“Fire… frozen to death… match girl? Hmm?”
Xia De thought in surprise, suddenly realizing something.
At this moment, the two had returned to the seemingly normal corridor. Miss Louisa glanced at the golden cracks still on Xia De’s body, while Xia De learned from the woman in his heart that there was still a strong whisper element nearby.
Just as Miss Louisa was about to raise her hand for the third time, she suddenly looked up:
“Careful!”
Black mist shot from the corridor ceiling above towards Xia De. Miss Louisa raised her hand to block it, and though Xia De’s reaction wasn't as swift as the Sorceress’s, he also timely raised his hand to intercept above.
However, before the trace of Moonlight could form in his hand, the golden radiance covering his body suddenly flickered.
The black mist let out a shriek, then burrowed into the floor and disappeared. The Divine Radiance state in the real world only made Xia De’s Miracle and spells stronger, but in the spiritual world, no evil could approach him.
The Golden-haired girl, holding his hand, smiled and glanced at Xia De, teasing:
“Quite a nice decoration.”
“Hmm…”
“No need to explain. Since it risked attacking us actively, it means we’ll soon be out of the dream. This is a good sign. Detective, focus. We’ll be back to reality soon.”
The two Ling Runes that lit up this time were The Writer and 【Illusion Dream】.
Ripple-like Ling Runes floated from Miss Louisa’s fingertips, merging into the dream space. As everything before them shattered like a glass pane, and the two holding hands regained their senses, they found themselves back in the normal third-floor corridor, and the golden cracks on Xia De’s body had completely vanished.
The voice in his heart reminded him that all the dense whisper element around them had disappeared, and only then did they both sigh in relief. Leaving the dream and returning to reality allowed them to deeply feel the difference between dream and reality.
Xia De subtly released Miss Louisa’s soft hand:
“What do we do next?”
“Detective, follow behind me. I want to show you how to deal with a relic losing control. Honestly, I told you this trip would be fine, but something still went wrong. That pen truly is…”
Miss Louisa brushed her hair back and summoned her Destiny Ring behind her in reality. Then she glanced around, walked to the door right next to the stairwell, lifted her skirt, and neatly kicked the door open.
A cold, damp, and 腥潮 wind immediately surged out of the room. By the time Xia De caught up, Miss Louisa had already entered the room.
This place was similar to a storeroom or collection room. Professor Manning’s other antique collections were placed on shelves against the wall, with precious items covered by glass domes.
Now, the professor himself lay on the floor, curled up, with black smoke rising from his head, connecting to the black cat standing on the professor. A fountain pen with its cap removed was stuck in the professor’s wrist. The pen was black but decorated with red lines.
Interpreting those lines as text, Xia De understood their meaning:
“【Blood weaves dreams, you possess me.】”
The pen tip was directly inserted into the professor’s blood vessels, absorbing blood while causing the veins on Manning’s right hand to severely bulge.
Looking at the pen, the voice in his ear lazily reminded him of the appearance of the “whisper” element. Miss Louisa frowned and pointed at the black cat:
“This is the nightmare born from Professor Manning’s dream!”
“But why a cat and not a person?”
Xia De still didn’t forget to ask at this point, but unexpectedly, the black cat provided the answer. The black cat’s voice sounded like nails scratching glass:
“Because the image he invested blood and love into is a cat.”
“Hmm?”
Imagining what might have happened in the dream created by the relic 【Pen of Joyful Dreams】, Xia De showed expressions of awe and fear towards the unconscious Professor Manning.
“Ring術士, we have no grudge. Why do you want to take me away from him? I love him, and he loves me.”
The slender black cat’s mouth didn’t move, but its voice clearly reached both of their ears.
“Do you take us for fools who understand nothing? Once the person holding you can’t resist temptation, how many aren’t drained dry by you?”
Saying this, the Miracle Ling Rune 【Flame】 lit up in Miss Louisa’s Destiny Ring behind her. Golden flames soared from her hand, and then these flames seemed to burn away space, causing the sound of shattering glass to echo in the room.
The sunlit collection room disappeared; this was actually an illusion. What appeared before Xia De was a dimly lit bedroom with heavy curtains and a strong peculiar smell. The floor was covered in black cat hair. Professor Manning, with the fountain pen still in his wrist, remained lying on the floor, but the nightmare cat was gone.
“Over here!”
The Writer’s golden flames shot towards the ceiling. Looking up, the black cat seemed to have been flattened into mud, then stretched into a plane, adhering to the ceiling. The ceiling, originally patterned with stars, was now completely covered by a translucent black cat skin. Large cat eyes emerged from beneath the cat skin, as if the starry sky had opened countless bizarre eyes, looking down at the two.
Xia De felt an instinctive unease. That twisted shape and the power of mental pollution, if an ordinary person were to glance at it, they wouldn’t even need to be sent to Doctor Schneider. His stomach felt uncomfortable, and his head began to feel dizzy. Fortunately, the Divine Radiance was protecting his mind.
What was worse, although the golden flames successfully touched the abnormal monster on the ceiling, they caused it no harm. From the mud-like cat, clusters of small flesh buds gradually grew out, and then, amidst a scalp-prickling scream, these small flesh buds grew into long tongues with barbs, licking downwards.
Xia De didn’t want to look up again, but hearing the sound above, he still endured the nausea and formed an arc-shaped blade of silver Moonlight in his hand, striking upwards. However, this attack only blocked the tongues, failing to harm them.
“It’s semi-corporeal; part of it is still in the dream. Watch me! What you saw just now were simple Miracles. Now, I’m going to use my best original Miracle!”
Miss Louisa said, as the core Ling Rune 【The Writer】 and the Enlightenment Ling Rune 【Match】 lit up simultaneously.
She took a rolled-up piece of parchment from her pocket and tossed it into the air. With a flash of spiritual light, the paper burned in the air.
Miss Louisa softly chanted a spell, which was in the delarion common language:
“Crossing reality and illusion, in the faint light of the match, let me witness your story.”
The burning flame was like a lit candle wick. In this light, a small, barefoot figure gradually became clear. Her legs were frozen, bruised and purplish, her single garment was patched with five or six pieces, and her golden long hair was coiled as if it hadn’t been washed in years. In her basket, she carried several boxes of matches.
The only thing unclear was her face, but one could vaguely catch facial features similar to Miss Louisa’s.
Xia De’s eyes narrowed slightly. He was now completely certain that the ancient fairy tale, The match girl, was the story he was familiar with.