Mr. A? Mr. A from the Aurora Society? Klein, who had been planning to move slowly along the wall and shadows to the door, retreated silently.

Ince Zangwill should be cooperating with a faction of the royal family... The force that can discover and hide such a large underground ruin near Backlund must be one of the leaders of the Kingdom of Loen...

With the addition of Ince Zangwill and "0-08", the Goddess Church can be ruled out as an option. Although the people of the Lord of Storms are a bit reckless and a bit chauvinistic, they are unlikely to cooperate with the Witch Cult. At least so far, no Beyonders suspected of being of the "Sailor" path have appeared... For the same reason, the Steam and Mechanical Church is not a big suspect...

The Aurora Society is also involved? What exactly do they want to do?

Klein leaned against the wall, slowed his breathing, and listened to the conversation in the center of the hall while thinking.

After a brief silence, a hoarse voice sounded:

"alright."

The answer was so concise that Klein had no idea what they were planning.

The soft and pleasant voice from before laughed softly and said:

"You don't seem to trust us very much?"

"Yes." Mr. A responded bluntly.

"Haha, then I will honestly describe our purpose and why we are looking for your cooperation." The soft female voice said without anger, "We have done something and left certain traces. We must clear them up before being discovered by the Night, Storm, Steam Church and the military. This requires your help. Uh, it seems that you haven't really understood what I mean. Let me give you an example. Suppose, I committed a serious crime such as murder in a house. What is the best way to eliminate the evidence and clues?"

"Not necessarily. Our purpose is to let others witness this behavior." Mr. A said indifferently.

...As expected of the Aurora Society... they are all a bunch of lunatics... Klein initially confirmed that the man who spoke was Mr. A who killed Ambassador Intis.

"…Suppose it was me, and not you." The soft female voice had a barely noticeable breathing sound.

After a second, Mr. A replied:

"Burn down that house and bury all the clues inside."

The soft female voice was accompanied by a smile:

"This is exactly what we had in mind. I will be responsible for 'arson', and you will use this opportunity to expand the trend and create a channel or container for your Lord to descend into the world.

"And the only price you have to pay is to bear all the bad reputation and gain the greatest hatred from the military and the three major churches, but I don't think you will mind."

“As long as we can welcome the Lord’s return, we will not be afraid even if we are hated by all forces.” Mr. A’s tone was no longer so indifferent and distant.

Arson? Will Aurora take this opportunity to complete the advent ceremony of the "True Creator"? This is the third time... How did I encounter it again... This is a bad fate... Klein couldn't help but curse in his heart in Chinese.

At this moment, he was extremely curious and wary of the plan between a certain faction of the royal family and the Witch Cult and Ince Zangwill. This was so scary that he needed to use the coming of the "True Creator" as a shield!

Perhaps, they have a hidden trick up their sleeve and will eventually destroy the Aurora Society’s rituals and trap all the forces except themselves... Klein thought tensely and calmly.

"It seems you have no questions." The soft female voice laughed softly, "This place is very secluded and well-arranged. You can hold the ceremony without worrying about being disturbed before it succeeds. As for the outside, we have also prepared it very early, just waiting for me to light the first 'flame'. If you still have any questions, you can check it again."

Just as Mr. A opened his mouth, Klein heard a clanging sound. It was the sound of the door opening.

"Who let you in? Didn't I order that no one is allowed to come near here?" A soft female voice said, suppressing anger.

"Ms. Despair, there's an emergency! Someone has broken into the underground! I was sent in to make arrangements and close the corresponding passages." A male voice with a distinct Backlund accent responded very quickly.

The so-called "Lady Despair" was silent for a few seconds, as if communicating with an unknown entity to confirm the situation.

Finally, she said in the same voice and tone:

"Go in, don't come out again, and don't let anyone else come out. Wait for further notice."

"Yes, Ms. Despair!" The man ran and headed straight for the stone gate here, with a "clang" sound in the background.

From where Klein was hiding, he could clearly see the stone door leading to the back area. He waited for seven or eight seconds, and a figure of average height, neither fat nor thin, appeared there.

Huh... The man took a breath, stretched out his hands, and pushed open the heavy stone door with a ferocious expression and bared teeth.

At this moment, Klein had taken his appearance and characteristics completely into his sight without missing anything. This was the extraordinary ability of the "Faceless Man"!

The man had brown-red skin and obvious Southern Continent ancestry, but his facial features were nondescript, making him difficult to remember.

Because of his grin, part of his teeth were exposed, and the third one on the upper left was shining with golden light, which was a denture.

This... Klein, who possessed the spiritual intuition of a fortune teller, frowned, feeling inexplicably familiar.

Soon, he used his skills to recall the source of the familiar feeling:

The Hanged Man once asked the Tarot Club members to find a man with a brown complexion, missing the third tooth on the left, and with a thick Backlund accent.

The man's name was Barron, and he was involved in many cases of slave escapes and disappearances on colonial islands!

At this moment, the man in front of Klein was almost identical to Barron described by "The Hanged Man"!

“The disappearance of slaves from the colonized islands…

"Many tribes in the southern continent disappeared without a trace...

“Barron showed up here…

"Kaping, who controls a large share of the underground slave trade, is protected by four Beyonders who are suspected to be 'Arbitrators'. The strongest among them is Sequence 6, and even Sequence 5...

"Kaping insisted on kidnapping innocent girls...

"The passing of the Corn Laws and the improvement of textile machinery caused a great deal of unemployment...

"Many female textile workers got new jobs and quietly left the East District without leaving any clues..."

The scattered dots instantly formed a line in Klein's mind, pointing directly to the depths of the ground!

What were they doing that required such a large population and so many pure girls? A ritual? A ritual that was so terrifying that it had to be performed in secret and took a long time? Klein's pupils suddenly shrank.

Squeak... bang! The stone door closed, and Barron disappeared from his sight.

There was silence in the hall for a few seconds, and then Mr. A's hoarse voice sounded again:

"I smell the smell of an accident. Let's get started before it arrives."

Ms. Despair responded slowly:

“That’s exactly what I thought.

"But I need you to drop me off at the East End."

East District? Klein had a bad feeling again.

"No problem." Mr. A replied without any emotion.

Wearing a hood, a transparent and blurry book quickly appeared in front of him, accompanied by a distant and ethereal chant:

“I came, I saw, I recorded.”

The book flipped through the pages quickly, and stopped at one of the pages, which then emitted a light blue and illusory light.

The light enveloped the desperate lady in a pure white robe, making her figure blurry at first and then invisible.

In an instant, Ms. Despair saw countless transparent shadows of indescribable shapes, and discovered that at the highest points there were clear lights that seemed to contain endless knowledge.

Her body was dragged forward by a strange force, moving quickly, and soon she left her original place and came to a deserted, dirty and disgusting corner of an alley.

She pulled down her veil to cover her face and looked up at the sky, only to see that the afternoon sun was obscured by clouds and mist, becoming pale and dim.

The light yellow mist was not particularly thick, floating in every place in Backlund, with a slightly choking smell, cold and moist.

Unfortunately, they didn't wait until the smog was at its worst and stillest... The accident that happened to Triss, the sudden and brief loss of control of "0-08", the appearance of Azik, and the previous destruction by the "Black Emperor" made things bigger and bigger and became noticeable. The action could only be brought forward to today... Ms. Despair looked around, walked out of the alley and into the street.

Her steps were very slow, as if she was wandering in a sea of ​​fog.

Wherever she passed, the fog thickened imperceptibly, taking on a slightly iron-black color, and the distance between them was quietly decreasing.

After she left the street, a homeless man wearing an old jacket and with a sallow face suddenly started coughing so violently that he fell to the ground.

Two poor people who were very close to the homeless man stepped back in horror, then covered their throats and made hoarse sounds, as if they had a serious lung disease or bronchitis and could not breathe.

Iron-black and light-yellow smog descended on the East District, the dock district, and the factory district that was belching smoke, and continued to spread throughout Backlund.

Various scenes in the distance were "drowned", even the towering bell tower was left with only a faint shadow. Workers and poor people began to feel uncomfortable one after another. The homeless people who struggled to fight the cold and hardship surrounded the route where the lady passed, and fell ill one after another. Human life was as fragile as the foam when washing clothes.

Ms. Despair's expression was calm and gentle, as if she was completing a work of art.

She walked among the passers-by without any abnormality, with the corners of her mouth slightly raised, and laughed softly:

“The history of the Kingdom of Loen will remember this day:

"The Backlund Great Smog Incident."

…………

The dark valley has been completely covered by the dark and illusory water surface, but the writing of "0-08" has not stopped.

It madly weaves absurd, funny, thrilling and terrifying stories wherever it can be found:

"...The falling of the pants did not affect Ince Zangwill's performance, because he was wearing a robe. Perhaps he had anticipated such an accident...

"The Lawmage stunned Azik Isengard and temporarily deprived him of two powerful Beyonder abilities. He was a good helper in the true sense, but the gate that overlapped the spirit world and the underworld was attracted by Azik's characteristics and knocked by the power of their battle, and it underwent unpredictable changes.

"At this time, an unknown existence was attracted and passed by here. He took this opportunity to extend his hand into the real world. Oops! He caught Ince Zangwill!"

In mid-air, two bloody yellow arms covered with wriggling rotten flesh suddenly stretched out from behind Ince Zangwill, who was wearing a black robe of a clergyman!

They grabbed Ince Zangwill's shoulders and dragged him into the void, into the spirit world.