Mystery: Mr. Witch and Ms. Hunter

Chapter 393 Nightmare
In the southern continent, at Port Berens, it was late at night.

Adele glanced at the candle by the bed and saw that only a small candle was left.

Although there were replacement ritual candles in the room, Adele had no intention of taking them out. Instead, she straightened her navigation notes and prepared to finish writing the last section of the diary before the candles went out.

Although Adele had been transferred from the Snow Wind, she still brought her own sailing diary with her so that she could sort out what happened during this period later.

Sometimes, only by flipping through the diary during this period do I realize that I have been through so many things...

Adele couldn't help but sigh as she looked at the densely packed records in the logbook. Since she left Indo Port at the beginning of this year, in just two months, she followed the members of the Witch Cult to the old ruins located underground, and accidentally traveled to the world before the extraordinary happened. Then, she broke through the strata on the seabed and flew out of the sea to the southern continent.

It was originally thought that things would become irreversible after the showdown with Tracy. However, under the manipulation of the Tarot Club, Tracy and Adele were transformed into captains of the kingdom's official privateer ships, and were involved in the backup plan left by the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom in the southern continent. They witnessed the birth of the Disaster Witch of the Source School together, and now began to plan a decisive battle against the Rose School.

Adele turned to the latest page of the diary, where a thin piece of paper was tucked in. It was stamped with the "Sword of Judgment" logo. It was a letter of appointment appointing Adele as the Baron of the Indo District of the Kingdom of Loen.

The Kingdom of Loen was unwilling to initiate a conflict at this time, but that did not mean they wanted to turn a blind eye to the huge benefits that Indo Port would bring.

Since Feysac temporarily gave in and gave up the control of Indo Port, the one who really controlled Indo Port was actually Vinata. But Vinata was a Feysac, so the title of baron fell on Adele.

In principle, what Rune did did not infringe on Feysac's interests. The shipping company led by Vinata temporarily took over all the affairs of the territory that Feysac had given up, and what Rune did was just to give Adele, another person in charge of the shipping company, a baronial title.

Even the title of baron was in accordance with the rules. After all, most of the treasures seized by Adele flowed into the treasury of Loen, so it could be regarded as paying for a title. Even baron was a little low.

Originally, the Kingdom of Loen could not, in principle, govern the territories of Adele and the others. But now it was different. Adele became a baron of the kingdom and nominally served the new King of Loen, George IV. The king naturally had the right to provide assistance to his nobles.

In this way, if everything goes well, Indo Port will become a bridgehead for Loen to stay in Feysac. The establishment of sea control will give this isolated enclave a different value. It is a great thing for the shipping company, which is currently seriously understaffed. All members will have a formal organization and can receive salaries from the country, instead of Adele having to pay out of her own pocket and bear the profits and losses.

After going through all this, Adele's identity changed from "the witch from Backlund" to "director of the Queen Island Shipping Company, honorary director of White Pharmaceuticals, lieutenant of the Royal Navy of the Loen Raging Sea, captain of a privateer ship, and Baron Indo." In other words, if she went to the social scene in Backlund now, she would become a socialite second only to Miss Audrey, and could even rely on the favoritism of the Loen social scene towards ladies to get a chance to talk to the two princes, the brothers of the current king.

However, for now, this baronial commission has no other use for the time being and is just a blank check. It will not take effect until the end of the war and it is awarded by a prince or the founder of the country, William Augustus.

Fortunately, I will be able to return to Indo Port soon. Before that, I'd better find someone to cash in some of the benefits...

Adele took another look at the letter of appointment, then carefully put it into her diary and kept it. At this moment, the candle on the bedside table could no longer hold out and went out with a "pop". In an instant, only the bright red moonlight was left in the room.

It's another blood moon tonight...

Adele narrowed her eyes slightly, feeling a little weird.

In this world, the changes of the moon are both regular and irregular. Normally, its phases change in unison, but there are always a few times every year when it suddenly becomes round and blood-red. Such situations are illogical. Sometimes it happens only once a year, and sometimes it happens four or five times a year.

Neither astronomers nor mystics can explain this phenomenon, and cannot come up with any pattern. They can only ignore this problem temporarily, regard it as one of the mysteries, and jokingly say that maybe the goddess is just in a bad mood.

Of course, with the information she got from the Tarot Club, Adele knew that the power of the moon had been traded by the Goddess to the Mother Earth as a bargaining chip for attacking the God of War, and the current phase of the moon was still weird, indicating that the righteous gods did not seem to affect the phase of the moon.

Among the evil gods, Adele happened to know one who controlled the power of the moon; and the believers of the Rose School on the opposite side were also good at using the power of the red moon.

The blood moon will bring about a rise and outburst of negative emotions, and will make the power of the underworld and the spirit world stronger. The hedonistic members of the Rose School will become even more powerful and crazier, or even completely lose their minds.

However, Adele was not too worried about the situation here, because the extraordinary people of the Church of Mother Earth and the Church of Night were also good at fighting under conditions of full moonlight. Even if the Rose School launched a sneak attack, they would not get any good results.

Feeling a little relieved, Adele pulled the veil of night over her head, changed into pajamas, and lay down on the simple iron bed.

In order to fight against the dream from the City of Disaster, Adele has been wearing the "Night Veil" when she sleeps, relying on its effect to keep herself in a dreamless sleep brought about by the extraordinary effect all night long.

The same was true tonight. The effect of the Night Veil was indeed excellent in promoting sleep, and Adele fell asleep quickly.

……

After an unknown amount of time, Adele opened her eyes and found herself in the burning city again. The only difference was that the sky was darker this time. If the previous color was flowing blood, now it was solidified blood clots.

This time, most of the buildings in the city collapsed in the raging disaster, leaving only the twisted concrete houses entangled by vines and the dark blue castle under the burning beech tree in the center of the city.

Why did I return to this dream again?

At this moment, Adele was really scared.

The real fear does not come from the strong ones of the High Sequence, nor the scary alienated people, nor the weird ritual magic or sealed objects, but it is that it walks slowly towards you in square steps, and you know nothing about it and have no way to escape!
Emperor Roselle once said that the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest fear is the fear of the unknown. Now, the performance of the City of Disaster directly destroyed everyone's judgment of it, and climbed up Adele's spine like a thorn in her side.

Adele stood on the tall tower and looked down. The town covered with thick ashes appeared before her at dusk. The old weather vane, spires, roof beams, chimneys, docks, bridges, and cemeteries were all visible.

If you observe from the ground, the street seems to be straight ahead; but when you stand on a commanding height and look down, you will find that the layout of the entire street is actually like a path on the top of a mountain: steep, narrow, with small bends, forming an endless maze.

The dizzying, age-worn church stood on a tree trunk in the center of the maze, right where the trunk had cracked last time, wrapped in the middle by black branches.

On the other side, those houses of unknown age formed another endless maze, like a castle built by children with building blocks, with different angles and heights, sometimes densely packed, sometimes sparsely packed.

The gables and the duplex sloping roof of the house were stained gray by ashes. The old paint and traces of fire condensed on the walls, leaving behind one ancient spell after another.

Driven by some mysterious force, Adele eagerly crossed the back streets, entered the circular square, stepped on the ashes that fell on the only unpaved stone road in the city center, and headed deep into the city.

Along the way, she saw a beautiful dragon falling from the sky, its pearly white scales pierced by a sword blade filled with malice. It fell from the sky, raising ashes like clouds.

Another similar dragon roared in the air, as if mocking the fallen one's transgression.

...Miss Audrey lost to Hermes, how could I have such a dream? !
Adele was a little panicked. For the first time, she felt fear of the scene in her dream.

When an ending that you don't want to accept appears in a dream, even if you know it is just a dream, you will still doubt whether this ending is really possible, and Adele is now caught in this doubt.

At the same time, countless scenes between illusion and reality appeared around her. Adele saw black sails covering the sky and the sun coming from the horizon, surrounding the entire city, and the shipping company's building turned into a sea of ​​fire;

She saw Venata and Sophie facing countless enemies, gradually losing strength, and the flashes of fire were finally drowned in the crowd, like the last spark of firewood before it burned out;
She also saw a huge, dark and sticky arm stretched out from the sky, causing the trees to fall and the mountains to tremble. It slammed William Augustus' body into the formation of the Loen army. Everyone had a horrible change because of looking directly at the angel...

These were the outcomes that Adele feared and worried about from the bottom of her heart and wanted to avoid at all costs. At this moment, they were gradually appearing around her, absorbing her fear and gradually becoming solid, no different from real scenes.

Just when Adele was about to be driven crazy by this weird atmosphere, the church bell suddenly rang.

At the moment the bell rang, all the shadows stopped moving; until the bell struck eleven, all creatures, real or imaginary, walked towards the old church under the beech tree.

Among the illusory figures, there was Miss "Audrey" whose eyes were dug into two bloody holes, Sophie and Vinata whose bodies were burning with flames, and mutated soldiers with strange protrusions all over their bodies, skull heads, three-dimensional eyes, or tongues with sharp teeth.

They walked in single file, silently, along the fishnet-like streets of this incredibly ancient city, the curtained windows darkening one by one, and strange beings walked out of every door.

The phantoms that came from Adele's fear only accounted for a small part of the team, while the main force of the team was the hooded monsters who walked out of the rooms on both sides. They surrounded Adele in the middle and forced her forward.

Their soft arms pressed against Adele's chest and abdomen, and Adele felt that the softness of these arms was somewhat abnormal. Until she saw the faces of the people coming, the faces hidden by the hooded people were all hers without exception, as if they were carved from the same mold. The difference was that except for Adele, everyone here was dead.

Soon, Adele and the others were walking down a rough, ominous stone staircase. The narrow spiral staircase was damp and had a strange smell. The monotonous walls were full of dripping stones and peeling mortar. The steps extended deep into the beech tree.

They seemed to be chiseled directly out of the rock, and to Adele's horror, there was no sound of footsteps or echo from so many people walking along.

After a seemingly endless descent, she discovered some dark and mysterious passages or holes in the unknown depths of the darkness, which looked like branching alleys. Soon these passages became numerous, as if they were unclean underground tombs full of unknown threats, and an indescribable ancient atmosphere came from the passages.

Finally, Adele saw a pale light flickering strangely, heard the sound of flowing water that never sees the light of day, and the faint, mocking wailing of the field.

This was the underground of the ancient castle. Thick bronze tree roots stuck down from the ceiling. Red and pure black flames were spewing all around. Sticky water was flowing in invisible places. Those people formed a semicircle around the flames, surrounding Adele and the ancient flame in the middle.

This seemed to be some kind of ancient ritual, and Adele didn't even need to deliberately guess what its purpose was: because she soon saw the existence summoned by this ritual, which was a mass of amorphous matter that kept rotating, like a strange, silent and unknown viscous river.

That was a form that was not understood by people in the old days. It was the form in which disaster manifested itself through the possession of dead carriers!
Before her frantic screams could attract all beings lurking in the darkness, Adele leapt into the greasy, bubbling underground river, and her consciousness gradually faded, and the dream ended abruptly.

(End of this chapter)