Boom boom boom.

The sudden knock on the door interrupted the sinister man's brief confusion when he saw the ball of cotton. He immediately retracted his gaze and turned to look in the direction where the knock came from.

After briefly sensing the atmosphere at the door, he walked up to it and opened the padlock.

A man in a dark hooded robe, with half of his face hidden in the shadow of the hood, stood at the door. He was a little dissatisfied with the slow opening of the door: "Why did it take so long to open the door?"

"I'm not your servant, Dumont," the sinister man in the room frowned, obviously in a bad mood, "Don't take the saint's temporary favor too seriously."

"Whatever you think, Richard, I'm just reminding you," the Annihilation Cultist named Dumont said calmly, "Don't let fear linger in your heart for too long. Something has been wrong since you withdrew from the Nameless Man's Dream two days ago. Your cautious fear and slowness and suspicion have attracted the attention of the Saint. He hasn't expressed his dissatisfaction yet, but if you keep doing this, it will be harmful to our cause..."

Before Dumont finished speaking, the Annihilation Cultist named Richard suddenly took a step forward and almost pressed his sinister face directly in front of the other's hood: "You might as well go in and try it instead of staying in the safe real world and saying such sarcastic words!"

"I will go," Dumont said calmly. He didn't mind the other party's provocation and hostility at all. He just calmly took a half step back. "Tonight, as the next batch of voters, I will enter the dream of the nameless with you."

Richard finally put away the hostility in his expression. He looked at the other party with some surprise: "The Saints have decided to send another group of people? The plan is advanced?"

"What else? Your report has been taken seriously. The Saints now know that a dangerous force that is hostile to us has appeared in the Nameless Man's dream, and that another force is taking action. Our 'allies' have also sent news that they seem to have already fought with the other party." Dumont spread his hands and shook his head. "Put aside your complaints and suspicions. I know you encountered difficulties in your previous actions, but you are among your compatriots. The Lord blesses us."

"...Holy Lord, bless us," Richard finally breathed a sigh of relief, his expression completely relaxed, "I was a little excited just now."

"It's understandable. After all, you were injured in the last operation, and you encountered danger in the last operation. These injuries will cause a great burden on your spirit," Dumont said, looking up behind Richard. There was a faint smoke floating in the air, and an illusory and transparent black chain was floating in the air. The "death bird" at the end of the chain was falling on a nearby cabinet in a listless manner. It was obviously not in a good condition. "So are you sure you don't need to rest for two more days? In your current state, no one will have any objection even if you miss an operation."

"No need," Richard shook his head immediately, his eyes alert again, "My devotion to the Lord is my most powerful strength. I will be in good condition before tonight."

"...Since you are so determined, I will tell the Saints," Dumont nodded and said, "Also, since you are not going to miss the operation tonight, then get ready and go to the assembly hall before nightfall. The Saints will announce some things."

Richard looked into the eyes of the person outside the door, and nodded after a moment: "Okay."

Dumont didn't say anything else, but just took half a step back and watched the door in front of him close silently. Then a faint smile appeared on his face, which had always maintained a calm and indifferent look, and he turned and walked into the depths of the cabin corridor.

Another hooded, stocky Annihilationist stepped out from the shadows in the corner of the corridor and walked side by side with Dumont.

After walking a distance, the Annihilation Cultist named Dumont suddenly broke the silence: "Richard's condition is not good. His demons are weakening, and his spirit is losing balance. Soon, the symbiotic contract will drag him to death. Fate is approaching this guy."

"This is the fate he chose. The Deep will remember his sacrifice," another believer whispered, "We will eventually return to the place of origin, it's just a matter of time... But I'm really curious, why is his mental imbalance so serious? Other people who entered the dream of the Nameless One also encountered various failures, and some were even severely injured by "erosion" and left the dream in a near-death state, but their mental states were not that bad..."

Dumont stopped and looked back at the closed door in the distance.

After a moment, he retracted his gaze and shook his head: “There is a difference between a serious injury and a severe injury.”

He turned around and continued walking forward, while continuing to speak slowly: "In the dream, you were eroded and nearly died in the battle. All you need to do after returning is to rest with honor. But in the dream, you were beaten half to death by an underage girl with a dog, and fell off the bed screaming - and it happened in the assembly hall, and the saint retrieved your memory on the spot. So you need more than just rest."

After saying this, the two Annihilationists fell silent at the same time and continued to walk forward slowly. After a long while, the short and strong one muttered thoughtfully, "This is really terrible..."

"...Yeah, that's scary."

Inside the cabin, Richard sat on the bed with a gloomy face, listening to the sound in the corridor gradually fading away, his expression becoming more ferocious every second.

His symbiotic demon, the Deathbird, was lying weakly on the low cabinet next to him. The faint mist released from the bird-shaped demon floated in the air as if it had substance, and spread in all directions, enhancing the perception ability of its "master".

But after a while, he still restrained the urge to continue releasing his perception, and driven by reason, he took back the power of the death bird.

He must restore himself and the contracted demon to their current state as soon as possible, and must prove himself in the next action - the end of the cycle is approaching, and the twilight of this world will soon come. Whether the followers of the Deep can gain a place in the unknown era after the Deep Sea Era, the actions in that "dream" are crucial.

Proving yourself in that "dream" will be the best shortcut to eternal glory.

He breathed a long sigh of relief, but his hand accidentally touched something soft inside.

It’s still that ball of cotton.

Richard picked up the thing with some confusion, raised his head and looked around the not-so-spacious cabin, as if looking for the source of this inexplicable cotton.

Ran out from under the covers?

He looked around the room but couldn't find the source of the cotton. Finally, he came to the window and scratched his hair in confusion.

Why should I care so much about a ball of cotton?

The Annihilation Cultist was briefly confused, then shrugged - forget it, it's just a ball of cotton, no need to pay so much attention to it.

He opened his clothes on his chest, felt his skin, found a zipper, unzipped it, and stuffed the ball of cotton into the squirming flesh.

A soft laugh suddenly came from the corner of the room, as if a little girl of five or six years old was hiding in the closet, looking at the clumsy adults and laughing softly.

The deathbird on the low cabinet seemed to have noticed something, but it just raised its head and looked suspiciously in the direction of the sound, then lowered its head again.

※※※

"Rabbi found a base of those cultists?"

In the captain's cabin of the Brilliant Star, Lucrecia was sitting in front of the dressing table. A faint green flame was dancing on the edge of the dressing mirror in front of her. The candlestick was burning quietly in front of the mirror, and her father's voice was heard from the mirror.

"Yes," Lucrecia nodded at the mirror, "The base is actually on a ship, and judging from the current situation, they are not 'hiding' on the ship, but completely controlling the ship. There are also a large number of Annihilation Cultists gathered on the ship... It should be an important base."

"...That rabbit has done a great job," Duncan in the mirror nodded solemnly, with a hint of emotion in his tone, "That group of cultists are elusive and never make high-profile moves in the city-state, so it's very difficult to catch them. I didn't expect that they could find a gathering point this time... hiding on the ship. This is really beyond our expectations."

"That ship is quite large, and it looks like it was specially prepared for various dark and bloody rituals. The rabbi smelled a strong smell of blood on the ship, which was the residual smell of multiple sacrifices. This kind of ship definitely cannot dock at the city-state like ordinary ships. The residual smell of dark rituals cannot be hidden from the church, so there must be a supply port behind it..."

Listening to Lucrecia's analysis, Duncan in the mirror began to think. After a while, he suddenly asked, "Is the rabbi still hiding on the ship? Will he be discovered?"

"It has a very good ability to hide. Unless it takes the initiative to confront some high-ranking believers on the ship, such as the 'Saint', it will not be exposed under normal circumstances," Lucrecia said. "It is a shadow from the spiritual world. It can hide in people's emotions and perceptions. On that ship, the environment full of negative atmosphere itself is its best cover."

"Okay," Duncan nodded, "Then let the rabbi continue to hide, don't contact that 'saint', and collect as much intelligence as possible."

His original plan was to have the rabbi perform the mirror ritual as soon as he found the cultists' hiding place, and then "descend" to the scene himself, and then quickly teleport all his followers over before the cultists were all dead, and then beat the cultists, and beat them until they were unconscious before their symbiotic demons committed suicide, and see how many he could catch in the end.

The whole plan is very concise and efficient, and has been highly recognized by Vanna.

But now it seems... the "big fish" that Rabbi found is bigger than anyone imagined, so the problem naturally cannot be solved so simply and crudely.

As a skilled angler, he has to let out the line a little longer.