"Heh."
Cecil let out a cold sneer.
It was unclear whether she was mocking her opponent or the Seventh Agency's abysmal luck today.
She didn't waste words. Her right hand, clad in a leather glove, reached inside her coat and pulled a polyhedral crystal directly from the void.
A highly compressed surge of grey-white energy was sealed within the crystal. Cecil applied pressure with her fingers and slammed it onto the water-logged, broken brick ground.
There was no loud explosion, only a muffled, low-frequency vibration.
In an instant, a transparent energy dome, looking like an inverted hemisphere, rose from the ground, completely enveloping her and the blonde woman.
The noise from the outside world was instantly and absolutely cut off.
"Deacon Valor," Cecil spoke coldly, her tone professional and carrying the characteristic hardness of the Seventh Agency.
"When it comes down to it, the case in Hope County involves items stolen from the Seventh Agency."
"Recovering lost property is our responsibility."
"There is no need for the Dawn Church to interfere."
She stared at Valor's expressionless face.
"As for this case, it was merely an underground workshop we happened upon while pursuing a thief."
"No one expected this place to involve an infernal demon."
"If the church wishes to track the demon, you are free to do so."
"Hmph!"
The blonde woman named Valor let out an unceremonious snort. Her gaze swept over the transparent soundproof barrier.
"A Silence Sphere?"
"For a low-Scale investigation captain, you certainly carry quite a few high-quality items."
Valor's tone was unabashedly condescending.
"However, you had better understand the current situation."
"These ruins hold more than just the nauseating stench of the inferno."
Valor's sharp blue eyes locked onto Cecil.
"A Sacred Candle was also lit."
Cecil's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
"You had better investigate tonight's events quickly," Valor said, her tone turning extremely severe.
"Regarding how a Sacred Candle fell into civilian hands, the church will launch a rigorous internal investigation."
Cecil remained silent, not responding.
She knew that the woman hadn't come here in the middle of the night just to say these things.
Sure enough, Valor changed the subject.
"A few days ago, the church received an anonymous letter."
"It issued a warning to us."
"The letter requested that the church initiate research into the history of Moon Bay."
"It claimed that something is trapped beneath Moon Bay."
"I wonder if the Seventh Agency received one as well?"
"Hmm?" Cecil looked at Valor with some surprise.
"Headquarters did indeed receive one."
"Currently, we've only traced it back to Hastings Port."
Valor did not dwell on the matter further.
"But do not forget. It was your Seventh Agency's upper management who secretly requested our church to help you investigate Wayland Capital."
"Now, a church vessel has secretly set sail from Landon and is heading toward Hastings Port."
Valor lowered her voice, her tone carrying a hint of warning.
"To avoid alerting Wayland Capital, the church has expended a great deal of effort."
"Otherwise, I wouldn't have used this method to exchange information with you."
Valor asked rhetorically with a blank face, "You didn't truly think I was standing here just to mock you, did you?"
"Of course not."
Cecil took a deep breath. She understood the dangers of this kind of secret cross-departmental cooperation.
"I will report the intelligence to my superiors exactly as it is."
"Good that you know," Valor said irritably, readjusting her church robes at her waist.
"I hope the Seventh Agency's internal information relay is truly as reliable as the legends say."
"Naturally."
Valor pointed toward the perimeter of the ruins.
"The man in the ruins has already been sent to Lily of the Valley Convent in the outskirts."
"There are Life Scholars protecting that place, so it is relatively safe."
"Once he recovers, the Seventh Agency can send someone to take him away."
Leaving it at that, Valor turned and tore through the edge of the Silence Sphere, leaving the scene without looking back.
Watching Valor's figure vanish into the night, Cecil deactivated the spell.
The noise of the real world flooded her ears once again.
She couldn't help but feel a deep headache coming on, pressing her fingers against her throbbing temples.
Her team members were either dead or injured; she was now a commander without an army.
But the work still had to be done.
With no subordinates to order around, she had to conduct the scene investigation herself.
She first retrieved a piece of evidence from the police officers cordoning off the area.
It was a dilapidated small wooden box.
Opening the box, she saw a soul coin radiating a cold, deathly aura. It carried a faint scent of an infernal creation.
Next, she unclipped the brass spirit-measuring device from her waist.
Click.
As she turned the gear switch, the needle on the dial immediately began to jump violently.
Cecil held the device up and began to conduct a general check for spiritual traces within the ruins.
Combining the police reports with the feedback from the device, she quickly reached her first conclusion.
Indeed! The man the church sent to the convent was likely the real Mester.
Whatever the others had eliminated was either an illusion or a puppet.
But as the investigation deepened, the feedback from the spirit-measuring device made Cecil's brow furrow tighter and tighter.
The needle on the dial trembled frantically.
This was... spirituality of the Three-Phase Moon pathway!
There was another Moon Lord believer at the scene?!
Cecil stopped abruptly.
Following the traces, she rapidly reconstructed the battle that had occurred here in her mind.
Then, she reached an extremely absurd conclusion.
This unknown Moon Lord believer had actually fought Mester directly?!
But what about the infernal aura? Why had it completely vanished? It couldn't have been a false alarm from the spirit-measuring device at the time, could it?
Finally, when Cecil reached the second floor, she detected a lingering trace of high-Scale infernal aura.
Cecil stared at the spiritual concentration threshold displayed on the device. Her beautiful eyes widened.
"A Scale One?"
A mere Scale One, the lowest rank, actually dared to challenge an infernal demon?!
But what she found even more incomprehensible came next.
Since they had fought, why did they stop?
She held the spirit-measuring device and followed the traces all the way. The trail was intermittent, and by the time it reached the first floor, the infernal aura had completely vanished.
Only on the second floor could it be detected that this infernal demon had once acted.
But why... why didn't that brutal infernal demon kill him?
Cecil stood in the center of the ruins, falling into a state of extreme self-doubt as she looked at the spiritual traces.
She was certain that the Scale One had eventually left safely. It was just that after leaving this place, they had immediately retracted their spirituality and vanished into hiding.
Were the three parties working together? No! If they were together, why would they have fought in the beginning?
She had no leads. It defied all logic.
Cecil irritably turned off the spirit-measuring device's detection.
Finally, her gaze landed on a corner of the ruins. There was an open wooden cabinet and a safe.
She walked over, activated precision detection, and used an Arcane Detection spell.
After repeated comparisons, she found faint Moon Lord spirituality lingering on the safe.
This indicated that the safe had originally been tightly wrapped in spirituality. The items inside should have been the soul coins, the stolen goods extracted here.
But now, it was empty, the contents gone without a trace.
Cecil swept the spirit-measuring device around the area repeatedly. She didn't detect any of the traces that a large batch of soul coins should leave when their infernal aura moved.
It was incredibly clean.
She absolutely did not believe that Mester would have only a single coin—the one the police found—after going through all this trouble!
Then there seemed to be only one truth. The other coins must have been taken by that infernal demon!
So... what exactly was that other Moon Lord believer who appeared out of nowhere doing here?
Combining the residue on the safe, an extremely ridiculous thought suddenly popped into Cecil's mind.
The only explanation she could think of was...
That guy came here just to pick the lock.
?
Cecil herself was shocked by this absurdly extreme thought.
Was this logical? A low-rank transcendent running into a demon's slaughterhouse just to crack a safe and then hand the money over to the demon?
However, given that the information she currently possessed was extremely incomplete, she could only force her reasoning to this extent based on the existing traces.
"Wait!"
Cecil's movements suddenly froze. A flash of insight struck the depths of her mind.
She suddenly recalled what Deacon Valor had mentioned earlier.
A Sacred Candle was lit!
A Sacred Candle... no wonder there was no infernal aura on the entire first floor!
"Then what is the point of investigating!"
Rate on N.U.
