The abandoned chemical plant has cracked brick walls on both sides, but it looks clean from the outside. There are not many creepers and weeds growing, just a layer of grayish-yellow ash and mud.
Rather than a factory, this place looks more like an abandoned villa or warehouse.
The corridor was not wide, and could only accommodate two or three people walking side by side. Because there was no lighting at all, even at noon outside, it was still pitch black after entering.
As soon as Aiwas entered the door, he smelled a very strong smell of dust and a pungent smell like durian, which was very choking.
Lulu held the child in her arms, coughing softly as she walked inside cautiously.
Even though she knew there was no one here, she still walked cautiously.
She felt her heartbeat quicken - even though she hadn't left the Glass Island yet, she had an unprecedented sense of adventure. Everything here was so new and exciting.
“We came here…”
Lulu whispered, "Is it to avoid the murderer? Since this is a chemical plant, should we get some chemical reagents for self-defense? What if he follows us?"
"He has to find the door first."
Aiwass spoke the overly precise information without hesitation: "There is no main entrance to this chemical plant, because the back door here is actually a dead end, and only the back door of the warehouse can lead here. After it was abandoned, the original main entrance leading here was blocked by the newly built stone warehouse. With the expansion of the warehouse, it was eventually completely blocked.
"This chemical plant is two stories high, and there are higher places that can be reached by ladders. There are a large number of interconnected rooms on each floor, and there are three staircases going up and down. If there is only one intruder, we have plenty of space to fight guerrilla warfare..."
He was halfway through his speech when he suddenly heard a death knell.
So Aiwass immediately fell silent and turned back to make eye contact with the two men.
"the fourth."
Sherlock said softly.
"There are three of us, plus the Bone Sculptor, which makes four of us."
Aiwass narrowed his eyes and asked, "Who else do you think can survive?"
"Coco. I suspect she's dual-path."
Sherlock reminded softly, "Do you remember, Fox? Lady Erini mentioned that 'this time there are three advanced people who have multiple paths'.
"You, the Knight, and Lulu are obviously new. The King and Cheese aren't very smart either. Apart from me and the Bone Sculpture, there should be another person... either Basil or Coco."
"I don't have much impression of Ms. Roller."
Lulu leaned over and whispered, "I can't even remember her features."
"This is one of the manifestations of the path of adaptation, gaining an advantage by hiding oneself and blending into the environment. Don't underestimate her - if you think about it carefully, you will find that among the nine of us, only Basil did not reveal any information. We know nothing about her."
The newsboy reminded, "If this is the New Moon Ritual, the one I would be most wary of would not be the bone sculpture, but her. Every transcendent who adapts to the Tao is a professional hunter and assassin. I will never feel at ease until she is dead."
"What about Coco?"
Aiwass asked back, "Why do you think Coco is a two-way street?"
"I'm not sure, but I'm more inclined to think that the third person is Coco. If you want to give a reason..."
Sherlock said: "That's what she meant by 'I'm not a demonologist by trade'.
"She was the last of the two captured, even later than the 'King'. The King is in Star Antimony, so Coco must not be in Avalon either.
"But in Xingti, although transcendence is legal, ordinary people cannot obtain extraordinary professions other than demonologists."
"Just like in Avalon, the only extraordinary professions in the Path of Authority are the Lawminder, Arbitrator, and Sky Cavalry?"
Lulu asked.
Sherlock corrected, "To be precise, there are only lawyers and supervisors. Not all supervisors can advance to arbitrators. Even if they have reached the level, they are not allowed to advance without passing the review of the Round Table. The necessary condition for the advancement of arbitrators is to obtain the 'right of arbitration', which allows them to bypass the court institutions and conduct individual trials.
"Even if an inspector enters the Inspectorate, he will only have law enforcement power at most. He cannot meet the requirements for advancement to an arbitrator.
"And the Air Cavalry, which Mr. Knight's Light Cavalry class advances to, is a class exclusive to the military system... Every Air Cavalry is the elite among the elites in the Avalon Army."
"Ah, I know that!"
Lulu's eyes lit up: "Only when the red griffin turns into a talking white griffin can it transform from light cavalry to air cavalry, right?"
"Yes. Only when their griffin companions reach adulthood, their dangerous reddish-brown fur completely fades and turns pure white, their physique rapidly grows from 1.8 meters to over 2.5 meters, their irritable habits become calm, and their intelligence improves to the point where they can speak simple human language... can the light cavalry be promoted to air cavalry. And this requires them to constantly strengthen their companions with the power of authority. White griffins need to eat 30 pounds of fresh meat every day when not training, and double that when training and fighting.
"The griffins that ordinary inspectors obtain are of different species. They can only grow to a maximum of 1.5 meters in their lifetime and cannot learn human language. They only need about five pounds of fresh meat a day and have a lifespan of only 30 years. They are more like loyal pets that can carry people to fly than companions. The white-feathered griffins used by the military can live for hundreds of years - when their human companions die of old age, the griffins are still alive.
"In the Xingtan Kingdom, the supernatural profession corresponding to the inspector is the demon, and the corresponding to the lawyer is the demonologist. An ordinary person enters the Royal Law University to become a supernatural person. He cannot become a light cavalryman when he graduates. Because the resources of pure griffins are scarce, the loyalty of the light cavalry must be guaranteed. Therefore, the light cavalrymen are only selected from the knight family - just like our Mr. 'Knight', he wore a helmet during the ceremony."
The Knight may not realize that he is actually the first person to open the box himself, and he opened the box a little faster than Lulu.
Because in Avalon, people outside the Knight family are not allowed to privately keep armor. There is a high probability that they will be sentenced to death.
This means that his father or mother must be a knight of the Round Table. That's why he can get a knight's helmet and become a light cavalryman.
"…A noble from the Xingti Kingdom?"
Lulu murmured, "I heard that Xingti has a family of 'nobles' that are passed down from generation to generation. They have titles, and their own land and manors. I've read about this in many plays and poems."
Avalon considered Star Antimony an enemy country, but did not dare to directly initiate a war... Part of the reason was that they were indeed unsure whether the royal curse was initiated by the Star Antimony Kingdom. And the power of Avalon was not so much concentrated in the Queen as in the Round Table Hall... Such a vague excuse was not enough for Avalon, which was much weaker in national strength, to take the initiative to declare war on Star Antimony.
The Xingti Kingdom is now the most powerful country on this continent.
They were once the only empire on this continent, and they remained powerful even after they split into four countries.
The Kingdom of Star Antimony, founded by Valentine I, who wrote the sacred book "The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony" on the Path of Balance, has now swallowed up two fragments of the former empire and restored 80% of the empire's territory.
Avalon can defeat Iris, but it certainly can't beat Star Antimony. Star Antimony's technology is extremely advanced, thanks to its alchemy research that is more than fifty years more advanced than Avalon. They just started a war a few years ago and annexed another neighboring country that had previously split from the empire... The huge golems that can regenerate continuously on the battlefield are terrifying.
Only when Avalon united with Iris and the Theocracy could they barely maintain a balance in the political landscape. But if anyone was really attacked by Star Antimony, other allies would not necessarily participate in the defense unless they showed strong resistance.
But Princess Isabel had another question in her mind:
A noble from such a powerful country... Why did he become a transcendent at this age
Although she looked very young, as if she was only in her early twenties, Isabel's keen perception of beauty and her knowledge as a woman made her sure that Miss Coco... or Mrs. Coco, was at least over thirty years old.
She must have used some alchemical drugs that could preserve her youthful, girlish appearance.
Is it too late to become a transcendent in my thirties
So she reacted immediately and said with certainty: "Keke should be the one with the dual path!"
"Why are you so sure?"
Sherlock asked back.
"Because Miss Coco is not as young as she appears. She should be over 30 years old. She has used alchemical drugs to maintain her youth."
“… I see. That makes sense… the fifth survivor should be Coco.”
Sherlock nodded slowly, his expression becoming more serious: "That might not be good."
Aiwass raised his eyebrows: "You mean, the enemy might be a demonologist?"
"Listen, you two. I remembered an incident."
Sherlock whispered, "Ten years ago in 1888, four years after the present timeline, a serial murder occurred in Lloyd's District. Every eight days, a pregnant woman was killed, her baby was brutally cut open and taken out, and her kidneys were also taken away. This is an obvious sign of ritual killing.
"The Inspectorate called it the 'Jack the Ripper' incident. I was sixteen years old at the time and was involved in the investigation of it."
The boy-looking detective spoke slowly: "The murderer in this case is a young demonologist who inherited a hook demon from his mentor. It was a demon that was born from the image of 'surgical abortion' more than a hundred years ago. Therefore, he tried to strengthen this image and use this ritual to strengthen the demon he got.
"We eventually caught him and executed him. But before he was executed, Jack told us that he had another master.
"—He confessed that his master stayed on the Glass Island for a long time and seemed to continue to serve a certain person. In the past few years, he killed many people for the mastermind. Recently, he went abroad, and it was said that his destination was the Horus Empire or the ancient Parthian Empire. 'In order to pass through the desert, he needed to keep himself clean, so he transferred the demon to me.' After that, his master never returned.
"According to the time calculation, the demon scholar should be on Glass Island now. The Ironhook Demon is a lower-level demon. It is not strong in frontal combat, but is particularly good at sneak attacks..."
At this point, Sherlock suddenly asked, "Were you cursed when you showed up?"
Aiwass and Lulu looked at each other and said, "We don't have it, but little Aiwass has it. It's a curse that's not very powerful, but it's used for positioning."
"That's right!"
Sherlock confirmed: "When I showed up, there were also the same types. I used magic to dispel them myself. This may be the reason why we have not been attacked until now... The curse positioning restrains the hiding ability of the adaptive path. The person who just died should be Basil. She persisted for a long time, but still did not escape.
"The Iron Hook Demon can use a curse to locate its target and directly jump across space. The Mirror Demon, which also meets the same requirements, needs a mirror as a medium. The Shadow Demon cannot appear at noon. Moreover, these two demons are both high-level demons..."
"Coco is only at the first level, right?" Aiwass asked.
"The Transcendent Path itself is well versed in demonic knowledge. The anti-demon ritual she performed should be able to dispel lower-level demons. It is also possible that she transferred the curse on herself to others."
"So, our enemy is the demon scholar who controls the hook demon?" Lulu understood.
"Well, to be precise, it was the Iron Hook Demon that he remotely controlled. The only problem is that although the Iron Hook Demon is only at the second energy level, it is too fast and good at sneak attacks... It is almost impossible for a second energy level transcendent to defeat it. Unless one of us has a law mage who can suppress it instantly, it is possible to kill it."
Sherlock frowned and said in a low voice with some dissatisfaction, "I don't know how much Bone Sculpture and Coco have increased the difficulty of this ceremony - they raised the difficulty, but they didn't cooperate with us!
"The three of us are definitely not going to be able to defeat the Iron Hook Demon, and even with the Knight, we probably can't do that. He's not an Overseer or a Law Mage, but a light cavalryman with no suppression capabilities. According to the difficulty of this ritual, we probably need at least one of Coco or the Bone Sculpture to cooperate with us before we can hope to repel the Iron Hook Demon.
"Now we can only hope that you don't have any other cursed items left... A second-level demonologist can only curse one person once a day. I've already been cursed, and there are only two of you left. If we're lucky, maybe we can delay until the end... There are only two hours left."
Hearing this, Aiwass subconsciously touched his nose.
… Let’s be honest.
I'm not bragging.
If the enemy is a demon... then the difficulty of this ritual may have been caused by my carelessness.