Chapter 58 Cleaning Up the Mess
Wearing a tattered coat, with black hair blown into a mess, and in a strange posture of "knees bent and butt sticking out"... Leonard couldn't connect this corpse with the extraordinary person of the "Secret Society" who had come and gone without a trace before.
"Dead? How could that be?"
Surprised that the Tuxedo Clown, who had just been walking under the guns of the crowd and was still at ease in front of many Night Watchmen, had turned into a corpse, Leonard wiped the blood from the corner of his eyes and prepared to go closer to take a closer look.
"Be careful, 2-049 is right next to us, don't get too close."
Angel reminded him.
"2-049... Hmm, was he affected by the negative effects of the Sealed Artifact, and that's why he couldn't escape?"
Leonard frowned, muttering to himself as he analyzed. He tilted his head, thought for a moment, and continued to ask:
"But he's a member of the Secret Order and should be very familiar with the Antigonus puppet. How could he have strayed into the influence of the seal? Even we wouldn't make such a stupid mistake."
"He's certainly familiar with this Sealed Artifact and has been avoiding its area of influence. However, he has a mission just like us: to seize the notebook, which is why he lingers on the scene. Klein and I worked together to exploit this and force him into the area of 2-049's negative effect."
Angel did not conceal Crane's crucial assistance in killing Tuxedo Joker, but did not mention that he was able to remove 2-049's influence on his own.
After all, this matter is just a conclusion drawn from my own observation and there is no conclusive evidence, so it can only be put aside for the time being.
Besides, who doesn’t have a little secret?
Leonard seemed to still have a lot of questions. His eyes moved back and forth between the body of Tuxedo Clown, Sealed Artifact 2-049 and Angel, his green pupils full of confusion.
Seeing this, Angel pointed at Klein, who was helping Dunn up and searching through his pockets, and said, "It looks like Klein is also looking for 'Goddess's Gaze'. Do you still have it?"
"No more. Each person was only given one bottle. Do you think that's a cheap product?"
Pretending to pat his empty pockets, Leonard replied with a wry smile.
"I'll go check on the Borgias. If they're sharing a bottle, there might be some left."
He walked towards the Backlund Nighthawks, who had already stood up by supporting each other. Angel also came to Klein's side and helped him lift Dunn up.
"Captain, there's no blue metal bottle in the inner pocket you mentioned."
Klein searched all of Dunn Smith's pockets but didn't find the "finger-long sky-blue metal vial" he had described.
"Maybe... I forgot to bring it. It's okay... I'll take a break... You guys go... with the others... find the notes..."
Dunn spoke slowly, enunciating each word. He sat up with the help of the two men, supporting himself with one hand and stroking the back of his head where he had been hit by the explosion. There seemed to be a large bump there.
I forgot to bring medicine... This is the captain I know...
Angel muttered to himself, but seeing Dunn still struggling to stand, he quickly replied, "Captain, the notebook has been found. Leonard went to Borgia to see if there's any more of 'The Goddess's Gaze'. You should sit down and rest for a while."
Hearing Angel's answer, Dunn's distracted eyes focused on her face, and it seemed that it took him several seconds to recognize her.
"...You are... Miss Granger..."
Did he hit his head and have memory problems?
Angel looked at Klein on the other side and saw the same worry in his eyes.
Fortunately, Leonard came over from Borgia soon, holding a sky-blue metal bottle in his hand - "The Goddess's Gaze".
"Luckily, I was quick enough to snatch half a bottle from Ms. Lolota, but this amount is more than enough... Captain, do you mind?"
Dunn took the potion from Leonard, not noticing that the metal bottle had already been used by someone else. He raised it to his lips and drank it all in one gulp. Within seconds, his confused gray eyes regained their brilliance. He didn't know if his headache had eased, but he no longer clutched the back of his head.
"Sorry, I forgot to bring my potion with me."
Shaking his head, he stood up without help from others, scanned the entire place, and quickly ascertained the situation.
"…I hadn't considered that an out-of-control Riel Bieber would explode with such force once the note left his body…"
He frowned at the scattered "Real Bieber" on the ground, then shifted his gaze to the Sealed Object 2-049 in the field and the Antigonus Notes next to it.
"Thankfully, the notes have been found, and the seals haven't been lost. '2-049' needs to be resealed as soon as possible, then taken back to 'Chaness Gate' for safekeeping until it can be returned to the Backlund Diocese. The same goes for the Antigonus family's notes. The 'Secret Order' dispatched a mid-sequence Beyonder to seize the notes. We underestimated their importance to them."
"As for the Extraordinary from the Secret Order..."
"Dead," Leonard replied quickly. "Those two did it."
He pointed at Angel and Crane.
Dunn raised his eyebrows. It was only then that he recognized the body of the "Tuxedo Clown" whose tuxedo was in tatters.
"Well done, but tell me more about how you did it later."
The Nighthawks, reunited, dared to enter the area of 2-049's negative effect. As expected, they were surrounded by the remains of Riel Bibb, a descendant of the Antigonus family. The seal remained in its "violent" state. Dunn and Borgia, who had entered the five-meter range first, were instantly affected by the negative effect. Their arms, which had been flexing and extending, slowly stopped and entered a state of stagnation.
Klein and Leonard, who were following behind, quickly patted the two men on the shoulders and helped them release the control.
Most of the Antigonus puppet's body had already crawled out of the cracked iron box, and its arms wrapped in brown cloth were waving towards the Antigonus family notes not far away.
Borgia rushed over and grabbed the puppet, ignoring the angry expression on its painted face, opened the iron box and stuffed it back.
During this brief process, 2-049 controlled four people one after another, but the vigilant Nighthawks helped each other to eliminate the effects.
Locking the iron box, Borgia reactivated the Holy Emblem of the Goddess of Night on the box, and the invisible wall that isolated the spirituality once again surrounded the cracked iron box.
"Fortunately, the holy symbol was not damaged, otherwise it would have been very difficult for us to bring it back to Chanis Gate."
Borgia breathed a sigh of relief and said to 2-049, who had become quiet again.
"Put it aside for now, we still have a lot of things to do."
Dunn Smith gave the order as he picked up the Antigonus family notebook that had fallen to the ground and was covered in filth. He shook off the dirt on the cover, opened the black hardcover, and began to flip through it.
"Yes, this is it. We'll take it back later and place it behind the 'Chaness Gate' along with 2-049. Borgia and Lolotta will then take it back to Backlund."
After quickly confirming the authenticity of the notes, Dunn closed the cover and tucked the notes under his arm, regardless of the dirtiness.
Luo Luota, who was less seriously injured, remained outside, guarding the area beyond the seal's effective range to prevent anyone from approaching the scene. The rest of the group, along with Dunn, searched the warehouse they had just been in. Unfortunately, they found nothing special in the dark warehouse except a pile of chewed-up human remains.
"It looks like there's more than one victim."
Leonard pretended to be calm, but his pale face was obviously not just caused by blood loss. The other people didn't look well either. The stench in the warehouse made people not want to stay for long.
Leaving the warehouse that was not worth searching, several people returned to the open space outside the door. Under the leadership of Dunn, they began to carefully search every piece of land with the location of the explosion of Rel Bieber as the center.
"What are we looking for?" Klein asked doubtfully, not understanding what was going on.
"The extraordinary substance, or material, left behind by Riel Bieber." Leonard replied casually, kicking away a piece of meat covered in dirt.
"Before he mutated, he was probably using the power of the notebook to try to advance. Regardless of success or failure, after his death, a part of his body will be enriched with extraordinary power."
"Like Mrs. Sharon before?" Angel listened carefully and couldn't help but interrupt.
She remembered the mysterious eyeball-like object that appeared next to Mrs. Sharon's body after her death.
Will mutated monsters also develop extraordinary characteristics after death, just like extraordinary people?
"Yes, later...ah, I found it."
Dunn Smith was halfway through his speech when he suddenly walked forward quickly and squatted beside an open space. The others also came over.
Among the various parts of Riel Bieber, a palm-sized piece of gray-white substance lay quietly, like the body fluid that flowed out when the mutated monster was hit by a bullet before, but it was more compact, with an uneven surface and full of grooves, like an enlarged walnut, or... a shrunken brain.
"That should be it."
Dunn tried to grab the object with his gloved right hand, but the grayish-white substance looked solid, but in reality it was like liquid. It quickly spread out where it touched, dripped through his fingers, and then condensed into a ball again.
"Who has a cigarette box? Or a bullet box?" After several unsuccessful attempts, he looked up and asked the people around him.
Angel had just received bullets from Old Neil early this morning, and the metal box containing the demon hunting bullets was still on him. Seeing this, he quickly took it out and handed it to Dunn.
With the container in hand, Dunn picked up the grayish-white substance again and threw it into the metal box for storage before it dripped.
After carefully putting away the box containing Rui Er Bibb's "extraordinary materials," Dunn stood up again and said to the others, especially Angel and Klein who had just joined:
"If you encounter something similar during a mission, or if you kill a Beyonder, never overlook these objects. They could be some kind of spiritual material or clues to a case. However, if ordinary people come into contact with them, it often means another case involving Beyonder powers."
Angel's breathing stopped, she thought of the "assassin" she had just killed on the roof. Due to the emergency situation, she had no time to deal with the body and left it on the roof to be exposed to the sun.
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