Mysteries: Arcana Wars

Chapter 466 Smashing an Egg Against a Rock

Although the coffin man is dead, where did the things inside the coffin go?

Surely this can't just be an empty coffin? Or something so fragile? It shouldn't be!

"Two possibilities."

Leonard held up two fingers.

"One of them is something that was wrapped inside the coffin, and it escaped."

"Or perhaps it was just an empty coffin all along, and we were tricked into a scheme to distract us."

"It's that proverb from the Western Continent... 'Lure the tiger out of the mountain'..."

"...Merlin?"

"Merlin? Are you listening?"

In the blink of an eye, Leonard's voice suddenly drifted away; the sounds of cars, people, dogs, and cats all seemed to fade into the distance from Klein, as if the story had entered a slow-motion sequence.

Only one voice exists in Klein's world at this moment.

He couldn't resist turning his head to look at the source of the sound.

That was an ambulance.

Looking along that alley, the gray and white high-rise buildings on both sides made the view very small. The red and blue flashing ambulances wailed loudly, and the yellow bodies of the Earth Church Hospital were printed with green emergency crosses, slowly driving past in the narrow field of vision.

This is Geraldine's ambulance.

For no apparent reason, this thought popped into my head. Without any rational deduction or spiritual intuition, I simply saw the car, and a certain answer, like a pre-written program, began to run.

"...Merlin Hermes!!"

Klein was startled and finally came to his senses.

"Sorry, I was just spacing out..."

He pointed to the alleyway beside him.

"Geraldine is alright. I just saw her being taken away by the Earth Church's ambulance."

"The car is still a bit slow. We're quite far from the city center. No matter how fast the car goes, it will still take some time to get here from the Harvest Church."

"...No, that's not the point!"

Leonard rubbed his eyes helplessly, his thoughts once again being diverted by Klein's words.

"I mean... what was in that coffin?"

"Is it simply a way to attract our attention, or have we let something slip away...?"

It seems the pursuit has once again reached a dead end.

Even within the safe house apartment, divination involving the blessing of the Sky God remains risky, let alone when one is away from the location of the puppet manipulation. If one wishes to glimpse the fate of cultists, then it seems…

There is another way.

"Yes, we can ask Melissa!"

Melissa is not a god, not a mortal, not a character in the flow of the world, and does not even exist in this story.

She stood far away in the world, silently gazing up at the most complex, yet magnificent and colorful essence of this world.

If the story told by the illusion Melissa is true, then she must have a close connection with the mad goddess Alice. As a kind of illusion that operates based on the source matter, she must be able to glimpse the direction of this story from outside that void world.

This was not a fortune telling, but just a phone call, a greeting, and a question.

Melissa heard this and then told Klein the answer in her own way.

Even if it is nothing more than threads woven by the mad goddess Alice, interfering with a divination that shouldn't have succeeded, it has just demonstrated reliable power.

In any case, there is at least one breakthrough point now:

Using Melissa's crowbar for divination can yield answers in a subtle way.

"Ask... Elisa?"

Leonard scratched his head; he didn't recognize the name, perhaps due to the forgetfulness unique to the process of forgetting something.

"Wait, I remember now—it's your non-existent sister, the one whose name I can't even remember!"

He suddenly realized what was happening and, recalling the pursuit along the way, immediately urged Klein to perform divination.

"The method is very simple."

Klein explained.

"If the crowbar doesn't give a definite direction, then it means there's actually nothing here, and we've been tricked by the coffin man."

"If the crowbar eventually provides a clear indication, then it means that something ominous did indeed escape from the battlefield."

Leonard stood quietly to the side watching. Klein hesitated for a moment, then took out the bloodstained crowbar and stood it upright on the ground.

After taking a deep breath, Klein released his grip.

Without any hesitation, the crowbar fell steadily to the ground, pointing towards the suburbs on the edge of the city.

"...This is a huge problem..."

Leonard felt a bit overwhelmed.

The suburbs are not uninhabited areas, but rather areas with more vegetation and lower population density. Beyond the suburbs lies endless wilderness.

If this monster is allowed to continue its journey to the suburbs, it will undoubtedly pose a great danger to ordinary residents along the way.

Even setting aside the danger to lives, the pollution accidentally spilled along the way can become a disaster for ordinary people.

Now, Klein and Leonard have an additional task: evacuating the crowd.

The two were too busy to be in two places at once. If one of them was responsible for evacuation and protection, the other person who went to pursue the target might be in danger; if the two of them went to pursue the target together, the civilians along the surrounding area would be in danger.

A malicious trolley problem lay before them.

Fortunately, they still have a glimmer of hope.

“Audrey just contacted me to say that she didn’t get in the ambulance and is on her way.”

Backlund's buildings soar into the sky, and the concept of "alleyways" refers not only to the gaps between buildings on the ground, but also sometimes to the unevenness in height.

As they were chasing each other, the two had moved further towards the edge of the city. Audrey was coming from the road and would be there soon.

"Should we wait for Audrey to come back so we can act together?"

"Trying to take Audrey with you to your death? Dream on!!"

With a roar, Susie appeared before the two at lightning speed, having joined up with Klein and the others a few steps earlier than Audrey.

“Leonard, Audrey is your assistant. I have no objection to you taking her along to investigate the case.”

"But you want to take her to pursue the extraordinary incident? I won't allow it!!"

"Do you know what just flashed by? It was a terrifying monster!"

“Audrey is the girl I have carefully raised and nurtured. She is just a mortal. I will absolutely not allow you to gamble with Audrey’s life!”

Susie bared her teeth and let out a low, warning growl.

But neither of the two people present paid him any attention.

"This is what you meant by... a backup plan?"

Klein raised an eyebrow.

"..."

Leonard kept his eyes straight ahead and remained silent; it was clearly a crappy idea from Palles.

The fact that the two people in front of them showed no surprise at the fact that the dog could speak human language indicates that they were already veterans of the extraordinary world.

Experienced but ulterior-motives senior extraordinary beings, terrifying, bloody, powerful, filthy, and unobservable monsters, unpredictable and perilous situations, and endless dangers surround the two.

They are the eye of the storm, the source of danger, and the devils who attract calamity under the extraordinary law of aggregation.

Susie would never allow Audrey to be placed in such a treacherous environment!

"I'm taking Audrey away right now, and I'd like to see who dares to stop me!"

"If any of you dare stand in my way, you'll die here today!"

Without giving the two any chance to explain, Susie let out a loud bark, and her boundless spirituality transformed into a deadly mental storm that swept towards Klein and his companion, carrying boundless killing intent, as if she wanted to tear them apart.

Then disappear.

Susie's fatal blow vanished as quickly as it entered their minds, disappearing without a trace, as if it had never existed.

The scene suddenly fell silent. The two people and the dog stared at each other, all feeling an awkward and strange feeling.

……Eh?

What about that huge emotional storm I experienced?