How to become a sea witch

Maybe it was when the night was dark and foggy? A well-dressed girl's body was discarded in the grass beside the river, insects and ants were climbing, and fallen leaves were covering it.

It may only take a few hours,? It may also take a few days, and she will be discovered by a passing person,? Immediately after that, all parties will be in place quickly.She will be wrapped in a dark Oxford cloth,? Carried on a vehicle and sent to the dissecting room.

And all kinds of news about her will, together with the gradually deepening dusk overhead, envelope the city in an instant, and even gradually spread to the entire country.

In less than half an hour, the entire network and news were full of reports about the murder.There are various titles, but they always revolve around a few extremely conspicuous key elements:

A murdered girl,? a real doll,? and a serial murderer dubbed "The Collector" by the human media who has yet to be apprehended.

Gabriel briefly flipped through the content of the news, took notes quickly and proficiently, and then superimposed similar information gathered from other branches two days ago, and prepared to hand them over to Thiago for review.

Not long after leaving the building, he saw a group of winged angels huddled under the tree and chatting about something. He didn't have the slightest awareness of being on duty, and he didn't even notice immediately when he was approaching.

It wasn't until one of the angels looked up and accidentally saw Gabriel standing not too far away from them? Then he was so frightened that he hurriedly plucked his companion's wing feathers.

Seeing the Archangel, within two seconds, seven or eight team members in uniform lined up in front of him in a very tacit understanding, and saluted in unison: "I have seen you, sir."

Gabriel maintained the standing posture at the beginning, looked back and forth at their faces, and said blankly: "The talk is so lively, why don't you tell me?"

After a brief silence, Troy said weakly: "Report sir, it's because I fell into the water, so... so everyone, please take care of me."

"Falling into the water?" Gabriel frowned slightly and repeated.

Troy quickly explained the cause and effect to one side, and peeked at Gabriel's face, which seemed to be getting heavier, so he immediately held his breath and waited for the other party to say something.

Unexpectedly, after listening to the whole process, Gabriel just sighed a little, then raised his eyes to look at him again, and warned: "From now on, stay away from 0331."

Troy looked at him in a daze, thinking that the other party said this out of Bernice's identity, so he tried to defend her: "But she's really good..."

"It has nothing to do with you whether she is well or not." Gabriel reminded in a cold voice, "But if you want to feel better, you should have less contact with her in the future, do you understand?"

"Ming, I understand." He nodded, his eyes still looked a little clouded, and his expression hesitated to speak.

Gabriel could easily see through the doubts in the other party's mind, but he left the Meteorological Bureau without any explanation.After all, frankly speaking, he himself didn't really understand the relationship between Bernice and Tiago, or to be precise, he didn't understand Tiago's attitude towards Bernice.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but close his eyes, use the parchment in his hand to fiddle with the bangs hanging in front of his eyes at will, step on the dark gray steps in front of him, push the door and walk into the hall on the first floor of the Ocean Observation Center.

Seeing that it was him, the little seal Betty who was in charge of the reception immediately saluted and greeted him, and without waiting for the other party to speak, he pointed to the leisure area on the left knowingly: "Your Majesty is over there, with Miss Sea Witch."

Gabriel turned his head in the direction of her finger, and saw Tiago and Bernice sitting in front of the huge French window, seeming to be talking about something.

The sunlight before twilight still carried the warm vitality unique to summer, and a large golden light and dark green tree shadows pulled each other and poured into the hall together, completely covering them in a layer of light and shadow mottled.

From his point of view, only Tiago's face can be seen, which is a kind of gentleness and seriousness full of real warmth, which is completely different from the mask-like approachability he usually presents when facing other creatures. The eyes are focused and bright, blue as if seeing the light in the deep sea.

Gabriel paused for a few seconds, walked over, bowed to the young god who had turned his head to look at him, and at the same time handed the file in his hand to the other party: "I have seen you. This is all the confirmed ones of the same kind so far Please have a look at the event information."

Thiago took it over, smiled and said warmly: "Thank you for your hard work, get up."

As he spoke, he looked down at the parchment in his hand. His slender fingers pinched the corners of the page as if he wanted to turn it over, but he paused after noticing the time: "What just happened today? The news has already spread, right? "

"Yes. And combined with the historical records from other branches, it is indeed the same as your previous guess. This target person called 'Collector' is not only related to the previous new samples, but also has a wider range of activities. Getting closer to the city." Gabriel nodded his head.

Hearing the code name "Collector", Bernice suddenly raised her head, stopped the boring action of poking the ice cubes floating in the glass with a straw, and asked, "Is that the 'Collector' I was thinking of? These two days It seems that I have seen it in the news, saying that it has something to do with the disappearance of a young girl."

"It's him." Thiago said, and handed the incident records that he had read in the previous few pages to Bernice very naturally, "We didn't notice this person at first. But two days ago, the guards were at the Western Suburbs managed and covered up an incident caused by a new sample, which led to the discovery of the collector's connection to the parasite we caught in Kamchatka."

"what?"

"Victims in a similar situation also appeared in the western suburbs. The guards isolated the same trace parasites from the corpses." Gabriel replied briefly.

"That's it." Bernice nodded understandingly, took a look at the files, and found that they were all similar to this incident - the girl who was murdered and dumped in various places, still wearing neat and clean clothes. The long skirts have no wounds on the outside, and they even look beautiful as if they are just sleeping, but the autopsy results show that their internal organs are missing to varying degrees.

And after being identified by the family members, it was discovered that the classic long skirts worn by the victims were not their original clothes, but replaced by the murderer.

Bernice focused on the photos of the victims and physical evidence, and after a long time of repeated identification on one of the severely worn imprints, she looked at them in surprise: "I swear I don't mean to offend, but, Doesn’t this symbolize the all-seeing eye totem of the God of Light?”

Tiago tilted his head and pressed the end of his eyebrows with his fingertips. The platinum hair that fell down his shoulders was almost transparent by the twilight sunset: "So what we are looking for this time is also a creature from the original world. And , he has the ability to create these parasites."

"I remember you said that these parasites are bred by a complex spell. Generally speaking, the most likely ones are demons or dark elves. As for human wizards, I really don't know much about them... But if this creature is a belief If it is the God of Light, then it cannot be a demon." Bernice looked at the marks in confusion and muttered to herself.

In the next second, before Gabriel made a sound, she shook her head and said in denial: "You can't say that. Maybe he used this mark on purpose to disgust and provoke you. After all, demons are keen to do this."

After finishing speaking, she noticed Gabriel's silent gaze on her, blinked quickly and immediately added without changing her face: "Except for the small part that has changed its past."

The atmosphere froze for a second, and was broken by Thiago's light cough in a timely manner, bringing the topic back on track: "It is very possible, after all, according to the current clues, the appearance of the parasite has nothing to do with this collection I am afraid it is directly related to the family. Now that there have been new victims, we have to collect new information first."

As he said, he spread the remaining few pages of the file on his crossed legs, and tapped the time records with his fingertips: "It seems that his movements are getting faster and faster, maybe soon there will be The next one. The more attention human society pays to these events, the greater the risk of our exposure."

"Understood. I will immediately ask the security office to collect information on new victims." Gabriel said with a slight bend.

"Okay. By the way, how is Queen White doing?"

"The White Queen has basically recovered, but we haven't had time to find her yet, do we need to go now?"

After pondering for a moment, Thiago said: "Well, you are too tired to run at both ends. I will collect information on new victims. You are responsible for responding to the reaction of human society to this series of events at any time, and Find Queen White and ask her exactly how she came across this parasite. It is very likely that she has actually seen this collector somewhere, but she just hasn't realized it."

"Understood, then I'll go back first."

"Thanks a lot."

Looking at the back of Gabriel leaving soon after saluting, Tiago stood up before Bernice had time to ask anything, with his hands in the trouser pockets of his white suit habitually, looking at the Her: "Can you come with me?"

"Huh?" Bernice was taken aback for a moment, "You want to go in person?"

Isn't it better to find a sea tribe who can go ashore and is familiar with the city for this kind of thing, so why run by yourself.

He hummed, didn't give any explanation, just repeated: "So come with me?"

Without much hesitation, Bernice quickly nodded and agreed: "Okay."

Anyway, it is something that can clear the white value without trouble, of course we must rush to the forefront, otherwise how can I be worthy of the sentence I just said "except for the small part of rehabilitating the past".

Seeing her agreement, Thiago immediately smiled slightly: "Then let's go."

According to the practice of human society, after the victim's body is found, they will first be sent to the police station for identification and autopsy.

When Bernice and Thiago rushed to the local police station, they saw the victim's family confirming whether it was their daughter.

From the moment she walked into the morgue and saw the corpse covered in white cloth, the thin brunette woman began to tremble uncontrollably, and transparent tears rolled down from her tired red eyes one after another, dripping on the back of her hand covered with blue veins. On the bed, the ten fingers were tightly curled up, so hard that even the joints began to turn white.

The overly intense and contradictory emotions made Bernice a little confused for a moment whether she wanted to see the person under the white cloth or not.

Until the cloth covering the face of the dead body was lifted, the brunette woman finally collapsed. She was hugged by her husband and cried hoarsely, almost fainting, repeating the girl's name intermittently.

After the assistant took the family members out of the room, only the forensic doctor who was about to conduct the autopsy was left here.Bernice watched Thiago hypnotize the forensic doctor quickly and skillfully, and helped him to lie down on the chair beside him. She felt as if she saw her colleagues.

It seems that he doesn't do this kind of thing less.

Looking around, Bernice was attracted by the classic dress that had just been taken off the victim.It was a soft and clean light tea color, with a thin circle of holly flowers and pansies embroidered on the skirt, and a breast chain that looked like an all-seeing eye for prayer.

Like the totems in the previous photos, this chest chain has also suffered severe damage from external forces, with deep and clear cracks and damage all over the all-seeing eye.

Bernice tilted her head and looked at it for a while, and suddenly felt that the "collector" might hate the God of Light, or not.

But there is one thing that is very strange.

That is the same style of long skirt worn by several recent victims in the photo. The skirt in front of me is obviously prepared for winter.There is white fluff from the neckline to the sleeves. This thickness is not suitable for the current summer.

Why make them dress like this?

Bernice turned her attention to other things that were found together with the victim's body, and suddenly heard Tiago calling her: "Come and see this, Bernice."

She walked over and saw Thiago picking up the girl's long hair with a slender ice blade.Under the effect of divine power, the pitch-black color quickly shrank and dissipated as if it had touched the shadow of a flame, revealing the original deep golden color.

Bernice blinked: "Is this, dyed?"

"Yes." Tiago put down the lock of hair, looked at the girl flatly, and recalled the previous photos, "The more recent victims, the more similar their appearance. Hair color, winter long hair skirt, and..."

He said, carefully observing the girl's eyebrow shape and forehead hair: "Even their hair styles are trimmed almost the same."

"So, this creature is dressing them up according to the appearance of a certain person?"

Bernice was thinking, her eyes turned to the girl's pale face, and she said at the same time as Tiago: "Those eyes..."

The sudden unison made the two of them stare at each other in surprise.

Bernice stretched out her hand a little awkwardly and stroked casually, signaling the other party to ignore her.Thiago smiled gently, without saying anything, turned the ice skate in his hand into a pair of delicate tweezers and gently lifted the girl's eyelids.

Under the illumination of the light, Thiago saw that the girl's eyes were almost the same as those of normal people, but the pupils would no longer constrict in response to external stimuli.

Bernice saw him frowning slightly, and followed him to take a look: "What's wrong?"

"Her eyes are not right." Tiago explained, "According to the physiological characteristics of human beings, within a few hours after death, due to the cessation of blood flow, the cornea will appear plaque-like turbidity. But look at her The eyes, very clean, did not show any post-mortem changes. And..."

As he said, he looked at the color of the girl's eyes with light, and the frown between the brows deepened: "Green."

A small translucent snowflake melted into the girl's eye socket, quickly absorbing the originally clear light green, revealing the rotten eyeball after the illusion.

"It's the effect of the potion." Bernice nodded knowingly, "It's just that there are many kinds of potions that can change the color of the eyes, and it's not difficult to make."

As she said, she was looking down to find more clues from the girl, but she saw Thiago staring at the girl's face in silence, with a bad expression, so she asked, "What's wrong?"

"If this collector is really transforming these victims according to the appearance of a particular creature, then this creature must be very important to him."

Thiago analyzed, and by the way opened the white cloth further, but still covered her torso, and only carefully observed the girl's arms and feet: "Look, there is no sign of being bound or abused on her body. The nails have not been trimmed, but they are very clean. Judging from the photos, she was not wearing shoes when she was found, and she was in the woods in the suburbs, but the soles of her feet were not stained with any mud."

"This means that she was killed elsewhere and abandoned here." Bernice answered.

"That's right. And before that, she was well taken care of." As he spoke, he gently scraped the back of the girl's hand with tweezers turned into thin blades, and handed it to Bernice, "Smell and see. "

Bernice took a sniff and immediately responded, "Lily of the valley and snake skin wood."

"There is also pearl powder." Thiago added, "Snake skin wood is a plant unique to the original world. It is a special medicine for external application to repair scars, and pearl powder is a skin care product that many women like."

As he spoke, he leaned slightly sideways to take a closer look at the back of the girl's hand, and the subtle silver-blue divine power gradually moved along the thin blade on the surface of the corpse's skin: "? This girl's hand was injured, but judging from the scars, it is obvious that it has already disappeared. It's been around for a long time. It looks like the collector gave her this snakeskin wood mixed with pearl powder just to make the scars on her hands disappear."

"Because the girl they're looking for has no scars on her hands?" Bernice guessed.

"Very likely. After all, he has already put in enough effort to transform the girl's appearance, and of course he doesn't care about taking another step to shape her closer to the person in his heart."

Thiago commented without much emotion, then raised his head and looked at the winter skirt that was hung on the evidence wall: "But there is one more thing that surprised me."

"You mean about the winter dresses he put on all his victims?"

"That's right. And from the perspective of repairing scars, lily of the valley is a lot of plants to add, and it has no use except to increase the fragrance. But this plant likes to grow in cold and humid places, plus these The victims were all dressed in winter dresses, and the patterns on the skirts were all plants with strong cold resistance."

"In addition, since this collector is a creature from the original world like us, the person he has been trying to reshape through these human girls is likely to be from the original world."

With this conjecture, Bernice re-examined the current information, and suddenly seemed to understand something: "Then could it be that the things with the all-seeing eye totem actually belong to the person the collector is looking for? She's the believer? And these dresses..."

For some reason, Bernice suddenly had an image of a girl with long black hair and green eyes who lived in the cold north all year round and believed in the God of Light as devoutly as most of the humans on that continent.

This speculation seems reasonable, but it still can't explain why those things with the all-seeing eye pattern are damaged so badly.

Could it be that collectors have enmity with the Holy See?Or did that girl lose her life because of the Holy See?

The more Bernice thought about it, the more divergent her thinking became, and in no time she had conceived three or four different versions of tragic love and awakening revenge. After all, she had accumulated too much material in those years of running errands for Ursula, so she just picked a few. can be connected in series.

While looking around, her eyes accidentally met Tiago's, but she only habitually classified the faint worry in his eyes as concerns about her.

After all, she also has black hair and green eyes, and she is also a demon, which sounds very suitable for this collector's hobby.

So Bernice really recalled it seriously for a moment, and then took the initiative to say frankly: "I don't remember knowing such a demon or dark elf on land, but I can guarantee that I have never worn such a winter dress. I don't have any bad thoughts about the Holy See."

"I'm not doubting that you know this collector, Bernice. Besides, even if that's the case, it's him who did these things and has nothing to do with you, so you don't need to explain to me. As I said, I believe you. "Tiago corrected it calmly but earnestly, "It's just that I think that since this collector is so partial to girls with black hair and green eyes, then you may become his target. That's what I'm worried about, do you understand? ?”

"Ah, I understand." She nodded half-understood, always feeling that even though there was only a short distance, there were many or something in the other party's blue eyes that were reflected in the light. Emotions, bright or dark, cannot be seen or understood by oneself.

At this time, there were vaguely approaching footsteps in the corridor outside the door. Thiago looked back at the door and covered the white cloth back: "We have to leave, but we have to take the breast chain with us."

"If you just take it away, won't these humans find it?" Bernice glanced at the forensic doctor who was sleeping on the chair.

"The security department will do a good job of covering up here." Thiago explained, "but that breast chain is a symbol of Augsig, and they are inconvenient to deal with, so I will do it."

As he spoke, he took the severely damaged All-Seeing Eye chest chain in his hand, and quickly left the police station with Bernice.