Lower Lip District. 13 Canine Street.
The plump Ulika was sitting on a sofa with his tiny dark brown eyes and skin. Wrapping a dried yellowed tobacco leaf and ten different kinds of Southern Continent herbs and spices together, he cut it into long strips.
Then, he held his self-made East Balam smoke pipe in his hand and brought it close to the matchstick his subordinate had lit. The end blackened and curled as it glowed red.
Biting at its end and taking a deep suck, Ulika slowly exhaled white smoke that was tainted with light blue hues. He looked at the visitor on the single-seater opposite him and said, "This is what a cigarette is. A real cigarette.
"The ones in the Northern Continent are only suitable for children!"
The person sitting on the single-seater was a man in his forties. He had a high nose, blue eyes, and gentle facial contours. His black hair was thick and curly. His skin color wasn't too dark, but neither was it fair. He resembled a mixed-blood between someone from Loen and Balam.
He chuckled upon hearing that as he replied in Dutanese, "Unfortunately, I have zero interest in any kind of cigarettes."
"Enzo, you don't know how to enjoy life at all..." Before Ulika could finish his sentence, his powerful spirituality that was a result of his pathway had warned him of some danger.
The way it suddenly came and appeared in such a pressing manner made Ulika instantly determine that the problem wasn't trivial.
He had yet to leap away from where he was sitting when all he saw was darkness. It was as though he could directly see the night sky outside. A strong sense of sleepiness overwhelmed him as he felt a level of serenity from the bottom of his heart.
Along Canine Street, be it the houses with lit lamps or extinguished lamps, it became abnormally silent at that very moment. It was as though no living being lived in them, or that everyone had fallen asleep at the same moment.
At this moment, the snoring and slumped Ulika suddenly leaped up. His eyes wore the strange combination of a reverie and lucidity.
Behind him, a nearly illusory girl with pale skin was stuck to his back at some point in time!
This girl's eyes were bluish-green, and her lips were jet black. Her eyes were silently looking to the side, and her ghastly pale and translucent limbs had drilled into Ulika's body as though she was a spirit that couldn't be shaken off.
Her existence brought a chill to his Soul Body, making Ulika barely resist his abnormal sleepiness as he broke free from the influence of a Nightmare.
Before Ulika could completely regain his lucidity, he instinctively rushed to the staircase. Extending his palms, he exerted strength towards the front as though he was pushing a door that didn't exist.
In a blink of an eye, a difficult-to-describe bronze door covered in mysterious patterns appeared in front of Ulika. It wobbled and creaked before cracking open a gap.
The gap led to an endless darkness. In it were indescribable eyes that watched the outside world.
Meanwhile, large amounts of squirming and strange objects that were still unrecognizable surged wildly from the gap.
Ulika was about to continue exerting his strength to open the door and cause the terrifying world behind him to descend upon Canine Street when he suddenly saw a pair of pale, translucent palms appear out of thin air. They passed through the deep darkness and pressed down on the interior of the door's gap.
The palms didn't originate from anything. They weren't connected to a body, and the wrist was bloody. It was unknown who had severed them!
Both parties exerted their strength as the mysterious bronze door stopped moving. It neither closed or opened further.
High above Unit 13, Soest, who was already a Spirit Warlock, was floating in midair thanks to an invisible force. His hands carried a sundial made of gold as he slowly raised it high.
When the golden sundial was finally raised above Soest's head, its resplendent glow flowed out and quickly outlined and became one.
Suddenly, another sun seemed to appear in midair, directing all the light and heat at 13 Canine Street.
None of that caused any damage as they penetrated through the building and landed above the bronze door, enveloping Ulika who was standing in front of it.
Ulika instantly grimaced in extreme pain as the pale and nearly translucent girl let out a shrill scream, but it was stopped by the "sunlight" and drowned by the onslaught.
She warped and quickly evaporated, producing wisps of black gases that dissipated into the sea of light.
There wasn't a single spot inside the building that remained dark!
After the "sunlight" faded, the indescribable bronze door had already vanished. On the ground was a black swollen corpse that was effusing pale yellow oil stains.
With a boom, the corpse tore apart as a thin, tiny figure leaped out from inside.
This figure had identical looks to Ulika, but its skin was raven-black as though it was stained in ink. The surface of its body that stood at a height of around 1.2 to 1.3 meters had sticky pus flowing across it.
The moment he appeared, he dashed for the staircase with a ludicrous speed. Burrowing into the cellar, he opened a secret trapdoor he had prepared in advance as he dashed forward as fast as he could.
In just ten seconds, the miniaturized black version of Ulika saw the entrance—hope.
He didn't lower his guard as he gently clenched his right fist, producing about eight transparent illusory figures from his body.
They were of all kinds of shapes and sizes, as though they were an abomination that fused the characteristics of humans, plants, and certain animals. Some held Ulika's arm, others lifted his feet as they took off in flight.
Right on the heels of that, a mechanical switch was shifted. Gears started rotating as the exit door flung open, leading to a silent and dark street corner.
Further ahead were streets that stood on lower ground, and on the two sides of the streets were rows of houses. They appeared like the sea that churned with the light of the crimson moon.
Ulika was just about to use the help of spirits to fly out of the secret passage and disappear into the other districts of Kolain City when his eyes reflected a foggy lake.
The lake shimmered with light, producing a tranquil beauty. In the middle, concentric circles rippled out as beautiful and illusory figures floated up.
This was a powerful type of spirit. Human legends often deemed it "the Goddess of the Lake"!
Many a time, the strength of a Spirit Guide depended on the deceased or a natural spirit they found and controlled. It was the same with Spirit Warlocks. However, the inclination for Spirit Guides were the deceased, while for Spirit Warlocks, they were better at controlling natural spirits.
At this moment, the strange transparent figures around Ulika uttered a monotonous sound of horror. Throwing away the arms and legs they were carrying, they drilled into the thin pitch-black body like the wind.
With a crash, Ulika fell to the ground, but he didn't feel any pain, which was a result of intense sleepiness assaulting him. It made him fall asleep without realizing it.
At the exit, Daly Simone, who was wearing a Spirit Medium robe, with her face made up with blue eyeshadow and blush, walked out of some unknown location. Looking at the 1.2-meter-tall Ulika, she said,
"The deceased spirit he fused with is very strange. If it doesn't use a living human's body as a ‘house,' it will quickly dissipate.
"We need to make every second count in order to obtain information."
In the shadows beside her, Leonard Mitchell walked out. He looked at Daly Simone in surprise and said, "Aren't you a Spirit Guide? How do you control a Goddess of the Lake?"
"Aren't you a poet? Why don't you write poems?" Daly snapped back.
...
On the other end of the street, on a gentle cliff, a figure quickly moved downwards with the protruded pieces of rock, quickly landing in the shadowy corners of Jaw Street below him.
His skin was light-colored and his eyes were blue. He had thick raven-black hair that curled slightly. He was none other than Enzo who had been a guest at Ulika's place at Lower Lip District's 13 Canine Street.
Enzo wasn't a member of the Numinous Episcopate. He was one of the traitors of the Life School of Thought that had escaped under the enticement of the Rose School of Thought.
Furthermore, he was neither a Beyonder from the Apothecary pathway that led to the Vampire Sequence, nor did he worship the Primordial Moon. He was only a person who didn't wish to accept the various rules set by his teacher and his teacher's teacher. He wished to lead a carefree life and take advantage of being a Winner.
Such a state of mind was strongly advocated by the Rose School of Thought's indulgence faction, so it didn't take long for him to formally join them, allowing him to freely satisfy all his various desires.
This time, he was representing the Rose School of Thought to make contact with the Numinous Episcopate in Kolain and discuss the possibility of cooperating on certain matters. To his surprise, Tenebrous Deceased Ulika had suffered a sudden raid by the Church of Evernight. It was a high-level raid!
Thankfully, I'm good at anti-divination. The Church of Evernight members didn't know ahead of time that I was at Ulika's place, and they didn't pay too much attention to me. They just thought of me as Ulika's subordinate, allowing me to find a chance to escape the core region. Besides, that "sunlight" mainly purifies objects with the power of death, evil, and corruption. It didn't deal much damage to me... That's likely a demigod-level attack... Enzo walked to the shadows in the street and couldn't help but recall what had just happened.
After fleeing quite a distance, he turned to look behind him and discovered no one was chasing him. He immediately heaved a sigh of relief and chuckled.
A Winner is a Winner, the eternal Winner!
Enzo recovered his usual confidence as he proceeded down the street with a smile. Then, he turned to his left and quickly moved down the stairs.
It was a steep and long staircase that reached many lower-level streets.
...
In the vicinity of Canine Street, Soest suddenly opened his eyes and said to Leonard and Daly Simone, "There was a man named Enzo at Ulika's place. He's a member of the Rose School of Thought and doesn't have a low Sequence. He probably enjoys quite an important position.
"You are to quickly search the surroundings and see if you can find any traces of him and try to capture him successfully. Don't leave any problems behind."
As for the other Red Gloves and the local Nighthawks, they either had to capture the remaining Numinous Episcopate members or were already capturing them in dreams. They hoped to obtain firsthand news as quickly as possible. Only a few were left behind to watch for any accidents and protect their companions.
"Yes, Captain Soest." Leonard didn't hesitate to agree.
Daly grabbed at the wind and cupped her hand to her ear. After listening for two to three seconds, she said, "The little guys around here tell me that someone did escape via the cliff."
