r18novel Page 364
Page 364
Shiraishi suddenly clenched his fist, and the shadow beneath his feet began to boil.
Countless black tentacles shot out from the ground, intertwining in the air to form complex three-dimensional runes.
If a magician were present, they would be speechless with astonishment at this method of casting spells without chanting or a magic base.
For Shiraishikawa now, manipulating shadows is as natural as breathing.
The runes suddenly shattered, turning into countless black feathers that fell from the sky.
He caught a feather and twirled it between his fingers, turning it into fine sand. Through the test he had just conducted, he confirmed two things.
First, the power of the Shadow Kingdom does indeed resonate with fairy tale magic in some way; second, in the basement of the mansion of Kuonji Yuzu, there is something that can increase the success rate of the New Moon Ascension Ritual by more than 30%.
920 "It seems I must pay a visit."
He turned and walked into the house, the shadows following his steps.
"I hope Miss Witch is prepared to receive this uninvited guest..."
Meanwhile, in the Western-style mansion on the hill, Kuonji Yuju suddenly sat up straight in her armchair.
The Mother Goose rhymes she was reading fell onto the carpet with a dull thud.
"There are beads in Kuonji Temple?"
Aozaki Aoko, who was brewing black tea, turned her head.
"You look so bad."
Kuonji Yuju pressed her temples, her silver-gray eyelashes trembling slightly.
Starting ten minutes ago, she had been experiencing a persistent stinging sensation in her magic circuits, as if someone were dancing needles on her nerves.
"White mist... contact has been lost."
Her voice was very soft, yet it seemed to lower the temperature of the entire living room by several degrees.
Aozaki Aoko put down the teapot, her red ponytail swaying with the movement.
Chapter 455 Inspecting the Barrier
"That patrolling familiar? It was probably eaten by a wild cat."
"impossible."
Kuonji Yuzu stood up, the hem of her black dress sweeping across the carpet.
"The white mist has no physical form; ordinary animals cannot even see it."
"That was solved by a passing magician."
Aozaki Aoko casually handed over the teacup.
"Recently, a lot of strange people have come to Misaki City, and your familiar always likes to loiter around people's doorsteps..."
Kuonji Yuju did not accept the teacup.
She walked to the window, from which she could see most of Misaki City, including the old town area that had recently experienced unusual magical fluctuations.
"Aozaki Aoko."
She said it suddenly.
Do you remember the person you met at the library last week?
"Which one? The one dressed like a mafia member?"
Aozaki Aoko curled her lips.
The way he stared at you made me want to shoot him with a magic bullet.
Kuonji Yuju's fingertips tapped unconsciously on the window frame.
That person—Shiraishikawa, the name he left on the borrowing registration form—had an aura that made her uneasy.
It wasn't the magical fluctuations of an ordinary magician, but something older and more chaotic, like darkness seeping from the back of the world.
"I think the disappearance of the white mist is related to him."
Aozaki Aoko sighed dramatically.
"Kuonji Yuzu, have you been reading too many fairy tales lately? That person doesn't even have magic circuits, how could he possibly capture a familiar?"
Kuonji Yuju did not refute, but her fingernails had already dug deeply into her palm.
Aozaki Aoko will never understand that it is precisely this state of having nothing that is most terrifying.
Ordinary humans exude a life force, magicians leak magical energy fluctuations, while Dead Apostles exhibit a pronounced urge to drink blood.
The man stood there like a perfect void, even the moonlight seemed to dim upon him.
"I'll go check the barrier."
She turned and walked towards the basement.
Aozaki Aoko called out from behind her.
Hey! Your black tea's getting cold!
Kuonji Yuju never looked back.
She descended the spiral staircase, the candlelight automatically lighting up as she passed.
Upon entering the lowest level of the crystal chamber, she immediately noticed something amiss—the protective barrier in the southeast corner had developed fine cracks, like a spider web slowly corroded by some kind of acidic substance.
She knelt in the center of the crystal array and pulled out a silver key from her collar.
When the key was inserted into the lock in the floor, the entire room suddenly lit up with a ghostly blue light.
Countless translucent images floated in the air: this was a magical record of the outer perimeter of the barrier over the past 24 hours.
The video plays back quickly, and at a certain moment...
Kuonji Yuzu suddenly pressed the pause button.
The scene is frozen at 3:17 a.m. - in the bushes at the edge of the courtyard, a shadow is twisting unnaturally.
She zoomed in on the image, and her pupils suddenly contracted.
It wasn't the shadow of a bush at all, but six human figures crawling on the ground.
They wore bizarre masks, and their bodies flowed like liquid.
Most disturbingly, these creatures have no shadows, because they are shadows themselves.
"What's this..."
she muttered.
Just then, the crystal array suddenly trembled violently. All the images shattered instantly, turning into blue light particles that dissipated into the air.
Kuonji Yuju suddenly stood up, and the silver key fell to the ground with a crisp sound.
She felt an unprecedented chill creep up her spine—someone was probing her location from the opposite direction, and had directly torn her magic barrier apart in an extremely violent way.
Aoko Aozaki's shouts came from upstairs.
"Kuonji Arisa! Was there an earthquake just now?"
Kuonji Yuju picked up the key, her fingers trembling slightly.
This wasn't an earthquake; it was some being demonstrating its power to her.
Just as a wild animal leaves claw marks on the edge of its territory, it serves as both a warning and a declaration of war.
She suddenly remembered the Norse myth her mother had told her when she was a child: when Fenrir the wolf first broke free of his chains, the gods heard a cracking sound coming from the roots of the World Tree.
"Aozaki Aoko."
She walked up the stairs, her voice unusually calm.
"Starting tomorrow, the mansion will be placed under Level 1 security."
Aozaki Aoko was adding her fourth sugar cube to her black tea when she heard this and almost knocked over the sugar jar.
"Huh? Why all of a sudden..."
"My intuition is rarely wrong."
Kuonji Yuju looked out the window.
the other side
Aozaki Aoko, wrapped in a blanket, huddled in a corner of the sofa, staring with a pained expression at the bowl of potion emitting an eerie green glow.
Chapter 456 Emphasizing a Sense of Ritual
Bubbles kept rising to the surface of the liquid, and each time they burst, they released a pungent smell mixed with mint and rotting leaves.
"Kuonji Yuzu, are you sure this isn't some new type of murder?"
She pinched her nose, her voice muffled from a cold.
Kuonji Yuzu sat opposite her, her long black dress accentuating her snow-white skin, her fingertips gently tapping the rim of her teacup.
“If I wanted to murder you, I wouldn’t have risked saving you last night.”
She paused, a smile curving her lips.
"But it's not too late to regret it now."
"cut!"
Aozaki Aoko rolled her eyes, pinched her nose, and drank the potion in one gulp.
The moment the liquid slid down her throat, her entire face scrunched up, as if she had swallowed a whole bottle of concentrated bitter melon juice.
"Ugh—this is definitely your revenge for me ruining your doll last time!"
The witch sipped her black tea gracefully, a sly glint in her eyes.
How effective is it?
Just as Aozaki Aoko was about to retort, she suddenly felt a surge of heat spread from 857's stomach throughout her body, and her face quickly flushed an unnatural red.
She pulled back the blanket and was surprised to find that her previously aching joints had regained their flexibility.
"So effective so quickly?"