Most of the buildings in Morse Town adhered to a style that was popular a hundred years ago. The most eye-catching building in the town was the black cathedral spire.
After settling the carriage, Klein and the others quickly finished their lunch of bread, toast, bacon, butter, and coffee.
"We can still tolerate about two hours and thirty-five minutes of Sealed Artifact 3-0782's purification." Kenley stood at the door of the church and took out a pocket watch from his suit's pocket.
Under normal circumstances, Sequence 9, 8, and 7 Beyonders had to stay far away from the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem for two hours to recover completely, or at least an hour if they were to make a partial recovery.
Leonard said, "Let's start with the old man living alone who heard heavy footsteps in his house.
It's the closest to the church."
"How did you know that? It's not written in the records..." Klein asked.
Leonard snickered. "Didn't I go to the bathroom during our meal? I came across a trainee priest on my way back and had a conversation. He told me that Noah's house was close to the church—Oh yeah, the old man's name is Noah."
Klein turned to Kenley. "Then let's go to Noah's house first."
They arrived at Noah's house a mere minute later.
Noah was an old man with thinning white hair. He had lost his left hand in a war when he was younger and had no choice but to leave the army and return to his hometown after he received his compensation.
At that moment, he opened the door and looked at the three strangers in front of him before looking at Siur, who was rushing over from the cathedral. "Come in; I hope that you can solve my problem. Oh my Goddess, I've been so scared all this time that my head feels like it's in a cloud."
Leonard entered the house, his eyes surveying the surroundings.
After that, Klein felt a cold aura within the room, traces of activity left behind by a ghost.
"There really was an impure being here," Kenley said.
"Very weak." Leonard said.
The Midnight Poet was a job with a relatively high spiritual sensitivity when compared to all the other Sequence 8s in the Church's records.
"Yes." Klein could feel the warmth and purifying energy of Sealed Artifact 3-0782 quickly dispelling the sinister aura in the room without any trouble.
The townsfolk looking at them broke into discussion.
Klein closed his eyes and splashed the water as he walked around the house, reciting an incantation, "The Evernight Goddess...
The Mother of Secrets... The Lady of Crimson...
"Empress of Disaster and Horror...
Mistress of Calm and Silence..."
These typical acts of a charlatan shocked everyone present as the townsfolk murmured.
"What a warm feeling."
"It feels like I'm sunbathing..."
"No, I feel like I'm looking at a pure sky..."
"How magical... Is this the effect of the holy water?"
"They sure live up to their names as priests from Saint Selena Cathedral!"
"Praise the Lady!"
After Klein purified the sinister aura off every corner of the house, he opened his eyes and put away his silver dagger, drawing the shape of the crimson moon in front of his chest with a serious expression. "Praise the Lady!"
"Praise the Lady!" the townsfolk replied devoutly.
"We still have things to deal with, but we need absolute silence." Leonard looked around.
The townsfolk receded from Noah's house like a tide following Priest Siur's lead. Even the master of the house had to leave temporarily.
Leonard took a step forward and closed the door, turning towards Klein. "Do a divination on the cause of this incident."
"No problem." Klein also wanted to find out what he could divine.
Klein took out the pen and paper he brought along with him and wrote down a divination statement: "The cause of the haunting at Noah's house."
He held the piece of paper, walked to a round table, and took a seat.
Klein suddenly saw a black mausoleum in his blurred, hazy dream world.
It was similar to a pyramid but stood inverted and was almost fully buried.
A black fog obscured everything within the ancient mausoleum.
Klein opened his eyes and described. "The mausoleum I saw was definitely not in the style of the Northern Continent, I mean the Fifth Epoch. I'm somewhat of an expert in this field."
Leonard nodded. "That's an Inverted Pyramid from the Southern Continent. It represents the entering of the nether realm from the living world. It's a mausoleum that only the so-called Descendants of Death can erect for themselves, be it in the Balam Empire of the past or its satellite states, such as the Highlands Kingdom.
In some sense, it's the symbol of Death. Well, the ghosts are definitely related to Death. The results of the divination are undoubtedly correct!"
According to a chapter from The Revelation of Evernight, as well as the internal records of the Nighthawks, Death was a malevolent god, once causing a catastrophe in the Northern Continent at the end of the Fourth Epoch. Those times were now referred to as the Pale Era.
Klein thought. Hmm, it's said that Death fell to the combined efforts of the Seven Gods. It's impossible to determine when Lamud Castle was built, but it couldn't have been built before the Pale Era.
Of course, this could be an excuse for the Northern Continent to colonize the Southern Continent. After all, most of the inhabitants of the Southern Continent believe in Death.
The three Nighthawks didn't stay for long since they didn't discover anything and soon left Noah's house to deal with the two other haunting incidents.
The same process, the same results. They quickly rid the town of the auras of dead spirits but didn't manage to find the cause of all the trouble.
Along the way, Leonard asked the townsfolk if any strangers had entered the town in the past few days but received a negative answer.
Klein returned to the entrance of Morse Cathedral with Leonard and Kenley.
They could still last another hour and forty-five minutes with the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem.
"We'll take one-hour shifts looking after the Sealed Artifact." Klein looked at the color of the sky. "Let's try to head back to Tingen City for dinner."
"No problem." Leonard glanced at Klein. "But for safety's sake, I suggest that two people look after the Sealed Artifact while one rests."