The "Magic Pocket Watch's" negative state of fearing flames would last a full 12 hours. With terrifying flames everywhere on the nighttime streets, Angel could only leave the East Borough through the sewers that connected all of Backlund, heading toward the more familiar Backlund Bridge area.
Besides, even without the negative state, dragging a charred corpse through the streets—even in the chaotic and disorderly East Borough—would be far too conspicuous.
After spending over an hour reaching the sewer area where she had previously cleared out mutated rats and crocodiles, Angel found her bearings and brought the Rose Bishop's corpse to an exit near the Tussock River embankment, where the crimson moonlight could faintly shine through.
There were several platforms here slightly elevated above the sewage channels. Though hardly clean, they at least allowed one to avoid the flowing filth.
Casually tossing the Rose Bishop aside, Angel stood nearby to rest briefly and recover some spirituality. Then, using the sacred night powder she carried, she traced a circle encompassing both the corpse and herself, constructing a spiritual wall with isolating properties that kept out the sewer's stench and the sound of the Tussock River's flowing water.
Before performing this dangerous divination, she should have waited for the Rose Bishop's Beyonder characteristic to precipitate. That way, even if the divination involved the True Creator like last time and became contaminated by His divinity and aura, at least she could preserve part of her gains.
But compared to the characteristic being contaminated, she was more afraid of waiting too long and allowing the deceased's spirituality to dissipate, making it impossible to divine Lanrewus's location.
Taking a deep breath and caressing the "Hidden Holy Symbol" on her right wrist, Angel began reciting the Goddess's honorific name.
"Goddess of the Night, loftier than the stars, more eternal than eternity.
"You are the Crimson Lord, the Mother of Concealment, and the Empress of Misfortune and Fear.
"Lord of Slumber and Silence..."
This was a quick ritual requiring neither altar nor candles. Without possessing the Hidden Holy Symbol, even if Angel were devout, she might not receive the Goddess's response.
"I pray to You...
"I pray that You grant me Your blessing...
"That You provide protection for my divination..."
Whether it was her imagination or not, she felt the holy symbol between her fingers grow slightly cooler.
Then, a swirling breeze began within the spiritual wall, and a tranquil atmosphere spread around Angel.
She didn't delay, immediately taking out her magic mirror and bringing it close to the burly but now charred Rose Bishop.
"Magic mirror, magic mirror, tell me the cause of the Darawe Street explosion."
She didn't attempt to divine directly toward the Rose Bishop's identity or even Lanrewus's whereabouts, as this would likely involve deeper forces, and her current only clue was the Rose Bishop himself.
"Gather sufficient information before attempting divination."
Cutting off the surging memories, Angel fixed her gaze on the mist-shrouded magic mirror. Soon, moving images appeared on its surface.
"Williams, help me find someone. His name is Lanrewus, a con artist who's been on a national wanted list."
A petite woman with messy blonde hair handed a portrait to another person—a thin-faced young man. As the latter received it, Angel also got a clear look at the portrait in his hands.
Round glasses, neatly combed-back hair, an ordinary face with a mocking expression—this was Tingen City's con artist, the one who planned an evil god's descent: Lanrewus!
"Xio, finding someone in the East Borough is like finding a needle in a haystack. I'll need to mobilize many friends to help out before there's even a slim chance... You'll need to pay more."
The young man pocketed the portrait while speaking with a smile.
Xio? Xio Derecha? That "Bounty Hunter"?
Angel recalled what the deceased Rose Bishop had said upon seeing her.
Soon, the image in the mirror changed. The young man named Williams took the portrait around, asking different people, but gained nothing.
He returned home, where a tall, hooded man threatened him into revealing why he was searching for Lanrewus, then lightly patted his shoulder and left the room.
Williams had just breathed a sigh of relief when, at the sound of the man's finger snap, he was torn into pieces, spreading his flesh and blood throughout the entire room.
Then came the gas explosion that destroyed the entire residence...
The mirror's surface had returned to normal, but Angel's emotions couldn't calm for a long time.
She had already recalled the identity of that petite woman—she was the short lady who had appeared at Mr. A's gathering and had even tried to commission her to find someone.
This bounty hunter seemed to have extensive business operations—not only tracking a mysterious woman from Tingen City but also attempting to find Lanrewus's whereabouts.
Was she specializing in people-finding services, coveting his bounty, or did she have other motives?
And Williams, who worked for her, must have been discovered by the Rose Bishop while searching for Lanrewus. The latter followed him home, and after questioning him, used a gas explosion to kill him and eliminate evidence.
If she hadn't happened to be downstairs and been mistaken by him for the bounty hunter who issued the commission, this Rose Bishop would have already left the East Borough with his whereabouts unknown.
This fit the "Aurora Order's" style... Could Lanrewus currently be under the Aurora Order's protection? This person had planned an evil god's offspring descent, then fled Tingen himself, even leaving clues for the Nighthawks. Logically, the Aurora Order should hate him intensely.
After pondering for a moment while looking at the disfigured Rose Bishop, Angel once again touched the magic mirror and asked the next question.
"Magic mirror, magic mirror, tell me," she paused, still not directing the divination straight toward Lanrewus, "this Rose Bishop's hiding place."
If he was truly protecting or monitoring Lanrewus, then finding his residence would be equivalent to finding Lanrewus!
In the magic mirror, smoke and pure black flashed alternately, revealing ships passing back and forth on the Tussock River.
The river curved in a 180-degree bend, enclosing a bustling dock area.
This was Backlund's Dock District!
The scene continued to zoom in, showing a towering clock tower, large shipyards, and beside them several small buildings that looked like children in comparison.
Angel saw a sign reading "Dock Workers' Association," but the mirror's view then panned toward a dormitory building on the other side.
The Rose Bishop, nearly two meters tall with light yellow curly hair, was conversing with someone. The perspective gradually rose, revealing the other person's bronze-colored skin.
Bronze skin—him again?
Without hesitation, Angel swept her hand to break open the spiritual wall beside her, grabbed the magic mirror, and was about to throw it far away.
But her remaining rationality stopped her body's instinctive action.
Gripping the mirror with one hand, feeling the increasingly thick evil aura within it, enduring the mad ravings that gradually approached her ears, bearing the severe pain that continuously intensified from her fingers to her arm, Angel clenched her teeth and fixed her eyes on the mirror's surface. Despite the stinging pain in her eyes, she waited for the final divination image.
The perspective continued rising, revealing a chiseled chin and cheeks, then a forehead with gold-rimmed glasses. The corner of his mouth held a mocking smile as he spoke with the Rose Bishop about something.
"Bang—"
The mirror shattered, fragments flying everywhere. Each shard seemed coated with a trace of thick blood, and more of the True Creator's aura—which Angel was already all too familiar with—poured out from the mirror.
She immediately threw the magic mirror like a frisbee while igniting black flames to burn the hand that had gripped it—the exposed skin had already been stained with a rust-like copper color that corroded the skin, sending up wisps of smoke.
With a "snap," the magic mirror, now just a frame, fell into the sewage-flowing sewer. That trace of evil aura had already vanished without a trace.
Angel was stunned. She looked at her hand, which had been covered in strange rust marks just a second ago. Though veins bulged, skin cracked inch by inch, and blood flowed continuously, the True Creator's contamination had faded away as if it had never appeared.
Good—just external injuries. Once she returned home and used those healing potions from "Apothecary" Darkwill, she should recover quickly.
Bending her elbow to reduce blood flow to the injury, Angel silently watched the motionless magic mirror in the distance. Only after a long while did she recover her senses and use her intact hand to draw the crimson moon across her chest, sincerely thanking the Goddess for Her protection.
Afterward, she retrieved the broken magic mirror that no longer emitted an evil aura and returned to the "Rose Bishop's" side, waiting for the Beyonder characteristic to precipitate.
"That mocking smile was undoubtedly Lanrewus, though I don't know where he got his skin tanned and changed his appearance..."
She thought of the bronze-skinned hand she had seen when divining the source of the mutated animals.
"Were the mutated animals also created by him through blood? But this would easily attract the attention of official Beyonders. Why would he do something so stupid? For evil sacrifices, or to satisfy his desire to kill?"
While pondering, Angel shifted her gaze to the "Rose Bishop" on the ground.
"This 'Rose Bishop' is living with Lanrewus in the Dock District... That clock tower looks like the landmark of East Balam Dock. Are they hiding right in the dock workers' dormitories? Not concealing their tracks but deliberately causing incidents, and the Rose Bishop also chose the most destructive method when fighting..."
A thought emerged in her mind that even she found hard to believe:
"Are they—or rather, is Lanrewus—deliberately drawing outside attention?"
"Could this con artist, just like in Tingen, be leaving provocative notes saying 'constantly strengthening bomb' to attract the Nighthawks' attention while secretly having other plans?"
If he created another evil god descent incident, detonating the "bomb" in the densely populated Dock District, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"No matter what, first thing tomorrow morning, once the negative state disappears, I'll go report this."
Lanrewus might discover the missing "Rose Bishop" at any time and transfer to other areas or even leave Backlund. Angel herself had no confidence in dealing with him, someone bearing the True Creator's aura, but the official Beyonders could—the Nighthawks could!
Having made up her mind, Angel looked again at the "Rose Bishop's" corpse on the ground. Under spirit vision, wisps of pale light gradually concentrated in his right eye, indicating the Beyonder characteristic would soon precipitate.
But upon opening spirit vision, she immediately felt intense pain in both eyes and heard low ravings in her ears, just like when she had touched the True Creator's aura during divination—though without that evil atmosphere.
Had the Beyonder characteristic been contaminated by the Creator's divinity?
No, it's a bit different from the divination just now. This "Rose Bishop" must have been close to madness and losing control before death. Perhaps because of my "Frenzy," perhaps because of his injuries in battle, or he might have had mental and spiritual instability even before the fight. Considering how he detonated an entire apartment building's gas pipeline, this possibility is quite high...
As the characteristic concentrated in the deceased's right eye, that eyeball became blood-red and swollen, falling out of its socket on its own. Angel noticed that after the characteristic precipitated, the Rose Bishop's large frame seemed to shrink a size, and his charred skin became even drier, as if dehydrated.
Picking up the red eyeball that had rolled aside, Angel immediately sensed countless individuals around her—including pedestrians on the street above, rats crawling through the surrounding sewers, and even the corpse beneath her feet.
This wasn't information appearing in her vision but rather like "Flame Jump's" sensing of surrounding flames—a spiritual reminder, an all-directional perception.
"This eyeball lets me sense moving objects around me?" She puzzledly put down the eyeball, and the sensing immediately disappeared. "No, wait—I can sense pedestrians on the street above, the horses pulling carriages and passengers, but not the carriages themselves..."
After several tests, she confirmed this red eyeball allowed her to sense "flesh" within roughly a 50-meter radius—whether as small as a mouse or as large as a horse, even dead corpses were within the sensing range.
"Is this the 'Rose Bishop's' characteristic effect?"
She picked up the eyeball again, preparing to test it more, but felt a sharp pain in her head, and everything before her eyes became blurred.
Spirituality consumption is too great... I should hurry home and rest.
Carefully placing the eyeball in a bullet box she carried, Angel looked at the Rose Bishop's corpse at her feet with some difficulty.