Like a dream, Marlene bounced through the trees with her skirt in the gentle breeze, occasionally crouching down to pluck a cluster or two of brown mushrooms at the wet roots and placing them in the basket she held in her arms.

Behind her is a common rural scene, with wide farmland and sparse straw-roofed farmhouses. There were many hunched figures in the fields at the moment, and several women were doing the same work in the woods where Marlene was, baskets of berries and wild herbs at their fingertips.

A faint rumble came from afar, followed by a sharp, clear, elongated whistle. Marlene, who felt the tremor under her feet, turned her head to look at the railroad that ran across the east side of the farm, but she couldn't see the steam train that was whistling past like a steel monster in the shade of the trees.

I heard that if you got on that huge train and went north to Beckland, you could earn more money a month than you could in a year working in the fields!

I heard, I heard, that the streets of Beckland were wide and clean, that the clothes were brilliant and beautiful, and that the gentlemen there were young and handsome.

I heard, I heard, I heard......

Scenes came to Marlene's mind, a stuffy and chaotic factory, where many female workers wrapped their hair and pulled the fabric and pedaled in exactly the same rhythm, neatly arranged without a respite; It was the muddy glass windows that faintly reflected the pungent smell of sewage, the gangsters with fierce expressions and stark eyes looking at everyone, the powerful palms and dirty words that pulled her towards the shadows of the back of the street......

She shuddered, closed her eyes, and wanted nothing more than to get home early and share a pot of hot, fluffy mushroom soup with her father and mother, and with her siblings.

But when she opened her eyes again, her surroundings changed, the gentle wind and the sun were gone, and she looked around, and she was greeted by a large area of gloom and dilapidation, as if she were in an old castle that only appeared in a bedtime story. Under the crimson moonlight, the crazy plants broke through the heavy tiles, and the wallpaper on the wall could see the original bright colors, but most of them had been damp and peeled, leaving large patches of mottled stains.

More of her eyes were shrouded in chaotic darkness, making it impossible to see the whole picture.

In such an eerie castle that intuitively gave people an eerie sense of foreboding, Marlene dropped the basket containing the mushrooms in a bit of a panic, looked around to find the exit, and left immediately.

At this moment, a broad, warm palm reached out from behind and rested on her shoulder.

A demagogic voice sounded in her ears, constantly encouraging her: "Good boy, don't be afraid...... You already have the power of your own, and you can do whatever you want. ”

Soothed by this voice, Marlene quickly calmed down, feeling that her body was full of strength and a courage born from her heart.

"Huh......"

In the depths of the castle, someone snorted suspiciously. Then, with the sound of footsteps, another figure stepped out of the darkness, it was the same woman, slender and tall, her brown hair curled over her shoulders, her blood-red eyes narrowed, and she looked at Marlene from afar.

With the appearance of the red-eyed woman, there was a sudden sound of flapping wings in the darkness behind her, and dozens of hundreds of pitch-black and ugly bats suddenly poured out, like a black torrent sweeping towards Marlene.

Marlene's heart was beating violently because she was afraid of these terrible creatures, but it was not just because of timidity, but also mixed with a lot of excitement.

There was an inexplicable strong attraction in the mysterious red-eyed woman in her eyes, attracting her to keep getting closer.

Relying on the physical fitness that has become much stronger after receiving the "gift", Marlene bent her waist and legs slightly, and rushed forward with force, as fast and fearless as an arrow leaving the bowstring. She naturally summoned her strength, allowing herself to exude an aura of evil that could be feared and avoided, which dispersed many bats that were about to pounce on her.

The red-eyed woman crossed her arms, her brows furrowed, and watched as Marlene became more and more dexterous with her fists or kicks, relying on her own strength to knock many bats out of the air, showing good fighting ability.

……

And at this moment, under the Harvest Church, Douglas was leaning against the wall, keeping his guard with Antonia, waiting for the result.

Opposite them was a closed metal door, one of the underground cells of the Harvest Chapel, where Marlene, who had been brought back to the church, was at the moment.

Outside the door, there was Antina standing in place with a strange candle in her hand and her eyes closed.

The outer layer of the small half candle seemed to be wrapped in human skin, but several bumps protruded. Its wick is short and pitch-black, and if you look closely, you can see the fine scales on it, and it is burning with a faint blue flame at the moment.

Although Antina closed her eyes as if she had fallen asleep, her body stood extremely steady, and there was no sign of topping.

Syllable...... Douglas flicked two or three coins high in his right hand, and he didn't take his eyes off Antina, but he was able to catch them with one hand, and let the little things that shimmer with metallic luster flip between his fingers, sometimes appearing and sometimes disappearing, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing, making all kinds of dazzling tricks.

Antonia, who was also waiting here, turned her head to say something to him, but then found that her attention was drawn to the flying coins, and for a second or two she forgot what she was trying to say.

He shook his head a little amusedly, and at the same time, Douglas also noticed, and with a flip of his palm, he held the coin in his palm and stopped his subconscious move.

"Actually, you can go home and rest." Antonia spoke comfortingly, interpreting Douglas's act of playing with the coin as nervous, "It's not the first time Antina has used the 'Nightmare Candle', as long as you end the exploration within five minutes, it won't have any negative effects. ”

Douglas, who was indeed a little tired, but was still able to hold on, smiled back and said in a relaxed tone: "It's only five minutes anyway." ”

Also...... The young Bloodclan glanced down at his pocket watch, seizing the time.

With only a few dozen seconds left before the time limit, when both of them were silently preparing to extinguish the candle, the bean-sized flame of the "Nightmare Candle" suddenly flickered and extinguished itself, and Antina's body shook suddenly, waking up from the deepest dream, and let out a long breath.

At the same time, there was a loud movement in the cell, and it sounded like a person suddenly falling out of bed while he was asleep.

Soon, Marlene's face appeared behind the welded steel bar window on the door, and she tried to look out.

She wasn't tall, and even if she stood on tiptoe, she only showed half of her face.

At a glance, she saw Antina, the red-eyed woman who was constantly testing her in strange dreams, and then she saw Antonia, who was obviously related to Antina, and Douglas, who had helped her hang Ron not long ago.

"You ......"

Marlene was stunned for a moment, and then her expression changed from stunned to angry, and her eyes were easily stained with hatred. She grabbed the iron bar with both hands and shook it vigorously, and roared, "You are also here to lie to me!" You're lying to me too! ”

Antina, who was standing by the door, raised her hand and pressed the corner of her forehead, estimating that the door of the cell was strong enough, so she didn't care, and pouted to her brother and Douglas: "Go to the lounge." ”

Antonia followed her sister and turned down the spiral staircase, but Douglas approached the door and watched as Marlene seemed to be trying with all her might to reach out from the bars and grab herself. Her face was a little distorted as she squeezed against the bar, and she poured out all the unpleasant words she could think of.

Douglas could not show any anger or disgust in the face of such unbridled malice, and he waited for a while, waiting for Marlene to calm down a little and no longer try to shake the door, and then asked in a deep voice, "Because I lied to you, will you kill me?" ”

Marlene, who no longer stood on tiptoe to look out, showed a small half of her face, stared at Douglas with burning eyes, gritted her teeth and replied, "Yes!" ”

"I will kill those who lie to me and those who bully me!"

"Anyone who doesn't let me do what I want to do, I'm going to kill them!"

Call...... Unconsciously, Douglas's tense shoulders relaxed a little, neither feeling that he was doing something wrong nor feeling that he was doing the right thing, he just nodded and whispered in response: "Okay." ”

With that, he left the cell and walked briskly down to the lounge.

In addition to Antina and Antonia, there was also Father Schultz, who had been in the church for many years, a familiar and reassuring configuration for Douglas. As he snuggled into the chair he used to sit in, Antina recounted his observations in a rare manner: "...... At the moment, it can be determined that Marlene is an extraordinary way to be good at fighting, but the sequence is not high, and it is possible that she is one of the 'criminals' or 'prisoners'. The point is that although it was observed that someone was instigating Marlene to obtain extraordinary powers, Marlene's mental world did not present that person in its entirety, but only part voice, part dialogue......"

As she spoke, she looked at Douglas. None of the people present were experts in the field of the mind, but when it came to the interpretation of various symbols, the latter was not inadequate.

Douglas combined the information that could be said and could not be said, and deduced: "There are many possibilities, for example, the person behind the scenes did not show Marlene's true identity, or the other party's path has some anti-divination ability, which is related to the hidden and spiritual realm...... Of course, Marlene herself also has the possibility of avoiding the other party, she may not really choose the extraordinary voluntarily, nor does she fully believe in the other party, but she is influenced and controlled to embark on the extraordinary path, which is reflected in the spiritual realm, it may be difficult to construct the image of the other party. ”

The most straightforward and simple guess is that the sequence of the people behind the scenes is higher than the range that "Nightmare Candle" can see, but this is an easy reason to think of, and Douglas did not waste his tongue repeating it.

After he finished speaking, Father Schultz nodded slightly, and said in a deep voice: "Since those behind the scenes have a habit of luring others to the extraordinary, then Marlene must not be alone. The tendency to choose women who have fallen is usually specific to the demonic path. ”

With that, the gray-haired old man looked at Douglas quietly, and there was no emotion in his dark brown eyes.

The latter naturally spread his hands when he looked at Father Schultz and said with a smile: "If you think I need a check-up, a purification, I will not refuse." ”

"No," said Father Schultz's expression softened slightly, "I'm just thinking that there isn't necessarily just one person behind this, for example, the 'spectator' approach, who seems to be quite good at creating some kind of coincidence. ”

Douglas was a little embarrassed and confused, because the incident really started because of a certain "audience". Antina next to her was already curious: "Coincidence? Is this the ability of the 'audience'? Aren't they just snooping on everything and quietly changing other people's minds? ”

"With constant guidance, there will always be things that come out in a coincidental way."

Due to the level of secrecy, Father Schultz did not explain in detail, but instead asked Douglas to describe the itinerary and thoughts for the evening in as much detail as possible.

“…… After leaving the Celestial Observation Enthusiasts Association, I saw that it was still early, and I was going to go to the Eastern District to see if I would be rewarded. ”

Douglas had reported the matter of helping Marlene get rid of the gang and send her on the steam train after the end of the previous mission, so he didn't have to worry about explaining it again. He barely paused, and said very smoothly: "This is the habit between bounty hunters and those gangs, if you accidentally offend the big gangs, you either take the initiative to spend money to avoid disasters, or don't appear in the relevant area for a while, so that everyone can do it."

"Of course, this kind of thing will generally find a middleman to pull the strings to avoid black eating black. However, I thought that I was an extraordinary person and was not afraid of those small actions, so I decided to go directly to the leader of the Gurley Party to remove the bounty.

"The guy frequented the customs, and I spent some time getting rid of those who wanted to trade me for a bounty, and finally found the guy walking into the room with Marlene in the 'Little Nightingale' clubhouse.

"Well, I just thought the woman looked a lot like Marlene at the time, but it was enough to get my attention, after all, I just put her on the train a few days ago.

"Out of suspicion, out of curiosity, I decided to secretly observe whether it was the person I had saved and why she had returned to the East Side again.

"As soon as I managed to get into the room, I saw that Marlene had already taken revenge by pressing the guy to the ground and disemboweling him. Fortunately, she recognized me in time, and we didn't have a major conflict, because there were ordinary people in the room, and I chose to calm Marlene's emotions first. During the conversation, I found out that she had just acquired extraordinary powers, and that she had no knowledge of them, and that her 'godfather' had taught her how to take revenge, and that was when I thought that Marlene's extraordinary powers were not accidental, but that someone had made her do so.

"So, after helping Marlene complete her revenge and gaining her initial trust, I seized the opportunity to use the 'Sleep' charm to control her and bring her back to the church."

After the statement, Douglas frowned as if he was in thought, and "self-reflected": "If there is any coincidence in this process, it may be the time when I decided to go to the Whiskers?" While removing the bounty is a must-do, it's not urgent, and it can be put to tomorrow. ”

This is the truth of the truth, and if it weren't for the conversation with Miss "The Audience" in the coffee shop, Douglas wouldn't have taken the initiative to find the Whiskers, especially the one who named Ron.

It was because he knew that Marlene would most likely see Ron as his first target, so he found "Little Nightingale". If not, the chances of him encountering Marlene again in the Vast East End would be very slim.

As he spoke, even Douglas himself was a little skeptical that Miss "Audience" had really done something to allow herself to find Marlene as quickly as possible.

There really seems to be some "coincidence" at work!

While the other three were also listening carefully and thinking carefully, Douglas deliberately threw out the question: "However, in this way, the person who led me to discover Marlene and the person who lured Marlene into contact with the extraordinary seem to have different purposes, the former is more like stopping the latter's plan, so that we can find out early." ”

As if thinking of something, Father Schultz sighed lightly and said: "In the next few years, the activities of these secret organizations will probably become more frequent and bolder. The last event may be the prelude. ”

The speaker was unintentional, the listener was intentional, Douglas felt that Father Schultz's words were somewhat familiar, and if he thought about it carefully, wasn't this similar to what Medici said about the imminent end and extraordinary revelation?

The only difference is that Father Schultz does not explain it with reasons like the end of the world.

Hey, is the end really coming? The Church of the Storm, the Church of the Sun, and the Church of Knowledge all claim to have saved humanity in the past, and if there is an end time, the three churches that claim to be the oldest should be the first to set an example......

When Douglas was distracted, Father Schultz glanced at him and sternly admonished: "Don't try to take advantage of the conflicts of these secret organizations to find opportunities, it will be quite dangerous. ”

"Uh......" Douglas was stunned for a moment, and said to himself that I hadn't opened my mouth yet......

He was really thinking about whether he could use the method of fishing law enforcement to fish out the main messenger behind Marlene.

An inexperienced extraordinary, if she was able to escape, there was a high probability that she would immediately find someone who gave her strength, seek refuge or ask for greater power—just as he would have to find the church or Amon if he encountered a situation that he could not handle.

You can even get the "audience" lady to cooperate and give some hints to Marlene......

As a person with a lot of secrets, it was most comfortable for Douglas to mess things up and then take advantage of the opportunity.

And Antina, who has never been afraid of conflict and likes to solve problems directly, once again sighed for him: "Why not? It is certainly the quickest and most convenient way to catch all the fish in one net. ”

Antonia, who was sitting next to Douglas, turned her face to her sister, observed the other party's expression, and sighed in a low voice: "You are tired of studying prescriptions, and you want to find someone to fight to relieve your boredom......"

He knew Antina too well.

Father Schultz then laughed, and with an age-appropriate agility, he dodged Antina's fist with feigned annoyance, and then coughed twice in an attempt to bring the topic back on track: "As an official organization, don't always think about taking risks when you have the resources and conditions. Especially if there is more than one hidden organization, we can tell the Night Church, tell the Storm Church, and investigate with them. ”

Oh yes, the Storm Church is still investigating the train derailment...... The signs of emotional out-of-control of the passengers can be used to deduce the "demonic" path of Father Upper Schultz, so it is difficult to deviate from the direction of the investigation......

Thinking of this, Douglas no longer objected.

For what happened to Marlene, what he cared about most was the mastermind behind the suspected "demonic" pathway.

The fact that this approach did not make a good impression on him was the fact that the "Blood Cult" had explicitly sought out people who matched the characteristics of the Traveler as sacrifices, which made Douglas suspect that the demons or one of the evil gods they served knew about the Traveler.

And the malice of the "demons" towards the traverser is visible to the naked eye!

This made Douglas wonder if he hadn't helped Marlene that day, would the latter still be involved in an extraordinary incident?

He silently looked down at his palm, clenched his fist and released it, knowing that it was pointless to think about it, for he had not gone to help Marlene that day, who might have been killed and discarded in some ditch.

Douglas would rather Marlene live now, even if she was imprisoned at the bottom of the church, without her freedom.

This may not be the best outcome, but it is an outcome that he chooses and can accept!

Like he can help Marlene hang Ron in the door of "Little Nightingale" because Douglas never denies that Ron deserves to die; But he would also trick Marlene into taking her back to church for incarceration, as Douglas was convinced that it would be dangerous to let her out for revenge - though it was certainly not Marlene's fault.

Thinking of this, he looked up in the lounge and asked, "What about the other girl named Annis?" ”

"Not awake yet, I asked Jessica to watch her in the break room."

When the child wakes up, she will stay in the church for a while, teach her to read and write, and if she believes in night, storm, or steam, consult with other churches. All churches have clerical positions for victims of such extraordinary events. Of course, if she wants to go home, she can do so when this incident is dealt with. ”

As a priest, Schultz handled the situation with great skill, which quickly put Douglas at ease and felt that the process was all too familiar.

That's how he was picked up and brought back to church!

He laughed, and just as he was about to say something, he saw Antina and Antonia suddenly turn their heads in the direction of the staircase in unison, and the expressions on their faces that were relaxed or teasing instantly calmed down.

Then, the two young Bloods sniffed almost at the same time, as if they had smelled something special.

Although he hadn't heard or smelled anything, Douglas knew how sharp the Blood's senses were, and he immediately closed his mouth, turned his head to look at Father Schultz, and raised his hand to the ceiling to signal Father to hold himself up.

From here, he can go straight through the obstacle to the surface and see what's going on!