Southwest of Tivian, north of Shield Hill, Duke Barret's villa.
In the calm of the night, the villa, which originally belonged to a Royal Family Duke, suddenly suffered a brutal attack. Assassins from the Eight Point Nest raided the mansion, and the people within were quickly slaughtered. Due to the success of the attack, the Eight-Pointed Nest killers encountered only slight resistance and paid a small price to fully occupy the large house.
After successfully occupying Duke Barret's villa, the Eight-Pointed Nest killers immediately began a comprehensive search of the entire mansion, rummaging through every corner as if searching for something. However, this search has yielded no results so far, which has caused the leader of the killers to flare up in anger.
"Didn't you swear earlier that you would immediately summon the soul after Barret's death, and it would be done within half an hour? How many hours has Barret been dead now? Where is his soul? Where is your intelligence?"
In the bloody, empty entrance hall, a man wearing a black trench coat and a mask almost roared at the Spider-Man on his hand, his words filled with unconcealed anger. The Spider-Man on his hand was silent for a moment after the man's scolding, and then the human face pattern on it began to twist, emitting a slightly hoarse male voice.
"Don't get agitated, Kenk, listen to me. Our plan must have been exposed this time. Other societies are causing trouble. Not only my side, but also Jeffrey and Berlit's sides have had major blunders."
"I don't care about Berlit's situation! All I know is that your mission was to get the intelligence from Barret's research lab from his soul after he died and give it to me! Barret is dead now! Where is the intelligence? Do you want us to look for things here until dawn and then run into the Hunters who rush over? Don't you have soul summoners specially invited from the Corpse Coffin on your side? With extra assistance, you still can't do even this much?"
The man named Kenk still spoke to the Spider-Man on his hand with unabated anger. From his attitude, it could be seen that this person had a naturally short temper. Facing his irritable colleague, the Eight-Pointed Nest leader on the other side of the Spider-Man also seemed to be gritting his teeth and responding, suppressing his anger.
"Listen, Kenk... the situation now is that we are being targeted! Targeted by a society of the '"Cup"'! Besides the 'Nightmare', whether it's Berlit's side... Jeffrey's side... or my side, we have all been targeted! Our soul summoning has had no effect. Even the soul summoner from the Corpse Coffin couldn't summon Barret's soul. According to him, Barret's spirit has been constantly being pulled by some other power. He kept pulling until his Spirituality was exhausted, but he couldn't pull it over. It's clear they were prepared. It's completely meaningless for you to blame me now! Instead of complaining to me here, you might as well spend more time searching everywhere now!"
The Spider-Man responded to Kenk in this way. Listening to the words the Spider-Man uttered, Kenk took a few deep breaths to calm his emotions, then continued to speak through gritted teeth.
"I have searched his house thoroughly. I've used both listening to the ground and seeking breath... but I haven't found a single clue. His research lab has quite complete extraordinary detection defenses. Unless I ask Barret for clues myself, it will be difficult for me to find its location."
"The mission to find Barret's research lab... was personally entrusted to me by Priest Spiderfang. It is extremely important. If the mission fails, both of us will be responsible! Don't think you can get away with it!"
Kenk said to the Spider-Man with a serious expression. Listening to Kenk's response, the Spider-Man was silent for a while, then continued to speak.
"It's impossible to summon Barret's soul now. How about this... you continue to search over there. I'll report the current situation to Priest, and see how he decides."
"Alright... if that's the case, then I'll search again. If I really can't find it, I'll just set the house on fire and retreat. Although I can't burn down the research lab, it can at least cause some trouble for those Black Dogs later."
After Kenk finished speaking, he ended the conversation with the Spider-Man, and then the Spider-Man slowly crawled back into his clothes from his sleeve.
After retrieving the Spider-Man, Kenk began to frown. He quickly left the entrance hall and went to other parts of the villa to direct his henchmen to continue the search. His departing figure was seen by the corpse of a maid lying on the ground, her eyes wide open, and it was also seen by Dorothy.
...
"I didn't expect it... these guys haven't found where the secret room is yet? It seems that the choice to bury Barret's Ghost's soul was very correct..."
In the wilderness road several kilometers away from the villa, Dorothy, sitting in the carriage, said to herself after the Corpse Puppet finished scouting Barret's villa. After confirming the situation inside the villa, the anxiety and heaviness in her heart suddenly lightened a lot.
'It seems Barret's security measures are quite good. These people have been searching for an hour and haven't found it. In that case, I still have a chance to enter the secret room and get the Holy Emblem.'
Dorothy thought thankfully in her heart. By using the Corpse Puppet's detection, she had obtained some quite useful intelligence at this time, for example, something called "Nightmare".
'Nightmare... this is the Eight-Pointed Nest's trump card in this operation, the assassin who bypassed my vigilance and finally successfully assassinated Barret... I didn't expect the famous Tivian killer from the newspapers.'
Dorothy, who often read newspapers, must have seen the name Nightmare. Since the middle of last year, news of his killings has been published in newspapers from time to time. Mainly targeting upper-class people, this Nightmare has been committing crimes for more than half a year without being caught, and now he has even assassinated a Duke.
'Currently, it seems that this Nightmare may be a powerful extraordinary assassin trained by the Eight Point Nest, but the question is, he has been committing crimes like this for more than half a year, and he has killed many people, so he shouldn't be very hesitant to act. But why was he used as a trump card in the last operation? Since Nightmare is so powerful, it would have been much easier to send Nightmare to kill the Duke from the beginning... Also, were the people Nightmare killed before also instigated by the Eight-Pointed Nest?'
Dorothy thought about the issue of Nightmare in her heart like this, but she didn't continue to think deeply like this, but instead shifted the focus of her thinking to the most important place for her at the moment, inside Barret's villa.
'I can temporarily not consider the matter of Nightmare. The more crucial point now is how to blend into the secret room under the noses of these guys. The current situation doesn't allow me to wait any longer. I must act quickly...'
Dorothy continued to think in her heart. Facing the situation where the Eight-Pointed Nest killers couldn't find the secret room, her most secure approach was originally to wait slowly, because the Hunters would come sooner or later, and the killers in the villa would leave sooner or later, regardless of whether they found anything.
After the Eight-Pointed Nest people gave up and left, Dorothy would then use the Corpse Puppet to enter the secret room, and while the Hunters hadn't arrived yet, she would pack up the materials and the Holy Emblem in the secret room and take them away. This method would allow Dorothy to enter the secret room and get the Holy Emblem with the least risk.
Warm reminder: The website is about to be revised, which may cause the reading progress to be lost. Please save your "Bookshelf" and "Reading History" in time (screenshot recommended). Please understand the inconvenience caused!
However, after Dorothy heard Kenk say that if he couldn't find anything, he would set the villa on fire, she dismissed this idea. Although Barret's secret room had sufficient security measures and would not be burned by the fire, the entrance to the secret room might be destroyed by the fire, making it difficult for Dorothy to enter the secret room.
Dorothy had seen that the villa contained many flammable materials, including an underground wine cellar storing a large number of wine barrels. With this large quantity of wine as an accelerant, the entire villa would be engulfed in flames in no time. Under such a massive fire, Dorothy's Corpse Puppets would find it difficult to move, the mechanism at the secret room entrance might be damaged by high temperatures, and the entire house could collapse. At that point, with the villa reduced to ruins, Dorothy would find it very hard to access the secret room buried beneath the rubble.
On the other hand, it was also unrealistic for Dorothy to engage in a head-on battle with the group of killers currently in the villa. Not only were they numerous, but their leader, Kenk, didn't seem like an ordinary small-fry either.
Listening to Kenk's tone of voice earlier, it seemed that the person performing the soul summoning and the person carrying out the assassination in this operation with the Eight-Pointed Nest were on the same level. They both reported simultaneously to an entity named Spiderfang Priest, so the possibility of him being a Chalk Vampire was quite high.
Without the help of any teammates, it would be quite difficult for Dorothy to deal with a Chalk Vampire using only Corpse Puppets. Therefore, a direct confrontation with the opponent was not a good option for Dorothy.
Thus, Dorothy's primary goal now was to find a way to sneak in while the Eight-Pointed Nest personnel were still searching for the secret room inside. Fortunately, with a pile of corpses scattered throughout the villa, this objective was not difficult to achieve.
Without further thought, Dorothy immediately began her operation. She alternately controlled the many corpses scattered throughout the villa, using their senses to become intimately familiar with the general situation inside.
Next, Dorothy found the body of a masked Eight-Pointed Nest killer lying outside the back door of the villa. Although the Eight-Pointed Nest killers' raid was successful, the villa guards' strength was not entirely ineffective. After all, this was a Duke's villa, and after paying the price of total annihilation, the villa guards still put up a slight effective resistance, taking down one or two of the Eight-Pointed Nest's henchmen.
And the body Dorothy found was one of them. He had been shot in the chest and died outside the back door of the villa. Due to time constraints, Kenk immediately ordered his subordinates to search the entire villa after clearing out the villa guards, without bothering to collect the bodies. This henchman was left unattended after dying here.
Dorothy manipulated the dead Eight-Pointed Nest henchman, making him slowly get up unnoticed. After tidying his clothes, he turned around and entered the villa.
The killers participating in the raid were all dressed in black and masked, unable to see each other's faces clearly. Although the henchman controlled by Dorothy had large bloodstains on his front, because the Eight-Pointed Nest, as a "Shadow" society, was accustomed to close combat, the other killers also had plenty of bloodstains on their bodies. They used blades to cut down enemies in close quarters, and each of them carried a pungent smell of blood. Having large bloodstains on one's body was not out of place.
Just like that, Dorothy controlled the dead Eight-Pointed Nest henchman to blend into the villa. The Dorothy henchman, like the other killers, began searching for things inside the villa, moving towards the corridor west of the first-floor drawing-room while searching.
After reaching the destination, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet stop in this corridor and search for things, presenting an appearance of focusing on searching this area. When other killers saw someone searching this corridor, they would no longer go there to waste manpower. After all, the entire villa was quite large, and it was unnecessary for multiple people to crowd into the same place to search.
Therefore, when other killers saw Dorothy's Corpse Puppet active in this corridor, they would choose to go to other areas to continue their search mission.
After designating this corridor as his search area, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet begin creating some cover under the guise of searching. He overturned a cabinet in the corridor and opened the door of a room next to the corridor outwards, obstructing the view of the end of the corridor.
After completing all these preparations, Dorothy controlled the body of a male servant who had died in a room next to the west corridor. Under the cover of the room door and the henchman Corpse Puppet, she had him walk to the grandfather clock at the end of the corridor, reach out to open the clock face, and begin moving the hands. He moved the hour hand to 12 o'clock and the minute hand to 3 o'clock, but did not immediately move the last second hand.
Next, Dorothy controlled the body of a guard who had died on the third-floor corridor near the window, whose death was not particularly gruesome. She had him shakily stand up, load his pistol with a full magazine, and fire continuously out the window when no one was looking. After emptying the magazine, he threw the gun out and fell back to his original position.
Gunshots erupted on the third floor of the villa, instantly drawing the attention of all the killers throughout the villa. Many of them rushed directly towards that area.
At the same moment the gunshots rang out, the male servant Corpse Puppet Dorothy had positioned in the corridor west of the drawing-room moved the final second hand to 6 o'clock. Immediately after, a rumbling sound of machinery echoed around him.
The sound of the mechanism was not small; ordinarily, it might have been heard by nearby killers. However, at this moment, the continuous gunshots completely masked the sound of the mechanism, making it impossible to hear its movement.
Just as the other killers in the villa were drawn by the gunshots and rushed away, the heavy floor in front of the male servant Corpse Puppet's feet began to open, revealing a downward staircase. After Dorothy controlled the male servant Corpse Puppet to descend the stairs without hesitation, the floor automatically closed, and the hands on the clock face on the wall immediately returned to the correct time.
Under the cover of the gunshots, Dorothy used Barret's information to open the entrance to his villa's secret room. The male servant Corpse Puppet went down the stairs all the way, already carrying the gas lamp he had taken from the villa above.
Illuminated by the gas lamp, the male servant Corpse Puppet quickly finished descending the stairs and arrived in a relatively spacious underground area. Using the light from the gas lamp in his hand, Dorothy turned on the built-in gas lamps around, letting the light illuminate the darkness underground, revealing the appearance of the area before Dorothy's eyes.
What appeared before Dorothy's eyes at this moment was the scene of an underground workshop. On one side of the reasonably spacious basement were rows of tall bookshelves packed with books. On the other side was a long table, upon which, besides accumulated books and drafts, were many curious small objects and instruments of unknown purpose.
On the other side of the basement floor lay an instrument resembling an astronomical telescope, with a long tube and countless mechanical structures. Dorothy recognized this type of device; it was a secret transmission observation instrument, capable of observing secret transmissions through layered enchanted lenses and defending against Spirit Sight. Dorothy had seen similar ones in the Historical Scripture Department of the Church, but this one was a size larger than those in the Historical Scripture Department.
However, the most striking feature in the entire underground basement was not this massive secret transmission observation instrument. Instead, it was an ancient statue placed in a corner of the basement, its surface mottled and covered with numerous cracks.
This statue was not of the Mirror Moon Goddess, but a statue of a male warrior. The warrior wore armor, with a cape draped behind him, holding a sword upright before him with both hands. His bearded face was full of determination, and his flowing hair was without a helmet.
On the base of the statue, there was an inscription in the form of Empire text, and below this inscription was a stand with text written in Prit.
"Arthur Despenser, one of the Four Moon Shadow Knights, Wind Knight."