Kaiyan was particularly enthusiastic about exploring the manor.
The four members of the Snake Faction each cast a covert glance at him who was eager to try, and shook their heads inwardly, sighing that he was indeed from the Cat Faction.
The other demon hunters who did not have an [Inventory] immediately checked their alchemical backpack straps, applied sword oil to the gaps in the wall, and made sure that everything else they needed was within reach.
After confirming that everything was ready, everyone stepped into the Everec Manor together.
Although it has only been abandoned for a few years, the manor looks as if no one has been here for dozens or even hundreds of years. There are overgrown trees everywhere, and gravel and fallen leaves almost form a layer of road on the ground.
The manor was huge, and everyone activated their witcher senses and moved forward.
The first thing that came into view was a fountain, the water was very cold.
"Something is wrong." Lei Suo suddenly said, "There are signs of human activity here."
His amber snake eyes glowed, and it was obvious that he had activated his demon hunter senses and was capturing subtle clues in the air.
Kolgrim kicked a sack at his feet and echoed Reso's words: "I found two bags of compost. They are very fresh. Obviously someone is still taking care of these plants."
Kaiyan looked at a recliner thoughtfully: "The wood is badly worn, and it looks new. It seems that the guy living here has a lot of leisure time."
"Lane, you said that Olgierd left the manor on his own, but imprisoned his wife here, right? Is there really any lady or lady who can endure such an environment?"
Kaiyan patted the lounge chair, stirring up a thin cloud of dust.
"Did she sit directly on such a large piece of ash?"
Lann shook his head and said something puzzling: "I'm afraid it's not a 'she', but an 'it'."
Before he finished speaking, Lan and Kaiyan seemed to sense something and looked towards a certain place. The [Psychic] talent touched their senses and pointed them in the direction.
Shrouded in mist, a shabby easel stood beside a bed of bright flowers.
Suddenly, a black dog and a black cat walked out from among the flowers and squatted on both sides of the easel. Their fur was shiny and glossy, and they were obviously well taken care of.
But everyone knew that they were definitely not ordinary cats and dogs, not only because their harmless appearance was incompatible with this environment, but also because of their eyes: cloudy, a mixture of black and white, like two shabby oil lamps emitting a strange light in the dark.
It was not until this time that the badges on the witchers' necks began to vibrate.
This was not the end. Lan and Kaiyan looked behind the cat and dog again, as if they had sensed something. A tall figure strode out from the mist. His movements were rough, but he carefully avoided the flowers and plants on the ground.
The demon hunters drew their swords from their backs.
The figure was dressed like a gatekeeper, wearing a tattered black hooded robe and wielding a tattered shovel.
But if that were all, it would certainly not be worth the witchers' caution. The key point was the "unrecognizable" face he showed in front of everyone: it looked as if his face had been torn off along the facial features and then a new piece of human skin had been sewn on. There was nothing above the mouth, only a circular circle of rough sutures, revealing the scarlet, hideous flesh.
A human body with such a face is far more terrifying to the onlookers than those hideous monsters.
Kaiyan chuckled: "I don't know whether I should call this guy ugly. After all, he doesn't even meet the conditions of being 'ugly'."
Except for Lann, the other five people reached out their hands from the straps of their alchemy backpacks almost like muscle memory, and suddenly two bottles of potions appeared in their hands.
[Swallow] that continues to recover from injuries, and [Thunder] that increases muscle strength.
Lann's movements were a little slow, as the opponents he usually rarely encountered required him to use potions. However, the gatekeeper in front of him was more than a normal enemy.
Besides, the atmosphere is already like this, I would feel a bit out of place if I don't drink a couple of bottles.
He also flipped his left hand, and two more alchemical glass bottles appeared in his hand. One bottle of potion was golden orange, as if it was full of vitality in spring, and it was [Swallow]; the other bottle was deep blue, as if the sea was condensed in it, and it was called [Petri Potion].
[Petri Potion]: Enhances the strength of the seal and increases the probability of the seal's special effects such as ignite and knockdown taking effect.
The potion was specially supplied by the Griffin School of Geron. After the potion went down his throat, Lann felt that the chaotic energy around him was awakened.
Not only that, Lann also took out an ordinary mirror from the [Inventory] and pointed it at the gatekeeper with anticipation.
Unfortunately, things did not go as he imagined. Looking at the gatekeeper walking towards him and his companions with firm steps, Lan looked in the mirror and shrugged helplessly: "I can't take advantage of this loophole."
The next second, a faint blue flame-like light suddenly burst out from the gatekeeper's body, with the brightest light coming from his shovel, even faintly overshadowing the rune sword in Lann's hand.
"hide!"
There was no need for Lann to remind them. The witchers had many times more experience in fighting enemies than him. As soon as the gatekeeper began to glow, they turned into shadows and scattered.
"Boom!" The shovel in the gatekeeper's hand seemed to have turned into a glowing heavy crossbow, rushing straight over with amazing momentum and speed, directly raising a cloud of flying dust like a meteorite falling to the ground where everyone had just stood.
The white fog in the manor became thicker. In the foggy northern territory that looked like a magical world, the gatekeeper who missed his attack slowly stood up and looked back.
Six pairs of eyes of different colors looked at the big pit under the gatekeeper's feet with solemn expressions. This was definitely not a force that a gatekeeper of that size could unleash. Just one strike would definitely kill him.
With a flash of light, the demon hunter was covered with the [Quen Seal].
At the same time, Lann patted the ground, and a huge purple magic circle that was far beyond the normal range rose from the ground. A purple hourglass mark appeared in his sight, and he hung it on the gatekeeper without hesitation.
With a "click", a purple magic beam struck the gatekeeper like lightning, almost knocking the monster over as he was posing in place.
Except for Letho, the other demon hunters who had never seen the function of this new sigil were shocked on the spot. Are all the sigils of the Griffin School like this?
But at this moment, they were in the middle of a battle, and even though everyone was surprised, their movements were not slow at all.
Four pairs of snake eyes simultaneously drew amber tracks in the air, and the silver sword blades moved freely in the magic circle.
With a "clang" sound, Reso's strong arm firmly held the goalkeeper's shovel. He was shocked at the huge power erupting from the other's thin body.
"Puchi", "Puchi", "Puchi", three other long swords deftly spit out their fangs from the palms of their respective owners and pierced the gatekeeper's throat, heart, waist and abdomen respectively.
The four demon hunters of the Snake School seemed to be one body. They were different from other demon hunters who fought alone. Since the fall of their school, they had been acting as a group and fighting together. The tacit understanding between them was unimaginable in other schools.
After being injured so badly, no matter what kind of monster it is, there is no possibility of survival.
But the gatekeeper's body shook violently twice, and even after being pierced by three silver swords, he was still wrestling with Lei Suo with a shovel!
At the same time, the ground beneath the gatekeeper's feet slowly cracked, and through the cracks a faint blue light, the same color as the gatekeeper's body, shone through.
Lann hurriedly shouted: "Retreat!"
The members of the Snake Sect had already sensed something was wrong from the shaking of the badge. They didn't even have time to pull their swords out of the enemy's bodies and simply retreated away from the scene.
Only Lei Suo was in a dilemma. He was wrestling with the gatekeeper. If he showed any tendency to flinch, the enemy's shovel would be able to split his head. The [Quen Seal] of the Snake School was not as strong as Lann's system skills.
Fortunately, he is not alone at the moment.
Lann, who was not far away and had a panoramic view of the entire field, had already noticed the goalkeeper's attack intention. Realizing Reso's predicament, he decisively adopted a more brutal method -
[Alder Seal·Magic Explosion]!
The violent magic power turned into a hurricane that swept across the earth. Reso felt as if someone suddenly hit him with a heavy hammer from behind. The balance between the long sword and the shovel in the confrontation was instantly broken. The long sword gained power out of thin air and directly pressed the shovel, cutting a big hole in the goalkeeper's shoulder.
However, Reso had no way to expand his victory. The next second, he and the goalkeeper soared into the air. The telekinesis behind them continuously served as kinetic energy, pushing them directly out of the atmosphere shrouded by the dark blue earth.
With a "boom", it was as if the underground fountain had finally found an outlet, and the dazzling stream of light brushed against Lei Suo's heels and rushed up into the sky. He definitely didn't want to experience the feeling of being bathed in it.
The broken light of the [Quinn Seal] on Reso's body flashed and disappeared, and was actually shattered by Lann's long-range shock wave.
Fortunately, the experienced Snake Clan leader adjusted his posture in mid-air, rolled over on the ground to relieve the impact, and glanced in Lan's direction with lingering fear.
When he turned around, he saw the gatekeeper waving the shovel again and turning into a black shadow and rushing towards him again.
Only this time, Kaiyan had already raised the Cat Faction's crossbow behind the gatekeeper.
With a "puff", the magic-blocking golden arrow accurately pierced the gatekeeper's neck, causing his movements to suddenly stop.
But Lann noticed that the light around the opponent was still there. Obviously, the attack method of this blue light was not driven by chaotic energy, nor was it magic in their traditional understanding.
The monsters in the manor were all summoned from another world by Olgierd using black magic, so it barely makes sense that the magic-blocking metal of this world has no effect on them.
As Lan En was thinking this, the gatekeeper in front of him shook violently twice and fell to the ground. It seemed that although its body structure was different from that of normal creatures, it was by no means immortal and could be injured.
The people who were fighting the gatekeeper in close combat were delighted to see this. The Snake Sect's silver sword was still stuck in the enemy's body, and the Snake Sect's people immediately drew out their silver-plated daggers and were about to force their way in again, but they saw cracks under the gatekeeper's feet once again, with blue light shining through.
The demon hunters' bodies suddenly froze. After the previous demonstration with the underground fountain, they naturally couldn't rush forward again at this time.
Kaiyan raised the crossbow in his hand again, and the four members of the Snake Faction took out four bombs from their alchemy backpacks.
Two [Beehives], one [Dancing Star], and one [Dream of Dragon]. All of them were sponsored by the Eternal Flame. Normally, the four members of the Snake Sect would never be so decisive.
With a loud "boom", the suddenly expanding flames immediately enveloped the gatekeeper. The demon hunters narrowed their eyes slightly, and from time to time they could hear the sound of iron nails scattered from the [honeycomb] piercing into flesh.
If it were them, there would be absolutely no chance of survival at this time. Even if it were other monsters such as the remnants of the Deer-Headed Spirit, they would be half-dead after being attacked by this set of tactics.
But the demon hunters still did not dare to relax, because the badges on their necks began to vibrate again.
They didn't know when the white mist around them had turned black.
Lann felt something in his heart and looked down, only to discover that the black mist was actually seeping out from underground.
The flames and smoke slowly dissipated, and the gatekeeper reappeared in tattered clothes, his body covered with burns and cuts, his flesh and blood turned, and he looked hideous.
Kaiyan frowned and said, "Lann, was I this ugly when you first rescued me?"
Lan glanced at the cat-faction witcher who was speaking at an inappropriate time and said, "I'm glad that you can now joke about your past self, but our troubles are not solved yet."
The black mist gradually condensed and turned into ghostly human figures, who were thin and staggering.
Looking at the disciple again, it actually pulled out the golden magic-blocking arrow stuck in its neck and threw it aside, then staggered towards the black shadows.
"It is indeed injured and its movements have slowed down, but these shadows... are they [Summoning Magic]?"
The snake-faction demon hunters looked at these dark shadows that could not even walk properly, and were surprised that the other party could summon such non-combat-capable helpers.
"No!" Lann shouted, "This is another kind of black magic. This monster can recover from its injuries by killing these black shadows. We have to kill these black shadows before it can!"
"The fact that it needs this method to recover means that it has been seriously injured and is almost dead!"
The demon hunters were shocked upon hearing this and immediately scattered to find the shadow to deal with. Lan and Reso went to find the gatekeeper again, using special seals and extraordinary powers to delay the gatekeeper's pace and cause casualties.
The shadows staggered and were soon killed without any resistance by the demon hunters who were proficient in killing. The gatekeeper was already seriously injured, and after becoming familiar with the attack routine, he also quickly fell into a difficult battle.
When the other witchers were free again, the six of them surrounded the gatekeeper and finally forced him to his knees amid a roar.
All the wounds on its body glowed green at the same time, and then a thick black smoke drifted out from its body. The black smoke seemed to represent its life, and after it was completely dissipated, it became completely motionless.
Everyone gasped and approached the gatekeeper carefully to confirm that he had really lost his ability to fight.
"It has no eyes, no nostrils, no vital parts, yet it has flesh and blood. How can such a thing really exist?"
Kaiyan frowned. He had contributed the least in the previous mission because the monster in front of him was a natural nemesis for an assassin like him who pursued a one-hit kill.
Not only him, this kind of battle was also restrictive for the Snake Sect who were proficient in using poison. Only Lann fought smoothly, relying on the fully automatic [Yarden Seal] like a fish in water.
After savoring the details of the battle, Kolgrim sighed, "He is physically strong and proficient in close combat, and he also has magical abilities that are perfectly integrated with the combat system. Could this kind of power be exactly what Alzu was looking for when he created the demon hunter?"
Lei Suo slapped Kogrim's head hard and said, "Don't think about it. Check if you are injured and rest here."
Then he turned to Lann and asked, "Are there many monsters of this type in the manor?"
Lan thought for a moment and replied, "There are other monsters like this that have no vital points, and there is also a demon spirit that should be able to travel through the painting. But it should be the strongest of all the monsters."
Letho looked at the interior of the manor expressionlessly. "I've been a demon hunter for so long, but I've never seen these monsters before. I didn't expect to see them all at once today. It's a pity that the products of their [Summoning Magic] can't be used as alchemical materials."
The monsters summoned by [Summoning Magic] are all possessed, for example, the black mist that just escaped from the [Gatekeeper] is actually the real body. Therefore, it is rare to get any good harvest from the corpses of these prey. For the demon hunter, it is not as good as a ghoul or a water ghost.
Lann looked at the janitor's shovel on the ground and said, "That's not necessarily true."
Everyone followed Lan's gaze and looked at him with strange looks. Lei Suo pondered, "Judging from the feel of the battle just now, the material of this shovel is indeed top-grade, but as our weapon..."
Lann shook his head. "From what I know, it is also a magical weapon, just like my Sword of the Lady of the Lake. This shovel has the ability to recover from the damage it inflicts on its enemies."
Such a magical ability made the demon hunters' eyes light up.
"But why didn't it work during the battle just now?"
"I guess the triggering mechanism of this enchantment is still limited." Lann thought for a while and said, "Maybe it needs to cause real flesh and blood damage to the enemy, and we just relied on the seal to hold on and didn't give the enemy a chance. We have to experiment carefully to figure out how to use this weapon."
This kind of magic weapon that can heal one's own injuries is unheard of. Kaiyan is very interested in it, and this effect is most suitable for people with his fighting style.
But judging from the shape and weight of this shovel, it is estimated that among the people present, only Lei Suo can wield it.
"But there's no rush for the experiment." Lann turned his head to look at the flowers and easel not far away, as well as the black cat and black dog under the easel, "We still have some enemies to deal with now."
The two animals, which were obviously not ordinary creatures, had been squatting quietly on the side watching everyone hunt the gatekeeper, and had not left until now.
They were clearly just cats and dogs, but people could actually see indifference in their eyes that were like kerosene lamps, and they even felt uncomfortable being looked down upon.
Kolgrim raised his chin and said, "They were just watching us."
Oaks pondered, "They are definitely not ordinary cats and dogs."
Serrit glanced at his companion and said, "You can tell that just by looking at your eyes, right?"
Kaiyan took a deep breath, his eyes brightened: "I think they came from the same place as the one dying on the ground."
Everyone looked at Kaiyan, then at the gatekeeper on the ground, and then turned back to look at the cat and dog, only to find that they had suddenly disappeared.
"'Death' and 'life' are defined differently in different places. The controversy is particularly intense in the field of philosophy."
A cold female voice sounded from behind. Everyone turned around and saw that the black cat and black dog had appeared behind them at some point.
At this moment, the black cat opened and closed its mouth, and uttered the woman's voice they had just heard: "The gatekeeper is not dead yet. Perhaps he desires this state more than the state of being alive as you define it."
The strange sight of the animals speaking human words immediately made everyone turn their swords and point them at the black cat and the black dog.
Lann could tell they had no intention of attacking, so he asked, "You seem to know a lot about it, and about this house, so why don't you introduce yourself?"
The cat shut up, and the dog started talking instead. This time it was a deep man's voice: "We are friends of this house, summoned by the man of this manor to accompany the mistress."
Kaiyan raised his eyebrows, looked at the cat of the female voice, then looked at the dog of the male voice, his face full of interest.
The four snake-faction demon hunters remained silent and remained vigilant while Lann continued to communicate with the cat and dog.
"We are here to bring the male owner to find the female owner. If possible, we would like you to help lead the way - after all, this manor is really too big."
The black cat looked at Lann and tilted his neck, seeming confused. "You brought Olgierd von Everec here? But I didn't see him, nor did I sense him."
The black dog sniffed, "But you do smell like him."
Lann shrugged, "The male owner is very shy and feels guilty. He is only willing to come out when he sees the female owner."
The cat and the dog looked at each other, then looked at Lann, and suddenly their bodies exploded into a ball of black mist and dissipated into the air, and then condensed into shape about fifty meters away.
It seemed as if he was signaling Lann to follow.
"Do you believe them?" Reso stood beside Lan and reminded him in a low voice.
Lan nodded: "They have their own demands and will be our friends."
Leisuo's expressionless face finally began to frown: "I wanted to ask before, did Olgierd tell you all this information?"
Lann thought for a moment and said, "This is the power of the ancient blood."
Letho took a deep breath and said frankly, "I don't like this feeling. It seems that I don't need to think at all when I'm with you. I can get any information I want. But the most important thing for a demon hunter is to collect intelligence and prepare before fighting. In other words - the more times I fight with you, the weaker I may become."
Lann was stunned by Reso's worry. Is there anything wrong with making the battle easier?
But if you think about it deeply, it is not difficult to understand. The long period of living outdoors after losing the school's base has made the people of the Snake School feel particularly insecure. That is why they have an extremely strong desire to control the situation, and their desire to maintain their own abilities is also pathological.
Lan thought for a moment and said with a smile: "In the face of a war, isn't it better to have more complete intelligence? Normally, I should take on more demon hunting missions to keep myself in good condition. And my intelligence is not perfect, so I need more partners around to help me fill in the gaps, and even to help me regain my vigilance when I am careless because of my own strength."
"So, Reso, you shouldn't stop using your brain, but you should change the way you think."
Lei Suo frowned and thought for a while, then nodded reluctantly.
Lann reached out and put the gatekeeper's shovel into the [Inventory], then led everyone in the direction indicated by the cat and dog.
The Everec family manor was incredibly large. Lann and his party crossed an arch bridge and opened two iron gates before they finally passed through the manor's garden and arrived at the main courtyard of the manor.
When I pushed open the door, the aged wood creaked. The sky was already covered with dark clouds, and the building had no windows, so it was pitch black inside.
It’s just that this kind of darkness is not difficult for the witcher.
Six pairs of eyes of different colors sparkled.
"Ogierd should be in his thirties, right? His wife can only be younger than him... maybe in her twenties? I don't believe a young lady in her twenties would live in a place like this..."
Kaiyan looked at the interior of the manor building, and it was unclear whether there was disappointment or something else in his eyes.
The room in front of him looked like it had been ransacked by robbers, with fallen tables and chairs everywhere, and even broken beams.
As everyone entered the house, dust above their heads was even shaken from time to time, flowing down from the upstairs like a series of small waterfalls.
Kolgrim spoke out what everyone was thinking: "Is this house going to collapse soon?"
As everyone was observing their surroundings, two small balls of black mist condensed again. However, because the room was too dark, the cat and dog appeared as if they had teleported.
"The mistress is in the bedroom. You can see her through the gallery on the second floor."
"She actually lives here?" Kaiyan raised his eyebrows. "There is a gallery, which means she likes painting very much. That's... not right!"
The red light in Kaiyan's eyes suddenly brightened, and he suddenly looked up at a painting on the wall. The painting was a portrait of a woman, a portrait of a beautiful woman.
A voice suddenly came from the painting:
"Who... came in?"
The voice was hoarse and ethereal, with a strange echo. The Demon Hunter Badge began to tremble again for the nth time today.
Then, a pair of dry hands grabbed the frame. A green flame began to burn faintly, but the canvas inside remained intact.
A black veil appeared from the bottom of the picture frame under the reflection of the flames, but as if it felt that there were too many people in the room, the veil and hands quickly disappeared, and the green fire went out again.
"Demon spirit?"
This scene just now revealed a lot of information. Lei Suo immediately frowned and began to analyze:
"The demon summoned by black magic needs to possess a physical body. It won't appear in the form of a spirit like it did just now. So it must be a demon spirit. And it's a demon spirit with special abilities that can travel through the painting?"
Then the snake demon hunter glanced at the cat and dog on the ground and said, "A demon spirit is what a person turns into after death, and Olgierd summoned a demon to prevent outsiders from entering the manor. Theoretically, there can only be one woman in the manor, so this demon spirit... is the mistress you are looking for, Lan?"
Lan nodded: "Yes, it looks like she is indeed dead."
Leisuo's expression became more and more ridiculous. "So you came all the way to this manor just to get rid of this evil spirit? I thought you wanted to completely solve the problem of Ogierd!"
Lann nodded again: "I really want to solve the problem completely, and we don't have to kill this demon spirit - on the contrary, she will help us, but there will be some twists and turns."
As he said this, Lann suddenly took out the jade statue that Olgierd had transformed into from his inventory.
Without caring about the possibility of being attacked, he walked up to the portrait of Alice and said loudly, "Madam, your husband is back."
Then he turned toward the staircase, as if to shout to every corner of the room: "Alice, Olgierd is back!"
He held aloft the jade statue of Olgierd, a work of art that dimmed in the darkness.
The room was quiet for a while.
With a "bang", a piece of wood broken from the roof fell at Lan's feet. He turned around lightly, and a cloud of dust like a small waterfall covered the place where he had just stood.
Kaiyan suddenly felt that the feeling that there was always a demon around him disappeared.
The cat and dog stared at the jade statue in Lann's hand. Now they could sense the aura of their summoner. "This is the magic of the warlock. Is this how you brought Olgierd back? But where did you hide him before? Why couldn't we sense it?"
Lann did not answer the cat and dog's questions, but observed the surroundings for a while. He also had the induction talent of [medium], and at this moment he could confirm that Alice's soul had left everyone. After thinking for a while, he suddenly put his hand on Alice's portrait and put the painting into the [inventory].
After doing all this, he said to the cat and the dog:
"This is not your concern. Take us to the bedroom to find Alice."
They went upstairs via a staircase that seemed like it would collapse at any time, and passed through a long corridor filled with various paintings. The four members of the Snake Sect were always on guard for demons to fly out of the paintings, but in fact, the journey was smooth.
Kaiyan began to comment on a painting that showed a couple, Alice and Ogierd.
“Happy families are all alike; unhappy families are all different.”
As if he felt that he had said something very philosophical, Kaiyan nodded, took down the painting, and leaned forward to show it to Reso:
"Look at Olgierd above. Isn't he completely different from the one now?"
Reso, who was on alert all around, glanced at him without even looking at the painting: "It's indeed different."
While he was perfunctorily answering Kaiyan, Reso was thinking in his heart: Was this cat like this before, or was it captured for experiments and became like this, or was it rescued by Lann and became like this?
Regardless of their thoughts, they walked through the corridor and saw a locked door in front of them. This could not stop the demon hunter at all, and Lann kicked it open with a little force.
Suddenly, everyone's eyes lit up. This was the only place with light in the whole house.
A woman was lying on the bed with her back to them. The stove behind her was burning slowly, providing warmth for the people in the room. It seemed that the man was very considerate, worried that the sleeping woman would catch a cold.
But inside the house there were overturned tables and broken bookshelves, and cobwebs and dust everywhere. It would have been impossible to see such a scene if the house had not been cleaned for several years.
A young man and five big men gathered around the bed, looking at the target of their trip - Alice, the wife of Ogierd.
At this moment, she had become a skeleton dressed in black mourning clothes.
Kaiyan looked at the painting, then at Alice, and threw the painting aside. "You lit the fireplace for her, guarded the house and prevented outsiders from hurting her, but now you don't even want to bury her body?"
The dog said in a bass voice: "Our current bodies are not capable of such a thing, and the gatekeeper you just met was ordered not to approach him."
Kaiyan looked at the dog's paw and nodded in approval.
Lei Suo carefully observed the body and asked, "She has no external injuries, and the mess in the room is not a sign of a fight. How did she die?"
The black cat gave an answer that everyone expected: "Her heart was broken."
Lei Suo was stunned, as if he didn't understand the meaning of this sentence: "You mean heart disease?"
Black Dog said in a tone without any emotion: "No, it is literally broken. Alice is immortal just like Olgierd, and I find it hard to understand this situation."
The black cat misted up at the window, then condensed into a shape in the sky. It sat next to the hostess and described the scene of her death:
"The caretaker was helping the master imprison her while guarding her. She couldn't leave the manor, and she couldn't hear our voices like you. So she was always sad and lonely. One day Alice locked the front door, lay down in bed, and then... died peacefully. Just like a rose withering after its blooming season."
The black dog walked forward and sat in front of Lann. "You brought Olgierd back as a statue. Now you have seen Alice's body. What will you do next? Bury them together?"
Lann raised an eyebrow: "You care?"
The black dog nodded. "We were summoned here by Olgierd just to protect Alice. Now Alice has passed away and even turned into an irrational evil spirit, but we are trapped here because of this."
The black cat also misted in front of Lann and said, "Either kill Ogierd or free Alice's soul, otherwise we will remain in our current form forever."
"You hate the way you are now?"
The black cat and the black dog gestured with their small bodies and spoke together for the first time: "What do you think?"
Lan thought for a moment and said, "My goal is also to kill Olgierd, but since you were summoned by him, you must know that he is truly immortal. I have a way to break his immortality, but I must see the real Alice, so I need your help."
Having said that, Lan looked at Kaiyan.
Unlike Lann, who had a short demon hunting career and knew little about necromancy, Kaiyan was very familiar with it.
"Since this mistress has turned into a demon spirit, things are actually simpler. She is hiding from us now. We just need to bury her body in a quiet place and cast a spell."
The black cat shook his head and said, "It's not that simple. The demon you saw is only a part of Alice. The real her is still sleeping. You need to wake her up."
"How?"
"Use the drawing board as material to summon the spirit, and then she will lead you to the place where Alice is really sleeping." The black cat looked at the painting of Olgierd and Alice, "That one is very suitable."
Kaiyan looked at the painting he had thrown aside and smiled: "Good kitty."
As he said this, the cat-faction demon hunter actually reached out to touch the black cat, but of course he could only touch a cloud of smoke.
…
In the garden of the manor, there is a row of short and simple graves. They are simply piled with stones and then a wooden stake is erected on top. There is blood all around the graves, and it seems that the person who buried the bodies was quite rough.
"Those were the people who invaded the manor." Black Cat explained, "The gatekeeper killed them and buried them here."
Kaiyan said in a teasing tone: "After killing the invaders, you also built graves for them? That weirdo is unusually gentle."
The black cat didn't even think about paying attention to him. It turned into smoke and condensed onto Lan's shoulder. "The 'quiet place' is in front. Alice often paints there."
Lan looked over and saw a dusty and worn easel in front of him.
After a while, another simple grave was built in front of the easel, and Alice was finally laid to rest.
Kaiyan knelt in front of the grave, his pupils rolled up, leaving only the whites of his eyes. He opened his arms to make his body form an inverted cross, and whispered:
"Tortured soul, I have buried your bones. Let go of your resentment and sorrow, and show yourself..."
Kaiyan kept repeating the spell in a slow and steady pace. Lann seemed to have sensed something and looked back into the manor.
Out of sight of everyone, the candlesticks, braziers, and fireplaces in every corner where Alice had lived were all lit up, briefly dispelling the darkness in the manor and even adding a touch of warmth.
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