Mystery: I Married the Queen of Mystery

Audis was unaware of the conspiracy unfolding within the Duke's mansion as he traveled by carriage to the Backlund Mechanical Research Society.

Although the impending descent of an Evil God was a pressing matter, he couldn't ignore the meeting between Danesi and Coremonde; it would be best to discuss it with Max.

As the carriage sped forward and Audis pondered in the compartment, his spirituality suddenly stirred, and he looked out the window.

He saw three vagrants on the street, arms linked, dancing joyfully while singing:

"…Ah, this beautiful world! Ah, this frustrating world!

Friends, dance and sing, for I have heard the secrets of the stars, I have heard the essence of the universe.

I have heard the teachings of the gods, echoing in my ears…"

Audis frowned: What nonsense are they singing?

As the carriage passed the three vagrants, Audis observed them closely. Their faces bore genuine smiles, but their eyes seemed devoid of spirit, even somewhat clouded.

Although Audis's spirituality sensed something amiss, he didn't stop the carriage. Instead, he decided to report the matter to the 'Heart of the Machine' for investigation.

Shortly after passing the three vagrants, Audis suddenly heard exclamations from behind.

He quickly leaned out the window and saw the three vagrants collapsing to the ground in unison, blood spurting from their mouths.

Their eyes bulged, their faces turned purple, and they quickly lost their breath.

Yet, their faces still held joyful smiles, which, reflected in the blood, appeared exceedingly eerie.

Just as Audis was about to instruct the coachman to stop, his spirituality sent a warning: "Quick! Get away!"

As he spoke, he scattered a handful of transparent powder, and two invisible giant hands appeared behind the carriage, pushing it to accelerate.

Not far from where the carriage had been, the three vagrants' corpses abruptly sat up, opening their mouths to emit strange, drawn-out syllables.

The sounds carried far, and Audis faintly recognized them as similar to the sound of a fax machine sending a fax that he had heard before transmigrating, not sharp but piercing.

Only when the spiritual warning subsided did Audis lean out again.

The three pedestrians closest to the vagrants were now linked arm in arm, dancing joyfully and singing: "Ah, this beautiful world…"

Only now, their faces were filled with astonishment, as if they didn't understand why they were dancing and singing.

Audis hesitated before saying, "Stop the carriage!"

He suspected this was a consequence of the eerie power emanating from a ritual being performed by the 'Moses Ascetic Order'.

The three vagrants were clearly the initial source of contamination, and their deaths had contaminated the three people closest to them.

Many people were examining the vagrants' condition, and at this rate of contamination, dozens would probably be dead by the time he returned from the Mechanical Research Society.

He opened his notebook, wrote a couple of sentences, tore out the page, gave it to the coachman, paid him double fare, and told him to deliver the note to the Mechanical Research Society immediately.

Then, Audis swiftly returned, shouting: "Everyone, stay away! They have a strange contagious disease!"

Upon hearing the word 'contagious disease', everyone immediately scattered, many fleeing in terror.

Audis watched the three people dancing and singing. Like wind-up music box dolls, their movements were simple, and their range of activity was small.

After a moment's thought, Audis devised a plan.

First, he scattered white powder, which, upon contact with the air, emitted a pure white light, and rolling thick fog formed around the light.

The fog rapidly spread, and after the pure white light disappeared, half the street was shrouded in it.

For a moment, the onlookers were surprised and retreated further away. Although the white light had been strange, Backlund often experienced fog, so they didn't take the fog too seriously.

Now that they couldn't see the singing and dancing 'strange illness', most of the onlookers left.

Audis and the contaminated people who were dancing and singing were all inside the fog. Afraid of unknown contamination, Audis didn't dare open his Spirit Vision, relying solely on his spirituality to sense their positions.

Fortunately, they were dancing in place, not running around.

Next, Audis took out the spiritual materials he carried and began drawing a magic circle on the ground.

Having been reminded by Bernadette, Audis had brought extra spiritual materials today, enough to complete the complex magic circle.

By now, the fog on the street had gradually thinned, enough to see the three people still singing and dancing.

The surprise on their faces had vanished, replaced by joyful smiles, seemingly from the heart.

Audis put away his pen and the remaining glass bottle, channeling his spirituality into one of the arcane symbols.

Unlike ordinary magic circles, this one was like a vortex, instantly draining nearly half of his spirituality.

This was one of the most powerful magic circles he had researched, but because it required too much spirituality, he hadn't used it before Sequence 7.

The surge of spirituality immediately caused the magic circle to emit golden light. At that moment, the sun suddenly broke through the fog, shining on the three dancing people and the three dead vagrants.

Immediately afterward, a beam of golden light shone down, igniting the three dancers and the three corpses in intense flames.

They seemed like charcoal, inherently flammable. The three singers even spat flames when they opened their mouths.

But they continued to sing and dance: "…I have heard the teachings of the gods, echoing in my ears…"

Their voices gradually grew hoarse and faded away, their necks burned through, and their heads slumped to the ground.

The intense flames continued to burn until they were reduced to ashes, not a single bone remaining.

Within the ashes, there seemed to be a sound similar to a fax machine, but under the intense sunlight, the sound quickly became intermittent and eventually disappeared without a trace.

Immediately afterward, the sun retreated behind the fog again, becoming faint, like a gas lamp running out of fuel.

The fog dissipated, and Audis inspected his 'battle results'. The effect was quite good.

This kind of powerful magic circle was his strategic 'weapon'. Before this, Audis had only drawn a few similar circles, and none had been put to use.

The circle's attack was already somewhat like a Beyonder power, rather than serving as an aid or seal.

However, these circles could only draw power from nature, such as generating lightning or summoning scorching sunlight.

Some bizarre abilities, however, could not be replicated with corresponding circles.

For example, the 'Secret Suppliant' ability to turn others into secret puppets, or the 'Hermit' ability to enter the shadows, and so on.

The principle behind these circles was to quickly mobilize and concentrate the surrounding natural power.

This was why Audis wanted to study the 'Recorder' ability to 'record'. As long as there was a breakthrough in this research, these powerful magic circles could truly create attacks similar to Beyonder abilities.

After all, Beyonder power was also a force of nature, and theoretically, it could be temporarily borrowed with spiritual materials.

For example, if his research had made a breakthrough, he could have summoned a giant pure white pillar of light that would have completed the purification and burned them to ashes within two seconds.

But currently, research on 'recording' had not made any breakthrough, so he could only do it like today, taking about five seconds to complete the irradiation and burning.

If the magic circle contained a normal Beyonder, they would have already run away.

To deal with Beyonders, Audis did have certain countermeasures, as long as he added a 'tracking circle' inside the magic circle and selected a 'tracking' target.

Audis wiped away the magic circle while erecting a 'Spiritual Wall' to prevent the winter breeze from scattering the ashes everywhere.

At the same time, this was also a simple sealing to prevent any further contamination.

About twenty minutes later, a carriage bearing the 'Mechanical Sacred Emblem' sped over, and Max jumped out, glancing at the ashes on the ground: "Resolved?"

"Resolved," Audis explained. "They were all contaminated. Although three pedestrians were still singing and dancing, there was no way to save them. To prevent further contamination, I had to burn them to ashes."

Max nodded, indicating understanding.

He had two team members collect the ashes and then said to Audis, "Come with me to Backlund University. There's a difficult problem there. Let's see if we can help."

Audis didn't decline this time: "Alright."

Once in the carriage, Max said, "Before we received your information, we received a message from headquarters that someone was holding an evil ritual in Backlund."

Max admitted: "Including the case you just reported, the 'Heart of the Machine' has received three Beyonder cases related to that descent ritual today.

"Some of the Church's mobile forces have been transferred to Backlund, but so far, they haven't found the other party's altar."

Audis breathed a slight sigh of relief: "As long as the official Beyonders pay enough attention, they should be able to catch those bastards soon."

Max indifferently gave an "Mm" in response.

In fact, before coming here to provide support, Max's mission was to escort a group of important scholars, scientists, and family members of "Mechanical Heart" members out of Backlund.

But of course, he couldn't tell Audis about this.

The carriage sped along, quickly arriving at Backlund University.

A teaching building had already been sealed off by "Mechanical Heart" and the police. Captain Ikanse was leading two "Mechanical Heart" captains on the second floor, trying to solve the problem.

There were also three "Mechanical Heart" members waiting outside.

Max and Audis got out of the carriage. Max immediately asked the "Mechanical Heart" members on standby, "What's the situation?"

"According to the students' descriptions, when Professor Stanford was lecturing today, several students closest to him suddenly stood up and began imitating him."

One of the members described:

"Professor Stanford initially thought it was a student prank, so he was furious. Then, several more students stood up, also imitating him and becoming equally furious.

"In the minute that followed, the professor first questioned his students, and then asked them to stop the prank.

"When half the students in the classroom were uniformly imitating him, and mirroring his movements, the professor realized something was wrong. He quickly told the remaining students to leave and instructed them to call the police.

"The first two policemen who arrived also started saying the same things as the professor and making the same expressions, just like the students.

"When we arrived, we first sealed off the teaching building, and then Captain Ikanse used a Sealed Artifact to put everyone in the classroom to sleep.

"And then began to use Sealed Artifacts to investigate the environment of that classroom, and examine the spiritual bodies and mental bodies of the teachers and students."

Audis sighed inwardly, "'Mechanical Heart' is completely using Sealed Artifacts to solve cases!"

But this seems to be a characteristic of this pathway.

A few minutes later, a "Mechanical Heart" captain returned from the second floor and said to the high-ranking police officer outside, "This classroom has been contaminated and must be purified immediately. Moreover, the people inside are beyond saving."

The high-ranking police officer assisting in the investigation turned pale. "Heavens, a professor and more than twenty students, and a policeman!"

In this era, every university student was either rich or noble, especially at Backlund University, one of the top universities in the country. The students here were either the children of wealthy tycoons or high-ranking officials.

The "Mechanical Heart" captain said, "Even if we let them out, it would only contaminate more people."

The high-ranking police officer sighed, "Alright, alright then."

That captain didn't come to ask for instructions from this high-ranking police officer, but only to inform him, and then went to the carriage to retrieve purification weapons.

Max caught up and helped while asking, "Is there no hope for those students to wake up?"

"This is a 'Thought Storm'…" The captain explained, "This is the name Captain Ikanse just came up with. Professor Stanford's thoughts and memories have covered the students' thoughts and memories, and established a certain connection.

"That's why the situation where Professor Stanford says something, and the students follow suit, occurs.

"It can be seen as… it can be seen as those students no longer having thoughts…"

Audis, who was listening to all this, couldn't help but frown. Thoughts and memories being covered! What a strange ability…

Thinking of this, he suddenly glanced at the teaching building. This sounds like an enhanced version of the 'Intelligence Helmet'!

This technology hasn't even started to be applied yet, and Audis has already seen the consequences of "technology out of control".