“What a coincidence, it collapses just as I was thinking of leaving?”
Coughing while leaning against the door to stand up, and confirming that the path he came from had indeed collapsed, Shade couldn't help but feel doubtful.
But thinking back, there seemed to be other coincidences tonight that had led him from Sophia's mansion straight to this underground iron door. For instance, in the tavern, he had overheard the professors' conversation after only three uses of his occult arts, thereby directly learning more secrets.
That could be considered luck, or it could be a coincidence. And if it was the former, Shade roughly understood what was happening
“Could it be that the [Puppeteer Script] brought me here? But last time it was luck for an entire night; this time it seems it only provided me the convenience of arriving here.”
Regardless, there were no other choices. Although he could stay put and wait for the Witch's rescue—after all, the Witch wouldn't simply abandon her ring—the current problem was that the passage still had the possibility of further collapses, and that possibility was very high. Shade couldn't stay in place and wait to be buried alive.
“I have no choice but to open the door. Anyway, with a drop of divinity still on me, I shouldn't be that unlucky.”
Helplessly climbing to his feet, he brushed the dust off his clothes. Peering through the gap in the iron door, the interior was pitch black; even the silver light at his fingertips could not illuminate the thick darkness inside.
Shade pressed his hand against the door. As the ring lit up, he rotated his palm slightly until the spell could no longer be sustained, and the door swung open.
He took two steps back, and nothing rushed out. Thus, Shade gave the door a push. It let out an exceptionally loud "creak~," and just as the hairs on his skin stood on end, that gentle push actually pushed the door completely open.
Using his clothes to turn the large book in his hand into a toy to carry with him, he then illuminated the way forward with the light in his left hand and drew the Moonlight Greatsword from the air with his right. Shade stepped into the darkness behind the door.
While it was impossible to illuminate the interior from outside, once inside, the silver light at his fingertips could light up the entire space.
Behind the door was not a long corridor, but a small, square dark room. In the center of the room was a pool that occupied three-quarters of the space, and on the other side of the pool was an iron door identical to the one Shade had pushed open.
Shade stood at the entrance, not daring to move forward. The moment he entered, the voice in his ear warned him that dense elements of whispers were gathering in this dark room.
There was actually a faint light inside the room, emanating from the bubbling pool, as if there were not only a spring but also a light source beneath the water.
Shade stood there motionless. He could clearly feel that something was in the dark room—something had already locked onto him.
He couldn't describe the feeling more accurately, but the sensation at this moment was more terrifying than when the spider had crawled up his neck a short while ago.
The hairs on his body stood up, and a sense of panic made him want to turn and flee. But behind him was a dead end only a few meters long; turning to run was meaningless.
And just then, in that pool with the strange blue-white glow, accompanied by the sound of splashing water, a smooth arm reached out. The skin was so delicate, the palm and arm so alluring. Even a foreigner who prided himself on always being able to rationally control his desires almost succumbed to the impulse to step forward and investigate.
“Oh!”
A short blade of light appeared at his fingertip, and Shade slashed it against the arm. The sensation of pain immediately suppressed that strange impulse; though he was injured, it was worth it.
The collapse outside was still continuing; he could no longer retreat. Meanwhile, the arm that had emerged from the water danced gently above the surface. The palm moved in strange motions and postures as if it had no bones, yet it carefully ensured that Shade, standing at the door, could not see the shoulder or the body.
The arm slid across the water's surface, the sound of water exceptionally distinct in the quiet space. Simultaneously, a strange fragrance gradually diffused. Had this scene not occurred in a sealed underground dark room, it might have sparked many romantic fantasies in Shade's mind.
But right now, he only wanted to leave this place, to get away from that beautiful hand and this pool. No matter what relic this was, it certainly wasn't a good thing.
“Hehe~”
Laughter drifted from the pool. It was a woman's laughter, sounding like silver bells that refreshed the heart, or like a cold drink swallowed during a scorching summer that invigorated the soul.
The laughter appeared intermittently, and a seductive quality gradually entered the voice. Although Shade had never encountered such a voice, it was undoubtedly a sound that tugged at primitive human desires.
However, compared to the arm dancing on the water, this voice had absolutely no attraction for Shade.
After all, having grown accustomed to the laughter of women in his ear, all other laughter seemed far too ordinary to him.
【Should I thank you for your praise?】
“Instead of spending your time mocking me, why don't you help me think about what to do now.”
One of Shade's hands gripped the doorframe tightly, the veins on his arm nearly popping. It wasn't nervousness, but rather a struggle to restrain the impulse to step forward.
【It's simple. Don't you have a cultist's tome on you?】
Shade realized, and hurriedly restored the book to its original form, then searched for records regarding this thing. Unfortunately, the wretched cultists had failed to provide a table of contents for their religious tome; Shade had to flip through it page by page, forced to read that evil and terrifying knowledge.
The book was over two hundred pages long.
A splashing sound rang out, startling Shade. Looking up, he saw that the dancing hand had retracted beneath the surface, and in its place, a woman's leg had emerged from the water. Again, only the leg was visible, not the rest of the body. The toes, painted with red nail polish, curled slightly, and the fair skin had a milky luster.
Shade had to admit that, at this moment, he was truly tempted.
“To actually use this kind of thing to test a foreigner like me.”
Despite the temptation, he still gripped the doorframe firmly. If Shade had any virtue, he believed his self-control was quite strong.
“Could these damn fishmen not have written summaries at the start of each chapter and conclusions at the end?”
He cursed the fishmen in his heart for their complete lack of academic spirit, trying his best not to look up.
However, the sound of that woman's leg teasing the water's surface forced him to imagine many scenes. Even if he blocked his ears with cloth, those sounds still entered his ears unobstructed.
The woman's light laughter and the sound of her playing with the water constantly teased Shade's nerves, making him want to look up or step forward.
“This is...”
Fortunately, the content appearing in the book temporarily captured all of Shade's attention. He didn't find information about the creature in the pool, but instead saw a record regarding a “Golden Pearl.”
This passage was grouped with the rituals of the Crimson Secret Sect's worship of the Evil God. In the tone of a religious myth, it described the scene of the Evil God descending upon the material world in an ancient era.
The fishmen built a massive temple for the deity in the fishman city within the deep-sea abyss. A Saint occupied the body of a giant mermaid, spreading terrifying knowledge to the believers within the temple and accepting bloody sacrifices.
Before the deity departed, to reward the piety of the believers, He killed half of the fishman population of that time. Using the tears of joy, ecstasy, fear, and pain, He crafted a Golden Pearl to hold the power He bestowed upon the fishman race.