Who is Elsa?
Malin instinctively sensed sothing was amiss. His high intuition sotis provided such steadiness that it even made him feel fear, but this na, Elsa, filled Malin with a sense of relief, akin to the comfort an aging father feels seeing his offspring grow.
What’s going on? Malin turned around, signaling an apprentice to co over. The latter, puzzled, trotted over nonetheless: "Mr. Malin, is there sothing you need?"
"Do you recognize the person in the painting?" Malin asked the boy.
He glanced at the photo fra in Malin’s hand, fell silent for a mont, and then looked at Malin uncertainly: "Mr. Malin, there’s no one in the photo fra."
"No one?" Malin was taken aback, first confirming there was nothing wrong with himself by instantly casting a Psychic Shield, and then he granted one to the boy.
After staring at each other for a mont, the boy’s color improved slightly: "Mr. Malin, there really is no one."
"This is incredible. That Punisher gentleman over there smoking," Malin said, and the middle-aged man who was smoking ca over as Malin raised the photo fra: "He says he can’t see anyone. I see a young girl. What can you see?"
"...I see a boy. I don’t know why, but he looks very much like my... a child of mine." The middle-aged man frowned as he spoke: "There’s sothing wrong with this photo fra. I instinctively feel danger, but both you and I have gazed directly into this photo fra without any distortion or warping due to seeing different things... It probably isn’t a Chaotic creation."
"Could it be a chaotic artifact, Mr. Punisher?" The boy’s eyes widened with curiosity.
"It’s possible, but it could also be sothing else. Mr. Malin’s resistance is high, so he won’t have a problem, but if soone else were to handle it, then it might not be harmless," said the Punisher, who was clearly aware of Malin’s uniqueness. His words caused the apprentice to glance at the photo fra in Malin’s hand once more before smiling fearfully: "You’re right."
"Then do any of you know Elsa?" Malin asked.
The middle-aged man and the apprentice shook their heads in unison, but then a half-human Punisher approached: "I know an Elsa. Though, I’m not sure if she’s the Elsa you’re speaking of."
"Whose family?" Malin asked curiously.
"Elsa Moka, the old great-grandmother from the Moka family, once a prodigious young girl," the half-human Punisher said as he rolled up his sleeve: "This is a wound I got from a knife when I was a child. She sewed it up for . She was a Follower of the rciful mother."
Malin looked at the photo fra in his hand—he was sowhat confused whether these two Elsas were the sa person—but curiosity led him to decide to investigate further.
The Punishers soon extracted intelligence from the surviving Chaotic Believers—their sect wasn’t large, having already suffered heavy losses once. This ti, they had chosen this location for their sect and had been engaging in loss-making businesses to earn so start-up funds. Initially, they had planned to hide during the combat, but Falm Feller, the lead preacher of the House of Bliss, who was killed by Malin on the second floor, had seen Malin and wanted revenge. He took a team upstairs; they were preparing to retreat when, instead of hearing news of Mr. Falm’s victory, they t their doom at your hands.
Listening to this, Malin found it outrageous. You guys are the masterminds behind the private distillery? Truly amazed, Malin had considered many potential masterminds behind the distillery, but he had never thought that even Chaotic Believers would be involved in this business.
Nevertheless, this lifted a weight from his heart; there was no need to worry about people going after his life over a dozen gallons of contraband liquor anymore.
Beyond that, Malin had other matters to address, such as gathering information about this Elsa. So, leaving the scene to the Punishers, he went to the surface with the apprentices and reported the situation to the Bishop, then retrieved Cain from his custody.
Before even leaving the encampnt, Malin saw his own ntor’s group returning, dusty from the road. On seeing Malin, the ntor imdiately dismounted, moving with an agility not expected of an old man who often sat in a wheelchair lanting life.
"I’m away briefly, and you stir up such a commotion, but... good job, lad," Elder Hoffman ruffled Malin’s hair, then noticed the little tagalong: "And who might this child be?"
"Ah, right, this is Cain..." Malin briefed his ntor on the boy’s story, and the old man was very pleased. He put the boy on his horse: "I’m taking this child for testing. And you?"
"Is city hall still there?" Malin did indeed want to find out exactly who Elsa Moka was, but considering his ntor had just co from there, it was essential for Malin to confirm—city hall, was it still standing?
"Still there, but now it’s been sealed off by us. There are a lot of Chaotic residues inside, and we have to wait for the Church of the rciful Mother to send soone to perform Purification before it can be used again." Hoffman grimaced at the ntion of city hall.
With his ntor’s explanation, Malin learned that the elf was not a Follower of the Mimicking Bird but a Follower of so Fatty. When faced with a sudden Church assault led by Elder Hoffman, the entire city hall had turned into a battlefield. The staff, already infected, and the elf fought against Elder Hoffman’s troops and the Punishers, battling from the first floor up to the rooftop. The creature that the elf had morphed into kept fighting and birthing all the way to the rooftop, leaving the city hall filled with the corpses of Chaos.
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