Slowly, Tujea lowered the gun in his hand.

He followed the broken images all the way to the bottom of the mansion, and no one stopped him, and the people in charge of the work were dead.

It wasn't the dimly lit dungeon he had imagined, it didn't really have anything to do with the cage. If anything, it's more like a warehouse.

Therefore, although he managed to reach the underground of the mansion, he still did not know how to react.

Iron beds with glass covers filled the ends of the vast warehouse, each with a cold black cable at the end that stretched out and spread across the floor, eventually connecting to a complex cluster of machines.

It is located in the middle of the warehouse and has ceased to function. The bloated shape looked very ugly, and six pipes that looked like cooling pipes were erected from the back of the machine, and no heat came from them.

Tujea couldn't see what it was for, but it was a cluster of machines, and he walked around it twice and finally recognized a series of inexpensive life-support machines, including a nutrient transporter.

In this way, he guessed what it was for, so that more of the hidden truth came to him, and he suddenly understood what this place was.

Just as people breed Glocks, this is where Chupani Moran breeds his children, and this machine is his fully automatic feeding trough.

Tujea slowly raised his head and looked at the giant contemplative screen in the center of the machine. The children followed him here. They lit up the surroundings, giving the screen that should have been dark a reflection and Tujea seeing his face clearly.

He began to feel ridiculous, and even felt the urge to laugh out loud.

How is this possible? Even if these souls really exist, why should they really be? Illuminate him?

The man on the contemplative screen tugged at the corners of his mouth numbly.

After a while, Tujea left the complex machine.

He began aimlessly roaming between the iron beds, stumbling and sweating profusely. This seemingly random selection lasted until he nearly tripped over an iron bed.

Amid the clash of boots and the foot of the bed, Tujea bent down and pressed his palm against the sturdy glass cover. It was very cold to his hands, and the condensed droplets soaked his hands in a few moments.

He rubbed it lightly twice, and a sleeping young face appeared in front of him.

It was a boy, probably no older than ten years old.

There are two clear colloidal tubes connected to his nose underneath his nose, and some of the clear liquid stays in them, no longer flowing. There was a deep wound on the right side of his forehead, which did not bleed again, but through it could be seen the pale skull.

Looking at it, a phantom pain welled up in Tujea's mind. He finally understood what the scalpel in the illusion had done

Tujea stared at the boy for a few moments, only straightening up when he was sure he wouldn't be breathing any more.

He began to get dizzy again, this time more severely, unable to even stand on his feet. He fell to the ground with a bang, hitting the floor tiles like a stone sculpture.

After a long while, Tujea slowly stood up holding on to the edge of the iron bed. He gasped for air, his heart filled with burning rage.

He wanted to rush to the ground, bring the damned nobleman back to life, and smash his teeth one by one

With this terrible thought in mind, Tujea slowly gained his footing. At this moment, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a familiar soul. He turned his head to look and saw the girl again.

She stood in front of him with a blank face, she didn't say a word, she didn't say anything, she just raised her left hand and pointed to a certain bed.

Tujea followed her guidance and walked slowly.

He still hoped that the child lying on the bed still had his vital signs. However, reality is always 10,000 times crueler than the fantasy world.

After he wiped the condensation off the glass and looked at it for a few seconds, he came to the conclusion that the girl lying on the iron bed was also not breathing.

Her face was dripping with water, like tears sliding down from under her pale eyelashes.

"She was laid to rest without pain, sir, as if she had slept well." The girl said as she leaned on the glass cover.

"What?" Tujea instinctively asked, his mind blank.

"She's my sister, and we went to the charity together"

The girl looked up and glanced at Tujea. Her pale and illusory face showed a strange calm, as if there was no longer any nostalgia. Tujea looked down and saw that the illusory hands were caressing the cold face.

"I promised Mom and Dad, and I wanted to protect her. So, when they were picking, I asked her to stay silent. ”

Tujea let go of his grip on the iron bed and took a few steps back.

The feeling of vertigo was changing, he had already vomited once, and now he was vomiting more intensely.

Anger, disgust, and another intense emotion that he couldn't speak, was pounding at his sane defenses, making everything begin to blur, except for the souls, whose flames had been extinguished, staring at him with empty eyes.

Looking at them, Tujea's instinct suddenly began to warn - almost without thinking, he immediately blurted out a question.

"You're leaving?"

"Yes." The girl said. "Our revenge is over, thank you, Mr. Investigator."

"But, but, where?" Tujea struggled to make a sound from deep in his throat.

None of the children answered the question, they just turned around slowly, holding hands and waiting, only the girl remained standing in place, looking at Tujea without blinking.

The temperature around him suddenly dropped, and an indescribable terrible cold invaded from the darkness in an instant, like thousands of sharp knives, brutally piercing through Tujea's body.

He fell to his knees, shaking his head in a trembling voice, and he could no longer tell whether this was reality or illusion. The chill didn't let him go, and those illusory sharp knives began to continue to dig deeper into the flesh, bringing even more brutal pain.

Tujea couldn't help but scream, he didn't understand what was going on, and he couldn't understand it at all. The pain intensified, but a hand gently touched his shoulder at this moment.

"Take a deep breath." Zell said. "Stay calm."

His words seem to have power—no, not as if, the language he uses has power.

It hissed, long and tactful, with a sigh-like tone. Before he knew it, Tujea had really calmed down as he had said.

The thousands of sharp knives that had penetrated deep into his body began to transform at this moment, and the cold subsided in favor of a warm wave of heat.

They emerge from the hundreds of limbs and corpses, evoking a certain intense desire as soon as they appear. Tujea lowered his head, a hiss in his throat. He had a sudden urge.

He clenched his fists, and a language he had never learned was naturally hissed out, soft as a whisper.

"The grudge is over."

Boom ——!

The smoke and dust scattered, and black flames spread from the other side deeper than the darkness, and an illusory burning door rose out of thin air, and a whispering wind howled and slammed the door open, revealing an eerie and quiet ruined city.

The moonlight illuminated it, and a tall black figure with a miserable white crown stood by the door, waving to the children as if to welcome.

Zell shifted his stance, put one hand to his chest, and bowed his head deeply.

Tujea didn't understand what he was doing, but he couldn't do anything himself. He could only watch as the children walked in, and then, as the door closed, the flames dispersed, and everything was invisible, but the warmth remained.

It took away the cold, soothed the pain, and allowed Tujea to regain the ability to think. And so a million questions roared, forcing him to look up at Zell.

"What the hell is this?" He asked, his lips trembling. "Where did they go? And who killed these children? ”

Zell looked at him with pity, and shook his head.

"This is one of the things you have to face as a vengeer, the dead will come to you and you can avenge them, but after that? What are you going to do? ”

"Do you let them return to the world of the dead like this and find rest, or do you let them stay in this world and endure suffering?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the kid." Zell lifted his hand and pointed to the darkness beside him.

Tujea turned his head to see the girl standing alone, motionless. He took a deep breath and barely stood up on his knees. He slowly walked up to the girl, half-knelt down again, and then began to ask.

"Why don't you go, kid?"

Silent, the girl shook her head.

"Say it, kid." Zell stood in the darkness, clasping his hands and urging calmly.

"I'd like you to do me a favor, sir, is that okay?" The girl finally spoke.

Tujea was stunned, he looked at the girl at a loss, and after a while he remembered that he had someone he could turn to.

He turned his head to look into the darkness, only to find that Zell was gone. A faint sound came from above his head, followed by a word that had been deliberately thrown down.

"Do according to your standards, avengeance, this is your domain. Remember to go to the church after taking care of everything, you still have a lot to do tonight. ”

Tujea turned his head slowly. Looking at those empty eyes, he couldn't say anything.

——

At 2:24:036 a.m. local time, Zell returned to the chapel in the 2nd arrondissement. He entered through the bell tower, and to his slight surprise, Horst was actually drinking.

"Finding a successor puts you in a good mood?" Zell asked meaningfully behind him.

"Nope." Horst said without looking back.

He reclined on the pulpit, his hands folded in front of him, a bottle of beer he carried on two fingers, the bottle swaying gently.

The statue of the emperor, who had been reverted to its original form, bowed its head in pity, looking down on the priest who dared to drink in the church, but did not punish him.

Zell glanced up at him, and gestured an Aquila salute. He looked very insincere, but in fact he expressed his piety very solemnly in his heart.

"Then why are you drinking?" It wasn't until he had done this that he asked questions.

"Because I thought, can't you? Lord Zell, you have too many questions."

Zell chuckled, walked down the steps, and sat down slowly. The ordinary stone material miraculously withstood his weight without making a sound.

"If you're an interrogator as often as I do, you'll have more problems, Lord Horst."

The priest shook his head: "Do we have to be an adult, and an adult is going?" It's going to go on forever, Lord Zell. ”

"So you know about it, Reverend?" Zell looked at him in amazement.

Horst didn't answer him again, just tilted his head and drank all the wine in one gulp.

He didn't seem to drink much of the drink and couldn't appreciate the beauty of it, and when he swallowed it, he frowned and showed a look that he didn't like very much.

Not only that, but the power of the alcohol had even begun to hit his thin cheeks.

Looking at this scene, Zell couldn't help but let out a sneer, as well as an exclamation.

"The first rejuvenated fragment," he whispered. "It's unbelievable."

Horst put down the bottle with a blank face, and couldn't help but raise his right hand and hammer his chest. He couldn't help but burp before answering Zell's words.

"I can't believe it."

"Haven't you seen any precursors?" Zell asked, looking curious. "I mean, anything out of the ordinary?"

"Do you dream?" Horst asked half-jokingly.

"What dream?"

"Nightmare." Horst replied softly. "I saw Litatra in flames, demons running rampant on the road, corpses everywhere. Then, his statue began to shed blood and tears. ”

Zell restrained his smile and nodded calmly, "So that's why you raised the alarm." ”

"Yes." Horst frowned. "But I'm afraid that my actions will make this nightmare come true."

"You don't have the gift of foresight, Horst. The Book of Prophecy also makes it clear that any prophecy or any illusion is really just a partial deduction of the future. ”

"We can be wary of what is prophesied, but we must never believe any prophecy – not even the one made by Conrad Coetzes himself."

"You don't believe this piece is back alive?"

"We believe it, but we're going to have some way to verify it." Zell replied with a blank face. "The big army is already on the way, Horst, Shen will also come in person. So, you don't have to worry at all. ”

Horst didn't say anything more, he nodded in silence.

(End of chapter)