The eccentric doctor never makes a misdiagnosis!

"Of course not."

Fran lightly put down his sandwich, then took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped a dusty wooden box in the room.

There's a saying, "Before a great battle, there are always supplies." The next piece of the puzzle I was missing was right here.

Fran casually opened the wooden box, filled with the joy of finally completing the five-piece Exodia set, and took out his lost torso.

"I thought it would be in the Hunter's headquarters, but it turns out you can find it as long as you come to the inner ring of the city. Hmm~ Important items are often hidden in corners, that's a fine tradition of the Souls-like world..."

She murmured wistfully, her fingertips twitching slightly as she untied the astrologer's robe, embroidered with moth patterns. She then began methodically reattaching the limbs along the black seams.

After completing the connection of all the limbs, Fran clapped his hands in satisfaction.

Considering that she was currently completely naked under her gauze robe... in order to regain her doctor's demeanor, she took out her doctor's coat and inner suit from her medicine box and put them on neatly.

Haida remained quiet and silent, raising her hand to lightly cover her eyes.

Although Fran probably wouldn't care, it's never polite to stare at someone changing clothes... Adhering to the hunter's rule of being careful with words and eyes, she suppressed her curiosity.

“Don’t worry, Sister Heda. There’s nothing about my body that’s shameful to be seen. Opportunities to directly observe the modular design of the body like this are rare, aren’t they?”

Fran smiled slightly as he put on his signature white coat and casually tied the tie on his suit jacket.

She pinched her neck and coughed up a few strands of thick, dark red blood, drooling as she did so.

"Let me adjust myself a bit before meeting with the patients from this round of visits. My limbs have been separated for too long, and they're a bit uncoordinated now."

Fran stretched his waist comfortably, making two crisp sounds as his bones moved.

-

Headquarters of the Hunters.

Haida stepped through the thick dust and entered this place that she once knew so well.

The once spacious and orderly corridor is now riddled with weathered bullet holes and huge cracks left by cutting. Even the horizontal, angular emblem of the Hunter of Secrets at the entrance is decayed, dilapidated, and incomplete.

"Hmm... the preparations weren't comprehensive enough. Next time, I'll have to keep a pair of shoes in the medicine box. It's really unfortunate, Miss Dorothy doesn't seem to have the habit of wearing shoes."

Fran lifted her skirt, stepping through the dusty corridor, her words tinged with regret.

Although Heda remained cautious and vigilant, listening to Fran's casual complaints inexplicably eased her tension somewhat...

The surrounding pollution was becoming increasingly intense, with even dark black particles resembling ash floating in the air.

This place should have been a den of evil offspring gathering and revelry, but for some reason it was a quiet, oppressive, and deathly still place.

The two arrived at the main hall of the Hunter's headquarters, where the scene was far more terrifying than the surrounding area...

Countless mutated and evil offspring corpses piled up into a high heap, almost filling the huge hall.

Haida's breathing faltered slightly.

She discovered that these highly mutated evil offspring were all wearing the uniforms of the Mystics Hunters...

It might be the leather hunting attire of an outsider hunter, the fitted robe of a funeral maid, or the trench coat of a secret agent.

In addition, these corpses had one thing in common... they had all lost their heads.

Gazing at the high wall built from the corpses of her comrades, Haida's expression was complex, tinged with sorrow. But at the same time, she felt a strange familiarity with the clean cuts on the necks of these bodies…

"The marks on the throne where the head was severed, are they Father's?"

"These wounds were indeed left by that relic, the scythe."

After a brief visual inspection, Fran approached the body of a hunter from the Outer Path and, wearing sterile gloves, began a detailed examination.

"The patient's skin was covered with spiral-shaped granulation tissue and scales, suggesting that the mutation was occurring at an extremely rapid rate. However, all the abnormal proliferation of flesh and blood stopped abruptly the moment the head was severed."

Haida frowned and asked, "What kind of pollution could render even the headquarters' 'Pure Land' ineffective?"

Fran pondered for a moment, then a nostalgic look appeared on his face.

"Contamination? To be precise, it's a plague. This scourge is similar in characteristics to the 'divine plague' that plagued Norrington twenty years ago, but it's far more dangerous... Perhaps the spreaders have modified the formula."

"Let's follow the direction of the pile of corpses deeper. The most recent cuts here haven't even settled yet; they were made about two months ago. Our target for this house call is nearby."

Haida nodded silently.

Following the neatly stacked headless corpses in the corridor, the two gradually walked toward the center of the funeral parlor.

There were no attacks or obstacles encountered during the process, except for a few familiar victims who stood out in particular.

For example, even though Supervisor Alvin lost his head, he could still be recognized at a glance by his strong and tall body.

Finally, Haida and Fran arrived at the door of the Undertaker's room.

Considering the nun's unstable mental state, Fran stepped forward and opened the door. The scene inside the room was immediately revealed.

The spacious room contained only a wooden square chair, upon which sat a man dressed in winter hunting attire and wearing a French tricorn hat.

His features and expression were hidden in the shadow of his hat brim, and a cold and chilling aura surrounded him, like an icy abyss.

“Father…” Haida’s gray-brown pupils narrowed slightly; at this moment, she had no energy left to hide her surprise.

A huge, gruesome gash ran down Yaheng's neck, his head resting in his own hand. His once sharp, falcon-like grey-chestnut eyes were now permanently closed.

Search for "Stay focused. This 'patient' is in this room."

Sohaida felt Fran grasp her hand.

With this real tactile sensation, she was pulled back to reality from her chaotic and dazed thoughts.

"Sorry, I lost my temper."

She let out a soft sigh, suppressing all unnecessary emotions. Then, she drew her power sword "Nirvana" from behind her back and assumed a perfectly standard two-handed sword stance.

"However, Dr. Fran, I think I know why you didn't tell me who the patient was beforehand..."

The crisp, rhythmic sound of leather boots clattering on the stairs echoed through the room, but there were no stairs at all.

Sihai Da looked towards the source of the sound with a complicated expression... The sound came from Yaheng's reflection in the cold moonlight.

An elegant nun in a fitted robe emerged slowly from the chief hunter's shadow.

She held a strange and menacing scythe in a reverse grip, its blade forged from pure shadow. It blended seamlessly with the night, indistinguishable from it…

"I never imagined that I would be a survivor of the apocalypse."

Si Haida looked at her other self holding the throne of execution and felt a surge of emotion.

Now she understood why the dragon-shaped Holy Heir who roamed the inner ring of Norrington was terrified when he saw her…

The nun holding the Shadow Scythe opened her eyes, her eye sockets filled with only deep black shadows.

“I am the last ‘Funeral Master’, Haida Moira.”

“Those who have come here—though you may not yet realize it, you have already been afflicted by the plague of the gods. In order to prevent the plague from spreading to the world where hope still exists, please rest here forever… I will grant you eternal peace.”

Fran rubbed his chin, examining the nun's condition and illness with great interest.

"Although he still has language skills, he doesn't seem to be able to communicate very well... This is typical of paranoid personality disorder. But he's quite polite and doesn't have any hysterical symptoms."

Just as Fran was about to make another comment, Haida suddenly grabbed her by the back of the neck in a cat-pinching motion and lifted her backward.

The blade of the Shadow Scythe grazed his neck, taking away a few strands of his pale, frost-like hair.

"Oh, I almost forgot, that scythe can emerge from my shadow..."

Fran's tone was relaxed and cheerful, showing no fear despite nearly being beheaded. On the contrary, a flush of excitement had crept onto her cheeks.

As the nun holding the decapitation throne prepared to disappear into the shadows once more, she discovered that her arms and body were inexplicably bound by the black tentacles of "Reaching for the Moon."

"Just kidding, I didn't forget. I guessed you, like Yaheng, like to intrude on other people's lives, so I prepared a special welcome gift. Do you like it?"

Fran turned to look at the nun who was trapped in his shadow and unable to move.

"Heretical teachings, plagues, and their carriers. Everything, everything... must be burned away..."

"The plague has long since ceased to exist in Norrington; you have already succeeded." 8

Fran interlaced his fingers and sat down cross-legged, facing directly at the nun.

The nun, who had previously been almost completely oblivious to everything around her, suddenly froze, then burst into laughter as if provoked. Dark shadows streamed down her face like tears of blood. A poignant scene.

"Success? Ha... The dust of the ruins is teeming with wicked offspring crawling like cockroaches, even the dragon has been tainted by blasphemy and turned into a corpse puppet. How dare you say the disease has been eradicated?" Ryu

The nun let out a few low laughs, mournful and desperate. (tumor)

Her figure dissolved into Fran's shadow like ink, and then broke free from the net-like "Reaching for the Moon".

"Being able to turn your body into shadow as well, you and the Judgement Throne have merged to an extremely dangerous level..."

Fran raised her hand, and the extended "Reaching for the Moon" technique instantly retracted her wrist.

The nun rose again from Aheng's shadow. She slowly raised the massive scythe, gripped the handle, twirled it slightly, and then hurled it at Fran.

"Dr. Fran, be careful."

Haida held her power sword "Nie" horizontally in front of her to block. The constantly buzzing blade suddenly collided with the Shadow Scythe, but as expected, the sound of metal clashing did not come...

She did not feel any physical impact!

The scythe, like some kind of illusion, pierced straight through the straight sword in her hand.

The speed at which she switched between reality and illusion was almost as fast as her father's... Haida clicked her tongue lightly, and was about to hug Fran behind her and roll away to avoid it when she turned around and found her putting on a helmet with a smile on her face.

The helmet had a cold, metallic black color, with a dark purple "I"-shaped eyepiece standing upright in the center.

"Gangway".

-

[Type I Faceplate (Creator: Fran Hesser)]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Effect: Can use its eyepiece to fire 'Ascending to the Star', requiring sunlight to recharge after each use.]

[Note: "The profound darkness of Naraku does not hinder you, for you are shining brightly."]

Dozens of dazzling and bright beams of light refracted and scattered, piercing through Haida's body and then striking the scythe of the Head-Slaying Throne head-on.

"The scent of light... it's been so long since I've smelled it..."

The nun's scythe shattered the tangled beams of light, but they then ricocheted off the city wall and pierced her torso, causing her robes to burst into flames.

Haida looked down at her chest, where the beam of light had pierced through, and found that it had not caused her any harm.

The light burned her, but it didn't hurt me?

"Don't be surprised. It's friendly fire. I've turned off friendly fire."

Fran wore a helmet, which gave her originally leisurely female voice a magnetic, deep tone.

Taking advantage of the moment when the nun was briefly confined by the light, Haida approached her, pushed the hilt of her sword with one hand, and plunged the tip of her power sword into the chest of this other version of herself.

Fran gently stroked his palm and gradually approached the nun lying on the ground, his amber eyes bright and enchanting.

"Right in the center of the chest, hmm... good position. Not completely lethal, but also effectively immobilizes the patient."

Chapter Sixty-Three: The Six-Eyed Raven [The Last Nun (The End)]

"This patient, your mind is completely consumed by obsession. After trying various methods, shallow induction like hypnosis has proven ineffective. I need to find a more direct way to listen to your innermost thoughts… What do you think of open-chest surgery?"

Fran tucked an old but exquisite brass pocket watch into his sleeve and began searching his medicine box for his beloved little circular saw.

Haida closed her eyes slightly, trying to recall... but she still couldn't remember when she had taken out the pocket watch.

The nun, her chest pierced by the power sword, remained silent, neither speaking nor struggling. She simply stared intently at Fran with her deep, dark eyes, like a bottomless abyss.

Fran, however, completely disregarded the rather unsettling gaze and went about checking the condition of the wound caused by the sword blade by lifting up her bra beneath her nun's robe.

"There's no blood loss, and no diaphragm or organs are visible in the wound. Hmm, dear nun, you've completely transcended the realm of humanity. But the good news is that your physical form still exists... You're just one step away from becoming a pure shadow creature."

The nun, lying on the ground, let out a deep sigh, her eyes drooping wearily and listlessly.

"My body and soul have been immersed in the shadows for too long, and they are now covered in rust. I have almost forgotten everything, from the skills of hunting to the rules of funeral rites."

"But I still hold this city together, which is on the verge of falling into the abyss, and I cannot simply rest in peace. Even if it means abandoning my human form, abandoning the precepts and pride of the Hunters, and burning away all the memories that still make me human..."

-

Her soliloquy was rapid and abrupt, as incoherent as a dream.

Like pressing the button on the bedside lamp, the cool moonlight in the room vanished in an instant. ※≤『°

All light vanished, turning into darkness. Everything within sight transformed into pure black, yet everyone could see each other clearly.