red heart tied with a string, which was still beating slowly. As soon as Nemo stepped into the room, they stopped in an instant. Countless stinky tiny tentacles stretched out from under the cloak and shot at Nemo like arrows.

Fergil made them shy. If he is really just an ordinary devil believer, I am afraid that a face-to-face meeting will be ground into meat sauce.

Just as Nemo was thinking about whether to do it or not, the heart in the center of the circle beat a few times with extra force - those tiny tentacles turned around and reached the heart in the center of the circle, all around It touched for a few seconds, and finally burrowed back into the cloak like a living snake.

The team in the room begins to circle again.

"What do you need me to do?" Nemo glanced at the heart, trying to look uneasy.

"I'm holding them back for now. Don't worry, the heart of a salamander can last at least an hour, that's your inspiration." Fergil was neatly dressed, but his forehead was full of sparkles sweat. "Mr. Wright, I need you to enter the abyss magic with me. It requires at least two people to be present to open it."

He threw a paper ball over, and a simple magic circle was placed on the paper ball. Nemo wiped it with his hand, and the ink stain was still new. It should have just been written—that is, a live derivation.

"No problem." He nodded without asking more.

"After the circle is completed, wait on the stone steps and don't go anywhere." Fergil urged, "This is no joke, Mr. Wright. You just need to remember one thing—the entrance There is no danger on the stone steps."

With his words, the room gradually rotated, and the door at the original entrance turned to the other side. The entrance to the lower level was completely exposed.

There are more than ten stone steps down, and the place where the stone steps lead is difficult to describe in words.

In terms of elements, it is probably a forest. But to be more specific, it's a nightmare. All things obey no laws of the earth's surface. Space is distorted and trees grow in all directions. The trees themselves also seem to be roughly spliced ​​together after being crushed. Common sense is shattered, and the sense of dislocation makes people's internal organs tighten, and it will make people dizzy if they look at them for a while. There are unnatural vacancies in many places, like peeling walls, with pure darkness behind them.

Nimo sat down on the stone steps obediently, and the "Silent Knight" stood beside him. The room behind them spun back again, and the entrance completely disappeared.

"Don't walk around, or I won't be able to find you." Vergil warned again, trying to show a smile. "I... five hours at most, you just need to wait for me for five hours."

Then he stepped into that weird twist without hesitation, and within a few seconds, his back was completely engulfed by the floating dark forest.

Duran Fergil's smile has always been sincere, but there was not much positive emotion in the smile just now. It's not even a fake smile, it just conveys a deep, dead sadness. In all Nemo's memories, he had never seen such a desperate expression.

Oliver took off his helmet, and this time he fastened it directly behind his back. Nemo recognized the momentum, and Oliver got serious. He also clenched the useless staff and stood up.

"Follow?" Oliver patted his hair.

"Follow up," Nemo said. "Maybe there's something we can do to help."

"What a coincidence, I thought so too."

(m..=)