Pale Emblem

Chapter 120 Soul Eater
Victor soon came to the place he had designated in advance, a dilapidated and low house, located at the end of the alley, on the edge of the civilian area, and behind it was the place where the townspeople piled up garbage.

The house is low and dilapidated, with patches of black mold growing on the mottled outer walls, like a dying old man, exuding a decaying smell.In fact, this alley hardly sees sunlight, and the ground is damp and cold, as are most of the other houses. Only a few elderly and frail half-elves live here, relying on picking up garbage and giving alms from well-meaning people to survive.

Their bodies and minds have already decayed, they are dazzled and deaf, they can neither hear nor see clearly what is going on outside, and they have no energy to meddle in their own business.

This was actually a good deed. Most of the residents of Water Snake Town lived a decent life, and the mayor did not make the widowed and lonely elderly who lost their ability to work homeless. At least he provided them with a place to live.

In any case, this alley is a neglected and forgotten place.

Gently pushing open the dilapidated wooden door, Victor bowed his waist and lowered his head into the dark room, and a mildew and rotten smell came over his face.He frowned slightly, his gluttonous talent automatically adapted to the depressing smell in a short period of time, and his low-light vision helped him see things in the house clearly.

Harvey, Maddie, Ruth, Jessica, and Stephanie all covered their mouths and noses with windshields, obviously unable to bear the filthy smell in the room.

"My lord, have you solved the dark whistle?" McGrady came up to him and asked in a low voice.

Victor nodded, and turned his gaze to the corner of the room, where there was a low bed made of wooden boards, on which lay an old man with messy white hair.

He was haggard, his face was swollen, especially his eyes were so swollen that he couldn't open his eyes, he lay motionless on the dirty sheets, only his chest was heaving up and down, his throat made a sound like a bellows breathing, and his whole body was emitting pollution The stench of the indoor air.

"When we came in, he was like this...he was dying." Harvey explained to Victor: "However, it seems that someone has brought him food and water the last day."

There is a small table at the head of the bed with a plate of muddled melon paste on it.Food was cold but not spoiled.The old half-elf, who was dying, had no energy to eat.

Victor silently stared at the dying old man.He had seen bloody death, on the battlefield, but not the natural old death of a half-elf.

Illness and old age belong to the doomed death of mortal beings.The aged half-elf was at the end of his life.The metamorphic body of life is collapsing, the elemental body will eventually return to its original source, and the mental body will lose its foundation of existence, and this process is almost irreversible.Victor was very curious, what was the mental state of the old half-elf when he was on the verge of natural death?
He lost his five senses and could not communicate with the outside world. Is his mind and body suffering from distorted pain, fear, and unwillingness, or is he calmly recalling the past, or even transcending himself, secretly observing the uninvited guest who broke into his house from another perspective?
"My lord, my lord? Do you know him?" Harvey gently woke up Victor who was in a daze.

Victor shook his head, realizing that he still had business to do, and he couldn't continue wasting time here.He took a step back and said, "The way this man looks now makes me feel bad, kill him."

"Okay, I'll help him out."

Harvey nodded and stepped forward.At this time, Stephanie suddenly rushed over and bravely stopped him, her little face was flushed with excitement, and pleaded: "He is just a paralyzed old man, deaf and blind, he is no threat to us, and he will not inform us... "

"Go away!"

Harvey let out a low cry, moved the little girl aside, hit the old man's chest with his index finger to stop his heart, and watched him swallow his last breath.

Stephanie's eyes widened and her shoulders twitched.Maddie had to grab her from behind and put one hand over her mouth to prevent her intended apprentice from yelling.

It would be bad if it alarmed outsiders, but Maddie was even more worried that Stephanie's actions would offend Victor, so he asked in her ear, "Do you know this old guy?"

Stephanie shook her head repeatedly, broke away from Maddie's hand, turned her head angrily, and shouted in a low voice, "I was almost suffocated by you!"

She also knows that she can't shout loudly now... Maddy smiled, and then asked seriously: "Since you don't know him, then explain why you stopped Harvey just now?"

"I... I just feel sorry for him."

Stephanie glanced at Victor secretly, lowered her head and said in a low voice, "He is like an old man I know. He is my neighbor on Island Street. When he was dying, he was killed on the bed by soldiers who broke into the room. I I hid under his bed at the time, not knowing what to do... The soldiers thought he was smelly, so they killed him and left without carefully searching the room. I think he saved me."

"Son, they are not the same person, and we are not city-state soldiers who slaughtered the residents of Island Street." Maddie pointed to the old man on the bed, and patiently persuaded him: "He may have to wait a day or two before he dies. The adults ordered Harvey To kill him is to relieve his pain."

"I see." Stephanie nodded in frustration, and couldn't help but said, "But we're all going to get old. Do we really want someone to kill us when we're too old to move?"

No one can give a standard answer to this question.

Harvey snorted and said, "Anyway, I will never die of old age in bed, that's the behavior of the weak!"

In fact, not all people will age. For example, the Taku and Hemer tribes either died in battle, or went to the throne of the Earth Mother, and disappeared from then on, but they will never get sick, let alone die of old age.Because of this, the rock elves always lack empathy and emotional resonance towards the Disa half-elves, and naturally they will not pity those old and weak half-elves.

Like the rock elves, Lord Victor is probably already immune to aging and disease, so don't expect him to sympathize with an old guy who is dying... Maddy thought to himself.

Death is a puzzle, full of mystery and unknown.But Victor didn't have time to explore the meaning of death now, so he asked Harvey to kill the dying half-elf, lest he lose his mind, waste time, and end up missing the point.

That's it.

"There is a treasure hidden under the fireplace, Harvey, go and dig it out." Victor turned his head and ordered.

"okay."

"Ah, is there any treasure in this broken house?"

Maddie was full of disbelief. He ran to the fireplace, and together with Harvey, he dug up the floor tiles and looked for the treasure below.

Stephanie looked around and begged Victor, "Dear master, I..."

"I haven't decided to accept you as my servant." Victor said with a cold expression.

The little girl almost cried, and changed her words tremblingly: "Dear sir, can I, can I pray for him?"

Victor didn't comment, but stepped aside.

Stephanie walked to the bed and knelt on the ground, clasped her hands on her forehead, calmed down, and prayed for the dead according to the rituals usually used by half-elf civilians:
"Poor soul, may the great Goddess allow you to enter into his kingdom. He is the mother who gives love to the child; the wife who gives warmth to the husband; the daughter who gives warmth to the father... Poor soul, May you fall into the embrace of the goddess, and you will no longer be afraid, lonely, or cold..."

The orphan on Island Street sincerely prayed over and over again, and the spider mark on her palm quietly emerged, and in the invisible field of vision, the soul of the deceased actively invested in the spider mark.

Soul Eater!

The spider symbolizes death, and Ms. Spider is also known as the Lord of Death, who is in charge of the soul, the psychic realm, the dead, and trickery.One of the basic abilities that the Spider Blessed must master is soul devouring.

Of course, the Spider Blessed uses the Soul Eater's Law of Existence to restrict, and the restrictions on a weak Blessed like Stephanie will be extremely strict.

A soul that dies naturally, is fresh and complete, and actively responds to the call will do the least harm to Stephanie, and it is the only soul she can currently devour.Due to the strong fluctuations in the will of the dead, the heroic souls who died in battle and the resentful souls who died violently were definitely not the power Stephanie could bear now, so they were shielded by the spider mark and could only dissipate in the material plane and finally return to the origin of the world.

Stephanie happened to meet the soul-eating conditions unintentionally, obtained a usable soul source quality through the spider imprint, activated a hidden trick ability, and then produced complete information related to the trick in her mind.

Trick: Decay.

Force the living beings to experience the decaying process of the deceased's soul, causing negative effects such as insanity, deterioration of the five senses, and slow thinking on the target.If the target fails its saving throw against the trick of decay, it results in death and grants the caster soul energy.

The spider imprint devours the dead soul of the half-elf old man, just got 5 units of soul energy, you can use up to 5 times of decaying tricks, or use up all the soul energy at once, the more soul energy consumed, the strength of decaying tricks higher.When the soul energy is depleted, the caster cannot use Decay unless she consumes a new soul.

Stephanie's face lost all color and became pale as paper.The information that came to her mind made her extremely flustered.According to her understanding, she devoured the old man's soul inexplicably, and could also make other people be haunted by ghosts, experience the painful process of old man's decay and death, and finally complete the harvest of souls.

The little girl is used to hearing horror stories about vampires, and she even saw "with her own eyes" how a real vampire kills people and sucks blood.Now, she felt that she was even more evil than a vampire.

The teachings of the Goddess of the Earth have been spread in the Disa Alliance for thousands of years and have been continuously improved.Half-elves believe that after the death of believers, their souls will fall into the arms of the goddess.The goddess used severe means to wash away the evil in the soul until they became pure and flawless babies, and then the goddess sent the pure baby spirits into the body of a certain mother to start a new life.

The natural cycle of life can be seen everywhere. Of course, the Disa half-elves think and hope that their soul can cycle, which means immortality.

Therefore, the teachings of the Goddess of the Earth clarified this point and aroused widespread resonance among believers.

Then, devouring the soul of the dead is undoubtedly an evil act, and a soul eater is simply more vicious than a vampire who lives by sucking blood!
Stephanie can't accept being a different kind of monster, but she will never reveal her secrets to others.

The little half-elf girl who had a terrible experience was so upset that she didn't know what to do. She just puffed her mouth hard, trying to spit out the soul of the dead.

"Are you afraid?"

Mr. Victor's stern voice came from behind, and Stephanie jumped up from the ground like a frightened rabbit.She turned her head and saw Mr. Victor's icy blue eyes. They were a pair of beautiful and charming eyes, but there was a deep power that seemed to be able to see everything.

"Ah, no... No, I, I'm a little scared." Stephanie didn't dare to look into Victor's eyes, lowered her head, and explained incoherently in a weak voice.

"My lord, there is a real treasure hidden here!"

At this time, Harvey and Maddie dug a small square pit covered by planks under the fireplace, and took out a sealed tin can from it.

Harvey dumped all the treasures in the jar on the ground, and excitedly reported to Victor: "It's gems and gold nuggets. I estimate that they can be sold for about 2000 gold towers."

Looking at the shining treasure in the darkness, Victor's face showed a hint of complacency.Facts once again proved that the evolution of his dreams was accurate. Even though these valuable gems and gold were hidden secretly, as long as there is air, there is no way to escape the evolution of the dream arena.

McGrady was very curious, why Victor could know that there was a gold hiding place here, but he was not so stupid as to ask Victor's secret directly, so he said to himself: "Who is hiding the treasure in this place? "

"I know!"

Stephanie seemed to have escaped a catastrophe just now, she tried her best to express herself, stepped forward to pick up a faint blue diamond from the pile of treasures, and said: "I know this gem, I stole it half a year ago, and handed it over to Jin Finger Pim. So, this is Pim's gold stash!"

It is easy for Goldfinger to get money, but it will take at least several years to accumulate wealth worth 2000 gold towers.Pim is so cunning that he hides the treasure in the dying home of the widowed old man.It can be seen from this that he was also the one who delivered food to the old man who lived in this room, and the old man acted as the guard of the gold hiding place invisibly.

Victor ordered: "Pack up all these treasures... There is an abandoned well behind this house, which is actually an underground secret passage dug by Mayor Middleton. We can leave Water Snake Town through that secret passage."

The abandoned well behind the alley was old, and the well platform was covered with moss.It is said that the benevolent mayor of Middleton hired someone to dig the well at his own expense in order to facilitate water use for the lonely and widowed elderly.Unfortunately, no water came out of this well, so it had to be abandoned in the end.But the real situation is that by digging the side wall of the bottom of the well, you can enter the underground cave space. It is basically the entrance to a secret passage prepared by the mayor of Middleton for himself.And there are three similar entrances to the underground secret passage in Water Snake Town, which are located in different places.

Victor chose the entrance of the abandoned well mainly because it was hidden enough and close to the rented house.He dug out the gold stash of a gang of thieves just by the way.

Harvey went down to the bottom of the well first, and removed the wall of the well built with stones with his bare hands, revealing a dark cave.Then, Victor threw Ruth and Jessica straight down the well, Harvey caught them, and it was Stephanie's turn to jump down by herself.

When McGrady was about to go down, a rapid bell rang outside, and the sleeping town was instantly awakened.

"The alarm bell for the invasion of foreign enemies? Could it be that there is really a bandit group attacking Water Snake Town?" The old scout discerned the signal conveyed by the alarm bell, froze for a moment, and murmured.

Victor's eyes flashed, and he said, "Don't worry! Let's go down, there are more important things than treasure waiting for me..."

(End of this chapter)