I changed the world.

Page 425

Due to the time difference, 15:43 in Dazhao time is 23:43 in Bergo Perry time. At this moment, in Father Simon's apartment, Father Simon had just gone to bed. He was home alone tonight and hadn't continued reading the Grey Book. After all, he was still somewhat worried. He was now certain that there were some secrets hidden in the book, since strange things seemed to happen every time he read it.

Furthermore, the information found in the Belvedere Bookstore, Goppert, and Grand Library is that Alain René Jacques Jean de Polignac, the author of this book, was a bishop of the Grande Dana diocese. In 1319, the church declared him renounced his faith and excommunicated him, citing his association with the devil…

Even though he no longer trusted the history of the church, this matter involved the devil, so he had to be careful. Who knew what secrets were hidden in this book?

He didn't even know who had given him the book, or why they had given it to him. Was it out of kindness or malice?

Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 880 Nightmare

So, after much deliberation, he decided to take it to the Department of Human Development's office tomorrow to read. After all, there are more people there, and if something really goes wrong, it seems much safer to do it in broad daylight.

However, although he did not read the Grey Book that evening, he still searched for a lot of information about the Grand Dania diocese in the 14th century on the public internet and the internal network of the Vatican, reading it carefully in the hope of finding some clues.

He then discovered that this region was one of the hardest-hit areas by the Black Death in the Grande at the time, with an estimated 80% of the population reportedly dying from the disease. While the reliability of this data was unknown, the proportion was certainly alarming.

Unfortunately, Father Depolignac, who wrote "The Grey Book," left very little trace in history, and he was ultimately unable to find any trace of him.

Perhaps, by continuing to read this gray-covered book, I can find further clues...

Father Simon, reflecting on his day's experiences, gradually drifted off to sleep...

......................................................

The bedroom was dim and quiet, with only faint moonlight shining through the curtains. Apart from the faint sound of snoring, there was no other noise in the bedroom.

Time passed slowly, and like Father Simon's countless nights here, tonight seemed to be just another ordinary night.

The first half of the night passed quickly, and at 3:20 a.m. Bergopelli time on April 12, some strange changes suddenly occurred.

A faint, almost imperceptible wisp of black smoke emanated from the Grey Book that Father Simon had placed on his desk. Immediately afterward, the leather cover of the Grey Book, originally brown, began to emit a faint glow. Some of the seemingly meaningless patterns on the cover began to emit a red light. These chaotic patterns and lines, as they lit up with the light, actually connected to form a complex rune.

Then, the gray book began to turn its pages automatically without any wind, as if an invisible person were turning them. At this moment, a series of rustling sounds of pages turning could be heard in Father Simon's bedroom.

Meanwhile, increasingly thick black smoke began to emanate from the "Gray Book," plunging the already dim bedroom into darkness. And from the living room outside, eerie sounds began to emerge…

The mark on Father Simon's arm began to emit heat and light, growing hotter and hotter until it became scalding.

In this state, Father Simon groggily opened his eyes, seemingly trying to wake up. However, some force seemed to be preventing him from truly waking up. In this half-awake state, he remained in a state that seemed to be paralyzed by a ghost, wanting to wake up but unable to...

He drowsily opened his eyes, trying his best to wake up, but his mind was so foggy that he could be aware of and even see what was happening in the room, yet he was as if he were in a nightmare and could not move at all.

To his horror, he discovered that something seemed to be moving from the dimly lit living room outside the bedroom towards the bedroom, making eerie footsteps. These footsteps were stiff and dragging, like a prisoner in shackles slowly dragging his shackles along...

What was that sound? Who was it? Was something eerie coming?

Simon was in a state of confusion. He could feel his hands getting hotter and hotter, even burning hot, but he just couldn't calm down!

Then… he saw it. Logically, the bedroom should have been dimly lit, completely dark, yet he could see clearly…

It was a pitch-black humanoid creature, dragging its eerie and stiff steps, walking from the living room towards its bedroom.

He was getting closer and closer, and he could even smell the strong, acrid odor emanating from him. As he drew nearer, he noticed that it seemed to be a person dressed in a black robe, his head bowed, and his clothes... seemed to be... a priest's robe?

He appeared to be wearing heavy shackles on his hands and feet, especially his feet, from which there was a clear dragging sound of chains, and his strange movements seemed to be due to this...

The person walked slowly and awkwardly from the bedroom door toward the bed where they were...

Father Simon was terrified and tried desperately to regain his composure...

Hurry... I need to wake up!!! Hurry up!!!

Although he didn't know what this strange person wanted to do, he had an instinctive feeling that it wouldn't be anything good...

However, no matter how much he struggled, it was as if he had fallen into some kind of nightmare; although his mind was becoming increasingly clear, his body simply wouldn't obey his commands...

The eerie figure was still approaching. Father Simon could even see the rusty shackles on his hands and the increasingly strong smell of burning flesh emanating from him. He noticed that his hands were not normal palms, but a pair of charred, skull-like "hands," as if they had been completely burned...

Although I couldn't see his face clearly because he kept his head down, judging from the current situation, he was definitely not a normal person!

"Wake up!!!" Father Simon cried out in his heart. He tried to open his mouth, but he couldn't utter a single word!

Just then, the crown-shaped mark on his arm began to get hotter and hotter, even giving him a burning sensation.

This burning sensation allowed him, as if caught in a nightmare, to finally seize the opportunity to wake up. Just like a stress response, he suddenly awoke from the deep nightmare!

"Huff!!!" Father Simon sat up abruptly in bed, panting heavily, looking around in fear, as if he had just escaped a fatal car accident.

The bedroom remained dark, with faint moonlight filtering through the curtains. Everything seemed identical to the dream he had just experienced, except that no monster had approached him...

“Just a nightmare…” Father Simon murmured as he gradually relaxed.

However, having just experienced that scene, the dark room before him subconsciously filled him with an inexplicable fear, as if some eerie and terrifying being was lurking under the bed and in the even darker living room outside the bedroom, ready to reach out and drag him into that darkness at any moment.

Volume Two: The Truth Hidden Behind History Books: Chapter 881 Not a Dream?!

He swallowed hard and quickly reached out to turn on the bedside lamp.

The light came on, and everything seemed to return to normal...

Father Simon glanced at the desk in the bedroom, where the Grey Book lay quietly, unchanged, seemingly without any sign of anything amiss.

Perhaps... it really is a case of what you think about during the day, what you dream about at night; it was just a nightmare...

Father Simon's tense body and nerves gradually relaxed. Then, as if remembering something, he raised his hand to examine the crown-shaped mark on his arm. The relaxed expression that had just appeared on his face froze!

He clearly noticed that the mark on his arm had faded considerably. If when he first saw it, it resembled a dark tattoo, it had now faded to the point of being as faint as a stain.

"This...this..." The scene before him reminded Father Simon of the searing, branding sensation he had felt in his nightmare. It was that sensation that had pulled him out of that state and brought him back to his senses.