Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 128 Psychic
Church of St. Samuel.

Claire knocked on the door of Cecima's office.

"Come in." Creste Cesimard, who was sitting behind the desk, frowned, his high collar covering his chin.

"Lord Cecima, is this another difficult case?" Seeing that Creste did not avoid her sight with the documents in his hand, Claire asked.

"It's still the Aurora Society's case." Krestel sighed. "After wiping out the stronghold headed by Mr. A, the Aurora Society's influence in Backlund was indeed severely damaged. However, according to the known intelligence, some Aurora Society members are still lurking in Backlund... After suffering the loss of a divine messenger, the Aurora Society is still so obsessed with Backlund. This gives me a bad feeling."

The heads of the Aurora Society's lunatics are filled with praise for the true Creator. Even experienced official Beyonders find it difficult to guess their thoughts and actions.

No longer discussing the Aurora Society, Creste took out another stack of files from the side of his desk and said to Claire:

"Galadia, you've arrived at the perfect time. The 'serial murder case' previously transferred to the Nighthawks is becoming increasingly stressful... Al Hassan, the captain of the Nighthawks squad in charge, has just formally requested assistance from our Red Gloves in the investigation."

Krestel handed the application and the case file to Claire at the same time. "But we're also short on manpower, and Daly is currently on your team, so I'd like to ask if your team can provide support in the near future?"

Claire took the file and saw that the number of victims in the "serial murder case" had accumulated to five. Based on the investigative clues in the file, she suspected that the murderer was a Beyonder from the "Criminal" path.

"criminal"……

This was a sequence pathway Claire had never encountered before. After considering it for a moment, she asked, "Is there any more detailed information about the 'criminal' pathway mentioned in the information?"

Hearing Claire's question, Crestai looked up at her, a puzzled expression on his face. "This kind of knowledge is taught to Red Glove members during their training at the Sanctuary. Galadilla, haven't you received training at the Sanctuary?"

Claire smiled bitterly and said, "I was specially promoted during an incident, so I missed out on a lot of basic training."

Creste suddenly realized, "No wonder you went to the database to look up various files after arriving in Backlund... But due to confidentiality regulations, much of the knowledge accessible only to captains is only stored in the database of the Temple."

Creste had also encountered situations like Claire who was unable to participate in the training due to various reasons. Moreover, Claire was brought here by Her Highness Arianna herself.

Therefore, Krestey did not presume to speculate about Claire's background. Instead, he helped Claire fill in the gaps in her knowledge.

"The low- and mid-level sequence names for the 'Criminal' pathway are, in order, 'Criminal', 'Broken-Winged Angel', 'Serial Killer', 'Demon', and 'Apostle of Desire'."

The sequence name is the key to the "Acting Method". Just by looking at these sequence names, one can be sure that it is difficult for the Beyonders on this path to maintain any conscience.

Creste said with a headache, "The Beyonders on this path generally worship higher-level demons, and the vast majority are members of the secretive organization 'Blood Worship Cult'."

"Even I, despite having handled numerous demon-related incidents, don't know much about the Blood Cult... The organization's internal structure is loose, divided into several independent demon families."

Afterwards, Krestai briefly described some of the salient features of the "criminal" pathway sequence.

Krestey's description reminded Claire of Mrs. Orianna, the accountant during the Tingen period.

It was Orianna who was implicated in a serial murder case sixteen years ago and became a civilian staff member of Tingen's night watch team.

In the description of the case that year, the victims also lost some organs.

So, Claire said, "So, the perpetrators of these cases are probably playing the role of a serial killer?"

Krestey frowned and said, "Even if it's a Beyonder from the Criminal Path, their methods in this case are too sophisticated. I suspect the murderer is more than just a Sequence 7 'serial killer.'"

Because there's a certain danger, is that why they've sought out the free "Necromancer" Daly and me, whose methods are mysterious?... Claire grasped Creste's thoughts and said, "No problem. Once Daly and I finish dealing with the Meazza family, we'll begin the investigation."

Hearing Claire say this, Creste also asked, "Are you sure you can appease the Meazza family?"

Claire put down the file in her hand, her face expressionless as she calmly said, "Actually, when Count Sifrides gave in, he was certain that the Meazza family would not continue to pursue this matter."

Krestey nodded and sighed, "You're right."

Claire continued, "The focus of the subsequent arrangements will be on how to soothe Jessica's heart... Daly and I already have a solution for this matter."

"Does the church need to cooperate in any other way?" asked Krestey.

Claire said, "I need to requisition the Yusir Cemetery in the northwest suburbs. To prevent accidental damage to the cemetery, please leave the daily patrols of the cemetery to my team for the next two days."

"No problem." Krestai agreed straightforwardly.

"Also..." Claire said at this time, "I want to develop an informant into a Nighthawk. That's the talent that can just fill the gaps in my team."

"Has the informant...ever had any connection with evil gods or cultists?" Krestey asked.

Claire replied, "She herself is a follower of the goddess."

"That's no problem."

Creste, who was once the captain of the Red Gloves, knew very well how difficult it was for these captains, so at his suggestion, the church delegated more power to the Red Gloves captains, including the power to recruit new members.

Although this also gave rise to some new problems, overall the benefits outweighed the disadvantages, so these policies were ultimately implemented relatively smoothly.

"Recruiting team members is the right of you Red Glove captains. But remember to keep that person's information in the archives and try to keep the information complete... Otherwise, if there is a problem with the team member, you, as the recommender, will also be investigated and held accountable. The archived information will also be very important at that time." Creste reminded.

Claire was also well aware of these precautions and nodded to indicate that she had received them.

After leaving Cecima's office, Claire first went to the data room to file Hugh Dilcha's information, then headed to Daly's home in the North District, where she found Daly Simone, who was almost bored to death.

"Daly, it's time to prepare to deal with Jessica Meazza's matter."

After welcoming Claire into the house, Daly placed the half-finished letter to the Holy Church under the desk and shrugged at Claire, saying, "Captain Galadilla, it's so touching to hear about the mission from you... I'm so rusty that I could use some lubrication."

Facing Daly's joke, Claire said helplessly, "Daly, you just said last time that you wanted to learn to be more conservative."

Daly shrugged. "But I found that I don't like feeling constrained. Okay... when are we going to complete the commission?"

"Just today, I've applied for the right to use the Usier Cemetery. I plan to disguise myself as Claire's remains in the cemetery chapel and contact Jessica Meazza." Claire roughly explained her plan and added, "But... there's a problem."

"What trouble?" Daly asked nonchalantly as she sat down in front of the dressing table.

Claire sighed softly and said, "We've found a lead on Tai Perslan, the person we're tracking. She got the information from somewhere and found out that Jessica would come to get her hands on Claire's body."

Daly, who was applying blue eyeshadow, was startled when she heard this. She looked at Claire from the reflection in the dressing table mirror: "Ty Perslan?"

Claire nodded and said solemnly, "So I guess Tai Perslan might come and cause trouble."

After hearing what Claire said, Daly's eyes became sharp, "It's not impossible, it's certain!" During these days without any missions, Daly was not really idle. While tracking down Tai Poslan's whereabouts, she also understood Tai Poslan's temperament, thoughts, and behavior by reading the case files.

Therefore, Daly said in a decisive tone, "Given Tai Perslan's obsession with Claire, he, no, should I call it she... she will definitely come to snatch Claire's body!"

Claire frowned and said, "Does that mean we must be prepared to fight the enemy? Should we delay Jessica's contact with the remains, or seek help from the church?"

Dai Li thought for a moment and shook her head. "No, we don't know which link leaked our operation, so we can't rule out further leaks... If we ask for help or postpone the operation, I'm afraid it will disturb Tai Perslan."

As Daly's mind kept thinking about various plans, his eyes gradually brightened. He continued, "Actually, this is our chance to capture Tai Perslan!"

"Chance?" Claire murmured.

Daly smiled and said, "Yes, there couldn't be a more perfect opportunity than this!"

Claire hesitated and said, "But isn't this choice a bit dangerous?"

Daly's eyes flickered, revealing a hint of a smile, helping Claire strengthen her confidence. "We decide the time of contact, and we can set traps at the contact location in advance. We also have the advantage in numbers... We have the advantage. This trip is truly the perfect timing!"

Driven by Daly's strong motivation, Claire went with her to the Yusir Cemetery to make arrangements. Daly was a "necromancer mentor" and was very suitable to display her strength in the cemetery.

After a busy period, Claire lay in the coffin prepared by the church, ready to transform back into her original appearance at any time.

However, after summoning the mist butterfly through spiritual communication, when she was about to merge with it, Claire was really a little hesitant.

The near-death experience she had after fusing with the Mist Butterfly for the first time some time ago has made Claire somewhat resistant to this behavior.

Especially those seemingly real illusions... Even now after waking up, they continue to affect Claire's consciousness, making it difficult for her to distinguish which memories are real and which are false.

For example, right now, Claire was increasingly having an "illusion"—she felt that she had indeed fallen into a coma after entering Tingen University, and that it was indeed that woman who had taken care of her when she lost the ability to take care of herself.

"But if those illusionary memories are real, then wouldn't my memories of Tai Perslan become false memories?"

Claire believed in her own memories.

"Since I'm convinced that my memory is flawless, then what's so scary about merging with the 'Mist Butterfly'..."

Claire took a deep breath and released her spiritual power to contact the mist butterfly.

The mist butterfly wrapped around Claire's body.

At the moment of fusion, the living characteristics of Claire's body gradually transformed into death.

Returning to that desolate, endless space, Claire saw more illusionary memories this time than last time.

This time in the illusion memory, not only the memory of "Tai Perslan" was being modified, but even the memory belonging to "Jiang Zhe" began to change.

In Jiang Zhe's memory, she clearly heard the voice of Claire again!

But we were on Earth at that time, so how could we possibly hear the gentle voice of "Claire" from another world?

And Claire couldn't hear what those voices were saying...

After another near-death experience where she wanted to throw herself into the arms of death, Claire woke up from the sealed coffin and stared into the quiet darkness inside. Her confused memories made it difficult for her to calm down for a long time.

At this time, Daly had not yet brought Jessica to the cemetery.

While waiting, Claire alleviated the mental discomfort she felt after merging with the Mist Butterfly.

After a while, through the coffin and the darkness, Claire saw Daly's familiar spirit and a woman whose spirit was surrounded by a dark, sad color.

It's Daly and Jessica...

Claire tried to connect with the goddess' heart within her body little by little. When this special heart stopped beating, Claire had returned to her former self...

Outside the coffin.

Escorted by Daly, Jessica walked into the quiet and solemn chapel. She saw a black coffin lying quietly in the center.

Under the classical gaslight, Jessica saw intricate patterns carved on the edge of the coffin.

Daly noticed Jessica's gaze and explained softly, "That's a mystical arrangement to isolate pollution."

Jessica bit her lip, a look of misery creeping onto her frowning brow. She said unwillingly, "So, after coming here tonight, it's difficult for me to truly connect with Claire?"

Daly sighed inwardly and said mysteriously, "That's not the case. After I set up the altar, I can open the coffin and let you see Claire's body."

"Really?" A hint of expectation flashed across Jessica's lifeless eyes.

Daly pretended to make some arrangements on the altar in front of the coffin, and then opened the coffin.

The warm gaslight dispelled some of the darkness inside the coffin, allowing Jessica, who was approaching, to see Claire lying in the coffin.

"Claire..." Jessica murmured, tears dripping from her eyes uncontrollably. She wanted to lean over the edge of the coffin, and even wanted to touch Claire.

But Daly firmly controlled her behavior, preventing her from getting any closer to Claire: "Wake up! Jessica Meazza! There's still contamination on Claire's body, you can't get close!"

"Claire...my Claire. You promised, that Galadilla promised...you promised to let me meet Claire..."

Amidst Jessica's helpless cries, a shadow detached from Claire's lying body and floated out.

That was Claire's spirit.

At this time, Daly followed the agreement with Claire and used the arrangement on the altar to truly activate the spiritualism on the altar.

Daly, the "Necromancer," stretched out her hand and made a fist, connecting Claire's floating spirit with the spirit of the weeping Jessica.

……

Through her tear-blurred eyes, in the hazy white light, Jessica saw Claire slowly walking towards her.

(End of this chapter)