Chapter 1307: Chapter 1307: Wedding Variations
Miss Mason somewhat wanted to avoid her husband’s gaze, while Mr. Enriques looked at his wife seriously and renewed his marriage vows:
"In sickness and in health, in poverty or in wealth, I will always be by your side. Meeting you is the greatest fortune of my life."
If it were any other time, Miss Mason would feel like the happiest person in the world, but at this moment, she only wished her husband would quietly stop speaking.
But obviously, Mr. Enriques didn’t know how to read minds, so he spoke the most crucial words:
"From now on, only death can separate us, yes, only death. Miss Maggie Mason, thank you for always loving me, since our childhood. I will also..."
He couldn’t continue, as a baseless eerie wind swept through the entire room. The curtains that had been pulled open automatically shut with a loud whoosh despite no one touching them. The flame of the gas lamps on the room’s walls flickered a few times and eventually went out. But the room was not entirely dark, as an eerie green light emerged the next moment, and the soul of the man who underwent Evil Spirit Transformation fully appeared inside.
The green light illuminated Miss Mason’s despairing face, Mr. Enriques’ terrified face, Shard’s ominous face ready to strike at any moment, and Ston Osenfort’s expressionless face.
Perhaps, to Mr. Enriques, all this appeared without warning, but to the other three, it was clear he, through his words, had provoked this soul to its current state. Of course, the process of Evil Spirit Transformation was too rapid; Shard was already certain the soul had been corrupted.
As an ordinary person, Mr. Enriques’ terror seemed quite normal, yet he still stood in front of the bed, blocking the way to his wife:
"Maggie, you must leave."
His voice trembled from excessive fear, but the woman behind him didn’t think of leaving; instead, she embraced Mr. Enriques from the back:
"No, I can’t leave. If I’m here, he won’t hurt you."
Indeed, when the two embraced, that terrifying soul didn’t immediately launch an attack, but the situation was not any better because once the Evil Spirit Transformation was complete, he might lose all sense of reason.
"You know him!?"
Mr. Enriques asked incredulously, the confusion even slightly diluting his fear.
"Sorry, I... During the two years I studied at Velindale, he was my classmate. At that time, although we corresponded frequently, while I was studying abroad alone... the towering lighthouse of Velindale, the cathedral, the royal opera house, the town square, the high society social events, the noble ladies’ club entertainments, these blinded me... For a period, I was feeling quite down and spent some time with him, only three months, and then we broke up... Before my graduation, he suddenly died from an illness. A week before our wedding, he suddenly appeared near me... Sorry, really sorry."
Miss Mason hugged Mr. Enriques and sobbed on his back. Her intermittent description had basically made Shard aware of the general story.
The expression on Mr. Enriques’ face was unexpectedly rich now, even the fear of facing an alleged undead was somewhat overshadowed. He truly had no knowledge of these things and could never have imagined his childhood sweetheart wife had such a past.
Just as Mr. Enriques attempted to turn and look at Miss Mason, the agitated soul finally got entirely provoked. The negative emotions within the soul completely destroyed him, and the evil spirit lunged towards Mr. Enriques. In Miss Mason’s expression of despair, they saw some strange silver halo, and then saw pieces of flying blossoms, subsequently falling into a slumber.
[Binding Aura] restricted the actions of the evil spirit, and the [Flying Blossom Spell] put the bride and groom into a slumber.
Shard and Ston Osenfort’s figures appeared within the room. Although the evil spirit was only capable of slight floating at the moment, it still looked at Shard with a ferocious face. But when it gazed at Ston Osenfort, it showed a look of fear.
"What a pity, as an audience member of this play, why interrupt the performance before seeing the end? In my view, it wanted to possess Enriques to achieve its goal in another way. If not discovered by the Church later on, it would have been a rather good ending, although neither of them would likely live past thirty."
The burly man spoke, while Shard asked:
"If this is truly a drama, then you must be the director, right? I’ve seen souls undergoing Evil Spirit Transformation before, but this was unexpectedly swift. Mr. Osenfort, may I ask, is this soul’s action related to you?"
Ston Osenfort didn’t deny:
"I merely discovered a wandering soul some time ago and had a chat with him."
The Demon Power influenced the unknown soul, though it wasn’t a direct fall, it at least hastened the process.
Shard shook his head, making no comment on this. He reached out to handle the evil spirit, but unexpectedly, the dark gas within the spiritual body spread towards his [Binding Aura], shattering the silver light.
The evil spirit almost immediately regained freedom of movement, but it neither attacked the unconscious two nor lunged toward Shard and Osenfort’s direction. Instead, it directly passed through the wall and escaped outside.
So Shard and Ston Osenfort pursued it, though they still needed to go downstairs, but the latter seemed to know the location of the soul at any time.
Thus they arrived at the back of the manor’s courtyard, threaded through the crowd at play, bypassed the guests watching the jester blowing a horn, and exited through the back yard’s gate.
The back gate of the manor led directly to an affiliated farmland, tread upon the ridges under the moonlight towards a nearby small hill, and finally caught up with the fleeing evil spirit under the hill’s tree.
Compared to ten minutes ago, the spiritual body’s external visual features had become even more terrifying. Simultaneously, it somehow managed to get hold of a rusty longsword, turning to thrust it toward Shard’s chest.
Possessing the [Night Watchman] legacy skills, Shard had long been a Swordmaster. He deftly dodged the sword, and with the left hand even grabbed the sword hilt to prevent it from flying down the small hill, subsequently his sleeve released a rattling chain of black as long as a snake.
"Oh? Sin?"
Following Shard, Osenfort saw the and slightly frowned.
The Evil Spirit tried to dodge Shard’s chains, but as soon as it came into contact, it completely lost the ability to move. Although the is more convenient to use than the , the latter’s effect is actually better.
"Time to go, don’t linger."
Shard mumbled as he walked over, reaching out to touch the severely deformed spiritual body:
"Guide to Death."
Under the winter starry night, the scenery under the small hill’s tree vanished. Shard was supposed to see this man’s most profound memories of his life at this moment, but the scene before him just formed inside a classroom before everything turned chaotic.
A kind of extreme malice stared at Shard in those chaotic scenes, but without "her" reminder, Shard proactively withdrew his hand.
Looking again at the undead trapped by the , it was crawling on the ground, barely resembling its original form.
Black particles continuously flew from the surface of the spiritual body towards the sky above the giant withered tree, causing the spiritual body to become increasingly thinner. The soul was collapsing, with only a normal hand left trying to reach towards Shard:
"Help... help me."
But it was too late, the corruption of demon power had occurred long before this wedding banquet took place, and it was not a reversible process.
"Demon Vision."
With his back to Osenfort, Shard used the Arcane Technique again. In his normal vision, as black particles flew, the soul gradually became invisible. But in the special vision of the Arcane Technique, what Shard saw was the soul petrifying, during which something akin to rose vines forcibly emerged from the loose gaps of the gray stone.
Those vines simply danced around, while the soul crawling in the snow under the tree reached for Shard, but in the end, could not touch him. Starting from the fingertips, the petrified spiritual body disintegrated into dust and soon left only invisible ash behind.
Of course, these were all seen through the arcane perspective. What Shard’s normal eyes saw was the spiritual body becoming transparent and then disappearing, leaving a black stone engraved with runes on the ground.
"Truly tragic."
Ston Osenfort walked over from behind Shard to his side, bent down, and picked up the black stone left after the spiritual body collapsed, putting it away. Shard retracted the chains, and the two stood under the tree, gazing at the lights in the manor below the hill.
"Why do you say he is pathetic?"
Shard asked.
"Before death, not fighting for the woman he loved, but after death, becoming entangled, and ending up like this. Isn’t it pathetic?"
Osenfort retorted, seeing Shard did not wish to express his opinion, he changed the question:
"I thought you would want to return to the manor now and give tonight’s bride a small punishment to chastise her disloyalty."
"Did you misunderstand what kind of person I am? What does that have to do with me?"
Shard snorted, frowned, and looked towards the manor where the banquet was held, nonchalantly thrusting the rusty longsword into the snow at his feet:
"The West Village’s sheep ate the East Village’s grass, the village chief’s wedding ring got stolen, the old lady’s cat at the village entrance went missing last night, a stranger confessed to infidelity at the wedding... these messy things happen almost everywhere, do I have to deal with them all? What does it have to do with me?"
"I thought you were like those characters in knight novels, always stepping in when they see injustice."
Osenfort’s tone carried a trace of ridicule:
"I should have insisted on betting with you just now, betting on the outcome of this story. If you had agreed, I might have finally won against you this time."
"There always comes a day of losing in gambling."
Shard turned to look at him:
"And the only gamble we can be sure of is that all mortals must die."
He has an extraordinary understanding of this matter.