In a conference room on the ground floor of the Steam Chapel of Beckland.

Archbishop Horamic Haydn, a member of the Pre-Divine Council and Archbishop of the Diocese of Bakerland, sat at the head of the long table in a white priest's robe, looking unusually tired, causing the deacons and captains of the "Heart of the Machines" to look at each other.

In the past few days, this demigod has been running around the country, cleaning up the aftermath of last week's great haze, fighting for more benefits for the Steam Church in the negotiations between the royal family and the three major churches, and uniting with the Storm Church and the Night Church to strike at the remaining cult strongholds in the city of Beckland, and repairing his damaged mechanical dolls.

Although too much exertion did not cause him to collapse his body that was different from ordinary people, the damage to his spirit was obvious.

On top of that, the Steam Church has hardly played a positive role in this disaster, and the haze was finally blown away by Archbishop Radar Valentine of the Storm Church, Anthony Stevenson of the Night Church was the first to get the key news, and the Night Believers led by Earl Hall donated a lot of money and materials for disaster relief, while Horamic could only follow the aftermath.

"Let's get started, and report on the new developments in turn."

The exhaustion in his voice surprised him.

The deacon, who sat to his right, Iconser Bernard, pressed the stubborn hair on his head, spread out the paper in front of him, and reported as succinctly as he could:

"Based on Sherlock Moriarty's whistleblower letter, we confirm that Talim Dumont died of a deadly curse, and that the murderer was the witch next to Prince Edsak, Tris. The latter fled the manor after the prince's 'suicide' and was nowhere to be found.

Because of this case, he passively became involved in the story of the witch cult's conspiracy and seal '0-08', and was attacked by a meteorite while trying to escape from the Red Rose Manor, and was eventually rescued by the descendant of the Grim Reaper, Azik Eggers, and accidentally fell into the ruins of Ince Zangwill.

"We haven't found this site yet, but it's connected to another site on the eastern outskirts of Beckland through some kind of teleportation ritual, where Mr. A. of the Aurora Society is trying to summon the 'True Creator'.

"What we don't know yet is how he sabotaged the ceremony and escaped from Mr. A's pursuit, which is impossible for him to do."

With that, Iconse put down the papers and looked at the archbishop.

"Later we'll use '2-111' to confirm, next."

Horamik looked at the "Mirror of Arrodus" in the center of the table, remembering the rumors about the seal, and after a moment looked at the next deacon.

The other deacons and captains also reported on their work in the past few days, and some of them connected with the people of the storm and the night, and got a lot of new information from them, and some of them were in charge of chasing down the absconding Triss and Severia, and as usual, they found nothing, until the captain in charge of the aftermath of the Great Smog in the East Side spoke.

"We found traces of the battle at the source of the Great Smog in the Eastern Side, both sides are mid-to-high-level extraordinary people in the 'Assassin' pathway, one of them should be the culprit who caused the Great Haze, Lady of Despair Panatia, and the identity of the other is unknown for the time being, but according to divination, it can be confirmed that the haze has become no longer lethal before the 'Deep Blue Priest' of the Church of the Storm blows away the fog, this is likely to be related to the battle that took place in the Eastern District, I request that '2-111' be used for confirmation."

Hearing this, everyone's eyes were focused on the ancient silver mirror.

"Iconse, you can ask questions, first determine what happened in the East End."

Horamic looked left and right, and finally pointed to the nearest deacon, who turned pale, instinctively feeling that his legend was about to spread to the entire "heart of the machine" because of this meeting.

He took the silver mirror, and after going through the process of activating the seal, he cleared his throat and said:

"Dear Arodes, my question is, what happened and what happened to the 'Lady of Despair' Panatia spreading the plague in the Eastside?"

The surface of the silver mirror began to flicker, and after a while, a scene emerged, and everyone subconsciously leaned forward and looked into the mirror.

A beautiful woman in a white robe walked slowly down the mist-shrouded street, beside her, the pale yellow haze gradually turned to iron black, and the pedestrians around her fell one by one with painful expressions, but she ignored it, and her face was completely inconsistent with the holiness of her behavior.

"Panatia!"

The captain who was investigating the events in the Eastern Side whispered.

The Lady of Despair in the mirror zooms out and moves upwards to see the haze that envelops the East Side quickly turning an ominous black and spreading across the city, where a bright light flickers towards the center of the smog.

The picture quickly expands and focuses, and a black-haired woman flashes out of the flames, holding a huge revolver, and shoots at the source of the poisonous haze, Panatia, her round face with a painful expression, obviously eroded by the poisonous fog around her, tormented by the epidemic, but her brown eyes are full of determination.

The two witches constantly use frost and black flames to attack each other, and from time to time change positions through the magic mirror stand-in or flame flash, this black-haired woman is not in a high sequence, and is frequently suppressed by the desperate lady, but she seizes the opportunity to fight back several times, the scene is a little anxious for a while, and the "mechanical hearts" around her hold their breath.

Unfortunately, the gap in the sequence made the black-haired woman's efforts futile, she soon collapsed under the disease, and the figure that kept coughing, but tried to fight back with a gun, continued to expand in the silver mirror, giving people a sense of tragedy.

The next moment, Panatia, who summoned the Frost Lance and was about to kill her, looked at the sky, where a blank space appeared in the thick haze. Then, the desperate witch ran down the alley in a panic, only to become transparent like an eraser sketch and disappear into the mirror.

The scene shifts back to the black-haired woman who has risen again, swallowing a dark green mass and falling to the ground in convulsions. As patches of black oil paint appeared on her skin, the iron-black haze that had spread to several urban areas with her as the center gradually dissipated and turned to its original pale yellow.

The surface of the silver mirror gradually returned to calm, and the final image rested on the woman's relieved smile and closed eyes.

The deacons and captains looked at each other, then at Iconse, who was the best at using the Mirror of Arodes, who frowned and thought for a moment before explaining:

"I've seen this dark-haired lady before, and we worked with her briefly during the 'Apostle of Desire' incident, and after '2-111' probing, it was likely that she was a member of the Church of the Night. Obviously, this time she went deep into the haze in order to hold back the desperate lady, waiting for the support of the Night Church, and after Panatia was 'solved', she used some method to forcibly terminate the Great Haze, and paid with her life for it. ”

Hearing his explanation, everyone was a little embarrassed.

"Unexpectedly, among the people who saved Beckland, there was actually a witch...... A good witch? ”

The other deacon muttered, his eyes looking at the Mirror of Arodus, who had just answered, and suddenly noticed lines of blood-like words appearing on it.

Iconser's face began to turn pale again, and he chose to answer the question instead of taking the risk according to his previous experience, and then watched his own question slowly appear in the mirror:

"Have you ever tried to make people accept you, but the other person abandoned you and chose someone else?"

This time the question was extraordinarily long, and the blood-colored words filled the entire silver mirror, piercing Iconse's heart like a sharp sword, making his face turn from white to red, his eyes widening, and he remembered his unbearable past.

"I choose to punish."

After a few moments, the deacon replied word for word.

"Boom-"

Out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning appeared in the conference room underground, with a strange green tinge, striking the top of Iconser's head, causing his hair to stand on end and dye it the same color.

He staggered to his seat, his feet swaying, and slumped to the table.

Even though he knew that such a "punishment" was not fatal, the deacon beside him cautiously probed Iconse's snort and was relieved to make sure that he was only unconscious.

Archbishop Horamik sighed softly, his gaze returned to "2-111" from the smoke-emitting Iconse, and muttered:

"Members of the Church of the Night...... Is that the power to erase the 'Lady of Despair' ......?"

His gaze swept over a deacon and captain, and he said aloud:

"Next question, who is going to ask Sherlock Moriarty about how he destroyed the Divine Descent Ritual?"

The long table full of members of the "Heart of the Machine" was silent for a moment.

————

Wow –

After washing her face with the hot water provided by the hotel, Angel wiped off the droplets and looked at her refreshed face in the mirror.

Although the pale blonde hair hanging from the back of the ears to the shoulders is not as smooth as the previous waist-length supple, it is a little more sassy, and the facial features have not changed much compared to before, but it exudes a strange temperament.

But how do you look like an underage woman...... Angel frowned, and the self in the mirror frowned, with a pitiful vulnerability, but deep down, there was an urge to destroy her completely.

She suddenly remembered who she had felt such a temperament in before.

"Kind of like 'Lady of Despair' Panatia......"

She reached out and stroked the vanity mirror, and the blonde-haired and purple-eyed woman in the mirror also reached out and touched her fingertips.

At this moment, Angel saw that his eyes in the mirror had turned black, his face was expressionless, and a bright yellow flame seemed to rise beside him, as if he had returned to the scene he had seen in the spirit state when he was promoted the night before.

Electrocuted back, she looked at the mirror again, only to find that everything was just an illusion.

"Coming on board, are you ready?"

Crane's voice came from outside the bathroom, although it was urging, but there was no impatience in it, but a hint of pampering.

"Right away."

She replied, looking at herself in the mirror and trying to show off what she thought was the most beautiful smile.

Unfortunately, I still prefer longer hair...... Angel had some regret and trimmed the length of her blonde hair, which was only a third of the length she had before.

But if you're going to sea soon, maybe a little shorter hair is better for a long trip?

So comforting herself, she took the round-brimmed lady's hat next to her and walked out of the bathroom, Klein was leaning against the wall by the door, with the suitcases of the two of them at his feet, and when he saw Angel, whose temperament was completely different from before, he couldn't hide the surprise in his eyes.

"Let's go, Great Detective," Angel saw this, the corners of his mouth curled slightly, and he laughed quite smugly, "Oh, by the way, you shouldn't be called a Great Detective now, what kind of role are you going to 'play'?" ”

"Miss Angelica, of course, is Miss Angelica's most humble servant," Klein laughed, picking up a suitcase in one hand and following Angel as he walked towards the door, "Gelman Sparrow awaits your dispatch." ”

He said in the words of "Arodes".

(End of chapter)