Silver Blade and Rose

"It's dead?"

Zals came back to his senses, and only after he reminded him did he realize that the forest guard was no longer breathing.

He was very close, and the beast's head rested on his lap. The high fever just now had gradually receded, leaving only a little residual temperature.

"...it's dead." He sighed, repeating Hyde's words.

He didn't know how the Watcher died, but he could imagine that it probably did so by choice.The Forester's final communication object was him. Although he still had a lot to say, whether he agreed with its choice or not, Zales respected the result.

Hyde took two steps forward, stretched out his hand to check the forest watcher's body temperature, frowned and asked, "You were obviously fine just now, why did you suddenly die?"

He didn't suspect Zals, because in his opinion, Zals would never do anything to the forest guard, let alone kill him—a weak person who has no ability to resist has always been the most innocent Zars Be sympathetic to a guy who feels like he's feeling the world for the first time.

He confirmed that he didn't hit the forest guard hard, and that hit would at most make him suffer some collision injuries, and there wouldn't be any major problems.He didn't do anything, and Zales couldn't do anything, so there was only one possibility left: the forest guard committed suicide.

Zars avoided talking about the reason for the sudden death of the forest guard, and only said: "I found a fake key from it, as for the real one..."

According to what the forest guard said, he really couldn't bear to do this, and he should let Hyde take out the key from it.But Zals also felt that the forest guard had entrusted him with his greatest secret out of trust, and if he blindly evaded his responsibility, he would be somewhat sorry for it.

He drew his dagger from the holster strapped to his leg and stood up.

Hyde was a little frightened by his sudden action, and blurted out: "What are you going to do?"

"Get the key." Zales said.

Ignoring the dazed Hyde, he took a deep breath and cut open the horny layer on the top of the forest guard's head with a dagger.

The dagger he brought was also taken from Edwin, and it was similar in weight and feel to a saber, but it wasn't until he actually used it to cut things that Zars realized that there was something special about this dagger.

The horny layer on the forest guard's head seemed so thin that it could reveal the temperature inside, but it was actually very hard, at least not to the extent that ordinary daggers could easily break it.Before he started, he estimated the thickness of the thing. It felt solid to the touch. It might take a long time to cut it with an ordinary dagger, but he used a little strength to cut it tentatively, and the blade sank into the cuticle. The layer, like cutting a piece of beeswax, went deep inside without much effort.

"Your dagger is good." Hyde came over at some point, stood behind him to see what he was going to do, and showed interest in the dagger, "It looks familiar, I should have seen it too."

For the time being, Zals didn't have the energy to entangle with him about searching for memories, so he concentrated on cutting the cuticle, and fell into contemplation of the things inside.

Foresters are not ordinary creatures, and their brains are also different from those of animals. After the cuticle is destroyed, there is a soft transparent substance inside, which feels a bit like pudding, with residual warmth.Resisting the strange feeling in his heart, he stretched his hand in, and when his fingers touched those transparent substances, he reflexively wanted to pull them out, but he still resisted to pass through them, and grabbed a key buried in the depths.

It is small in size, a little smaller than the one he found around the neck of the forester. It is not made of metal. It is translucent blue and looks like it was carved from some kind of crystal. It looks more like a key than a key. decorations.Zales pulled it out of the transparent "brain", and it didn't take much effort, but he could actually feel the forest guard's body cooling down rapidly.When he held the key in the palm of his hand, the dead body was completely cold, as if it had never had a soul, it was just a pool of lifeless flesh.

Hyde didn't expect him to do this, let alone the real key hidden in the forest guard's head, he stared blankly at the key still stained with a little transparent glue, and asked hesitantly, "You...why? Do you know there is a key in there?"

It's not that he didn't think that the so-called key hanging around his neck would be a fake, but Zars was too calm, and he suddenly felt that he couldn't see through the other party.

Putting the key into the necklace around his neck, Zars stood up and took off his coat, gently covering the forest guard with it, then turned to Hyde and said, "Let's go to the center of the forest."

He still has to save people, and if he delays for another minute, the rescue target may encounter unavoidable danger, so he can't waste any more time here.

"Just let it stay here like this?" Hyde was still looking at the corpse on the ground, as if he couldn't understand why he was in a hurry to leave, "You obviously don't want to let it suffer, but you opened its skull and turned it over with your own hands. Looking for the key, and now let its corpse rot and stink in the forest?"

For a split second, as if their roles had suddenly reversed, Hyde stood in the position he had been half an hour earlier and asked him in disbelief why he did what he did.Zals heard it in his ears, and suddenly understood what Hyde was thinking before.

He sighed and explained to the other party: "There will be a new forest guard born, maybe it's not it, maybe it's still it, this body is still here, what if the new forest guard is useful?"

More importantly, he left the body here. If there is still time left after saving someone, and the body is still in place, maybe he can take the forest guard out of the forest.

With their current load-bearing capacity, it is impossible to take it with them. There are still trapped people in the forest center who do not know their safety. No matter how you think about it, it is more appropriate to give priority to rescue.Zals stuck a long and thin stick in the ground next to the corpse, and glanced in Hyde's direction after debugging: "Let's go, you might be able to come back after saving someone, and you won't have time to stay here any longer. gone."

What he left behind was an electronic firework, and the trigger was in his hand. If he had to go back the same way afterwards and couldn't find his way, he could use this to find out the direction.

Seeing that he looked ready, Hyde silently swallowed what he wanted to say, nodded, and followed his footsteps.

The closer to the center of the forest, the less there is anything that can be called a "road".Zals stepped across another swamp with one foot deep and one shallow foot, and finally saw a little light from among the dense forests.

Finally, there is an open space in this seemingly endless forest, waiting for them not far ahead.

"First of all, I've never been here before, you can figure it out." Seeing that the destination of Zals's trip was ahead, Hyde leaned on the tree next to him and took the lead to separate the relationship, "I'll wait here, You saved someone and brought them here."

"What if I'm in danger inside?" Zales asked while looking at him.

"Then yell," Hyde said. "I'll see if I can save you when I hear it."

Zales: "..."

It was really his fault for having unrealistic expectations of this man.

He shook his head helplessly, waved his hands and walked forward alone.After coming up from the swamp, Zars finally stepped on the hard ground for the first time in a long time. Before he had time to feel emotional, the broad vision rushed towards him as if he couldn't wait to say hello.

This is a rare and open place, without the dense shade of trees covering the sky and the sun, the bare ground is paved with white bricks and stones, extending all the way to the front of the building that looks like a temple not far ahead.A statue stood quietly in front of the temple, and the sunlight that finally found the exit shone unscrupulously on it. Zars took a few steps forward to see its appearance clearly.

So far, all the information he has received, whether inside or outside the forest, connects the "Forest of No Return" with the druids and the forest goddess they believe in. Even Mr. Wagner, the forest keeper, always believes that he is influenced by the forest goddess. The sheltered people, and have always believed in their gods devoutly.But when he really broke through the barrier of illusion and came to the center of the forest, and saw with his own eyes who was enshrined in the temple here, he realized that the existence of the so-called "forest of no return" and the forest guards were all completely A deception, even the forest guards in the trap believe it to be true, and have been actively maintaining their own lies without knowing the truth for thousands of years.

The statue is carved from white stone, with a pure white body and a height of about [-] meters. It is a statue of a person with exquisite carving.Like all the sculptures that may exist in front of the temple, this statue is undoubtedly the deity enshrined in the temple. Although the dress is strange, the face is carved so lifelike that Zars immediately recognized the so-called " "God" who is.

That was Hyde's face.

The statue is wearing a cloak, and the hood is taken off on the back, revealing long curly hair and a handsome face. It is undoubtedly Hyde.The cloak covered something on his back, and Zars went around to look behind him, only to find two small sections of feathered wings protruding from under the hem of his clothes.

The statue is holding an oil lamp in one hand, and its other hand is holding its cloak tightly, as if it is illuminating the road ahead, and it is afraid that the cloak will slip and reveal some secrets—the pointy points of the wings are not obvious, if it is not for the statue Tall Zal Si deliberately bent down to check again, but probably couldn't find it.

Having two wings on her back and hiding herself, even the gender is wrong, which is very different from the information of the forest goddess, and it is completely different from the same person at first glance.

Why is a statue of Hyde enshrined in a temple in the forest?Since he is a god believed by the ethnic groups here, why is he trapped in the forest and cannot leave?

Also, is he Edwin's friend, the "Dark Messenger" Earl Elvins?

Several different questions flashed through his mind at the same time, and he couldn't figure it out for a while. Zars temporarily put them aside, and decided to continue to look at the statue in front of him and the temple inside.

The statue is holding a lamp, maybe it is to illuminate itself, or it may be looking for a way. He is walking forward with a cloak tightly wrapped, indicating that there are people around him who need to hide his identity, but the person who made this statue even faintly reveals his identity under the cloak. The wingtips are also drawn very carefully, so they must know his true identity.Zals walked around the statue a few times, and found no more doubts from the details of the depiction, but found something else in the lantern in its hand.

A colorless and transparent stone, the surface has been polished to a rounded shape, in a perfect oval shape.Zals inadvertently found it lying inconspicuously in the oil lamp because of the refraction of the light. He tiptoed to reach for it, but found that it began to change color slowly when he reached it.

It started to change from colorless and transparent, and gradually became warm amber, exuding a faint warmth in his palm.

Zals looked down at it for a while, and finally confirmed that it was what he thought.

Although he didn't know why it was quietly lying in the lantern of a stone statue like a wick, this unattractive little stone should be the sunstone he had seen that could reflect the race of the holder.

He had seen it on Mrs. Winnie's pendant, and Edwin had gone out of his way to explain to him how the stone would change color.The one in front of me is different from the one that was inlaid on the pendant that day. It has not been exquisitely cut and looks a bit ordinary, but the radiance and warmth it emits are almost exactly the same.

Why is there a sunstone here?