"Ahead is the Church of Santa Selina, Your Excellency."

Stepping into the exquisite and beautiful white square beside the road, Crestel in a black trench coat carried a box made of silver-white metal in one hand. He slowed down slightly and looked back at the seemingly quiet and harmless petite girl behind him.

Seeing that the other party nodded casually, with the same careless expression on his face, the God's Favorite continued to lead the way silently, walking slowly towards the steeple church at the end of the square.

In this quiet night, the dark exterior wall of Santa Selina Church almost blends into the night sky behind it. The towering spire and mottled bell tower are like stone monsters guarding behind the sacred curtain, looking down without saying a word.

The two tiny figures crossing the white square watched them push open the door of the church and plunge into deeper and deeper darkness.

The corridor leading to the large prayer hall is dark and dark. During the day, there is still some light coming in from the high colored windows, but now there is only an endless black screen blocking the view. The sound of light and heavy footsteps echoes in this deep and silent passage.

among.

But as if to deliberately break the quiet and solemn atmosphere at this moment, a clear and sweet singing-like voice sounded, with the unique vitality and romance of an innocent girl.

"Won't you introduce your church to me? Explain the origin of its name, how many years of ups and downs it has gone through, and how many devout believers it has cultivated... Well, although I don't care about these, I must say that your church

The architectural taste is much better than that of the 'River and Sea Church' in the Church of Storms."

It seemed that all the priests in the church had fallen asleep on this peaceful night. Beyond the open door at the end of the aisle, a thicker darkness enveloped the huge prayer hall and the rows of benches on the sidewalk.

"...If you come during the day, you will see a purer and more sacred scene."

Crested Sesima seemed to be at home in the darkness, walking through the hall from the benches on the left and right without hindrance, to the right side of the arched altar at the end, and finally in front of a secret door that opened quietly.

Stop and wait.

The "girl" behind her naturally did not need his guidance. She was like a tourist from a foreign country who came to sightsee. She raised her eyes to admire the light and slender lines of the dome in the dark while strolling, skipping each column row by row with the fingertips of her right hand.

wooden bench back.

"There are a total of twenty-two rows of seats and twenty-two light holes." She finally walked down the long hall aisle and caught up with Crestel, "You goddess is quite particular about numbers."

Regarding these remarks that seem to express opinions about the gods, but are difficult to characterize as disrespectful, the God's Favorite has heard a lot along the way, and knows that the best way to deal with them is to ignore them.

"Please follow me."

He opened his long legs and entered another dark and narrow corridor behind the secret door. The lights on the walls on both sides were turned off, and the atmosphere became more silent and depressing. It was as if countless eyes hidden in the shadows opened and looked at the two creatures in the passage.

The person cast a greedy and cold gaze.

"The underground in front is where you store demons...the core of the magic circle that stores the power of believers' prayers. Do I need to go in there?" In order to keep up with Crestel's seemingly accelerated pace, Alice had to jog a few steps.

Only then did he find the opportunity to add to his complaint, "By the way, has anyone ever said that you are not such a gentleman and never consider the difference in stride length between men and women?"

Hearing this, Crestel, who had treated the "girl" as "him" along the way, finally seemed to remember the height difference between the two and slowed down his progress.

"Ahead is the real underground of St. Selina Church, the Chanis Gate... Yes, we need to enter behind the door and go to the deepest point. In addition, I just hope to save a little time on the road..."

She chuckled and interrupted the serious explanation of the God's Favored One.

"Oh? If you really want to save time, then why did you take me on foot for nearly three streets before but refused to call a carriage? Or maybe it's very convenient to take a public carriage. Could it be that you think it's better to walk with me?

Will you feel nervous if you stay in the same confined space?"

…

It can't be explained. No explanation can be given.

Take public transportation with a person who appears to be a high-ranking spiritual being? Or call for a taxi?

No matter how you imagine it, you will think it is an extremely weird picture.

According to past practice, Crestel should have overcome these problems with the cooperation of his teammates, but now it is different. The oracle sent by the goddess indicates that he should try his best to complete the mission entrusted to him alone.

It seems that the goddess does not want other ordinary Nighthawks to know the relevant details about the existence of this codenamed "Mirror Witch".

but……

What he said was right, Crestel did have a wary attitude towards him that was close to fear.

The leader of the Nighthawks team who encountered him head-on, "Nightmare" Mooney Kahn, was irreversible to a certain extent.

As a member of the sleepless group, he does not need to sleep for too long. One or two hours during the day is enough for a full day's rest.

Mouni Kahn was very strong and fortunate enough to survive the most difficult stage at the beginning, but fell behind.

He couldn't let go of the part that was contaminated by Him, and even separated another self because of it.

Nightmare Mooney is addicted to dreams, and is obsessed with the people in her dreams both physically and mentally.

Or it should be said that it was his second personality, a consciousness that only emerged from a dream.

It is precisely because this personality born from pollution longs for dreams that Munni Kahn must live a normal routine and sleep enough hours every day, otherwise his other self will take control and be forced to "take the initiative"

"Sleep and become a dream.

He could no longer stay up late like other sleepless people.

What made many senior executives who knew about the existence of "acting method" not know what to say was that the sub-personality born from "nightmare" was keen on swimming in dreams, and inadvertently complied with the core rules of behavior contained in the potion, causing him to start

Quickly digests potion residue.

Perhaps within a few months, he will be able to meet the criteria for promotion to Sequence 6.

Of course, considering all the unstable factors, he should not be allowed to be promoted within the church.

But the weirdest thing is that Munni Kahn's faith has never wavered. He is still a devout believer in the goddess, but his thoughts seem to have been distorted by external forces, just like he unfortunately suffered from some kind of mental illness.

.

Crested Sesima was indifferent to this lucid madness.

"...Please follow me." He repeated his previous words in the silence around him, then walked straight forward along the corridor, followed the stairs deep into the ground, his dark green eyes were calm, his lips were pursed, and his expression was

Slightly grim.

He heard His clear-toned laughter behind him.

"Let you go for now."

Crestel didn't know what he meant by his words, and his intuition told him that it was better not to know, so he kept silent and continued walking until he came to a black iron double door engraved with seven dark holy symbols.

Stop.

"In the past, members of the city's Nighthawks team would be on duty here, but the situation tonight is special. There will be no interference from others until the conversation with you is over." Crested pointed in a certain direction and took turns.

The kerosene lamp in the room was not lit, and the doors and windows neatly embedded in the wall like a prison cell remained silent in the darkness, without the slightest sound of human beings.

"Are you afraid that I will harm more people?" Thinking of the strange situation of not seeing a single person along the way, Alice could only think in this direction.

Crestel did not answer, his dark green eyes turned dark in silence, he lifted the box made of silver-white metal with his left hand, and pressed down on its surface with his right hand, as if breaking some intangible barrier in an instant

, the silver-white surface of the metal suitcase shines like a star.

As the God's Favorite opened the lid of the box, a pure white bone sword no more than one meter long slowly floated up.

"Every night, the power of the seal behind this door rises to its peak and is no longer suitable for living creatures." Crested exhaled quietly, while holding the bone sword with his left hand, he turned and stared at the girl.

His expression was as usual, "It's coming soon...it's coming soon, please be patient."

Alice soon understood the necessity of his deliberate emphasis on the word patience.

The heavy black iron door in front of him was half-opened inward, making a heart-wrenching creaking sound.

Before she could clearly see what was in the darkness behind the door, there were black hair-like threads pouring out densely from the cracks in the door, until she was caught by the faint light emanating from the bone sword in Crestel's hand.

When the light shone, the thin black line that first broke through to the area outside the door stopped moving and returned to a dead-like silence.

But these strange black thin lines just calmed down. A cold, biting, and shiver-inducing coolness swept through the air around the two of them from the inside out, as if the realm of the dead had invaded reality, making people fearful.

"Follow me closely."

The beloved one actively controlled the holy object in his hand, causing the light from it to spread outward, just enough to cover the girl behind him.

This made Alice, who had wanted to take the opportunity to see the other person's reaction, sigh in boredom. She could only follow him cooperatively and walked together behind the black iron gate with a thin black line extending out.

If we were in the same darkness where we couldn't see anything, Klein would definitely be much more interesting than this stern-faced man. First of all, he would use his rich imagination to scare himself to the point of trembling...

Well, although she was not unable to deal with a man like Crestel, it was not a fun occasion and she was not in the corresponding mood, so she had better endure it for the time being.

Alice put aside distracting thoughts and moved forward slowly, following closely behind the only weak and warm white light in the darkness that was almost engulfing her.

This section of the road is probably the most difficult part of the whole journey.

In this room filled with countless thin threads, the threads themselves move and sway like living things. There is almost no path for people to walk. If it weren't for the sacred object in the hands of the God's Favorite, it seems that the thin threads can calm down.

, Alice has no doubt that she will be captured and sealed by the thin thread the moment she falls into the darkness, and then fall into the eternal darkness.

But she wasn't really worried.

Click, click, the sound of footsteps falling on the stone steps is extremely clear, as if it can reverberate in the vast space deep underground.

The stone steps extending downward finally reached the end. The beloved man holding a sword in one hand turned right into one of the stone rooms and stopped in front of a stone table and chairs that were so simple that they were almost primitive.

Although her field of vision was still dark, Alice noticed that those thin black lines did not enter the room, and the darkness in front of her was just pure darkness that ordinary people could not see.

"This place at this moment is a secret that can only be reached with the power of the goddess. Please sit down, sir. At least we are not enemies now. We can use words instead of force and exchange opinions with each other."

Crestel Sesima placed the suitcase made of silver-white metal on the table, opened its lid, and put back the bone sword in his hand. His movements were unhurried and his tone was calm and calm.

"You have an outstanding array designer who can use a high-quality active material so efficiently!"

After roughly understanding the design idea of ​​this church's underground formation, Alice couldn't help but praise it. Then she sat down in front of the stone table illuminated by moist white light. There was still no trace of nervousness in her voice.
To be continued...