Wearing a tattered coat, messy black hair, and a strange "kneeling and pouting" posture... Leonard couldn't connect this corpse with "Secret Order" Beyonder who had come and gone without a trace.
"Dead? How could it be?"
Surprised that Tuxedo Clown, who had just been walking around under the gunpoints of everyone and was still facing many Nighthawkss with ease, had turned into a corpse. Leonard wiped the blood from the corner of his eyes and prepared to get closer and identify it carefully.
"Be careful, 2-049 is right next to you, don't get too close."
Angel reminded him.
"2-049... Well, was he affected by the negative effects of Sealed Artifact, so that's why he couldn't escape?"
Leonard frowned and murmured analysis to himself. He tilted his head, thought for a moment, and continued to ask:
"But he is a member of 'Secret Order' and should know Antigonus Puppet very well. How could he accidentally fall into the influence of Sealed Artifact? Even we will not commit such low-level Error."
"He does know this Sealed Artifact very well and has been avoiding the scope of influence. However, he has a mission just like us, and the purpose is to take away the notebook, so he lingers at the scene. I cooperated with Klein and used this to force him into the negative effect scope of 2-049."
Angel did not conceal the key help provided by Klein in killing Tuxedo Clown, but it did not mention that he could relieve the influence of 2-049 on his own.
After all, this matter is just a conclusion drawn from my own observation. There is no conclusive evidence, so I can only put it aside for the time being.
Besides, who doesn't have a little secret?
Leonard seemed to have a lot of questions. His eyes moved back and forth between Tuxedo Clown's body, Sealed Artifact 2-049 and Angel, his green pupils filled with doubts.
When Angel saw this, he pointed at Klein who was helping Dunn and was looking for something in his pocket and said, "It seems that Klein is also looking for 'Goddess's Gaze'. Do you have any more?"
"No, there's only one bottle for each person. Do you think that's a bargain?"
He gestured and patted his empty pocket, and Leonard replied with a wry smile.
"I'll go check over there at Borgia. If they share a bottle, there might be some left."
He walked towards the Backlund Nighthawks duo who had already helped each other to stand up. Angel also came to Klein and helped him lift Dunn up.
"Captain, there is no blue metal bottle you mentioned in the inner pocket."
Klein searched all the pockets on Dunn Smith's body, but did not find the "one-finger-long Sky Blue Metal Bottle" described by the latter.
"Maybe... I forgot to bring it, it's okay... I'll take a rest... you go... and others... find the notes..."
Dunn said slowly and word by word. He sat up with the help of two people, supporting the ground with one hand and touching the back of his head where he was hit by the explosion. There seemed to be a big bump there.
Forgot to bring medicine... This is the captain I know...
Angel cursed. Seeing that Dunn was still struggling to stand up, he quickly replied, "Captain, the notes have been found. Leonard went to Borgia to look for '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 a few 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 found the same worry in his eyes.
Fortunately, Leonard quickly came over from Borgia, holding a sky blue metal vial in his hand - "Goddess's Gaze".
"Fortunately, I went quickly and only managed to grab half a bottle from Ms. Lorotta's mouth, but this amount is enough... Captain, do you mind?"
Dunn took the potion handed over by Leonard and didn't care that the metal bottle had been used by others. He raised it to his mouth and drank it in one gulp. Within a few seconds, his confused gray eyes regained their vigor. I don't know if the headache was relieved, but he no longer held the back of his head.
"Sorry, I forgot to bring the potion when I went out."
Shaking his head, he stood up without the help of anyone else. His eyes scanned the whole place and he quickly determined the situation.
"... I failed to consider that the out-of-control Ray Bieber would explode after the note left the body, and the power would be so huge..."
He frowned and looked at "Ray Bieber" scattered on the floor, then moved his eyes to Sealed Artifact 2-049 in the field and Antigonus Notebook next to him.
"Fortunately, the note has been found, and Sealed Artifact has not been lost. '2-049' needs to be re-sealed as soon as possible, and then brought back to 'Chanis Gate' for storage until it is sent back to Backlund Diocese, the same goes for the Antigonus Family's notes. 'Secret Order' sent out Beyonder of Mid Sequence to snatch the notes. We underestimated the importance of this item to them."
"As for the name Beyonder of 'Secret Order'..."
"Dead," Leonard replied quickly, "The two of them did it."
He pointed at Angel and Klein.
Dunn raised his eyebrows. It was only then that he recognized the corpse of "Tuxedo Clown" whose tuxedo was in pieces.
"Nice job, but tell me more about how you did it later."
Nighthawks, who had regrouped their teammates, dared to come within the range of the negative effects of 2-049. As expected, the surroundings were filled with body fragments of Ray Bieber, the descendant of the Antigonus Family, and Sealed Artifact was still in a "violent" state. Dunn and Borgia, who entered the five-meter range first, were instantly favored by negative effects. The flexion and extension of their arms slowly stopped and entered a state of stagnation.
Klein and Leonard, who were following behind, quickly patted their shoulders and helped them release the control.
Most of Antigonus Puppet's body had crawled out of the cracked iron box, and his arms covered with tan cloth strips were waving towards Antigonus Family Notebook not far away.
Borgia rushed to the side and grabbed the puppet. Ignoring the angry expression on its painted face, he opened the iron box and stuffed it back.
During this brief process, 2-049 controlled four more people, but the vigilant Nighthawkss helped each other to remove the effect.
After closing the lock of the iron box, Borgia reactivated the Evernight Goddess holy emblem on the box, and the invisible wall that isolated Spirituality once again surrounded the cracked iron box.
"Fortunately, the Holy Emblem has not been destroyed, otherwise it would be very difficult for us to bring it back to 'Chanis Gate'."
Borgia breathed a sigh of relief and looked at 2-049 who became quiet again and said.
"Let's put it out of reach for now, we still have a lot to do."
Dunn Smith ordered. He picked up the Antigonus Family Notebook that fell on the ground and was covered in filth. He shook the dirt off the cover, opened the black hard leather cover, and looked through it roughly.
"Yes, this is it. We will take it back later and place it with 2-049 behind 'Chanis Gate', and Borgia and Lorotta will bring back Backlund."
After quickly confirming the authenticity of the note, Dunn closed the cover and tucked the note under his arm regardless of the dirtiness.
Lorotta, who was slightly injured, was guarding outside the area of effect of Sealed Artifact to prevent others from approaching the scene. The remaining people and Dunn went into the warehouse to search. Unfortunately, except for a pile of chewed human remains, there was no special discovery in the dark warehouse.
"It looks like there is more than one victim."
Leonard said pretending to be calm, but his pale face was obviously not caused by blood loss. Several other people did not look good either. The fishy smell permeating the warehouse made people not want to stay for a long time.
Leaving the warehouse with no search value, 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 Ray Bieber explosion location as the center.
"What are we looking for?" Klein asked confusedly.
"The extraordinary substance, or material, left behind by Ray Bieber." Leonard kicked away a piece of Flesh Chunk covered in mud and answered casually.
"Before he mutated, he should have been using the power of the notes to try for promotion. Regardless of success or failure, a certain part of his body will be enriched with extraordinary power after his death."
"Like Madam Sharon before?" Angel listened carefully and couldn't help but interjected.
She remembered that after Madam Sharon died, a mysterious eyeball-like object appeared next to her body.
The mutated monster will also precipitate Beyonder Characteristic like Beyonder after death?
"That's right, in the future... ah, I found it."
Dunn Smith was halfway through speaking, and suddenly walked forward quickly and squatted next to an open space, and the other people also moved closer.
Among the various parts of Ray Bieber, a palm-sized piece of gray-white substance lay quietly, like the bodily fluid that flowed out when the mutated monster was hit with a bullet before, but it was more compact, with an uneven surface and full of ravines, 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 gray-white substance seemed to be solid, but in reality it was like a liquid. The touched parts quickly spread out, dripped from between his fingers, and then condensed into a ball again.
"Who has a cigarette case? Or a bullet box?" After several failed attempts, he raised his head and asked the people around him.
Angel just received the bullet from Old Neil early this morning. He still had the metal box containing Demon Hunter Bullet with him. When he saw this, he quickly took it out and handed it to Dunn.
With the container in hand, Dunn picked up the gray-white substance again and threw it into a metal box for storage before it dripped.
After carefully putting away the box containing Ray Bieber and "Beyonder Ingredients", Dunn stood up again and faced several people, especially the newly joined Angel and Klein, and said:
"If you encounter similar things during the mission, or kill Beyonder, be sure not to miss these objects. They may become some kind of material rich in Spirituality, or clues to the case, but once ordinary people come into contact with them, it often means another case involving extraordinary power."
Angel's breathing was stagnant. She thought of the "assassin" she had just killed on the rooftop nearby. Due to the emergency, she had no time to deal with the body, so she threw it on the roof of the building and left it to Sun to be exposed to the sun.