Chapter 401

Chapter 401: Fog?

In the center of the city?state, at the highest point of Frostholm, the Silent Cathedral stood quietly atop the mountain. The gloomy sky made the solemn, dark building seem even heavier with muted oppression. Its forest of spires stood in the thin mist like thorns and blades, overlooking the entire city.

A tall figure, especially eye?catching among the crowd, strolled across the square in front of the Cathedral, looking around at the sights like an ordinary tourist.

Before long, another elderly gentleman in a dark brown coat, with a gentle, scholarly air, walked out of the crowd and headed straight toward that tall figure.

Vanna saw Morris coming out of the crowd and quietly moved to a relatively secluded spot.

“There is no anomaly on the Cathedral square.” Vanna leaned against a streetlamp and looked at the Cathedral’s main doors in the distance, speaking in a low voice.

“Same at City Hall. At least on the surface, there are no signs that the people there have suffered any mental or cognitive corruption,” Morris said as he wiped his blessed monocle. “But I did notice something.”

“Something?”

“People near the square were talking about the recent sewer exploration operation by The authority. If I’m not wrong, they were talking about the second waterway,” Morris said. “They mentioned Gatekeeper Agatha—that Gatekeeper is personally leading the team.”

“Gatekeeper Agatha?” Vanna’s expression changed a little. “But the Captain said…”

“The real Agatha should be trapped right now in a Frostholm city that has become a mirror world,” Morris said in a low voice. “The one leading the team… is most likely a replica.”

Vanna drew in a deep breath, then suddenly looked up toward the Silent Cathedral.

The majestic building stood against the gloomy sky, its many spires standing in the mist without a sound.

Her expression grew grim: “…The Grand Cathedral shows no sign of anything wrong, so there are only two possibilities. Either the replica has fooled the Grand Cathedral’s eyes, or…”

“Or Frostholm Church is no longer trustworthy. At the very least, something is very wrong inside the Grand Cathedral,” Morris nodded slightly. “Whichever it is, Frostholm Church has clearly lost control of this whole affair—we should leave. We have to tell Mr. Duncan about this at once.”

Vanna nodded silently and walked with Morris toward the exit at the edge of the square. Before leaving, she again looked up one last time at the open area opposite the Silent Cathedral.

That was where City Hall stood, the Queen’s palace that had once been called the ‘Winter Court’. Fog had formed atop the hill. In the thickening mist, Vanna saw that building standing as silent under the sky as the Silent Cathedral. Its spires were tall, its towers crowded together. One high tower after another rose like thorns and blades in the mist, quietly overlooking the city.

Vanna’s steps suddenly stopped.

Morris immediately turned his head: “Vanna? What did you see?”

Vanna stared hard at that hazy mist.

As the mist curled, City Hall returned to its original look. It was a palace?like building with all kinds of curved vaults. Around the dignified gray?white main hall stretched long halls like wings, their vaulted roofs rising and falling in a row.

There were no gloomy black spires and no forest of high towers.

“Vanna? What’s wrong?” Morris’s voice came again beside her.

“I just saw another Grand Cathedral—right where City Hall is,” Vanna said suddenly in a low voice, her expression especially grave. “It was only for a moment, but I’m sure I didn’t see it wrong!”

“Another Grand Cathedral?” Morris was startled. He instinctively looked across the square, but all he saw was the perfectly normal City Hall.

But he did not doubt Vanna’s judgment at all.

“This is not a good sign,” the old scholar said in a deep voice, raising a hand to press down his hat. “It seems only you saw that scene. That may be because your Spirit Sight as clergy is far beyond ordinary people. That manifestation appeared directly around the Grand Cathedral. That is proof the corruption is getting worse.”

Vanna did not respond. She only frowned deeply and looked toward the city at the foot of the hill. After a long moment, she spoke slowly: “It’s getting foggy. Everywhere.”

Fog had formed. At first it was only in the central area of the Frostholm city?state. Then the mist began to spread across the whole urban district. It started as faint wisps, then quickly grew thick. In just a few hours, the entire city was wrapped in haze.

“It’s so foggy outside!”

Shirley leaned over the second?floor bedroom window, craning her neck to look at the street. She shouted with a look of surprise on her face.

Dog also pressed against the window, his ugly skull head squeezed next to Shirley’s. After staring outside for a long time, he suddenly spoke up: “The reason for heavy fog in urban areas is usually a large temperature difference between day and night, plus human activity causing water vapor to rise and dust in the air to increase. The moist air between buildings then meets a sudden drop in temperature and forms…”

Shirley listened, completely lost: “Dog, what are you talking about?”

“Dog is reciting the second chapter of The Logic Behind Nature. It’s been reading that book these past two days,” Nina said offhandedly, glancing over from the desk where she was doing homework. “You should try reading some simple books yourself sometimes. It really helps with learning more words—if it’s too hard, you can start with picture books.”

Shirley thought for a moment and said uncertainly: “Are you mocking me for knowing so few words, that after all this time I can still only read picture books?”

Nina had already turned her attention back to her homework: “No, because you really can only read picture books. Stating facts doesn’t count as mocking…”

Shirley’s eyes went wide, as if she wanted to get angry, but the thicker fog outside caught her attention again. She waved her hand. “Ah, I’m not arguing with you about this—come look! The fog outside is really thick! Even back in Pland I never saw fog this heavy…”

“Pland doesn’t have a big temperature difference between day and night, and it’s windy in the morning and evening. It’s not easy for fog to form there,” Nina said without looking up. “I’m not looking. I haven’t finished my homework. The practice papers Teacher Morris assigned are really hard, and the multiple?choice questions are so confusing. I keep feeling I picked the wrong answers…”

“Hey, when you run into a question you can’t solve, just choose C for everything,” Shirley said casually. Then her eyes rolled, as if a new idea had popped up. “Nina, do you want to go out and play? Just nearby, we won’t go far. There’s a pastry shop across the street. In this weather there definitely won’t be many guests. Maybe we can buy cake really cheap…”

“I’m not going,” Nina said. “If you want to go, go by yourself. When Uncle Duncan comes back, I just won’t tell on you…”

She had only said half a sentence when a strange rustling sound suddenly rose in the room, cutting off the two girls’ conversation.

“Did you… just hear something?” Shirley quickly jumped back from the window and looked around warily.

Nina tensed up too. As she instinctively tried to look around, the corner of her eye suddenly caught something strange on the surface of the test papers and books spread out in front of her.

The words were moving, the symbols were spinning, and the clear black ink strokes trembled as if they had come alive. Along the edges of those shaking lines, black shadows spread like spilled ink and quickly filled the whole sheet.

In almost an instant, all the books and papers Nina had been reading began to shake violently. Layered whispers and murmurs mixed with that rustling sound and echoed through the whole room!

“Ah! Your books are possessed!” Shirley cried out. At the same time, she instinctively raised the chain that linked her to Dog. The moment her shout fell, the thing that had followed the scent of knowledge upward toward the Mortal Realm also entered the room!

The black smoke and dust spun wildly. A body condensed and appeared out of the smoke. Fragments of bone scattered across the floor with a clatter and in an instant turned into ugly, terrifying demons—three Abyssal Hounds landed on the floor, letting out fearsome growls. Their chaotic, blood?red eye sockets were filled with madness and disorder!

Then they saw Dog sprawled on the open patch of floor by the window, looking a little dazed.

The Abyssal Hounds looked at one another—Shirley even felt she saw a flash of confusion in the posture of those chaotic, witless “native demons”.

But that did not affect her reaction at all.

The pitch?black chains rattled at once. Shirley raised her arm high. With tremendous force, she swung Dog in a full circle like a flail, and in the next second sent him whistling toward the demon closest to the window!

“I’m gonna beat you to death!”

With a thunderous crash, the two dog heads collided with earth?shaking force. The demon that had just rushed up from the Abyssal Deep Sea, clearly could not compare with Dog, who had been sparring with Shirley for years—whether in skull hardness or in reaction speed.

The first Abyssal demon was smashed to pieces in a single hit.

The second Abyssal demon only had time to open its mouth. Before it could let out a roar, it suddenly felt a surge of intense heat rushing at it.

A streak of flame shot in from the side as Nina raised her leg in a 6000?Degree Flying Kick.