New Gods of North America

Light the kerosene lamp, dim it, and block out the light slightly.

Then Lina looked around herself as if she was looking for a flea.

Even Peter was crawling up and down behind her, as if helping her check for blind spots.

Wayne couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong?"

"The sage warned me. Someone seemed to be using his power to look for something, and then found me."

Lina answered while continuing to search her body.

Forehead……

This topic sounds like something is wrong...

Wayne tried to guess, "Could it be that someone from the 'Church of Truth' is looking for you?"

"The sage only gave me a picture and inspiration for a moment, but it didn't feel like it was directed at me directly." Lina thought for a moment, "It was more like something touched me."

Lina and Peter searched her for a while, but found nothing.

Then Lina found the counterfeit banknote that she had secretly seized in the casino before, and searched inside for a while.

She held the counterfeit bill up to the light, looking at it from front to back, and then through the light.

Seeing that Inissa had also sat up, Lina handed her the counterfeit bill.

"Is there something wrong with this thing?" Lina asked.

Inesa took the counterfeit banknote and looked closely at it. At first, she didn't seem to notice anything unusual, until she put the counterfeit banknote to her nose and tried to smell it:

"Some of the pigments used for printing seem to have a faint smell of blood."

Inissa said, sniffing again, "Not sure, but it looks like it."

Wayne thought of something else:

"This counterfeit bill was randomly picked by Lina from the others in the casino, right? Could it be that the paint of all the counterfeit bills is mixed with blood? Isn't that a bit too cruel?"

Inesa glanced at Wayne and said, "Blood doesn't necessarily mean human blood."

Yes... yes...

Then Inissa looked at Lina again: "You just said that there were pictures in the revelation given to you by the 'wise sage'?"

“Yes,” Lina nodded, “It seems to be a scene of someone praying to Him. The figure is not clear, but it should be indoors, and there is a magic circle.”

"Then we can only guess. Maybe there's something wrong with the counterfeit bill, maybe you got something else in that workshop, or maybe it's just a coincidence."

Inesha continued, "But we can't rule out the possibility that this may be related to the murderer."

After this little episode, the three of them upgraded from being on guard and resting to taking turns on night duty.

One night passed and nothing happened.

…

Late at night the next day,

Suddenly, heavy rain began to fall from the sky, as if someone was pouring water down from the roof with a bucket.

Wayne felt that the sound seemed wrong, so he turned his head and looked out the window.

As a result, there was a loud noise outside the window on this side of the cabin, but it was quiet outside the window on the other side, and a strong smell of kerosene wafted into the air.

"Kerosene! The enemy is coming!" Wayne shouted.

Inissa and Lina had also jumped up at this time, one put on her guitar case and picked up the bolt-action rifle, and the other picked up the shotgun at hand.

Then there was a clang.

A large wooden barrel suddenly fell from the roof, accompanied by sporadic "ping pong" sounds, and directly cracked in the cabin.

There was even half a barrel of kerosene splashing out of the broken wooden barrel.

Then a fire lit up on the roof, and the flames followed the remaining kerosene on the roof and jumped down from the hole in the ceiling, and the cabin was suddenly filled with fire.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Seeing that the fire had started, Wayne raised his lever rifle and fired continuously at the hole in the ceiling.

"Get out now!"

The three of them opened the door and climbed through the window nearby.

Wayne jumped out of the window, rolled on the lawn, and then aimed his gun at the roof.

A figure, still taking off his hat in salute, had already turned into mist on the roof.

"Bang!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The sound of the bolt-action rifle firing and the sound of Wayne's gunfire rang out almost simultaneously.

The human-shaped mist was slightly stirred by the passing bullet, and then in the rising air current of the flames, it turned into a diffuse but not disappearing amorphous air mass, and drifted away quickly away from the road with the wind.

Damn it,

How can there be such a tall aerial unit?

And it can't be beaten.

At this time, bursts of gunfire were heard near the cabin, and there were even the sounds of gradually accelerating horse hooves and the silent fluttering of birds, as if they were chasing the fog.

Seeing that it was too late to drive the carriage to pursue the enemy,

Wayne threw the lever-action rifle onto the lawn and, along with the people nearby who heard the noise and saw the flames, tried to put out the fire.

Unfortunately, the fire caused by the kerosene was fierce, and the wooden house itself was flimsy.

In the end, the fire was successfully put out and did not continue to spread outward, but most of the cabin collapsed and was basically gone.

…

When Willy heard the news after daybreak,

Looking at his dilapidated and charred "home", he was stunned for a moment.

Then Willy didn't say anything.

He just walked silently to the place where the bedroom was originally, and dug out some small toys that were now charred and wet from under the burnt bed.

Wayne took a quick look and saw even a wooden police badge and a small pistol inside.

If the attacker had just poured kerosene outside the house last night, the situation inside the house might have been slightly better.

Unfortunately, half a bucket of kerosene was thrown in, and the kerosene flowed along the floor, burning from the bottom to the top, and the situation in the house was really terrible.

Wayne also felt a little guilty about this.

Although it was agreed that the rental fee was $5 per month, including the cost of damage repairs,

But according to his understanding, it should refer to the repair of appropriate "damage" such as broken doors, flying windows, holes in walls, etc.

Instead of the current repair work where the houses collapsed, turned into ruins and were completely "destroyed".

So Wayne patted Willy's shoulder gently and tried to comfort him:

"I'm sorry, I will pay for you to build a new house and try to make up for your loss."

In America, the same wooden house,

Depending on the area of ​​the house, the choice of wood, the craftsmanship, and the decoration, the unit price of a heavy wooden house and a simple wooden house can differ many times.

For an ordinary log cabin like Willy's, which is not very large, even if we build a better one and calculate the cost more,

It’s probably only twenty or thirty dollars at most - and a considerable portion of it is even labor costs.

None of them are as expensive as replenishing a wave of limited-edition special demon-hunting bullets from the Hunter Association.

Willy hesitated, but shook his head slowly:

"This is all the murderer's fault. We agreed before that there is no need to pay extra for repairs."

"You don't need to say no."

Wayne put his hand on Willy's shoulder and said with a grin, "I'm rich."

"Then...thank you."

Willy turned his head and looked back at the burned-down cabin.

Only then did his eyes gradually begin to turn red, and finally his shoulders couldn't help but tremble slightly. He even wiped his face with his sleeves, "That's great. Thank you, Mr. Wayne."