Chapter 22 Mass Ceremony In the red velvet-lined switchboard room at headquarters, Oliver was holding the telephone between his shoulders and tapping away on his typewriter. "Well, well, go on." "Okay, I've written it down. You...should carry out the previous plan. No matter what happens, leave Excel Town in two days." "I will ask the chief to assess the risks of the support later." "Okay, you can incinerate the files immediately, no problem. Good luck, Agent Rogers." After hanging up the phone, Oliver quickly turned the dial and transferred to another internal phone. "Hello, I'm Oliver. Please tell the chief to come when he's not busy... No, come as soon as possible. There has been significant progress in the investigation in Excel Town." Ten minutes later, Chief Norman pushed the door open with an angry face. He seemed to be in a bad mood. The flannel suit he usually wore was hanging on his left hand, and his meticulous tie was loosened a lot. It seemed that he had just been through a quarrel. "What's wrong, Oliver? The information from headquarters should have just been delivered to Investigator Richie. Did something happen? Or... have we lost contact with Richie? " The general manager seemed to have suddenly thought of something and eagerly picked up the typewriter manuscript on the table. Today was bad enough, and he didn't want to endure a second bad news.
"No, Commander. Judging from the progress of the investigation, this may be good news." Seeing the chief's expression, Oliver did not keep him in suspense and went straight to the point: "According to Investigator Rogers, Investigator Rich has infiltrated the cult and has even become... a minor priest in the cult." Chief Norman could not hide his joy on his face, but he still did not put down the communication records in his hand and flipped through them quickly. "Investigator Rich has found evidence that pagans are holding secret masses, and it is said that he will personally participate in the next two days." "According to Agent Rogers, Agent Rich was accompanied by a strange boy. He later secretly inquired about the situation and learned that the boy was called the son of the devil by the townspeople and was suspected to be connected to an unknown god." "Good, good, good." Mr. Norman first closed his eyes and took a long breath, then said three good words in a row, then poured himself a cup of coffee, took two sips, then frowned and said: "But it's still too dangerous to attend a pagan mass in person. Investigator Rich is a bit rash. If you find some evidence, you can send it back to the headquarters first. This secret cult that has been worshipping evil gods for hundreds of years is very dangerous." "Oliver, are there any other investigators around Excel Town who can provide support?" "I checked before you came. According to the latest news, only Marquette is still in Pulmonary Town. He is the investigator closest to Ricky." "Him, his words are of no use." The headquarters actually knew all about the investigator's private style and even code name. Marquette was good at post-disaster work, but asking him to go deep into the danger zone to support Ricky would be tantamount to sending himself to death. "What about Rogers? Let him wait for Ricky in Excel Town for two more days?" "I'm afraid not. Rogers said he came into town with the circus, and the performance times were all scheduled in advance. If he can't find a suitable reason to stay, he might arouse the suspicion of the townspeople." "Ta, ta, ta" Norman always tapped the table with his knuckles. This was indeed a shortcoming of the current Special Incident Handling Department. Investigators went out to solve problems and could only take one step at a time. There was a lack of a few people who could give a general outline. "Have Rogers keep the intelligence flowing for the next few days. Then you can contact Marquette and have him guard carefully outside Excel City. If there is any situation, he will be ready to respond." The chief gave the final order, clutching his coffee cup tightly. At the moment, if Richie could resolve the issue in Excel Town in one fell swoop, it would definitely be an impeccable and perfect victory. But if he failed... not only would all his previous efforts be wasted, but he would also probably lose an excellent investigator.
After arranging the work, Oliver put down the microphone. Behind her, the general manager was still drinking coffee on the sofa with a serious look on his face. "Commander, what happened just now?" "That crazy old Gregory is going to conduct another experiment. Sometimes I really can't tell who is the pagan." Norman shook his head slightly. "Experiment? What experiment?" "Gregory wants to awaken the ancient relic during the ritual." "..." Although Oliver is not an investigator, she has accumulated considerable experience in handling special incidents. The only ways to deal with unknown gods are other gods and their creations, and this category includes three methods: ancient relics, forbidden spells, and mass rituals. In the special cases handled by the Investigation Department, the madmen hiding in secret corners generally study one of them. During the investigation, if you encounter danger and are forced to fight, it is an iron rule in the investigator's code to only use one of the powers. The reason is simple. Borrowing this kind of power requires a price. The price of a single method is already difficult for ordinary people to accept, let alone combining them. The power awakened by the combination has even touched part of the origin of the gods. There are only a dozen related records in the intelligence data of the headquarters. Most of them ended in failure, but even if they failed, they still caused horrific bloody disasters. Now Sir Gregory actually wants to try to awaken the ancient relic during the ritual? This is absolutely a heretical and crazy act. Radical and gentle, the desire to control power and the awe of the unknown chaos, it seems that the dispute over the route within the headquarters is becoming increasingly fierce. "Knock knock knock." The knock on the door broke the solemn atmosphere in the switchboard room. "Come in." A plump female civilian staff member came in with a small package. "Chief, there is a package. The recipient is Investigator Rich. We put the package in the basement and let the observer study it for two days. Don't worry. It is confirmed that there is no problem." "Thank you. Please put it on the table." The chief waved his hand dejectedly, and after the delivery man left, he stood up and opened the package. Was it evidence from the Pormouth incident? Or was it a ritual item stolen from Excel Town? When he opened it, he found a small red flag. When I opened it, I saw a line of large characters on the top that read "Evil cannot prevail over justice, and we will eliminate harm for the people", with two lines of small characters below that read "Presented from Mr. and Mrs. Isaac: Investigator Ricky Baldwin". Chief Norman: ??? "What...is this?" Oliver also stood up. She had been in charge of special incident investigations for so many years, and this was the first time she had seen this thing. "It seems to be some kind of thank-you letter... This Investigator Richie... is quite interesting..." The chief looked strange, and then said, "Help me hang this flag out later. Oh, and hang it right across from that crazy old Gregory's office to disgust him." …… At the beginning of the new moon, a dozen hooded believers walked slowly down the stairs in the basement of the Medea Gallery in the eastern part of Excel Town, holding candles in their hands. This is also a secret chapel where Lewis worships Basatan. Mass ceremonies are held at the three locations in Excel Town every new moon night, and Lewis will randomly choose a location to watch the ceremony, today it is at the art gallery. A senior official wearing a special hood took a key from his neck and handed it to the small priest in charge of the ceremony.
The young priest, wearing a blue-gray robe, took the key and inserted it into the stone platform in the center of the chapel. A series of teeth-grinding "squeaking" sounds were heard, and there was a mechanical device operating with gears hidden under the platform. The stone platform rose to a height of two meters before it stopped. Xiao Ji pushed out a huge alchemical cauldron from the secret compartment under the platform. The diameter of the cauldron was one meter wide and deep enough to accommodate an adult. As the priest pushed the giant cauldron, it was slowly bathed in the flickering candlelight. The reliefs on the cauldron were so strange and terrifying that a priest assistant who was attending the mass for the first time could not even stand steadily and almost fell down. They were two children about eleven or twelve years old, holding hands and hugging each other, a boy and a girl. They still had the horrified expressions they had before death on their faces, except that their upper bodies were still human, while their lower bodies had grown sharp claws that only arthropods had. The main body of the cauldron was actually made from the bodies of two children... There are also some crude paintings in an ancient style in the filling area around the relief. The contents of the paintings are half-human, half-crab monsters chasing mice, and the gray giant rats are devoured by the monsters. Seeing the alien cauldron, Lewis, who was standing above the crowd, had a paranoid look in his eyes. Ancestors, your sacrifice is the glory of your family serving the Father God. Your own ancestors, the pair of brothers, the elder brother bore the curse of the Father God, and their descendants will have to stay in the Dead Bone Marsh for their entire lives to serve the descendants of the Father God. The younger brother offered up his six children to become the noble vessels for the fulfillment of the ritual. The priest began to put various materials for the mass into the cauldron, including soil from the cemetery, acorns, mandrake, wormwood, azurite, the scalp of some creature, sea pink... After adding all the ingredients, Xiaoji poured in stream water and lit something burning under the cauldron. Finally, he took off his robe and stood directly in the cauldron. He cut his palm with a strangely shaped sacrificial knife and blood dripped. As the temperature in the cauldron rose, Xiaoji and the believers around him chanted obscure and difficult-to-pronounce songs. When the mixed liquid in the cauldron began to bubble slightly, he took out the huge cauldron, took the robe from his assistant, and returned to the crowd and stood there with his head down. At this time, a senior official in the crowd took off her robe, revealing herself to be an old woman in her seventies. Although she was naked in front of everyone, she did not show any embarrassment, and a kind of morbid ecstasy appeared on her face. The old woman walked unsteadily and nearly fell twice in just a few steps, but she still managed to walk to the giant cauldron, took the wine glass handed to her by the young priest assistant, drank it all, and then turned over and fell into the cauldron. "Ahhh!" The old woman's painful wails echoed in the secret chapel, and the two children on the relief of the giant cauldron opened their eyes as if they had come alive, raised their heads and let out creepy screams. At first, the believers could still see the old woman's arms floating above the water, but within a few breaths, her entire body was completely submerged in the liquid in the cauldron. Gradually, the water surface and the two children on the relief returned to calm. Lewis knew that the first phase of the Mass had been a success. Today's update is here again, I hope to make you laugh. Welcome to read the comments. It is very helpful to me. Your support is my motivation for doing this. (End of this chapter)
