Chapter 115: 119 Chapter “A Pair of Friends
From discerning the potential loss of control over transcendent powers inside the museum, to performing self-blessings and storming into the fire, it took these Storm Believers under the Deep Sea Church only a dozen seconds.
Duncan watched as these people charged towards the fire. Subsequently, the firefighters in the square began to cooperate skillfully, using their fire hoses for coverage as they cooled down the museum entrance and cleared a path. Another team, hanging the emblem of the Deep Sea Church and items like amulets over their standard protective gear, also rushed into the museum.
Sheriffs at the edge of the square took over the task of comforting remaining civilians and started arranging for nearby churches to receive those marked as potentially mentally contaminated survivors from the fire scene.
Well-trained and tightly coordinated, this was not only rehearsed countless times but seemingly battle-tested countless times.
This is the sight presented by City-State, a prosperous civilization surviving to date in a world filled with supernatural phenomena—quickly identifying the shadow of the transcendent amid disasters, suppressing the corrosion before it erupts beyond what mortals can bear. Both transcendent beings and ordinary people were thoroughly educated and trained, honing these fundamental response measures to near muscle reflex—this was how the community maintained its survival.
Duncan observed all this, but he hardly had time to marvel—he checked the disheveled survivors at the edge of the square and did not spot Nina among them.
Suddenly, he looked up towards the direction of the museum.
From the fiercely burning museum, a somewhat familiar aura emanated.
He started walking towards the museum, but after just two steps, a sheriff stopped him, “Sir, it’s dangerous ahead, please leave it to the professionals.”
Duncan glanced at the sheriff, nodded, and turned away.
Tangling with the official personnel on site would not only waste time but would also hinder the professionals’ work. Practical as ever, Duncan briskly gave up on the museum’s main entrance, quickly circled to another side of the square, and then slipped into a shadow—the next second, a dove flew across the square and dove straight into a window of the museum where flames were cursing.
Some people in the square witnessed this scene but merely thought it was a poor dove, stunned and disoriented by the thick smoke and blaze, lamented briefly, and turned away.
Inside the museum, however, Duncan stepped out from a whirl of ghostly green flames.
Smoke, firelight, and heat waves attacked him all at once.
Duncan was not afraid of these elements, but he could feel his flesh body’s functions getting affected by the fiery environment; walking further in, his soul might survive, but this body would surely be unusable.
However, he was not reckless—before storming in, he already knew what he had to do.
Flames were everywhere, and flames… were very obedient.
Duncan held his breath; a stream of ghostly green flame trickled under his feet and, in the blink of an eye, vanished into nothingness. Within that brief contact, he had established an invisible connection with the surrounding flames—just as he had with the flames at the Sun Cultist gathering in the abandoned factory’s basement, he sensed the flames’ submission around him.
Even the scorching air currents began to change, no longer affecting the breathing of this body.
Duncan took a gentle breath and walked towards the fire-blocked door.
“Recede.”
And so, the flames receded and slowly extinguished, revealing a corridor filled with thick smoke and lingering fires behind him.
Duncan glanced back, observing the wall signs nearby, and deduced that the place where he “landed” was likely an office at the edge of the main exhibition area, and the corridor in front must be one used by museum staff, leading to the primary exhibition space; to one side were stairs or elevators leading to other floors.
He walked into the corridor, searching forward while focusing his mind, trying to locate Nina in the museum—but honestly, he had no assurance he could successfully “pinpoint” her.
After all, this was his first time attempting such a feat… Although his perception now exceeded that of ordinary people, and Goat Head had said “the captain’s intuition is the most accurate compass,” this advanced operation of sensing someone’s presence from afar still felt like a completely unfamiliar territory to him, almost a skill one would only read about in stories.
He attempted this now purely because, back in the square, he had sensed a hint of a familiar aura from the museum, это даv får_sub this thought to him_lst Jordan.
Duncan continued advancing through the corridor, flames retreating and extinguishing around him, yet still unable to sense Nina’s location. Suddenly, however, he sensed something else.
“Hmm?”
Duncan murmured doubtfully, his gaze drawn towards the direction from which the sensation came—just not far ahead, beneath the stairs on a lower floor, a “mark” becoming increasingly clear in his perception was slightly throbbing.
The owner of this mark seemed to be in a lively and buzzing state.
Duncan hesitated only for a moment before quickly running towards the sensation, navigating through the retreating, extinguishing fire, across stairs that were starting to become fragile and loose, all the while extending his control over the flames as far as this body could endure, suppressing the building’s blaze as the “mark” in his mind became more defined, until he could faintly hear the “voice” coming from the mark—
“…hand? Hey, these are just minor injuries on my hands, they’ll be fine in a couple of days…”
“That’s because I’ve always been strong…”
“Don’t worry, the gap under the door is blocked, the smoke won’t come in for now… You’re really smart to know there’s a water room here… uh, did you check the map in advance? Did the teacher talk about it in class? Safety education… uh… I might not have listened carefully, ahaha…”
“Did you say you saw a dog just now? You must’ve seen wrong, there are no dogs around here, ahaha…”
“…What about this unconscious woman here? You don’t know either? Okay… at least she’s still alive… don’t worry, we’ll definitely be rescued…”
I hadn’t misheard; it was Sherry’s voice.
Duncan recognized the mark; it was the same “flame” he had left on Sherry not long ago, and her voice was now coming through that mark into his mind.
The familiar scent he had felt momentarily in the plaza also seemed to come from this mark—he hadn’t actively contacted the mark, but because he was too close, he had passively sensed its presence.
This “mark” was the first Duncan had actively released, so he was still unfamiliar with many of its traits, but now it seemed that the connection between the Spiritual Bodies’ flames was more useful than he had imagined.
Amidst slight emotion, a hint of confusion also arose:
Sherry was talking with another person, seeming to be her friend… Who was she with?
…
The enclosed water room became a temporary shelter, its narrow, confined space blocking the disaster steadily approaching from outside. The sound of water running from the sink nearby still filled the room, the electric light had gone out, and the flickering light coming in through the window was the only light source here. Nina was carefully curled up next to the sink, close to counting her own heartbeat.
Abnormally rapid.
Her new friend, the girl named Sherry, was checking the door and windows’ seals. Her hands were burned by flames, but she kept moving around as if nothing had happened, and not far from her a lady lay on the ground—Nina didn’t know this lady; she had just seen her get knocked unconscious by a fallen brick while blindly fleeing into this place and had dragged her in here with Sherry.
Judging by her clothing, this lady was clearly not a poor person from the Lower City District like herself, but someone from the Upper City District… Unfortunately, in the face of disaster, respectable people and the poor from the Lower City District weren’t all that different.
The sound of water in the sink suddenly decreased and gradually stopped.
“…The main water pump has stopped working,” Nina, who had been listening to the sounds around them all this time, suddenly said, “The fire is very big.”
Her “new friend,” who was even shorter than her, came over and squatted down in front of her, their eyes level in the darkness.
“Are you very scared?” Sherry asked softly.
“I’m really afraid of fire…” Nina hugged her legs tightly, her voice trembling a bit,
“Really, really afraid of fire.”
“…Actually, I’m pretty scared, too,” Sherry said after a two-second pause, “Okay, the most—the thing I’m most afraid of is fire…”
“You wouldn’t know it,” Nina shook her head, “You were charging around just now.”
“Because I’m afraid, I charge around,” Sherry sprawled down casually, “Because I’m so scared, once I stop, I’d definitely not dare to rush in again… But now it’s fine; the two of us are damned stuck here, no place to run, just have to wait like two idiots.”
Nina touched Sherry’s arm in the darkness and suddenly discovered that the other was also trembling.
Indeed, she was really scared.
“You’re swearing,” Nina said softly, “I thought… you were a very well-mannered good student.”
“At this point, don’t friggin’ pretend; I’ve always been like this,” Sherry said, her soot-blackened face wearing a brilliant smile, “And… never mind.”
It seemed like she wanted to tell Nina something but swallowed it in the end. Then she looked back at the door and asked, “Quick, use that good brain of yours to analyze how long we can survive here?”
Nina looked up, “I… don’t know, but as long as we can keep the smoke out, it’s temporarily safe. This room is very sturdy, and it’s at the staircase corner; it probably won’t collapse for a while.”
Sherry responded nonchalantly and then hesitated for a moment before slowly starting again, “Right, I mean… if, I’m just saying if, I had a way to get us out, but it might be kind of scary, would… you want to try it?”
“A way?” Nina looked puzzled at her, “What way?”
“Just…” Sherry stood up but then sat back down again, “Ah, forget it, let’s wait a little longer, it’s not time yet, not time yet…”
Nina: “?”