Southwest of Tivian, north of Shield Hill, Duke Barret's villa.
A bloody aura permeated the large building, and the villa where the tragedy occurred was still a scene of chaos.
The sudden gunfire from the third floor of the villa just now broke the silence within the villa. The Eight Point Nest killers who were searching everywhere in the villa were all attracted by the gunfire, and many people rushed to the scene where the gunfire sounded at the first possible moment.
On the third floor of the villa, by the window of a certain corridor, Kenk, the leader of this group of killers, was standing there at this moment, looking sternly at the corridor in front of him where several corpses lay and blood splattered.
"What was that gunfire about? Did you see anyone else?"
Turning his head, Kenk said to his henchmen in a serious tone. Listening to Kenk's words, a killer who was the first to arrive at the scene replied.
"No, Mr., when we came here, we didn't see anyone except the corpses. We don't know how that gunshot was fired... Maybe the gun here went off accidentally?"
"Hmph... If no one touched it, how could a gun go off by itself? Someone must have sneaked in, or perhaps... someone here didn't die completely..."
Kenk said as he looked at the several corpses in the corridor in front of him. Then he flicked his hand, and two bats flew out from his sleeve. The two bats flew and bit the surrounding corpses. Through them, Kenk confirmed that these corpses were truly dead.
"They're really dead... Then maybe someone sneaked in. Why did that guy suddenly shoot here? It couldn't really have been an accidental discharge, could it..."
After confirming that the surrounding corpses were truly dead, Kenk couldn't help but frown slightly in thought. This sudden gunshot made him feel suspicious, but this suspicion didn't last long. He turned around again and looked at the pair of henchmen behind him, speaking in a stern tone.
"What are you all crowding here for?! Hurry up and continue searching for things, search more carefully, even places you've already searched, turn them over a few times for me again, and by the way, check all the corpses to make sure they're completely dead? If you encounter anyone who has sneaked in, immediately send a signal to notify everyone!"
"Oh, right... If you hear gunshots again, those who are far away should not go over. Stay where you are and do what you should be doing."
"Yes, Mr."
After briefly responding to Kenk, the killers gathered around dispersed and returned to various corners of the villa, continuing to search for traces of the secret room. After seeing everyone leave, Kenk frowned and looked at the darkness outside the window, a hint of unease vaguely appearing in his expression.
And even this hint of unease in his expression was being observed by a certain gaze at this moment.
...
"This guy... seems to have noticed something."
Several kilometers away from the villa, on a carriage on a dark road, Dorothy, wrapped in a blanket, sat inside. At this moment, she was observing Kenk's expression through the vision of the dead.
'To sneak into the secret room under the noses of these guys, concealing the sound when the secret room mechanism is opened is the most crucial thing. For now, nothing is better than gunshots to cover it up. However, gunshots fired out of thin air like this will definitely arouse suspicion, which is unavoidable... The key is how to ensure they can't find clues even after becoming suspicious, which is the most important.
'In terms of concealment... I really have to thank the combined use of Spirit Silk Conduction and the ring of concealment. Otherwise, ordinary Corpse Puppet would simply be unable to hide from the eyes of Vampires...'
While using the corpses on the ground in the villa for reconnaissance, Dorothy thought to herself.
Except for the "Shadow" Spirituality perception being unable to perceive the "Shadow" being used for concealment, all White Rank professions have Spirituality perception regarding their own involved Spirituality. Without the protection of the ring of concealment, Vampires can easily sense the "Cup" Spirituality which is in an extraordinarily active state on the Corpse Puppet. This is also how the other party judged the cause of the gunshot, but they only judged that it might be outsiders who sneaked in or corpses that hadn't died completely, and didn't think of the Corpse Puppet point.
'Fortunately, although this guy is suspicious, with their ability, they won't be able to find any clues for a while. Now my Corpse Puppet has successfully entered the secret room. As long as I deal with the Saint Emblem, it will be fine.'
Thinking this, Dorothy shifted her thoughts back to the secret room. She controlled the Corpse Puppet inside to move again.
Inside Barret's underground laboratory, Dorothy controlled the male servant Corpse Puppet to start searching. According to the Barret Ghost's words, the Saint Emblem was in the drawer of the main desk in the laboratory. Dorothy controlled the Corpse Puppet to scan around, looking for the so-called main desk, and after a while, she found the target.
In front of the rows of bookshelves on one side of the secret room, there was a large brown office desk. On the desk were stacks of books and a small secret transmission observation instrument. The size of this office desk was larger than the other tables in the laboratory, and the matching chair was much more comfortable and luxurious, and it came with desk cabinets.
Dorothy controlled the male servant Corpse Puppet to walk directly towards the brown office desk. She didn't let the Corpse Puppet pay attention to the pile of books and documents on the desk, but directly opened the drawer in the upper right corner and began rummaging through the contents. After a while, the male servant Corpse Puppet found a wooden box inside.
Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet take the wooden box out of the drawer, place it on the office desk, and slowly open it. What was then presented before Dorothy was a row of small items placed in the wooden box.
These items were mostly small metal objects. The labels attached below them showed that these things were unearthed from a certain ruin. Most of these metal objects were already damaged, and their original forms could not be clearly seen. Among the few that were not metal objects, one attracted Dorothy's attention.
That was a small badge. This badge was not complicated, just a simple crescent moon with simple patterns. Perhaps due to the passage of many years, the patterns on this crescent moon badge were already blurred, the edges of the crescent moon were worn away a lot, and below the badge was a label that seemed to be written by Barret.
"Suspected Mirror Moon Goddess Saint Emblem, unearthed from Ruin No. 3 in Razor Mountain, priest burial pit, unearthed date: November 25, 1359."
'Unearthed from a ruin in Razor Mountain... Exactly the same as what the Barret Ghost said, this is it!"
Looking at the Saint Emblem in front of her, Dorothy's eyes lit up. She immediately had the Corpse Puppet take the Saint Emblem out of the wooden box and examine it carefully in her hand. She found that although this "Shadow" Saint Emblem was somewhat worn due to its age, it was generally intact and did not have severe missing damage like the other metal objects in the same box. It should be fine for performing a ritual.
Looking at the Saint Emblem through the Corpse Puppet's vision, a sense of familiarity arose in Dorothy's heart. However, she didn't think much of it, because the crescent moon symbol often appeared in "Shadow" related items, secret transmission, and symbols. Dorothy had seen many similar ones before, so she didn't pay too much attention to this sense of familiarity in her heart.
"Phew... Finally, after much effort, I finally got my hands on this thing."
In the carriage compartment, Dorothy let out a long sigh of relief as she looked at the Saint Emblem in the Corpse Puppet's hand. Now that she had the Saint Emblem, the next task was to send it out.
For Dorothy, reactivating the mechanism, opening the secret room exit, and sending the Saint Emblem out was not a good option. The sound of the mechanism needed to be covered by gunshots, but Dorothy had already fired a round of blank shots in the villa before, and Kenk was already alerted and had specifically ordered his henchmen not to move around after hearing gunshots, so it would be very risky for Dorothy to use the same trick again.
Fortunately, for Dorothy now, besides the hidden door mechanism, there were other ways to send the Saint Emblem out.
Holding the Saint Emblem in its hand, Dorothy had the male servant Corpse Puppet look at the ceiling diagonally above the secret room. There was a small ventilation opening there, with a grate made of thin iron bars.
It is impossible for an underground space that needs to be worked in for a long time to not have a ventilation opening. The ventilation opening in this laboratory should be independent of the villa's ventilation system and lead to somewhere outside.
Looking at the ventilation opening several meters high on the ceiling, Dorothy had the male servant Corpse Puppet take something out of its pocket. After opening its hand and looking carefully, she found that it was actually the corpse of a black crow.
This was precisely Dorothy's bird-shaped Corpse Puppet, which was brought in using the Eight Point Nest henchmen Corpse Puppet as a cover and given to the male servant Corpse Puppet to make it convenient for him to take the Saint Emblem out.
Using her ability, Dorothy made the Crow Corpse Puppet move again, then had it pick up the Holy Emblem from the other hand of the Male Servant Corpse Puppet. After that, it flapped its wings and flew towards the narrow iron bar grating of the vent.
Next, Dorothy applied a Raw Consumption Symbol to herself, then transferred the effect of the symbol to the Crow Corpse Puppet. She then had the strengthened Crow Corpse Puppet use its claws to forcefully bend the narrow iron bars that formed the grating, intending to directly create a passage to enter. Under the powerful claw strength of the Crow Corpse Puppet, the slender iron bars began to gradually bend with a creaking sound.
Such narrow iron bars, if it were an ordinary person with Life Devour applied, they could pry those iron bars open in a few tries, but now that it was a crow, it would take some time.
Of course, Dorothy would not waste this time. Before her was Barret's research lab, which contained his research on the faith of the Mirror Moon Goddess. Since Dorothy had come, she definitely had to look around to see if she could find some of his research results.
'The Eight Point Nest spent so much effort just to destroy Barret's research on the Mirror Moon Goddess. The truth behind it must be something that the Eight-Pointed Nest side is very wary of. I wonder how much of this truth Barret actually grasped?'
With these thoughts, Dorothy controlled the Male Servant Corpse Puppet to start searching for valuable things inside the research room. First, she shifted her attention to the most conspicuous object in the entire research room, which was the warrior statue standing in the corner.
Dorothy had the Male Servant Corpse Puppet come before the statue and look it up and down, then focused its attention on the translation label on its base.
According to the translation, the person carved in this statue was named "Arthur. Despenser," and was called the Wind Knight, one of the Four Shadow Moon Knights. As for this name, Dorothy was actually not unfamiliar... or rather, all Prit people were not unfamiliar.
Arthur. Despenser was precisely the ancient hero in the legends of the Prit nation, the guardian of the Three Prit Islands, the source of the bloodline claimed by the current Prit royal family, a legendary figure known to all Prit people.
Every Prit person can tell the story about this Arthur. Dorothy also heard it since she was little. There are many legends about him, most of which are heroic epics about slaying monsters, driving out remnants of evil gods, and Save the World.
It is rumored that the Radiant Savior descended to the world from the palace of the sun, defeating many evil gods and Save the World. However, the defeat of the evil gods did not mean that evil disappeared. There were still many monsters created by evil gods remaining throughout the world. They hid in various corners under the Light of the Save the World, and after the Save the World returned, they came out again to stir up trouble and cause harm to the human world. Arthur was the Prit hero active in this context.
In the stories Dorothy heard since she was little, Arthur was a Prit born in the distant ancient times. At that time, Prit was in chaos, ravaged by the remnants of evil gods. The Prit people were massacred by all sorts of terrifying monsters, and people lived in fear.
In this chaotic Prit, a down-and-out old swordsman appeared. He carried a Stone sword and took disciples throughout Prit. Because he required his disciples to train with heavy Stone swords, many people considered him a madman and ignored him. Even if someone occasionally trained under him for a while, they eventually gave up because of the heaviness of the Stone sword.
Only Arthur, with astonishing perseverance, completed the training by wielding the heavy Stone sword. After seeing Arthur's training completed, the old swordsman turned into a glorious warrior amidst laughter and flew into the sky. It turned out that he was the Saint Child. He selected the hero who would Save the World Prit in this way. In the end, Arthur also wielded the Stone sword, which was essentially a divine artifact, and slew many monsters on the Prit islands.
This is the beginning of the story about Arthur. Despenser that Dorothy heard as a child. Overall, it was a very standard heroic legend with Shining Light Church colors. After this beginning, it was the story of how Arthur used strength and wisdom, in the name of the Saint Child, to slay monsters on Prit Island one by one, and finally became the first king of Prit.
At the end of these stories, Arthur encountered the most difficult opponent of his life, a monster with black wings, countless mouths, sucking blood, and soaring freely in the sky. Arthur fought this bloodthirsty monster eight times. Every time the monster was defeated, it would escape. Arthur, under the guidance of the Saint Child, would chase after it. After chasing it a total of eight times and defeating it eight times, he finally killed it completely. After this, Arthur was guided by the Saint Child to heaven, away from the human world, and Arthur's legend thus ended.
Following the perspective of the Male Servant Corpse Puppet, Dorothy looked at the warrior stone statue before her and recalled the stories she heard as a child. She could still remember that Arthur's story was very attractive to Grego, who was a little boy at the time. When children gathered to play, they would all vie to play Arthur.
'The story of the Saint Child's messenger, the great hero Arthur, has been heard by many people in Prit, but this dedicated statue is the first time I've seen it...'
'But then again, no matter which story about Arthur it was, he didn't have titles like 'Four Shadow Moon Knights'. Why was there such a title carved on this stone statue?'
Thinking like this, Dorothy then looked at the base of Arthur's stone statue. The text carved with Arthur's title was ancient Prit text with obvious traces of deep Empire script. Dorothy couldn't understand it. What she saw was from Barret's translation.
Dorothy continued to control the Male Servant Corpse Puppet to examine the stone statue before her. Suddenly, she saw a notebook on the table next to the stone statue. After looking at it, Dorothy thought this might be Barret's notes.
Dorothy had the Male Servant Corpse Puppet take the notebook and open it. However, to Dorothy's surprise, the notebook was blank. Besides a few yellowed pages clipped inside, there was nothing else.
Dorothy had the Male Servant Corpse Puppet pick up the pages in the notebook and examine them carefully. Prit text was written on the pages. After a closer look, Dorothy discovered that what was written on them was actually Arthur's legendary story, and it was a different version from what Dorothy had heard before.
At this time, the page in Dorothy's hand recorded the story of Arthur killing the most difficult enemy of his life, which was the bloodthirsty monster. In the story on this page, this monster had a name, called Agello.
The battle between Arthur and Agello on the page was very different from the version Dorothy now knew. In the story on the page, Agello was still a bloodthirsty monster. After its first encounter with Arthur, it turned into a blood-red mist and escaped. And Arthur, due to the damage caused by years of fighting, could not catch up with Agello, could not inflict fatal damage on Agello, and was therefore very anxious.
And from here on, the story was not what Dorothy was familiar with before. According to the story Dorothy heard, Arthur, under the guidance of the Saint Child, caught up with Agello and continued to fight it. But in the story on this page, the Saint Child did not appear. Instead, there was a witch, a witch with eight eyeballs squeezed into her eyes, only eight fingers in total, an eight-eyed, eight-fingered witch.
The witch who appeared before Arthur claimed that her eyes could see where Agello was. As long as Arthur ate her eyes, he would be able to see where Agello was.
Next, the eight-eyed witch dug out one of her eyeballs and gave it to Arthur. Along with it, she also gave him a dagger made from one of her fingers. She claimed that this dagger could inflict fatal damage on Agello. Arthur believed her, so he ate the witch's eyeball and took the dagger she gave him to chase after Agello.
Finally, Arthur found Agello. After he stabbed the witch's dagger into Agello, Agello escaped again. And the witch appeared before Arthur again, offering him another eyeball and another dagger. After Arthur swallowed the second eyeball, he took the dagger and chased after Agello again. This time, after the second dagger was stabbed into Agello, it escaped again.
This kind of scene repeated in rotation. After Agello escaped eight times, it died after being stabbed with eight daggers. Arthur also died from poisoning after swallowing the witch's eight eyeballs.
And finally, the blind witch fell into the sea of blood that flowed out after Agello's death, her body bathed in blood.