Rhodes Island does not exist.

"Secondly, the bishop and his followers are likely unharmed and probably escaped before the soldiers launched their attack."

The doctor held up two fingers.

“It’s precisely because they couldn’t get Iberian military forces to surround us that they chose to use hybrids to launch an attack.” Skadi nodded. “That makes sense.”

"So only two questions remain." The doctor shook his two fingers again. "First, how did they escape? Second, why did they try to escape?"

“They mentioned monsters,” Skadi thought for a moment and said, “which means they may not have seen Agor or the bishop at all, but only non-human things.”

“Given that these soldiers did not attack each other, the monsters they saw may be real rather than fictional creations built by madness,” Skadi added. “In other words, they saw a Familia in the church.”

"You said before that the bishop captured Levini to use as a sacrifice." The doctor pondered the previous events. "Could it be that he conducted a sacrifice experiment at the Cathedral of Afterglow beforehand, but something went wrong and the summoned creature escaped from the church?"

"And then the Papal Knights and the Punishers came?" Skadi nodded. "Possibly."

"No, wait."

At this point, Skadi suddenly pinched her chin, then shook her head with a slightly serious expression, as if she were trying her best to deny something.

"The bishop left the cathedral with his followers; the bishop needed to offer a sacrifice... and their presence could not be detected..."

"Skadi?" The doctor looked at her unusual appearance and was puzzled.

"Oh no." She instantly straightened up from the wall she was leaning against, and looked towards the seaside. "The bishop and the others have gone to the beach. Levini might not be in good shape."

"Don't get excited, don't get excited... although you don't seem excited at all." The doctor waved his hand, "but I think the same way you do."

"Is that so?" Skadi tightened her grip on the greatsword on her back. "Then why aren't you in a hurry at all?"

“Because I won’t leave her unattended in that little seaside chapel,” the doctor said. “If anything happens to her or something is about to happen, I’ll be the first to know.”

"you……?"

Skadi stared at the Doctor.

Since witnessing the Doctor's Originium Arts and the suitcase in his hand, Skadi had a completely new understanding of the man in front of her, so she had no doubt that what he was saying was just empty boasting.

“But we can’t linger too long.” The doctor took a step in the opposite direction of the church. “Since there are no soldiers guarding the seaside area’s blockade right now, we can just go in through the nearest entrance.”

“Aren’t you going to tell me what kind of traps you’ve left near the church before this?” Skadi asked, catching up with the doctor.

“No, it wasn’t a trap,” the doctor shook his head. “It was just taking advantage of some connections.”

"Connections?" Skadi didn't understand what the doctor was trying to say.

“You said before that the protagonist of this grand drama is Levini, and I’m just an unlucky old man who was chosen at the last minute.” The Doctor chuckled. “Do you know why I, this unlucky old man, came to Asturias in the first place?”

Skadi remained silent, waiting for him to continue.

“I’m here to wait for a trading partner,” the doctor said. “If I want to achieve my goals, I must build a base, earn funding, expand my network, and increase the visibility of my drugs, and all of this requires frequent transactions and meetings.”

"It's quite unusual to have a meeting for a transaction in a place like that," Skadi remarked.

“No, not at all surprising.” The doctor shook his head. “After all, what I’m doing right now is completely illegal, so only small places like that won’t interfere too much.”

“But aren’t you a doctor? Even if you put it in a complicated way, you’re just someone who researches Oripathy drugs.” Skadi’s tone was somewhat doubtful. “What law could that be breaking?”

“Many laws,” the doctor said with a wry smile. “For example, smuggling Originium, practicing medicine without a license, and assisting infected individuals.”

After saying that, he shrugged and added a sentence.

"In fact, if this were Ursus, that last rule alone would be enough to leave my corpse exposed to the sun on the ice plains for three days and three nights."

Chapter 122, Chapter 121: Deep Sea Tales - Chapter 55: Great Tranquility

Everyone has a moon in their heart, because the purpose of living is to pursue that possible moon.

The sun represents a lofty ideal, and the moon is a reflection of that ideal.

The gentle moon softens its sharp light, allowing it to soothe wounded dreams.

-

The purple night sky shifted.

Overlapping clouds churned aimlessly above Iberia, their shimmering light creating a breathtaking spectacle, like neon lights encased in an eggshell—magical and wondrous.

Birds, with only skeletons and no flesh and blood, fly mutely, their slender, aerodynamically incompatible wings supporting their bodies, circling and circling aimlessly, just like people living in a daze.

Under the sun.

Under the moon.

Under the starry sky.

Below the clouds.

Everything is compressed into this tiny seaside.

The coastline was covered with withered flowers, colorless and odorless, but the highest one was tinged with a vibrant and alluring color, gracefully unfolding and outshining all the others.

The deep sea is singing.

The gray sea surface churned and swirled.

The gray sea surface was boiling like a storm.

The illusory image of the entity was projected onto the surface of the vast ocean, swaying like seaweed. No one could discern which species it belonged to on Terra, or which distant relative it was.

Perhaps they never had any distant relatives.

Perhaps the creatures on Terra are actually their distant relatives.

Life originated from the sea.

The bewildering waves crashed onto the shore, carrying away the blood and the fishy-smelling sand.

The bubble burst.

The murky, enormous body of water resembled a pot of boiling broth.

The boiling of the broth only produces endless bubbles and foam within those bubbles.

The cook must skim off the foam.

But there are no cooks here, only diners.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah—

Distorted and distorted hymns were shrilled and sung loudly from a loudspeaker isolated on the beach, as if this were a uniquely tasteful music restaurant.

The scope of hymns has no blind spots, because music itself has no boundaries.

Then, the sound gradually faded.

It was as if the band had finally lost its breath, and the whole piece began to feel powerless and dejected.

But the foam on the sea surface surged more and more violently, the boiling pot began to smoke, and the soup that overflowed the surface began to seep out of the pot, colliding with the burning stove and making a welding-like noise.

Then, the first tangible creature appeared.

It was hideous, with almost no connection between its skin and bones, and its flesh dragged slovenly outside its body, like a middle-aged man returning home drunk late at night.

The creature's posture was hesitant and unsteady, its entire being filled with unnatural and unwilling emotions.

Perhaps it did not come into this world voluntarily.

But if we ask ourselves honestly, who is it?

Then, a second tangible creature appeared.

It was tall and slender, with its enormous head supported on its narrow body, like a lollipop that had been given life.

The enormous head gave rise to an enormous maw, so it seems that it was probably born to devour.

However, its tiny body probably couldn't contain anything its enormous mouth could swallow, so the poor things that went into its mouth would eventually be chewed up and spat out, becoming piles of non-recyclable garbage on the shore.

Then, a third tangible creature appeared.

It was a soft-bodied creature.

The fine, viscous, and mild tissue fluid makes up 95% of its body. The remaining 5% is the keratin layer that grows from the dark red soft tissue.

The stratum corneum is sharp as a spike, and with every step the creature takes, the spike-like stratum corneum pierces its body, causing it almost unbearable pain.

However, since it is made of soft material, it has almost no way to remove these useless hard objects from its body and can only silently endure them.

Finally, there is the fourth tangible being.

Rather than calling it a living organism, it's more accurate to describe it as a pair of wings that have come to life.

It was a brain connected to magnificent wings. Its wings were so pure and white that they would make any flying creature in all of Terra envious to death.

Unfortunately, it is an aquatic creature, and its wings are useless to it, even a burden in the sea.

Therefore, it not only failed to learn to swim, but also failed to learn to fly.

How could wings that had already been soaked by seawater possibly ride the wind and soar upwards?

"Sususususu——"

Thus, the team composed of these four creatures began their expedition.

They emerged one after another from the sea, arching their deformed, twisted, and savage bodies onto the beach, reluctantly wriggling, crawling, and moving forward.

Then, the light fell.

No one can say for sure where the first ray of light came from, and no one cares about that question.

Because almost everyone in the Punisher's mage ranks threw out their spells at that moment.

Therefore, no matter whose it is, it can be yours.

"boom!"

The light spread from points to lines, and from lines to surfaces, forming a continuous expanse on this withered and desolate coastline.

bombing.

burst.

evaporation.

Crusade.

sublimation.

Artillery fire roared.

The heat from the spell burned the caster's own hands.

The disordered energy overflowed from the staff, rushing and weaving along the dark, purplish-blue coastline, bursting forth with beams of incandescent light.

These incredibly strange creatures neither invade nor die according to their own will; their entire lives are condensed into an eternal tragedy, which will be passed on to the next generation and the generation after that, for thousands of generations to come.

The same is true for the people on the coast.

For generations, they have stood alongside the deep-sea hunters on this land, guarding against madness, honing their reason, forging their bodies, and blocking out the strange.

They knew that the seabed's reproductive capacity was limitless, and they also knew that all they could do was to contribute a tiny fraction of what they could. That's why they were bound together on the same front, like the Great Wall, and joined forces with the deep-sea hunters to use their meager strength to continue the civilization that should be continued.

This is the true history of the Great Tranquility.

Therefore, there are actually no saints or saviors.

All calamities that befall civilization must ultimately be resolved by the power of civilization itself.

That is the resilience and struggle of civilization.

The assistance from a savior will only weaken civilization itself and prevent it from being strengthened. If it leaves the savior, it will return to being nothing but a piece of waste paper.

unless.

Unless from the very beginning, civilization and calamity were not on the same level at all.

Chapter 123, Chapter 122: Deep Sea Tales, Chapter 56: The Film Woman

When the Doctor and Skadi arrived at the shore, the scene they saw was completely different from what they had seen when they left.

According to the doctor, although he was quite confident in the help he had arranged, nothing is certain, so he still had to get to the scene as soon as possible.

After all, they were dealing with the mastermind behind this incident, who was also the nominal Cardinal of Iberia, so things couldn't go wrong.

"These are... withered flowers?" The doctor asked, stepping on the petals that resembled red leaves and feeling the crunching sound.

“The bishop intends to restore the scene from the Great Tranquility.” Skadi’s face was slightly pale. “It’s 9:15 now, and the tide will be coming in in another 15 minutes.”

"Thinking about it now, I guess I was right... no, never mind, there's no point in dwelling on it now." She muttered, frowning, then turned her gaze towards the sea and added, "Look at the horizon."