An open space, a crowd of fallen bodies, and Ember sitting on the ground.
If not for the absence of bloodstains, it would have been pretty much Ember's daily routine from before.
After waiting for a while, Ember still saw no trace of Shikanoin Heizou, so he stood up and shouted loudly:
"Shikanoin Heizou? Where did you run off to?"
He wasn't afraid of any Fatui reinforcements. No matter how many came, he'd just toss his "Hypnosis Pot" and that many would fall.
"Here..."
A muffled voice was faintly audible. Ember cocked his ear and listened for a long while before realizing the sound seemed to be coming from underground.
"Wait up!"
Ember loudly responded to Shikanoin Heizou's call. He took a deep breath, then threw a punch!
"Boom!"
The wooden floor, along with the bricks beneath, cracked inch by inch. An extremely complex "spiderweb" instantly appeared on the Training Field.
And at the center of the "spiderweb" was a huge pit large enough for one person to pass through.
"I'm coming!"
Without much hesitation, Ember jumped straight down.
"Bang!"
Ember landed, then saw Shikanoin Heizou cowering and trembling in a corner.
"Hey? What's wrong with you, kid? Did the Fatui here beat you scared?"
Ember patted Shikanoin Heizou's shoulder and pulled him up. Although he said that, Ember didn't see any Fatui here.
"What the hell? Those few Fatui, I wouldn't be scared unless it was a Harbinger!" Shikanoin Heizou immediately retorted upon hearing Ember's words.
He pointed upwards, "What happened up there just now? It looked like it was about to collapse."
Following the direction Shikanoin Heizou pointed, Ember saw the striking "spiderweb" above.
With those cracks overhead, it was no wonder Shikanoin Heizou was worried about a collapse.
"Don't worry about that, I punched it out." Ember waved his hand, signaling Shikanoin Heizou not to worry.
He knew exactly how much force he used. Otherwise, with Ember's strength, a punch wouldn't have just made a small hole.
He was mainly concerned that Shikanoin Heizou below might be affected.
"Is that so..." Shikanoin Heizou took a few steps back. He looked at the dense network of cracks above and wisely didn't ask about the fate of the Fatui upstairs.
"By the way, how's your investigation going?" Ember looked around the Training Field, which was almost identical to the floor above, and scratched his head as he asked.
If it were him, he would have just blasted his way through. Once upon a time, Ember also possessed a sincere heart, relying on his intelligence to find the correct path.
However, after he encountered underground tombs and caves, that sincere heart was gone.
But now with Shikanoin Heizou here, there should be no need for that.
"Three floors, there are three floors here in total. We are currently on the lowest floor, which is also the most important one."
"I estimate the person in charge here is on this floor." Shikanoin Heizou held up three fingers.
"Not only that, I also got a lot of useful things, probably left behind when they met an enemy attack and hastily retreated."
With that, Shikanoin Heizou led Ember to a shrine.
"A shrine?"
"What's important isn't the shrine, but the things nearby."
Shikanoin Heizou gazed at the shrine dedicated to the Seal of Baal. It was the Fatui's territory, yet there was a shrine dedicated to the Electro Archon.
It was, undeniably, a strange phenomenon.
"Using the Inazumans' reverence for the Shogun to hide their crimes? Quite clever, but my thirst for the truth is greater than my reverence for the Shogun!"
"Bang!"
With a punch, he shattered the wood near the shrine, and Shikanoin Heizou pulled out a scroll of parchment from the hidden compartment.
"What other crimes are there, let me see..." Shikanoin Heizou unrolled the parchment and read it carefully.
"The situation of the Inazuma civil war is still unclear. The longer the war drags on, the more advantageous it is for me..."
"To expand the resistance's demand for Delusions, incite the intensity of the war, and promote the determination of both commanders for a prolonged conflict..."
"Specifically request all colleagues to assist Lieutenant Nathan's work, cutting off Sangonomiya Shrine forces' hope for a quick victory..."
"Remember, do not leave any pretext for infiltration by our Fatui on either side!"
Shikanoin Heizou's expression became more distorted the more he read. He had originally thought this war was just an internal conflict, perhaps even a unified eruption of long-standing contradictions.
But now it seemed this war was nothing but a joke.
The trajectory of the war between the two sides was actually being manipulated by the Fatui, an external force.
"Fatui, I knew they were involved!" Ember didn't see anything else; he only saw the three big characters "Fatui" on the parchment.
Very good, it was time to let the Inazumans experience the "diligence" of the Snezhnayans!
"No surprise, the Tri-Commission..." Shikanoin Heizou tapped the wooden board in front of him. He saw the crystal marrow everywhere here and shook his head.
"The Tenryou Commission, the Kanjou Commission... the longer time passes, the bolder they become. I just wonder how the Yashiro Commission is doing."
Sighing, Shikanoin Heizou put away the parchment in his hand. If the Yashiro Commission was still clean, perhaps these things could be given to Kamisato Ayato, the head of the Kamisato Clan.
Only the Tri-Commission itself could bring down the Tri-Commission. As a detective, he could only do so much.
"How come I feel like you Inazumans are useless from top to bottom? So many moles?" Ember complained upon hearing Shikanoin Heizou's mumbling.
Of the three main national organizations, two were in cahoots with the Fatui. If not for the Electro Archon presiding, Inazuma would have collapsed long ago.
"How would I know? My home is just a small village, matters of important people, you ask me, who do I ask?"
Shikanoin Heizou also found it hard to see clearly the upper echelons of Inazuma. How was it that every one he looked at seemed to be a mole?
"Forget it, let's not dwell on this. Didn't you say this was where the Fatui person in charge was? Where did they go?"
Ember pulled out his small notebook to make a few notes about the Shogunate and the resistance, then asked.
"About that..." Shikanoin Heizou looked down at the Seal of Baal in the shrine. He reached out his hand, and a Seal of Baal, condensed from Electro, flew out of the shrine and circled around him.
Looking around the surroundings, Shikanoin Heizou saw a wooden door engraved with three large Seals of Baal.
As he approached, the Seal of Baal on him naturally embedded itself into one of them.
"It should be behind this door." Shikanoin Heizou looked at the brightly lit one-third of the door, not bothering to look for the other Seals of Baal.
Instead, he turned to Ember behind him and asked, "Do you want me to find the other two 'keys', or do you just go for it?"
"Which is faster?"
"It depends on your strength, Ember. This door is quite thick; I definitely can't force it open."
Shikanoin Heizou tried to gather elemental energy and punch it, but it didn't leave the slightest mark.
This door, which looked like it was made of wood, was harder than ordinary steel.
"I'll do it."
Ember pulled Shikanoin Heizou behind him, then lowered his center of gravity and threw a punch!
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The sound of steel colliding was incredibly jarring, mixed with the tearing and breaking sounds of the door.
Every punch Ember threw left a deep dent in the door. Sensing someone violently breaking the door, the Seals of Baal engraved on the door instantly released surging lightning.
For a moment, the entire door was stained with a layer of purple.
But this still couldn't stop the door's collapse. Initially, Ember left dents, but later they became holes.
"Thud!"
With the final punch, the entire door was completely transformed. It looked as if it had been torn apart by countless beasts, with jagged, sharp edges and protrusions where it had broken, like growing blades.
"Hmm? Are you the one in charge?" Ember was slightly surprised. Because standing before him was a Mirror Maiden.
"Just a friendly reminder, don't use illusions on me."
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