Chapter 111: Chapter 115: The Origin of the Invisible Veil
The ethereal green Spiritual Body’s fire flitted across the entire factory like a drifting play of light and shadow, taking only a few seconds. This disturbance, stemming from a higher Transcendent power, was like a gust of wind lifting the veil laid upon “reality,” thus revealing the concealed truth underneath to Sherry and Duncan.
Ashes, nothing but ashes, human-shaped ashes, shapeless ashes, charred walls, melted rooftops, the twisted and brittle casings of machines licked by flames, and heaps of molten material that had almost lost their outlines were piled together. The entire factory area seemed like a flaming inferno that had just cooled down not long ago. The fire was out, but the might that had melted everything still seemed to linger in the air.
Sherry stood in the center of the remnants of the fire scene, her gaze somewhat vacant, while Ah Dog silently approached her side and gently propped up her body with his bony and jagged back.
Soon, the ethereal green fire of the Spiritual Body faded away, and everything within the factory reverted to its original state.
Duncan looked at his hands with a tinge of regret—after all, this was just an “ordinary” body, incomparable to his original form. The Spiritual Body’s fire he could call upon was also quite limited; in the situation of spreading flames across a wide area, it could only be maintained for such a brief moment.
Yet, even that brief moment of “re-enactment” was enough to reveal a crucial truth.
“There really was a big fire… I knew I hadn’t remembered wrong…” Sherry muttered to herself, “I’ve been looking for it for eleven years, and it turns out to be here…”
“But this fire has been erased,” Ah Dog spoke in a low voice, “Some force has woven a veil over the real world, filtering out all traces related to the ‘fire’… This veil could even block the sight of the Profound Demons…”
“Is it the Sun Shard? Or the one who brought the Sun Shard to the City-State in the first place?” Sherry frowned, then she suddenly noticed that Duncan had been unusually silent since earlier and couldn’t help but glance at him, “What do you make of this…”
“The fire scene here doesn’t quite match my memories,” Duncan shook his head before Sherry could finish her sentence, his gaze slowly sweeping across the factory’s equipment, recalling the details he saw when the veil was briefly lifted, as well as remembering the scene of the great fire from his memories. Recalling the details of the building and its surroundings as “he” had fled the scene with Nina, he finally confirmed his judgment was correct, “It’s not here.”
“Ah?” Sherry was startled, “The big fire in your memory… isn’t here?”
“The discrepancies in the details are too great,” Duncan declared somberly, and slowly began to walk towards the factory’s exit. His gaze passed through the fallen gates and looked at the decrepit streets in the distance, “Or to be more precise, the entire landscape of the Sixth District… seems off.”
Sherry unconsciously exchanged glances with Ah Dog and asked in a lowered voice, “What do you think is going on?”
“How should I know, I’m just a dog,” Ah Dog shook his head, “And eleven years ago, I was even more confused than you.”
Duncan heard the soft conversation between Sherry and Ah Dog behind him, and he slightly turned his head, “This factory, is it the only suspicious place?”
“It might be…” Sherry said uncertainly, “At any rate, according to what I’ve found out, this factory was the center of the chaos eleven years ago.”
Duncan did not agree or disagree, but for the following two hours, he, Sherry, and the Abyssal Hound checked all the accessible areas of the abandoned factory.
Strangely, apart from the “veil” covering reality, they found no traces of Transcendent powers or items left behind.
“This doesn’t add up…” After a cursory check of the last building, Ah Dog finally voiced his own suspicions, “That ‘veil’ covering the fire scene must have been the work of Transcendent forces, but after scouring the whole factory area, we didn’t find the ‘source’ of the veil… That’s not reasonable.”
“There has to be a source?” Sherry’s voice carried a bit of curiosity.
Duncan was curious as well, but he didn’t show it, maintaining a stony face while silently waiting for Ah Dog to speak—
Who would’ve thought that the only Transcendent expert on the scene would be a dog…
A-Dog himself hadn’t thought too much about it. As a Profound Demon, many of the knowledge realms of the Transcendent were common sense to him. He casually started to explain, “The force that conceals the traces of the great fire is obviously a sustained power, and this power must have a source to maintain it until now. Moreover, just now… after Mr. Duncan’s flames subsided, the veil closed again, which also indicates that there is something behind this veil sustaining it… It could be a powerful anomaly, or it could be a powerful Transcendent being. In any case, whatever it is, it must exist somewhere in the City-State…”
While speaking, the Abyssal Hound raised its head, its hollow eye sockets sweeping over the distant streets and further afield to the urban districts.
“We didn’t find the source of the veil within the factory area, which means that whatever is supporting the veil is projecting its power from afar toward this place, or… it might be that the scope of the veil is beyond imagination, and we have only lifted a small corner of it. If it’s the latter…”
A-Dog said, suddenly lowering his voice with a hint of anxiety, “If it’s the latter, then this might be quite troublesome to deal with. A regular ‘anomaly’ simply couldn’t have such a large coverage area! That would likely be a spectacle, an unknown spectacle…”
“The Sun Shard definitely isn’t a regular ‘anomaly.’ After all, according to those heretics, that shard is the body of the Sun God,” Sherry suddenly interjected, “Perhaps it is a method used by the Sun Shard to conceal itself.”
“…A higher anomaly with the tendency to think? To prevent being controlled, it actively creates a veil to erase all traces of its existence and hide somewhere behind the veil?” A-Dog mused, “That’s certainly possible. If that really is the remains of a deity, it could indeed have the capacity to think before awakening.”
Sherry rubbed her chin, thinking seriously, then as if suddenly realizing something, she looked at A-Dog in surprise, “Are you really that knowledgeable? You can’t even read…”
“I’m a Profound Demon! I’m a shadow evolved from the flesh of The Saint! This knowledge has been branded in my memory from the moment I was born, okay?” A-Dog jangled the chain irritably, “And speaking of illiteracy… are you in any position to talk?!”
Duncan watched with amusement as Sherry and her Abyssal Hound interacted. This strange combination had many secrets, which intrigued him deeply. But before he could ask anything, Sherry seemed to suddenly remember something. She looked up nervously at the sky, saw that the sun was slowly moving toward its zenith, and exclaimed, “Ah! It’s noon already!”
Duncan raised his eyebrows, “Do you have other arrangements?”
“I…” Sherry said nervously, “I must get home before noon!”
Duncan watched the girl quietly, “Didn’t you say your parents were no longer around? Who is there to lecture you if you return home late?”
“It’s not about being lectured… it’s an appointment I made with someone!” Sherry hurriedly waved her hands, seemingly a bit braver in front of Duncan after the exploration in the factory, “Maybe… can we continue another time?”
Duncan glanced at the Abyssal Hound next to her, which immediately retracted its neck, “It’s up to you, sir. If you want to continue investigating, I and Sherry…”
“No need,” Duncan shook his head, “Continuing the search here won’t yield any more results. Let’s wait until we find new clues. Since you have other matters, you should go.”
Sherry’s face lit up with surprise, as if she did not expect the boss to let her go so easily. But she didn’t dare to run away directly, so she cautiously confirmed, “Then… A-Dog and I will be leaving, okay? And if you want to find us later…”
But Duncan just flashed a slight smile, kindly watching her, “If it’s meant to be, we’ll meet again.”
He smiled warmly at Sherry and A-Dog, and in his line of sight, on the dark chain that linked to the Abyssal Hound, a small green spark quietly smoldered.
This was the result of his deeper understanding of the “Spiritual Body’s Fire” after accidentally establishing a connection with Fenna last time, a small experiment.
The mark he released was more intense than the flame left on Fenna, yet gentle and harmless.
Sherry suddenly felt a chill run through her – despite his smile being so warm, she felt a shiver coming on.
But in the end, she controlled her expression and bid farewell as politely as possible before quickly leaving with A-Dog.