Stray

    "Maybe he's crazy." Oliver squeezed the thick parchment, his voice dry.

    The head of the tumbleweed was so shocked that he almost accidentally dropped the voice spar in his hand.

    Nemo opened his mouth, just about to answer, but found a subtle difference in the surrounding environment. The next second he got the answer—Dara Lennion's happy humming stopped for some time, and the air was a little scary.

    Even if the brilliance of the spell illuminates the entire attic extremely brightly, the chill of early autumn is still slowly surging on the floor, and it has a tendency to keep getting colder.

    "Not necessarily." The abyss sage who had not joined the conversation suddenly spoke up, and took Oliver's conjecture smoothly.

    Different from the relaxed tone that was filled with joy just now, Della Lane's voice tense. It sounded like he had entered another state of concentration, like a beast with a low body in the grass, staring at the target who was chewing the grass without blinking.

    He carefully put away the strangely shaped metal tools, and his movements were solemn as if performing some ritual.

    "He starved to death." Putting away the tools carefully, the red-haired superior demon added in a very soft voice, as if he was worried about disturbing the corpse's sleep.

    But the explanation from the superior demon failed to relax the atmosphere, and this unexpected cause of death made the two of Tumbleweed take a step away from the corpse.

    "You can say that." Della Lanene approached very naturally, flipping through the parchment they had just discovered. "Well, let's see... the date makes sense."

    Nimo tried to stare at the corpse again, but after his eyes swept across the large and small withered eyes on the chest of the mummy, Mr. Demon King swallowed loudly and decisively gave up the idea.

    "Our Mr. Introducer died within three days of writing this, and by this date, the corpse has been here for a full ten years - from twenty-three years ago and From the Flint Lopez deal, it looks like he's been working on it for thirteen years."

    Dara Lane looked at the thick parchment, and the frivolity in her voice disappeared without a trace.

    "I take back my assessment, he is not a mediocre person."

    "Why?" Nemo tried to reduce the number of words he communicated with Della Layne.

    "Those eyes were not a one-time transplant, Mr. Wright. They were old and new, the oldest being over twenty years old, the freshest even being buried shortly before his death, the wounds It didn't heal. He connected them all into his brain, and the technique was... superb." Della Lenien spoke, but didn't take his eyes off the parchment.

    "On the other hand, while the two of you were rolling around in the pile of paper, I checked the situation around the body."

    The sage of the abyss was obviously too lazy to explain it to them in detail. With a wave of his hand, a translucent human-shaped white shadow appeared in the middle of the room. The white shadow is barely the shape of an adult man, without facial features, the light passes through its body, and there is no shadow-like thing on the ground.

    Dalla Lane snapped her fingers.

    Bai Ying first made a tidying motion by the data box, and then took a sitting position in front of the window - even if the back chair was facing it at the moment.

    It sat quietly, motionless.

    About half a minute later, it struggled to stand up and slammed to the floor. Without intending to stand up, Bai Ying just climbed to the window and struggled to close the window.

    Then it sat back in its chair, seemingly trying to breathe.

    After a short rest, the figure twisted his body, as if he was reversing something heavy. Nemo stared earnestly at the translucent white figure—no accident, the object of movement should be the not-heavy armchair.

    After turning the direction of the chair, the figure left the chair again and made a gesture of reaching out to the dead corpse on the floor.

    But it didn't work - White Shadow fell back into the chair, bowed his head, and completely coincided with the posture of the corpse.

    Then disperse.

      Unfortunately, he apparently failed to do so.

    "I picked up speed, and by the marks, this is all that happened before this gentleman died."

    "Death from starvation is a slow process." Oliver hesitated for a moment, but took the initiative to speak to the annoying superior demon.

    "Death comes much faster when the body is exhausted. Trust me, I tried it." Della Lainene quickly flipped through the incomprehensible calculations. "These eyes were sucking his power so fast, and for some reason he didn't realize it in time."

    "How long?" Nemo asked.

    "How long?"

    "From when the gentleman left the paper record, to when he turned his chair with his back to the window."

    "Three days." Della Lenien replied with great certainty.

    He pulled out a quill and didn't even bother to find himself a chair. The demon bent down directly, propped up the wooden frame, and quickly wrote down line after line of calculations on the parchment.

    Nemo took a breath and walked quickly to the armchair. He gently pressed the back of the chair with his hand, and in the next instant, the shadow condensed into an identical armchair, only facing the window.

    Two chairs back to back, the same size and shape. The hand formed by the dark shadow is like a piece cut out in a bright room, revealing an unpleasant void.

    Nimo took a seat in the shadowy chair and looked up at the window in front of him—

    The window was not big, and it was wide open by Della Laineen. The night wind with the smell of the forest kept pouring into the interior of the house, and the stench of the mummified corpses on the back rushed straight to the nose. He couldn't help but stop breathing and stared at the scene outside the window.

    Three days.

    Dara Lanene had no need to deceive them about this sort of thing. This gentleman must have been sitting here without sleep for three days.

    It was late at night, but the stars were bright. The forest near the hut is not dense, and a night sky with irregular edges is exposed above the dark shadows of the trees outside the window. The branches and leaves rubbed together to make a rustling sound, and occasionally there were insect shadows across the sky. A peaceful and normal night scene.

    What is this introducer looking at?

    Through hundreds of plundered eyes, through this small window, what did he see?

    "Nimo... Do you have a clue as to who this 'she' is?" Oliver's voice interrupted Nemo's slightly trance-like thoughts. "Your expression just now was a little wrong, like you thought of something."

    "What's the matter?" Nemo shook his head vigorously and came back to his senses.

    "Voice spar. Now that we have determined the time period, I will try the previous record." Oliver clapped the spar powder in his hand. "Its activation circle was encrypted, and the wrong spar was destroyed. Looking at the record of that gentleman, he doesn't seem to care about much, I want to know—"

    Nemo looked alertly at the abyss sage who was still writing, he leaned over to Oliver and carefully drew the name on the palm of his hand.

    【Hagen Ingram】

    Oliver also glanced at Della Layne, knowingly holding back her doubts and taking the lead in trying. After blowing up two or three hedrons, the word "Heigen" finally helped them open the encrypted hedron.

    Dara Lenien was so engrossed in calculations that she didn't even bother to lift her head.

    "About the habits of the abyss nightmare leopard, we can draw a conclusion from their dormant cycle..." The array of light spots slowly rotated above the spar, and a slightly murmured human voice came from the turbid crystal. outgoing.

    A clear voice record, well preserved.

    "It's done." Oliver whispered, "I'll ask you about your 'password' when you go back."

    "Hmmm." Nemo buried himself in the selection of the spar.

    Fortunately, I heard Flint's voice in his youth from the Necromancer Medes, which made their screening not take too long.

    About four in the morning, the two finally found the spar that recorded Flint's voice. This time, it was Della Lane who was buried in the pile of parchment, and he raised his head again when he heard Oliver's shout, "This is it!"

    "Let's be clear about the transaction. Mr. Flint Lopez, your transaction record consists of two things...the way to create a cradle of blood, and seven pounds of processed demon flesh." This voice should belong to the old man.

    "Yes."

    "The current transaction situation...I see, the blood cradle you placed in the coffin has successfully stabilized the baby's physical condition, and the devil's flesh has also been cast into your right arm."

    "Yes."

    "Blood Cradle requires a large daily supply of blood, and this part of the record may be kept in the butcher's shop. You need to assure me that you are awake at this moment, and please swear, take Everything you tell is the truth, and there will be no lie."

    "I swear." Oliver's father sounded passive and weak in the face of the butcher's introduction who had little connection.

    "The knowledge you want to trade is 'discovery from the bottom of the abyss'. If your knowledge is judged to be of insufficient value, I will scrap and take back the blood cradle given to you by the butcher, as well as your right arm After all, I need to provide valuable research results or information to the above on a regular basis, please understand." The old man's voice was calm and flat, "Of course, if your knowledge is judged to be valuable, I can give you a few more abyss. magic."

    "I see." Flint sounded unenthusiastic.

    Nimo grabbed Oliver's wrist, he could feel his palm cold and sweaty.

    "I don't think you are interested in my sightings and adventures, I'll keep it short. For various reasons, I was separated from my party at the bottom of the abyss, wandering alone. Before I thought I was going to die in While there, a rogue saved me."

    "You mean those weird creatures that can't be classified at the bottom of the abyss?"

    "I thought so." Flint chuckled. "It must have the ability to mimic. Even if the vision is dark, I can feel its size just by hearing the sound. But it is a human hand that is holding me, very similar to mine."

    "Sounds like a mimesis."

    "It just pulled me all the way, talked to me, and sent me back to the team. Now that I think about it, I'll walk together for about five or six days. During the period, there are condensation spells and dry food to support , I'm fine."

    "You're lucky."

    "It saved my life, so I left my token. If it is summoned to the surface one day, it can come to me, and I can try to adapt it to the rules of the surface , and even befriend it - that's what I thought."

    "What I need is knowledge and intelligence about the abyss, not stories, Mr. Lopez."

    "I know. I've heard of you guys, this conversation is confidential, right?"

    "It belongs only to the butcher's shop, and we do not reveal the personal privacy of our guests. I repeat, Mr. Lopez. I am only interested in knowledge and intelligence about the Abyss."

    "Very good, very good. Then please keep the next thing secret. When everyone was almost... all sacrificed, I successfully killed Ulysses."

    Flint's voice began to tremble.

    "Following the rogue's advice, I cut off the Demon King's head. It let out a scream that sounded extremely painful. At that time I didn't think much about it, although for the expedition, I always...but my comrades died tragically before me, I..."

    "Please calm down, Mr. Lopez."

    "Sorry, I lost my way. That's the way it is - I killed it, with hatred. Even if we were the one who went to the bottom of the abyss and woke it up. I sincerely hope it's true It was a terrifying monster with no blood and no tears as rumored, but at the moment when the Demon King's head was successfully cut off, I saw it through the fire of the weapon."

    "What did you see?"

    "Among those terrifyingly twisted limbs, a human hand."

    “…”

    "And I recognize what's in that hand, the pendant I keep as a token. Why do you say that? I don't understand. If it wants to live, why should it To save me? If it wants to die, why would it… kill everyone?"

    Nemo bit his lower lip unconsciously, and his limbs became numb due to tension, but he could still detect the trembling of Oliver's wrist. With inexplicable fear, he increased his strength. Hold tight to your lover.

    He doesn't know the details.

    I took back Ulysses' memory, but it was more like observing everything objectively from Ulysses' perspective. He could see what was happening, but he didn't know what the Demon Lord Ulysses—or rather, himself, was thinking.

    Of course, he wouldn't know what happened after Ulysses died.

    Flint Lopez did not lie about the facts. But the growing despair in his voice made Nemo shudder.

    “…please continue, Mr. Lopez.”

    "I couldn't understand it at the time. I was standing there with the **** devil's head on my back. Its body was melting and turning into a black liquid. I knew we should Immediately leave, look for and take away the bone jade that is about to appear. The miasma around the corpse will become stronger and stronger."

    "But you didn't leave immediately." The old man guessed.

    "I'm looking at the hand that used to hold me."

    "What did you do?"

    "I... at the end, couldn't help but touch it."

    "And then?"

    "Shards got into my head. Just illogical, shards, but it allowed me to perceive everything through Ulysses the Demon Lord in that instant. I It shouldn't have been touched, it was the decision I regretted the most in my life. What I'm about to say next may sound crazy, sir, but... I saw it."

    The sound stopped abruptly.

    What remains is a blank space with a murmur.