The Master of the Strange Realm

Now that Chesland has almost put all its strength into the Western Front, they don't seem to care about the fire at all. At least, before the dust of the war settles, the fire is not an important matter for the country.

(Finny is praying...)

Jenkins had invited the girls and Sigrid to visit Privet Drive tonight, which was not affected by Tarquin's death. But Jenkins did not postpone the visit because of something, but Mary took the initiative to postpone this important visit.

It's not that they are not ready to welcome guests, but that Jenkins's eldest brother, Newman William's fiancee's family has an accident.

According to the news Jenkins got, the family recently borrowed a large sum of money from an irregular channel, and then had a conflict with the other party because of the interest payment. On Wednesday afternoon, they were beaten up by someone who broke into their home.

Newman's fiancee's father and mother were injured and hospitalized. With this incident, the William family had to visit the hospital, so the original visit could only be postponed temporarily.

Although both matters were related to the marriage of their sons, the matter of the eldest brother Newman involved a matter of life and death. It was said that the injury was quite serious, so Mary and Robert had to postpone the matter on Jenkins' side.

As for the reason why the family borrowed money, Jenkins sounded a little ridiculous. They intended to purchase a large number of tulips. Mary didn't say much about the specifics. She was concerned about her eldest son's face and didn't want to mention more scandals in front of Jenkins.

But Jenkins also understood roughly, so he cautiously didn't continue to ask. The family's face still had to be considered.

Although the originally scheduled things were gone, Jenkins didn't fall into a state of having nothing to do. The joint meeting of the twelve churches must be held this weekend. For this reason, Bishop Palod helped him prepare a lot of documents. The Holy See also sent people to send documents for Jenkins to use as reference, as well as the preliminary plans and rough contents of the negotiations that the cardinals in the Holy See had held several meetings recently.

These all needed Jenkins to look carefully. This was not a simple matter, nor could he just write it down. He needed to master and understand it skillfully, so he had to spend more time on it.

Due to the confidentiality of some documents, even Jenkins could not take them home to read. So he stayed in the church this Wednesday night, met Finnie again, and told her about the flower girls. He had asked someone to deal with it.

Around eight o'clock in the evening, Jenkins was looking at the documents in Miss Bevanna's office. Miss Bevanna went to Evergreen Forest tonight, so Jenkins could borrow the office.

He sat on the sofa, worried about remembering the Demigod of the Church of Destiny and the Patriarch of the Church of the Sea incorrectly, but the names of the two people were only three letters apart, which was really difficult to distinguish.

He looked out the window at the thick fog, and then lowered his head to cut the apple into small pieces for Chocolate. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, followed by the voice of Mr. James Hurt from the Special Items Management Office:

"Mr. William, Director Bellini wants to see you. An old woman just entered the church, and there is something wrong with that person. Mr. Gilbert and Miss Kosina have already gone there, and Director Bellini said you'd better go and take a look... There can't be any problems with the church now."

Miss Bevanna is not in the church tonight, and the two demigods on duty are enough to ensure the safety of the church. As for Jenkins being in the church, it was purely because of the accident caused by tulips, so Jenkins did not think it was a conspiracy against him.

He stood up, picked up his cat and followed Mr. Hurt out:

"Where are they now?"

"In the main hall of the church... Actually, nothing dangerous happened, but... This thing is very strange."

The Sage Church is theoretically open 24 hours a day, but just like Jenkins is theoretically a bad guy who kills, sets fires and plots, sometimes what is said in theory is not necessarily completely accurate.

Of course, the church was still open at least after eight o'clock, not to mention that the night classes at the Sage Church were also during this time, so when the staggering old woman trembled and climbed the steps to enter the main hall of the church, the people guarding the door did not find anything wrong.

Jenkins walked out of the corridor behind the main hall and saw the old woman sitting in the second row from the pulpit. She was wrapped in a dark red headscarf, and the threads on the edge of the headscarf could be seen sticking to the headscarf crookedly. There was a very ordinary basket next to her, and she was wearing a somewhat gray and black linen dress.

Jenkins suspected that this color was because the clothes had not been washed for a long time, and this look was a typical look of an old man who came to the city from the countryside. Even if Jenkins was standing in the church to guard the church without using the Eye of Truth, he would not stop such a person from entering the church.

Chapter 1801 Chapter 1772 The Old Woman and Tarquin

He subconsciously stopped and put the cat, which was struggling because he was holding it up, back on his shoulder. He blinked and looked forward.

The soft divine light spread to almost every corner of the church, making the two demigods and the team of scribes hiding outside the door waiting for orders seem to be glowing.

Of course, the old woman also had aura, but it was not a black aura, but a dim golden yellow magical aura. In fact, it is not easy to distinguish between gold and yellow. Jenkins usually feels the nature of the power and then uses the color of the aura to judge.

The old woman sitting on the bench can't feel any power at all. Even though she can identify its identity through the aura and mentally understand that the other person is not human, she still can't detect anything wrong. This is terrifying. place.

"Jenkins."

Hearing the footsteps behind him, Mr. Gilbert, who was holding his arms, and Miss Koshina, who was standing next to him, both nodded to him.

"Nobody from the Office of Special Items Management has said exactly what happened."

He said softly, and then glanced at the sitting old woman doubtfully:

"I didn't notice anything wrong with her."

"You have to talk to her to find out the problem."

Miss Gilbert said, looking around:

"There is no numbered item corresponding to such a humanoid creature in our memory. Bellini has already gone to the Gate of All Things to find the secret keeper to investigate. Now we only need to observe. I think it is better not to find someone to demonstrate her characteristics to you."

Even Class B numbered items are still dangerous and are not something that can be experimented with. Of course, Jenkins would not cruelly force others to demonstrate it to him. He was mainly curious about what the other person's characteristics were.

"Once someone talks to her, the appearance of the old woman will change. Just now, a total of two priests went to talk to her. One of them saw her sitting there for a long time and wanted to ask if she was feeling unwell. "The other one saw the first one standing there with a frightened look on his face, so he stepped forward to help. Of course, to non-interlocutors, the old woman's appearance was always the same."

"Did it change because of the conversation? Is the changed appearance someone familiar to the interlocutor?"

"At least the two priests just now didn't recognize the changed faces they saw. The old woman seemed to have the ability to read minds. According to the descriptions of the priests, the appearance she transformed into was the one that made them feel most familiar. Their faces, and during the dialogue, they can also reveal their deepest secrets.”

Mr. Gilbert introduced.

"So the characteristic is that different postures and ways of talking depend on the person talking to you?"

"That's probably it."

Miss Koshina nodded, and then pointed to the gas lamp closest to the old woman:

"Another thing, all 'light' near her will be enhanced."

That gas lamp was indeed brighter than the others.

"Just now, I held a candle and did a simple experiment. Although the change in brightness is very small, there is indeed such a phenomenon."

Jenkins was slightly surprised, thought for a moment and then asked:

"Isn't this matter related to the [Light Chaser Club]?"

The group of cultists who aim to turn themselves and all humanity into light are experts in similar phenomena.

"If it's a numbered item that that group of people got out of nowhere, I think the old woman's characteristic should be to turn the interlocutor into a torch and burn it instead of letting them go after the conversation."

Mr. Gilbert said sarcastically.

The main hall of the church was temporarily closed, leaving only three people standing at the corridor exit to monitor. The secret keeper also encountered a problem. It took more than ten minutes before the apprentice was sent over, informing the three that no information had been found yet, and asked them to continue monitoring.

The church also sent people to deliver the message to Evergreen Forest. Although this matter does not appear to be dangerous at the moment, no one can tell what will happen in the future.

Of course, it is impossible to resolve this matter safely. Before the secret keeper found the relevant information, the three people who were still talking in low voices suddenly stopped talking. They saw that the old woman changed from sitting blankly with her hair down to supporting herself on the bench with her hands and slowly stood up.

"If she tries to enter the back of the church from this corridor, we will stop her."

Jenkins whispered, and the other two nodded slightly, watching intently as the old woman stepped onto her basket, and then actually walked towards the three of them.

Behind them is the corridor leading to the back.

Jenkins took a step forward, but Mr. Gilbert was faster than him. At the same time, Miss Kirshina also stopped in front of Jenkins:

"You can find someone to come over and talk to the other party to effectively stop her from moving forward. As long as we have enough people, we can stop her here for a long time."

No one wants to fight with something of unknown origin if it is not necessary. Of course, this is the Church of the Sage, and even if there is a fight, the church will most likely not lose. But now there are many ordinary nuns, priests, citizens who come to take night classes, children in the choir, etc., so before figuring out the origin of the other party, it is best to use peaceful means.

Jenkins knew that both of them were protecting him, so he didn't insist. He thanked them in a low voice and trotted to find someone for help. The most important thing that the church lacked was manpower, but considering safety issues and worrying that talking to the other party would lead to being infected with an information curse that had no obvious manifestation, Jenkins just called the benefactor and did not go to ordinary people.

At the same time, he also informed the secret keeper, who realized that the situation had changed and sent his apprentices to help.

A group of people stood in the corridor leading from the main hall to the rear courtyard, ensuring that every step the old woman took, she would meet someone who would come up to chat. It was impossible for Jenkins to stay out of the matter, but Mr. Gilbert considered that there would be a joint meeting of the church in a few days. It would be best for Jenkins not to take risks at this time, so he asked him to lead the team behind the old woman and did not arrange for him to be in front. Wait to talk to the person.

Things were going quite smoothly. Although everyone could only talk to the old woman once, there were enough people and the length of the conversation was affected by both parties, so this was very effective in "trapping" the old woman in the corridor. .

But when she finished talking to the fifth person, and ended the conversation with the calm "I didn't kill her" from the young man with freckles on his face, the old woman did not move forward. Just like when he was sitting on the bench, he seemed to be as motionless as a plaster statue.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Mr. Gilbert seized the opportunity to find someone to use soil manipulation to completely seal the exit on the other side of the corridor, and at the same time locked all the doors on the side of the corridor.

Sure enough, when the old woman started to act next time, she encountered a dead end along the corridor. Without moving forward or even stopping, she turned around and turned back.

Everyone in the church avoided her path of action and watched nervously as the old man returned to the main hall of the church, and then slowly walked out of the church along the road between the benches on the central axis. At this moment, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but the church could not allow this strange creature to wander through the city. Therefore, after discussion, Miss Kirschner and Jenkins stayed in the church, and Mr. Gilbert led the team to catch up. In addition to ensuring that the other party will not harm the citizens, he also wants to know where she is going.

"So what the hell is that?"

Watching a group of people retreating, Jenkins stood at the door of the church and asked the secret keeper who had just arrived, but he still could not find any records of similar things.

"Humanity's understanding of the world is still too shallow. Even the church cannot have recorded all ABC items. Especially items with no obvious characteristics or external characteristics are even more difficult to intervene. But there is probably no need to worry, at least for now. No malice was shown.”

The secret keeper said earnestly, and then turned around and returned to the church with Jenkins. If there are no accidents later, this matter will have nothing to do with them. After entering the city, all the twelve churches were obliged to deal with this matter. Calculating the time, the people in Evergreen Forest had probably got the news, and they would make appropriate arrangements to take in the old woman. At least judging from the current nature of the other party, this is not difficult at all.

"We'll be home in a little while, and Julia will have supper ready."

After bidding farewell to the secret keeper, Jenkins walked along the corridor, preparing to return to Miss Bevanna's office to continue reading the documents. As he walked, he lamented that the world is becoming more and more dangerous, and that the frequency of such emergencies may become higher in the future.

Talking to Chocolate about the next plan, he tried to touch his shoulder at the same time, guessing that Chocolate would be tired of this boring night, but his hand touched nothing.

He stopped in front of the door with some confusion, thinking that the last time he touched his cat was when he just met the old woman. That's when Jenkins put the chocolate on his shoulder.

"I don't remember the chocolate leaving my side."

He didn't panic, but thought silently. He looked around, then held his hand on the cold door handle in front of him, and opened the door with gentle force. The process that was supposed to be silent turned out to be a loud "squeak~" sound, which was a bit creepy in the quiet corridor.

The gas lamps in the hallway and in the room flickered three times simultaneously, then went out with a slight pop. The surroundings were extremely dark. Jenkins, who kept pushing the door, held his breath and waited for a few seconds. He was about to call out his monocle in the darkness, but suddenly saw a cold light in front of him. .

Looking up, the proud man Tarquin, wearing a brocade robe, stood in Miss Bevanna's office with a terrifying expression. The crown on his head and the clothes on his body showed a frightening green light.

Chapter 1802 Chapter 1773 Soul Transfer Station

"this......"

In the darkness, Jenkins was still touching the door handle and was stunned when he looked at the ghost in the office:

"No one really thinks I'm afraid of ghosts, right?"

He whispered, the expression on his face suddenly turned fierce.

He pulled out his cane from the darkness, took two steps forward, grasped the cane in his right hand and swung it, but before he could swing it down, Tarquin, who was staring at Jenkins with all white eyes, disappeared.

The surroundings returned to darkness again, and his monocle appeared silently in front of Jenkins' right eye. But the darkness here is not just as simple as the light disappearing. Even with a monocle, only part of the field of vision has been restored, and there still seems to be a dark fog lingering around.

This is definitely not a church, and Jenkins doesn't believe that anything can create such a scene in the Sage's church. Because there was always a dazzling golden aura in the church, Jenkins turned off the Eye of Truth early. Now that it was turned on again, the surroundings had turned into a magical aura similar to that of the old woman, which also verified his conjecture that this was not a church.

"So it wasn't the chocolate that disappeared, it was me that disappeared."

He concluded, and let out a sigh of relief, so there was nothing to worry about.

"But the green thing just now is indeed a soul. How did Tarquin's soul appear here? Or did I make a mistake? Is that spirit in disguise?"

After thinking about it, I didn't rush to explore here in the dark. Instead, I felt around in my clothes and took out all the miscellaneous charms and ritual materials I carried with me every day.

"It seems a little insufficient."

He thought distressedly, but such an unknown place was not suitable for wandering around to collect items, so he could only take out the new gift [Holy Spring Water Bottle] he had obtained not long ago. He groped around in the darkness and sat behind Miss Audrey's desk. He used a silver dagger to carve out a complete ritual array on the table. While activating the chain ability [Contact Death Messenger], he used the talismans and the other messy things. , along with a portion of holy spring water as a sacrifice.

After the gray light slightly illuminated the surroundings, a huge black smoke emerged from the circular array. The smoke flew upwards silently, and then suddenly fell onto the carpet in front of the desk, suddenly exploding in all directions, and Mr. Augustus in a black cloak appeared again.

"Mr. Augustus's appearance this time is a little different."

Jenkins thought to himself as he stood up from his chair to greet his friend. The other party also opened his hood. He was still the same as before, nodding towards Jenkins and looking very happy to see Jenkins again:

"Good evening, Jenkins...how did you end up in a place like this?"

The somewhat fair-skinned Deathbringer asked Jenkins.

"So you know where this place is?"

Jenkins blinked, knowing he had found the key:

"Actually, I don't know how I got here. I just saw the soul of a mortal who died recently, so I want to ask you whether that soul was my hallucination. If it was not an hallucination, why did he die? Mortal souls will remain here."

"I think that should be the soul of the person you know. There will be no false soul here... As for why it appears here."

Mr. Augustus hesitated:

"There are some secrets that shouldn't be told, but now that you're here, I think there's nothing we can do about it."

As he spoke, he pointed to the gas lamp on the wall that Jenkins could not light. Immediately, a faint blue flame rose from it, and Jenkins recognized it as the soul flame.

"Jenkins, I think you probably know that if a mortal dies and the god he believes in does not take away his soul, the soul will be broken in the material world, and most of the spiritual bodies will stay in the material world to wait for death. A small part of human nature and spirituality will The essence will be returned to the [Immortal Underworld]...well, you don’t know.”

He saw this conclusion from Jenkins' expression, so he paused considerately to give Jenkins time to think, and then continued:

"But the material world is not allowed to enter and leave at will, so the flow of souls requires an important transfer station. This not only ensures the safety of mortal souls, but also ensures that beings outside the material world will not find entry through the flow of souls. The door to the material world.”

"So this is the so-called 'transit station'?"

Jenkins suddenly realized that this was the first time he knew what the 'afterlife' of this world was.

"Yes, it is a soul transfer station. Generally speaking, the humanity and spirituality of the soul that has just died will stay here for seven days, completely washing away the traces of the material world. It is also convenient for the gods to send messengers to ask for certain things that were not there when they just died. This is also the reason why most of the rare and costly resurrection methods in the material world require that the time of death does not exceed seven days. After all, the most important part of the soul completely leaves after seven days, and no amount of magical means can bring it back. Reaching into the domain of my ancestor [the ancient god of death].”

Through the light of the faint blue flame, Mr. Augustus did not see a surprised expression on Jenkins' face. Instead, Jenkins saw an embarrassed expression on Mr. Augustus's face:

"Jenkins, it's okay for you to know this and you don't have to tell others."