As Hao Ren guessed, the castle on the hill was Vivien's sleeping place.Strictly speaking, it's the entrance to the Sleeping Ground.After some careful deliberation and discussion, Hao Ren and Heatherenne re-planned the entire process of opening the seal and entering the Shadow World, and in order to avoid long nights and dreams, which the witchers could follow at any time, they decided to enter the castle before dawn.Although the power of the Shadow at night is very strong, which can make it difficult to open the seal, Heatherena has decided to replace the key with her own shadow magic, and her power will be strengthened at night, so it doesn't matter.Harorne Castle - It was once the property of a human nobleman, but in the end it became the property of a vampire, and although the ignorant and reckless young vampire was later ruined by Vivien's aura of decay, at least he had a lot of money when he first took over the castle, so he rebuilt the human castle in a lavish way, even after the castle was abandoned and the walls collapsed.The whole castle is composed of four huge towers and two main structures, between the two rectangular main buildings is a wide corridor, this structure makes the whole castle look down from the air like a "I" shape, and the four towers are distributed in the four corners of this I-shape, which looks extremely magnificent.Of course, more than half of this magnificent structure has collapsed by now, and the entire superstructure of the castle has basically decayed with the weathering of time: a fortress made of stone would not have decayed so quickly, but the dark forces that haunt this land have accelerated the decay of everything, and although it has only been a hundred years, the rock structure of the castle has been as broken as if it had been four or five centuries."
There are a lot of ghost legends about this castle in the local area," Hethanna has been active in this area for some time, and she has deliberately collected intelligence, she knows a lot about the castle, and introduced it by the way when she led everyone into the ruins of the castle, "Some daring fellows will venture in and try to find some noble relics or rags that can be sold for money, but very few people can return intact, and even the lucky ones who return alive claim that they have encountered ghosts and other evil things in the castle, In fact, it's all the power of the shadows. ”As he spoke, the little bat spirit pursed his lips: "Tsk, I still expect to find a treasure here, I don't know if this territory was poor back then, that Harron himself couldn't find a copper plate in the castle when he left." ”Hao Ren didn't respond, but looked up: they were walking through the main building in the front half of the castle, the high Gothic roof had collapsed and collapsed, leaving only a few jagged skeletons hanging criss-crossed in the air, tattered and twisted strips of cloth and cobwebs stretching from those tall skeletons to the walls on either side, looking bleak and eerie.Due to the collapse of the entire dome, the moonlight could shine into the antechamber of the castle almost unobstructed, and the originally bright moonlight seemed to have undergone some mysterious change when passing through the castle: it took on a lifeless gray-white, the light was cold and terrible, it was a real cold, Hao Ren could even feel the real cold touch after the moonlight shone on his skin.Before entering the castle, the moon had sunk to near the horizon, but after entering the castle, it hung very in the middle of the sky, which was also a rather obvious anomaly."
Moonlight is never normal in relation to Lord Vivian," Hethanna casually explained, noticing Haoren's gaze, "We should be glad that moonlight isn't red at least—otherwise we'll have to turn around and run away." ”"Vivien would have found such a gorgeous place to sleep," Lily said with some surprise as she carried Hasselblad, who was in a deep coma, "I thought she could only sleep in a cave or something......"
"She lived in this castle after it was first abandoned," Heatherian sighed, "and the place was in ruins by then. ”Lily: "......
It makes sense. ”"Where is the entrance to the Shadow Fortress?"
Hao Ren looked around curiously, he could already feel that this ancient castle was being controlled by a powerful shadow force, but he did not observe an obvious spatial break point, it was obvious that Vivien had made quite adequate preparations before falling asleep this time, and her sleeping place this time was not as easy to deal with as the cave in Siberia."
The castle is divided in two, the castle in the real world corresponds to the light, so the castle of 'Shadow' is of course on its 'back'," Hethanna smiled, "just ahead, there is a pool in the castle garden, and in the reflection of the pool is the entrance. ”Lily muttered as she listened, "It's this kind of godly chatter again......
I'm the worst at dealing with this kind of thing. ”Before she finished speaking, she felt that the Hasselblad on her back suddenly moved slightly, and then the old hunter woke up from the coma, and saw the witches around and the Hetha Anna who was leading the way in front of the head, Hasselblad subconsciously wanted to get her weapon, but found that her hands and feet were bound by a strange energy field, and she couldn't even use the slightest strength, and suddenly yelled: "You ......"
"Hey, bang!!
”"I'm embarrassed," Lily stuck out her tongue, "and I feel so sorry for him." ”The witches were taken aback by Hasselblad's sudden awakening, even Hethanna, but when they saw Lily knocking the latter unconscious with a brick, they all immediately showed extremely strange expressions, and Lady Mary sighed: "This is probably the worst witcher I've ever seen in my life......
Hao Ren looked up at the sky and didn't know what to say, so he wondered how to explain what happened to Hasselblad after he was "pulled in" by himself......
Anyway, the old hunter won't be ashamed and angry, and he will draw his sword and kill himself, right?
Led by Hethanna, the group soon reached the castle's back garden and saw the pool that served as a passage between the two worlds.It is located to the west of the center of the castle's zigzag structure, surrounded by a large field of withered brambles and twisted vines, and the pool has a marble outer rim, but in the depression in the center of the pool, not a drop of water is long gone.Without water, there would be no reflection.Hao Ren cast an inquiring glance at Heatherian, knowing that since the little bat spirit had brought everyone here, this pool must have another ingenuity.Sure enough, Hethanna was not surprised at all when she saw the dry pool, she just stepped forward, bit her finger, and dripped a drop of blood into the dry pool.Then she stepped aside and looked up at the gray-white moon hanging in the sky: "Without the key, you can only borrow the power of the moonlight......
If you can hear, Lord Vivian, wish me success......"
With that, she took a light step and began to walk around the pool at a very slow pace, whispering an ancient incantation.The unthinkable happened.The already dry pool suddenly began to ripple with a thin layer of light, the gray-white moonlight seemed to be restrained by an invisible force, constricted into a pillar of light and shone straight on the bottom of the pool, the light seemed to condense into a liquid state, as Hethanna walked slowly, it began to accumulate in the pool at a speed visible to the naked eye, and every second became more solid, and finally became as solid as real flowing water!
As Hethanna took one last step, she returned to her starting position, just in time for a lap around the pool, which was filled with "moonlight water", the surface of which was almost level with the edge of the pool, as still as a mirror.Hao Ren saw a clear reflection in the mirror-like water, and in that reflection appeared towers and stately castles—but in their real-world counterparts, those towers and castle structures had already decayed, and more than half of them had collapsed.Obviously, the reflection is not the real world, at least not the real world of the present plane."
The Shadow Passage has been opened, and beyond the pool is another dimension," Hethanna wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, "Because it was opened by abnormal means, I'm not sure what the situation on the other side is now, if we're lucky, we won't run headlong into those patrolling soulless guards, but if that wizard Barn has already activated the Shadow Fortress's defenses with the key......
I'm ready for a fierce battle, and I'll have to work hard to gain control of the Soulless Guard once I'm in the Shadow World. ”"This was all expected a long time ago," Hao Ren nodded, "What should we do now?"
”"It's easy, just follow me."
As she spoke, Hethanna stood at the edge of the pool.And then she just threw straight down towards the "water".There was no splash, no splashing sound, she seemed to melt into the water, and the moment she made contact with the reflection, she disappeared silently into the water, without even causing a ripple.Hao Ren and Lily glanced at each other, and then Hao Ren took the first step, and also followed the movements of Heatherian and fell straight towards the water.He also crossed the "border" without any problems."
You guys go in first!"
Lily bared her teeth at a group of witches, "Prevent you from escaping!"
”The witches had no choice but to come to the water's edge one by one and "fall straight into the water".Lily was the last to come to the pool, looking at the calm moonlit water, and the husky girl wrinkled her nose."
I don't like water......"
Then she closed her eyes and jumped down.