Chapter 358.
Chapter 358 – Fake
The content of the paper has no beginning and no end, as if hiding some plausible metaphors, but when you look at it carefully, it only makes people feel weird, even if it is a great scholar like Maurice who is so knowledgeable, read those words and phrases over and over again several times, but also failed to see the slightest clue.
What were the Forsaken Kings? What were the Forsaken Clans? What was the man in the ashes and the “asylum” mentioned repeatedly in those passages?
Duncan frowned tightly, his eyes swept over the ink stained slightly by the water, some words recorded on it made him vaguely have associations, but it was difficult to form a coherent thought, he only vaguely felt …… that this is not just crazy words, that the passage that seems to be like a religious record seems to be talking about something related to this “deep sea era”. The passage, like a religious account, seems to be talking about something related to the present “deep sea era”.
Or maybe it was something that happened before the Deep Sea Era.
“Is this the handwriting of a crow?” Vanna suddenly raised her head and looked at Nemo, who was standing by the side.
“It’s his handwriting,” Nemo said, nodding his head with certainty as he crouched down to identify it, “He always lengthens the last stroke at the end of a sentence, a fault no one else has.”
“What does he believe in?” Vanna asked again, “Did he come into contact with any other spiritual guides outside of the Orthodox faith? It doesn’t have to be heretical beliefs-secret associations and gray societies like the Academic Hermitage count.”
“He’s a devout believer in the God of Death, has been since he was a child, and hasn’t seen him go to any gatherings other than Bartok’s church,” Raven mused as she spoke, “As for associations and scholarly cloisters and such things . …that’s even more unlikely, how could he get involved in such things with that kind of brain? A guy who has to take three years of remedial classes to graduate from a public high school in the lower city, he’d have to join those retreats even if he wanted to!”
“…… devout Orthodox believer who has never been exposed to spiritual guidance other than the belief in Orthodox God …… That’s interesting,” Vanna said, looking at the paper in Maurice’s hand and curling her fingers against her chin thoughtfully. against her chin thoughtfully, “The narrative on this clearly has shades of the classical city-state era or the earlier Dark Ages, and it’s in the typical ‘holy book style’, the kind of thing that can’t be conjured up out of thin air by someone who barely even graduated from public high school- -And the fact that ‘The Raven’ keeps it close to his body, suggests that he cares a great deal about what’s on the page.”
Duncan didn’t say anything, he’d been thinking silently, when he suddenly responded, “So it’s possible that he copied this stuff down from somewhere.”
“Copied it down?” Nemo froze for a moment, and then reacted as well, “You mean that the raven may have mistakenly entered a certain place, and the things on this paper …… are ‘clues’ that he copied down there? ”
“Perhaps he himself doesn’t know what the significance of what he transcribed was, but it was the most suspicious and noteworthy piece of information he saw there,” Duncan nodded slowly, “And unfortunately, it may have been in transcribing it that he drew the killing blow. ”
“Misplaced somewhere ……,” Vanna said in thought as she slowly stood up and clasped her hands to her chest, “Then this place must have been completely foreign to the ‘Raven’ Then this place must have been completely new to ‘The Raven’, and the environment may have been so bizarre that the person in question was unable to tell where he was for a short time, and had to hastily record what he saw in front of his eyes as a clue, or, on the other hand, he may have been found and killed shortly after transcribing it, and thus did not have a chance to explore his surroundings – otherwise he would have had the opportunity to record more information about its features. opportunity to record more characteristic information to describe the environment as he saw it.”
With that, she glanced down at the drowned remains again, frowning slightly.
“Where exactly did he go? And how was he returned? A soggy corpse is bound to leave traces when it’s carried over to the right place ……”
Nemo raised his head and looked around.
The dry sewer corridors showed no sign of any traces that dragging a body had left behind.
“Maybe we should look deeper along the route that Raven usually patrols, he may have left traces before he blundered into that place,” Maurice said, looking up into the depths of the corridor in front of him, “does he usually go in this direction?”
“Yes,” Nemo nodded, “This corridor leads in the direction of the Uptown area, but there’s a section in the middle where the lighting is erratic and occasionally shrouded in darkness, and while the darkness won’t be too much of a problem for short periods of time, there’s still the possibility of something… . not-so-good things, so it’ll need to be patrolled from time to time to catch the shadows that are just growing.”
“Go over there and take a look then, get there early enough to maybe even find clues,” Duncan nodded, “and if anything does get out that way, it’s just as well to take care of it all together.”
No one objected.
The group said goodbye to Raven’s remains for the time being and prepared to explore deeper into the sewer corridors, and before crossing over to the young man’s remains, Nemo and the old ghost bowed their heads in unison.
“Wait here for us, we’ll come back for you.” Nemo said.
The old ghost, on the other hand, bent down and fished out a triangular amulet from somewhere and shoved it into the raven’s chest, “Don’t go anywhere, boy.”
Duncan watched the scene in silence, waiting for Nemo and Old Ghost to finish saying their goodbyes before turning and leading the group forward.
“We’ll tell Captain Tirion what happened here when we get back,” Vanna said suddenly on the way, “That young man won’t die unknown.”
“Thank you,” whispered Nemo, his mood obviously bad, low and loss lingering, “that boy …… didn’t really do anything remarkable in his life, but he was remembered this time by Captain Tirian and Captain Duncan remembered, it’s probably a kind of honor.” “Does he have any family?” Maurice also broke the silence and asked softly.
“Family? Long gone, he grew up in an orphanage, came out of the orphanage when he was a teenager, and followed me as an apprentice,” Nemo shook his head, “I heard the orphanage director say that the kid was picked up from the road, a trash can on the corner of the street, and was literally only as long as a crow from head to toe when he was first picked up ……”
“Abandoned babies,” the old ghost muttered, as if with anger in his voice, “When the Queen was still around, she wouldn’t have allowed that to happen-abandoning a baby was punishable by imprisonment! Nowadays, people are so degenerate that they can throw their children into the garbage can……. That kid’s life is also great, when he first came to us from the orphanage, he was very skinny and weak, in his teens, he was like a monkey, I was always worried that he would die of wind and cold in the winter, but he still survived… . survived ……”
The old man suddenly stopped, as if a bit stuck, and then shook his head emotionally, “In the end, he still did not survive.”
The atmosphere in the team was extraordinarily low, even the always slow Alice felt the depressing atmosphere, she looked up and around in confusion, and finally hesitantly came to the old ghost’s side, as if she wanted to comfort the old man, “Don’t be sad you …… are.”
The old ghost raised his head and froze for a moment as he looked at Alice, who was wearing a wig and veil, and then immediately made a strong sniffle, “Queen, you have to take care of this matter ……”
Alice was at a loss for words as she looked at the old man in front of her.
But soon, her awkwardness and helplessness was broken – the procession suddenly stopped.
The corridor in front of them was shrouded in dim light, two gas lamps that seemed to be somewhat malfunctioning were set into the walls, barely emitting a glow that could barely completely dispel the darkness in the depths, while Vanna gazed up at the ground at that junction of light and darkness, her expression a little more serious.
“There …… is a man down over there.”
She said in a low voice.
A slightly scrawny looking figure collapsed next to the water guide sink at the edge of the corridor, motionless, the gas lamp, dim and weak due to poor airflow, giving off a slight glow that shone on the familiar looking thick blue coat.
The group made their way to the fallen body, and upon seeing the other man’s face, there was no surprise in Duncan’s mind – it was Raven.
However, unlike Duncan, who had expected it, Nemo and the old ghost were only shocked, and even a little horrified, at the sight of the face.
“Raven?!” Nemo’s voice was with a slight tremor, he looked dazedly at the person who fell to the ground, the whole person subconsciously took half a step back, “This …… this how ……”
“It’s a fake.” Duncan calmly interrupted Nemo’s exclamation of surprise, just from the first glance, he confirmed that the body in front of him was a fake formed by “primeval” – because around the “corpse”, a small amount of black sticky substance had already begun to form. A small amount of black viscous material began to appear around the “body”, obviously its disintegration process has already begun.
There seemed to be a difference between the forgeries. Although they were also formed by the same “primordial elements”, some forgeries could stay active in the city-state for ten days and half a month, while others disintegrated when they arrived at the cemetery. …… It seems to be disintegrating faster.
From the disappearance of the crows to now, only a few hours full count.
Duncan’s mind was racing…
If the raven really is mistakenly into a dangerous and strange place – such as the lair of the Annihilationists – and there copied down the suspicious “holy book narrative”, then The copying of …… against him should have started there as well.
And now, his duplicate is down in this area, where he regularly patrols.
I’m looking in the right direction.
Perhaps the source of the replicants was in this neighborhood!
(End of chapter)