Mermaid Reef

Should the Gray Order continue to exist?

There is no question about this answer.

No matter what the order has done and what it will look like in the future, this city built on the death forest needs the protection of the order.

It doesn't matter if it's not a religious order, anyway, it must be a group of human beings who understand the mystery and are not afraid of the mystery.

The evil god doesn't care about the survival of Venice, but the city has many beautiful buildings, as well as fragile and beautiful glass crafts. From the perspective of Poseidon's aesthetics, the silent underwater forest is also a very outstanding design.

It would be a pity to destroy it.

Forget it, now that the drama of the civil strife in the church is over, let the next thing develop naturally.

Now wait for Hans to "look through" the classics of the Gray Sect to find out what the relationship between Pastor Conor and this Sect is.

I have to say that it is very wise for Jensen to choose to hire Hans to do this.

These classics were originally stored in places where institutions were everywhere, and if the evil god touched them, it is estimated that the books would be reduced to ashes together with the house.

When the sect set up organs, it was not afraid of the evil god's "debt collection", but worried that adventurers outside the sect would steal secrets.

Let Hans go without this problem.

Hans doesn't need to sneak around to complete the task now, he can just browse through it.

Because the bishop died, the top management of the order was basically gone.

"...Could it be that there are too many records and classics, and it took so long to read them all?"

Jason was talking to himself.

He picked up a cup of coffee and drank the mellow liquid in the cup like everyone in this cafe.

He gave Hans a reminder in his dream yesterday, and he will meet here today to hand in the commission.

There are still some water stains on the ground of the cafe, and the waiter is wiping the glass and warmly saying hello to everyone passing by.

The sky is clear blue, and the summer wind is extraordinarily comfortable.

Flocks of seagulls flew over the square, and the weird atmosphere that once enveloped Venice has disappeared without a trace, mainly because most people don't remember such a thing at all.

"An inexplicable earthquake, as well as a whirlwind from the sea, caused us a lot of trouble."

"Fortunately, no serious damage was caused... I heard that the pier on Murano Island caught fire, and houses in a small area were destroyed by the storm. Yes, it may affect the civilians there. God bless them!"

Jason listened to the conversation at the next table and realized that the people talking about the weather were foreigners.

They come here for vacation, to visit relatives, to do business...or...

Jason narrowed his eyes slightly, and looked at the two figures at the corner of the street. They looked very inconspicuous, but there was something strange about the movement of always paying attention to what was behind them.

Is this connecting?

"Sir, here is your carreto coffee."

A man dressed as a waiter suddenly appeared in front of Jason. He was young, tall and handsome, and should be very popular.

Jason: "..."

Jason glanced around subconsciously.

Fortunately, Gemil is not here.

Gemil went to the entrance of the theater to read the posters.

Otherwise, the waiter's life may be counting down.

Because Jason didn't order this cup of coffee, he also felt the almost straightforward hint from the other party.

Jason lowered his head slightly, trying to use the detective analysis method he read in the book to look at the "café waiter".

There are no calluses on the hands, the skin color between the index finger and the thumb is slightly yellow, the clothes of the waiter in the cafe don't fit well, and there is a human scent called perfume on the waiter's body, what is the price of this scent agent Jensen No idea, but he could tell how many humans he'd smelled this odorant on.

Hmm, never encountered it.

It seems that the price is not cheap.

Jason calmly thought about how to reject this human being, so as to keep the other party's fragile fire of life.

However, the other party took great pains to borrow the waiter's clothes, and it was obvious that he would not give up so easily.

"...I would like to advise you not to explore the secrets of those people." The waiter lowered his voice and said with a smile.

He wanted to get closer to Jason's ear, but Jason sat back slightly and avoided it easily.

The waiter was not angry, and continued: "You must be very curious about the identities of those people, but these crows are very unlucky, they always hover over the corpses... Let me put it this way, they are the lackeys of a certain important person, searching for secrets. To carry out the assassination. The incident in Venice must have aroused their suspicions."

Jason, who has no interest in human politics: "..."

Jensen seemed to understand why no ordinary people outside the cult "saw" them when he and Gemil were walking through the stormy city these days.

——The Venetians are used to ignoring all oddities.

It doesn't matter whether these abnormalities come from the mysterious realm, or from the other side of the sea.

Anyway, for them, they are "outsiders who cannot fight and may destroy everything".

Jason was thinking, his eyes suddenly fixed on the corner of the street not far away.

"Thank you very much for your advice, I should go."

Jason pushed away the steaming coffee and left the cafe.

The man in the waiter's clothes sat in a daze for a while, always feeling that he had forgotten something.

Jason finds Hans outside the cafe.

Hans crouched on the street corner like a lost tramp.

"Why didn't you come in? Didn't you complete my commission?" Jason stopped in front of him and tapped the ground with his cane.

Hans said in embarrassment, "I have no money."

Jason: "..."

I don't know why, but the "detectives" commissioned by him seem to be very poor?

"Andre kicked you out without giving you money?" Jason asked casually.

Hans was even more embarrassed. He said dryly, "I still have a mother, so I can't waste money."

Cafes are completely unnecessary consumption.

An evil god waits in a cafe for a human to report the commission to him, but the other party is too poor to enter?

Jason fell silent.

Hans felt that the atmosphere was weird, and it was difficult for him to adapt.

Ever since Andre revealed how the high-level mutants of the cult died, Hans couldn't maintain his trembling state in front of the evil god.

Especially after he looked through the records of the order in the bishop's secret collection.

It turned out that what Jason said was true.

The religious order has been secretly searching for mysterious events all over the world, and by cultivating and controlling mystic scholars and adventure teams, they can obtain the most important benefits - runes, spells, and mysterious-related knowledge.

Pastor Conor is a mystic scholar trained by the church in England.

This pastor is very capable and lucky. After obtaining the power of the evil god, he left the church without hesitation and went to find "mystery" and "investment" by himself.

"...The sect wants to obtain the mystical knowledge and power mastered by Pastor Conor, but Pastor Conor is hiding in Black Lagoon Town, which is a very dangerous place. The sect dare not go there, so they have been following Pastor Conor communicated with him and wanted him to hand over his notes. Because Linde is the only son of the pastor, the church sent people to monitor Linde in London and had all the information about Linde. They also discovered in London A new mystery...is a newborn evil god whose form is related to butterflies."

Hans struggled and said, "At the end of the record, it is written that in 1925, there was a suspected awakening of the evil god in Black Lagoon Town, and Pastor Conor died."

"I killed him," Jason replied.

Hans hesitated to speak.

Jason looked at him and said, "Are you going to ask that kid?"

"He... I know he has no emotion of fear. Did he know all this when he died?"

Knowing that his father sacrificed him to the evil god for power, did he know that this world is so absurd and dark?

Jason thought for a moment, then said, "He knows."

Because the child was brought on board and went out to sea with the adventure team, during this long voyage, there were always some people who couldn’t keep their mouths shut and wanted to have fun, or hated the child’s weird appearance and deliberately revealed the inside story.

- How "lucky" you are to be part of God soon.

However, they were disappointed. Children who have no fear really have no fear.

...it really looks like a monster.

Hans trembled slightly, his eyes sad.

After a long time, Hans raised his head and asked hoarsely:

"Will you still come to the church?"

"What do you mean, revenge? No."

Jason said calmly, "Not everyone is qualified to 'make enemies' with evil gods. The sect has never gained my power, and I didn't come to Venice to destroy the gray sect, I just happened to meet."

Hans opened his mouth and asked palely, "What about the other evil gods?"

Jason decided to be blunt.

"To the ancient gods, the world is full of bugs. It doesn't matter when you're awake, but you hate them when you're asleep. Human beings who devote themselves to the study of mysticism want to learn incredible things from the sleeping ancient gods like mosquitoes. Insects only want a little bit, which is insignificant to gods, but it is unimaginable power to human beings.

"Some people succeed, go mad and die after a short period of success.

"Some people failed, and there was no bones left on the spot.

"No matter what, those successful people became great prophets, sages, and prophets, but they were all entangled by misfortune. The greater their achievements, the louder their reputation in history, the more unfortunate they were. Only those who remained anonymous and did not wanton People who use power can live until the time of old age and death.

"Because the ancient gods are too difficult to provoke, mystic scholars... that is, existences like the Gray Order will shift their targets to those weaker new gods, which is safer. After all, spiritual pollution can also be divided into high and low strengths, as long as If you are lucky enough to discover the correct method, if you don't peep at the evil god's real body, it will be easy to succeed."

Pastor Conor was not the first to take the risk, nor will he be the last.

He gained a strong body, much greater strength than ordinary people, stronger memory, and more flexible thinking.

This allowed Pastor Conor to easily become a learned man. He could recite the Bible, know many words, and study many difficult and difficult classics.

However, whether it is research or exploration, it is too expensive, so Pastor Conor focused on the old Brandon and asked him to be a funder.

Old Brandon was persuaded, or rather, he was confused by the things shown by Pastor Conor. He wanted a healthier body, preferably to live to a hundred without disease and pain, no matter how much he drank and had fun Indulgence has strong energy.

Pastor Conor really took old Brandon to experience the beauty of mysterious power.

If they stop here, then after their death, those stolen powers will naturally dissipate.

The mysterious being whose power was stolen didn't even discover the existence of these mosquitoes.

After all, a human life is not worth a fraction of their life.

"...The evil god who was targeted by Pastor Conor, because of the imminent transformation, doesn't care about the outside world at all."

Jensen didn't use "I" because he wasn't complete then.

"But this delicate balance was finally broken by the birth of a child. An illegitimate child of old Brandon and his governess, who was found to be a very special child at birth, so they wanted more."

Hans took a deep breath: "Too greedy."

He didn't know if he was talking about Reverend Conor and old Brandon, or about the upper echelons of the order.

Hans also knew the fate of the order - in this world, stealing the power of evil gods is all about luck, but the order cannot give up this power.

Hans looked bitter, and he mustered up his courage to say, "Can't you really release that child?"

"...he's a part of me, and I'm him," Jason replied.

"what?"

Jason ignored Hans' shock, and threw a money bag and black glasses to Hans.

"The Venetian glass is very interesting. We tried to learn it for two days. It has the opposite function to the pupil of the rose. After wearing it, you can't see the truth."

Jason raised his eyebrows slightly, and said with a proud expression, "I think this is the reward you need most. As for the money bag...we will leave Venice soon, these human coins are useless to us, you take them away Bar."

Hans was dumbfounded. He tried to put on his glasses and couldn't see Jason.

"How's that done? Huh?"

Hans took off his glasses, his eyes were still empty, only the black aura of some evil gods remained.

Jason is gone.

***

Jason walked across the square, feeling a strange smell in the sea breeze.

The cold deep sea temperature, the scorching volcanic seabed——

When the magma tears the seabed and gushes out, there will be a deafening explosion, and "black smoke columns" will rise one after another, destroying all creatures on the seabed in an instant, spreading terrifying sounds and smells.

That is disorder.

It is also destruction.

But then a new life will be born.

After the magma cooled, the temperature of the nearby seawater was still higher than elsewhere, and the deep sea was like an endless desert, with countless creatures heading towards the oasis.

Those tiny creatures gathered around the "pillar of smoke", greedily devouring the organic matter gifts brought by the eruption.Then they were born here, died here, their bones slowly accumulated, mutated from generation to generation, and finally became strange creatures that could not leave this "oasis".

The same is true of the evil god and its dependents.

"Snapped!"

The balloon in the hand of a boy next to the square burst suddenly, and he burst into tears. The servant hurriedly hugged the little master to persuade him.

Not only did they not persuade her, but a little girl nearby dropped her doll for no reason and cried out in fear.

After regaining his senses, Jason left the square silently.

As he walked, he looked at his palms.

Black vines are looming on the fingertips.

Jason looked up, looking at the end of the road.

Gamil appeared there silently wearing a delicate mask.

The mask was newly bought, and the eyes were made of golden-red mixed-color threaded glass, and there were flowers drawn from gold-threaded glass as decorations.

In the past two days, the evil god visited all the shops selling glass handicrafts in Venice, and went to the auction house to see those antique glassware that were more expensive than jewelry.Glass finished fiends made by the Gray Order cannot be touched, but other glass objects are fine.

This mask is a perfect proof of Seagod's aesthetics, and it fits perfectly with the mermaid's alluring aura.

Jason was uncontrollably attracted by the golden red eyes on the mask.

"Are you scaring the little ants?" Gemil asked with a smile.

As soon as he appeared, he saw all the human cubs in the square crying.

——The cubs can always "feel" unusual breaths, they are more sensitive and more afraid.

Jason was silent, he was a little embarrassed.

The feeling of embarrassment came after I met Gemil.

If you want to compare, Jensen feels that the current level of embarrassment is second only to meeting Gemil outside the bookstore on the streets of London.

First, he encountered a human's tentative courtship (although it was pretended, but he acted very real), then Jason had hallucinations when he felt the breath of the sea breeze, and finally, his emotional instability caused confusion and was bumped into by Gemil.

Jason pursed his lips and said in a low voice, "We may be leaving."

Because he felt the call of the deep sea, an instinctive reaction.

The journey of human cities is coming to an end.

After a good game, no matter how new and interesting the game itself, will bring a faint feeling of fatigue, it is time to end.

"I'm so happy to hear that."

Gemil held on to the mask, his gaze was like a scorching flame, scorching through every inch of Jason's body.