Shadow Covenant

Chapter 1 "The Golden Year"

Pain grazes the skull like an eagle's talons.

The chill gushed out uncontrollably and spread to the whole body.

Woody, who was sleeping soundly in a sweet dream, felt a change in his body. He regained consciousness and struggled to cover his head to suppress the pain.

The body curled up habitually, and both hands also pulled the quilt to block the loss of body temperature.

But he suddenly found himself losing control of his body.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't lift his arm, which he could lift easily.

Even the eyelids are like thick iron gates at the moment, blocking his desire to spy on the current situation.

His breathing began to become difficult, only strange whispers came from his ears.

"what happened?"

"A ghost press?"

Woody's consciousness gradually became clear. He felt that he was lying on the bed, but his limbs could not move.

Such a word popped out of the vivid thinking in my mind in an instant.

Then, one after another, wild thoughts popped up one after another.

In psychiatric sleep medicine, this behavior is generally referred to as "sleep paralysis."

"It's so good, how can it be a ghost press?"

"And it still hurts so much?"

"Isn't it a dream?"

As if to confirm Woody's conjecture, the strange murmur gradually became clearer and more rhythmic.

Judging from the melody, it seems to be the prelude to some kind of ballad.

"Song?"

"How could there be singing suddenly?"

Woody's thoughts scattered, and the voice behind his ears continued.

The prelude is over, and after entering the feature film, when the ethereal female voice begins to sing.

Woody discovered that it was a language he had never heard before.

But Woody is not surprised at all, after all, many songs in his collection of playlists are in his own language.

Such as dragon language, tower language, star language, astronomical language, Gaelic language...

"It sounds pretty good!"

After listening for a while, the ethereal and light female voice made Woody even forget the pain coming from his head.

Although he couldn't understand what was being sung, the ballad really suited his taste.

However, as the ballad gradually reached its climax, the female voice turned to the previous melodious spirit and began to become agitated.

Woody suddenly felt that the BGM sounded familiar.

It feels like deja vu, this is a song he has heard, and he has heard it more than once!
ominous feeling.

I remembered……

This is "Praise of Profanity"!
Perception and memory interacted, and Woody finally remembered the horror once dominated by this BGM, or CG.

"Praise of Profanity" is the BGM of CG when an ancient evil "Mother Tree of Corruption" appeared in the virtual game "Holy One" that is popular all over the world.

In the singing of the beautiful girl gradually transforming into the most "perfect" form, Woody has seen countless players fall under the infection of the ancient evil.

He who was observing at that time was vomited, and the most important thing was that he couldn't skip it yet.

He remembered that it took half a month to attack the world.

If it wasn't for the system's blessing that players don't have to be reincarnated after death, almost all players would have to enter the River of Styx to reincarnate.

Finally, in the singing of countless "heroic souls", with the help of those brave and fearless Asenland natives, a hole was opened from under the ancient evil thing.

The vague memory of the past became clear in an instant, and the deaths again and again were vivid, even the girl's originally white and slender body gradually changed into a "perfect" bloated flesh covered with brown pustules in the CG.

This brought up Woody's deepest nightmare.

It was an amorphous, jelly-like mass of flesh and blood, with tumor-like appendages hanging all over its body in strange angles and ways.

On the blood-gray skin, white pustules are densely packed, they are constantly undulating, bubbling, bursting, and then releasing foul-smelling mucus.

Then continue to regenerate and become even bigger.Her physical body is constantly growing and changing.

Only one feature remained: in the middle of her body, beneath the translucent body tissue, a huge, dreamy face lined with organs, blood vessels, and viscera.

……

The song behind Woody's ears stopped at some point, but there was a glimmer of light, and Woody looked towards the light.

I saw a huge bleak blood moon at the top at some point.

The reason for the dimness of the blood moon is that a huge shadow creature is firmly entrenched on the surface of the planet.

As if sensing Woody's direct gaze, the crawling creature raised its head, revealing a huge and dreamlike face lined up with organs, blood vessels and internal organs.

He saw Woody, and Woody froze subconsciously.

Because of the creature on the blood moon, its organs, flesh, and internal organs also began to squirm.

as if...as if...

A... crying face.

……

The violent beating of the heart gave Woody an extra strength somehow, and the instinct of survival made him hold the giant hammer that smashed through the door and slam it.

The blood moon was shattered, and the dream also collapsed.

Woody's disconnected limbs regained consciousness, and Woody felt he could move again, gradually regaining consciousness in various parts of his body.

It didn't hurt at all, and the paralysis and immobility disappeared.

Woody breathed a long sigh of relief, opened his eyes, and cursed the planner of the "Saint" game in his heart.

Why design the monster so realistically?Even though it has been several years, people are still having nightmares about Him!

But I am also, even in the game, the plane passage where the ancient evil is located was blown up by him and the aborigines together, so what are you still afraid of here.

He couldn't enter the astral world, and chased after him to find himself.

What's more, I am already one step away from being a demigod who can possess a virtual godhead in the game.

Advanced legends - players with a cumulative level of more than 25+ in each profession.

On the main material plane, it can be said that it has reached its peak. If the ancient evil thing is really planned by the dog to "re-enter" the original.

It doesn't matter who abuses whom, he is no longer the stunned young man who just entered the basic profession.

Already a qualified technical (ke) technical (jin) big (mu) guy (zhu), although it has become a planning shape.

Of course, before the second half of the self-deprecating sentence was uttered, Woody was swallowed by the scene he saw after gradually recovering his vision.

Overhead is luxurious and luxurious, with a brown ceiling full of classical artistic atmosphere, and hundreds of European-style ceiling lamps decorated with glass.

Woody was so scared that he got up quickly, this was definitely not his room!
Why did his simple retro bedroom suddenly change to a European court style?
The heavy, rich velvet curtains blocked the light from the interior, leaving only a palm-width gap, but it was enough for Woody to see the furnishings.

First, there is the coffee-colored bedside table on the right side of the bed. It is simple, compact and very cute. There are porcelain teacups with intricate patterns on it.

On the right front, against the wall, you can see a walnut desk, with tools and an unfinished white sculpture randomly placed on the desk.

The velvet carpet on the floor completely hides the color of the floor, and there are several oil paintings hanging on the walls as decoration.

Facing the bed is a classical three-tiered bookshelf, on which there are not books, but small and exquisite bone sculptures, just like the unfinished one on the desk.

A wardrobe is placed against the wall on the left hand. The doors of the wardrobes on both sides are ajar, revealing all kinds of clothes inside, mostly black and white.

The straight tuxedo suit is bathed in light, which is particularly obvious, while a full-length full-length mirror hangs on the other side of the wardrobe door, reflecting the furnishings in the room indistinctly.

And Woody also saw his own appearance through the light, a boy about sixteen or seventeen years old, with black hair shawl, brown eyes, with a delicate and clean baby face, childish and dazed.

No way...is this me?
The weather-beaten and sexy stubble was gone, Woody touched his chin, the smooth and delicate touch suppressed the surging emotions in his heart, and he came up with a bold guess.

Passed by yourself?
After all, modern people are inseparable from the life of smart home, and they can finish washing and eating in bed when they wake up.

Like these old and elegant house layouts, they are good-looking, but they are useless, and they can only be seen in the game.

By the way, games...

Woody suddenly remembered.

Isn't this the bedroom of a typical southern aristocrat on the continent of Asenland in "The Holy One"?
The three silver discs of different sizes are displayed on the top shelf of the bookcase as a necessary gift to pay homage to the three human gods. Almost all southern noble bedrooms will have this.

However, most of them are silver-plated, not worth much, and they are quite troublesome to get rid of. They are also easy to be hunted down by the city guards, and generally only novice people will steal this.

If Woody were to steal it, the bone carvings placed on the bookshelf would be the most valuable and easy to sell.

If the shape is suitable, many nobles like to buy this to decorate the house.

Mage will also occasionally buy and make strange objects, which can be regarded as hard currency.

calm down.

When things that exist in novels, movies, and fantasies fall on yourself.

Woody's mood was a little turbulent, but he quickly persuaded himself to calm down.

Overthinking will only make things worse, not better.

If this is really a game or a country similar to the Middle Ages, what my nonsense speaks will not be therapy and enlightenment.

It was the group of temple judges who couldn't tolerate the slightest bit of sand in their eyes.

The devil is possessed, the devil is possessed, the best way for them to solve it is to tell the truth with flames, from where to go.

And as Woody's mentality calmed down, he gradually recovered his former rationality.

The brain is like a tomb robber who finally found a way to open the coffin board. Once the coffin board is lifted, the memory that originally belonged to this body can be seen again.

Woody Alester, 16 years old, was born in a Viscount family in the Kingdom of Bavialo in the southern continent.

He is currently a third-year student at the Higher Academy of Palermo, and will be preparing for the final exam of sculpture in July next year.

He has no brothers and sisters, his parents are noblemen, and he is a political marriage.

His father, Ryan Aleister, was naturally unrestrained. Not long after giving birth to Woody Aleister, he left Woody, who was only three years old, and boarded a ship to the New World.

His mother, Sovia, also died of illness when he was ten years old.

Due to the bad relationship between his father Ryan and the family in his early years, and the inheritance left by his parents is not considered rich.

Therefore, Woody's guardian became logically taken over by his mother's sister Susan Edith.

Lived in this wine estate located in the aristocratic area of ​​Palermo City on the west coast of the Kingdom, north of Alor Bay.

I grew up and went to school here, and stayed here for six years.

But the past of this body is not important to Woody.

What he cares more about is other information, or anecdotes about this continent.

Monsters entrenched in the wilderness, giant beasts in the sea, orcs in the north, elves in the forest, plus those familiar place names.

In the cold Northland, the Winter City ruled by the Undead Queen, and the sacred forest where humans are not allowed to approach, and is extremely xenophobic.

A scorching desert inhabited by giant dragons who make people guess riddles and tell jokes, and a crater that cannot be approached no matter what...

All sorts of things, Woody seems like a lifetime away.

This is the world farthest from the main material plane among all the planes of "Holy One", and the place where the divine grace radiates the farthest.

But it is also a novice village for all players.

They grew up on this land.

I have chased dogs in the wilderness, been stewed by ogres, gnawed grass on snow fields, and been sprayed by dragons in glaciers.

Once this land was bathed in miracles, the floating city of the Arcanist rose here, and the thriving machine empire marched towards the astral world from here.

Later, it became a paradise for adventurers, with ancient ruins buried everywhere.

Some people return here with riches, while others fall into the river Styx with greedy souls.

This is... Asenland, the country of adventure, is affectionately called the "homeland" by the players

He has traveled to the game world...

After realizing that the memory was not a joke or a hallucination, Woody calmed down even more.

Because if this is Ashland, then the dream just now...

Thinking of this, Woody couldn't help clenching his hands, he was extremely clear that in the world of saints.

There is nothing for no reason, everything is traceable.

If the dream just now is true...then this body is the chosen one?
After all, only the chosen ones and fortune tellers can predict what will happen in the future.

The current calendar of the Southern Continent is still in the valley calendar year 1191.

More than 1000 years ago, human heroes led their people to expand their territory in this land through the portal, drive away monsters, and establish cities and empires.

More than 1000 years later, mankind ushered in the most prosperous time.

Not surprisingly, after 1191, this year will be named the Golden Year by the Astrological Association of Asenland.

Because the business route trade between humans and elves will be completely opened up by the end of this year.

The elves agreed to sign a trade agreement with humans, and also recognized and accepted half-elves as kin.

At first glance, it seems to be thriving and on the right track.

However, past memories "tell" Woody that in three years, history will turn around and fall straight into the abyss.

First, the gods no longer respond to the prayers of believers.

Then the drow elves in the southern dark region began to counterattack the ground.

As well as the awakening of the ancient red dragon in the Xingxuan Mountains, wars continued in the south.

In the end, the city of Winter, which never fell in the Northland, also fell, and the gates of hell were opened.

The devil directly aids the duergar in turning the Far North into a vassal kingdom secretly governed by the Nine Hells.

Not to mention the ancient evil "Mother Tree of Corruption" that descended with the stars.

No matter which one of the above, it can completely shatter this dream that is about to bring Assenland to prosperity and prosper to the other side of the multiverse.

So 1194, that year, was named the Year of Darkness.

But if he is really the chosen one, he can dream about the future.

At least the perception is not low, whether it is a priest or a druid is a good choice.

Thinking of this, Woody felt a little itchy on the back of his neck, and subconsciously raised his right hand to scratch.

But when Woody's fingertips touched the skin on the back of the neck, his fingers froze immediately.

The particles are obviously bulging, and it is not smooth and flat skin at all.

Instead, it's like... this feels wrong.

Sitting on the bed, the black-haired boy immediately turned sideways to the mirror, brushed the long and smooth black hair on his shoulders with his left hand, and then turned his head to look.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the fair neck under the black hair, which should have smooth skin, but at this moment it was occupied by black-red cysts and abscesses the size of thumbs.

They are densely distributed in the blank space of the back of the neck, and extend upwards. The transparent skin in the center of the cyst can still see the festered skin and the already distorted yellow pus and blood inside.

I don't know if it's a hallucination, but the longer Woody stares at the mirror, the more he feels that the black-red cyst wriggles and spreads with his breathing, overlapping with the scene in his dream.

It is a huge and dreamy face.

　Newcomers and new books, woo woo woo, dream come true, I want to write Amber Stream!super loud!This is not Amber Stream, unfortunately.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)