Gura In City of East Balam, in a dilapidated building near a suburban cemetery.
Several men and women wearing black trench coats and wearing bright Red Gloves on their hands kept coming in and out, either removing corpses, escorting away alive prisoners, or preserving important evidence. A woman wearing Church of Evernight clergyman's robe floated above the cemetery, her beautiful black hair fluttering in the sea breeze, covering her delicate face.
From time to time, "Red Gloves" would look up at her, and then carefully look away, so as not to meet her deep eyes that hid countless stars.
She is the senior deacon in charge of Church of the Evernight Goddess Southern Continent affairs, "Goddess Eye" Iliya.
This time Grahame's "Nighthawks" came out with all their best, and even invited "Goddess Eye" to take action. The purpose was to use the clues from the previous operation to capture the representatives of the extreme members of Artificial Death Faction in "Numinous Episcopate", Sequence 4, "Undying", and Palenke Tasib, who were called "Pale Hand".
"You mean, Tasib is not in this stronghold?"
In the dilapidated building, "Red Gloves" captain Soest asked with a frown.
In front of him was Daly Simone, the only one who was not wearing a windbreaker and was only wearing a robe over a simple black dress. The latter's eyes had just changed from deep black to green, and his voice was a little erratic and ethereal:
"There are unusually few spirits wandering around here, but they certainly haven't seen Palenke Tasib."
As she spoke, she turned to a Numinous Episcopate member who was escorted in and asked:
"Where is your 'Pale Hand' Tasib?"
The body was curled up and the face was pale. The two Red Glovess on the left and right almost carried him forward and slowly replied:
"He left the city early this morning and said he was going to meet someone."
"Who?"
Soest asked, and the other Red Glovess stopped moving one after another. In the corner of the room, Leonard Mitchell, who bowed his head and remained silent, also cast concerned glances.
"His name is..." The prisoner's eyes were a little dazed, as if he was recalling something unimportant, "...Ince Zangwill."
Ince Zangwill, the former Archbishop who defected and killed many Nighthawks?
Hearing this name that should not appear here at all, all Nighthawks were silent. Only Leonard's eyes changed a little, and his breathing became heavier involuntarily.
This just attracted some sympathetic looks from the Red Gloves people around him - everyone knew that he was the only survivor of a certain Catastrophe incident caused by Ince Zangwill.
But at this moment, Leonard's mind was not filled with anger, but with a hint of excitement.
"Sure enough, that guy left the kingdom and headed to the sea. His destination is Southern Continent!"
He tried to evoke the words of Parasite in his mind, but unfortunately the latter did not respond.
Soest, who asked a few more questions but received no effective answers, sighed, looked at the "Red Gloves" people around him, and then glanced outside the room, and found that Ms. "Goddess Eye" Iliya had left at some point, and he became the person with the highest position on the field.
Licking his lips, Soest said after careful consideration:
"Cindy, you return to the station immediately and report this matter to Goddess Eye Your Excellency. She will contact Holy Cathedral to decide the next course of action. Ince Zangwill is carrying that '0-08', which is not something we can deal with."
"Yes." Cindy, who had burgundy hair, nodded and then left the room, chasing Senior Deacon Iliya.
"The remaining people will interrogate the remaining members of Numinous Episcopate, Spirit Channeling and Dream Invasion, and use all methods to find out Tasib's purpose. Since Ince Zangwill cannot be traced, we must find out the reason for his contact with Numinous Episcopate.
"From now on, pay attention to any coincidences that happen to you, such as forgetting something unintentionally, or being suddenly disrupted by an accident, and report it to me. This is very important!"
As the captain of "Red Gloves", Soest knows a little more information about "0" level Sealed Artifact than his members. Although he cannot explain it clearly, he must remind everyone how to deal with "0-08".
Leonard, however, did not hold out much hope for these actions. He knew the horror of "0-08" better than anyone in the team, so he did not show an overly positive attitude. Instead, as if he was remembering Affliction's past, he completed his work in silence, and then followed the team back to the station.
After making an excuse to leave the station, he came to a secluded alley, took out a written letter, used a simple spell to summon the messenger whom Old Man called "Him", and respectfully handed over the letter and a gold coin under the gaze of four pairs of scarlet, but slightly lifeless eyes.
Watching the messenger disappear into the void, Leonard breathed a sigh of relief and muttered while cleaning up the scene:
"How come that guy has such a powerful messenger? Is it the welfare of the mysterious organization or his special characteristics..."
Suddenly, reminded by the voice in his head, he closed his mouth and slowly looked back.
Daly Simone, wearing a robe and smeared eye shadow and blush on his face, stood quietly at the entrance of the alley, looking into the sky with a pale face.
That's exactly where the Headless Messenger left.
"When you usually order food, you always add two Marionette's and 'Servant Meal'?"
He poked a piece of barbecue with a fork and put it into his mouth. Angel asked with some unclear speech.
In the Southern Continent's small hotel, she finally no longer had to abide by the dining etiquette of upper class society. She could eat a whole piece of barbecue with a fork, burp without concealment after taking a swig of ice-cold Sparkling Sweet Wine, and she could speak while there was still food in her mouth.
"After all, they are already dead and no longer need to eat, and I, well, have to play the role well..."
Looking at the entire table including two sumptuous lunches and two Servant Meal meals, Klein smiled helplessly.
In order to make himself and the two Marionette appear "normal", he ordered three portions of each meal to be delivered to the room. Drinks and soups could be poured into the sewer, but the staple food had to be prepared by himself. Therefore, these three days of East Balam's trip had already made him feel a little fatter.
Fortunately, today's consumption was a bit heavy, and there was one more person to help share the load... He smiled secretly and looked at Angel who was devouring it. He was about to say a few words when he suddenly sensed something and looked above his head.
In Spirit Vision, one of Reinette Tinekerr's heads spat out the letter it was holding, and then quickly disappeared into the ceiling.
"Whose letter?"
Angel, who also noticed something strange but didn't pay attention, asked.
"Leonard, the content is..." Klein opened the envelope and quickly browsed through the few lines of content, "The former Archbishop appeared in Grahame Near, we met 'Pale Hand' Palenke Tasib from Numinous Episcopate Artificial Death Faction. He wanted us to conduct a secret investigation."
According to the agreement, Physical World, Angel and Klein will use "former Archbishop" to refer to Ince Zangwill who owns "0-08", so as to avoid the direct name being noticed by Sealed Artifact in his hand.
Of course, even so, the two of them didn't plan to talk about anything about him at the dinner table. This was something they had already decided.
They just looked at each other, confirmed this in each other's eyes, and changed the topic in unison.
"Do you have any impression of Numinous Episcopate's 'Pale Hand'?"
Angel swallowed the roast meat in his mouth, drank the sweet wine in the cup, and asked.
"He is the Sequence 4 of 'Death' Pathway, 'Undying', which is consistent with the Sequence One we previously thought Mr. Azik was in. He was active in West Bayam, often clashed with the local colonial government, and also caused several attacks with heavy casualties in the city... This is all the information within the church before I left Nighthawks."
Klein replied, instructing his Marionette Enzo to put away the tableware, while he took a comfortable posture on the chair and continued:
"Based on Mr. Azik's experience in that Death Mausoleum, I actually suspect that 'Artificial Death' is Numinous Episcopate trying to activate 'Death' Pathway Uniqueness's attempt, of course, their plan may have been expected by 'Death' Salinger, or it might have been in line with his intentions, so that they created that huge Feathered Serpent..."
Although he did not see it with his own eyes, according to Angel's description afterwards, Klein understood the truth of what happened in the mausoleum, and based on the actions of the person who came to the mausoleum through the gods, guessing that his purpose is Uniqueness of "Death" Pathway adjacent to "Evernight" Pathway.
Angel, who also knew this, also fell silent. After a moment, he spoke back and asked:
"So, while He prevented the resurrection of 'Death', he also started to get involved in another Pathway?"
This sentence was spoken in an extremely low voice. If the sun was not shining brightly outside the window, but the sky was dark, Angel would not dare to ask this question.
Klein nodded solemnly, and suddenly thought that in addition to the complete "Sleepless", which is "Evernight" Pathway Potion, Church of Evernight also has the Low Sequence's "Death" Pathway Potion, and Beyonder that does not hesitate to cultivate this Pathway, is in sharp contrast to the carefully selected "Seer".
Could it be that Goddess had already made arrangements, and that he had already set his sights on Uniqueness of "Death"... Thinking of this, Klein felt a chill down his spine.
What about "Seer"? This Pathway seems to not have God. As far as I know, it is not adjacent to "Evernight" and "Death"...
Converging the divergent thoughts in his mind, Klein considered and told Angel his guess.
After listening, the latter said thoughtfully:
"If your guess is correct, can we pray to Goddess and directly ask about the situation of 'Pale Hand'? Will he now be equivalent to a believer of Goddess?"
How is it possible that Lunatic like him who engages in terrorist attacks, even if he wants to convert, Goddess will not accept it... Klein subconsciously retorted in his heart, but he froze in the next second.
Yes, even if he is not a believer in Goddess, at least he still believes in "Artificial Death". According to my experience as "Fool" and "Sea God", at this moment, Goddess is likely to have a certain degree of authority over "Death" and be able to respond!
At three o'clock in the afternoon, deep red light flashed through the palace shrouded by Gray Fog, and the members of Tarot Club gathered here again.
At the top of the long table, "Fool" Klein's thoughts are not here.
After having lunch at Angel and returning to Backlund through "Mirror World", he tried to pray to "Artificial Death" and asked about "Pale Hand"'s recent behavior and the purpose of his meeting with the former Archbishop.
That "Artificial Death" who had never responded to believers since Numinous Episcopate started the project, actually gave an exact response!