Chapter 114

Chapter 114.

In front of the ruined, abandoned factory, the Abyssal Hound Dog raised its hollow eye sockets and fixed its gaze on the collapsed workshop, as if trying to observe this ruin in the Mortal Realm from another dimension.

Shirley stood beside Dog, a little nervous as she looked around. Only after she checked Duncan’s expression did she finally lower her voice and ask: “Dog, are you sure there is really no lingering corruption here?”

“If you mean the so called ‘chemical leak’ in the mouths of ordinary people, you can relax. The corruption here probably faded away years ago…” A hoarse, low voice came from Dog’s throat. “But if you mean some kind of corruption from the supernatural side of things… that I cannot guarantee.”

“Did you find anything?” Duncan asked from the side.

“…No, really no,” Dog lowered his skull a little. “I only saw ‘fire’ for a brief moment just now. But now it is gone. It may have been some kind of ‘after echo’… a memory left and frozen in this ruin. Many supernatural powers leave similar traces in the Mortal Realm. But if we want to figure out what kind of supernatural power it was… we probably have to go in and take a look.”

“Then we go in,” Duncan said with a nod. He stepped toward a gap in the abandoned factory wall. “You two, follow.”

Shirley hesitated for a moment but still walked after him. Dog shook his head left and right, the black chains on him clattering. The Abyssal Hound looked at Duncan’s back with cautious curiosity: “You… why are you also interested in what happened eleven years ago? Ah, of course, I am only asking casually, just a tiny bit of curiosity. A big shot like you must have your own…”

“Just treat it as my personal interest,” Duncan cut the Abyssal Hound off. “You really do not need to be this nervous in front of me. It makes me feel uncomfortable.”

“Alright, alright, we are not nervous, we are not nervous…”

Hearing this reply that sounded very nervous no matter how you listened to it, Duncan could only shake his head helplessly. Then he looked at Shirley beside him with some curiosity: “In your memory, there was a great fire. But except for you, everyone else forgot that it ever happened. Is that right?”

“…Yeah.” Shirley nodded. By now she had already realized something. “From the way you are acting… you also know about that fire, right? That fire really existed, right?”

“Yes, I know,” Duncan nodded slightly and spoke in a calm tone. “So now I am even more curious about who erased the traces of that fire’s existence.”

At the same time, his thoughts churned in his heart. He had not expected things to develop in such a coincidental way, nor that in the city-state of Pland there would be a third person who knew about that “fire” besides himself and Nina. His chance encounter with Shirley, their shared investigation, the fire whose traces had been wiped away, Dog’s illusion just now… all these things seemed to be drawn together by an invisible force, gathering as if planets circling the Sun.

This feeling, of everything being pulled together by a hidden power, already made him very wary.

Nina’s schoolbooks had once given a rough outline of some “common sense” about the supernatural. They mentioned that powerful Anomalies or Visions often had the ability to interfere with the development of the Mortal Realm. They could even guide events like weaving a script, using subtle mental guidance. Too many coincidences in a row, or clues that kept appearing one after another, were often alarming “prophetic visions”.

These signs usually meant that the people involved had already been influenced by some Anomaly or Vision and were unconsciously taking part in, or even pushing forward, the event.

And faced with this kind of invisible yet harmless push and influence, the fire of his spirit form was not of much use.

Thinking of this, he secretly glanced at Shirley.

The girl and Dog were carefully on guard against any movement in the ruined factory. Shirley seemed to have no extra or complicated thoughts at all. Or maybe it was because this “Great Terror” was standing right beside her, leaving her no space to let her mind wander?

“This really looks like just an ordinary ruin…” Dog’s low voice broke Duncan’s thoughts. “I do not sense any trace of supernatural power.”

Shirley raised her head, studying the crisscrossing pipes overhead and the warped beams of the ceiling.

This was the first workshop they entered after coming into the factory. It had been heavily damaged in the accident eleven years ago. Some powerful explosion had blown open the roof, shattered the high pipes, and brought down the building materials. sunlight poured through the huge hole above and spilled into the ruin, making the scene inside look like the jagged bones left behind by a dead giant beast.

However, aside from the blast and the collapse, there was not the slightest trace of a fire in the workshop.

“It doesn’t look like a fire ever happened here…” Shirley muttered under her breath.

“The lack of fire marks is the biggest problem,” Duncan’s deep voice suddenly came from the side. He was also looking up, his gaze on the broken pipes and roof structure. His brows slowly furrowed. “With damage on this level, and with a clear explosion having taken place, there should have been a fire along with it. No matter how big or small, it should at least have left some burned traces in the workshop… yet there is not even a hint that a single spark ever existed here.”

As soon as Duncan finished speaking, Dog answered in a heavy tone: “Yes. The way it looks now, it is like… every element that had anything to do with ‘fire’ was deliberately erased. But because it was erased too cleanly, it actually left a more eye catching blank space instead.”

“Erased…” Duncan whispered. He walked slowly toward the deeper part of the workshop. After he passed a pile of twisted, abandoned machines, he stopped and casually glanced at a hole in the nearby wall.

He suddenly froze, his eyes opening a little wider.

Fire. A towering sea of fire.

He saw waves of blazing flames roaring up from the other side of that hole. Outside the factory, the whole stretch of wasteland was rolling with flames. The blaze rose like a surging ocean, leaping into the air and then crashing down onto the ground. It rushed toward the nearby streets and houses. Thick smoke billowed upward. Countless madly fleeing figures ran through the fire, like a mirage of hell.

This fierce and terrifying scene of burning suddenly broke into Duncan’s sight. But in the next second, just as he turned his head, intending to call Shirley over, the image of the burning sea of fire suddenly vanished.

Duncan blinked hard a few times, then walked to the hole in the wall and looked out. All he saw was an empty stretch of wasteland and, at its edge, a few ruined houses that no one lived in anymore.

Dog noticed Duncan’s strange behavior at once and asked: “Did you see something?”

“I also saw it just now. Fire,” Duncan answered in a low voice. “But when I turned my head, it was gone.”

“Then the ‘after echo’ left here is very strong,” Dog quickly judged. “For it to replay twice in such a short time is not a mark an ordinary supernatural power can leave behind. It looks like that group of cultists were right. The ‘shard of the Sun’ they were looking for really did appear here… we just do not know what triggers the echo…”

Duncan did not reply. He simply walked back to the place where he had first seen the echo and stared thoughtfully at the spot where he had been standing.

It looked as if there was nothing there.

After thinking for a moment, Duncan slowly raised his hand and rubbed his fingertips together.

A tiny, ghostly green flame quietly jumped out from his hand.

The moment that ghostly green flame appeared, Dog’s neck shrank at once. Then he quickly retreated three or four steps. The black chains on him rattled. Shirley also followed and backed away half a step, looking at Duncan in horror: “You… you really plan to eat cooked food now?!”

“What are you afraid of?” Duncan looked at this pair without any expression. “This is not for roasting you two.”

As soon as he spoke, he pointed with his fingertip toward the ground.

The ghostly green flame flowed down like a stream and fell silently onto the floor. In the next second, a half transparent fire of spirit form rippled and spread over the ground, sweeping across several meters around Duncan’s feet in an instant.

Shirley watched this scene in growing confusion. Suddenly, her eyes widened. “…Ah!”

Where the flame passed, something appeared on the ground that had been empty before.

It was a patch of ash. A curled, human shaped patch of ash.

It was a human burned into ash. In their final moment, that human had been looking with a rigid gaze toward the same place Duncan had just been staring at.

All at once, something came to Shirley’s mind. She raised her head and looked around the empty factory.

Under Duncan’s deliberate control, the ghostly green fire of spirit form swept across the entire workshop like a gentle breeze.

And so, the erased traces finally reappeared for a brief moment before the eyes of these visitors.