Duncan ultimately failed to dig out any more memories from his mind.
Although the original owner of this body did care about Nina, and things related to Nina were indeed the most profound memories in his mind, years of illness and abuse of alcohol and drugs had severely damaged these things. When the cultist named Ron exhaled his last breath, there were not many warm memories of his family left in his numb mind.
There was only one thing that was certain: there had indeed been a fire eleven years earlier, in the downtown area—a fire that had taken the lives of Nina's biological parents and had permanently changed the trajectory of the child's life.
This may be a coincidence, but there is a more likely possibility that this incident is really related to the "sun fragments" that these solar cultists are looking for.
The unexpected appearance of a solar fragment caused a fire in the city, killing innocent citizens and turning a child into an orphan. Several years later, the child's only remaining relative became one of the cultists who followed the solar fragment...
It seems that there is a bad fate in the dark, which revolves around the sun as if trapped by gravity.
At this moment, someone from the surrounding church suddenly spoke up, interrupting Duncan's thoughts: "I've asked around these days, and I haven't heard of any famous fire in the downtown area eleven years ago... But someone mentioned that a factory leaked, and the poisonous gas from the tank spread over several blocks, causing many people to hallucinate and go crazy. This incident was even reported in the newspapers at the time."
Duncan looked up in surprise and saw that the person who spoke was an ordinary-looking female believer.
But before he could seriously think about what the other party said, he noticed that the cult leader turned his eyes to him: "Fellow countryman, you happen to be a local here, do you know the situation in this regard?"
Duncan was startled, and suddenly realized that he had become the focus of the scene - for this group of foreign believers who were trying to collect intelligence, he, a local who "lived in the lower city of Plande", was undoubtedly a good source of intelligence!
Noticing several gazes coming from all around, he thought for a moment and came up with an explanation: "I didn't live here eleven years ago, so I don't know the specifics, but I did hear about the factory leak..."
While perfunctorily answering, he looked at the female believer who had just spoken: "Is it true that there was no major fire in the Lower Town eleven years ago?"
"At least that's what I heard," the believer nodded. "According to what I heard, there hasn't been a major fire in the lower city of Plande for at least twenty years... There have been small fires like kitchen fires, but that's obviously not a consideration."
Duncan blinked and said nothing.
He clearly remembered that Nina's parents died in the fire eleven years ago! The fragments of memory in his mind even showed him rushing out of the fire with Nina!
What went wrong? Was there a mismatch in the memory of this body? Or was the fire not in the downtown area? Or... it was just that the cultist in front of him didn't know the truth...
He was slightly puzzled because the incident involved Nina and "himself". He subconsciously paid attention to it. At this moment, he heard another voice coming from the other side. It was the girl named Shirley: "The factory leak incident eleven years ago... Was it the one that happened in the sixth block?"
"Sixth Block? Hmm... that seems right," the female church member nodded. "It is said that this incident had a huge impact at the time because the chemical substances left many people with sequelae. Many residents in the lower city still remember it today."
Several believers nearby nodded in agreement, and it seemed that they had also heard similar information.
"Factory leak..." The leader in the center of the gathering suddenly broke the silence. His deep and majestic voice interrupted the conversation among the believers on the scene. "The apparent production accident is very likely a supernatural event disguised by the authorities, and it happened at this point eleven years ago... This is a very important clue. Next, we will investigate in this direction to see if the so-called factory leak points to the sacred sun fragments."
The believers at the scene immediately nodded in response, and then the masked leader said, "In addition, we should not only pay attention to the extraordinary events that occurred in the Lower City eleven years ago, but also pay attention to the unusual events in the Plande City-State in recent times.
"Although the Sun Fragment is still dormant, its awakening day is approaching, and its activity is increasing every day. Four years ago, our fellow church members tried to awaken the fragment in advance. Although the attempt failed, and even caused the Deep Sea Church to strangle it madly due to the failure of the ritual, the attempt was not completely ineffective. The stimulation of the awakening ritual further deepened the connection between the Sun Fragment and the real world, which was enough to allow it to have the power to interfere with reality a short period of time before it fully awakens. This may help us find it.
"Pay close attention to newspapers and street rumors in the city-state in the near future. Any unusual events may point to the sun fragments. Don't miss any clues. Do you understand?"
The believers bowed their heads and respectfully accepted the order. Duncan noticed another key point mentioned by the leader:
four years ago!
Four years ago, the Deep Sea Church of the Pland City-State did destroy the largest solar heresy stronghold in the city in one fell swoop. It is said that the incident was extremely grand at the time, and it was also the battle for the current city-state Inquisitor "Vanna" to establish her authority. After that, the solar believers in this city have never recovered until today.
All Duncan knew was this superficial information. Now it seems that the truth of this matter is that the Sun Cultists in the city wanted to awaken the sun fragments sleeping somewhere in advance? !
Unconsciously, a series of truths hidden in the past were revealed before Duncan. He quickly combined the known fragments of information in his mind, while thinking about how to get more information from these cultists. But at this moment, a strange smell suddenly entered his nostrils.
It smelled like burning sulfur, mixed with a sour, pungent odor like some chemical.
The next second, ordinary believers around also smelled the pungent and obvious smell. Some of them looked at each other, as if looking for the source of the smell. The leader standing in the center of the assembly hall reacted instantly. He suddenly took out an amulet imitating the sun from his arms - the amulet was exactly the same as the sun amulet carried by Duncan, and its surface was burning with an illusory translucent flame!
The pungent smell came from the flames.
"Dirty impurities... The flame has been deceived!" The leader took a look at the burning sun amulet and his voice suddenly became filled with shock and anger. "There is a heretic hiding among us!"
There was an uproar at the scene. Duncan's first reaction was that he had been exposed. Although he didn't know how he was exposed, the sun amulet carried by the leader seemed to have finally identified him as a "heretic" who did not believe in the sun at all.
Thinking of this, he sighed slightly and prepared to release the pigeon, but before he could make any move, he heard another sigh coming from the other side -
The sigh came from the girl in the black dress, a girl named Shirley. She shook her head regretfully: "I knew that Agou was unreliable. His disguise wouldn't last for three hours."
Before she finished her words, a ball of dark flame suddenly exploded beside the girl!
The flame appeared out of nowhere, with the shape of fire, but as black as a shadow. It ignited on the girl's arm, and within a second it spread to nearly one-third of her body. The next moment, Shirley's right half seemed to have turned into firewood for the black fire. Amidst the crackling sounds, the flame flowed down, and the part in the air turned into a black chain, while the part that fell on the ground condensed into a bony, burning monster in the blink of an eye!
It was a pitch-black demon dog, a huge canine that was more than half a human's height. Its body seemed to be made up of countless twisted and stacked bones. Where flesh and blood should be, it was filled with burning black fire and wriggling shadows. Its head was bony and hideous, and where the eyes should be, there was a hole with only blood-red light mist inside, filled with boundless hunger and malice!
A pitch-black chain extended from the giant dog's neck to "Shirley's" arm, and was faintly integrated with the girl's body.
"The Deep Hound... The Summoner of the Cult of Annihilation?!" The leader in the center of the venue was shocked and angry when he saw this scene. "What does this mean?! Are you guys who worship the Deep going to go to war with the followers of the Sun?!"