eurekapd Chapter 242 The Traitors of the Morse Order
Chapter 242 The Traitors of the Morse Order
Chapter 242 The Traitors of the Morse Order
Wearing the same black robes as Catherine Grey, who had just attended the party, Evan hailed a carriage and arrived on the outskirts of Backlund.
After declining the coachman's offer of help, we arrived at a dark and secluded valley.
Catherine Grey led the way, and soon they came to a steep mountainside. She pressed her hand on a protruding rock, circled it three times to the left and three times to the right, and then smashed it hard. There was a scraping sound, and a large rock next to her moved aside on its own, revealing a hole.
Seeing this scene before him, and looking at the surrounding environment which resembled a graveyard, Evan suddenly felt a sense of adventure.
"What are you thinking about? Are you afraid I'll eat you? Hurry up and come in!"
After entering the cave, Catherine Grey found Evan lost in thought and said to him in an annoyed tone.
Evan wasn't angry; he just chuckled and stepped into the cave without any suspicion.
Catherine Grey couldn't see Sharon and didn't know if she had followed her in. She only saw Evan enter and, without asking any questions, simply twisted a stone on the mountain wall to seal the cave entrance from the inside.
The scene inside the cave was completely different from the desolation outside. Bright lights hung on the cave walls. Evan did not find any gas pipes or anything like that, and he did not know what the energy source was.
Mechanical parts were scattered haphazardly along both sides of the cave passage, and gears and long tubes were placed everywhere. Further inside, various weapons not found in the outside world were displayed casually, with large-caliber heavy artillery being just a piece of cake. If an outsider were to wander in here, they might think they had entered a secret military factory.
What puzzled Evan was that, judging from the parts on display, many of the basic items had been used recently by the original owners of those parts.
"Woof woof woof!"
Evan and Catherine Grey heard a bark, turned around and looked down, and unsurprisingly saw a mechanical puppy wagging its tail happily at them.
Catherine Grey smiled, crouched down, and patted the mechanical dog's head, saying to Evan:
"This is Bobby, a mechanical pet made by Grandpa Collins. We're very close, isn't she cute!"
Looking at the mechanical dog that exuded mechanical beauty, resembled the merchandise sold in the market in his previous life, had a bunch of red eyes, and was wagging its tail in Catherine Grey's arms, Evan felt no cuteness whatsoever. Instead, he felt nothing but horror, and cold sweat poured down his back.
In his eyes, what Catherine Grey was holding was not a cute mechanical dog, but a nuclear reactor with terrifying energy. Once this energy exploded, even if Evan had many Stand abilities, he would only be destroyed.
Catherine Grey, oblivious to Evan's odd behavior, stroked the mechanical dog's smooth head a few times, then shouted:
"Grandpa Collins, I've brought our guest!"
"I understand, you don't need to shout so loudly, I can hear you."
A hearty laugh rang out, and a middle-aged man with gray hair, a tall and spirited figure emerged from a thatched hut deep in the cave. What surprised Evan was that he was wearing a wizard's robe embroidered with mysterious symbols and patterns, instead of the white work robe Evan had expected.
At the same time that this demigod named "Collins" appeared, Aiwen, with the keen intuition brought to him by the City of Calamity, sensed that the basic physical values of the real world seemed to have changed, but he could not sense anything more.
This made Evan wonder if he had been too reckless this time, because he really couldn't believe that an ordinary Sequence 4 demigod could do something like modifying physical values.
Miss Sharon, oblivious to this horrifying fact, appeared directly beside Evan and bowed with him, saying:
"Greetings, Your Excellency!"
The energetic middle-aged man waved his hand, indicating that Evan and Sharon did not need to be so polite. In fact, as Evan and Sharon stood up, several large and sturdy parts were molded like mercury, turning into chairs and coffee tables that appeared beside Evan and Sharon. At the same time, a coffee pot and several cups flew in from the thatched hut behind them.
This scene made Evan's eyelids twitch, because it was so different from his impression of the "General Knowledge" pathway; it was more like an extraordinary person of the "Secret Seeker" pathway.
"Since you're a guest, let's all sit down and talk!"
Collins had a pleasant expression, but Evan and Sharon didn't dare to really relax and sat there upright. Only Catherine Grey didn't care at all and plopped down there, even taking the initiative to introduce everyone and pour coffee for them.
"This is Grandpa Collins, this is my direct supervisor Mr. Evan, and this is Miss Sharon, whom Mr. Evan said he could trust as much as he wanted to trust."
When Catherine Grey introduced Sharon, she directly quoted Evan's words, which sounded like she was explaining why they had invited one more person this time.
But the shrewd and experienced Collins couldn't help but feel a sour undertone in his words, so he glanced at Catherine Grey, causing her to blush.
Collins glanced at Evan again, thinking that he did indeed have a handsome face that could arouse a young girl's imagination, but now was not the time to talk about such things, so he suppressed his thoughts and said with a smile:
"Although I am currently single, I still know some secrets that others are unaware of. Mr. Evan, is your enthusiastic invitation to that high-sequence gathering perhaps for the sake of the Horn family's future?"
Collins's words were a bombshell, shocking Evan. He hadn't expected Collins to know this secret; he had thought such things were rare!
But thinking about it, it's not a big deal. With the changing world situation, all sorts of strange and wicked people have come out, and it's inevitable that some historical secrets from the past will be revealed to the public.
"This gathering was indeed organized by my brother, Ms. Amanda, and me, but it was held before we knew about the Horn family history!"
Although Evan's heart was churning with emotions, he calmly offered an explanation, which made Collins look at him with even greater respect.
Meanwhile, Catherine Grey and Sharon, standing to the side, were completely baffled. What was so special about the Horn family's history?
Thanks to the extensive newspaper reports following the old count's death, they were not entirely ignorant of the Horn family behind Evan, but they only knew that the Horn family had an ancient history, was closely related to the country, and had produced many famous people, but they had no idea what the Horn family actually represented.
"Could you tell me about the gathering your brother started?"
Evan was prepared for Collins' question. After all, this wasn't like recruiting a low-to-mid-sequence extraordinary individual, who would come running over as soon as they were told that a demigod would appear at the gathering.
Instead, they wanted to recruit a demigod, someone who would thrive anywhere.
Once they reach this level, worldly temptations and desires have virtually no effect on them; only tangible benefits can sway them.
Of course, there are exceptions, such as some demigods born into nobility who take on secular positions for the sake of so-called noble inheritance.
Robert's ambition stemmed from both the honor of the Horn family and his own advancement, which is why he had been working in politics. After all, his promotion ceremony was a result of his political achievements, and Evan's active promotion to build his own army was also for this reason.
The arbitrator and hunter approaches are inextricably linked to "order" and "war".
Evan provided detailed information about the gathering hosted by Ms. Amanda, including but not limited to: the gathering location was inside the belly of an unknown behemoth, at least six demigods were in attendance, Ms. Amanda possessed a level 0 sealed artifact, and some attendees might have become angels, etc.
To get Collins to join the party, Evan revealed quite a bit, all with Robert's permission, of course.
Meanwhile, Catherine Grey, who was standing to the side, had been listening with her eyes wide open. Whether it was the legendary "0" level sealed artifact or the giant beast that could travel through the spirit world and had a huge independent space inside its belly, it was all beyond her imagination.
Miss Sharon wasn't much better off, because she heard the word "angel".
She knew Evan quite well and knew he would never say something he wasn't sure of, so if Evan said such a thing, it must be true. This made her keep thinking about the demigod she had met at the party, and how he had been promoted to angel.
Collins sipped his coffee while listening to Evan's boasting, remaining expressionless throughout. Only when Evan mentioned the presence of angels did his eyelid twitch slightly, but that was all; there was no other reaction. This left Evan, who had been watching him closely, somewhat disappointed and uneasy.
"It sounds like your brother is doing quite well. I heard he's not even forty years old yet, and he's already built such a large force. That's truly impressive!"
Having decided to meet Evan, Collins naturally did his homework, learning about Evan and his brother.
"Unfortunately, I still don't see the necessity of joining. According to what you said, those who can join that gathering will enter the 'script' of that '0' level seal of the Fate Path, which is essentially getting on your war chariot."
Personally, I feel this is somewhat of a loss, after all, you should know what kind of trouble your Horn family represents, and what kind of enemies you'll face if you join their camp.
Evan remained silent. In the past, when he traded with others, he relied on the advanced information he obtained from "Lord of Mysteries" and took advantage of the information gap to firmly maintain the initiative.
But in this exchange with Collins, he was at a disadvantage because Collins knew more about him than he knew about Collins.
From the moment they met, Evan knew he had underestimated this demigod named Collins, but now he realized that he hadn't just underestimated him, he had greatly underestimated him.
His attitude toward the angels and his knowledge of the Horn family history both indicate that this person is no ordinary individual.
However, Evan absolutely did not believe that Collins was truly indifferent to joining this gathering. After all, Catherine Grey had brought him directly to this demigod's lair. If he didn't want to join, he wouldn't have done so. If he really wanted to know the situation, he could have met him at a restaurant. There was no need to come to this place.
The current situation is simply a tug-of-war between the two sides, trying to reach an agreement on a price.
With this in mind, Evan was no longer in a hurry, but instead tried to think about how to regain the initiative.
"I recently became the deputy director of the reorganized MI9, and I am also qualified to learn more intelligence and information."
While reviewing files on a clandestine organization, I came across intelligence from twenty years ago: Chris, a demigod and Sequence 4 member of the Morse Penitentiary, codenamed "Dark Eye" in the Extraordinary World, has gone missing. What are your thoughts on this?
In this world, the connections between the strong in each sequence and the major organizations are very strong. In particular, the formulas and materials needed to become a demigod are mostly controlled by specific organizations. It is hard to imagine that one can become a demigod without the help of an organization.
Even Klein, the protagonist, obtained the "Trickster" recipe from Zarathustra and received direct help from the Goddess of Night. He also relied on the "Forsaken Land" to collect the relevant materials.
Therefore, Evan once speculated that Collins was unlikely to be a lone wolf and must have broken away from the organization.
Evan first ruled out the possibility that the craftsman had defected from the Church of Steam and Mechanics, because the Church of Steam and Mechanics was a legitimate religious organization.
When a demigod defectes, they have an obligation to inform other orthodox churches, just like Ince Zangwell.
Otherwise, if the defector does something and you don't report it in advance, other orthodox churches will definitely cause trouble for him.
Despite the alliance formed by the gods, Evan absolutely did not believe they were a united front. Needless to say, one of the pieces of information Klein gleaned from spying on the Eternal Sun was that the Eternal Sun harbored extreme hatred for the God of Storms and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, while the Goddess of Night and the God of War were also enemies of similar ranks.
Evan believed that if given the chance to kick someone when they were down, they would not hesitate to do so. Therefore, he first ruled out the possibility that the Church of Steam and Machines had a demigod who had defected, because Evan had not seen any relevant information or wanted posters.
Judging from the fact that the Church of Orthodox God cultivates extraordinary individuals through adjacent pathways, organizations that master the "Secret Seeker" pathway are very likely to cultivate extraordinary individuals through the "General Knowledge" pathway.
And Evan knows of two secret organizations capable of cultivating demigods through the "Generalist" pathway.
One is the infamous and world-renowned "Morse Ascetic Order," a perfectly good potential righteous organization that somehow managed to create a living father for itself, turning itself into a secret organization. That's just unbelievable.
One of them is the "Elemental Dawn," created by Bernadette to fight against the Morse Penitentiary.
At first, Evan didn't realize what was going on, but when he discovered that Collins habitually wore wizard robes and displayed abilities very similar to the Sequence 4 'Mystic' of the Seeker Path, he immediately thought of a document he had seen before.
Collins chuckled softly under Catherine Grey's somewhat alarmed gaze, and then said:
"That's right, I am a defector from the secret organization—the Morse Order."