Cline, hiding in the shadow of a house several hundred meters away, kept looking at the target building in the darkness. He vaguely heard a loud wind noise and clearly distinguished the clanging of guns.
"If the enemy were to flee towards this area, should I draw my gun and make a show, or pretend not to see?" His body trembled slightly, and sweat trickled from his palm as he thought.
The extraordinary person who could shorten the life of the dying by any means was definitely not just Sequence 9 or Sequence 8. It was beyond his divination skills to confront this opponent directly. Even sacrificing himself might not be able to delay the other party and create an opportunity for Dunne and Leonard to catch up.
Fortunately, the Night Goddess who controlled the calamity seemed to have heard the plea of her "faithful" guardians. No one fled towards the place where Cline was hiding.
After several minutes, he heard a singing melody wafting from the target building.
Turning his ear sideways and carefully distinguishing, Cline confirmed that it was the folk tune that Leonard Mitchell often hummed, filled with vulgar words.
Sighing, he let out a breath, holding a gun in one hand and a staff in the other, stepped out of the shadow and moved towards the target building.
This folk tune was exactly the meeting signal he had agreed with Dunne and others!
Just after taking two steps, Cline suddenly paused, placed the walking stick against the adjacent iron fence, and switched the revolver to the other hand.
Then, he unbuttoned the silver chain in the cuff and let the yellow crystal pendant fall naturally.
After exchanging the revolver and the spirit pendulum, Cline waited for the pendulum to shake steadily, immediately closing his eyes partially and entering a meditative state, and silently reciting the divination sentences:
"The singing just now was an illusion."
"The singing just now was an illusion." ...
After seven rounds, he opened his eyes and saw the pendant rotating counterclockwise.
"It's not an illusion..." Klein's heart returned to its original position, he held the spirit pendulum in his hand, picked up his walking stick, and quickly approached the arched iron gate of the target building. Then he handed the silver-inlaid black walking stick to his right hand, along with the revolver, and they were both held.
As he reached out to touch the railing, attempting to push it open, he suddenly felt a bone-chilling chill coming in, just like being stuffed with ice cubes in a state of total surprise.
Scream! Klein jerked his hand back, baring his teeth.
"Here is just like winter..." He gazed towards the garden behind the iron gate, through the faint starlight and the distant street lamps, and saw that the vines were withered, the flowers had fallen, and many leaves were covered with frost and fell onto the dark brown soil.
Wow! Klein muttered to himself in admiration, tapped his brow twice with his fingers, and activated his spirit vision.
He took the silver-inlaid black wooden walking stick from his left hand, used it to press against the railing, and exerted force to push open the partially ajar gate.
With a creaking sound, he turned sideways and passed through, stepping onto the stone path that led directly to the gray-blue building. On both sides were plants that seemed like ghosts in the darkness.
Such a scene made Klein involuntarily think of all kinds of ghost stories and supernatural movies.
He subconsciously slowed his breathing and quickened his pace, but just a few meters later, his left shoulder was suddenly slapped by someone.
Plop! Plop! His heart paused for a moment, then beat violently.
He raised his right hand and aimed the revolver in that direction, then slowly turned around and looked over.
In the faint light, he saw a branch swaying precariously, almost falling.
"Is this called scaring yourself?" Klein's lips twitched, waved his walking stick, and knocked down that branch.
He continued walking, and in his ears, he began to hear faint crying and wailing sounds. His eyes also reflected transparent, blurry, and almost invisible "ghosts".
These ghosts sensed the breath and warmth of living beings and swarmed over.
Klein was startled and immediately ran. With a thump-thump sound, he rushed into the main door of the gray-blue house.
Was this what the captain meant by the atmosphere? It was indeed much more terrifying than the time when he helped Sir Deville. The resentment was obviously more rigid than the "ghosts" and lacked active aggression... As he thought, he walked towards the altar in the center of the living room, which was a round table, and it was filled with crudely made puppets. Besides, there were three extinguished candles.
Dunn Smith was standing in front of the altar, facing away from Klein, picking up the puppets one by one to watch.
"The undertaker" Frye was quietly observing the floating "ghosts", trying to reach out to comfort them, but could only pass through helplessly, and the "ghosts" did not attack him, seemingly treating him as a kind of fellow. Leonard Mitchell saw Klein arrive and changed his tone, his voice became low and magnetic:
"This is a peaceful morning,"
"Suitable for that even more peaceful and sorrowful mood."
"Only the sound of fallen autumn leaves"
"The sound of chestnuts gently landing." (Note 1) ...
In this gentle and soothing singing of the poem, Klein seemed to see a lake reflecting the shimmering moonlight, and a red moon hanging motionlessly in the sky.
Those "shadows" calmed down and no longer chased the breaths of living beings and the warmth of flesh and blood.
Dunn put down the puppet in his hand and turned around, saying to Klein:
"This is a terrifying curse ritual. Fortunately, we have destroyed it."
"First, you set up the ritual to soothe the remaining spirits, then try to communicate with them to see if you can get any clues from them."
Realizing that he was no longer a burden, Klein immediately held his chest up and said:
"Yes, Captain."
He walked two or three steps to the altar and reached out to sweep the puppets off the round table.
At this moment, his peripheral vision caught the different names and corresponding information on each puppet.
"Captain, do you have anyone you recognize?" Klein casually asked.
After asking, he looked at Dunn, and Dunn looked at him. Both of them fell into silence.
I'm so stupid... How could I ask a test for the captain's memory! Klein almost sighed with his face covered.
If it were any other leader, they would definitely find an opportunity to give me a hard time. Fortunately, fortunately, the captain will forget about this... I really don't know if this is an advantage or a disadvantage... He thought half in relief and half in mockery.
After a few silent seconds, Dunn seemed to finally distinguish between reality and dreams. He said:
"There is someone you recognize."
"Who?" Klein stopped and stopped arranging the candles.
"Joyce. Meyer, a survivor of the 'Lima Bean Disaster'." Dunn replied briefly with simple words.
Joyce. Meyer? Anna's fiancé... Klein immediately thought of Solus from the poorhouse, who seemed to have been instigated and induced to explode prematurely, attempting to set fire.
He withdrew his right hand and said in a deep voice:
"The 'Instigator' Tris?"
"He used the shortened lives of the dying as sacrifices to try to curse all the survivors of the 'Lima Bean Disaster'? Because he didn't know who discovered the problem and reported it to the police..."
If Tris directly took revenge, it was unlikely that he could kill all the targets scattered in different places in one go. After two or three cases, he would be noticed by the night watchman, the penitent, and the mechanical heart, losing the opportunity to continue his crimes... Klein almost imagined the reason why he chose this way.
Dunn first nodded, then shook his head and said:
"Not all survivors, but all the survivors in Tingen City. His curse ritual can only affect the people within this area."
"Also, the host of the ritual is a woman, not Tris."
Klein furrowed his eyebrows slightly and said:
"Perhaps it's a powerful being sent by the Mystical Knowledge Society to assist Tris?"
"Well, the source of the Mystical Knowledge Society may be related to the Witch Cult, and it's normal for a powerful being to be a woman."
Dunn smiled and said in a rich voice: "I agree with your judgment. Although there is only this woman here and not Tris, we can make necessary guesses. For example, they don't live together, for example, Tris is out looking for dying people."
Klein didn't say any more. He arranged three candles, took out full moon essential oil and deep red sandalwood and other materials, and quickly set up the altar.
He created a sealed wall with a silver dagger and began to pray to the "Night Goddess, Lord of Sleep and Silence" to completely calm the "spirits" inside and outside this house.
Unfortunately, in the subsequent spirit communication stage, Klein only saw a few remaining images of the survivors' lives before death, and did not obtain any useful clues.
After these "spirits" truly fell asleep in the night, he ended the ritual, removed the spirit wall, and shook his head at Dunn, Leonard and Fry:
"This place was severely damaged by the backlash of the ritual, losing the remaining images of the owner."
Dunn pointed to the stairway without surprise: "Then let's go to the second floor and look around again, try something out."
"Okay." Klein and Leonard and others immediately agreed.
The three night watchmen walked up the stairs and reached the second floor. They began to search each room separately.
Finally, they met in a bedroom with a faint fragrance, saw the disordered piles of dresses, and saw the opened but not closed boxes.
"Are these cosmetics?" Dunn picked up a box from the dressing table and smelled it, casually asking.
"Actually, they are called skin care products. Since Emperor Rosser, they have no longer been mixedly referred to." Leonard smiled and corrected, "Captain, as a gentleman, you still need to know the necessary knowledge."
Klein did not join their discussion and turned his gaze to the mirror on the dressing table.
This mirror showed obvious cracks, and fragments fell onto the carpet.
"That extraordinary person was a bit in a hurry and didn't destroy thoroughly enough..." He suddenly spoke in a low voice, "Perhaps we can try it."
"Leave it to you," Dunn replied trustingly.
Klein quickly brought up the candles from the first floor and lit them in front of the broken mirror.
In the flickering yellow candlelight, he took out items like full moon essential oil and created a spiritual wall.
After doing all this, Klein stood in front of the mirror that reflected the light of the three candles, reciting in Hermes language:
"I pray for the power of the night;"
"I pray for the power of secrecy;"
"I pray for the favor of the goddess;"
"Pray that this mirror gains a brief restoration, pray that it presents everyone who was reflected in it in the past month." ...
As the incantations were uttered one by one, a strong whirlwind suddenly blew within the spiritual wall.
The fragments of the mirror were swept up and placed back in their original positions.
The cracked mirror emitted a dim light, floating with a dark glow. As Klein touched it with his hand, a figure suddenly appeared in the reflection, but it was not Klein directly in front of it.
This was a young girl with a round face and a gentle, sweet demeanor. Perhaps it was because the mirror had been damaged, or perhaps it was due to the backlash from the interrupted ritual that affected the second floor. Her features were rather blurry, making it impossible to clearly see her appearance.
Even so, Klein still felt an inexplicable familiarity with the other person.