With a clang, the silver fork in Dante Wayne's hand fell onto the plate.

The sound of the fork falling sounded a little sharp in the slightly empty restaurant. The maid standing by was startled and quickly stepped forward to ask what happened: "Mr. Dent?"

Dante did not respond to the maid's question. The city-state governor still sat there in a daze, as if his soul had temporarily left his body. After a long while, he suddenly blinked his eyes, and his consciousness seemed to suddenly return to the surface from the edge of drowning. The sound from the real world exploded in his ears. He took a deep breath and heard the maid's voice again: "Mr. Dante, are you okay?"

Dante Wayne stared blankly at the fork that fell on the plate, slowly reached out to pick up the fork, and found that his hand was shaking extremely violently, and countless intertwined and chaotic memories were shuttling and overlapping in his mind. He felt a burning pain near his eye socket, and the ruby ​​artificial eye became hot as if it was burning.

He suddenly turned his head and broke the silence before the maid spoke for the third time: "Did Vanna send any news through someone?"

The maid was stunned for a moment, and looked at the respected Archon in front of her with some confusion: "...Who is Vanna?"

The next second, the maid was frightened by the Archon's suddenly livid face and gloomy aura.

Dante Wayne's face suddenly changed, and it seemed as if even the air pressure around him dropped. He was silent for several seconds with a sullen face, but in the end he tried to maintain a calm attitude and waved to the maid, saying as calmly as possible: "You should go out first, and don't come in for the time being."

The maid left, confused and a little nervous. The restaurant became completely quiet. Dante Wayne sat quietly at the end of the dining table. He was the only one at the huge table.

It seemed as if he had been like this for the past eleven years, sitting alone at the dining table, living alone in this empty house.

Layers of complicated and confusing memories shuttled and overlapped in his mind. The "reality" from different dimensions seemed to overwrite his memory, but Dante just sat there quietly, letting his memory be overwritten, repeating softly in his mouth as if in a dream: "Vanna is still alive... Vanna is still alive..."

He suddenly raised his head.

At the other end of the dining table, a figure appeared.

It was himself—at least it looked like another self.

It was a grayish entity, wearing the same clothes as Dante Wayne, with the same appearance and hairstyle, and even every wrinkle on the back of his hands was exactly the same, but the figure's facial features were slightly blurry, and its eyes were just two empty, sunken holes, filled with endless emptiness and weirdness.

Dante stared quietly at the gray "self" across the table. The other person also raised his head and stared at him quietly. After a long time, the gray figure suddenly opened his mouth and revealed a silent smile. The sunken and empty eye sockets reflected the chaotic flow of light and shadow.

The thing spoke, the skin on its face opening and closing as its lips moved. “Ah, there’s finally a hole in your heart, Mr. Myself.”

Dante Wayne stopped his repetitive mumbling and stared at the figure sitting opposite him, his own "reflection": "What did you do?"

"To be honest, I don't know. It just happened. The surprise came too quickly, and a loophole destroyed itself." The thing across the table shook its head, "But don't you want to see all this? You don't have to bear the pressure brought by the truth, and you don't have to worry about any responsibilities and the future... Everything is returning to normal, and eternal liberation and peace are waiting for everyone, just like the promise you got many years ago - everyone's wishes will be fulfilled..."

The thing said, slowly standing up from across the table, with a twisted and broken smile on his face: "I know your heart very well, just like I know myself..."

Dante Wayne also stood up slowly. There were no weapons in the restaurant, but he always carried a dagger with him. Now he held this only weapon tightly and stared at the gray figure: "It's just a void, a shadow of nothingness... Do you think you are qualified to understand people's hearts?"

"I am your soul reflected in the warp..." The gray figure opened his arms, as if he didn't care about Dante's hostility and provocation. "The warp knows everything, including the shallow and ridiculous human heart... Come on, kill me, and then see me again. It seems like we haven't played this game for a long time..."

The gray shadow's words stopped abruptly.

Dante Wayne looked across the table in surprise. He saw a cluster of green flames spreading here from nowhere, and pounced on the phantom like a predator smelling its prey. The phantom tried to dodge, but the flames seemed to ignore the laws of space and burned directly on its body.

A shrill howl and an eerie whistle were heard at the same time, and the sharp sound waves instantly shattered all the glass in the restaurant. However, the sound was trapped in this space and could not be transmitted to the outside. So the layers of sound waves continued to echo in the restaurant, becoming more and more weird and creepy.

Dante Wayne stared blankly at his own subspace projection gradually twisting into a pool of weird and wriggling "grease" in the flames. The grease was still roaring and howling. He could only barely distinguish a few words from it. Apart from the vicious curses, there was only one word that made some sense: "Lost Homeland!"

The word was almost shouted out by the puddle of "grease" at the top of its lungs.

Then, the grease was burned out, leaving only pale ash in the flames. Dante Wayne stared at it all in a daze. The next second, a burning pain suddenly filled his whole body.

The burning of the warp projection now has the opposite effect on the main body.

The dagger fell to the ground, and the Archon's relatively strong body fell to the ground soon after. Dante curled up in pain, feeling as if he was also being burned by the flames. This belated flame was tearing and destroying his soul and mind, but in the illusion of fire rising into the sky, he saw that the spreading green flames were just slowly patrolling around him, but had no intention of really coming up to "hunt".

The spiritual fires finally made a circle, swayed twice in front of the Archon, and quickly spread to other places.

Dent even felt that the flame made a "pah" sound, as if expressing contempt for food that did not suit his taste.

He felt that he might have been driven unconscious by the pain of the flames.

The next second, all the pain disappeared as suddenly as it had come. Dent felt as if his mind was suddenly shaken by a spring that had been stretched to its limit and then relaxed. This sudden relaxation became the final blow that destroyed his consciousness. A strong feeling of dizziness came over him, and his vision went black. The perception of the entire world began to quickly fade away.

Before he completely lost consciousness, he heard the sound of the door opening, the maid's scream, and the chaotic footsteps of other people who were startled.

※※※

Vanna calmly looked around the empty archives, trying to find any trace of the middle-aged priest.

For the first two minutes, she didn't move, didn't try to leave, and didn't touch anything in her sight.

This is to prevent one from accidentally touching the source of pollution after being deeply trapped in a certain illusion, which would cause one's sanity to be invaded.

Only after she confirmed that the objects in her sight were normal entities and completed the protection of her own mind did she come behind the administrator's curved desk and decisively reached out to press a button under the desk.

That was the alarm bell.

The ringing of a bell began, echoing in the empty archives.

Vanna lowered her head again and looked at the lantern in her hand.

The middle-aged priest disappeared, but the lantern he lent her was still in her hand, emitting a soft and warm light. Although the archive was not dark, the sacred flame from the burning oil seemed to dispel something, forming a hazy halo within a few meters around her.

Vanna walked around the administrator's rest area again, but still couldn't find any trace of the priest.

The alarm continued to ring, sharp, piercing and heart-pounding.

Vanna returned to the curved table and her eyes fell on the pile of scattered parts and the marks written in blood.

The ringing of the bell echoed hollowly, and no one entered.

The young judge suddenly understood.

It was not the middle-aged priest who disappeared.

It's her.

The moment this thought emerged from the bottom of her heart, Vanna felt that the "atmosphere" around her had changed, as if a curtain was suddenly lifted, and another dimension overlapping with reality revealed its true face to her. She suddenly opened her eyes and saw endless flames burning everywhere in the archives!

And in the blazing sea of ​​fire, a figure holding a black umbrella stood not far in front of him.

The figure was tall and thin, exuding a strange aura. He raised an arm towards Vanna in the flames, and a low, hoarse voice came out of his body: "You..."

Fanna only heard one syllable, and in the next second she had taken out the big sword from her back, which required two hands for an ordinary person to lift. Then she held the lantern in one hand and raised the big sword in the other, and jumped and chopped from three meters away.

"heresy!"