When the fog cleared, the mountain peak next to Bansey Harbor revealed its true face, and the crimson moonlight allowed Klein to quickly find the cave at the top of the mountain.

Before that, he had found a battle trail of more than a dozen headless living corpses lying on the ground, some of them scorched by lightning, some of them dead by purification bullets, and the remaining half of them were consumed by cursed black flames.

Lightning and Transcendent Bullets belong to the Substitute Punisher, and Black Flame is naturally Angel's masterpiece, and it seems that she has briefly teamed up with the Substitute Punishment to deal with the Cultists...... Crane analyzed, looking into the cave.

He didn't have dark vision, and he didn't find anything with his vision, but a few minutes ago, a staff search for Donna did point to the cave, so Crane didn't hesitate too much, but after being fully prepared, he carried a lantern and a cane and burrowed into the narrow cave.

Fortunately, although the cave was winding, there was no fork in the road, and he soon followed the smell of blood and the sound of conversation to an open cave.

Under the light of several ritual candles, a bloody and strange scene unfolded in front of Klein.

The blood-splattered altar in the center, surrounded by complex symbols and patterns in dark red, headless monsters and their departed heads all over the ground, several corpses covered with trench coats in the corners, girls drooping and sobbing, and three men in shirts and vests.

When the three men heard the footsteps, they all turned around, and the left wheels and the electric wooden staff were aimed at Klein.

It's a substitute for punishment...... Seeing the uniform outfit and the seal that could obviously release lightning attacks, Crane did not try to fight, but obediently raised his hands, showing that he had no weapon in his hand.

"I'm Captain Ellan's man, Irlan Karg."

Before leaving the White Onyx to support Angel, the captain told him that if he encountered the suspicion of the punisher, he could imply that he was in league with Erlan.

This means that I am an MI9 informant, and the Rune military, especially the Navy, have a good relationship with the Church of the Storm...... Crane observed the expressions of the three substitutes, and sure enough, he saw that the middle-aged man who took the lead looked a little relaxed, and the wooden staff he was holding in his hand was also hanging by his side.

"I've heard that his boat docked in the evening, and I'm sorry to let you have such an incident, but fortunately, the matter has been resolved." The middle-aged man walked up a few steps and said in a deep voice, "My name is Dodge, the captain of this team. ”

"Gelman Sparrow."

Crane lowered his raised hands and responded, his gaze scanning the cave again, recognizing Cecil lying on the ground but still breathing, and Donna crouching beside her, but not Angel.

"Erlan should have told you, don't know what you shouldn't know, it's good for your life."

Seeing Klein looking around, Dodge was a little dissatisfied, and his tone became serious.

"I'm sorry, I was only asked to look for them," Crane pointed to Donna and Cecil, "Also, there should have been a young woman who came to the top of the mountain ten minutes ago, blonde, with a long trench coat, about eighteen years old......"

Halfway through speaking, Dodge gave a look of surprise.

"She did come and we worked together for a short time to solve the problem here."

"Where is she?"

Klein asked.

"That's the biggest problem right now," the captain of the substitute looked embarrassed, "five minutes ago, she and ...... The corpse of the leader of the cult disappeared from the altar together. ”

————

"The tomb of the pious, the tomb of the lamp...... Over there is the Great Chapel burial chamber, one of the largest burial chambers on this level. ”

Holding a white candle in one hand and pointing to the darkness in the distance, Pierre introduced the burial chambers in Intis, one by one.

Angel also found a difference between the corridors and stone chambers of the present day and the ones she had when she arrived: they all had their own names, carved into rusted metal nameplates, some in Intiswen, or simply stick figures expressing their names, such as the burial chamber engraved with the sign of the thorn and the shield, and the road sign that read "The Tomb of the Thorn and the Shield Wall".

Yes, there are also road signs.

Angel followed Pierre wordlessly, like a tourist being guided around the attractions, and walked with him through tombs with different names, large and small, past bones of different shapes, and walked towards the exit in the direction marked by the black line above his head.

It was much bigger than I had imagined, and there were at least a thousand bones in the tombs and corridors along the way, but Pierre said that this was only a corner of the third floor, and that it would not be enough to see them all in one day and one night......

The more she looked at it, the more shocked she became, at first because she had somehow made it to Trier in Intis from Bansey Harbor, but it soon turned into a feeling for the scale of the catacomb.

"Hey—"

The Trier student who was leading the way in front suddenly let out an exclamation and fell straight forward.

Angel's eyes were quick, and he grabbed the careless Pierre and pressed the candle that he almost got rid of.

"Thank you...... Thank you! ”

Pierre first expressed his gratitude, then looked at his feet, and found that he had tripped over a hand bone that had reached into the middle of the corridor at some point, and was about to kick it away angrily, but then remembered that there was still a beautiful girl beside him, and he suppressed his anger and gently pushed it aside with his leg.

How did you come to the third layer alive when you were so careless...... Angel always felt that he would not follow Pierre, and that he would quietly disappear into the catacombs within half an hour, like his forgotten companions......

No, are they really two people coming together? Will...... In fact, there were more people who were just carelessly falling down on the way to the third floor, or accidentally extinguishing the candles, and were attritional along the way, and then forgotten until only two people came to me?

Angel had an irrepressible thought in his head.

She subconsciously looked at the hand bone that had tripped Pierre, and was surprised to find that it was back in the middle of the road, as if it had never been stepped on or kicked off.

It's so weird here......

"Let's get out as soon as possible, your candle is already half burned."

She stopped Pierre, who was trying to continue with the introduction of the burial chamber, and said.

"Well," said Pierre, a little unsatisfied, but did not refuse, "the exit is not far away." ”

This time the two of them quickened their pace, and soon followed the black line to a small square, where unlike the corridors and other burial chambers full of bones, the gray brick floor was extremely clean, not even dust, and it seemed that someone had cleaned it regularly.

In the center of the square are two stone pillars, old and mottled, but the abstract strokes of the sun engraved on them and the triangle filled with the levers of the gears are still visible.

Sun and Triangle Emblems...... The symbol of the Church of the Eternal Sun and the Church of Steam, this is indeed Intis...... Angel further confirmed his position through the stone pillars.

Unlike the Kingdom of Rune, which believes in the three major churches of Night, Storm, and Steam, the main belief in the Republic of Intis is the god of eternal sun, steam, and machines.

"Praise the sun!"

As Pierre walked past the Pillar of the Eternal Sun, he stood with his legs straight, his arms outstretched, and he embraced the sun in a gesture that was not a reverent prayer.

"Watch out for your candles."

Seeing that his movements were somewhat performative, the white candle in his hand was almost horizontal, and the candle flame was flickering, Angel hurriedly reminded.

"It's okay, the gatekeeper says the candle is not allowed to go out or fall, but I've never seen anything happen to a classmate or acquaintance."

Pierre was a little unimpressed.

That's because the person who went out of the candle is gone, and you immediately forget about him, so naturally you don't think that anything happened to anyone......

Angel shook her head slightly, no longer trying to reason with the man.

I just hope he doesn't "get away" before he takes me out of the catacombs...... She prayed to the stone pillars of the god of machinery and steam as she passed, completely insincere.

————

The White Onyx at the foot of the mountain is docked tightly at the pier, and the windproof lamps hanging on the mast sway slightly under the breeze and the waves blowing and lapping, like twinkling stars.

Crane gave a blank look at the edge of the cliff and turned to walk down the mountain.

Donna, whose dress was stained with blood and her face was still stained with tears, followed him closely, but soon slowed down and fell behind.

He had to hold back his anxiety and stop waiting for the girl to catch up.

After the captain of the punisher Dodge, who learned what had happened, Crane didn't stay in the cave too long, he was eager to return to the White Onyx, enter the gray mist space to do more detailed divination, or find Angel's location directly through the contact of the crimson star.

Ordinary divination had no effect on her with the Secret Emblem and Magic Pocket Watch...... What does she do with so many magical items...... Klein grumbled inwardly.

He knew that this mentality was not right, so he quickly adjusted.

Because of the fact that he was carrying ordinary people, Crane did not rush through the "fire jump" like he did up the mountain, but walked down the path full of gravel and weeds.

"Uncle Sparrow, Miss Kraken, are you back in the sea?"

When she was about to reach the bottom of the mountain, the girl who had been silent asked in a low voice.

"I don't know."

He replied coldly.

Frightened by his tone, Donna's eyes filled with tears again.

Only then did he realize that he was not facing a pirate worth 3,000 pounds, or an adult who could get rid of his emotions and refine the key content, but a sixteen-year-old girl who had just seen the cultists mutilate their peers and even almost die herself, Klein squeezed out a smile and added:

"She's just tired, go back and rest, maybe tomorrow morning you get up and see her on the White Onyx."

I hope so......

He turned around and continued walking towards the docks.

Donna also wiped away her tears and followed closely behind.

One tall and one short, the two approached the White Onyx at a rapid pace, until the candlelight from the porthole made the sailors patrolling the deck clearly visible.

Klein suddenly noticed that on the beach next to the pier, a figure slowly walked out of the sea.

In the moonlight, the figure seemed somewhat familiar......

His heart tightened, and he quickened his pace and walked towards the White Onyx, and even shook off Donna behind him and started running.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, the figure turned its head, and the dreamy scales on its face gradually faded, revealing Crane's incomparably familiar face.

"Miss Kraken!"

Before Klein could speak, Donna behind him recognized the other, cheered, and ran briskly, ignoring the wet and dripping clothes, and threw herself into the other's arms.

Angel, whose strength can overwhelm Crane, couldn't withstand the girl's impact at this time, and took a step back to stabilize her body, she first slowly hugged Donna, and then her purple eyes looked this way, looking at Crane.

"Why are you here?"

There was no joy in her tone, but confusion.

Hey, the last two paragraphs have been changed a bit

(End of chapter)