Mystery: Mr. Witch and Ms. Hunter

Chapter 271 Shocking speculation

A familiar feeling came over Adele, and she felt her spirit rising rapidly, passing through the tidal gray mist, and finally appearing on her high-back chair.

During the ascent, Adele saw the appearance of the spirit world here: it was completely wrapped in a sticky black liquid, emitting an extremely ominous aura. If it weren't for the protection of the gray fog, Adele's naked spirit body would have been contaminated long ago.

Soon, the Tarot Club members appeared above the gray fog. Except for Miss Magician who still showed no signs of appearing, the rest responded to Adele's call for help.

Glancing at the other members, Adele discovered that Miss Judgment seemed to be in a strange state.

The last time we contacted her, she said that she was being hunted by the Iron Cross of Intis and the demigods of the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, who were not supposed to be in Trier. It seems that even members of the Tarot Club will inevitably suffer casualties when facing opponents who are also demigods...

Adele felt a little uneasy, but she still greeted each member politely.

"Hello everyone... Well, I don't know what time it is in the outside world."

Adele first made a simple statement, the subtext of which was that she was now in a place completely isolated from the outside world, so much so that she couldn't even tell how time was changing.

"It's twelve o'clock at night, Constance time."

Audrey immediately understood what Adele meant by the words, "You're calling a party at this time. There must be something very important going on, right?"

“For me, it does.”

Adele nodded. "I will need your help next... But before that. Miss Judgment, are you okay?"

She was worried that Miss Judge was still in danger, and if she stayed in the gray fog for too long, her body in the outside world might be in danger.

"Let's just get rid of those demigods for now."

"Judgment" Xio's voice was full of fatigue. "It is possible that they want to play the long game to catch the big fish, but when you were absent last time, Ms. Hermit had asked that lady to meet me at the seaside. I am now fleeing westward along the River Lane, so you don't have to worry about me for the time being."

"Well then..." Adele didn't refuse, "Then I'll make it short."

She cleared her throat and quickly described to everyone the situation that she had already sorted out in her mind.

"In other words, when you were exploring the abyssal whirlpool, you crossed thousands of miles of straight-line distance through the mysterious passage at the bottom of the whirlpool and directly reached the bottom of the Violent Sea. When you were exploring a complex relic, you encountered an air wall that required items blessed by the Mother Earth to pass through, and you were isolated inside the relic by the air wall?"

Alger briefly summarized it and asked Adele in a questioning manner.

"That's basically it." Adele nodded. "The spirit world here has been eroded by some kind of pollution from underground. All means of connecting to the spirit world except the gray fog will be polluted."

The Tarot Club members looked at each other in bewilderment, apparently somewhat sensitive to the word "pollution". The pollution in the starry sky had already caused one member of the Tarot Club to temporarily lose contact, and now another member was surrounded by pollution underground.

"I guess this might be some arrangement by Mother Earth. She wants me to come here and do something, so that she can give me the means to pass through the barrier."

Adele said her guess, then turned to Audrey: "You were the one who facilitated the cooperation between me and Sister Vespe. So when you used this to negotiate with the Church of the Earth, did the other party mention similar terms?"

"No." Audrey answered affirmatively, "The other party did not make any request similar to what I described."

"So, do you remember which saint you traded with?"

"The Moon," Emlyn suddenly interrupted.

"It's Saint Demer." Audrey replied.

"Saint Demer..." Emlyn looked a little confused, as if he was pondering the meaning of this name. Finally, he remembered the part in the holy book and asked Audrey:
"'Palm bearer' Demer?"

In fact, it is no wonder that he only realized it now. The number of church scriptures that have been passed down for thousands of years is much larger than imagined. There are dozens of biographies of saints alone, and the number of related scriptures is countless.

Ordinary people usually only read the scriptures that recorded the words and deeds of the gods they believed in, and at most a book about the deeds of the diocesan bishop. Saints like this, whose base was far away in Feynaport, were already pitifully unknown in Loen. Even Emlyn, who was forced to read books by Father Utravsky before, mainly knew the knowledge recorded in the scriptures. He was really not familiar with the affairs of his new colleagues whom he had never met.

"Yes, that's the guy." Audrey asked curiously, "Any questions?"

"If I remember correctly, she should be the 'God's Grace'..."

Emlyn answered hesitantly, "When I learned about her before, I didn't know the meaning of her title. Later, when I learned the name of the demigod of the 'Earth' path, I didn't connect her title with the sequence name."

He had communicated with members of the Tarot Club before and told other members of the Tarot Club that the Church of Mother Earth had two major systems: "God's Grace" and "God's Favored". All decisions made by "God's Grace" must be affiliated with at least one God's Favored to be effective.

After Emlyn finished speaking, he cast a questioning look at Audrey, the meaning of which was self-evident - have you confirmed whether the other party's decision is effective?
"Of course, there was also a favored person present at the time, Hector, known as the 'Mother Goddess' Scythe. He is the 'reaper' of the Hunter Path. The document was countersigned by him and Matron Roland."

Audrey nodded. Of course, she would never forget something Mr. Fool had specifically told her.

Emlyn and Leonard looked at each other, and there was suddenly a hint of complicated emotions in their eyes.

"This is the news I wanted to share at the Tarot Club next week." Leonard took over the conversation. "Mr. Moon just received news a few days ago that Hector, the Mother Goddess's Blessed One, has disappeared."

That person favored by God is missing?

Xio immediately became alert. Although the opponent was only a Sequence 5 Reaper, he was at least at the level of an Archbishop, and the Sealed Artifact he possessed was unlikely to be killed directly.

In the current relatively peaceful period, this disappearance is most likely caused by a problem with the channel itself or some conspiracy by the top leaders. No matter which possibility it is, it may have an impact on Audrey's plan.

As a good friend of hers, Xio couldn't help but look at Audrey with some concern.

Audrey's expression suddenly turned serious. "Is the news accurate?"

Leonard nodded heavily. "So, can you recall carefully whether Hector had any problems at that time?"

"At least at my level, I didn't find any problems."

Audrey answered affirmatively, "I did everything I could to confirm it, both before and after the incident."

With her insight of the third level of audience pathway, it was impossible for her to be fooled by simple mind control, puppetization, or anything else, so she made a firm judgment. "Even if it was a disguise created by an angel of Hermes' level, I would definitely be able to find something unusual."

"But, is there a possibility?"

The Hanged Man, who had been listening for a long time, hesitated for a moment, which was unusual for him, before he expressed his guess, "The other party didn't disguise himself at all, but directly created another 'Hector'?"

The last time he took the "Future" to wipe out the Psychological Alchemist Society, after spending some time with Frank Lee, the Hanged Man Alger felt that his thoughts were beginning to shift in a strange direction.

"If it is an angel who specializes in this, is it possible to create a similar existence? For example, the deputy mistress Roland?"

"Even Madam Roland can't do this."

Emlyn denied, "The 'Mother' pathway can create living people through life refining at Sequence 4, but that is limited to ordinary people. The abilities of the next two sequences, 'Coffin Bearer' and 'Mistress of Desolation', are not inclined towards creating life, but are more focused on the ability of decomposition and desolation."

"Perhaps the angels from the Mother Path cannot do it." Alger said word by word, "But, there are indeed angels from the Starry Sky Path who can do this, and you should be very familiar with them."

“How is it possible…” Emlyn was about to retort subconsciously, but he found that he couldn’t say the next word.

His voice was trembling. The Hanged Man's guess was too shocking. Even a guy like him who didn't care much about tradition was a little panicked. He swallowed and asked with difficulty:

"You mean, His Excellency the Duke..."

The three surviving dukes of the blood clan, whether it is "Eclipse" Violet, "Full Moon" Olmer or "Crescent Moon" Tesla, are all Sequence 2 "Creators" who specialize in life refining. Theoretically, it is indeed possible for them to create artificial Beyonders that even the audience saints cannot find any flaws in. If necessary, they can even create a team of pseudo-demigods.

"No matter what, this idea is too crazy..."

"Stars" Leonard said with a wry smile.

In fact, even the Hanged Man himself, who once worked in the system, naturally knew how bold his conjecture was. If even the Pope was contaminated by the power from the stars, the church would have been in chaos long ago. Moreover, if the Pope, who was in direct contact with the Mother Goddess, had problems, the Mother Goddess would not have reacted. Unless...

"Unless Mother Earth herself is also polluted..."

Audrey's face turned pale with shock, without a trace of blood.

Not only Audrey, but everyone at the table turned pale at this guess. Why would the victorious Mother Earth suddenly be seriously polluted, and what problems this pollution would cause, were unknown to everyone present.

"But the Earth Mother Goddess showed a lot of humanity in that solidified twilight world. According to the method of acting, doesn't this mean that She is in good condition?"

Adele hadn't quite come to her senses yet and just asked mechanically.

Alger glanced at her and said meaningfully:
“Is ‘abundant humanity’ really a good state for an ancient god?”

Adele was shocked when she heard this. Even though she was above the gray fog, she still felt as if her back was soaked with cold sweat.

"This matter still needs further confirmation. Anyway, the cooperation with the Church of Mother Earth has come to an end for the time being. Now let's get back to the issue of Miss Queen."

Seeing that the Tarot Club members were extremely shocked by this speculation, the Hanged Man Alger coughed lightly and brought the topic back to Adele's request for help.

"Currently, the Church of Mother Earth has not revealed any problems... Of course, if such a thing really happened, the fact that we found evidence would itself be problematic."

"Since there may be problems with the Church of Mother Earth, we need to re-evaluate the situation. During the next exploration, the Hanged Man and I will follow directly through the gray fog."

Audrey quickly calmed down and began to help Adele analyze the situation. The incident with the Earth Mother Church did make her feel frustrated, but she had already made similar mental preparations when playing against high-level strongmen, which made her act much more relaxed than other members of the Tarot Club.

"Of course, you need to grasp the timing yourself. I don't think you would be stupid enough to pray to Mr. Fool or to me and Miss Justice in front of Katarina."

The Hanged Man Alger added.

"Of course." Adele nodded. "However, my personal strength may not be enough in this ruins. If I continue to explore like this, the margin of error will be very low."

"This is indeed a problem."

The Hermit Cattleya thought for a moment and asked, "How many ceremonies do you have enough materials for?"

"If I don't have any new materials, I can only go above the gray fog three times at most."

Adele made a quick estimate. "But my sailors should be able to deliver the supplies soon. Items with spiritual power below a certain standard value are not restricted by the air wall."

"If your potion has been digested, I can give you another main ingredient for the potion so that you can be promoted now."

Cattleya pushed up her glasses. "Although the witch's promotion to Sequence 6 won't bring about a qualitative change in your abilities, but now with every increase in strength, your chances of survival will be much greater."

"Have you digested the potion?" Miss Judgment asked with concern.

"Almost." Adele answered truthfully. Although she didn't have many opportunities to act, the results of her acting, whether with the sailors or with Rayleigh, were quite successful, and she received a lot of feedback.

"Then let's do this. When you get out, find a safe place and get promoted immediately. I will keep an eye on your mental state through the gray fog. Don't worry about losing control."

Audrey officially made the decision, "You are not a 'Weapon Master'. Even if we send you some magical items through the gray fog, you will not be able to truly integrate it into your combat system in a short period of time. This is not a good thing for a Mid-Sequence Beyonder like you."

(End of this chapter)