Mystery: Good Witch

Chapter 750: The Response of "Death"
In the Gurain Castle in East Balam, in a dilapidated building near a suburban cemetery.

Several men and women in black windbreakers and bright red gloves kept coming in and out, moving corpses, escorting surviving captives, or preserving important evidence. A lady in the robe of a clergyman of the Church of Night floated above the cemetery, her beautiful black hair fluttering in the sea breeze, covering her delicate face.

From time to time, a "Red Glove" would look up at her, then carefully retract his gaze to avoid looking into the other's deep eyes that hid countless stars.

She is the senior deacon in charge of the affairs of the Southern Continent of the Church of the Evernight Goddess, "Eyes of the Goddess" Ilia.

This time, Gurain's "Nighthawks" are all out, and they even invited the "Eye of the Goddess" to take action. The purpose is to capture the extreme member of the artificial death faction in the "Spirit Cult" based on the clues of the last operation, the representative of the Sequence 4 "Undead" called "Pale Hand", Palenque Tasib.

"You mean, Tasib is not in this stronghold?"

Inside the dilapidated building, Red Gloves captain Soest asked with a frown.

In front of him was the only one who was not wearing a windbreaker, but a robe over a simple black dress. Daly Simone's eyes had just turned from deep black to emerald green, and her voice was still vague and ethereal:
“There are an abnormally small number of spirits wandering around here, but they certainly haven’t seen Palenque Tasib.”

As she spoke, she turned to a member of the Spiritual Cult who was escorted in and asked:
"Where is your Pale Hand Tasib?"

The prisoner, who was curled up with a pale face and was almost dragged forward by two red gloves on his left and right, answered slowly:
"He left town early this morning. He said he was going to meet someone."

"Who?"

Soest asked, and the other red gloves stopped their actions. Leonard Mitchell, who was in the corner of the room, lowered his head and kept silent, also cast a concerned look.

"His name is..." The prisoner looked dazed, as if he was recalling something unimportant, "...Ince Zangwill."

Ince Zangwill, the former Archbishop who defected and killed several Nighthawks?

Hearing this name that shouldn't be here at all, all the Night Watchmen fell silent. Only Leonard's eyes changed a little, and his breathing became heavy involuntarily.

This only attracted some sympathetic looks from the surrounding Red Gloves - everyone knew that he was the only survivor of a disaster caused by Ince Zangwill.

But at this moment, Leonard's mind was not filled with anger, but a hint of excitement.

"Sure enough, that guy left the kingdom and headed for the sea, and his destination was the Southern Continent!"

He tried to use this to recall the words of the parasite in his mind, but unfortunately the latter did not respond.

Soest asked a few more questions but didn't get any effective answers, so he sighed, looked at the "Red Gloves" around him, and glanced outside the room. He found that Ms. Ilia, the "Eye of the Goddess", had left at some point, and he became the highest-ranking person on the field.

Licking his lips, Soest said carefully:

"Cindy, you must return to the base immediately and report this matter to Her Excellency the Eye of the Goddess. She will contact the Holy Temple and decide on the next course of action. Ince Zangwill is carrying the '0-08', and we cannot deal with him."

"Yes." Cindy, who had burgundy hair, nodded and replied, then left the room and chased after Senior Deacon Ilia.

“The rest of you, interrogate the surviving members of the Spiritual Cult, communicate with the spirits, enter dreams, and use all other methods to find out Tasib’s purpose. Since we can’t track down Ince Zangwill, we must find out why he came into contact with the Spiritual Cult.

"From now on, pay attention to any coincidences that happen to you, such as accidentally forgetting something, or having your original plan disrupted by an accident. Report them to me. This is very important!"

As the captain of the "Red Gloves", Sost knows a little more about the "0" level seal than his members. Although he cannot say it explicitly, he must remind everyone how to deal with "0-08".

Leonard, however, did not hold high hopes for these actions. He knew the horror of "0-08" better than anyone else in the team, so he did not show an overly positive attitude. Instead, he completed his work in silence, as if recalling a painful past, and then followed the team back to the base.

After finding an excuse to leave the base, he came to a secluded alley, took out a written letter, used a simple spell to summon the messenger called "Him" by the old man, and respectfully handed over the letter and a gold coin under the gaze of four pairs of scarlet but slightly lifeless eyes.

Leonard breathed a sigh of relief after watching the messenger disappear into the void. He cleaned up the scene while muttering:

"How could that guy have such a powerful messenger? Is it a benefit from that mysterious organization, or is it something special about him..."

Suddenly, reminded by the voice in his head, he closed his mouth and slowly looked back.

Wearing a long robe and with eye shadow and blush on her face, Daly Simone stood quietly at the entrance of the alley, looking up into the air with a pale face.

That was exactly where the headless messenger left.

----

"When you usually order food, does it come with a 'servant meal' for two secret dolls?"

Angel asked in a slurred voice, poking a piece of roast meat with a fork and putting it into her mouth. In the small hotel in the southern continent, she finally didn't have to follow the dining etiquette of the upper class. She could eat a whole piece of roast meat with a fork, burp unabashedly after drinking iced sparkling sweet wine, and speak with food in her mouth.

"After all, they are already dead and don't need to eat, and I, um, have to act well..."

Looking at the entire table that included two sets of sumptuous lunches and two servants' meals, Klein smiled helplessly.

In order to make himself and his two secret dolls appear "normal", he ordered three servings of each meal to be delivered to the room. Drinks and soup could be poured down the drain, but he had to take care of the staple food himself. Therefore, the three-day trip to East Balam had made him feel a little fatter.

Fortunately, today's consumption was a bit high, and there was one more person to help share the burden... He smiled secretly and looked at Angel who was eating voraciously. Just as he was about to comment, he suddenly felt something and looked up.

In the psychic vision, one of Renette Tinicole's heads spit out the letter it was holding, and then quickly disappeared into the ceiling.

"Whose letter?"

Angel, who also noticed the abnormality but didn't care, asked.

"Leonard's letter. The content is..." Klein opened the envelope and quickly read through the few lines of content. "The former archbishop appeared near Gurain and met with the Pale Hand of the Artificial Death God of the Spiritual Cult, Palenque Tasib. He wants us to conduct a secret investigation."

According to the agreement, in the real world, Angel and Klein would refer to Ince Zangwill, who possessed "0-08", as "former archbishop" to avoid being detected by the seal in his hand if they called his name directly.

Of course, even so, the two of them had no intention of talking about anything about him at the dinner table; this was something that had been decided long ago.

They just looked at each other, confirmed this from each other's eyes, and changed the subject at the same time.

"Do you have any impression of this 'Pale Hand' of the Spiritual Cult?"

Angel swallowed the barbecue in his mouth, drank the sweet wine in the glass, and asked.

"He is a Sequence 4 of the Path of the God of Death, an 'Undead', which is the same Sequence as what we thought Mr. Azik was in. He is active in West Balam and often clashes with the local colonial government. He has also carried out several attacks in the city that caused heavy casualties... This is all the information I had about the church before I left the Nighthawks."

Klein answered, and instructed his secret puppet Enzo to put away the tableware. He then took a comfortable position on the chair and continued:

"Based on what happened to Mr. Azik in the Death God's Tomb, I actually suspect that the 'Artificial Death God' is the Spiritual Cult's attempt to revitalize the uniqueness of the 'Death God' path. Of course, their plan may have been anticipated by the 'Death God' Salinger, or it may have been in line with His intentions, so that the giant feathered serpent was created..."

Although he did not see it with his own eyes, Klein still understood the truth of what happened in the mausoleum based on Angel's description afterwards. Based on the actions of the one who came to the mausoleum through the divine descent, he guessed that his purpose was to identify the uniqueness of the "Death" path adjacent to the "Night" path.

Angel, who also knew this, remained silent. After a moment, he asked back:

"So, while He prevented the God of Death from resurrecting, He also began to explore another path?"

He spoke in a very low voice. If it was not the bright sun outside the window but the night sky, Angel would not have dared to ask this question.

Klein nodded solemnly, and suddenly remembered that in addition to the complete "Sleepless", that is, the "Night" path potion, the Church of Evernight also has low- to medium-sequence "Death" path potions, and is not reluctant to cultivate extraordinary people in this path, which is in sharp contrast to the carefully selected "Fortune Teller".

Could it be that the goddess had already made arrangements, and that she had already set her sights on the uniqueness of the "God of Death"... Thinking of this, Klein felt a chill down his spine.

What about the "Fortune Teller"? There seems to be no gods in this path. As far as I know, it is not adjacent to "Night" and "Death"...

Gathering his scattered thoughts, Klein carefully told Angel his guess.

After listening to this, the latter said thoughtfully:

"If your guess is correct, can we pray to the goddess and ask directly about the situation of the Pale Hand? Is he now a believer of the goddess?"

How is that possible? Even if a lunatic like him who carried out terrorist attacks wanted to convert, the goddess would not accept him... Klein subconsciously refuted in his heart, but he was stunned the next second.

Yes, even if he is not a believer of the Goddess, he at least still believes in the "artificial god of death". According to my experience as the "fool" and the "sea god", at this moment, the Goddess may have mastered a certain degree of "death" authority and be able to respond!
----

At three o'clock in the afternoon, in the palace shrouded in gray fog, deep red light flashed, and the members of the Tarot Club gathered here again.

At the head of the long table, Klein the Fool's mind was not here.

After Angel had lunch and returned to Backlund through the "mirror world", he tried to pray to the "artificial god of death", asking about the recent behavior of the "Pale Hand" and the purpose of his meeting with the former archbishop.

The "artificial god of death" who had never responded to believers since the Spirit Cult launched its plan actually gave a definite response!

(End of this chapter)