A swift white shadow passed through the old and dirty streets of the downtown area, passed through the criss-crossing pipes and pressure relief structures above the factory cluster, passed through the desolate station and deserted streets, and finally entered a narrow alley.

A dark green flame suddenly bloomed and spread wildly in the air like a door. The vortex in the door suddenly expanded and contracted, and Duncan stepped out of the door.

Following closely behind was Shirley, who was still a little confused.

Duncan looked back at the girl following him, and after looking her up and down, he spoke in a deep voice: "How do you feel? Are you feeling uncomfortable?"

"I'm fine." Shirley was still dizzy, but this dizziness was more of an discomfort caused by being suddenly carried by the boss, rather than physical discomfort. She looked up at Ai, who had returned to the form of a white dove and landed on Duncan's shoulder. After a long time, she suddenly used mental connection to communicate with Agou, who was in a hidden state and hiding in her soul, "Agou, can you beat this pigeon?"

"...Don't ask. If you ask, I just can't beat him." Ah Gou's voice sounded muffled. "Don't even mention the bird the boss raises. I can't even beat the fish the boss stews..."

Shirley was stunned: "Why did you suddenly mention fish?"

"Because I can see that there is probably nothing reasonable around this being..."

Duncan didn't know that Shirley was whispering with Agou. He just confirmed Shirley's situation with his eyes again and felt the feedback from the mark he left on her body. Only then did he feel completely relieved.

In fact, he was confident that Ai could transport living people, not only because he had tested it with his current mortal body last time, but also because after that he had asked Ai to conduct a large number of "living experiments" outside with various small animals such as birds and beasts. All the tests were perfect, confirming that the pigeon could transport living targets without damage - but even with so many tests, he still subconsciously confirmed Shirley's situation.

After all, Ai is shrouded in mysteries, and no one knows how many special features it has waiting to be discovered. It certainly wouldn't hurt to be more cautious when using "bone pigeon express".

After confirming Shirley's condition, he also focused his attention on the surrounding environment.

What comes into view is a deserted alley. At the end of the alley, you can vaguely see the shabby street scene. Dilapidated pipe facilities span over the houses on both sides, and there are slight steam hissing leaks at the joints of some of the pipes.

This is a common sight in many places in downtown.

But Shirley still discovered where this place was at the first moment.

"This is... the sixth block?" She widened her eyes in surprise. "Mr. Duncan, did you sense that the mark appeared here?"

"Yes, Block 6. We are back here again, but..." Duncan exhaled and frowned slightly, "But the induction of the mark has disappeared a minute ago."

"…It faded away? Did it go out?"

Shirley asked in surprise, but Duncan didn't answer, just looked in a certain direction thoughtfully.

In Shirley's "dream", he implanted a cluster of flames into the remaining fragments of the attacker after the splitting. At that time, he ordered the fragment to return to its "body". Shortly after that, he lost the sense of the cluster of flames as Shirley's dream ended. Until just now, the mark suddenly appeared in his perception again, and it led him here.

Located in the sixth block of the real world.

The spiritual fire that was supposed to spread in the dream suddenly sent back a signal in the real world. The edge of Shirley's own dream was connected to the scene in Nina's dream. The umbrella monster that attacked Shirley in the nightmare appeared at the museum fire scene in the real world...

Unconsciously, many contradictory yet vaguely connected clues were connected in Duncan's heart, and he felt as if he was about to touch the invisible curtain.

In other words, although this grand curtain covered the entire city, there was still a "gap" left, and this gap was in the sixth block - a place that he and Shirley had overlooked last time.

He was looking at the direction where the mark in his perception had last sent a "signal".

The aura of the mark only appeared for a short time and quickly faded away a minute ago, but Duncan did not think that the flame he left behind had been extinguished - although he could not accurately lock its position, he could still sense that the flame was still burning, and it was even much stronger than before.

Since the flame is still burning and growing, it means that its "mission" has not yet ended - it is still chasing, devouring, and assimilating the attacker, and may even have spread into a raging fire. It briefly appeared in the sixth block and then quickly disappeared. It may be because the "curtain" here is not stable, and there is a gap that opens and closes briefly, causing the two dimensional worlds to become intertwined and connected.

He wanted to find that gap, the gap that seemed to connect dreams and reality.

A few days later, Duncan took Shirley through the deserted and dilapidated streets of the Sixth Block again. This time, they did not waste time asking the locals anything, but went straight to the deepest part of the block.

"The abandoned factory is in the other direction..." Halfway through, Shirley raised her arm and pointed to a large building in the distance.

"We're not going to that factory," Duncan said quickly. "We're going this way."

"oh……"

Shirley responded and quickly followed Duncan's footsteps using her short legs.

Withered yellow leaves drifted in the wind and fell at Shirley's feet. She walked forward on the fallen leaves and heard a slight crackling sound coming from under her feet. It sounded like she was stepping on burnt wood chips, or like the subtle crackling of flames.

She looked up and around, but all she saw was an ordinary street. Old houses were lined up along the street, standing in the wind among the fallen leaves, facing the uninvited guests who broke in with indifference.

Shirley suddenly realized that something was wrong.

I don't know since when, she has not been seen by any passers-by.

The Sixth Block was indeed deserted. Most places were sparsely populated, and the few residents seemed listless, indifferent and aloof. But it was by no means so deserted that there was no one to be seen!

An uncomfortable feeling spread from the bottom of her heart, and this feeling made her vaguely think of the dream in which she was trapped. She subconsciously moved closer to Duncan, but did not expect Duncan to suddenly stop - with a bang, she bumped into his waist.

In the next second, Shirley drafted the full text of her will and conceived three styles of tombstones, but she soon realized that people crushed by the shadow of the subspace would probably not leave behind a corpse...

Duncan's calm voice interrupted the girl's momentary wandering thoughts: "Looks like we're here."

"I'm so sorry. I really didn't mean to ask you...ah?"

Shirley subconsciously uttered a bunch of begging for mercy, and then she realized that the boss in front of her didn't seem angry. Then, she noticed that she had stopped in front of a building that looked abandoned for who knows how long.

It's a church.

A community church, common in the city-state of Plande, stands at the end of the path.

It had the iconic slender spire of a deep-sea church, but the black roof tiles and white stone walls were dotted with drooping vines and rotten and dirty attachments. The door, painted with complex sacred runes, was slightly open, and the stained glass windows on the side were dilapidated, with only the bent and deformed iron outlines remaining. Through the cracks in the door and the holes in the windows, one could vaguely see a dim scene inside.

This was once a sacred building, but now the air of decay and oblivion fills every crack in its bricks.

"…Is this the 'church' that the old man near the intersection mentioned last time?" Shirley recalled her experience when she came to the Sixth Block to investigate the situation last time. "I remember he said there was a nun living here, but the nun was often not in the church…"

"It's not possible to explain this dilapidated state by saying 'she's often away'," Duncan said casually, and walked towards the church gate. "Rather than saying that the nun is often away, it's more like this place looks like it has been forgotten for eleven years."

Shirley watched him walk towards the church and instinctively felt a little resistant and nervous about the building, but after a moment of hesitation, she followed Duncan.

The next moment, Duncan pushed open the half-open church door, and the scene inside the chapel appeared clearly in her and Shirley's eyes.

The warm and bright candlelight fell into Shirley's eyes. The clean and tidy chapel was brightly lit. At the end of the neatly arranged benches, the statue of the storm goddess Gemona stood quietly in the lights.

A nun who was kneeling and praying devoutly in front of the holy icon heard the door opening and stood up and looked back.

She saw the visitor standing at the door and smiled gently: "It has been a long time since anyone has visited this church."

"Oh...it looks like it is here," Duncan said quietly, looking at the smiling nun in front of him, "The gap in the curtain."

He blinked, and in his eyes, the smiling nun maintained the appearance of a living person at one moment, but turned into a pile of human-shaped crawling ashes in the next moment, while the church behind her showed an extremely weird superposition state - flames were burning on the intact benches, ashes and sparks were floating from the roof, the scene after the fire and the intact scene of the church overlapped at the same time, presenting a weird yet torn scene.

It was as if two completely different facts were forcibly blended in this church.