She is not an investigator.

Inside the Rotten Coral Bar, a person who was incredibly familiar, yet shouldn't have been there, slowly walked out.

It's Derain.

But he shouldn't be here.

"Weren't you dead?!"

Derian turned into that monster in front of Constantine and was dealt with by him and Ling. Yet, they still encountered him here. This situation is obviously not normal.

Delien ignored Constantine. He first looked at the clown and waved to him as a greeting, then turned to look at Pasa, who was at the head of the group.

"To be honest, I didn't expect you to be able to bring the Joker into the team. In my plan, he was supposed to be an ally to stop you from interfering with this ceremony."

Passa raised the gun in his hand, but hesitated for a moment and then put it down.

Because he knew that even if he were to unleash a barrage of bullets on him now, it would have no effect.

"Derion, I never imagined you would be the mastermind behind all this. What exactly are you pursuing?"

Passa and Derain were indeed old acquaintances; they were not only friends but also former comrades-in-arms. If he could, he would not want to stand on the opposite side of this shrewd old fox.

"What am I pursuing? That's a good question. Have you ever seen the Great Sea? The moon I hold in my hand is that kind of sea, a sea where you can't see the land."

Pasa remained silent. Constantine, unable to contain himself, wanted to launch an attack, but he was stopped by him.

Derain observed everything they did, but he simply smiled and continued speaking.

"I saw it. I was on a boat, a very small wooden boat, surrounded by an endless sea. The sea was very calm, so I started rowing, trying to cross the ocean and return to land. I rowed for a very long time, but I still couldn't see land. I was hungry and thirsty, and I was almost mentally broken."

He paused, then couldn't help licking his lips, as if he were truly recalling the hunger and helplessness he felt at that time.

"I jumped off the boat."

The sea remained calm.

"I felt my body slowly sinking into the water."

The sky remained clear.

"I tried to open my eyes and look for any creature that I might be able to eat."

There is no abyss.

"But I saw it."

There is no hope.

"I saw land."

There was no sign of life.

"The land I've always dreamed of... is now right beneath my feet."

The seawater submerged everything; there was no land left in the world. Only he lived, and only that ship was his only refuge.

“I prayed to the ocean, I prayed to Him, I longed for Him to cast His gaze upon the only ship in this ocean, and I succeeded… I truly succeeded, He has always been there, He is always watching over everything in the ocean.”

Derain slowly raised his hand; his arm had lost its human shape and turned into a giant crab claw.

"Humanity's destiny will always be the ocean. Look at me now, how am I any different from you? I am stronger and live longer than you, and I no longer fear the ocean. I have become one with the ocean!"

He suddenly waved his hand and shouted loudly at Passa.

"Humans, humans are nothing but mayflies on the sea! Why are you so stubborn? As long as you're with me, as long as you're with me, no one will die in that disaster!"

"enough."

Passa's indifferent voice interrupted Derain's frantic rant. He sighed, a barely perceptible sadness flashing in his eyes.

"The disaster you speak of is nothing but your illusion. The one who is truly bringing disaster is you. Derain, stop now, halt the ritual. It's not too late."

"Pasa...you'll never understand me, just like we can never always stand on the same side...If you think it's right to stop me, then try it! No one can stop the waves from crashing in! Not even you!"

"Finished talking?"

Constantine looked at Passa, at this man who rarely showed such obvious emotional fluctuations, and raised the weapon in his hand towards Derain.

"Most so-called cults believe they have found the true truth and attempt to save everything with unrealistic ideas. Of course, I have no right to criticize you, and I am no different. As long as everyone is trapped in the cycle of eternal night, no one will die, and no one will perish. All disasters will be unable to penetrate this darkness... But now I understand that it is all an illusion. People will eventually die, just like the moon, which will eventually set."

At that moment, the priest finally understood what faith was, and he finally understood what he was searching for.

"Eternal night is not salvation, nor is the ocean. No one can save everything, but at the very least, you can't even save yourself."

He glanced at the clown beside him, who had already been unable to restrain himself and rushed towards Derain, who was standing still.

"Pasa, if he really is your former friend, then tell him what is truly right!"

boom!

Dr. Connaught pulled the trigger, and the bullet struck Dr. Derek's father in the chest without hindrance, staining his clothes with blood.

"Yes...yes! Derain! The time for reckoning has come. You should have paid for her life long ago!"

Passa suddenly felt a surge of anger and ripped off the ring hanging on her chest.

That was his equipment, and his only trump card.

The Ring of Fear.

Unlike the relatively mild necklace, the Fear Ring is a rather dangerous anomalous item.

It can absorb human emotions and enhance the wearer's physical functions through these emotions.

If that's all there is to it, then it's not enough to be called dangerous.

The real danger lies in its side effects.

The wearer's pent-up emotions will completely disappear.

Fear? Sadness? Anger? Or joy?

You have to choose one, right?

"It's been so long since I've seen you like this, Passa. I thought you'd forgotten how to get angry."

Derain burst into laughter, completely ignoring the bullet wounds on his body.

He's already dead.

The one standing here now is merely a spirit from the deep sea.

"Oh... I sense something very ominous..."

The clown suddenly frowned and instinctively took a step back.

But, under the moonlight, a gigantic tentacle suddenly extended from behind Deliyan's body, pulling her directly into the bar. Accompanied by a crisp sound of bones cracking, a crab claw was thrown out of the bar's darkness.

Immediately afterwards, the ceiling of the Rotten Coral Bar was suddenly blown off, and countless tentacles surged out from it. A figure slowly rose into the air, surrounded by the tentacles.

It was a female figure with her eyes closed, her skin an eerie, dark blue, and her hands clasped together in front of her chest, as if in prayer.

It was Krisuna… but probably not anymore.

Before anyone had much time to react, the rampaging tentacles shot directly towards the nearest clown, even creating a loud bang in the air.

Joker B reacted incredibly fast, his bulky body assuming a sly pose, narrowly dodging the attack of the eight tentacles, but he didn't even have a chance to say another word.

A clap of thunder boomed, and a few drops of rain fell on everyone's faces, making everyone's hearts sink.

It is going to rain.

"Can we really take this guy down?"

Constantine looked at the enormous thing in front of him, then turned his head with a bitter expression to look at Pasa, who also had a solemn look on his face.

"Us?"

The Fools of the Gods—The Worship of Eternal Night: Chapter Twenty-Four, See You at the Church

"With us!"

Pasa responded without hesitation and looked at the clown not far away.

"And him too!"

Indeed, with only the guns and ammunition in their hands, it was impossible for them to easily defeat the behemoth in front of them. To put it bluntly, even if it just stood there and let them attack it, they were unlikely to have any chance of killing it.

But the Joker is different; he is ultimately abnormal, and his destructive power and methods of harm are beyond what humans can easily compare to.

"It looks very weak, which seems to be due to the summoning ritual not being fully completed. This is a good opportunity; don't let the clown remain trapped there!"

After saying that, Pasa charged towards its body from another direction. Its physical abilities, enhanced by the ring, were clearly beyond those of ordinary people. Even when facing attacks from tentacles coming from different directions at the same time, Pasa was still able to dodge the attacks with ease and continuously close the distance.

But he knew that even if he closed the distance, there was no way he could hurt it; their only real weapon was the Joker.

What he had to do was draw the Joker's fire so that the Joker could focus on destroying its body without having to worry about sudden attacks.

Even if Pasa's body becomes more agile at this moment, it will still be difficult to cope with the simultaneous attack of dozens of tentacles, and it may not even have time to dodge.

But the clown, now free, also unleashed his true madness at that moment. His wild laughter instantly drowned out the sound of raindrops falling to the ground, and he charged madly toward the enormous figure.

"Hahaha...hahahaha! Hahahahahaha!"

A tentacle shot out, heading straight for the clown's face. But he didn't dodge at all, letting the tentacle smash his head to pieces, letting blood and debris splatter all over the ground, letting the blood stains soak his filthy clown costume again.

He swayed his body, ignoring the head that had disappeared, and instead squatted down to pick up the flesh and blood on the ground.

No one could see clearly what he had done, but when Constantine looked over, his head reappeared on his shoulder, and he held a strange gift box in his hand.

Yes, it was an exquisitely packaged gift box. He had no idea where the clown had pulled it out from, but he had indeed produced a gift box.

This strange creature, seemingly unfazed by the clown's apparent attempt to shower it with a gift, launched another attack without hesitation. Seven or eight tentacles came from all directions, attempting to crush the clown into pieces. However, the clown showed no fear in the face of the approaching attacks, making no attempt to dodge. Instead, the smile on its face grew brighter and more insane.

Constantine instinctively wanted to warn the Joker to get out of the way, but before he could say anything, the Joker suddenly opened the gift box in his hand.

At that very moment, the tentacles slammed into him, squeezing the clown's body together and turning it into a horribly twisted mass of flesh, almost completely obscuring his human form.

The gift box in his hand fell to the ground, and the contents of the box slowly rolled out, rolling to his body, which had been completely turned into minced meat, and to his body, which was wrapped by countless tentacles.

Only now did Constantine finally see what it was.

It was a head, a terrifying, smiling clown head.

"Beep!"

The head suddenly emitted a celebratory, comical sound, and in the next instant, the previously shriveled body fragments began to swell, even enveloping all the surrounding tentacles.

boom!