New Gods of North America.

Chapter 628 Meaning
Wayne and Inessa waited for a while at the "Garbage Mountain Yard".
After confirming that the condition of the two injured people at the scene had not deteriorated further, Connor was responsible for escorting them to the church's property in the dock area to rest and receive treatment, while the two quickly moved on to the next possible ritual circle location.

Wayne also has an "emergency rescue" role, so he cannot stray too far from the geometric center of each point in the ceremony to avoid being unable to get there in time if any situation arises.

So the two of them ended up traveling together to the intersection of the "cross" in the twisted Pluto symbol. If Inessa continued to move to other locations, Wayne would have to stay put for the time being.

Before leaving the courtyard, Wayne also took a few moments to peek into the ruins of the junk warehouse.

Perhaps because this place wasn't directly detonated by the person manipulating the ritual, there are more traces left behind. Although the specific shape of the magic circle is no longer visible, there is a ring of rotting meat and offal around it, with obvious signs of being gnawed on. There are also a lot of dead rats, but they all seem to have died during the curse's outbreak.

On the way, he casually added his extraordinary knowledge: "So those problematic rats we found before were attracted by that meat?"

Inessa nodded from horseback. “That should be it. This is probably also why Brother Merlin was able to detect the problem in the first place—rats are living creatures after all, and there is a certain distance between being ‘contaminated’ and ‘controlled by the ritual,’ so a few may escape due to various factors. Such signs may not be obvious, but they are by no means impossible to detect.”

Wayne recalled for a moment, "But I don't think I noticed there were too many rats at the distillery last night."

At least the distillery doesn't have the same "flavor" as the garbage courtyard we just left.

"There are still rats... but the bait used there definitely has less of an odor."

Inesa seemed to be speculating as well, “This might be related to the ‘location’ of the magic circle. Now that I think about it, the magic circle in the distillery was located at the end of the ‘crescent’ of that mysterious symbol, which in mysticism represents the soul and transcendence—the other spot I found today is its symmetrical point, and there wasn’t much of a smell there either.”

"The magic circle we just saw was located at the intersection of the crescent moon and the cross, which is the connection between the soul and the mortal world, so it may have characteristics of both. According to this logic, the remaining nodes should all have more of the meaning of the 'mortal world'."

Wayne seemed to understand. Within the structure of this ritual, there appeared to be a progressive process: the rats were initially attracted by the most direct desire for food, and then gradually controlled or "sublimated."
If we think about it this way, then in the location representing the "present world," a more direct bait would be needed, attracting even more rats and making the smell even stronger. Therefore, a place with an even stronger odor would be needed to mask the smell...

Well……

Thinking about this, I suddenly don't really want to go...

Inessa continued, "Although the followers of the Tranquility Cult seem to have abandoned the ritual and may flee, rationally speaking, they have been planning this for some time. Even if they choose to give up now, they are still more likely to retaliate against those who disrupted the ritual before leaving. Therefore, it is still necessary for us to destroy the remaining nodes as soon as possible and be wary of their attacks."

The United States is quite different from the Kingdom of Windsor in this respect; they would rather the prisoners stay than let them run away, as they are easier to capture.

Wayne, still slurping holy water on his horse like a drunkard, nodded upon hearing this, "I'll remind everyone to be careful."

……

The raw material warehouse of the rubber processing plant, in a broad sense, is actually part of the "warehousing area" within the dock area.

Geographically speaking, this area is closer to the dock than the residential areas and is located in the "downstream" basin of many waterways. That's why it's grouped together with "sewage disposal units" such as leather workshops and road cleaning departments' waste dumping sites on the map.

Wayne and his group first encountered two detectives from the Detective Agency who were investigating in the vicinity. Unexpectedly, they reunited with Brother Merlin and his group nearby. Upon seeing each other from a distance, the latter rode up on horseback: "I've been to the waste dumping site. The situation is largely under control. There are people there, taking steps to neutralize the waste. Have you found the magic circle?"

“No. We just arrived and are still looking,” Wayne said truthfully.

Some places are clearly marked on the map, but the actual difficulty of finding them varies.
Just like going to the city hall to do business, even if you know the specific address, when it comes to the procedures, you still can't help but "wander through a maze," constantly searching from one office to another. Only places like the mayor's office can be found easily.

The same applies to the storage area; neat rows of walled warehouses stretch out everywhere, even though they veer off to the sides, they still likely all fall within a straight line on the map.

Unfortunately, there were no obvious house numbers or anything, and it was pitch black at night. They all looked pretty much the same, so we could only roughly determine the area by the smell in the air.

Inessa had just taken off her bird-beak mask and was tilting her head back as she searched for directions. She quickly pointed in one direction, "It should be this way. There's a smell of spoiled blood."

Three monks, including Brother Merlin, joined the group. The group wandered around the area before finally settling on a storage courtyard they had passed twice.
After finding the entrance and passing through the wall, the guards who rushed over upon hearing the commotion were immediately subdued by two monks wearing tight-fitting uniforms under their outer robes.

"This is Mr. Wade Mason's property!" The lead guard, with the agents pointing guns at him, chose to raise his hands, too afraid to resist.

Wayne had seen the gentleman at a ball hosted by members of the "Industrial Alliance" and was about to speak when Brother Merlin stepped forward, pulling out his badge. "Police investigation. I am Inspector Merlin of the Richmond Police Department. If there are any problems, Mr. Mason can come to the police station to see me afterwards."

After a cursory search, the two monks nodded to the Merlin monk, and the guards were then released.

The guards here seemed to only have the duty of protecting the house. Even the head guard didn't have the keys to some of the warehouse doors. After the group wandered around the yard for a while, Inessa finally located a large warehouse in the corner.

Brother Merlin didn't have the search warrant the head guard wanted, but he wanted to open the door, and the guard didn't dare stop him.
The experienced detective "Vine," who had some knowledge of lock picking, didn't act rashly. He obediently assisted a monk, and the two of them used tools to cut the thick chain on the warehouse door.

As soon as the double reinforced wooden door was opened, Wayne couldn't help but cover his nose with his hand.

Holy crap, the flavor here is just too addictive...

Before anyone could even enter, in the darkness illuminated by the kerosene lamp, faint, reflective lights, like tiny eyes, began to appear one after another, stretching from the ground all the way up to the top of the shelves where one had to look up to see.

"Watch out for attacks!"

"Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak—"

The pulsating "black tide" surged in like ocean waves.

(End of this chapter)