Lang's funeral, as arranged and hoped by the family, or rather Mr. Fisher, had "high" preparations, but there was no scene to match. There are only two rows of seats in the church. All flowers, all arrangements, all decorations to express regret for the deceased are just a waste when there are not enough 'witnesses'...
You can't say that either. For traditional funerals, and for cremation, which has become popular in the new era, probably everything is a waste. Let's not be so realistic, well... Or, to be more realistic, these decorations and arrangements will not be wasted at all. They will continue to play a role in old Mr. Donna's funeral tomorrow.
Father Constantine finished his congratulations and asked the guests in the only two rows below, "Does anyone want to come and give a speech?"
Constantine had a list of guests. There were only three categories of people: friends and relatives of the Long family, the representative of the West End Servants' Union, Mr. Fisher. The priest under the statue of the Holy Child saw the first two categories of people and looked at Mr. Fisher, who finally occupied the exclusive category.
"I'll go first." Mr. Fisher stepped forward and stood in the position where Constantine stepped aside. When Constantine performed the Blessing of the Blessed Sacrament and left through the back door, Mr. Fisher's speech began, " Ron was a great employee, not just a great employee, but he was always a brother to Cody, like another son to me..."
Constantine, who walked into the work area at the back of the church, was not prepared to follow up on the burial ceremony. "Mike, the rest is up to you." He took off the collar that symbolized his priestly status and gave some tired instructions to the demon who came to help. .
"No, I won't host it." Mike seemed to be very used to living here. He took the collar that the priest took off and folded it carefully, "And I won't open my eyes and say to a few sad relatives, 'You My son will go to heaven." Mike's voice became lower, as if he was mumbling to himself. "And I can't say that he will go to hell. I personally confirmed that he is not in hell. It would be an outrageous joke for any priest or priest to show up at his funeral."
Constantine pursed his lips and glanced at Mike. Mike is used to life in this church, but Constantine is not so used to it. The strange devil in front of him either has a deep understanding of faith that even he, a priest, cannot reach. Or, he is just a simple high-level black man. Sometimes Constantine really couldn't decide whether he should look up or down.
Constantine shook his head, "Then let Mason go."
"Oh." Mike responded, and the two continued to walk towards the priest's office.
"How's Sloan?" Constantine asked.
"I'm still practicing with Blitz later." Mike raised his eyebrows, as if he was talking about something he was interested in. "It seems that he is very proficient. Can you feel it? Blitz's presence is constantly coming to the undead, high-level Switching between demon and non-existence." Mike suddenly curled his lips, "It's just that Blitz seems unhappy now. He has had nothing to do since he passed the level, and now he is assigned to do this kind of thing."
Constantine frowned. "Mike, you have to keep an eye on Blitz and don't let him get close to the prison or his former family, you know."
What is this talking about? Don't worry, this guy named Blitz didn't appear out of thin air.
"Yeah." Mike nodded, and as Constantine turned, he obviously went to check on Sloan's condition.
The afternoon sun is bright. Behind the church, a courtyard separates work and living areas. Sloane is here, blue translucent Sloane.
Sloan did not look at the approaching priest and demon, and stretched out his right hand to press on the high-level demon Blitz, who should not have any physical sense - a vague human form with black mist.
Blue fingers embedded in the black mist. Sloan's face was slightly serious, and he slowly retreated as if holding something with his right hand. The black mist that surged around the human figure began to shrink, gathering the right hand that was pulling back at Sloan. Until completely separated. When Sloan held a ball-shaped object mixed with jet black and bright red in his blue right hand, there was only a transparent thing in front of him that looked like an ice sculpture.
While the ice sculpture has not yet melted, take a look at his face. Although the transparency makes it difficult to recognize, the distinctive nose is still easy to recognize. It was the nose of that nervous woman from the South Side—Brill. Starting from this clue that they look like siblings, let's dig into our memories.
Blitz was the one who worked in Madison's first prison. The person who reappeared was obviously murdered, but the prison had to deal with the funeral affairs at will, which made Brielle and her fiancé Cerise dissatisfied. Finally, he was killed by Zach. The guy who called the shots and buried the urn in North Park. This guy is a high-level demon (the birth that Mo once felt in the North Park of the cemetery was him, the result of Constantine's research on the innate demon), oh no, now, he is melting.
The transparent 'ice sculpture' began to melt, and Sloan, who was holding the black and red thing, looked irritated. Only then did he look at Constantine, "This doesn't work! Every time I take out all the soul marks, the remaining 'things' , and began to disappear unconsciously like a wandering spirit!"
Sloan pushed back his right hand, and the black and red mottled sphere spread rapidly after being stuffed into the melting 'ice sculpture', pushing the shrunken body back to its original appearance.
"I don't know what you mean when you say it doesn't work." Constantine showed a smile. "In my opinion, you have accomplished what it took me half my life to achieve. Do you know how long it took me to find And master the method of peeling off and implanting the soul mark." Constantine looked at Sloan sincerely, "You said all you need is to pull it out and push it back easily."
Sloan twitched his lips, looked at Blitz, who had fully recovered, and shook his head, "But I'm not a researcher like you. I just want to use your research, and it doesn't work!" From a social point of view, Sloan's words are inappropriate, just like people who use telephones say to people who have spent their lives developing telephones, 'Your research is useless, no one answered the number I called.'
Constantine kept smiling, "Please be more clear."
"I want to save my friend." Sloan also maintained his irritability, "He is being hunted by something else that I don't know what it is. When Zach told me to find you, I thought you would have a way to get me A friend who can be rescued without alerting other pursuers!”
Without alerting other pursuers? This is what Zack envisions. If you can 'take out' the soul mark and let the incubus in the dream leave an empty shell, just get back the soul mark that represents Lip's existence, and then everything will be easy. The retrieved soul mark was completely stuffed into a wandering soul, and Lip was replaced. The empty shell left in the dreamland, no matter what it does, if someone catches it, it will be caught, it is just an empty shell.
(The empty shell here refers to what Constantine said when he first explained his research to Zach. In order to allow the devil to be judged a second time, the soul imprint was put into the fresh 'baby' soul. The expectation is that the bond will be restored. The state of the earth spirit led to a trial of faith. At that time, Zach asked where the 'baby' soul came from, and Constantine answered the wandering soul)
"It looks like you just finished it." Constantine glanced at Blitz and nodded to express his gratitude for his help. "You have been able to peel off the soul mark without any damage, take it away, and then put the new soul in In the body. Haha, your friend probably didn’t feel anything, he was already out of danger and was rescued by you.”
Sloan still frowned, suspecting that Constantine didn't understand what he meant. "Didn't you see that what remains after the soul mark is taken out will dissolve and disappear like the wandering soul! I think Zach has made it very clear that my friend's is a dream demon. Rescue him in the dream world! In the dream world, let’s not talk about Zach’s vampire who can’t even imagine dreams. But if even a dream demon needs to escape in a dream, it’s even less possible for me to fight in a dream! What I need is to rescue my friend. And then don’t leave behind the phenomenon that my friend has been rescued! Do you understand? I need this thing that has been stripped of its soul mark to stay in my dream and be found, beaten and killed by other people who are chasing it. Whatever! I need to make them think my friend has disappeared!"
"Of course I understand." Constantine expressed doubts, "When Zach came to speak, he already explained it very clearly." Although he was distracted, our vampire started to wander after he finished saying what he should do. , what a good man. "He wants to help you, but the nature of a vampire prevents him from playing any role other than watching. The only thing he can do, well, his exact words are probably to have the body cremated by the mill after being rescued. Completely cut off any influence on the other party. Opportunities continue to track Sloan and Grande's chances."
Sloan was stunned for a moment, he hadn't thought of this yet. Haha, it’s nothing. Not many people can keep up with Zach’s ideas.
But Sloan immediately shook his head, "Huh, is it useful to talk about this now? I can't even see the possibility of rescuing people now. The spices given by Alpha certainly strengthen the connection between the belt and my friends, and increase the possibility of me finding my friends." At the same time, it also increases the chance of him being exposed to other pursuers! After all, we don’t even know who is chasing him or how we caught up with a dream demon!"
Sloan seemed to be getting more and more irritated as he spoke, "If I can successfully find my friend, the time left for me will be very short, and it is very likely that I will be discovered by the other party right away. Therefore, I need your method to be effective, stay An empty shell that can distract the other party and hold their attention! Instead of immediately discovering that it is just a shell that will melt, catch up!"
"Yeah, is there something wrong?" Constantine was becoming more and more confused. This was the same as what Zach said before he was distracted, and Zach's expression was clearer, "You have already mastered a lot. Well, whether the remaining soul body will be 'melted' is completely under your control..."
"Huh?" Sloan stared at Constantine, "What did you say?"
Constantine raised his eyebrows, "I said, after you take out the soul mark, it is up to you to control whether the things left behind will dissolve."
"Are you there?" Sloan's face darkened. What had just happened? Was the other party blind? If he had stuffed Blitz's soul mark back later, Blitz would have no place to recover, and only Sloan's hand would be left. A bunch of 'proofs of existence' held in it.
"Aren't you there?" Constantine began to realize the problem and smiled again, "You can already peel off and master the complete soul imprint of a soul. It should be easier to only peel off part of the soul imprint. Haha, don't deny it. I have already felt that you made Blitz return to the state of the undead, that is, you only peeled off the marks belonging to the high-level demons." Constantine seemed to appreciate it, "Do you know how long it took me to put these The mark is hidden, no, carefully arranged into his original mark, in order to make this created natural devil more like a real natural devil, but it is so easy for you to find and peel them off, which makes me envious. .”
Sloan's blue version of the transparent face began to darken, because he also realized what the other party meant. Similarly, he ignored the social rules and ignored Constantine's appreciation, "What do you mean? You asked me to When you rescued my friend, you only peeled off part of the soul imprint that proves his existence, and then left part of it to maintain the remaining soul, so you are still a dream demon!"
"yes."
No one spoke.
half a minute.
"How can you bring up such an idea!!" Sloan actually got angry, "Part of me?? I want to save my friend! Not one, part of me is my friend! What about the other part?! That is still my friend... part of my friend ! He, they..." Probably the logic was confused, "Are they still my friends?!"
Constantine shook his head, but there was a smile on his lips, just like the kindness of a priest when he comforted others. What does this mean? It means that the priest is going to reason.
"Sloan, let me ask you a question. The soul mark corresponds to a person's memory. When a vampire's succubus eyes cover, erase, or change a person's memory, can you say that this person is missing a part?"
"This is different..."
"It's really no different. I personally put the soul mark that didn't originally belong to Blitz into his body. Does this mean that Blitz has an extra part?"
"Of course, he is just an undead, and now he is indeed a high-level evil..."
"Humans eat, and soul aliens continue to have other people's desires, sense of existence, and even devour soul marks. Can you say that they all have an extra part?"
"How can you compare their way of survival to this..."
"Human beings suffer from injuries, emotions or bodies, and sometimes have to give up part of their bodies, or forget part of their memories. The soul aliens continue to use the essence and existence they have absorbed as their own strength. In these constant increases and eliminations, , could it be that these people, these alien races, have completely transformed into something else as they continue to become more and more parts?"
Sloan stared at the priest and said nothing.
Constantine kept smiling, "This, you can say yes. More, less, it does change over time. Life is always changing. There is more and there is less, so don't pay too much attention to it."
Sure enough, the truth that the priest can say is like the message about faith at a funeral today, a bowl of useless hot soup. (.)