Chapter 78

Chapter 78: Cleanup Work and a Good citizen’s Duty

Duncan’s thoughts led nowhere, because he had no idea where to find a second Suntist who was still breathing to test his theory on.

This kind of thing depended on luck.

Duncan slowly stood up. One by one, the pale green spirit flame lamps in the basement flickered in the still air. In their wavering light and shadow, his thoughts spread out again.

A cultist who believed in a God and had received divine blessing might be seen by the fire of his spirit form as an “extraordinary item”. Then… what about an ordinary person?

When this flame burned on an ordinary person, could it do anything beyond those surface “light and shadow effects”? If not, then how deep did one have to believe in a God before the flame would treat them as a valid “extraordinary target”? It could burn cultists who believed in an Eldritch God, so what about people who worshiped the True Gods?

Duncan calmly watched the dim lamps in the room, then suddenly gave a faint smile.

“They are human.”

So his thoughts stopped there. He did not follow this line any further.

This flame was a powerful force. Power itself was not a sin, but a weak will could easily invite corruption. Ever since he had found out that he held a power beyond imagination, Duncan kept reminding himself of this. No matter how famous “Captain Duncan” became, no matter how strong the fire of his spirit form was, he had to always watch the limits of himself as a “human”.

He could not treat people as things just to test or control his power, even in this strange world, even if those he faced were not always “human” in the standard sense.

Striking in a fight was one thing. Looking for the weak to test his blade on, just to satisfy his curiosity, was another.

Duncan let out a soft breath. He looked at the ghostly green ball of flame still burning in his hand, then waved his hand to dismiss it.

The flame obeyed him faithfully and vanished into the air without a sound.

Duncan smiled. He was, and would always be, the master of this flame.

After the fire of his spirit form faded, the basement quickly shifted from eerie back to normal. One after another, the pale green lamps returned to the bright, clear state they had at the start. Duncan looked around at the messy scene and thought about what to do next.

That strange girl named Shirley was gone, and it seemed she had used some kind of extraordinary method to escape. He knew nothing in that field and had no idea where to look for her. It was truly a pity.

He still had many questions for her. Now it seemed there would be no chance.

But Duncan still felt that he might run into that girl again someday. This was not a baseless guess. Her goal was clearly to cause trouble for these Suntists and to pry something out of them. Lately, the activity of Suntists in the city-state of Pland was at its peak. Countless similar gatherings were going on in the dark. With Shirley and “Dog” and their way of doing things…

They were bound to stir up some lively, big trouble sooner or later.

Duncan had the Sun emblem on him, whose authority he had seized. It let him sense the activities of Suntists in the city. For now, its sensing range did not seem very large, but as long as he strolled around the city when he had nothing else to do, he might bump into some new fun.

As for this mess here, Duncan had no interest in cleaning it up.

He only picked up the golden Sun mask left behind by the Sun priest from the pile of ashes on the floor and carefully wiped off the ash and dust on its surface. This was his trophy, and he meant to take it back to the Vanished to study.

That priest had been burned very clean. Every item on him that touched the supernatural field had turned to ash. The Sun mask was the only “relic” he had left in this world.

“…A palm-sized charm amulet is one thing. This thing might be a bit too big…” Duncan muttered, weighing the Sun mask in his hands. “And if I run into professionals from the Deep Sea Church, they might use some special method to detect it…”

It would be hard to carry this mask on him and safely bring it back to the antique shop. Even if he managed to get it there, Nina might find it, and that would surely cause trouble.

The best way was to send it straight to a completely safe place.

As he thought, Duncan looked back at the pigeon perched on his shoulder. A brand-new test idea came to him. If he did not go along, could this pigeon travel through the Spirit Realm on its own and take things back to the Vanished?

The pigeon tilted its head and stared at Duncan, eye to eye: “Big hammer for eighty, small hammer for forty!”

Duncan laughed: “Think of it as working overtime. Later I’ll find a way to get you some fries on the ship. Try and see if you can take this mask to the Vanished by yourself.”

The pigeon flapped its wings at once. As it flew toward the mask in Duncan’s hand, it let out that sharp, feminine voice of its: “I wanted to say no, but you are offering far too much!”

Before the words even finished, light and shadow flashed in front of him. The pigeon and the mask vanished from his sight at the same time. In the perception deep in his mind, he clearly felt AI’s presence suddenly appear in the captain’s cabin on the Vanished.

The delay was barely even a second!

This pigeon was so fast! So it could teleport items this quickly?

As Duncan was still marveling in his heart, his vision blurred. AI, in her bone-pigeon form, sprang out of thin air and landed on his shoulder. The bird flapped its wings, and her undead body returned to that of a white dove. She proudly lifted her head: “teleportation successful!”

Seeing the state she was in when she popped back out, Duncan nodded to himself. Things made sense now. Of course the bone pigeon was faster than AI.

Then he straightened his clothes and checked that there were no suspicious bloodstains left on him and that he had left no trace at the scene. In fact, he had not touched anything since he came in, afraid of leaving fingerprints or the like. Only then did he carefully use his coat to pad his fingers, open the iron door, and go back out through the stairway he had used to come down.

The Sun, bound by two rings of runes, had already sunk close to the horizon. Gorgeous evening clouds spread over the uneven roofs of the Lower City. High in the sky above the sunset, that faint streak of the Pale Rift had begun to show itself.

One look at the sky made Duncan drop the idea of continuing to investigate the city. Nina would be coming home from school soon.

That child’s “Uncle Duncan” had only just gotten better. He could not stay out all night now.

Duncan quickly left the abandoned factory and walked toward the main road along the route he remembered. He passed through twisted little alleys and through an area where pipes crossed, sewage flowed, and strange smells filled the air. At last he began to faintly hear the sounds of traffic from far away.

The sky was not fully dark yet. He should still be able to catch the last bus.

But Duncan suddenly stopped.

At the intersection not far ahead, he saw four people in uniform. Two of them wore dark blue constable uniforms with epaulettes, with batons and revolvers at their waists. The other two wore black coats cut somewhere between a trench coat and a formal suit, with a faint Church style to them. At their waists he could see not only holsters for large revolvers, but also long steel swords that seemed out of place in this age.

The two people in black coats had one more eye-catching item at their belts: a consecrated lantern decorated with runes, clearly used for night patrols.

They seemed to be handing over their shift at the intersection. Duncan paused, then quickly understood.

They were constables under City Hall and Guardians under the Church.

Constables kept order in the city by day. Guardians protected the city-state’s peace under the veil of night. Now the Sun was sinking. The time of day and night changing was almost here, the moment when secular power and holy power traded places.

This was one of the world’s unique “sights”.

The four of them seemed not to notice Duncan.

Duncan walked over calmly. He had hesitated for a moment, but soon reminded himself that he had a clear conscience.

A law-abiding citizen taking a walk before dark was not committing a crime.

One of the Church Guardians doing the handover finally noticed someone walking toward them. The tall young man raised his head, saw Duncan, and at once waved his hand and called out in warning: “citizen! It is getting dark. Go home quickly. It is not safe outside.”

“Officers! I want to report something,” Duncan said, picking up his pace. He walked over and spoke with great sincerity: “Just now I heard a lot of noise from that abandoned factory over there. Earlier I saw many shady types sneaking in and out…”

He paused here, then added: “I read in the newspaper before that we should actively report strange gatherings and odd noises around us…”

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