Is it alive?
Neferty's fingers trembled slightly. Despite Naira's warning that she was forbidden to come to Verona for the camping trip, the Marquise of Odessa felt that she had not obeyed the obligations of her brother who was a few seconds older than herself. Moreover, she had a hunch that missing this trip would make her regret it for the rest of her life.
The wind direction outside the window is changing drastically.
Thick clouds hung low on the roof and towers of the castle, huddled together like a hibernating snake and never dispersed. The dense aura lingered and shrouded. A shimmering light flickered on all the surrounding ground objects, flickering under the large groups of rolling mist.
Neferti was oppressed by some indescribable and unbearable feeling, like a poisonous snake lurking near a little rabbit, and she couldn't breathe. Just then, a bolt of lightning struck the spire of the tower, illuminating the room brightly.
"ah!"
Neferti gave a small cry.
"what's the situation!?"
Desai, who was traveling with him, ran over. He was on guard in the corridor, and all the blood in his body had evaporated.
Neferti hesitated for a moment. When she saw clearly the sergeant who had disrupted her destiny, she straightened her chest and looked like a marquis:
"nothing."
Desai looked at her and said nonchalantly:
"Captain Ophelia's Reserve Assault Squadron asked everyone not to leave too far. If there are any clues about the Viscount's family, they need to be compiled as soon as possible."
Neferti glanced at him: "Byelan's military order is only effective for brave officers and sergeants. And I, as a glorious citizen of Odessa, am not bound by you."
"The lady is right," Desai responded as if he was an endorsement, "Then, as Captain Griffith's agent, I would like to remind Miss Marquis that the captain will come to join us at any time."
"Will the knight come!?" Neferti shouted in surprise.
ah--! How could I say such words, as if I was looking forward to him coming... Neferti suddenly blushed and lowered her head.
"..." Desai also didn't expect the title of captain to be so effective. He was stunned for a moment until Neferti handed over the diary in her hand.
"If you can't read, I can teach you how to read."
"Thank you, Miss Marquis. My education in the sergeant school has made me qualified for my job, so I won't worry about it."
Neferti immediately blocked it and said:
"Oh~ I never thought you soldiers had something else in their heads besides muscle and obedience~
"It's a good idea, otherwise with a barren brain and a sweltering lid, the top of your head will be barren before long!"
This makes people unhappy to hear... Desai grinned and tried to laugh it off. He suddenly felt that the helmet seemed really annoying, so he took off the heavy protective gear and prepared to calm down and retort.
Before he could say anything, Neferty suddenly touched Sakura's small mouth with her index finger.
"Shhh! Did you hear something?"
The rags and broken wooden poles on the wall were blown by the north wind, fluttering back and forth on the wall, rubbing uneasily against the stone surface. I don’t know why, maybe out of instinct—when the strong wind subsided, a muffled and vague sound came from nowhere.
Desai listened. Soon, he heard something too.
"Hiss--li-li-li!"
This is an ethereal, long and illusory flute sound.
Along with the howling wind, an inexplicable fear seeped into his body and weighed on his heart. He gasped, struggled and shook his body, trying his best to get rid of this strange feeling, and stared out the window——
There's something out there!
Like a rattlesnake, it vibrates its deadly body with a trembling sound, distant yet near. The sound seemed to be passing through the sky.
The castle windows suddenly dimmed. In an instant, dark clouds seemed to be moving at extremely high speeds, covering up the dim light in the sky, plunging everything into darkness.
It came and went, and when the light came back into view, Desai saw a long shadow flash across the floor illuminated by the light from the window.
"Hiss--li-li-li!"
This rattlesnake-like flute sound quickly disappeared from the top of the head, and it felt like it would come back at any time.
"let's go!"
Desai and Neferti said at the same time. They ran out of the study to join the others.
The two walked through the corridor and found that along the way there were portraits of the ancestors of the Crozier family that had not been taken away. Near the end, Ophelia was looking up at a portrait.
"Captain Ishtar, Miss Marquis found a diary." Desai reported.
However, Ophelia did not respond to him, but continued to look at the portrait. She felt inexplicably that her mind was a little confused and her mind was not clear.
The two of them also looked at the painting and saw a calm and resolute middle-aged man in the painting.
There is a brief introduction to him beside the portrait.
"Count Wesker de Crozier"
He was the father of Viscount Isius de Crozier, a well-known and outstanding figure, but his ending was tragic. He died silently during an investigation in the southern jungle. His fall pushed the Crozier family onto the steep slope of decline, and they have not been able to recover until now.
"Someone come quickly!"
At this moment, someone from another place shouted.
"There's a wizard's workshop here!"
The fellow first-year students finally found the secret vault of the Crozier family behind a corner wall. If you are lucky, you can collect some casting materials, or use the magic circle here to ask for help from the rear.
Everyone was in good spirits. After leaving the necessary support staff, Ophelia took Neferti, Desai and some people into the secret room.
They walked down a hidden staircase until they reached the basement deep inside the castle.
Tiny mildew spots and gray-white spider webs covered the walls like vines. There were some dents and damage left by demolition of the walls between the support columns in the basement, as if someone had repeatedly expanded the place. Many broken pieces of wood and glass were also found on the ground, as well as some large wooden barrels containing one-third of the remaining wine. Everyone searched carefully, but did not find the magic circle or precious materials.
"The owner here dares to use this secret room as a wine cellar," a first-year student said disappointedly. "The country nobles value their wine more than their lives. We can only find some empty wine barrels here!"
"No, there."
Ophelia's magic eye soon found traces of psychic energy. She found a movable stone slab that was twenty centimeters thick and fit perfectly with the rest of the ground. When it was closed, outsiders would have no way of finding the basement hidden deep inside the mansion unless they lifted up the entire foundation.
There is another endless stone staircase that extends all the way to the prehistoric cave underground.
Everyone went down there and found bones scattered on the ground, and the weirdness in the air was disgusting.
"There is an echo formation here!" Several first-year students cheered. They found a usable magic circle on the floor. As long as they added materials, they could contact the reinforcements at the rear.
This good news encouraged everyone. Despite the harsh environment, this carefully hidden vault must have been used for some occult purpose.
Some people started to charge the magic circle with enthusiasm, while others carefully groped forward and found some huge broken glass vessels. The turbid liquid flowed all over the floor, and the strange smell emanated from them.
"These glass jars are so big!"
"If you dare, you can pretend to be a ten-year-old child and go in."
Neferti followed Ophelia and Desai closely, not daring to move around casually. Only when everyone's wand light illuminated the surroundings did she discover a large glass jar standing in the corner.
The curious boys and their Shutoral also noticed that and immediately gathered around.
"Nothing, nothing..."
They just put their faces against the glass and looked inside from different angles.
The huge container contained some kind of liquid, and it started to sway as it was pushed by the crowd of people. At this moment, a group of objects suddenly rushed towards everyone's face from the darkness.
"Wow--!"
Everyone was frightened and took two steps back. The thing hit the inner wall of the vessel and bounced back.
Someone boldly raised his wand and looked there...
He saw a stooped and deformed creature like an ape floating in the liquid, with a human-shaped skeleton, an extremely weak face, and a horrifyingly twisted face.
After seeing this thing clearly, Neferty almost fainted from fright, and even Desai took a deep breath.
"I have seen aliens in the east and fish-men in the west sea," Ophelia said, rubbing her forehead, "but I have never seen anything like this."
"Come and see here!"
Someone shouted in panic and anger.
Behind the glassware, he found a square stone trough, with a pipe of unknown material connected to the glassware. There are many human bones, or bones that are approximately human-shaped, piled up in the stone trough.
Some relatively intact skeletons were lying on the ground outside the stone trough, trying to crawl outward.
This filthy and extremely evil sight made everyone extremely frightened.
All of this actually happened in the castle of Viscount Beyeland. Just when everyone was about to start thinking about it in fear, Ophelia suddenly shouted:
"Retreat. Everyone, get out of here!
"Contact Berthier and other teams, everyone gather, we want to..."
"ah--!"
A miserable scream interrupted her words. The people left at the entrance above screamed and begged for mercy, and then their voices turned into vague reverberation in the throat, and finally, there were several spine bending and weird popping sounds.
Without any orders, everyone took up arms and formed a battle formation with the extraordinary Ophelia as the core.
"Do you know where this place is? My lovely guests."
The sound of footsteps came from above and towards them. What followed was a cold and depressing voice that sounded crazy:
"Oh~~This sweet smell, Miss Neferty, is it you?
"It seems that fate is indeed on my side, hahahaha."
The brilliance in Ophelia's demonic eyes shines, and the pure spiritual energy turns into a scarlet moon sickle, tearing apart the space and lashing out at the evil enemy above.
"Bang!"
There was a loud sound in the air as the shield was shattered, followed by a crisp falling sound. A silver mask fell down the steps to the floor.
"Who are you……"
In the darkness, Ophelia was the first to witness the true face of her enemy.
"Let's stop this useless resistance, it's too late, Ophelia," said the creature on the steps, "Don't you want to know?
"Behind the endless desire,
“Pursuing crazy dreams in the name of progress,
"The stories of fools.
“After all, lovely Miss Neferty, you are also one of the wonders of this miserable world.
"That's right, my friends—
"Miracle,
"Resurrection from the dead is a miracle."
