Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 448 Physical Exorcism
Li Wei had seen the photos of the missing Susie, so he naturally recognized her at a glance.

The woman in the photo, Susie, appears to be quiet and reserved.

However, she is a completely different person now.

Like the nun above, Susie was naked. She knelt down on the ground, tilted her head back, and opened her mouth, which reminded Li Wei of the sculpture in the center of the fountain that sprayed water.

She just doesn't spit water out of her mouth.

Moreover, Susie's appearance is even more shocking.

Her eyes were bright red, with pupils bulging like a cat's. The skin on her face was taut and pressed against her skull, giving it an eerie, uneven appearance.

And on her forehead, two small horns emerged from it.

In the "Soul Vision," Li Wei can see even more.

Susie's soul was still mostly white, but starting from her head, it was slowly turning red.

And it turned bright red.

Each time the blood flowed into Susie's open mouth, Li Wei could see Susie's soul become a shade redder, like a snow-white plaster statue being slowly dyed red from top to bottom. Now, her entire head was already dyed bright red, and the rest of her body shouldn't be much different.

What on earth is going on? Li Wei has been here for so long, and this is the first time he has ever seen something like this.

At that moment, a system notification finally appeared before Li Wei's eyes.

[Quest "Exorcism" Activated]

[Mission Objective: Drive away or destroy the demon]

Great, we've finally found the right person.

It seems that we can't find any clues at the moment.

After thinking for a moment, Li Wei stood up and left the captain's cabin. He then went to Elizabeth's guest room and knocked on the door.

Soon, the hatch opened, and Elizabeth poked her head out.

"Sir Levy? What is it?"

"How are your preparations going regarding the exorcism?"

"Preparation... Actually, I don't have much to prepare."

Elizabeth seemed somewhat embarrassed to answer Li Wei's question.

"Actually, exorcism itself is a technique that has not yet been proven to be effective, and its process is quite... unreasonable."

"Tell me about the situation first."

Li Wei didn't care. He went straight into the room, found a chair and sat down. Now that he had confirmed the other party's true identity, the next step was to figure out how to deal with him.

"Ok."

Elizabeth sighed and then thought for a moment.

"According to the theoretical description, firstly, the person possessed by a demon must be taken to a church, and in front of the all-seeing eye, under the sunlight, cleansed with holy water. If obvious symptoms such as burning or scalding appear on the person's body, it can be determined that they are possessed by a demon."

"Um……………"

That makes some sense.

"Then, recite the holy scriptures to the demon-possessed person, focusing on the third to fifth verses. During the recitation, ensure that the demon-possessed person is bound and suppressed, unable to get up and move. Furthermore, during the recitation, the demon-possessed person may experience intense pain, wailing, screaming, or crying for help. These are all methods used by the demon to confuse and interfere with the person."

Well, Li Wei has seen this trick a lot in horror movies.

"After banishing the demon, the possessed person is burned to death, and their ashes are sealed in a bottle of holy water."

"Uh-huh?"

Upon hearing this, Li Wei nodded, then subconsciously realized something was wrong.

"Wait, if the demon has been banished, why kill the possessing body?"

"According to the holy scriptures, the soul of a person possessed by a demon becomes corrupted and easily possessed by a demon again. Not only that, the corruption of his bloodline will continue to pass on. In other words, even if the person himself is never possessed by a demon again until his death, his descendants with his bloodline may still be possessed by a demon."

"Then why expel them?"

Hearing this, Li Wei felt increasingly puzzled.

"Since this demon-possessed person is going to die sooner or later, why not just capture them, shoot them, and then cremate them? Also, since sunlight and holy water can harm demons, why not just soak them in holy water or sunbathe them?"

"Perhaps... they feel that this method isn't easy to intuitively determine whether the demon has been eliminated?"

Elizabeth couldn't explain it either, which is why she had no faith in these so-called exorcism rituals.

"After all, using the sun is too slow, and with holy water... it's hard to determine whether the demon was banished or drowned?"

That's true. A demon-possessed person isn't a vampire; they can't turn to ash in sunlight. As for holy water, it's still water, and even if someone isn't possessed by a demon, an ordinary person would drown in it.

However, if someone dies from chanting scriptures, then it can be confirmed that they are indeed a demon.

After all, ordinary people would at most find chanting of scriptures annoying, but wouldn't die from it.

"So can I understand it this way: most of this ritual is actually just to confirm whether the other person is truly possessed by a demon?"

Li Wei thought about it and quickly understood the meaning of the ceremony. Just like a court trial, those before the trial are criminal suspects, and those after the crime is determined are criminals.

Therefore, the entire court process is actually to confirm the suspect's guilt and to give them a piece of the pie.

Going through procedures is very time-consuming, but a peanut can solve the problem in just a few seconds.

"Well……………"

It has to be said that Elizabeth had never thought of this angle from Li Wei. When she heard Li Wei ask her this question, she was stunned for a moment before nodding.

"I think... that should be right?"

"So that means we can skip most of the steps and go straight to eliminating the demon?"

Police can also draw their guns and kill prisoners in an emergency. As things stand, the problems inside this monastery are already set in stone, so there's no need to waste time confirming them or holding a trial and sentencing on the spot. Li Wei thinks they can go straight to the death penalty and beheading.

"Should... that be okay?"

Elizabeth felt her head buzzing; to be honest, she hadn't really taken exorcism seriously before.

"Then I have a question, why expel them instead of killing them?" Li Wei wanted to get it over with in one go.

"After all, they were once gods and their descendants."

Elizabeth felt confident when the topic came up.

"The records of the Holy Bishop also mention the extermination of demons, but these always required the use of certain very famous divine artifacts..."

"Oh...I see..."

Li Wei nodded. Indeed, although these creatures were now called demons, they used to be gods. Of course, they were now in decline, but even a fallen camel is bigger than a horse; no matter how powerful a mortal was, they couldn't easily defeat a god.

Should we rely on our own reality for anchoring?
Hmm? But the other party is a demon, so the lifespan consumed must be more than before. I was clearly trying to save money, so why does it look like I'm about to spend it now?
"Is a demon with a physical form stronger, or a demon without a physical form?"

"Of course, it is a demon with a physical body. Demons without a physical body can only shake the minds of mortals through means such as nightmares or hallucinations in order to find loopholes."

To be honest, Li Wei found this annoying enough.

"However, demons with physical bodies can fully unleash their power, but... because demonic power is so great, it is not easy to find a suitable possessor."

This is also the case in many games. The female protagonist is captured by the villain so that the demon king can be resurrected because her bloodline power is just right, and so on. There are many similar settings.

In typical stories like this, there are two main factions: one that wants to eliminate the female protagonist to end the story, and the other that wants to fight against the world to save her.

Of course, from a cost-effectiveness perspective, killing the female lead directly is the most worthwhile option. After all, if you try to save her, she'll inevitably be captured again, possessed by the Demon King, and then the Demon King unleashes his ultimate attack, resulting in countless more deaths.

In the end, all the deaths will be attributed to the male and female protagonists.

To put it bluntly, just like those people infected with the virus in zombie movies, running away is human nature, but if you run away, die, and then spread the virus to others, it's essentially the same as you killing them.

"So, the best solution is still to destroy the entity possessed by the demon?"

"That's how it is for now, and it's best to do so before the demon completely takes control of the possessor's body. According to the holy scriptures, demon possession requires a series of modifications to the mortal body in order to accommodate its immense power. Once the modifications are complete, we will be facing a god resurrected in the mortal world."

That really is a headache.

"Okay, I know what to do."

With this in mind, Li Wei already had an idea.

After leaving Elizabeth's room, Levi returned to the bridge and gestured to Lieutenant Horn.

"Lieutenant Horn."

"Yes, sir."

How much ammunition is left on the airship?

"We have ample ammunition reserves, sir."

Is there a bomb?

"Yes, there are three standard distribution volumes."

"very good."

Hearing Lieutenant Horn's answer, Li Wei nodded in satisfaction.

"Have Henry and his men get ready. We'll make our move when the sun rises."

"Yes, sir."

Soon, the night passed.

The sun rose above the horizon, its brilliant golden light illuminating the surroundings. The fiery orb on the horizon slowly ascended, its dazzling sunlight gradually illuminating the monastery atop the mountain.

However, even the sunlight could not penetrate the deep darkness within the monastery. Yet, the nuns who had been wallowing in blood seemed to sense the sun's rays, cowering motionless in place.

"————!"

The demon opened its eyes, its gaze filled with savagery. Even though it was deep inside a cave, completely sheltered from the sun, it could still sense the scorching, nauseating heat of the outside world.

Those mortals… if they hadn’t destroyed their own barrier…

A flash of anger crossed the demon's eyes, quickly replaced by a sinister grin. But it didn't matter; this was his territory. If any foolish mortals dared to seek their own deaths and enter this place, he would make them experience despair and pain they had never felt before.

And their souls, like everyone else's, will become sustenance for themselves...

"Click."

Suddenly, a strange sound appeared. The demon turned its eyes and saw a round box appear out of thin air in a corner of the cave. It then fell to the ground and smashed open. Several little elves quickly crawled out and ran towards it.

What's happening here?
The demon watched as the insects crawled up to its possessed host, then circled around and completely enveloped itself. It was puzzled, and even felt a little amused.

This lowly insect —

"Shh."

However, the insects that were there suddenly disappeared, replaced by several huge metal cylinders. In the blink of an eye, they filled the entire underground cavern.

On top of these metal cylinders, there were clocks that kept turning, making a "tick-tock" sound.

What exactly is this...?

Before the demon could figure out what it was, the pointer in front of it had already reached its end.

"boom-------!!"

Landslides and landslides.

Li Wei looked out the porthole and down at the monastery atop the mountain, which now looked like a giant firecracker that had exploded. Countless fragments of rock, like sparks from a fireworks burst, flew wildly in all directions.

The billowing smoke condensed in the air, and for a moment it seemed to solidify into a shape resembling a howling skull, revealing a pained expression, before being dispersed by the mountain wind.

After the smoke cleared, the monastery that had once stood there was completely gone, leaving only a dark crater that, from the air, looked like gums that had had their teeth pulled out.

"Great, all done."

Li Wei stared at the large pit in front of him and nodded in satisfaction.

"Let's go down and have a look."

Then, he spoke.

(End of this chapter)