Editing Dantalian no Shoka:Volume2 Chapter1 (section)

===5===

The vines had already covered the window of the observatory room, the glass was shattered too. Many vines invaded the room through cracks in the walls and through the broken windows.

“Is this the power of the Phantom Book!”

There was a thin film of sweat on Huey’s forehead, as he asked Dalian. But Dalian stood at her original position, not moving. 

“The Phantom Book that can control plants… this makes me interested. But even so…”

“This isn’t the time to be admiring it! Let’s run out first!”

Huey shouted as he approached the vines with his axe. Then he dragged a reluctant Dalian down the stairs.

“Wu…”

As they reached the hall in front of the door, Huey couldn’t help but groan.

A braided vine rushed towards them with a sound of slicing through the air, grabbing Huey’s right foot.

Huey rolled on the ground, dodging the vines that came within a few millimeters of him. After he cut off the vines grabbing his leg, he finally stood up.

And the place where he had fallen down, there were a few vines wriggling enthusiastically.

If his reaction had slowed slightly, his body would be covered with the vines and he would be unable to move. But what could be confirmed, was that the vines covering this villa, all of them were attacking Huey and Dalian antagonistically.

“I see… So those servants that died in front of the door were killed in this way.”

Dalian seemed to say, understanding.

Huey carried her slim body, running towards the window in the hall. The path leading to the door was completely blocked off by the vines. 

Huey found a window that was not blocked off that much by the vines and smashed the glass. Then he carried the girl as he stepped up on the window ledge, jumping down into the courtyard directly.

Seeing the fierce vines approaching them, Huey angrily threw the axe at them. The axe was immediately covered with many vines, the handle of the axe was immediately crushed into many splinters. If these things grabbed them, the human body would not be able to withstand the pressure. Huey carried Dalian tightly, running in search of an escape route.

Luckily part of the brick wall had collapsed, so jumping over the wall and escaping was not difficult. After escaping from the grounds of the villa, Huey finally breathed a breath of relief.

The vines had completely surrounded the villa, it was as if a large organism was moving. Fortunately, it seemed that it did not have the power to leave the villa for a long distance, so it was unable to chase after the two of them. The vines seemed to be a trap to trap the intruders, it did not have the power to chase after them.

After Huey’s frantic breathing calmed down, he released Dalian who he was carrying.

Perhaps because of the fact that she had been taken around like a piece of baggage, Dalian’s face had an expression of unhappiness, but she didn’t complain much.

The girl dressed in black only looked silently at that wide expanse of pasture on the slope. 

Huey followed her line of vision, discovering that there was a person wearing a strange outfit there.

It was a young girl who wore traditional clothing and a cloak and had her hair wrapped up with a piece of cloth.

“Thalia!”

After recognizing who she was, Huey shouted.

On this plain that was enjoying the moonlight, the gentle wind creating a wave-like effect on the grass, the female herbalist quietly stood there.

“Have the two of you seen Missy?”

Looking at Huey’s stunned expression, Thalia gently asked.

“Thalia… you already knew from the start that Miss Florence was dead.”

Thalia narrowed her eyes, revealing a gentle smile.

“Yes. But at the same time, no. Florence Calobos has is still living, but at the same time she is dead.”

Her words made Huey feel troubled, he couldn’t understand this contradiction so.

“Was it you… who killed her?”

“I killed Miss Florence? How can that be. Aha…ha…hahahahahahahaha!”

At this moment Huey noticed, under her cape there was a book. That was an ancient tome with a dark green cover. A western –style décor, the cover had a black and white wording. It could be said that it suited the name '''The Dark Green Book''' perfectly.

“That book!”

Dalian released a sharp cry.

“Is that the Phantom Book!?”

Huey’s expression became nervous.

Thalia silently opened the book, gently flipping the pages. Not long after, she seemed to find the page that she was looking for, her fingers stopped flipping the pages.

“What are you going to do with us?”

Huey asked as he looked at Thalia.

On the female herbalist’s face, a warm smile appeared.

“I warned you from the beginning. This land easily confuses people, when they come here they will never return.”

Before she completed her sentence, her figure started to blur and turn white. Not only the person, even the grass beneath her feet, and the background behind her, everything was slowly turning white.

He could feel the damp air meeting his face, Huey’s expression hardened.

This was a fog.

The fog was unwavering as it appeared from nowhere, their vision was soon claimed by whiteness.

“This fog… is this the strength of the Phantom Book?”

Huey muttered with a troubled expression.

“This is troublesome. This land, if we can’t see properly, it will be hard to walk out of here.”

Dalian said softly. Although her expression was calm, but she clutched Huey’s clothes tightly. It seemed that she was afraid that she would be separated from him in this fog.

“Anyway the best plan is to escape from this place first.”

Huey said with a bitter tone. This fog had already covered Thalia’s figure, they could only hear her laughter from the fog. That laughter was a piercing mad laughter.

“Escape? Where will you escape to?”

Dalian raised her head and used her black eyes to look at Huey calmly.

Then she slowly looked behind her. Huey followed her movements and couldn’t help but swallow.
That was a huge forest, a dark forest with dense trees. It was as if the large forest could move by itself, it had already surrounded them since some time ago.

“What is this… putting aside the vines and fog, even the forest can move?”

Huey couldn’t help but be nervous.

“There is no escape route.”

Dalian still announced the truth calmly.

The darkness of the night, the fog that did not suit the season, and the dark forest with trees.
Even if they escaped from the village, the situation was still despairing. In addition, the land around here was very confusing, there were sudden cliffs everywhere. If they ran in panic, it would be more threatening to their lives. The land surrounding the village, was Thalia’s weapon.
And the power of Thalia’s book, had not been completely analysed. Even her position, Huey and Dalian had no idea of it.

“Dalian, can you lend me a book?”

Huey pulled off the glove on his right hand as he spoke. On the bared back of his right hand, there was a red gemstone that was like crimson blood.

“It’s not that you can’t borrow… The problem is which book do you want to borrow?”

Dalian asked in return. And Huey thought for a while.

“I remember that you have a book that can summon Parcelsus’s four spirits? Use that one that can probably summon the Salamander.”

“You want to burn the forest in this situation?”

Looking at the forest around them, Dalian said helplessly.

“Can it not be done?”

“If you want to burn then it’s up to you, but please do it when I am further away.”
“Who would like to do these kind of things.”

Huey shook his head in frustration.

They could still hear Thalia’s laughter now. For the sake of increasing the distance between them, Huey and Dalian had to continue moving. But under this kind of situation where they could not see well, spending much of their mental strength, but reaping little benefit.

“In the end before understanding the power of '''The Dark Green Book''', we don’t even have the option of using the Phantom Books? Or we could take the option of waiting until daylight… Wu.”

Huey who was walking forward as he muttered in annoyance, suddenly his expression became tense, his whole body bent back.

It was a three-pronged farming implement. The sharp prongs suddenly came out of the fog, aiming at Huey.

“What…”

Huey’s expression changed, protecting Dalian.

There was a sound of metal hitting metal from the fog, crimson flames appeared in the darkness at the same time.

Again the fork pierced towards them, but it was blocked easily by the back of Dalian’s hand.

Numerous figures appeared in the fog.

They weren’t Thalia, but they were the strong farmers.

The villagers held their farming implements like tools, approaching Dalian and Huey. Despair and fear appeared on their faces, and anger.

“This is bad…”

Huey looked at the forest behind them as he spoke. The fog and the large forest were blocking their escape routes. Now with the ambush from the villagers, they were really in trouble.

“They don’t seemed to be controlled.”

Dalian said after she looked at the villagers’ expressions.

“What is it, everyone? Even if you are drunk, this is a little…”

Huey tried his best to squeeze out a sincere smile, talking to them.

At the same time he reached stealthily into his coat, grabbing his gun. It was a revolver that was used in the army, it had .455 caliber shells and the bullets fired had great impact. But there were only six bullets, compared to the enemy it was not enough.

And among the villagers carrying farming tools as weapons approaching, there was the farmer that had spoke with Huey and Dalian earlier.

The bright and cheerful expression he had been carrying at first, was already twisted with terror now.

Maybe it was because of that, that this man gave a different impression to Huey. His youthful face had wrinkles carved on it, his face was thinner than before, it was as if he had aged by several years.

“It’s because of you…”

The farmer used a hoarse voice to say.

“It’s because you escaped from the lord’s villa… that we will…”

“Oh… Oh oh…”

The villagers let out pained moans.

It was as if the frozen time started to move again, their appearances started to age quickly. Spots appeared on their skin, their hair started to drop, the skin of their small hands started to quickly age, they couldn’t even hold their farming tools.

They could only use the cloudy eyes that elderly people had to stare at Dalian and Huey, the teeth had dropped out of their mouths but they continued to curse.

“These people… What exactly is happening?”

Huey moaned, his expression changing. But Dalian was as emotionless as a marionette, said:

“I’m afraid that they are the people from the village at the bottom of the mountain.”

“Those missing villagers… That means that the people in this village are the younger versions of those villagers from the village at the bottom of the mountain?”

Huey nodded, understanding a little.

That the people in that village would suddenly disappear, was because they were brought to this village, living as Thalia’s neighbours. They had forgotten their pasts, and firmly believed that they were rejuvenated—

“Is this the reason why there are so many young people in this village… then, what exactly is this village?”

Looking at the elderly people who had collapsed on the ground unmoving, Huey muttered.

But they had no more time to stand there and think slowly about it.

The fog became thicker, if this continued, they would be unable to find their way sooner or later.

They were unable to ascertain that Thalia would not attack again. They had to move to a position where they could see better before that happened. Huey grasped Dalian’s hand, walking in the dark forest. 

In this darkness that was covered with the white fog, they could only depend on the moonlight as a mark for them to continue moving, and after what they felt like a long time, the darkness suddenly disappeared.

The fog dissipated, and the trees of the forest disappeared in a split second.

What appeared in front of Huey and Dalian, was a beautiful plain where the grass in the pasture was gently swaying in the gentle wind, and…

“What…”

Looking at the clock tower on the plain, Huey couldn’t help but stop in surprise.

It was a tall clock tower building that was covered with vines—the villa of Calobos.

Confused by the darkness and fog, spending much hard work to leave the forest, Huey and Dalian had ended up walking in a circle and came back to their starting point.

“Thalia…”

Huey was assaulted with exhaustion and in his ears, he could hear that sharp, piercing laughter again.

The herbalist was standing in front of the villa covered with thorns.

She had allowed her hair to be released from the head cloth, giving off a different feeling than before.

Beautiful blond hair danced in the wind, gleaming under the moonlight. Her elegant posture and atmosphere, made it hard to believe that she was a herbalist living deep in the mountains, she seemed more like a missy who was from a rich family and was used to dealing with the society.
The beautiful mouth curved, her eyes were wide and she couldn’t stop laughing.

“Ahahahahahaha, ahahahahaha… it’s useless, it’s useless. You can never walk out of here. Since you dared to come and take Otou-sama’s important book, then you should wander in this village forever.”

“Otou-sama’s book?”

Thalia’s words made Huey troubled. The original bearer of “The Dark Green Book” was John Calobos, since she called him ‘Otou-sama’, that meant that she was his daughter.

“Is that so…”

Huey said as he looked at the woman who was laughing in front of him.

“Last month, someone said that they saw Calobos’s daughter here, so it was you! Thalia. No, you are the real Florence Calobos!”

“Ahahahaha… that’s right, I am my father’s beloved daughter.”

The woman clutched tightly at the Phantom Book, laughing madly.

“So Otou-sama’s beloved book belongs to me, too. I definitely wouldn’t hand it over to you!”
But Huey frowned.

“The person killed in the villa, that was the real herbalist Thalia…”

“That’s right. But now, I am Thalia. The weak and pitiful daughter of the lord has disappeared.”

The girl who went by the name of the herbalist slowly became excited, it could even be seen that she had a stubborn crazed glint in her eyes. She spoke as she continued to laugh that contorted laughter:

“Otou-sama was here to visit me…He loves me only. That dirty herbalist that lived in such a rural area, how could she be my Otou-sama’s lover! Otou-sama isn’t someone who would come here for a personal love affair, he was here to see meeeeeee!”

Thalia opened the Phantom Book.

In that moment, the world surrounding Huey and Dalian started to distort.

“What?”

The plain separated Huey, Dalian and Thalia became a deep darkness.

What appeared there was a large canyon like a tear in the ground.

Huey’s surroundings also became dizzyingly high cliffs.

There was no way that they could escape from around them. Huey and Dalian were surrounded by the cliffs in a moment; they were trapped on this narrow cliff.

And at the bottom of the cliff, there were numerous vines creeping up the sides. Huey and Dalian who had nowhere to escape to, this time they would definitely drop into its binds.

Towards this dangerous situation, Huey gently breathed out. And Dalian silently looked at the book that Thalia was carrying.

“Huey, I grant you the right to open the gate.”

Finally, Dalian used her beautiful and clear voice to say that.

She reached a hand to the collar of the black dress, exposing her chest.

The white skin laid over delicate bones was exposed.

A lock was embedded in her skin. It was a large and old lock. And it was a lock that was connected to a black leather loop around her neck by a silver chain, resting in the middle of her chest.

“…”

Huey silently raised his right hand.

In his hand, there was a key. It was a golden key that had a crimson gemstone inlaid in it.

There were ancient words engraved on the key.

Huey calmly read them aloud. As if he were a loyal knight swearing to a princess, but like a magician chanting an incantation at the same time—


“I ask of thee… Art thou mankind?”


Towards his question, Dalian replied.

Her voice, was like an old antique.


『Nay. We art the Realm -- the Endless Realm within thine Vase.』


The golden key entered Dalian’s chest, making Dalian release a pained groan.

The lock in front of her chest split open like a door.

And below the lock was nothing. There was a hole bigger than the abyss in her chest.

This hole that was surrounded by a swirling whirlwind of light, entering the deepest parts of her small beautiful body.

“What is… going on…”

Thalia used a hoarse voice to moan. Her voice was no longer filled with madness, but it was filled with fear.

“I heard Otou-sama speak of it before… the Vase… the other-worldly library sealed in the Vase… Dantalian’s Bookshelves!”

“The labyrinth library, which seals 900,000 and 666 Phantom Books. The gate to knowledge hath been opened—”

Dalian narrated with an unnatural voice.

Huey reached into the hole in her chest, when he pulled it out, his hand was holding a book, an old book with a faded cover.

“Actually changing the land before us, you are too unfair. But because of that, I know the true origins of '''The Dark Green Book'''.”

Dalian looked at the cliff at her feet as she announced.

“That Phantom Book’s real name is '''The Boat Plans of Mountains and Rivers'''—it is able to create illusionary landforms, a precious map that could confuse the intruders and have them within their hold. That was in the legendary times, a fantasy phantom book given by the eastern goddess.”

Huey breathed softly.

“A Phantom Book that can create illusionary landscapes… that means that these fog, forest and the vines in front of us are all illusions?”

Dalian nodded her head.

“To the people who have been ensnared by the magic of the Phantom Book, even if it is an illusion, there is no difference from the present landscape. If you’re touched by the vines you will be hurt, if you drop down from the cliff you will die.”

Thalia flipped open the book in her hands and laughed.

“Ahahahaha…ahahaha…That’s right, isn’t it amazing? As long as there is this book, no one can hurt me. Because this is the book that Otou-sama left for me.”

Every time she flipped the pages of the Phantom Book, the scenery surrounding Huey and Dalian would change.

It would be able to create hallucinations including a whole world according to the bearer’s wishes, that was the true power of '''The Dark Green Book'''.

The old people living at the bottom of the mountain, they had been drawn in by the illusion that the Phantom Book had created, and they had become part of the illusion. If Huey and Dalian had not come to visit, they probably would have been trapped in this illusion forever.

“When I can have a deeper understanding of this book, I will resurrect my dead Otou-sama! That is the real Otou-sama that will definitely belong to me, not going to find that dirty mistress!”

Thalia said dreamily as if she were a young girl engrossed in her dream.

But the girl dressed in black looked at her and calmly announced,

“You don’t have that right.”

Huey opened the book that he had retrieved from Dalian’s body.

It was a book that had been written using the eastern language.

On the leather covering, there was an illustration that was like an eye, it was similar to the drawing of the Stupa drawn on the Tibetian Buddhism, it had a mark called the Eyes of Truth.

Huey started to read the first chapter of the book with much difficulty.

In that moment, their surroundings started to move as if it were broken glass.

The world that had been invaded by illusions, as if experiencing a kaleidoscope change, returned to its original appearance.

“'''The Mantra of Reality''' comes from Western Asia—it is an original Buddhist text that can dispel all evil and break all illusions.”

Dalian looked at Thalia sadly. But Thalia only stood there, dazed, looking at the crumbling scenery that was an illusion.

“That Phantom Book did not choose you. So, the illusion was easily broken through.”

Hearing Dalian’s cold words, Thalia stepped back wavering, the book slipping from her hands.

“You’re lying…”

The large chasm between Thalia and Dalian and Huey had disappeared, only leaving the gentle slope of grass. Huey walked to Thalia’s side, gently picking up '''The Dark Green Book''' that had been dropped on the ground. With the loss of the power of the Phantom Book, the illusion covering the village disappeared too…

“You lie… this is what Otou-sama did for me… for me…”

Thalia looked behind herself, her heart wavering.

What appeared in her eyes was the lord’s villa under the night sky. Perhaps this building without the vines, made her think of the time when her father was still alive, Thalia turned and ran towards the villa, then—

The real villa appeared under her unprepared feet.

“Thalia!”

Huey shouted.

Her cape fluttered in the air, after that long moment, her body fell directly down the cliff.
In the end there was only a cruel sound like a over-ripe fruit had been squashed, then the village fell silent.