Time seemed to suddenly slow down. In the darkness and the approaching heat, Nina felt her mind working uncontrollably.
She seemed to recall her childhood, recalling running around in the antique shop with her uncle to "help" but making a mess of everything, recalling her uncle telling her the stories behind those "antiques", which turned out to be all fabricated, recalling her first time going to school, the first time she saw a steam engine in a textbook, the first time she got a compliment from a teacher, the first time she made a friend... and the first time she lost a friend.
She felt her mind was in a mess and her consciousness became more and more confused.
The smoke has begun to seep into the room little by little, affecting breathing and thoughts.
And all those disturbing memories were finally swallowed by flames.
A fire...a fire that existed only in her memory seemed to be burning again before her eyes.
Nina stared at the ground not far away in a daze, as if the ground would suddenly catch fire in the next second, but at this moment, she suddenly felt a cold hand touching her forehead.
"Are you okay?" Shirley looked at her "friend" a little worriedly. "Suddenly his eyes froze... and he kept mumbling something under his breath."
"I... I'm fine," Nina quickly shook her head and grabbed Shirley's arm, "Thank you... I just suddenly thought of my family."
"Family..." Shirley was stunned for a moment when she heard these words, and then asked casually, "Who are your family members?"
"I only have one uncle... My parents passed away many years ago, and I grew up with my uncle." Nina thought for a moment and slowly buried her head in her knees. "I promised him that I would go home early today..."
"You... you have a very good relationship with your uncle, right?" Shirley seemed a little uncomfortable with this topic, and didn't know how to comfort her friend. She asked for something to talk about, "What does he do?"
"He's just an ordinary person. My family opened an antique shop in downtown, and he runs it alone..." Nina said slowly. After noticing Shirley's surprised expression, she quickly waved her hand, "It's not the kind of amazing antique shop you think it is. There are no real things there."
"That sounds impressive!" Shirley quickly complimented, "Manager! You have your own store, even if it's in downtown... so your family should be doing well, right?"
"It's pretty average, actually." Nina continued to wave her hands. "My uncle wasn't in good health in the past few years, and the business in the store wasn't very good, so he didn't save much money... But I think my uncle is really amazing. He can even chat with Mr. Morris for a long time! He knows a lot of things, and Mr. Morris said he is a knowledgeable person..."
Shirley listened to Nina's story and nodded seriously, "Then I must meet your uncle after we get out..."
Nina laughed. Just as she was about to say something, she heard a loud noise coming from the direction of the door. The next second, the bathroom door, which was not very strong to begin with, was kicked open by someone from the outside and fell down with a clang!
The moment she saw this scene, Nina's first reaction was that the fire in the corridor outside would surely explode and sweep in because the door was broken. This was what she learned in school, but the next second, she only saw a familiar figure walking into the door - the expected fire did not appear.
Shirley was also startled by the loud noise of the door breaking. She looked back in surprise, and her whole body froze when she saw the figure at the door.
She saw the shadow incarnation of the warp standing quietly at the door, and in the corner of her eye, the last bit of fire was crawling and retreating at the feet of the figure. She stood up in surprise and wanted to step back with a hint of fear - for a hundredth of a second, she even considered whether to send Nina, her new "friend", out, but before she could take any action, Nina had stood up behind her.
"Uncle Duncan?!" Nina looked at the figure that appeared at the door with surprise. At this moment, it seemed that all the fear and depression disappeared with the appearance of that figure.
"Nina?" Duncan looked at the girl with some surprise - he actually found this place by following the "marks" left on Shirley's body. He had planned to find Shirley as a helper and then continue searching the rest of the museum together, but he didn't expect to see Nina here directly.
The next second, his eyes fell on Shirley.
So... from what I heard through the "mark" before, the person who was talking to Shirley was Nina... The "classmate" that Nina mentioned before was Shirley?!
Duncan's mind quickly turned and he understood. Then he noticed the rapidly changing expression on Shirley's face. Before this summoner, who had a "connection" with him, could speak, he took a step forward and looked around: "It seems that you are all okay."
The next second, he noticed that there was a third person in the room: a young lady in a long dress was fainted on the ground, but she seemed to be still alive.
Shirley finally regained her ability to think. She suddenly recalled what Nina had just said to her. After a while, she slowly turned her head with a stiff neck, looking as if she had seen a ghost: "Nina...he is...your uncle?"
"Yes!" Nina said happily, and then rushed to Duncan in a few steps, "Uncle, why are you here?! The fire outside is out?!"
"Not yet, but the fire is under control." Duncan said casually. He knew that this ambiguous statement would be suspicious under normal circumstances, but now Nina was obviously in a state of confusion. The frightened girl just grabbed his arm tightly and kept muttering: "Great, I thought today would be..."
"Okay, let's talk about it outside. This is not the place to talk," Duncan interrupted Nina, and then his eyes swept over Shirley and the lady lying on the ground, "We have to take this lady with us."
"Ah... OK!" Nina reacted belatedly and hurried over to pull up the lady. Shirley also immediately ran over to help - but due to the height difference, this was not easy for them, so Duncan took a few steps forward and prepared to do it himself.
But just as he reached out his hand to help the lady up, something suddenly came into Duncan's sight and stopped him.
It was an amethyst pendant that looked somewhat familiar.
Duncan was stunned for a moment, and slowly recalled the previous home visit by Mr. Morris and some things revealed in the other party's conversation.
"Uncle?" Nina's voice came from the side, interrupting Duncan's thoughts.
Duncan shook his head slightly, glanced at Nina, and casually glanced at Shirley beside him, smiling slightly: "It's a small world."
After saying that, he helped the lady up, and then carried her on his back with the help of the two girls.
The group left the bathroom. There was no flame in the corridor outside the bathroom. Even the thick smoke had mostly dissipated due to "unknown reasons". Shirley looked at the dark passage ahead and hesitated for a moment before speaking: "Which direction are we going?"
Duncan raised his head and was about to point out the direction, but suddenly he sensed something through the "fire power" that had permeated the museum before. With a thought, he changed his original direction and walked quickly towards another exit next to him: "This way."
Under the active retreat and guidance of the flames, they quickly left the place, and shortly after they left, a group of figures suddenly rounded the corner of the corridor in front and appeared near the water room.
That was the Deep Sea Church Guardian Team that had rushed into the fire scene earlier.
The team was covered in dust and dirt, but the blessing of the ocean had not yet dissipated in all of them - they had rushed in with the determination to die, but were safe and sound because the fire in the museum suddenly and quickly subsided.
"The fire here is out too..." The pastor who led the team frowned slightly and muttered while observing the surrounding environment, "Even the smoke has dissipated."
"It's a good thing the fire is out." A guard whispered.
"It's a good thing indeed, but under normal circumstances a fire of this scale would not be extinguished so easily." The pastor said in a deep voice, and suddenly he noticed the violently damaged door of the water room next door.
"Someone has been here..." A guard immediately stepped forward to check. After confirming the traces near the gate, he skillfully took out the incense burner and prayer book, and put on a set of special lenses on his head.
The lens group looked like a half helmet made of copper tubes, cranks and a series of lenses. Complex runes could be seen etched on the edges of some of the lenses.
The guard placed the incense burner on the ground, then adjusted the lens group on his head and began to observe all the remaining clues nearby.
"There is no supernatural power left... There are a few ordinary people, the exact number cannot be determined, and the aura is very chaotic," the guard reported quickly, "They should be the tourists who were trapped before... The door was damaged inwards, it seems that someone broke the door from the outside and rescued the people."
"Are you sure you don't have any supernatural powers?"
"No."
"…Continue searching upwards."
"yes!"