Chapter 115

Chapter 115.

The ghostly green fire of spirit form floated like a band of light and swept across the whole workshop in a few seconds. This disturbance from a higher supernatural power moved like a wind, lifting the Veil that had been laid over the Mortal Realm, and the truth hidden beneath that Veil appeared before Shirley and Duncan.

Ashes. Ashes everywhere. Human shaped ashes, broken heaps of ashes, walls blackened by smoke, a roof melted by heat. Machines whose shells had been twisted and turned brittle by the licking flames were piled together with lumps of almost shapeless slag. The whole factory zone looked like a fiery purgatory that had only recently cooled. The fire was out, but the power that had melted everything seemed to still linger in the air.

Shirley stood in the middle of the burned ruins, dazed. Her eyes were a little blank. Dog quietly came to her side and used his bony back to gently support her.

Soon, the ghostly green fire of spirit form faded away, and everything in the factory returned to its original state.

Duncan looked at his own hands with a bit of regret. This was, after all, only an “ordinary” body. It could not compare to his true form. The fire of spirit form he could call upon here was limited. When he spread the flames over such a wide range, he could only keep it going for a short while.

But even such a brief “replay” was enough to reveal a crucial truth.

“There really was a great fire… I knew I did not remember wrong…” Shirley muttered to herself. “I have been searching for it for eleven years. It was here all along…”

“But this fire was wiped away,” Dog said softly. “Some power wove a Veil over the Mortal Realm and filtered out every trace connected to ‘fire’… This Veil can even block the sight of Abyssal demons.”

“Was it the shard of the Sun? Or the one who carried the shard into the city-state?” Shirley frowned. Then she noticed that Duncan had been strangely silent for a while and could not help looking at him. “What do you think…”

“This place is still different from the fire scene in my memory,” Duncan shook his head before she could finish. His gaze swept slowly over the factory fittings as he recalled the details he had seen when the Veil was briefly lifted. At the same time, he compared them with the fire in his memory, and with the building and surroundings from when ‘he’ had escaped the fire with Nina. Finally he confirmed his judgment. “This is not the place.”

“Ah?” Shirley was stunned. “The fire in your memory… was not here?”

“The details do not match at all,” Duncan said in a serious tone as he walked slowly toward the factory gate. His eyes passed the fallen door and looked at the ruined street outside. “To be more exact, the scenery of the whole Sixth District… seems wrong.”

Shirley and Dog looked at each other by instinct. She lowered her voice and asked: “What do you think is going on?”

“How would I know? I am only a dog,” Dog shook his skull. “And eleven years ago, I was even more confused than you.”

Duncan heard their voices behind him and turned his head slightly. “Is this factory the only suspicious place?”

“Maybe… probably…” Shirley answered without much confidence. “Anyway, based on what I heard, this factory was the center of the chaos eleven years ago.”

Duncan did not comment. In the next two hours, he, Shirley, and the Abyssal Hound checked every part of the abandoned factory that was still safe enough to enter.

Strangely, apart from that Veil laid over the Mortal Realm, they did not find any trace left by supernatural powers or supernatural objects.

“This is not right…” After they finished a rough check of the last building, Dog finally voiced his doubt. “That Veil that covers the fire must be the work of some supernatural power. But we searched the whole factory zone and never found the ‘source’ of the Veil… that makes no sense.”

“Does there have to be a source?” Shirley asked, curious.

Duncan was just as curious, but he did not show it. He kept his face tense and waited quietly for Dog to explain.

Anyone else would probably never guess it, but of the three “people” on site, the only Occult Specialist was actually the dog…

Dog himself did not think too much about it. As a Abyssal demon, a lot of knowledge about the supernatural was basically common sense to him. He explained without hesitation: “The force that hides the traces of the fire is clearly a continuous power. It needs a source to keep it going until now. Also, after Mr. Duncan’s fire faded, the Veil closed up again. That means there is something behind it supporting this Veil. It might be a powerful Anomaly object, or a powerful supernatural being. Either way, whatever it is, it must exist somewhere in the city-state…”

As he spoke, the Abyssal Hound raised his skull and swept his hollow eye sockets across the distant streets and the further city.

“We did not find the source of the Veil inside the factory. That means the thing that keeps the Veil standing is projecting its power here from far away. Or… the scale of the Veil is far beyond what we imagine, and we only lifted a tiny corner of it. If it is the second case…”

Dog suddenly lowered his voice, sounding a little nervous: “If it is the second case, then this will be very hard to handle. An ordinary Anomaly could never cover such a large area. It would have to be a Vision. An unknown Vision…”

“The shard of the Sun can not be counted as an ordinary ‘Anomaly object’. After all, according to those cultists, that shard is the corpse of the Sun god,” Shirley suddenly said. “Maybe this is the shard’s way of hiding itself.”

“A higher Anomaly that can think, then?” Dog murmured. “To avoid being controlled, it actively created the Veil, erased every trace of its own existence, and hid somewhere behind the Veil? That is indeed possible. If it is the corpse of a deity, it might already be able to think even before it wakes.”

Shirley pinched her chin and thought seriously. Then something seemed to occur to her. She looked at Dog in surprise: “So you are actually this knowledgeable, Dog? And you cannot even read…”

“I am a Abyssal demon! A shadow shaped from the flesh of the Abyssal Lord! This knowledge was carved into my memory from birth, alright?” Dog rattled his chains impatiently. “And speaking of not being able to read… you have the nerve to talk about me?!”

Duncan watched Shirley and her Abyssal Hound with interest. This strange pair clearly had many secrets, and that made him even more curious. But before he could ask anything, Shirley suddenly seemed to remember something. She looked up at the sky with some panic. Seeing the Sun slowly climbing toward the highest point, she cried out: “Ah! It is already noon!”

Duncan raised his brows: “You have other plans?”

“I…” Shirley answered nervously. “I have to be home before noon!”

Duncan looked quietly at the girl. “Did you not say your parents are gone? Who will lecture you if you go back late?”

“It is not a lecture… I have an appointment with someone!” Shirley waved her hands quickly. Maybe because of what they had gone through together in the factory, she dared to act a little bolder in front of Duncan. “I… maybe we can continue next time?”

Duncan glanced at the Abyssal Hound beside her. Dog instantly shrank his neck. “It is up to you. If you want to keep exploring, I and Shirley…”

“No need,” Duncan shook his head. “Continuing to search here will not give us much more. We will talk again after we find new clues. Since you two have other matters, go.”

Shirley’s face lit up at once. She clearly had not expected the big boss to let her leave so easily. But she did not dare run off without another word. She carefully confirmed: “Then… Dog and I will go first, alright? In the future, if you want to find us…”

Duncan only smiled and looked at her kindly. “If we are fated, we will meet again.”

He smiled gently at Shirley and Dog. In his eyes, on the black chain that bound the Abyssal Hound, a tiny green spark was quietly smoldering.

After his unexpected link with Vanna last time, he had gained a deeper understanding of the fire of his spirit form. This was the result, a small test.

This mark was something he had released on purpose. It was stronger than the little flame he had left on Vanna, yet it was gentle and harmless.

Shirley suddenly felt a chill run over her skin. Duncan’s smile was so warm, yet she wanted to shiver.

In the end, she still held her expression steady and said goodbye as politely as she could, then hurried away with Dog.