Maritime.

A pure white corset slowly fell from the sky.

Three speedboats broke through the waves and headed for an old lifeboat in the distance.

The lifeboat was anchored at sea, its hull fluttering regularly with the waves. There were two women and one man in the cabin.

On deck, moaning continued.

"Ahhh

"You tap..."

"I hurt!"

The girl was lying on the deck with her bare back.

A woman stroked the girl's face, trembled and said, "Bear with me, my dear, just bear with me." ”

Behind her, the boy pressed her back with one hand, covered the other's mouth with the other, and stabbed hard.

The girl let out a muffled grunt.

Sweat dripped from the boy's chin onto the girl's back.

......

......

Time, three days ago, Normandy.

An old Citroen bumps down the iron-gray road, it has a dirty yellow color and several large suitcases tied with ropes on top.

Inside the car, the gray-haired teenager was wearing a plaid shirt, black ripped jeans, and a pair of blue canvas shoes, dressed as a normal Muggle.

In the passenger seat, however, sat a nun wearing a black and white headdress, with a hideous and terrifying scar on her face.

The two were Hoffa and Chloe, who had left Paris, and not long ago, they had rented an old car that had changed hands many times and traveled all the way to Normandy by the sea, intending to cross the English Channel to England.

Inside, an unknown wizard talk show was playing on the car radio, and the nun was curled up in her chair, listening to the German-language wizard radio with no pair.

“....... Welcome to the Monster Night Story, I'm Oren Brian. Today, the monster we're going to talk about is the Leviathan, an ancient monster.

Legend has it that it and its people have been living on the dark seabed. But Leviathan is an outlier in the race, a monster who yearns for the light on the surface of the land and sea.

So one day, it made a wish to the wizards of the tribe to go to the surface of the ocean to see the true face of the sun.

The sorcerer promised him the ability to float on the surface, but warned him that he must return to the bottom of the sea when the sun sets, or he will be abandoned by his own people forever.

Leviathan promised the wizard.

At dawn, it surfaced from the depths of the ocean.

For a second, it was struck by the majestic beauty of dawn and daylight.

It stared blankly at the sun until it went down, and it did not return to the bottom of the sea.

In this way, Leviathan became obsessed with the beauty of the sun day after day, until one day it came to its senses and wanted to return to the bottom of the sea.

only to find that its companions at the bottom of the sea have long since died, and everything it knows has been lost in the long river of time.

Forgotten by death, it wanders alone forever in the sea, repeating its monotonous and boring life day after day, waiting for ......"

Smack.

The radio in the car was turned off by a somewhat troubled Hoffa.

I saw him holding the steering wheel tiredly, leaning his elbows against the glass, and holding his cheeks with his fists, looking like an old driver.

"What are you doing, I'm listening to stories from around here. Chloe complained dissatisfiedly.

"You've been listening all day, can you really remember so much?"

"You're not, how do I know, I can't remember. ”

"Because you're just bored listening to them. "Hoffa is bland and to the point.

"I ...... Cut, it's stuffy. ”

The nun turned her head and played with her fingers in boredom, "It's a nice day." ”

"Hmm. ”

"Speaking of which, I love these sunny days, too. ”

She seemed to be talking to herself.

Hoffa didn't say anything, and after a while, she suddenly asked, "By the way, what's the name of your friend, the one who is going to borrow the boat?"

"Frank, Frank Dean. ”

"What does he do?"

"Smuggling of goods. ”

Hoffa yawned: "What do you care about so much, you just need to take the boat back to England with peace of mind." ”

"How old is he, is he as old as you?"

"Hmph, it's me two big. ”

"I guess it's rare for someone as old as you to come out and run. Chloe stretched out her hands and sighed.

At this time, the vehicle jolted up and down, as if it had hit some protrusion on the road, the tires made an ominous sizzling sound, and the steering wheel shook abnormally for a while.

Crunch.

Hoffa parked the car on the side of the road.

At this moment, they came to a wooded ground with a yellow-brown dirt road, high rocks and hillsides on both sides, and some fine dandelion seeds wafting in the sky.

Chloe looked at the woods and asked, "We're in Normandy?"

"No, there's still some way to go, but something seems to be wrong with the tires. ”

With that, he pushed the car door open and got out of the car to check.

Only then did he find that the dirt road was covered with dense pieces of broken iron, several of which had stabbed the left front tire of his old Citroen into a sieve.

Hoffa picked one up, and he looked at the broken iron nail in his hand, and his heart was shrouded in a haze, which was a trap set by man.

Could it be the German wizards?

He didn't know.

However, he felt that the people of the Imperial Wizarding Guild should disdain to use such shoddy and vulgar methods.

At this time, Chloe also pushed the car door open and walked down. She looked at the broken nails on the road, groaned, and crouched down to check the tires.

"Who is so lacking in virtue?"

"You're waiting for me here?"

Hoffa said to Chloe.

He dragged the vines to the top of the hillside, and when he reached the top of the hillside, he could see in the distance the endless sea, and by the sea there was a gathering of low houses, and it was impossible to see without looking closely.

Back in the car, Chloe was crouching on the ground, trying to clean up the broken nails from the road, when Hoffa pulled her up and removed their luggage from under the roof.

Then, he lay down in the car, turned the car key, took another brick and pressed it on the accelerator, and the flat Citroen let out a roar, crushing the broken iron nails, and went all the way away.

The dust kicked up by the car made Chloe cough. After coughing, she slowly straightened up,

"Eh, aren't we driving anymore?"

"No, I'm afraid those German wizards will follow the ruts. He gestured to the woods next to him.

"We walked to the beach, and if nothing else, my friend would have been in the area. ”

......

......

Three hours later, the two walked through the cascading seaside forest and came to the gathering place they had seen earlier.

It is also known as the port of Le Havre.

Legend has it that the famous Impressionist painter Monet spent his childhood here, and many of his works are set in this place.

In later generations, it was one of the largest ports in Europe.

But not now.

Today, the port of Le Havre is just a war-torn seaside town.

Due to its overly important geographical location, this little-known small port was once one of the most important turning points during World War II, the Normandy landings.

But that turning point is still a year away, and even then, the place is already ravaged by war.

Some of the old and broken buildings are stacked on top of each other at random, like abstract art. There are also corpses of soldiers or animals, and the air is filled with gunsmoke and stench, reminiscent of Picasso's famous painting Guernica.

It was a front-line position, far more tragic than Paris.

"You ...... Friend, live here?"

Chloe asked softly in an uncertain tone.

Hoffa did not answer.

Will Frank be here?

I think back to the first time I met him, the guy was selling voodoo potion around Normandy.

Frank Dean is one of the few smugglers who can establish contact with the chaotic rebels outside Europe. At one point, he miraculously traced certain ways to get there, and thus established stable relationships in more than a dozen cities. Alchemical apparatus and potions flowed into the kingdoms that had been cut off from each other along a very hidden and sophisticated route.

He sells everything from potions to guns, watches, telescopic knives, lighters, tanks and ships, metal materials, almost anything imaginable.

"Let's go, let's look for it first. ”

He reluctantly followed the ruined building to the city of Normandy, and Chloe had no idea, and although she was full of suspicion, she followed Hoffa.

After ten minutes of walking along the coast, the road became unusually narrow, and on both sides of the road appeared a number of low shacks and some dilapidated and dirty tents, some of which sat on the gravel, and between the crevices of the stones, some stiff corpses of soldiers were faintly visible.

The corpses were hung on stone pillars, their postures twisted and chilling, as if they were forbidden.

With the wind howling, Hoffa approached one of the stone pillars, and he saw the identity of the dead soldier, a French soldier in a khaki coat with the blue, white and red emblem of the French Third Republic on his shoulder.

"The body hadn't decomposed, and it didn't seem to have been long since it died. ”

Chloe whispered.

Hoffa closed his eyes and stroked the stone pillar with his hand, and in a short time, a circular carving of the tentacles appeared on the pillar, and it was the ring tentacles that nailed the soldier firmly to the stone pillar.

"These soldiers were killed by magic. ”

Hoffa muttered, "Transfiguration magic. ”

"Did the German wizard do it....."

Chloe's expression was a little more solemn.

Hoffa shook his head and said nothing, he was new to the city and didn't know anything about it.

After rounding the ruins, the two arrived at the port of Le Havre.

After walking down the harbor for about ten minutes, they came across a twenty-meter-long ship parked at the dock, covered with tin patches and painted with faded white paint, like the Adventure camera ship ready to sail from Manhattan Harbor to Skull Island.

Here they finally saw the figure of a living man, a group of men carrying coals and planks on their backs, naked and with desperate expressions, chains on their feet, and their skin darkened from soot.

Beside them, several armed thugs with guns in shabby jackets stood on wooden crates, watching them from the high hill.

At this time, there was a scrawny coal carrier who was probably overwhelmed and fell heavily to the ground. Black coals were scattered all over the ground.

"Damn it, you lazy maggot!"

With angry cursing, an armed thug jumped down from the wooden box, drew a whip, swung it high, and landed on the man with a crisp thud.

"Get up and get to work!"

The man didn't scream, just curled up in a ball, trembling slightly.

Chloe covered her mouth, she couldn't be calm anymore, "Who are these!?"

"Who are you referring to?"

"Who do you mean me?"

"The beaters were supposed to be some privateer gangs in the vicinity, collecting their belongings in the wasteland after the war, and as for those who were beaten... It should be their slaves. ”

"Slaves?"

Chloe's voice rose three degrees, "Are you sure?"

"Isn't it like that?"

Several armed thugs heard the voices of the two men, and the man with the gun, who was whipping the slaves, put away his whip and walked over quickly.

"Hey, you two, what are you doing?"

The overseer looked like some kind of primate in Africa, with bulging muscles on his shoulders and arms. Ruddy cheeks, big mouth, crooked eyebrows, and a rough voice.

Chloe asked, "Hey, you're the guy named Frank?"

"No, don't lick me. Hoffa warned Chloe behind him, and he looked at the baboon-looking thug in front of him: "I'm looking for Frank, your boss." ”

Unexpectedly, the man immediately drew his gun, pointed it at Hoffa's head, and asked, "Where did you come from?"

The other party's strange behavior confused Hoffa, but out of caution, he raised his arm: "Paris." ”

Armed thug: "What are you going to do?"

"Why don't you report Frank Dean?" he whispered, "I don't want to get in trouble." You understand?"

"I'm sorry I can't do it. The man was unmoved: "I advise you to go back and forth from where you are." ”

Huofa's face turned cold, he stepped forward without saying a word, and directly held the muzzle of the gun. The brown butt was emblazoned with the eagle's emblem and made of thick mahogany, but he bent it.

Rumble!!

Guns explode.

Hoffa let go of his hand, and shards of metal spilled down and landed on the ground, "It's too unkind to point a weapon at its maker." ”

The gun-wielding man stumbled back, his face and arms dripping with blood from the blasted guns, he raised his palm and whistled hard.

Hush!!

It's like poking a hornet's nest.

Countless black holes protrude from all directions.

Behind each muzzle stood an armed thug armed with a gun.

Surrounded by clusters, Hoffa stood in the open space and shouted loudly, "Frank, come out to meet me!"