The Whispering Verses
Chapter 80: Severely Injured People

"What do we need to do now?"

Shad, who had fully grasped the current situation and adjusted his mindset, asked. It seemed that the present scenario was no more perilous than when a gun had been pointed at his head earlier.

"Find the ritual's nodes."

Miss Anat adjusted her skirt to cover her feet and retrieved a pinch of sparkling powder from a small pocket at her waist. She placed the powder in her palm and blew gently with her lipstick-coated lips. The powder scattered, seemingly suspended in the air under the gaslight’s glow.

The bloody mist already blurred everything in view, and now the addition of the dust made the corridor even more hazy. Miss Anat removed the ruby hairpin she was wearing, lightly touched it with her fingers, and handed it to Shad.

"I’ll use the document-grade relic [Truth Dust] to enter the illusion and cooperate with my other self to search for the ritual nodes from different perspectives. It’ll take about five minutes. During this time, you must hold onto my token and guide me back. Otherwise, I’ll be lost in the crevices of the dreamscape."

"Just hold it?" Shad asked as he gripped the hairpin tightly.

"You mustn’t stray too far from the third floor, or I’ll lose my connection to the token. The token must be held by a conscious, living being. If I hadn’t found you just now, I would’ve had to catch a cat or a fish in the garden. Remember, detective, the descent of the Evil God [Master of the Blood Banquet] is only seven minutes away, and I’ll be in the illusion for five minutes. During this time, don’t interact with anyone—just wait patiently."

She paused, her expression becoming serious:

"If I don’t return within five minutes, leave through the main staircase. The Ring Warlock team of the True God Church below will ensure your safety. I’m sorry, detective. You shouldn’t have been dragged into this as a mere One-Ring Warlock."

She bit her lip slightly.

"It’s fine. After all, I’m already here."

Shad clenched Miss Anat’s hairpin, his expression earnest. He didn’t know what lay ahead, but now that he was here, there was no reason to leave:

"Although I’ve only recently awakened from blind foolishness and haven’t interacted with this civilization for long, since I can’t leave, I’m part of it. I should do what I’m supposed to do."

Of course, the fact that it wasn’t as dangerous as it sounded also helped.

The purple-eyed diviner smiled faintly and blinked, as though making a firm decision:

"If I don’t return, and the doctor and others are killed, the safest place tonight will be with the Ring Warlock team of the True God [The Old Man with the Lantern], part of the [Church of Sun and Earth]."

That was the team of dozens Shad had encountered twice tonight.

"More specifically, the safest place is near the youngest woman in the group, Iluna Beas."

"Why?"

Shad thought of the somewhat nervous, brown-haired young woman. Miss Iluna Beas’s hair color was similar to Miss Anat’s, but the diviner had short hair.

"Because she is one of the Chosen Ones, the protagonist of the first stanza of the epic Whispering Verses, and one of the thirteen Chosen."

"What?"

Shad looked up in surprise, realizing the significance of this information:

"Thirteen again? No, that’s not the point—what is Whispering Verses?"

"I haven’t even told the doctor about these things, but if we survive, I’ll be happy to explain it to you later. For now, there are more pressing matters."

The purple-eyed diviner shook her head slightly, then turned toward the corridor where the sparkling powder floated. Her figure vanished with the illusions and the shimmering dust into the golden light. The blood mist refilled the space that the glittering powder had occupied.

Only the astonished detective remained.

"What does this mean? That Miss Iluna Beas is a Chosen One? Ancient Gods, Sin Gods, witches, relics, Ascension Words, Whispering Verses... What kind of world have I stumbled into? It feels like something monumental is about to happen in this era I’ve arrived in."

In the dead silence of the manor, Shad seemed to be the only living person left. Though battles were presumably raging below on the second floor, no sound reached him. Standing in the bloody mist of the corridor, a chilling sense of danger made Shad want to hide.

Yet he didn’t dare enter any of the rooms. Instead, he located the third-floor banquet hall, the room where Dr. Schneider and the others had confronted Madame Lasso.

As he approached, the voices in his mind alternated, alerting him to the presence of the Four Mystical Elements. On the grand double gold doors, Shad saw dense chains of runes.

He dared not interpret the runes, fearing that he might faint at such a critical moment.

"Four minutes left until Miss Anat returns," he thought anxiously, standing tensely by the banquet hall door. The hall faced the central staircase of the Lakeside Manor’s main building, and Shad worried that the cultists might break through the True God Church’s Ring Warlock team and reach the third floor.

"It’s not midnight yet—does that count as good luck tonight?"

He kept distracting himself with trivial thoughts, checking his pocket watch repeatedly.

A sudden urge to open the [Puppeteer’s Script] and flip through its last remaining use as a Secret-Keeper grade relic crept into his mind. Perhaps it held a solution to tonight’s events.

But Shad’s luck seemed to have finally run out. Before he could retrieve the book, a sound broke the manor’s deathly silence.

The next moment, an earth-shattering explosion erupted from the banquet hall, shattering the stillness of the moonlit night.

The double gold doors burst open in flames and smoke, and Shad was hurled backward, spitting blood as he slammed into the wall near the staircase, crashing down with a portrait of a bearded nobleman onto the icy floor.

"Ugh!"

He tried to get up amid the smoke and dust but found his body uncooperative. That impact had undoubtedly caused internal injuries.

Then he saw the cause of the explosion: a golden-haired writer was flung out of the banquet hall by the blast. Miss Louisa lay sprawled near the staircase, half her body soaked in blood, her golden hair slowly stained red.

"I knew it wouldn’t go smoothly,"

Shad muttered, enduring the sharp pain in his left arm and chest as he crawled toward her. He placed a hand on her face and used the arcane art [False Immortality] to ensure she wouldn’t die for the next half hour.

He tried to drag Miss Louisa toward the other end of the corridor. Though he didn’t have time to check his watch, he knew Miss Anat would return soon. He couldn’t leave the third floor now.

Another loud crash echoed from the banquet hall. A white steam manifestation, resembling a Ring of Fate, dispelled the bloody mist, obscuring the entrance entirely. Shad heard Father August’s roar and his prayers to [Mr. Dawn], revealing an unexpected vigor for his age.

"Go now!"

Dr. Schneider’s voice shouted from deeper within the hall, addressing Father August. But in the next moment, a silver beam struck the ring behind the priest, sending him staggering out into the corridor, where he spotted Shad and Miss Louisa.

Although Shad was in a different outfit and wore a mask, Father August recognized him:

"Why are you...?"

"It’s complicated to—cough, cough,"

Shad began, but both he and Father August coughed blood simultaneously, as the scent of iron filled the air.

"This isn’t good. The God-descending ritual is about to start. We need to go now."

The priest tried to help Shad and Miss Louisa to their feet, but he was gravely injured and quickly collapsed. He fainted after just two steps. Shad reached out to check on him, a sinking feeling growing in his heart.