The entire house contained nothing unusual, except for the room where Brown Scott had been.

In fact, even the room "contaminated" by the gray-black mud held no trace of the supernatural—aside from the visual shock of the strange mud, there was no supernatural power within the building.

All that was not of this world had departed with Brown Scott's disappearance.

On the first floor, Galoni was still asleep. The tall, stone-skinned Senkin woman leaned against a corner of the sofa, her sleeping posture peaceful and serene, her face relaxed.

In her dream, she was still a student under her teacher's tutelage, living a peaceful life. Her learned and kind teacher had just returned home after years of traveling and was about to tell her many stories of distant lands.

"If Heidi were here, she could brew some potions to at least make the girl feel better when she wakes up," Morris said, looking down at Galoni on the sofa, his expression complex. "I can tell she and Brown were close."

"…The shadows will pass," Duncan said. After a moment of silence, he rummaged in his pocket, pulled out a small crystal pendant, whispered something to it, and placed it in Galoni's hand. "Have a good dream. Everything will be alright."

Morris watched Duncan's actions quietly. After a long while, he couldn't help but ask, "You still brought those pendants with you?"

"…I ordered too many last time, and I couldn't sell half a box. No one even wanted them as gifts," Duncan said, his expression difficult to read (mainly because of the bandages), his tone odd. "So I thought I'd take the opportunity to give them away during my travels… Want one?"

"No, thank you," Alice quickly waved her hand. "I'm not really suited for men's accessories."

Duncan said calmly, "Some supernatural beings might appear, or suspicious shadows lingering around the building, if there are any."

Even a battle-hardened Inquisitor couldn't help but twitch. Duncan glared, lowering his voice. "What are you doing?!"

Alice thought for a moment. "Aren't you annoyed that I'm causing trouble?"

In a strange shadow that the streetlights couldn't illuminate, a dark, writhing form suddenly emerged!

Quick as he was, he finally noticed the strange expression on Duncan's face.

Morris could see invisible "lines" floating around people, and he had always taken this as a normal phenomenon that everyone could see. It was so natural to him that it only came to light now due to a casual remark—perhaps this was his ordinary power as a normal 099, or perhaps there was a simpler, more bizarre explanation. But in any case, these things should not be studied now.

Then, he saw Morris next to him suddenly remembering something. He leaned forward—and then the puppet raised its hand, cupped its head, wiggled it around, and popped it off with a "poof." Then, with one hand on the wall and the other holding his head, he waved it around in the corner, facing the outside.

"Still there, and swaying slightly from side to side," Alice said, looking up at the streetlight diagonally opposite. She reported in a low voice, but then frowned. "Ah, it seems like a few are missing?"

But for a loyal cleric of the Storm Goddess, a "sword" was not such an inconvenient thing.

A "copy" that had returned from the deep sea had been active in the city-state for many days, and this copy lived in the building not far away—the Annihilation cultists who served the Deep Lord could not be unaware of this.

Alice looked puzzled, but just as she was about to speak, she seemed to sense something again and couldn't help but glance outside. "Miss Vanna, I always feel… like someone is far away, but I can't see them."

Almost instantly, a skeletal shadow emerged there, followed by a deformed freak connected to the skeletal shadow by chains—

In just one glance, Duncan realized what it was—an Annihilation Priest in deep symbiosis with a Deep Sea Demon, who had "purified" his body to a very high degree.

Annihilation cultists regarded their flesh and blood bodies as prisons created by the gods, and their way of serving the Deep Lord was to constantly use demonic power to transform their bodies, "purifying" their forms. This process would cause them to develop more and more demonic characteristics, making them less and less like humans—Annihilation cultists who had been purified to a certain extent would have their limbs mutated to the point where even temporary transformation spells could not return them to human form, and they could no longer function in human society. Therefore, they could only rely on lower-level cultists to support them. But in return, they would gain more powerful strength and a stronger, more direct connection to the Deep Sea.

Vanna controlled her breathing and heartbeat, concealing her aura and power. After confirming that there was still no movement on the street, she hid in the shadows of the building again.

"Just diagonally across, under this streetlight," Alice said in a low voice, even squatting down to show her caution, while pointing her finger outside the alley. "It's not just you who sees the lines, but I don't see anyone."

I know what's important.

"Heretic!"

A cold night wind blew through the dark and silent alley. In the dim light cast by the gas lamp at the intersection, Vanna vigilantly watched the movements around her.

"…I can't see, but now is not the time to talk about this," Duncan suddenly snapped out of it and forcibly focused his attention on her and the streetlight. "Are those lines still there?"

She hadn't reacted yet, only looking in the direction Alice was pointing. After two seconds, she suddenly paused and looked back at the puppet. "Lines? What lines?"

She felt it was difficult to explain clearly to this solid-headed person, so she simply didn't explain it.

Vanna: "…You're right."

"A few missing?" Vanna's heart skipped a beat. The next moment, alertness rose within her. The combat instinct honed over many years and the crisis prediction bestowed by the goddess exploded in her senses, causing her to suddenly look towards a certain location deep in the street.

"The street is very quiet. There's no one around," the puppet finally couldn't help but say, probably unaccustomed to the overly silent and oppressive environment. "Miss Vanna, what are you looking at?"

Alice stood beside her, also pretending to look around—obviously, she had no idea what Vanna was paying attention to.

Speaking of which, she suddenly paused and added, "Oh, right, Miss Vanna doesn't have it—but I'm not Miss Vanna, so it's normal…"

But she herself was very clear about the meaning of staking out here.

After waving her head around in the corner, Alice quickly put her head back on with a "poof" after hearing Vanna's voice, looking innocent. "I was checking the movements across the street…"

These cultists were indeed watching this place!

"…Are you seeing things?" The puppet hesitated for a moment, thinking of the only explanation. "Um, I won't laugh at you. The Captain said that people's eyes are different…"

Someone was hiding in the distance, and now he or they were exposed in the puppet's sight—that was what mattered.

"Someone in the distance?" Vanna instantly became alert. She did not relax her guard just because Alice seemed particularly unreliable at this time. Instead, she immediately tensed her nerves, sensing the surrounding aura while asking in a low voice, "What location?"

Miss Vanna and Miss Alice went to investigate the situation outside the house. They were neither investigating nor luring—would cultists be watching that place? Would the power that sent "Brown Scott" back have any unusual movements tonight? Would shadows lurk in this street? In the event of unwelcome guests, would these shadows still be able to sit still?

"…What do you think Mr. Duncan is having us wait outside for?"

It was even possible that they were behind this.

The air compressed, the water vapor dissolved, and the breath of the sea and wind instantly compressed into a sharp blade of solid ice in his hand—just barely useable.

This was a person, or at least his outline was still that of a person, but his body had long been twisted and swollen into a horrifying state. His skin was charred and curled as if it had been scorched by fire, and his bones were dislocated and overgrown, forming discontinuous plates of bone on the surface of his body. Sharp bone spurs protruded from and extended from his back, like the remains of some deep-sea monster, and in the place where his face should have been, one could only see a hollow depression, flickering with a dark red glow.

Alice was saying and saying, the voice finally stopped gradually hesitant.

"Next time you have a plan like this, tell me in advance…" Vanna stared at the puppet across from her, but swallowed the words halfway through, and waved her hand with a tired expression. "Never mind, don't worry about it."

"Just the lines on people, everyone has them, floating from their bodies up to the sky," Alice gestured, saying as a matter of course, "Behind their heads, and on their hands and feet…"

In order to operate in the city-state, she did not carry the blessed steel greatsword.

The thought flashed through Vanna's mind, and in the same instant, her body leaped high into the air.