Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 191 Balloon
Claire used the nightmare doll's "soul-soothing" ability to try to calm the "big balloon"'s emotions.

But the effect was not ideal, and no one knew what kind of strange ability the "big balloon" had, and the power of the mind could not affect it.

Instead, the "big balloon" slowly floated over and hung above Claire's head, swaying its body as if mocking Claire's weakness.

Claire knew that besides signing a contract and sealing the soul, forcibly subduing the opponent with force was also a way to control the spirit. However, without exposing her abilities in other ways, Claire really couldn't think of how to deal with this "big balloon" for a while.

But since it is a special training course, and the strange spirit in front of her seems to have been specially selected for her by Archbishop Sersilis, then it shouldn't be so difficult that it cannot be sealed.

At the very least, in regular training courses, there must be some mention of means to deal with the current situation.

"Are you going to let me sleep?"

When the ability to soothe fails, dreaming is a dangerous but effective auxiliary method.

Just like when Claire first came into contact with the nightmare doll, she gained control by relying on direct contact with "Yuffie" in her dream.

Entering a dream can circumvent the various strange and rare abilities of spirits and directly contact the other person's heart.

However, if one goes deep into the dream of a spirit, even an extraordinary person in the "Sleepless" sequence has a high probability of getting lost in it and forgetting himself.

The dreams of evil spirits are chaotic and dangerous, and can easily drive the dreamer crazy.

The dreams of nature spirits are simple and realistic, and can easily assimilate the dreamer.

This "big balloon" in front of me looks like a nature spirit, but...

"It might be an evil spirit..."

The type of spirit cannot be judged by its appearance. Some evil spirits are so distorted that they are difficult to recognize, but some natural spirits like to appear in the form of humans.

Claire lowered her head and raised her hand, activating her dream-entering ability, forcing the "big balloon" above her head to fall asleep, and her consciousness also actively entered the "big balloon's" dream.

At the beginning of the dream, Claire felt very uncomfortable.

My consciousness was like sinking deep into a dark ocean current, where I couldn't see my hand in front of me, couldn't breathe, and couldn't speak.

A strong sense of claustrophobia enveloped her.

Claire strives to move forward. Blessed by the goddess, she will not be deceived by such illusions.

My mind was focused upwards, and the feeling of helplessness being squeezed by the sea suddenly dissipated.

The water surface also completely dissipated. Claire stood still and saw an endless grassland in front of her, with countless "big balloons" floating in the sky.

The sun hanging in the sky looked like the kind drawn by a child with crayons - surrounded by a circle of golden lines, with a bright red circle in the middle.

The trees at the end of the lawn are also hand-painted in a simple style, with green triangles of varying sizes stacked on the brown and black trunks.

This environment has the characteristics of natural spirit and peace, but it is more like a child's dream.

"Could the 'big balloon' really be an evil spirit?" Claire thought in disbelief.

Claire looked up at the densely packed giant balloons that dotted the sky, and concluded that those balloons, like the sun in the sky, were part of the background of this dream, and that there were no real "big balloons."

Claire looked around. There was nothing on the green grass except for a few "trees." But at the end of the green grass, there were more trees.

Claire moved towards the 'trees'. When she got closer, she saw a simple black house that looked like a stick figure among the trees.

In the black house, there is a stick figure of a little girl in a red dress, looking up at the big balloons in the sky and laughing.

Claire sat next to the girl in the red dress.

But the other party didn't seem to be able to communicate. He ignored Claire's arrival, and only the silver bell laughter echoed.

But Claire saw the cause of death of the girl in the red dress from the fragments of her memory scattered throughout the girl's memory.

drowned.

"The suffocating feeling when entering the dream was the last scene of this girl's life?" Claire thought thoughtfully, and was basically certain that the little girl next to her was the "big balloon".

This dream, like a child's painting, contained many fragments of the girl's memories. As Claire searched and sorted through them bit by bit, she saw the girl's joy and pain in her life.

This is a girl who has a similar experience to her. In a strange incident, she was contaminated by some kind of power. Although the strange incident was resolved, the girl was left with the sequelae of difficulty controlling her emotions.

Sometimes cute, sometimes furious.

The unpredictable changes in her emotions forced the girl to live in an environment without outsiders, and she drew simple and indistinguishable stick figures alone.

In these memory fragments, Claire saw the girl's family.

Those adults who were equally emotionally unstable, and the girl’s family who smiled numbly and cried desperately.

That's not a good family atmosphere...

Especially in the case of girls...

The constantly arguing adults and their unstable negative emotions penetrated into the already sensitive heart of the girl, making her situation even more grim.

A fragment of the girl's memory is frozen in the painful suffocation after falling into the water.

At that time, the girl was walking by the water holding her mother's hand. In this fragment of memory, the girl didn't know how she fell into the water, but in the final fear and pain, she fantasized about a "big balloon" flying high to save her from this pain.

This kind of tragedy is common in the real world.

Even if no evil events occur, people's lives in this world are as worthless as straw.

Their lives, their existence, are often burned by fire that comes from nowhere, turning into nutrients for those bright and beautiful plants, leaving no trace in the world.

Claire thought her heart was as hard as stone, but at this moment, she sighed softly.

At this moment, Claire heard the melodious sound of a harp.

The sound of the harp came from a small fragment of memory.

Claire picked up a new piece of memory fragment at her feet. This piece of memory was about the girl's happy time.

It is a time for girls to sing with their family members along with the harp.

The girl's family seemed to want to use music to bring a little change to the girl's gloomy life.

And music, at certain times, really does unleash the power of miracles.

harp……

Claire roughly understood how to break the impasse.

In her hand, there appeared a crude harp drawn with a few strokes.

Claire had never played this kind of instrument before, but with her extraordinary memory and analytical skills, and her flexible and steady hands, she was able to perfectly reproduce the music in her dreams.

After the melodious harp sounded, the little girl in the red dress who was sitting alone looked at Claire.

The eyes are focused.

The girls began to dance around Claire, singing, clapping, and jumping.

As the girl actively changed, more and more memory fragments spontaneously gathered towards Claire from all over the dream.

The more fragments she collected, the more Claire understood the girl's experience.

What happened to the girl was not as bad as she had initially suspected - she was not pushed into the water by her family who were numb to death.

It was an accidental fall into the water.

But judging from the broken memories of the girl after she became a ghost, the girl's story is still extremely sad.

After the girl fell into the water, there was no imaginary big balloon to save her.

It was her mother who jumped into the water and tried to save her.

The mother in a blue dress looked like a big blue balloon when she fell into the water.

Sadly, the woman wasn't a good swimmer and they both sank to the bottom of the water... until the song ended.

Claire's consciousness had returned to the ruins.

The "big balloon" floating above her was no longer as resistant as before, but it was also unwilling to fall.

Claire took some wood from the spot, and with her deft hands, she soon crafted a miniature harp body.

Claire took a few more strands of hair and used them as strings.

Finally, with Claire's skillful manipulation, the melody from her dream was played on this specially made harp.

The hesitant "big balloon" floated down to the sound of the piano, spinning and dancing around Claire.

It looks just like the little girl in the red dress in the dream who dances and sings and claps.

When Claire walked out of the ruins again, a hint of divine charm flowed from the small bone box in her palm.

"Successful?" There was undisguised surprise in Cecilis's tone.

Claire held the small square bone box in her palm and thanked the other party: "Yes, Teacher Sersilis, and thank you for your cultivation and guidance."

Cecilis smiled contentedly and said to Claire with emotion:

"Galadia, it seems that you are already a qualified Requiem Master."

"If you can pacify that child with your own strength, then even the subsequent trial missions will not be a problem for you."

"How about it? Do you want me to arrange a trial for you directly?"

Sersiris's proposal was very tempting. The sooner they finished the trial, the sooner they could return to Backlund.

But Claire still smiled modestly: "I still want to continue training for a while before participating in the final trial mission. I still have a lot to learn."

Not to mention that the transformation of the nightmare doll has not yet reached the limit she imagined, Claire knows that she is still a long way from being a senior "requiem master".

If she hadn't been able to maintain a fully lucid mind in her dream, Claire wouldn't have been able to find the girl's memory fragments so easily, let alone collect them all.

"Congratulations, Galadilla." Gray, standing by, didn't know what kind of spirit Claire had obtained this time, but she guessed that Archbishop Cecilis was intentionally preparing a suitable spirit for them, so she stepped forward to congratulate her and said,

"For the sake of my notes, won't you share your experience of making such rapid progress with me? I'm still suffering... and now it seems that you've left me far behind."

Claire smiled and said, "As for experience, it means trying to stay awake in dreams... We must have practiced this kind of training a lot during 'Nightmare'."

"It's exactly the same as what Archbishop Cecilis taught. It turns out that we still have to practice down-to-earth." Gray also knew that her foundation when she was "Nightmare" was not solid, so she just sighed slightly.

"Then, Galadilla, can you accompany me to practice my dream-entering ability?"

"Of course," Claire responded.

Being able to contact a requiem master in both reality and dreams was also very helpful for Claire to perfect the nightmare doll transformation project.

……

Backlund, Joe Wood District.

The Mandated Punisher, who had hurried over, saw that Daly was taking over a case in his jurisdiction. He walked up to her with a serious expression and said, "Ma'am, this is the Cherwood District."

Daly pulled out her red gloves identification card and said, "I'm here after this woman."

After confirming Daly's identity as Red Glove, the Mandated Punisher wisely did not dwell on the case.

It is not a wise choice to get entangled in the case in the hands of Red Gloves.

The experienced Mandated Punisher simply made a record of the incident before handing command of the scene back to Daly...

In the police station interrogation room, Daly interrogated the people brought back from the cafe one by one.

"Do you know the identity of this woman?"

When it was Tessa's turn, Daly asked Tessa directly in the interrogation room that was sealed with a ritual.

"Is this the cannibal woman in the rumors?" Tessa observed the body with a broken head and identified it. "It is indeed Baron Sorge's wife."

Tessa had seen this woman in Beth's fragmented memory. Although she had changed a lot, she was still recognizable.

"Do you really have the devil's painting?" Daly asked, looking at Tessa with fear.

"Guess what?" Tessa glanced at Daly and chuckled.

Daly was silent for a moment, then said, "I suggest you hand over the demonic painting. Baroness Sorge died near you. It seems the person behind this has found you."

"It seems so." Tessa smiled lazily. "Then I'll give you the devil's painting. How are you going to explain its origin to the Church of Evernight?"

The demonic painting was linked to Beth Lyonness's death, the ambassador's case, the conservatives of the Loen Kingdom, and even the secrets of the royal family. Once it came to light, it was bound to stir up a huge storm.

Tessa, who was once a noble, knew too well how such things would develop.

Compared with this, using the devil's oil painting to lure and kill the pursuer behind it is a more appropriate countermeasure.

Of course, for Tessa, who has a bronze zipper, there is a simpler solution -

That is to abandon the identity of "Christina"!

But Christina's identity is involved in the Oak Leaf Bar, and Tessa doesn't want to give up this identity easily unless it is absolutely necessary.

Seeing that Tessa had made up her mind, Daly said, "Captain Galadilla is not here. If you need help, you can come to me."

Seeing Daly mention Galadilla and the others, Tessa smiled and asked, "When will Claire come back?"

Claire...

Seeing the gentle expression on the woman's face when she mentioned the name, Daly suppressed a sigh and replied calmly, "It'll probably take a while."

Just when Tessa wanted to ask Daly more about Claire, her expression suddenly changed!
The danger warning from the magical item made her take out the leg bone that could be used for long-distance transmission in an instant!

"What's wrong?" Daly asked when she saw Tessa's ugly face.

But Tessa didn't have time to explain, she just pulled Daly and stuffed half of the leg bone-shaped teleportation key into Daly's hand.

Knowing that Tessa was once a man, Daly instinctively wanted to resist, but she still believed Tessa who was deeply in love with Claire in an instant.

Then, the two figures faded and disappeared from the police station together.

……

In front of an abandoned mine in the suburbs, the figures of Tessa and Daly gradually appeared.

Daly's expression returned to clarity from her trance. She looked at Tessa beside her in surprise: "Is this spiritual travel?! No wonder you're so confident, you even have this ability."

When Tessa forced the key-shaped magical object into her hands, she almost thought that she was planning something bad to her. If she hadn't believed in Tessa's deep affection for Claire, she would have been ready to take action.

"However, it's already dark. If you suddenly bring me to this wilderness, it's easy for people to misunderstand."

I really don't know who the witch is... Tessa rolled her eyes at Daly, but still took the initiative to explain: "The enemy behind us is more difficult than I expected. He chased us to the Cherwood District Police Station. Ms. Daly, you don't want to fight with him in the police station, do you?"

If we take action at the police station, there will definitely be many casualties.

Daly frowned upon hearing this and said, "Did the person behind this incident get tracked down to the police station? He dared to do it in Cherwood?"

The Church of Storms' Backlund headquarters, the "Holy Wind Church," was located in the Cherwood District. Conventionally, there was at least one demigod in charge of the Holy Wind Church.

Tessa nodded and said, "The enemy seems very confident, as if they can be sure to eliminate you and me in a very short time."

"But judging from the early warning... the enemy is truly difficult to deal with..."

As she spoke, Tessa's expression suddenly turned cold. She frowned and warned Daly:
"The danger hasn't disappeared. That person... seems to be still chasing us."

(End of this chapter)