The voice called it the Black Flame Knight instead of the Mechanical Knight, which shows that the black flame is the biggest feature of this thing.
Is it some kind of power source? All the gears are driven by it?
Based on his observations during the chase, Hitzfeld clearly saw that the black flames were not only used as offensive weapons and were often sprayed out from the opponent's gun tips, but they also burned violently on the two rows of six "exhaust pipes" on the opponent's back.
Bariu was so fast but still couldn't shake it off, so its speed was also terrifying. But the girl noticed that there was a difference between the two.
Unlike Balyu, whose speed is always constant, the Black Flame Knight's speed will only increase explosively when the six exhaust pipes spray black flames, instantly closing the distance between the two sides.
Every time it did this, Baliu was forced to make various dangerous responses, and there was one time when he was almost burned by the black flame.
But when it is not spitting fire, its speed is slower than Baliu, and the two will slowly be pulled apart in the process.
Hitzfeld wasn't sure at first - because she was looking through the gaps in the vines, and with the violent shaking, it was hard to say whether she could see clearly.
But this has happened several times, and she has now basically determined that the black flames are the source of the pursuers' power.
In other words, if you put out the fire, this thing may not be able to move.
This is not easy.
Not to mention finding a way to deal with it, she didn't even know the details of her opponent or what this black flame was.
"Chichichi—!!"
The Black Flame Knight accelerated once more, and while accelerating, he raised the tip of his spear, spurting out a large ball of icy black flame from the gap at the front.
The black flame blocked Baliu's way to turn the corner, and she was forced to stop suddenly. Her whole body fell in mid-air, with her hind hooves falling and her two front hooves standing up.
"boom!!!"
Then the next moment, a heavy black shadow hit her head-on, and both sides smashed into the roadside shop, penetrated the tightly closed wooden door and messed up the furnishings in the store.
This is a hardware store.
Behind the counter in the store is a tall tool cabinet with many metal objects in its drawers and shelves, including but not limited to scissors, screwdrivers, pliers... and the most nails.
Baliu knocked over two chairs, her upper body embedded in the wooden wall, with two broken iron pillars inserted into her chest.
The Black Flame Knight was even more unlucky. It knocked over the tool cabinet, and countless nail drivers fell on it, falling into the gaps in its body and jamming the gears.
"Hoo...ho!!!"
The creature struggled with its hooves, stabbed around with its lance, and with a sweep, it broke a load-bearing wooden pillar.
In a daze, Hitzfeld climbed out of the broken horse's belly and saw some liquid with white smoke flowing out from under the tool cabinet.
It looks like... light green?
Correct……
She widened her eyes to make sure she was not mistaken.
The light green liquid gradually spread with the vibration.
Everything that comes into contact with it, whether it is metal parts or wood, will emit white mist above it, and a thin layer of frost will form on the surface...
Then I seem to recognize it.
With an idea in mind, Hitzfeld turned around and dived deep into the horse's belly, snatching the bag of meat from Ashley.
Her breathing hitched when she came out again.
The tool cabinet had been swept aside, and the huge mechanical horse struggled to stand up from the ground. Just as it turned around, two blue lights were staring at her.
"Don't! Hitzfeld—!"
Baliu had just struggled out of the wall when he saw this confrontation.
She was extremely anxious, but it was too late to do anything to stop it. She could only shout out these words, and then watch the robot horse thrust its lance at the girl.
And the girl seemed to have lost something about this thing...
"boom!!!"
The blast of the lance piercing the floor and the crackling sound of the mechanical horse sounded almost simultaneously.
Hitzfeld was blown away from his spot by a terrible force and hit hard on another load-bearing pillar, almost fainting from the pain.
But she is an insomniac.
She would not faint. Instead, the pain stimulated her, causing her to open her one eye wide and stare at her own achievements.
Chapter 30 Tree Species
The dust accumulated on the floor and the sawdust from the broken wood formed a large cloud of smoke that enveloped most of the robot horse's body.
It was difficult to see clearly, but just by listening to the noises and watching its shadow twitching inside, you could tell that it was probably in big trouble.
Bariu was close by and was the first to see the situation clearly. She saw that the armor on the chest and abdomen of the thing had been broken and fallen off, and the helmet on its forehead was half hanging on its back, and it kept hitting the mechanical body as it twitched.
Its entire face was completely exposed. It was a skull engraved with metal and covered with a layer of leather. It was twisted and deformed in the burning smoke.
The source of the burning was its left chest, where, due to the shedding of its armor, a living heart was exposed. Countless cables were inserted into the heart and connected to it, and the surface of the heart was wrapped with flames of three colors: blue, black, and red.
It was obvious that these three types of fire were not beneficial to it. It stood there trembling continuously as if it was confused, and its lance randomly poked at the air like a headless fly.
"Boom!!!" Ashley was nearly stabbed to death by a lance just as she emerged from the horse's belly. She was so scared that she quickly shrank back and was quickly taken several meters away by Baliu.
They just watched helplessly as this horrible monster went crazy... watched it swing its weapon and smash another load-bearing pillar, and then was directly buried by the collapsed wood and rocks.
The air was as quiet as death.
After hesitating for a moment, Baliu rode forward, transformed his lance and turned over the debris, revealing the motionless body of the enemy.
It looked like it was dead.
Baliu's eyes widened, and she couldn't help but look back at Hitzfeld: "What on earth did you do to it?"
"If I'm not mistaken, cough cough... its power source is undead marrow fluid..." Hitzfeld explained while coughing.
She had seen the marrow fluid of the dead more than once. This extremely dangerous extraordinary potion would show a light green color after completion. It had a wide range of uses. In addition to forcibly changing the human body structure and turning a person into a "medium", it also had many functions such as communicating with the dead and manipulating corpses.
The Security Bureau's 17th team had been investigating corpse puppets for some time. In the conventional sense, the best materials for making corpse puppets include this kind of potion.
"The marrow fluid of the dead can communicate with the dead. All the souls that are cursed, swallowed by the dream world, and cannot find rest can be sensed by it." Hitzfeld whispered, "Its nature is cold, and direct contact with the human body will cause frostbite, but it can be used as fuel to ignite the blue dead fire, which just fits the situation just now..."
"Is this its power source?" Bariwu finally understood the situation a little. "The black flame is the dead fire? Is it a variant of it?"
"That's how it should be."
"But how on earth did you—"
"The finished necromancy fluid cannot come into contact with any biological fats in its liquid state." Hitzfeld said calmly, "Among them, lard is the most contaminating substance for necromancy fluid... I'm just treating it to a good meal."
So it was the pork?
Baliwu finally understood.
What followed was an irrepressible feeling of relief and admiration.
Admittedly, it was purely coincidental that they happened to have the restraining props on hand, but if none of the three could recognize the necromancy fluid - even if they recognized it, no one knew how to contaminate the necromancy fluid and make it completely ineffective, then they would still not be able to escape death.
Her strength had no advantage over the robot centaur. She could still maneuver outside because of the wide space, but she couldn't even dodge in this small space. If she was a little later, she would be finished.
"You're really a detective who's good at giving people surprises--Aww!!!"
Before he could finish his compliment, Hitzfeld walked up to Barrieu and grabbed a handful of hair from her butt... or more precisely, her horsetail, which was made up of branches.
"What are you doing?" Baliu felt that she was really sick in the brain. What did she want to do with these?
"Aren't you curious about where this thing came from?" Hitzfeld began to search through the ruins, and at the same time verbally perfunctorily replied, "Such a big thing, four meters tall! It can't have grown like this on its own, right?"
"You want the dead to talk?"
"Yes, so I need the Devil's Ivy."
Bariu suddenly shut up.
With a gloomy face, she silently watched Hitzfeld call Ashley over. The two of them dug out two small milk pans and a crucible from a pile of hardware. After a long while, she spoke faintly: "How do you know I'm from the Devil Ivy?"
The information of each treeman member is shared internally, but when facing outsiders, they never mention their own original tree species.
Because that's dangerous.
Just like the Shadow Lion Agent, those extraordinary people also try their best to conceal their nightmares. Knowing the original tree species of a tree man is equivalent to knowing its weakness.
"There aren't many plants that are both hard and flexible," Hitzfeld said. "The devil's vine is the most likely one."
"That's not enough reason!" Bariu was going crazy, "I... I'm sure I didn't reveal any flaws!"
Are you kidding? If the original tree species can be identified so easily, how can she continue to be extravagant in the future?
Having both hardness and flexibility is quite difficult for wood, but the devil vine is not just a tree! Almost all tree species can be made by vine tree people, and there are more than a thousand species in total!
She had to figure out how Hitzfeld guessed it, or she wouldn't be able to sleep well.
"When you jumped back to 406 from the opposite side, you might not have noticed that a leaf got stuck in your hair when you turned back into human form."
Hitzfeld stopped teasing her and told the truth.
"Seven petals, serrated veins..."
"Of course, I didn't recognize this plant, but unfortunately, I had just read a botanist's observation notes the day before."
[Of all the vines in the order Aesculus, Devil's Ivy is the most dangerous.]
Hitzfeld could even recite the passage again.
[The hardness of an adult devil's vine is comparable to that of steel, but it also has strong toughness. This plant is not only used as a material for the medicine of the School of Spiritualism, it is also the most terrifying predator, the root of the thorn tree in the primitive jungle.]
The Sala tree is another kind of plant. Strictly speaking, it is a mythical species. Its crown carries the roots of the kingdom of God and connects to the underworld. According to legend, if someone can find the Sala tree and climb from its base to the top of its crown, then no matter he is dead or alive, he can be taken directly to the kingdom of the sun god.
The devil's vine is described as the root of the Sahara, so you can imagine how powerful it is.
And it just so happens that Hitzfeld also knows a potion that can make the dead speak, and the most important ingredient is the powder of devil vine.
She had the honor of witnessing the preparation of Pussion once in Wayne, when it was intended for Grimm to use to treat his amnesia.
This time it was for the dead, so the dosage had to be doubled. She chopped up all the devil's ivy she had pulled off and ground it into powder, then took out the container containing the ashes of the "living being" - the person who had been burned to death not long ago, mixed them together in a certain proportion, poured them into the crucible - and poured in the boiling solution.
"Chi chi chi——"
As soon as the ingredients were put into the pot, a cloud of thick dark green smoke came out, which scared away Ashley who was about to take a look.
"Ahhh!" A dog barking was heard outside.
"It's Lily." Hitzfeld said, "She must have followed the scent. Ashley, go pick her up."
After sending away the troublemakers, she moved more carefully.
Theoretically, this potion cannot be used on the dead. Even though after the beach party, Pusiens personally gave her a bottle of echoing agent - which she used here as a basic material, enough to ensure the quality of the potion, she was not sure that she could really make the dead speak.
But that thing.
The robot horse should not be completely dead, or it should be some kind of undead creature.
So you can give it a try. What's more, she also added the ashes of the dead who are related to the undead fire, which can play another strengthening role.
She kept staring, and gradually, the color of the green mist began to fade.
Baliu had already cleaned out the robot horse as she requested. She cooled the brewed potion and carefully poured it on the surface of the still slightly trembling heart.
"Chichichi—!!"
A larger green mist rose from it.
Shadows vaguely emerged from the mist. The two remaining men stared at the mist and glimpsed a strange cloaked figure through it.
Chapter 31 Doctor of Mechanical
The drug that Pusiansi prepared at that time was called "developer". After taking it, it can transform the remaining dream fragments in the consciousness that have not been completely forgotten and have recently been dreamed into smoke and project them out.
In most cases, it is useless, because its main function is to interrogate prisoners, but the ingredients needed to prepare it, the 'echo agent', are difficult to obtain and are very expensive, so it would be a waste to use it on ordinary prisoners.
In addition, the preparation requirements of the "echo agent" are extremely stringent, and the preciousness and terrible side effect of the other key ingredient of the "developer", the "devil's vine" - there is a high probability of turning people into idiots - even in a violent organization like Shadow Lion, its application is extremely cumbersome.
Basically, only those death row inmates who have committed extremely heinous crimes and have to pay something in return for their value are lucky enough to drink this stuff.
In order to reward Hitzfeld for her outstanding performance in the previous case, Priss gave her a set of basic materials for the developer.
These things were very light, and in winter she could wear a thick coat over her skirt, so Hitzfeld had plenty of space to store the sundries, so she simply carried them close to her body.
Principal Meng Cheng's original intention was that her profession was a detective, and sometimes she might be useful when she encountered trouble outside, so it could be regarded as a teacher's kindness.
