39

  Chapter 191: Rats in the Sewers

  In order to reach the sewers where he planted herbs as quickly as possible, the fat pharmacist hired a carriage, and the two of them rode to the location adjacent to the East District of Backlund Bridge District, the bank of the Tussock River.

  In the car, the pharmacist who called himself Darkwill introduced himself. He was driven out by his teacher to travel the continent and experience life. He stayed in Tingen City for a while and now lives in Backlund. He had just planted a batch of herbs, but he didn't expect that most of them would be taken away by the beasts in the sewers.

  Angel also reported his pseudonym, Irene Watson.

  The bridge area was not large, and the two quickly came to the riverside from Tiemen Street. After getting off the carriage and walking for less than two minutes, Darkwill pointed to a location near the riverbank, where there was a semi-open sewer entrance.

  After the great plague that swept half of the Kingdom of Loen more than ten years ago, the capital Backlund established an advanced sewer system. They originated from the "Emperor Roselle's Legacy" of the Republic of Intis, and many improvements were made, surpassing their imitation objects in one fell swoop.

  Of course, in Angel's eyes, this system is still crude. Domestic wastewater is directly discharged into the Tussock River without subsequent treatment and filtration, flowing into the sea with all kinds of strange colors and smells. The drainage outlets near the factories and docks are full of oil and garbage.

  It is said that someone is calling on the parliament to pass relevant laws in the newspapers to prohibit residents near the Tussock River from directly discharging sewage into the river. Unfortunately, the interests involved are so wide that they have not been able to achieve their goal.

  Therefore, the current situation of sewage directly entering the river will continue for a long time. The sewer in front of them is like this. The brown-black sewage flows out, diluted by the river water, and flows far away.

  Opening the unlocked iron door, Angel and Darkwill entered the main road of this sewer in the stench.

  It is now close to midnight. The moonlight from the full crimson moon is intercepted by the haze that never dissipates all year round. Only a small part reaches the ground, and the ten-meter-deep entrance of the sewer is pitch black, which makes the pharmacist who has no dark vision stop cautiously.

  "Follow me, be careful not to fall."

  Angel wrinkled his nose to reduce the stench he inhaled, and said in a muffled voice.

  Darkwill fumbled in his pocket and took out a small metal bottle and handed it to Angel.

  "This can reduce the stench. I always use it when I come to observe herbs."

  Seeing that Angel shook his head and did not take it, he seemed a little angry. He uncorked the bottle, put it close to his nostrils and took a deep breath, with a mixed expression of pain and pleasure on his face.

  Look, it's not poisonous.

  Using his eyes to convey this message, Darkwill handed the metal bottle over again.

  No wonder he interrupted others at will at the party and spoke rudely. It's a miracle that he didn't get beaten to death with his straightforwardness... No, he is a pharmacist. Maybe he has been beaten, but he just healed himself.

  Angel found it a little funny. She took the small bottle, put it to the tip of her nose, and smelled it.

  The pungent smell of disinfectant mixed with mint instantly sobered her up. She almost sneezed. Then her nose seemed to be plugged with a cork. Her sense of smell quickly became dull and she could not smell anything except disinfectant.

  This reminded her of a homemade oil that Frye, the "corpse collector", often used when she was in Tingen's team. Unfortunately, she left these teammates before she learned how to make it.

  After isolating the stench, the two continued to walk deeper into the sewer. As the ground became slippery and the moonlight behind them became weaker, Darkwill's steps became hesitant.

  "Should we... come back during the day?" He discussed hesitantly. "They have been eating my herbs for more than a day or two. I'm not in a hurry to solve it tonight."

  "But I'm in a hurry."

  Angel replied, bypassing a right-angle turn. In her dark vision, the sewer gradually became wider and entered an area where multiple branches converged.

  In a rectangular underground space, Angel found a shelf made of simple wooden boards by the fat pharmacist. On it were several rows of pottery jars, which contained dug soil and fertilizer, and were planted with herbs of various shapes.

  At this time, about half of the pottery jars had been broken, and the soil and herbs inside had spilled all over the shelf. Some of them fell into the shallow sewage, and were obviously no longer usable.

  Three creatures that were larger than hunting dogs were surrounding the wooden rack, picking herbs to eat. As the pharmacist said at the party, they would even pick out poisonous herbs and only eat those that were safe.

  The footsteps of the two people entering the planting area startled these animals. They stared at them with bloodshot eyes. Angel realized that these "dogs" were actually sewer rats. Their skin was swollen and ulcerated, and the teeth protruding from their pointed mouths were uneven, like the kind of creatures you would see in a nightmare.

  "Why don't you leave?"

  Darkwill, who was no different from a blind man in the dark, asked curiously. He could only rely on the moonlight shining in from the holes in the sewer outlet above his head to barely see the road, and didn't pay any attention to the big rats in the corner.   

  "Stand back..."

  Before Angel finished speaking, three rats jumped off the wooden frame and rushed towards the two people in the sewage.

  Two other rats that appeared from nowhere also surrounded them from different directions and blocked them at the exit of the sewer branch.

  Worried that the gunshot would attract the attention of the homeless or patrol officers on the ground, Angel did not shoot, but mobilized his spiritual power, gathered frost, and turned it into several spikes to shoot out.

  Puff -

  the sharp ice spikes pierced into the bodies of the two rats in front, nailing them to the ground. The frost even spread, causing a thin layer of ice to condense on the nearby water surface.

  The mutant rats did not have enough intelligence to understand the gap between them and the extraordinary people. They just rushed towards the "food" by instinct. Angel calmly manipulated the frost and killed them one by one in the sewer. The nearest one was more than ten meters away from her.

  I thought these mutant animals would be special, but it turns out they are just a little bigger...

  Angel scanned the cold rat corpses and looked around. She carefully checked the area and found nothing missing. Then she called Darkwill back from the deep sewer.

  The latter carefully checked the rat corpses in the faint moonlight above his head and quickly came to the conclusion:

  "These should have been mutated by contact with something strange, perhaps some extraordinary materials that fell into the sewer, or some extraordinary people's... corpses. But they are not the only ones who destroyed my herbs. Although these rats also eat herbs, they will not destroy the wooden racks."

  "Do you have other planting areas? Maybe there are other mutant animals destroying your results."

  Angel asked. She approached the planting rack made of wooden boards and found that as Darkwill said, the wooden racks were intact and the rats were not interested in moldy wood.

  "There are two other planting sites in the sewers of the bridge area. I will take you there."

  Although it was "take", Angel, who could see in the dark, still led the way. The pharmacist was only responsible for pointing out the direction. The two continued to walk to the next location.

  "Why do you want to grow herbs in a place like this? Don't people usually rent a yard or grow them on their own roof?"

  Angel couldn't help but ask as he continued to walk forward in the stinking sewage.

  "Do you think I want to come to this kind of environment? But these herbs like damp and dark places. Some people even grow them in underground tombs. I'm already abiding by the law by choosing the sewers."

  But what's illegal about underground tombs? Could it be that they...

  Angel had a terrible idea. She saw that the next wide area was just ahead and forced herself not to think in a strange direction.

  "Squeak--"

  The sound made by the enlarged and bloodthirsty rats was no different from usual. Angel quickly used ice spikes to deal with them.

  "Strange, how can there be such a big rat, and they all like to eat your herbs..."

  Angel examined the bodies of the mutant rats and found that they were no different from the rats in the first planting site. They all had deformed bodies, swollen skin, bloodshot eyes, and would rush over desperately when they saw living things.

  She took out the magic mirror and tried to divine the origin of the rats under Darkwill's surprised eyes.

  "Mirror, mirror, tell me why these rats are in the sewer."

  Stroking the smooth mirror, Angel soon saw the divination scene in it.

  Several normal-sized rats were wandering in the sewer. They drank the dark red sewage from upstream, and then became manic, became huge, had red eyes, and bit each other.

  In the divination scene of the magic mirror, they became bloodthirsty mutant rats!

  (End of this chapter)

  Chapter 192 Breath of the Creator

  When the image in the mirror disappeared, Angel looked at Darkwill who was stunned.

  "So you... you are, a witch?"

  He stuttered, his eyes were a little panicked, and he even took a few steps back.

  "No, I'm not yet, and why are you so scared?"

  Angel asked back curiously.

  "Not yet? I was already suspicious when you used frost to kill those mutant rats just now, and now you're using the magic mirror for divination..." Darkwill retreated to the wall and stopped when he found there was no way to go. "As far as I know, only the 'Witch' path can use the magic mirror for divination in this way, and can also drive frost and black flames."

  "Witch path?" Angel murmured again, "Do you mean the 'Assassin' path?"

  "It's the same meaning. Most potion paths are named after their Sequence 9, such as the 'Assassin' you mentioned, or my 'Pharmacist'," Darkwill did not hide his own potion sequence, but used this as an example to explain, "but many paths also have special names. Your 'Assassin' path is one of them. They are controlled by the secret 'Witch Sect' and believe in the 'Original Witch', so it is also called the 'Witch' path."

  So that's it, the name of this path is not based on the potion of Sequence 9, but is named after the "commonality" of most sequences? I didn't expect to learn new knowledge by catching mice in the sewers...

  Angel sighed, and seeing that Darkwill's fat face was still full of fear, he had to comfort him.

  "I'm not a member of the 'Witch Cult', well, at least not now. My only goal is to make your 30 pounds."

  "Sorry, I just reacted subconsciously. After all, the 'Witch Cult' is famous..."

  Perhaps thinking that if a witch really wanted to take action, she wouldn't have to wait until now, Darkwill also calmed down, the panic expression on his face gradually faded, and he walked back from the corner to the mutant mouse's corpse.

  "Did you find anything in the divination just now?"

  Angel told him the result of the divination, which made the pharmacist who had just calmed down fall into fear again.

  "You mean, these animals didn't grow so big on their own, but were created by someone through extraordinary means?"

  "Do you think normal mice can grow bigger than dogs? From the divination results, they drank a red liquid and became like this. Maybe there was an out-of-control extraordinary person who died upstream of the sewer and his blood flowed down, or maybe someone used drugs to do this."

  Angel analyzed, and seeing the expression on the pharmacist's fat face kept changing, he comforted him:

  "Since you have discovered the problem, I suggest you move the planting site to somewhere else, such as learning from your colleagues and planting herbs in dark underground tombs, so that I won't hear the bad news of your disappearance at the next party."

  "But I..." Darkwill frowned and thought, "Okay, there is one last planting site. Let's solve it as soon as possible. After I collect the mature herbs, I will move away in a few days."

  Although he doubted whether his hesitant statement was true, Angel had fulfilled his obligation to remind him, so he didn't continue the topic, but continued to move forward in the direction pointed by the other party, and soon came to the third and last planting site.

  Before entering the wide sewer confluence, Angel heard the "dong dong" sound of heavy objects hitting each other. The heavy sound came along the pipe, as if someone was beating a huge drum beside him.

  "I'll go in first, you stay here, don't move."

  Angel reminded Darkwill beside him, but found that the man had already stepped back a few steps and made way for the passage.

  Stepping on the ubiquitous sewage and moving forward quietly, Angel's dark vision soon appeared the source of the sound.

  Several wooden frames built at the wide sewer confluence had been shattered, and the pottery jars and plants on them seemed to be crushed by huge feet, turning into powder and fragments and scattered on the ground.

  A huge crocodile with a length of at least six meters and limbs as strong as stone pillars was slapping the wooden frame in the corner with its tail. The huge and swollen tail hit the cement wall of the sewer again and again, like a hammer hitting, making a sound that spread throughout the space.

  "I should have guessed it long ago. How could that strange red liquid only work on rats..."

  Angel lamented the difficulty of earning the 30 pounds while slowing down his pace to approach the huge mutant crocodile. The temperature around him dropped rapidly, and an ice spear as thick as his arm condensed.

  As soon as he grabbed the frost spear, the crocodile seemed to sense danger. It danced with its limbs to leave the corner, circled half a circle in the sewer full of sewage, and looked at Angel. Its eyes were as red as those of the mutant rats, filled with bloodthirsty desire. Without hesitation

  , Angel swung the ice spear in his hand forward. The sharp ice spear hit the crocodile's tail with a heavy momentum, nailing it to the ground.

  "Bang——"   

  A black flame followed closely behind, igniting the crocodile that was trying to shake its tail and escape from the grip of the ice spear. The crocodile was covered in black flames and rolled in the shallow water, but it could not put out the black flames, which were essentially curses. It soon curled up into a ball and turned into a burnt and smelly corpse.

  After carefully observing the surroundings with his spiritual vision and confirming that there were no other dangers, Angel called Darkwill, who was hiding at the exit and watching the battle.

  Although the crocodile had become a corpse, it was still many times larger than the crocodiles that usually roamed the sewers along the Tussock River. Seeing this, the fat pharmacist gasped.

  "Fortunately, you accepted my commission, otherwise I would have come to collect the remaining herbs myself to recover the losses..." He kicked the charred corpse of the crocodile with his foot and said with lingering fear.

  "Even without me, the 'Black Snake' would have helped you. After you offered to pay an additional 30 pounds, he was eager to try."

  Angel inspected the planting site where there were no herbs left, but did not find any traces of other mutant animals. It seemed that even if they had mutated into bloodthirsty monsters, they still had their own sense of territory. The crocodiles were entrenched here, so the rats had to find another place.

  "Heh, 'Black Snake'?" Darkwill sneered and replied, "He is at most Sequence 8. He keeps talking nonsense all day long, promoting his thing that can hear the 'Great Existence'. I even suspect that he is related to the 'Aurora Society'. He may have no problem dealing with those rats, but if he encounters this crocodile, he will probably be treated as a midnight snack." Speaking

  of midnight snacks, Angel's appetite, which was magnified by the frenzy ring, began to torment her stomach.

  But in order to prevent Darkwill, who had no fighting power, from being taken away by a mutant rat after she left, she endured her hunger and inspected the nearby sewers. She did not find any other mutant animals, and then returned to the entrance of the sewers with Darkwill.

  Looking at the surging river outside, the fat pharmacist took a deep breath of fresh air as if he had been reborn, and looked back at the dark sewer with lingering fear.

  "I will come to collect those herbs tomorrow during the day. Alas, there are not many left. You are right. I should find a cemetery and secretly plant some. At least it is better than risking my life to go into the sewer."

  Angel was very relieved that Darkwill could figure this out. This employer paid quickly and was a "pharmacist" who could make various potions. She didn't want to see his body appear in the Tussock River in a few days.

  After receiving the balance of the commission and asking how to participate in the subsequent "Eye of Wisdom" Extraordinary Assembly, Angel said goodbye to the fat pharmacist who was still wandering by the river. According to her previous habit, she returned to the safe house in the East District and used the black flame to perform a counter-divination.

  She didn't rush to change her clothes and return to Red Rose Street, but took out the magic mirror and performed divination again.

  "Mirror, mirror, tell me, who created the mutant animals in the sewer?"

  Angel mobilized her spirituality and stroked the mirror, watching it ripple and gradually turn dark. She was still full of doubts about the mutant animals that appeared inexplicably in the sewer, especially the crocodile. Moreover, she would often live in the Backlund Bridge District, and there were traces of these mutant animals under her feet, which always made people feel uneasy.

  The mirror soon showed the scene of the rats drinking crimson wastewater, which was consistent with her divination results in the sewer. The crocodile was burned by the black flame, which was equivalent to anti-divination measures, and did not appear in the picture.

  But Angel walked through the main sewers in the bridge area, came into contact with the mutant rats and the environment they lived in, and obtained more information, and the results of the divination would be more detailed.

  Recalling Klein's "Summary of Divination Skills" in his mind, Angel continued to look at the magic mirror in his hand. As the black mist flashed, the mirror surface became dark again as if switching pictures. When the black faded, a bronze-skinned hand with a cut wound fell down, and drops of crimson blood fell into the water.

  "Ka--"

  cracks appeared on the magic mirror, and then the image in the mirror was interrupted. The cracks continued to expand, and deep red blood oozed out from the inside, as if it was blood dripping from the drooping hand.

  Is this anti-divination? No, someone sensed my spying and fought back!

  Without hesitation, she pressed the "magic pocket watch" tied to her wrist, and her spirit sensed a ball of fire not far from the window. It was the street light in the East District at night.

  As the magic mirror shattered and burst into heart-pounding, extremely evil mumbling and roaring, Angel's body with bulging blood vessels and blue veins became thinner and smaller, and turned into a mottled and filthy black short stick in the surging flames.

  On the street, she walked out of the flames with a dizzy head, and immediately knelt on her knees, forcing herself to enter a meditative state to resist the nearly out-of-control spirituality surging in her body.

  Angel had seen the evil mumbling and the roar that went straight to the depths of the soul in Tingen City and in the battle with Megose.

  That is...

  that is the breath of the "True Creator"!

  (End of this chapter)

  Chapter 193 Report

  Angel almost faced the infamous evil god by connecting with the "True Creator" worshiped by the "Aurora Society" through the magic mirror divination.

  Fortunately, there was a magic mirror between her and Him, and the spiritual world that the magic mirror communicated with.

  The moment she felt threatened, she immediately used the magic wand substitute to bear the pollution of the Creator, and even activated the magic pocket watch to jump away from the scene with flames for the sake of safety.

  Otherwise, even if she was exposed to a trace of the breath of the "True Creator", in a few seconds, she would become a pile of rotten meat in the house, or become a bloodthirsty monster like the rats and crocodiles in the sewer.

  But Angel, who escaped from the safe house, was still kneeling on the corner of the street, trembling all over, and her whole body seemed to be cut by a knife, and the pain was unbearable. She almost wanted to roll on the ground. The veins on her exposed hands were exposed, and her skin was dull. The same must be true for her face and body that she could not see.

  Fortunately, she had almost lost control several times before. By entering into meditation, she barely suppressed her spiritual restlessness. The remaining rationality prevented her from rolling on the ground. Instead, she curled up and gritted her teeth to resist the pain and discomfort all over her body.

  After an unknown amount of time, the gas street lamp above her head seemed to become hot. The mumbling and evil thoughts that filled Angel's mind gradually faded, and the pain in her body slowly disappeared.

  She raised her head and found that her whole body was already soaked. Her face was full of sweat, mixed with liquid that was not sure whether it was tears or saliva, dripping from her chin.

  Wait, is it a gas lamp above my head?

  Angel, who had just regained consciousness, was almost frightened to faint by the flame above her head that was more terrifying than the real creator. She used her hands and feet to crawl away, away from the faint street lamps on the street, and stopped only when she entered the dark alley.

  "It turns out that 10 minutes have passed... but I felt it was just a short moment."

  Angel muttered as she turned her eyes away from the lights at the alley. The experience of almost losing control just now made her lose her sense of time, and she didn't even know when she fell into the negative effects of the "magic pocket watch".

  ...

  "Well, where is this? How long has it been?"

  Shaking her aching head, Angel got up from the ground and found herself lying on the carpet. The sunlight outside the window had already entered the living room through the curtains, making her whole body warm.

  As the blood and memory returned to her mind, she remembered what happened last night.

  Under the negative state of the magic pocket watch, Angel took a full two hours to walk the usual 20-minute journey and bypassed the street with street lights to return to her home. She

  took off the "madness ring" that she had worn for a day and threw it aside. She didn't even care about the various desires in her body and slept on the carpet in the living room for a night.

  It was already noon, and the negative state of 12 hours would soon disappear. However, the physiological needs accumulated by wearing the "Frenzy Ring" for a day yesterday were becoming more urgent. It was as if a giant hand was stirring in her stomach, and the secreted gastric juice was almost digesting herself.

  No, this was not entirely the negative effect of the Frenzy Ring. I really hadn't eaten for almost a day...

  After hurriedly changing the clothes that rolled on the ground and covered in mud, Angel, who didn't dare to cook, filled his stomach with bread and butter to eliminate the desire to eat. Only then did he have time to recall the events caused by the magic mirror divination last night.

  There was no doubt that the extremely familiar evil breath was very similar to Megose in Tingen City and the "evil god's offspring" in her belly, and the filthy mumbling was also the same as Megose's "blasphemous words".

  From the subsequent analysis, it can be guessed that the evil god that Mr. C in the North District Street Park conspired to summon was the "true creator" he believed in, so the result of this divination could be determined.

  But the question is, why does the "True Creator" get involved when fortune-telling about mutant animals, so that He ruthlessly counterattacks.

  Perhaps it is not a "counterattack" at all. It is just a "natural phenomenon" caused by the gap in status and strength when facing an evil but powerful existence. The "not looking directly at God" specifically mentioned in the church scriptures is not only out of worship and respect for the gods, but also for safety reasons.

  Their divinity, even if it is not for any purpose and does not impose any will, is naturally harmful to ordinary creatures. And

  the man with bronze skin who appeared in the divination is likely to be a member of the "Aurora Society". Why would he use his own blood to pollute the sewer and create mutant animals? Is his blood related to the "True Creator"? If it is

  for sacrifice to his Lord and for killing people, then the efficiency of using mutant animals to harm ordinary people is too low, and it is easy to be discovered by official extraordinary people. Even if they can't find him by following the clues, they will kill the mutant animals to prevent more people from being killed.

  By the way, official extraordinary people, I can report this matter and let them deal with it!

  Angel had been a Nighthawk for two months and almost forgot about the reporting method. He forgot that when he first came to this world, he contacted the Nighthawk through reporting and solved Mrs. Sharon.

  He was not strong enough now, but the official Beyonders would not be soft on the evil god and his followers.

  He went to the study and wrote a report letter with his left hand. It recorded in detail the mutation of animals in the sewers of Backlund Bridge District and the possible sources, and pointed out that they were likely related to the "Aurora Society" and the "True Creator".   

  Afterwards, she used black flames to "disinfect" the letter and envelope to ensure that the report would not be traced back to her by divination. Moreover, the inability to divine itself meant that it was related to the Beyonder. In any case, the official Beyonders would take it seriously and go to the sewer to investigate.

  "I hope Darkwill has really moved the planting site as he said..."

  But now he couldn't care about him. He couldn't let the Aurora Society make a fuss like the evil god's advent in Tingen City. If the god descended in Backlund, more than a few dozen people would die. After

  folding the letter and stuffing it into the envelope, Angel looked at the sunlight outside the window and waited for the negative effects of fearing the fire to disappear.

  ...

  At the door of the Cherwood District Police Station, Angel, wearing a frenzy ring and a hood, stuffed a thin letter of complaint into the mailbox at the door.

  The policeman standing guard at the door immediately cast a concerned look, but the reporter saw it every day, so he didn't care too much.

  With his head down, Angel got out of the other party's sight as soon as possible, and then he returned to the nearest subway station and took a ride to the East District.

  On the way, she recalled the whole process of her report, making sure that she would not be tracked and would not be noticed by the official Beyonders.

  "The report letter used the Black Flame Curse to perform anti-divination. I also have the 'Magic Pocket Watch' and 'Secret Holy Emblem' with recovery effects. Ordinary divination has no effect on me, and people who see me on the road will only remember, no, not even remember this fake face, and will soon forget me..."

  "The only problem is Darkwill, the unlucky pharmacist. He knows that I cleaned up the mutant animals and knew that I had performed divination. If the official Beyonders find him, it may expose me as a 'witch'... Fortunately, I already know how to participate in the 'Eye of Wisdom' gathering. I will try not to contact him in the future. I will change the puppy mask, and he may not recognize me."

  "And Mr. A, who also belongs to the 'Aurora Society', is he related to this matter?"

  Angel thought and quickly denied it.

  Since Mr. A dared to live and hold gatherings in Queens, the wealthiest district in Backlund, he must have been under official surveillance and acquiescence, or he was simply a tool of the Aurora Society to divert official attention. In either case, he should not be involved in such a trivial matter as "causing animal mutations."

  ...

  Returning to the safe house in the East District, Angel did not go in, but walked around the surrounding blocks. He did not find any surveillance, nor did he find any traces of contamination by the "true Creator's breath" last night.

  "That breath only targeted me, the blasphemer who looked directly at Him, and did not affect other people... This is really a blessing in disguise, but this safe house is definitely not habitable. Fortunately, I have paid a month's rent, so I will leave it vacant here. After a month, that breath will have disappeared in time..."

  Leaving the apartment that she had rented for nearly 1 pound, Angel came to the East District near the dock area and found a one-bedroom apartment as a new safe house. This time she was careful and only paid two weeks' rent, a total of 8 soli, and left a deposit of 4 soli, so that if there was a similar situation where she needed to abandon the safe house again, she would not lose too much.

  This house was similar to the previous one, with only simple furniture. Angel simply cleaned and arranged the new safe house, and finished everything before entering the night.

  "Knock knock--"

  There was a knock on the door.

  Angel paced to the living room, and a trace of vigilance was raised in her heart.

  Could it be the landlord? Or it could be a patrolling policeman, but they have never paid attention to the East District, so why would they come to knock on the tenant's door?

  After walking to the door, she looked out through the peephole, then sighed and opened the door.

  "I really don't want to open the door to see you, because it must be bad."

  Standing at the door was Dominic, who looked haggard and should have arrived in Bayam long ago.

  (End of this chapter)

  Chapter 194: The Missing Sonya

  "As you can see, I don't have tea or coffee here, but I do have a lot of chairs."

  Angel invited the "provocateur" who seemed to have not slept for a day and a night in, and watched him sit in the nearest chair, his whole body limp.

  "Sorry, if it wasn't really necessary, I wouldn't want to visit you." Dominic lost his usual sharpness and said dejectedly, "When you rented a safe house before, I found your residence. This time, in order to wait for you, I have been squatting next to it and followed you to the new safe house. If I wasn't worried that there would be a lot of people in the daytime and it would be easy to be recognized, I would have knocked on the door a long time ago."

  "Compared to the tracking, I am more curious about why you are still in Backlund. Shouldn't you have taken a boat out to sea last week and taken Sonya to the Rorsted Islands that you have been thinking about, and settled in Bayam?"

  Angel also pulled over a chair and sat opposite him. This place had just been rented, and there was no tea, let alone coffee and hot water. Moreover, even if there was, she had no intention of serving this uninvited guest.

  "I had been planning to leave as soon as I got the 600 pounds, although the money was less than I expected..." Dominic paused, glanced at Angel, and continued, "...it was enough to live in Bayam. But Sonia said that before she left, she wanted to see her uncle again, the relative who was imprisoned for a crime, and who had taken care of Sonia for a while when she was little."

  "We went to the West District to visit him yesterday. After returning to his residence in the East District, Sonia packed up and I went to the steam train station to buy tickets to Pritz Harbor."

  "Damn it, it was just a short while, less than two hours!"

  Dominic suddenly became irritable and stretched out his hand to grab his black hair, as if he wanted to pull it all out.

  "When I came back, the place was in a mess. There were slight signs of fighting on the floor and furniture. The room was also turned upside down, but there was no blood and no items were missing. Only Sonya was missing."

  "Nothing was missing, so it shouldn't be a common burglary in the East District. It should be a kidnapping with a purpose," Angel analyzed. "Where are your traps? And your Sequence 9 is a hunter, right? I didn't notice them even when they were tracking me. Why didn't you use your Beyonder ability to track them?"

  "The trap was triggered, but I didn't hurt the other party. I also tried to track them, but they handled it very professionally. All the traces that could leave clues were cleaned up. Either the other party also has a 'hunter', or they are well-trained experts."

  Dominic replied frustratedly. It seems that Sonya was captured when he let his guard down, which was a great blow to him.

  "At first, I thought of reporting it to the police and letting the authorities investigate, but this is the East District. No one cares if a few or dozens of people go missing every day, not to mention..."

  He hesitated for a moment and continued.

  "... What's more, the authorities may be involved in this matter."

  "Do you mean the police, or the official Beyonders?"

  Angel leaned forward and asked, not expecting that the disappearance of the little fortune teller would involve so many people.

  "Neither, it's the 'Military Intelligence Section 9', a special department of the Kingdom of Loen. They are responsible for military intelligence work and fighting against the infiltration of foreign Beyonders. I used to be a member there, a peripheral member..." Is

  this a state secret that I can really listen to?

  Angel raised his eyebrows, but did not interrupt the frustrated man's narration.

  "I got my 'Hunter' potion from MI9. As an outside member, they were not stingy with the distribution of potions, but the management was as strict as that of official members. I failed in a mission and was punished too severely. In a fit of anger, I applied for withdrawal and left there."

  "After I was stranded in Enmat Port, I met Sonya. She was only 15 years old at that time, a little girl. She asked me if I was a Beyonder, haha..." Dominic's mouth curled up, as if he was lost in memories. He paused for a while before continuing, "From then on, I never left Enmat Port until Mr. Hansen Claude died at the hands of the Witch Cult, and then I brought her to Backlund."

  You are not in love with Sonya, are you? My God, she doesn't even look like an adult... Angel was a little surprised, but she knew that the current focus was not on this, so she interrupted Dominic's recollection and asked:

  "You told me all this before, but why do you think the authorities are involved in this kidnapping case? Do you have any evidence?"

  "Evidence? My analysis is the evidence!" The provocateur became emotional again, as if he was the one being provoked. "Even Sonya's uncle doesn't know the whereabouts of me and her. The only one who helped us come to Backlund to avoid the Witch Sect and helped us get fake identities knows. He is also from MI9. It must be this guy who leaked the secret."

  "Their purpose must be that manuscript, the design drawings of the third-generation differential engine! I should have guessed it long ago. Intis wants it, Feysac wants it, but Rune doesn't want it?"

  Taking a deep breath, the anger on Dominic's face faded, and a pleading look appeared instead, which surprised Angel, who was used to this man's barbed words.

  "It's been less than 12 hours since she disappeared. For the manuscript of the Difference Engine, these people should not have done anything to her yet, but it may be different after a long time."

  "I came to you to ask for your help. Use divination to find Sonya's location and help me rescue her. Don't worry, I will give you a satisfactory reward."

  Seeing the fragility and helplessness in the other's eyes, Angel fell into deep thought.

  She instinctively wanted to refuse this troublesome matter. Although Dominic had cooperated with her before, and even sold this manuscript that attracted much attention to Mr. A together, it was essentially just a relationship of interest. The two of them divided the spoils and parted ways, and there would be no relationship in the future.

  But Sonya was just a little girl who had not yet reached adulthood. Whether she was captured by those foreign spies who infiltrated Backlund, or as Dominic said, with the involvement of official personnel, if she was not rescued in time, it was easy to imagine what would happen next.   

  Just treat it as a favor to the future fortune teller...

  Angel closed his eyes and nodded.

  "My magic mirror is broken. Although I can use an ordinary mirror for fortune telling, the effect is not as good as this one. You go back to your previous residence and wait. I'll go home and rush over when I'm ready."

  ...

  After taking a long detour to ensure that there were no pursuers behind her, Angel returned home. She used the ointment made from her own blood that she had saved before to make a new magic mirror. The brewing of the substitute magic wand that was used last night required more time and the selection of special materials. It was too late to replenish it today.

  Holding the freshly baked magic mirror, she first tried to divine Dominic's movements, first to confirm the other party's sincerity and ensure that he was not following her; second, to judge whether there was any high-level extraordinary power involved in this matter. The magic mirror

  fortune telling quickly came to the result. He was preparing his equipment in the apartment in the East District. The dagger, revolver, and a group of spare bullets were placed on the table, like an arms display.

  And the divination went very smoothly without any interference.

  This means that there is no high-level Beyonder to perform counter-divination on this matter... or is it too high-level that he can't feel it? After

  hesitating for a moment, Angel still took his equipment and left home, heading for the East District.

  It was already evening, and the workers working in the factories in the suburbs of the East District were returning to their homes in batches. The originally noisy and crowded streets were now even more chaotic. Angel walked through the most congested streets, avoiding pedestrians who intended to pickpocket, and came to the four-story apartment building that looked like an arch.

  "I didn't expect you to really come..."

  When Dominic opened the door, the expression on her face was very strange.

  "I've never seen a witch who keeps her promise so well?"

  Angel teased and entered the two-bedroom apartment. This time her magic mirror did not issue a warning.

  "Bring an item or clothing that Sonya often uses, and I'll use it for divination."

  Angel took out the magic mirror and put it on the table, and ordered.

  Dominic quickly brought an item, the kitten mask that Angel had used before.

  Taking the mask, Angel gently stroked the magic mirror, sent it into the spirituality, and silently recited the divination words.

  "Mirror, mirror, tell me, where is the owner of this item now?"

  The mirror flashed a familiar water pattern, and soon became dark, then the black faded, and returned to the state of reflecting the scene in the room.

  Divination failed?

  Angel was stunned, looked at the kitten mask in his hand, and then moved his eyes to the "Secret Holy Emblem" on his wrist.

  Could it be that because I have used this mask before, the anti-divination effect interfered with the divination of the magic mirror?

  Putting down the item, Angel entered Sonya's neat and warm room and took a dress from the closet.

  He performed the magic mirror divination again, and this time it went very smoothly. The mirror soon showed a moving picture.

  The little girl with loose brown hair was half lying between the wooden box and the iron cabinet, her hands were tied with ropes, her eyes were closed, and she seemed to have fallen asleep.

  The picture turned, leaving this room that looked like a warehouse and coming to the outside. The red brick floor had cracked in many places, and the low and dilapidated houses on both sides were connected into a piece, leading to the Tussock River in the distance.

  The image disappeared, and the magic mirror regained its smooth surface. Angel told Dominic what he had just seen. Dominic frowned and thought for a moment, then suddenly realized and said through gritted teeth:

  "That's Red Brick Lane in the East District, the warehouse of the Zmanger Party!"

  (End of this chapter)

  Chapter 195 Red Brick Lane

  "Zimang Party... is it a gang that kidnapped Sonya?"

  Although it sounded like the name of a gang, Angel still asked just in case.

  "They are not just a gang. Although 'Zimang' means 'warrior' in the plateau language and most of its members are from Feysac, they have long been controlled by the intelligence agency of Intis and have become their tools for gathering intelligence and doing dirty work. It is very likely that the spies of the Republic of Intis were behind the arrest of Sonya, and it was for the manuscript of the differential engine."

  As a former intelligence officer, Dominic was very familiar with these gangs in the East District, and quickly told Angel the background of the Zimang Party as if he was reciting it.

  "Then how did they find this place? It's not like they relied on divination..." Angel continued to analyze, "It's indeed possible. Sonya, as a Sequence 9 divination expert, can find clues to the manuscript. Intis' intelligence agency may not lack Beyonders of higher sequences. Then they followed the clues and found you."

  "They may not know that the manuscript was sold to Mr. A, or they may already know, but think that you have hidden a copy, so they kidnapped Sonya and tried to get information." "

  Fuck, where did we get a copy? I can't even understand that thing..." Dominic cursed, but worried that the neighbors would hear him because of the poor sound insulation, so he lowered his voice and continued, "We must rescue Sonya quickly. If they are sure that she doesn't know the whereabouts of the manuscript, they may kill her to silence her."

  Not only will they kill her to silence her, but if there are Beyonders, they may also try to communicate with the spirit world... After all, the dead can't lie.

  Angel thought secretly and didn't tell Dominic about this possibility.

  Of course, in the divination just now, Sonya was only detained and still asleep. For some reason, the Zmanger Party has not yet interrogated her. This may be the last chance.

  Wearing a cloak to hide his face, Angel watched Dominic pick up the pistol, dagger and dagger on the table and hide them in various places under the cloak, fully armed himself, and then the two left the apartment building, led by the latter, and headed for the Red Brick Lane in the divination.

  ...

  In a windowless room, two sturdy men in windbreakers were surrounding a boy who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old, holding sticks in their hands and swinging them around him from time to time.

  Every time the sticks passed by him, he would tremble all over, as if the intimidation that did not hit him also made him feel unbearable pain.

  "Boy, I have no patience anymore. You know our methods. If we really use them on you, you can only lie in bed for the rest of your life, if you still have the rest of your life."

  A man ran out of patience and threw the wooden stick in his hand to the ground. The sound made the boy tremble again, but his hands were tied and hung on the ceiling. His feet could only barely touch the ground. He stood on tiptoes to support the weight of his body. He could not do anything except beg for mercy and tremble.

  "...I, I really told you everything. Didn't you find Gao Li? Didn't he tell you?"

  The two men looked at each other. The man who threw down the stick came to a corner of the room, opened a metal box, and searched for something inside. The occasional metal collision sound made the boy look more desperate.

  "Do you think that we dare not do anything to you just because you know the clue? Let me tell you, there is someone in the next room who also knows where the manuscript is. After our executioner cuts you into pieces, I will go to her to ask clearly, and then let her go home. And you can only rot in the sewer, just like your boss."

  The other man kept saying threatening words, pinching both sides of the boy's head with both hands, pressing hard, making the latter show a painful expression.

  "I said it all, I said it all! Didn't Gao Li steal the manuscript? And it was taken away by someone else, ah ah - don't pinch it, how do I know who it is? It's useless for you to kill me!"

  The boy spoke incoherently, tears kept flowing from his eyes, whether it was due to pain or panic, but he couldn't move the gloomy man in front of him at all.

  "Cut off his fingers first, cut three, then I'll ask again."

  He said to another man busy in the corner.

  "Okay, I'll be right there."

  The man looking for tools answered casually, groping in the box carefully, took out two rusty scissors, tried them out "click, click", and then turned back.

  "I'm sorry, the scissors are a bit rusty, it might hurt..."

  He was stunned in the middle of his words and looked towards the center of the room.

  The man who was talking to him just now had fallen to the ground, and his life or death was unknown.   

  Except for the boy who was still hanging on the ceiling, there was no one else in the room.

  "What's going on? What did you do?"

  Looking at the only boy in the room who might take action, the man looked panicked, waving the scissors in his hand, and roared in a cowardly manner.

  The next second, there was a sharp pain behind his neck, and his eyes went black. He also fell to the ground, and the two scissors slid far away on the ground.

  ...

  After easily dealing with the two strong men, Angel lifted his invisibility and looked at the stunned boy.

  "I can put you down, but I hope you don't shout or do anything irrational, otherwise you will end up like them."

  Angel warned, and when he saw the boy nodding hurriedly, he took out a dagger and cut the rope that tied him to the ceiling.

  "Bang--"

  The boy's legs softened and he knelt on the ground. Then he struggled to get up, reached out to take the scissors beside him, cut the ropes on his wrists and ankles, and regained his freedom. He

  has strong mobility and flexible hands... Although he was panicked, he remained rational, which was better than most adults.

  Angel evaluated the boy's actions.

  "Thank you, ma'am. Are you from MI9? I've only seen this kind of magical ability from them."

  He was referring to my invisibility? But Dominic said that this "MI9" is an organization that fights against foreign extraordinary infiltration, and it must have many extraordinary people itself...

  "No, I'm not," she hesitated for a moment, still not pretending to be an official, "I just have some personal grudges with the Zmanger Party. Have you seen a woman they captured? About seventeen years old, long brown hair, about the same height as you." "They just mentioned that there is another

  woman waiting for interrogation next door, but I don't know if it's the one you mentioned."

  Rubbing his wrist that was a little red and swollen after being tied up, the boy pointed to the wall on one side.

  "By the way, my name is Ian, may I ask..."

  "Ian, you wait here, or find a way to escape by yourself."

  Without waiting for the other party to finish, Angel turned around and left the interrogation room. Outside the door was a long corridor, dimly lit and empty.

  "Dominic is already making a noise at the front door. We need to find Sonya as soon as possible and then leave here..."

  Listening carefully to the faint gunshots and shouts coming from downstairs, Angel looked in the direction Ian had pointed just now, where there was a tightly closed iron door.

  "Click--"

  He pressed the door handle, and it was locked as expected.

  If he used a lock picking tool, it would take about 2 minutes, but this way...

  Angel kicked the door lock, and the fragile lock fell apart with a "bang", and large and small parts fell to the ground. The entire iron door opened inward, rotated 180 degrees, and hit the wall on the other side.

  In her dark vision, in the pitch-black room, a disheveled girl was lying on the ground, biting the rope that bound her hands with her teeth. Frightened by the sound of the door opening, she shrank her head, curled up like a frightened quail, and looked over here.

  (End of this chapter)