Juncker pointed to the center of the six-pointed star, and Pierce knew he meant to stand there, so he closed the window, turned cautiously, stepped over the powder on the ground and stood in the center of the circle, and handed the oil lamp back to Span.

The three of them walked to the three opposite corners of the six-pointed star, and lowered their left hand from their chests, at which point the green barrier around them disappeared in an instant, but fortunately, the hallucinations did not continue to appear.

Pierce was glad he could still see the dimly lit basement, even though it was old, dirty, and still seeping.

They sat down cross-legged in front of Pierce, Carpenrol took a dagger from his waist bag, slashed it on his left index finger, then threw the dagger to Juncker, nodded his forehead with the bleeding finger, and then put his hands on his knees, sat with his waist straight, and Junker and Spann repeated the same movement as him.

Seeing the three of them all sitting upright, staring at him with expressionless faces, Pierce felt a little panicked in his heart, and then suddenly, the three of them began to chant the strange sentence they didn't understand.

Ph'ngluimglw'nafhLviat'hahnwgah'naglfhtagnNhplolrgTukrg'qwLviat'hahnrulx'qiePierce felt that he had an indescribable familiarity with the scene, as if he had seen it many times somewhere, but no matter how much he recalled, he could not remember when and where he had experienced such a strange thing.

The world grew darker and darker, and the hexagram gradually dissolved into a black liquid, which then turned into steam and rose and spread through the space.

As the darkness grew thicker and thicker, the figures of the three people sitting cross-legged on the ground began to fade away, and Pierce stood nervously in place, for fear that the ritual would fail because of his panic.

Juncker had told him that it would be good to just stand where he was, and now he just had to stay where he was, no matter how strange things became.

Pierce thought to himself, yes, he was safe, and they needed him to do the same. Soon the space was pitch black, and only the sound of neat chanting echoed here.

But he felt strange, Pierce didn't know whether it was getting dark or bright, it was like a bright but dark space, because although it was pitch black all around, he could clearly see his outstretched hand, which seemed to be clearer than the dim oil lamp in the basement, and he could only now see how dirty the bandage in his left palm had become, and he had the illusion that he was bathed in a dark sun.

This strange space only lasted for a moment before quickly fading, I don't know if the darkness faded or the light disappeared, and the real world that had been obscured quickly returned, this feeling of light and dark confusion made him a little dizzy.

The chanting had stopped long before the space had subsided, but as the world recovered, frantic tapping and beastly roars rang in his ears.

"Is this the madness of the people making noise?" In fact, Pierce already knew the answer without asking, he just habitually said it.

"Apparently yes, we failed." The flickering oil lamp shone on Juncker in front of him, and Pierce could clearly see that his forehead was covered with beads of sweat, and he was still sitting cross-legged on a corner of the six-pointed star, but his originally straight waist had bent down, and his words also revealed exhaustion, as if he was exhausted by the exorcism ritual, but now the small space was filled with palpitating noises, and he had to raise his voice so that they could hear what he was saying.

"It's impossible, but we've failed." Dean Spann was still methodical even when he told such bad news, but the fatigue was clear, and he didn't raise his voice on purpose, so Pierce almost didn't listen to him.

"Failure? Doesn't that mean there must be no problem? "Pierce was a little bit incredulous, Juncker looked very confident, and Pierce always thought he was completely sure.

"But the revelation doesn't tell us that we can ...... here"

"I think there must be a reason why things have changed, and maybe it's a test." Carpenrol's unfinished remarks were rudely interrupted by Juncker.

"We channel our strength to nothingness, where there is nothing, there is no purpose for us. Let me go over and see. Spann stepped into the circle on the ground with an oil lamp, and when he reached Pierce's side, he stopped.

"What did you just see in Madame Vincent's hospital room? Is she in normal condition? As he passed Pierce, Spann asked him, probably knowing that his voice was small, so he deliberately approached him before asking.

"Normal? No, she wasn't normal at all, she pressed her face against the window, her skin was very pale, her eyes were bloodshot and red, her eyes were wide, but her eyes were glazed, and I couldn't see anything else. ”

"I said why is she so quiet today, let me come and take a look." Spann took out a large bunch of keys from his pocket, skillfully took out one of them and inserted it into the keyhole of the iron door, and with a click, he pulled hard, and a woman's body collapsed from behind the door, and Carpenrol, who was standing on one side, immediately stepped forward to catch her.

"This woman...... It's so light, it's not normal, isn't she dead? Carpenrol grabbed Mrs. Vincent's shoulders with both hands, her head drooping to one side, and Pierce thought that it might be a coincidence that her terrible eyes were staring straight at him.

Spann walked into the room with an oil lamp, Carpenrol put Mrs. Vincent on the ground, Juncker and Pierce stepped forward together, Pierce saw him kneeling down on one knee, put his hand under Mrs. Vincent's nose, pressed her neck again, and then stood up,

"She's indeed dead, not long after she died, and her body still has warmth."

"But it's impossible, right? Is Lady Vincent the strongest medium for ogres? Why did the ogre kill her? Carpenrol asked.

"I told you, don't try to speculate on the thoughts of demons, we can't understand them with our logic, as a result, Lady Vincent is dead, but the influence of ogres on the world has not disappeared." The sound of the madmen howling and shaking the iron door made Pierce very nervous, and he hoped in his heart that they would stop discussing the cause of the matter in this unfortunate place, and couldn't they go out and talk about it later?

"So that means the ogre has other mediums? Is it someone locked up here? ”

"No, if that medium is around here, we can't be unaware of it when we direct the power, and besides, is there anyone else on Blackwater Island who can be such a powerful medium?" Span, who came out of the room, didn't seem to make any exciting discoveries, and his face looked unusually solemn under the oil lamp.

I don't know if it's because of the illusion caused by being too nervous, Pierce felt that the sound of the iron door shaking became more and more violent, and at the same time, he seemed to hear the sound of something metal falling to the ground, this slight sound was unusually clear and sharp in this noisy space, as if the unknown metal did not fall to the ground, but pierced his heart, which made him feel very uncomfortable.

But the three thoughtful people in front of him didn't seem to notice this, did he hear it wrong?

"Why don't we take Madame Vincent's body out and discuss it outside?" How Mrs. Vincent died didn't matter at all, and the uneasy feeling in Pierce's heart deepened, and he couldn't think of anything other than the fear of the madmen behind the door, and finally couldn't help but offer to leave.

"I think what Pierce said makes sense, or let's go out first, I feel a little uneasy in my heart now." Carpenrol agreed.

But it was too late, and before Junker and Spann could speak, a loud noise from the other end of the corridor caught everyone's attention, the sound of a huge iron plate smashing to the ground, and Pierce could already see in his mind the scene of the iron door of the cubicle being broken and the madman locked inside running out.

Soon, in the darkness at the end of the corridor where the oil light could shine, two tall men rushed out, their clumsy bodies draped in dirty white coats, who looked like hospital workers, their tongues hanging from their mouths, and their hands shaking unnaturally, as if they had been lured by the four of them.

Carpenrol's reaction was so quick that he immediately stood up, raised his leg and kicked him hard in the stomach, causing him to take two steps backwards and crash into another madman behind him.

"Leave Mrs. Vincent alone, let's run." Juncker made a quick decision, and Pierce saw that he had the pistol in his hand.

He also realized the seriousness of the problem, these madmen were angry beasts who would attack others by any means necessary until one of them died.

"But the corridor ahead has been blocked by those two madmen, and we ......" Pierce's remaining words were shaken back by the flash of Junker's muzzle and the loud sound in his ears, which made him suspect that the eardrums in his ears had been shattered, and he turned to look at the two madmen in front of him, and found them both collapsed on the ground.

"Run!" Juncker led the way and ran past the convulsive madman, Carpenrol following closely behind, and Pierce immediately followed, and as they passed, the two madmen were still trying to reach for his ankles, but he jumped and dodged.

"How did they break through the iron door of the compartment and get out? That's impossible! ”

"The death of Madame Vincent is also impossible, only their creators know what exactly it did, whew, why did it ...... Ahh

"You bastard!" Carpenrol roared and threw an uppercut at the jaw of the guy who stepped on Juncker, a ragged and unshaven homeless man who was not very muscular, and his body fell backwards following the trajectory of Carpenrol's fist, and the faint sound of bones shattering was faintly heard, and his jaw should have been shattered.

"Sheriff Juncker, are you alright?" Taking advantage of this gap, Pierce and Spann hurriedly propped up the iron door and pushed into the compartment, ready to put Junker up, but after carrying the iron door, they found that the corner of the iron door had been dyed red, and the back of Juncker's head was covered in blood.

"The sharp corner of the iron door just hit the back of Juncker's head, maybe the brain stem, maybe he is hopeless." Not knowing why Spann was still calm in this situation, Pierce thought to himself, aren't they old friends?

"Nope! Don't pretend, old man, get up, old man! Carpenrol stepped to the other side of Juncker's body and helped him to sit up, shaking his shoulders vigorously as he spoke.

In the dim light of the oil lamp, Pierce saw Carpenrol's face full of consternation, as if he didn't even realize what was happening because it had come so suddenly, so there was only disbelief on his face.

Juncker's drooping neck hung limply, swaying with Carpenrol's hand movements, and it looked like he had lost consciousness.

Spann examined his snort and heart, shaking his head,

"He may be gone, let's get out of here." Pierce saw Carpenrol staring at Juncker stunned, he didn't know what he was thinking, he also wanted to persuade him to get out of here quickly, I don't know when more madmen will break out, if they delay here any longer, it is estimated that none of them will be able to leave.

At this time, Pierce saw that the madman who had been knocked down stood up again, and Carpenrol was sitting on the ground with his back to him defenselessly, and Span looked at Carpenrol with an expressionless face, as if he did not notice him.

Pierce tried to help, but the narrow corridor was so blocked by the three of them that he had no choice but to shout, "Carpenroll!" Watch the back! Still a step too slow, the madman had already pounced and hugged Carpenrol by the time Carpenrol hurriedly put down Junker's body and got up.

His hands passed under Carpenrol's armpits, bent upward, and clasped his shoulders tightly, and before Carpenrol could make any struggle, the madman opened his mouth and bit down the back of his neck.

"Ahh Pierce's heart was furious as the screams were stunning.

"Carpenroll!" After a brief moment of surprise, he remembered that he should hurry to his aid, and when he looked down to see Junker's pistol falling not far in front of him, he picked it up and slammed the butt of the gun into the madman's head.

He felt like he had used all his strength, and the smash was so loud that it sounded like the skull was shattered, but the madman continued to gnaw at Carpenrol's neck as if it was fine.

"You go first! I'll follow right away. Carpenrol shouted, his body bent forward, and a back fall threw the madman in front of him, and the sound of flesh tearing sent chills down Pierce's spine, and he didn't know how much flesh had been torn off the back of Carpenrol's neck.

"Let's go, stop the ogre no matter what." Spann shook Pierce's shoulders and continued running to the other end of the hallway, Pierce picked up the oil lamp to follow him, and he looked back to see Carpenrol standing up with his right hand on the back of his neck, and began to run towards the exit.

They had barely taken two steps, and as if planned, a series of doors were broken from the front, and Span, who was in front of them, stopped and was holding an oil lamp to observe the corridor ahead.

Pierce felt cold from head to toe, could he still be hallucinating? Thinking so, he looked back at Carpenrol, who was hunched over the wall with his neck clutched behind him panting, the golden octopus pendant hanging from his chest, shaking with each gasp he had.

This shows that he is now very sober, unprecedentedly sober.

"Quick...... Quick, run back! "Span, who has always been unruly, is now a little panicked.

"Run back, where are you going?" Pierce and Carpenrol didn't stop on their legs, looking at Span's appearance, it was estimated that the corridor in front of them was already filled with madmen, and it was absolutely impossible for them to pass through alive.

"Let's take refuge in Mrs. Vincent's hospital room first." There is no better way to do it now, the only fighting power among the four of them is Juncker and Carpenrol, Juncker has fallen, Carpenrol is also seriously injured - even if Carpenrol is not injured, he may not be able to deal with the madmen in the whole corridor, Pierce has seen it, these ruthless monsters will not even feel pain.

Carpenrol staggered a little in his running position, but he was still very fast, and Pierce had to work hard to keep up with him, and he found that the demons seemed to be deliberately driving them into Mrs. Vincent's hospital room, because the sound of madmen breaking through the doors behind them was still ringing, but their front was always unobstructed, and he could not imagine how these iron doors that looked so thick could be broken by man.

Carpenrol, who was running in front, dodged something, and Pierce then saw that the two madmen in white coats were still crawling down the hallway, crawling towards them with both hands, it seemed that Juncker had broken their legs, why couldn't they just shoot them at that time?

Thinking so to himself, he dodged the dirty hand that reached out in disgust.

"Come on in!" Carpenrol had already run into Mrs. Vincent's hospital room, and Pierce immediately followed, only to hear another scream and fall behind him, and Pierce looked back to see that Spann in the distance seemed to have been dragged down by the madman in the white coat.

Pierce was about to hurry over to help him, but the iron door in the corridor between the two of them suddenly collapsed in an instant, and he was stunned for a moment, no, Spann was already helpless, if he rushed over to help now, both of them would be doomed.

He knew in an instant what he ought to do, and turned back and rushed into Mrs. Vincent's room, and Carpenrol probably understood what was happening, and as soon as he entered, he closed and locked the door, and Span, after another miserable wail, was completely silent.

Pierce clenched his fists involuntarily when he heard this, he hated his powerlessness and cowardice, and he was a little glad that he had made the right choice, but he immediately began to resent the complacency that had arisen in his heart.

It wasn't his problem, it was the devil's fault, and he kept telling himself that it made him feel a lot less guilty.

The iron door rattled violently, and it was the madmen who were outside rushing against it. Pierce nervous at the thought that they could break through the iron door, and he quickly looked around the room, and found that it was completely empty except for a simple operating table covered with futon and a commode, so he leaned his body against the door, hoping that this would make it more secure.

Fortunately, the impact soon stopped, and the whole room became unusually silent, and he could not help but breathe a sigh of relief, and by the dim light of the oil lamp, he found that Carpenrol had sat down against the wall, and he was holding his wound tightly with his hands, and his face was very bad.

"By the way, your wound needs to be bandaged." Pierce took off his trench coat, tore a strip of cloth from his shirt, knelt beside him on one knee, and helped him to bend forward.

Carpenrol had a shocking wound at the intersection of his left shoulder and the back of his neck, where a large piece of flesh had been torn off, and pus and blood were oozing outward.

Pierce felt that the bandaging in this position was a little difficult, so he tore some more from his shirt, then applied a lot of saliva to his wound, and then used the strip torn from the shirt to pass through his armpit on the other side, which was considered a hasty treatment.

"Why did things turn out like this? I feel like we're planning everything we do, have you noticed? We came to exorcise the demons, and then we found out that the ogres were not here, and that Lady Vincent was dead, and when we were about to leave, the madmen were able to knock the iron door open, damn, we weren't here to exorcise the demons, we went straight into the ogre's trap. ”

"But our revelation, the position of the stars, is coming soon...... If we don't perform the exorcism, everything will be doomed, and the result will be the same, I just don't understand why Lady Vincent is dead, but the demonic power is still here...... It's impossible. Carpenrol seemed to tug at the wound when he spoke, and Pierce could tell that he was trying to avoid too much movement of his mouth, so his voice sounded a little slurred.

"Don't talk yet, take a good rest, and we'll find a way to break through when your strength recovers." Carpenrol nodded weakly, leaned completely against the corner, and closed his eyes for a break.

Pierce stared at the oil lamp for a moment, and suddenly saw that half of the oil was left, and realized that it was in an opaque underground, and if the oil lamp burned out, they would never be able to see anything again.

To make sure they could see their way as they fled, he placed the oil lamp in a corner beside him and turned it out.

In the silent darkness, the two sat silently. Carpenrol's painful pant rose and fell, slowly leveling off, and he was probably asleep.

In the light of our current situation, it would be more practical to think about how to save ourselves than to think about how to save the world, but is there any way out of this situation now?

Pierce thought about it, unable to think of any feasible plan, and they were now locked up in an airtight underground ward, with the only way to escape was the long, narrow corridor filled with madmen outside the door.

They had no water, no food, no weapons, and Carpenrol was not lightly wounded...... It's desperate, they can't escape from here on their own, so will anyone come to their rescue?

There are so many patients in the basement who need water and food, so the doctor will come down here regularly, maybe so that he can ...... Oops, it occurred to him that the symptoms of the madness that Juncker had told him earlier were contagious, and that if these madmen left the basement, Blackwater Island would become a veritable purgatory on earth.

Pierce sat there with his head down, thinking about it for an unknown amount of time, and came to the conclusion that he was becoming more and more desperate - that they could not be rescued except for a miracle that he could not have imagined.

What the hell is all this going on? Juncker said that the transmission of demonic power requires a medium, but now that Lady Vincent has not taken on this function, who is this medium?

Exorcism? He remembered the ritual that Madame Vincent had constructed in her study, and the exorcism circle she had drawn was exactly the same as the one he had just experienced, but with candles around her circle, and this was the three of them; Pierce stood in the middle of the circle, playing the role of a medium to transmit power, used to exorcise the magic of Mrs. Vincent in front of the circle, what was the circle in Mrs. Vincent's study?

It was too bad that he hadn't been there watching Mrs. Vincent perform the exorcism, and he wasn't sure if Mr. Vincent was there, and he didn't even know if this was the only way this exorcism circle worked.

He shuddered suddenly, yes, how could he have been to Madame Vincent's study? Didn't he come to the hospital with Juncker and Carpenrol when he came out of the underground river?

In his memory, he should have followed Jonny to explore the scene of the fire in Vincent's house, but were they all hallucinations?

Or is it just a dream he had after lying outside the underground river when he was exhausted and fell asleep unconsciously?

The hellish experience he had just had just had reminded him that even if it was a hallucination, even if it was a dream, it might not be that different from reality.

He remembered that he had another dream in his dream, where a green figure showed him an indescribable terrible monster and said that he would take it down?

Juncker says that Pierce is very sensitive to demonic powers, could that thing be an ogre? What was it, how could he take it down, even if he thought about its enormous and terrifying form now, it made him shudder.

Could it be that the dream within that dream was also a message to him? The green figure didn't seem to have any ill will towards him, and wanted to tell him something, perhaps...... I don't know, he feels like his head is in chaos, if he can get out of here alive, he must go to Jonny to confirm whether what he saw is true or not, if he can get out of here alive.

If you can get out of here alive...... Words...... Draw? He felt his body tremble, it was that tremor of excitement, he suddenly thought of something, everything was connected, yes, painting!

Madame Vincent's evil talent is manifested in her skill in painting, she always contains an evil aura, and if the ogre has established a connection with Madame Vincent, Madame Vincent must have also turned this feeling into an oil painting, so she must have painted a painting related to it.

Juncker had confirmed that Mrs. Vincent had indeed drawn the Circle of Sending Gods, so whether the memory of Pierce's visit to Vincent's house was a dream or a hallucination, this memory was very credible, and he had seen a note in Mrs. Vincent's study at the time, recording the order in which the candles were lit and the position of the person - the person was in the center of the six-pointed star, which was the same as the position of Pierce in the ritual just now, which indicates that Mrs. Vincent was the medium for the exorcism, Then the reason for the failure of this ritual is most likely because she is already a medium of the ogre power, how could the ogre expel herself by herself?

What is the object of expulsion? There was a fallen easel at the edge of the circle, but it wasn't painted, and that painting was probably another medium for the Ogre Power!

The reason for the disappearance of the painting may have something to do with Mr. Vincent, he thought back to the scene Juncker described to him, after the fire, Mr. Vincent's behavior seemed a little strange, they were friends, and Pierce always felt that they might belong to a common occult research organization, why did he suddenly insist on completing the exorcism himself, and also wanted Juncker to use his power as a sheriff to hide his eyes and ears for him?

Is his purpose really exorcism? Mr. Vincent also has a golden octopus pendant, which, according to Juncker, protects them from the power of ogres, and Juncker has said that Mr. Vincent does have the same necklace.

They also seem to have relied on the pendant when they opened the barrier in the hospital, and Mr. Vincent should not have been suspected in the first place, but Juncker had repeatedly confirmed the authenticity of what he had seen in his hallucinations, so that Mr. Vincent's pendant had been destroyed at the time of the fire.

Moreover, Jonny found the pendant in Warehouse 31, and Mr. Vincent's body was found by Pierce by the underground river, which means that the destroyed pendant was not on his body when Mr. Vincent died—all of this supports the hypothesis that Mr. Vincent was most likely manipulated by the Ogre and took the painting with him.

Mr. Vincent's body was poured on a puddle of white powder, which looked the same as the powder used by Mrs. Vincent and Juncker to draw the circle, perhaps because Mr. Vincent was temporarily freed from the control of the ogre and wanted to perform the exorcism alone, but was killed.

Where is that painting, which is now its real medium? The answer was already in place, and Pierce finally knew what the nameless horror he was feeling in the underground river was, and that was the power of the ogre's projection into the world, which could be its real body or hallucination, as experienced in the hospital, but anyway, the painting it used as a medium was in the underground river.

Pierce trembled with excitement, yes, that's it, the mystery is solved, this is the most exciting moment that belongs to the detective.

His excitement lasted only a few moments, and was quickly extinguished by the darkness around him and the growing cold.

It was probably late now, the room was getting colder and colder, and the stretched body that had just sat down was unconsciously shrinking and tightening in thought, and when he realized it, he was already shaking with his legs in his hands.

But what's the use of thinking about it now? In despair, he was sure that he would not have a chance to escape from here.

The hopelessness of powerlessness overwhelmed him, and he simply buried his head between his legs, his body curled up tighter.