Cold winds blew across the platform at night, causing the hanging gas lamps to sway.
The light of dusk stretched and shortened from time to time in this scene, allowing the steam locomotive that was silently parked on the tracks to oscillate between being cloaked in shadows or escaping the darkness. It had an indescribable sense of gloom and death.
At this moment, a squad of black-and-white checkered policemen entered the platform. Under the lead of the railway company's duty manager, they walked to the huge train that appeared old.
"For some reason, after the passengers disembarked, all the train staff, including the train driver, returned to the carriage and never came out again. I s-sent people to look for them and get them out to have some rest, b-but they quickly ran out looking like that had been inflicted with a disease. All they could do was hysterically shout, ‘they're all dead,' ‘they're all dead'!" The railway duty manager in a blue coat held a lamp, walking as he briefed the police about the situation.
From his stammering and trembling body, the police could easily tell the extreme horror in him. It was as though a sudden tap on his shoulder would literally cause him to jump and abandon everything to rush for the exit.
His emotions infected the police. All of them held their hands to their waists as they pressed onto their holsters.
Tap. Tap. Tap. The leather shoes hitting the solid, hard ground left reverberating echoes. The police followed the duty manager and warily entered the front carriage.
Inside the carriage, there were two people sitting in each row. They were distributed to the left and right, and they stood away from the windows. At that moment, they were leaning against the backs of their seats, motionless.
Through the illumination of the gas lamps outside and lanterns in their hands, the inspectors leading them very quickly recognized the scene before him. Here were the staff of the steam locomotive. They were wearing blue uniforms that differed for men and women, and they were sitting in different seats in silence. Their faces were pale and their eyes wide open. Although there wasn't any sounds of breathing, the corners of their lips were curved up, revealing eight teeth.
Everyone present felt their hair stand up upon seeing the uniform smiles as they subconsciously held their breaths.
This was an extremely bizarre and terrifying scene. All they wished was to turn around and leave, beginning investigations only when it was bright!
The leading inspector drew two deep gasps before he instructed the constables beside him:
"Go confirm if they a-are dead..."
Upon saying that, he glanced at the duty manager.
"Follow him and see if there's anyone missing or excess people included."
"A-alright, Officer," the duty manager said with a trembling voice.
As he and the constables ventured deeper into the carriage, the other policemen drew their revolvers and remained on high alert.
In an unbearable silence, time slowly ticked by until, finally, one of the constables stopped at the end of the carriage, turned around, and shouted, "It's confirmed. All of them are dead!"
The railway manager stuttered immediately after him, "There are two missing. The train driver and the train conductor..."
The inspector calmed down significantly when he realized that nothing had happened all this time. he thought and said to all the constables, "Maintain the corpses' present state and await an autopsy.
"Meanwhile, split into two teams. One team is to head to the other carriages to search for the train conductor and driver while the other team is to check the scene for clues and relevant information. Once the sun rises, we will begin investigations starting with the train personnel and the passengers who were previously on board. We will search for any commonalities and peculiarities."
Although many passengers didn't present their identification documents when purchasing tickets, the inspector believed that it was possible to find people who had registered themselves and learn from them of any abnormalities on the train or passengers worth paying attention to.
Just as he said that, a biting cold wind stirred, blowing through the carriage.
When all of this came to an end, the inspector was about to emphasize his orders when he suddenly noticed something amiss.
The steam locomotive staff members who were in their seats still had their eyes open with their whites showing and their faces pale. However, their mouths had closed at some point in time and were no longer showing their eight teeth.
Inside a luxurious hotel room, the wall lamps shone brightly onto the carpeted region where a desk stood.
Klein had transformed into Gehrman Sparrow and was sitting on a single-seater. He had his left leg crossed over his right.
Beside him was Enzo who looked like a native. In front of him stood a row of cultist marionettes.
They were the people involved in attempting to make a sacrifice on the steam locomotive—the man with the lumpy cheek, the train conductor and the train driver.
They had circled from different streets donning different looks to gather here.
"Who made you do the sacrifice?" Klein asked in a deep voice.
After advancing to Sequence 4 and becoming a Bizarro Sorcerer, not only was he able to read the thoughts of his marionette's superficial consciousness, he could also use the increased control of Spirit Body Threads to do things similar to spirit channeling.
Of course, the higher the level of the marionette, the poorer the effects of the spirit channeling.
After a brief silence, the conductor who was clearly Loen with rather thick body hair said blankly, "It's a revelation from God."
"Which god?" Klein received the porcelain teacup from Enzo and took a sip.
The train conductor replied in a daze, "God is God. There are no others."
Klein lowered his cup and asked, "How did ‘He' reveal ‘His' revelation? What was said exactly?"
The conductor instantly turned reverent.
"He' gave a revelation through a divine item, requesting us to sacrifice many lives to pleasure ‘Him.' In return, ‘He' will give us eternal life in ‘His' kingdom."
Sacrifice many lives... Compared to the Numinous Episcopate, the Rose School of Thought prefers doing such things. They have always been infamous for blood sacrifices... But to have eternal life in God's kingdom is closer to the Numinous Episcopate's beliefs. Of course, I can't eliminate the possibility that it was fabricated... Klein pondered for a moment and asked, "What divine item?"
The train driver didn't reply as he glanced at the man with the red, lumpy cheek.
The man then took out an item from an inner pocket.
It was a cloth doll of shabby craftsmanship with curved eyes and mouth.
"God will issue us commands at a specific time through it. I bought it at a flea market," the man with the lumpy cheek said slowly without any perturbation in his tone.
This... Klein instantly thought of many possibilities before getting Enzo to take the cloth doll and scrutinize it carefully, but he didn't discover anything odd.
With his experience, this meant that the problem wasn't with the doll. That meant that there were two possibilities: First, someone was using the doll as a decoy while acting as a deity nearby. Second, it was a truly secret existence who had specially labeled the item to send a revelation.
If it's the former, the train attendants' death would've been discovered, and preparations would've been made... If it's the latter, perhaps nothing has been detected... Klein contemplated for a moment and made Enzo place the cloth door on the desk in front of the window.
He then stood up and instantly transformed into another train attendant and stood with the row of cultists.
Similar changes happened when Enzo returned.
After an unknown period of time, the night grew deeper.
Suddenly, on the desk bathed in crimson moonlight, the cloth doll with curved eyes and mouth moved its limbs and slowly stood up.
