Chapter 627: Awakening Again

Chapter 627 Waking Once More

"Oh my, and here I thought you were about to die, I had my emotions just about ready, even conjuring up the exact movements of how to hold your corpse with optimal tragic tension, but I come in here to look and, tsk, I'm actually a tiny bit disappointed."

Karen had sent Philomena outside to bar entry to anyone from either the Church of Order or the Church of the Crypt who came as reinforcements, but there was one person she obviously couldn't stop, or rather, wouldn't bother stopping at all.

Neo walked up to Karen, crouched down, and looked at his current state with a grin:

"Yes, that's exactly the look, soul withered, spirit flagging, does it feel awful, do you desperately want to rest, do you desperately want to throw a punch right at my face to stop me from spouting this kind of nonsense?"

"You will have your time to be wounded again too."

"Che, you say that as if you ever showered me with tender, meticulous care whenever I got hurt.

I had just stepped out of the embassy's secret chamber after finishing talks with Lenos when I sensed the signal you released into the sky, and on my way over I was truly worried you'd be killed by that skeleton."

Neo reached out, pinching the bronze skeleton standing motionless nearby:

"Turns out your life is just too stubborn, wasn't this skeleton supposed to be incredibly strong, yet you somehow ended up killing it in the end, how did you manage that, I thought this entire area would at least be leveled to the ground."

"She isn't dead."

"She?" Neo caught the key word, then reached down to feel around the skeleton's pelvis, "This is a male skeleton though."

Then, Neo lightly tilted his neck and continued: "A puppet clone?"

Karen nodded and said, "Mm, yes."

Immediately after, Karen gave a brief account of what had happened.

Once he finished, Karen asked Neo, "Did you guess that she might come to this restaurant?"

Neo shook his head and said, "No, I was just worried Philomena wouldn't be able to control her emotions during the mission and might deliberately trample or kill someone, so I sent her away first, that little girl only listens to you properly, she treats anyone else's orders with absolute negligence.

Besides, you know almost everyone in our team this time is a Vienese, and the local specialties here taste terrible, so I thought about finding them some home-cooked food to have delivered later, eating well is the only way to maintain everyone's working enthusiasm."

"Really?"

"Hey, of course it's true, it's not like I could divine that she would come here."

"Why do I find that hard to believe?"

"Why wouldn't you believe it?"

"Because if it weren't something you guessed, you would have claimed the credit for yourself, telling me this was exactly what you anticipated and that everything was within your grasp. Now, you are doing the opposite."

"Haha, well, you can go ask your valet, actually after I got the file you sent and finished reading it the first time, I told your valet that this skeleton..."

"Resembles Alfred?"

"No, I think it highly resembles you."

"Me?"

"So when I tried to deduce her behavioral logic, I took a shortcut by substituting your image into the skeleton.

Then I thought, after pulling off such a massive stunt and watching the Order Inquisitors spin around in circles under her finger, at a time like this, perhaps you would want a taste of Vienese food, even if it tastes like pig swill to you.

She said she reveres you, reverence is meant for idols, so wouldn't the next step naturally be imitation?

My line of thinking wasn't wrong, was it, she really carries a bit of affectation just like you."

"Heh."

"What a pity though, in the end, it was merely destroying a puppet clone, if we could have truly killed her real self, that would be a monumental achievement, but now... we can't even falsely claim the credit, if we hand this skeletal frame over and say he was killed by you, but he isn't actually dead, he might show up somewhere else in a while, and we'll look embarrassed then."

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking, this skeletal frame is quite a good thing, since we can't claim credit anyway and destroying a clone doesn't count for much, let's not hand the skeleton over and just keep it for ourselves.

How about this, you take this frame and head back to... back to the hotel first, I'll stay behind to clean up the aftermath for you, we'll just say you were injured."

"Mm, alright."

"Can you still walk?"

"It's not too big of an issue." Karen stood up, "I'll go back and take a bath."

Neo reminded him: "After your bath, remember to write down the names of all the women you have a connection with in your life, and then screen them one by one, don't rush, take your time, because I know this is a massive project."

"But, it is possible she knows me while I don't know her, or, she assumes I would know her, but in reality I do not."

"True, if we count those who look 'familiar', the list would simply be too long, even any random female colleague you've interacted with is possible, but we can change our perspective.

Just like when we fall for a girl or take an interest in a girl, there is a high probability we would want to purposely show our face in front of her to catch her attention, right?

Like during school days, some boys would intentionally play pranks just so the person who makes their heart race would look at them a couple more times.

So I think she must have left an impression on you at some point, you should at least remember her name."

Saying this, Neo brought his face closer to Karen's and asked:

"Tell me, do you already have a suspect in mind?"

Karen looked at Neo and didn't speak.

Neo shrugged and said, "Not convenient to say? Or are you afraid saying it out loud will ruin the feeling you caught onto? Then don't tell me for now, follow your own intuition first and slowly try to screen them, once there's real evidence and clues, tell me then, and we will go catch her together.

Wait, that's not right..."

Neo rubbed his chin with his hand:

"Why should we catch her? It feels like turning her into a partner would maximize our interests instead."

"Some things cannot be viewed solely through the lens of interest."

"True, just like peeking into someone else's diary, utterly unforgivable."

Karen reached out to grab the skeleton, saying, "I'll take it back to the hotel first."

"Mm, go on, go on, then you can stay at the hotel and get some good rest, I'll take care of the special task force's affairs, this job is truly becoming easier and easier, knowing clearly that the target of our investigation and search no longer exists here in the Church of the Crypt, yet we still have to keep pretending to investigate.

But this is fine too, saving us from the trouble of actual work so we can peacefully rake in the vouchers."

A pair of black wings grew out from behind Karen's back, wrapping the skeleton inside, and his figure immediately transformed into a mass of black mist that drifted out of the restaurant.

Neo watched Karen's departing figure,

And smiled:

"I bet you definitely have a suspect in mind already."

...

The prison carriage rocked gently with its forward motion, inside sat a pale little girl who looked to be only three or four years old, draped in a white coat with her white hair spilling down, appearing incredibly fragile.

When Muri brought his men to the breeding grounds of the bone dragon, the little girl had no clothes on, merely curled up in a corner shivering.

It was hard to imagine that a bone dragon would actually look like this.

However, this also proved from another angle that the quality of this bone dragon was exceptionally high; how long had she even been born, yet she could already transform into human shape.

One must know that just a few days ago, when the Dragon lineage gathered to pressure the main city due to Laios's death, how many dragons who had lived for ages couldn't even turn into humans.

This was dictated by the current grand environment; by the standards of the previous era, the so-called non-subspecies "pure" dragons within the Church of the Crypt's Dragon lineage were generally underdeveloped "deformed children".

Their current "purity" was achieved entirely by comparison with the "subspecies"; before the previous era, they themselves would have been considered "subspecies".

It was primarily because resources were insufficient; nowadays, apart from the nobility who could receive relatively ample resources and a few internal geniuses of the Dragon race who could break through their bloodline shackles to achieve a certain degree of growth and development, the vast majority of dragons could only endure bitterly and waste their years away.

Cullen once said to Augie: "Without the Order, would the world not become your pasture?"

And indeed, it was so; the Order forced the entire church circle back a step with the Regulations of Order, yet the true reason for the circle's resentment was never this empty claim to status.

Once order was framed and established, those clans who could once act as bandits by virtue of their own strength were forced to become disciplined; in truth, compared to ordinary people, they still held a higher status, yet compared to the lives of their ancestors, it was a vertical descent.

The Order had, in truth, severely touched the fundamental interests of the church circle.

Every high official of Order knew very well what kind of powder keg they had been suppressing for the millennium since the demise of the Light.

This was the fundamental origin of the internal contradictions within Order; in truth, it was difficult for true utopianism to be born within this environment.

Even Lord Teicissen, the most idealistic figure, held a theoretical demand with his old guard that only by continuing along the inertia of the millennium could they maintain the present situation as much as possible, and any policy attempting to change this inertia would ultimately lead to an imbalance, causing contradictions that could have been postponed to explode prematurely.

The fundamentalist believers felt that maintaining this inertia was a betrayal of the concept of Order; after all, having finally encountered an era where the gods did not appear and the Order was incomparably powerful, they should take this opportunity to eradicate the other churches one by one to realize the true long-cherished wish of Order.

The reformists, headed by the current High Priest, possessed ideas that were actually more utilitarian; they believed the current internal contradictions of Order were immense and required internal resolution and the centralization of power first, while simultaneously partitioning, instigating, and bleeding the church circle based on the existing situation, using a more active method to deal with a situation that had become more complex.

In the eyes of each of the three factions, the other two were "heretics."

The learning group established by Alfred would actively summon "believers" for seminars every interval, wherein besides Minister Cullen's notes, discussions on current political policies would also be included.

Muri still remembered a phrase Mr. Alfred often said: "Sooner or later, we will encounter the same problems, so we must prepare our previews in advance."

Furthermore, Muri discovered that sometimes the views revealed by Mr. Alfred mostly overlapped with the line of the High Priest, which seemed to be Minister Cullen's view as well.

The greatest difference lay in the fact that Mr. Alfred would emphasize every time the need to maintain a critique of "God," especially the God of Order.

Though every time Mr. Alfred spoke these words, Muri felt he was somewhat insincere.

If their minister truly could rebuild a new order like the God of Order in the previous era, then how should their minister conduct himself?

This logical point of "I oppose myself" was something the young master of the Benda family had never been able to understand.

At this moment, Muri noticed the Fire of Order blooming in the distant sky; it was the aura of his own minister.

Immediately, the various officials of Order who had been escorting the prison cart and the breeders prepared to go and support, but Muri hesitated for a moment, then immediately raised his hand and shouted:

"None of you move, continue the escort!"

The men he could deploy here were few to begin with, and compared to other squads whose tasks were merely to seal clues and receive witnesses, his side was escorting a bone dragon.

Do not look at her current frail appearance; who knew whether this was a disguise.

Moreover, Muri knew the bone dragon had always been his minister's goal; now, his primary task was to guard this bone dragon well.

Besides, the breeding ground was located in the suburbs of the main city area, far from where the signal was sent; even if they rushed over now, they could not help with much, and in all probability, it would merely be going for the sake of going.

This was the benefit of being a "believer"; compared to subordinates who were not "believers," they did not need to care too much about certain taboos in the workplace.

However, at the exact moment the skeleton committed "suicide" in the distant Old Ville Restaurant, a dark mark seal at the brow of the girl curled up in the prison cart shattered.

She was created by the Necromancer Morindi with the aid of early dragon corpses, yet just as she was born, she was carried away by the skeleton to be raised.

Viewed from another perspective, the skeleton truly intended to practice his promise to treat this bone dragon as a gift for Cullen, and for this reason, he had specially performed some training.

Only, once the skeleton "died," the restrictions remaining upon this bone dragon naturally failed.

The girl raised her head, looked at the surrounding environment, and a dense malice flowed from her eyes as she opened her mouth:

"Roar...!"

A violent undead aura instantly blasted outward; having lost the confinement of power, she broke the prison cart directly with a single punch.

"Stop her!"

Muri truly had not expected this bone dragon to have been hiding her strength all along; seeing the bone dragon prepare to flee after breaking the cart, he gave the order while charging forward himself, blocking the bone dragon.

The girl did not transform into her dragon form; instead, her figure flashed, and her claws swiped directly down toward Muri.

"Bang!"

Muri raised his round shield to parry, while drawing his short blade, slashing toward the girl.

"Clang!!"

The two sides quickly tangled in fierce combat; judging by the form, Muri did not suffer a disadvantage, for what the Benda family excelled at most was single combat, as their family's inherited martial arts emphasized both offense and defense, and furthermore, Muri had swallowed a great tonic within the Gate of Samsara alongside Cullen, making him very much like Philomena, with things inside his body left to digest.

As for the girl, she clearly did not know how to fight, truly just clawing desperately while using the toughness of her body to rigidly take the slashes from Muri time and again.

Yet some things, even if unlearned, were not unusable; this was the ability of racial talent, against which there was no reasoning, and which could not be envied.

After exchanging blows time and again, a layer of black gradually enveloped Muri; this was the pollution residue of the undead aura from the girl's body.

By the time of the next clash, a strand of black light suddenly released from the girl's pupils; after Muri blocked it with his round shield, the light suddenly resonated with the residual undead aura from the previous combat on his body, and all at once, a surging fire of the undead surged up