New Gods of North America

Realizing he was in a state of "limited perception" or "misguided perception," Wayne began trying to wake himself up and make as much noise as possible.

Both of these tasks were a bit tricky. Wayne's biggest problem at the moment was that he couldn't be sure what "he" was doing, making him hesitant to act rashly.

If he were to move his weapons randomly, he might think he was in a shootout with bad guys, but in reality, he might be misled by illusions and end up shooting his own teammates.

Fortunately, although other indicators were unreliable, the consumption of Wayne's own spiritual power seemed to be something the evil spirit couldn't tamper with.

So Wayne, like a "blind man with open eyes," began to grope around in the delusion.

For example, Wayne "saw" a wall and "touched" it, but when he tried to inject spiritual power into the part of the wall he was touching and found that the spiritual power didn't decrease at all, it meant the "wall" was fake.

Conversely, some walls Wayne couldn't "see" or "feel," but spiritual power could be injected into them, indicating the existence of real "walls" or real "things."

Then, if the consumption of spiritual power was abnormal, it might mean he had touched someone else's body or strange equipment, which he shouldn't touch randomly.

If he felt the "wall" suddenly break, it might mean he had reached a corridor, doorway, or staircase, and then he could judge based on the ground conditions.

Suddenly, he felt that a blind person's life must be really hard…

The evil spirit wasn't sitting still either, and created various illusions to interfere with Wayne.

What was more troublesome was that the various illusions created by the evil spirit were very realistic. For example, the "fire" it made was truly scorching and hot. Approaching it would make you feel "heat," and your skin and limbs would seem to be burned and destroyed, and you could even smell the burning in the process.

If his self-healing ability hadn't been ineffective and his spiritual power hadn't been consumed in the process, Wayne might not have been able to distinguish between reality and illusion.

Even if ordinary people could distinguish the real from the fake fire, it might not be useful. The false pain would still make people suffer terribly.

Without self-healing ability and a history of courting death as psychological support, this kind of thing would be difficult to endure.

After that, Wayne tried various methods of calling for help, such as shouting loudly or firing a safety gun.

One of the bigger things he did was, in the illusion of a blizzard all around, he felt his way to the window on the outer wall and fired a church-standard flare-type handheld signal flare out the window.

Although Wayne himself was still in the illusion and couldn't "see" the flare rising into the air, it should have been launched successfully.

——The structure of the windows on the outer wall is different, so the location should be correct; Wayne had repeatedly confirmed the firing direction of the signal flare, and if it was still wrong, there was nothing he could do.

After firing, Wayne also touched one end of the signal flare. The fact that his spiritual power could sense that one end was "empty" indicated that the launch was indeed complete.

Moreover, his self-healing ability suddenly activated, and the consumption of spiritual power was less than 1%, probably because his finger was burned by the residual heat of the flare launch…

Wayne didn't know which of his methods had really worked.

But finally, as a dazzling white light suddenly appeared "before his eyes," Wayne suddenly felt as if hundreds of needles were piercing his skull at the same time.

Then, when the white light faded, he discovered that "he" was actually still in the house he had been inspecting last.

At this time, many people were lying around in the house in a mess, basically all of Wayne's team members who were responsible for the inspection.

Each of them was slumped over and unconscious, and the church-standard special oil lamps had all gone out and fallen on the ground.

Looking at the situation in the house at this time, there were blood droplets everywhere. Many bloody handprints reached from the walls to the floor, and some were even slapped on the window glass.

Although Wayne also felt that this scene looked a bit creepy, these blood stains and bloody handprints seemed to have actually been made by Wayne when he was trapped in the illusion. Wayne still had a lot of blood on him now…

David Mills quickly rushed in from the door, glowing all over and accompanied by two or three people who looked quite powerful.

At this time, a circle of people who looked like exorcist priests had surrounded the outside, some of whom were holding candlesticks and chanting scriptures. The "white light" just now seemed to be their doing.

David Mills was obviously shocked by the blood stains everywhere in the house. He grabbed the member lying closest to him and pulled him out of the door, while loudly issuing orders:

"The reserve team immediately participates in the rescue. The evil spirit is very ferocious and we must minimize casualties as much as possible. Repeat, the evil spirit is very ferocious!"

Um…

Wayne didn't help the evil spirit defend itself. After all, strictly speaking, it was indeed its fault.

……

With a bunch of professional exorcist priests present, Wayne ultimately didn't go to watch the priests' final battle with the evil spirit.

David Mills came over to report the situation to Wayne after he was done:

"Although that evil spirit is very weak, its level is not low. We have tried to seal it back."

"Oh," Wayne nodded, "Anything else?"

David Mills thought for a moment, "Nothing else. The only things we can confirm at the moment are these. We may need time to study the origin of that evil spirit."

"No, our detective agency dispatched so many people tonight, and you see I'm still covered in blood. Isn't there a contribution reward from the church?" Wayne was very simple and honest.

"Um… dealing with evil spirits is the daily work of the local exorcism department, and you accepted my personal commission, so you may not be able to get extra contributions…"

So Wayne was even more simple and honest, trying his luck first regardless of whether there was a reward or not:

"Don't reject it on behalf of your superiors. Report our detective agency's active cooperation tonight, the actual results achieved, and our detective agency's reasonable demands to Pastor Bazzini, and let him decide. Maybe he will surprise you and actually be a generous parish administrator."

David Mills nodded, and seeing that it was already dawn, he also asked Wayne, "You didn't get a good rest last night and you were so badly injured. Do you need me to write a certificate to help you ask for leave to rest?"

Wayne's eyes lit up, "Can you?"

"Of course, the local exorcism department and your seminary still have some connection. Taking leave within a week shouldn't be a big problem."

Within a week… that's not interesting.

"Then help me write it separately. Break the whole week's certificate into six one-day certificates. I'll use one today, and I can use it again when I need it in the future…"

As Wayne spoke, he remembered the previous matter:

"Did our seminary's church send the support personnel over? I also want to meet the guy who can find extraordinary people in the crowd."

Hearing this, David Mills casually pointed a little further away:

"The person you're looking for is actually Pastor Paxir. He's over there now."

Wayne looked over, and the elderly pastor who looked old and frail was also looking over at this time.

The expression on his face was still kind, and he nodded slightly.