At night, intense fighting continued in the Church square of Adria. The Hai Sha Society members who came to steal engaged in a fierce battle with the official Extraordinary members guarding the area. During the chaos, a man from the Hai Sha Society successfully snuck into the Net Flow Church and smoothly made his way to the Crown Hall. Here, he could find what the Hai Sha Society had always wanted.
In the spacious Crown Hall, the young man from the Hai Sha Society walked back and forth quickly. His eyes constantly scanned rows of glass display cases, looking at the exquisite exhibits inside and gazing at the paper labels on the glass cases, reading their contents. The young man needed to find the name of a specific donor from the information on these labels.
"Hashed... Sheikh... Karim... Ebn... Got it..."
Suddenly, the young man stopped by a display case as if he had found his target. After repeatedly confirming that the donor on the label was correct, he directly raised his hand and punched the glass case. With a loud crisp sound, the glass case shattered into pieces. The man unhesitatingly picked up the necklace placed inside and put it into the cloth bag he carried with him.
Afterward, the young man continued to walk through the Crown Hall, looking for the next display case with the donor's name also being Ebn. Before long, he found another display case containing a cup with that name on it. The man did not hesitate, once again smashing the glass, and put the cup into his bag.
Just as the young man was about to continue searching for Ebn's donations, a sound suddenly came from above him.
"Who is down there!"
Hearing the sound, the young man looked up in astonishment. Then he saw two figures in uniform with guns standing on the small platform at the top of the Crown Hall where the crown of emmanuel was originally stored. They were Deep Concealment Guard members responsible for close-range personal protection of the crown of emmanuel. After the battle in the square began, they had lowered the curtains of the exclusive attic on the Church roof, blocking the light from the crown of emmanuel from shining outside while also blocking the path directly from the roof to the platform. Now, facing the young man who had broken in from below, they directly raised their rifles.
The man, who had not expected anyone to be above, saw the dark gun barrels aimed at him and immediately dodged. The members above pulled the triggers, and the loud gunshots echoed throughout the Crown Hall. Bullets flew rapidly towards the young man, but the man, having relied on the soul of a wolf, sensed the danger in advance and used his agile movements to dodge the incoming bullets.
The Guard members on the platform continued to shoot downwards. For a time, countless glass display cases in the Crown Hall were shattered by bullets. The young man was gradually forced back by the flying bullets, and in his dodging, he was slowly cornered in a corner of the Crown Hall. In that dark corner, a pair of eyes was staring at him.
Just as the young man approached the corner, a rapid Shadow suddenly shot out from the darkness of the corner, attacking the young man from behind. The youth, who inherited the keen senses of a wolf, perceived the threat behind him and dodged in time. After dodging a sharp slash from a dagger, his eyes looked at the Shadow that had attacked him at close range, and the sight he saw made him widen his eyes.
Attacking the young man was a woman with a hood and mask, dressed in a tight black outfit, with a good figure. At this moment, she was staring intently at the young man at close range. The young man could even clearly see the sharp vertical pupils in the woman's eyes, which were clearly not human, and immediately knew her identity.
"Also... a Soul Appender?!"
Ignoring the astonishment in the young man's eyes, the woman with cat-like vertical pupils, seeing that her attack had missed, immediately gripped the dagger in her hand and swung another fierce blow at the young man. Seeing this, the young man suddenly stepped back and then drew a short knife from his waist to meet the attack.
Holding the short knife, the young man focused his gaze on the woman in front of him. He saw her rush forward agilely and slash at him again with the dagger. Her movements were very swift. Facing this situation, the young man blocked with his knife, and with another crisp sound, their weapons clashed.
At this moment, the young man felt a sudden intense stinging sensation in the part of his hand that was in contact with the iron guard of the short knife. Startled by this stinging sensation, the young man immediately released his grip on the knife and stepped back a few steps, his whole body trembling.
Just then, another gunshot suddenly echoed from above the Crown Hall. A bullet was fired from the gun in the hands of the member above, directly hitting the young man, who was stiffened by the electric shock, and piercing his chest. Then the young man fell down with wide eyes.
Seeing the young man fall, the masked woman lowered the blade in her hand and then came to the young man's corpse. After confirming that he was indeed dead, she couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew, Miss Dorothy's support is always so reassuring..."
Naifnis muttered as she looked up at the platform above the Crown Hall. There, the two Deep Concealment members smiled and gave her a thumbs up, then spoke.
"Hurry up, we're short on time."
The members on the platform said this. Earlier, they had already been ambushed and electrocuted by Naifnis. Now, they were actually Living Puppet controlled by Dorothy.
Hearing the members' words, Naifnis nodded. Then she bent down and picked up the bag the young man was carrying. After taking out the contents, she put them into the bag she had originally prepared. Then, Naifnis, holding the two bags, turned her attention to the display cases in the Crown Hall before her.
Immediately, Naifnis began to do the same thing as the dead young man. She quickly checked all the display cases in the entire Crown Hall with the bag. As soon as she saw that the donor on the label was written as Ebn, she directly shattered it and took the contents into the bag. Within a few minutes, the entire Crown Hall was searched by Naifnis, and all of Ebn's donations were collected into her bag.
Meanwhile, the puppet members above were not idle. Standing on the top platform, they could see the luxurious crown hanging and displaying, emitting an unusual light, at close range.
While Naifnis was quickly searching for Ebn's donations below, these puppet members were operating the mechanism on the platform to carefully remove the crown of emmanuel from its hanging base. Then, they used a piece of blackout cloth that had been prepared nearby, specifically for covering the crown, to cover the hanging base after the crown was removed, giving the illusion that the crown of emmanuel was still there, just covered.
Next, the puppet members used a small piece of blackout cloth they had cut off to wrap the glowing crown of emmanuel, immediately covering and blocking the light it emitted.
And when the puppet members had finished doing all this, Naifnis below had finally collected all of Ebn's donations and put them in a bag. But this was not all. After collecting all of Ebn's donations, she took out the young man's original bag and ran to the adjacent exhibition hall outside the Crown Hall, looked at some other exhibits in the hall that were not Ebn's donations, then unhesitatingly shattered their display cases and put all the exhibits inside into the Hai Sha Society's bag. After a while, Naifnis had collected half a bag of various collections, but there was not a single one of Ebn's inside.
Afterward, Naifnis quickly returned to the Crown Hall. At this time, the puppet members on the top platform also threw down the wrapped crown of emmanuel. After catching it, Naifnis decisively threw it into the Hai Sha Society's bag and placed it at the very bottom.
After placing the Crown of Emmanuel, Naifnis came before the young man's corpse, placed his own bag beside him, and specifically used his hand to hold the bag's opening. At this moment, one of the puppet team members above had already climbed down using the ladder. He came to a spot not far from the young man, directly threw his gun aside, fell down, and immediately returned to an unconscious state, creating a scene of mutual destruction with the young man.
After finishing this series of operations, the puppet team member still on the platform smiled and saluted the Naifnis below. Naifnis nodded in response, then quickly walked out of the Crown Hall with a pile of Ebony's donations, found a hidden location to sneak out of the Net Flow Church, and quickly moved away from this place of trouble. At the same time, the last puppet team member in the Net Flow Church also fell directly to the ground, returning to an unconscious state that looked no different from being dead.
Friendly reminder: The website is about to be revised, which may cause loss of reading progress. Please save your "Bookshelf" and "Reading History" in time (screenshot saving is recommended). We apologize for any inconvenience caused!
Things in the Net Flow Church temporarily came to an end, while the chaotic battle at the church entrance was still ongoing intensely. The elite members of the Hai Sha Society and the official Extraordinaries of Adria were fighting fiercely, with Extraordinaries involving the Chalk clashing intensely on the Net Flow Church square.
Sharp water arrows pierced solid bodies, sharp claws tore through sturdy armor, superb Swordsmanship blocked high-speed bullets, and ghostly spirits possessed devout priests...
And amidst this chaotic battle, an anomaly suddenly appeared. At the entrance of the Purification Church, on the high, cracked steps, where Antonio and Garib had confronted each other and disappeared, an anomaly suddenly occurred.
A blue-green light, accompanied by the wails of ghosts, appeared out of thin air above the steps. After this light flashed, a large figure covered in blood appeared.
Broken wings, bent sharp claws, blood-stained mane, large wounds... Garib, with eagle wings, a lion's head, and a human body, was weakly supporting himself on the steps, panting heavily. A large amount of blood flowed from his body. Compared to when he had just disappeared, he looked extremely dishevelled. This was his state after a great battle with Antonio in the Netherworld.
Although Antonio and Garib were both Scarlet, there was a gap in their strength. Garib had only recently been promoted to Scarlet by relying on the large amount of resources left by Azamu of the Hai Sha Society and the help of the Dark Gold Society. His promotion ritual was completed two months ago, and his foundation and reserves were insufficient.
Antonio, on the other hand, had been promoted to Scarlet for nearly a hundred years. Not only was he more skilled in the use of his abilities than Garib, but he also had much richer reserves of Extraordinary items accumulated on him than Garib. Therefore, in the battle in the Netherworld, Garib suffered repeated losses and sustained many injuries.
But no matter what, the Netherworld is the home ground of "Silent" Extraordinaries. Garib did not directly use his home ground advantage for combat, but for a faster escape from the Netherworld, and this method was successful. Although Garib was at a disadvantage in the battle, he successfully returned before Antonio in the end, just as he had said to Antonio before, that he would be the one to return first anyway.
Garib's goal had always been clear: to steal Azamu's donations from the Net Flow Church. Although Antonio's appearance greatly exceeded his expectations, as long as he could trap Antonio for a period of time, he could go in, take the items, and leave.
Garib, who had just returned to the real world, only took a few breaths before standing up and facing the gate of the Net Flow Church. He then directly rushed over and used immense force to smash open the entire gate. After entering the Net Flow Church, Garib didn't think much and went straight to the Crown Hall. According to the map from his subordinates, he knocked down several walls to reach the Crown Hall, and upon seeing the situation inside, he was stunned.
In the Crown Hall at this time, shattered display cases were everywhere, and many of the collections inside had disappeared without a trace. In a corner, there was the corpse of one of Garib's trusted members, whom he recognized. In the distance, there were Deep Concealment Guard team members lying on the ground.
Seeing this situation, he quickly calmed down and observed his surroundings. He saw the labels on the broken display cases, all written with Ebony's name, which was exactly what he was looking for. He saw that the Hai Sha Society member's corpse seemed to have been shot, and there were firearms next to the Deep Concealment Guard team member. More importantly, he saw that the killed member of his society was holding a bag in his hand!
Upon seeing that bag, Garib's eyes immediately straightened. He quickly walked over, picked up the bag, and opened it, then found that it contained a pile of various miscellaneous collections and antiques.
Looking at the contents of the bag and then at the large pile of shattered display cases in the Crown Hall that were marked with Ebony's name, Garib suddenly had a realization. He seemed to see the scene of his loyal society member risking his life to break through the official Extraordinaries' defence line, entering the church to retrieve the items he needed, then being pursued by the discovered Deep Concealment Guard members, and finally being defeated and dying here.
"Good kid, I remember you..."
Looking at the dead young man before him, Garib muttered this. Then he scanned the surroundings again, confirming that all of Ebony's display cases were empty, immediately took the bag, rushed out of the church, flew into the sky, and roared at the battlefield below.
"Mission accomplished! Retreat!"
After roaring, Garib flew towards the sea without looking back. After quickly flying down to the seaside, he released the attachment state on Mr., and re-equipped the Water Manipulator plus shark soul configuration. After the new soul was attached, he turned back into that shark-man appearance.
Then, Garib jumped directly into the sea and swam at extremely high speed in the ocean. He now needed to swim as far as possible before Antonio came out of the Netherworld. As long as he swam out of the detection range of Antonio's rank vision, he would be safe!
Although the process was tortuous and full of accidents, the ultimate goal was achieved!
Just like that, Garib used all his strength and swam at high speed underwater, like an arrow shooting straight into the distance underwater.
...
Turning the view back to the church square, as time passed, another flash of blue-green light flickered on the cracked steps. When the light disappeared, Antonio's figure appeared.
At this time, Antonio was still wearing his bishop's robe, but the originally luxurious robe had many damages, and his original hat was gone. His ruddy face had turned ashen, and his expression was not good. Although he still looked dishevelled, at least there were no obvious injuries.
"I'm very sorry, Captain, we were lax in our guard and allowed the Crown of Emmanuel to be stolen!"
As soon as Antonio appeared, Paul and Oliver, who were guarding here, immediately lowered their heads and apologized loudly. Beside them was a group of official Extraordinaries who were wounded and demoralized. Not far away, there were many seriously injured people lying on the ground, as well as quite a few Hai Sha Society members who had failed to escape and were lying dead on the ground.
Upon hearing such news as soon as he came out, Antonio's face was silent for a moment. After a pause, he sighed and then said.
"Alas... never mind, this is not your fault. I misjudged the situation and did not expect those thieves to have a Scarlet existence..."
Antonio said with a somewhat dejected expression, and Oliver on the other side couldn't help but feel moved after hearing this, and immediately spoke.
"Captain Antonio, it's not over yet! I just confirmed that although the Crown of Emmanuel was stolen, the Deep Beacon Sigil on it is still functioning! Those guys didn't erase the Beacon Sigil on it! Captain Antonio, you can continue to track those guys through this sigil!"
"What..."
Hearing Oliver's words, Antonio and Paul beside him couldn't help but show surprised expressions for a moment.