Rhodes Island does not exist.

"Would you forgive my sins?"

He lifted his tear-stained face, his expression contorted beyond recognition.

That's not the appearance a normal person should have, nor is it the appearance of any living being.

He must be crushed into helpless fragments by the conflict between madness and faith.

"Ah, I do."

However, the doctor reached out his hand to that distorted face.

He bent down slightly and placed his hand on the mixed-race person's cheek.

“Child, your sins will be forgiven, and your soul will be redeemed and find peace.”

Her red eyes froze.

And it wasn't just that kneeling Agorian mixed-race man.

All the mixed-bloods who should have attacked from all sides stopped their movements and stood frozen in place when the mixed-blood begged for forgiveness.

At this moment, all their eyes were focused on the doctor and their brother, and they remained silent.

Even as they were being slaughtered by Skadi, even as their bodies were splattered with the pure blue blood of their brothers and sisters.

even so.

Even so, they kept their eyes on the doctor, and on the penitent.

So Skadi stopped too.

"Click."

After realizing what was happening around her, she slowly pulled her greatsword from the spine of an Agor hybrid and began wiping the blood off the blade in silence.

Perhaps she shouldn't disturb this tranquility, she thought to herself.

"Thank you... thank you."

Where everyone's eyes were fixed, two lines of colorless tears welled up from beneath bloodshot eyes, flowing down the clear streams that had just left their traces.

The kneeling mixed-race person sobbed.

He is now completely different from the man he was ten seconds ago.

Skadi, watching from the sidelines, thought to herself, "He must be sincerely repenting to his Lord."

but why?

Although she could understand that this person was repenting for his crimes, she could not understand why he had suddenly become like this.

However, just as she was thinking this, something even more shocking happened.

"thank you."

The repentant Agorian-mixed-race man stopped his confession.

Although his body remained in a posture of praying to the doctor, with his hands clasped together and tears in his eyes, his red pupils were bulging outwards.

In other words, he died.

As if his soul had been truly liberated through repentance, he suddenly died in front of the doctor.

At this moment, his spirit had completely dissipated from this world, just like all his brothers and sisters who had been killed by Skadi.

However, unlike his brothers and sisters, he believed before his death that he had atoned for his sins. Therefore, even if his brothers and sisters went to purgatory after death, he was certain that he would go to heaven.

At least that's what he thinks.

“Ah, one of our brothers has gone to heaven. He has rested in the Lord and is now on his way to Paradise. Although we are separated, we will meet again one day. Let us thank the Lord for His grace and may this brother rest in peace. Amen.”

At this moment, the doctor, like an experienced pastor in a church, began to recite a eulogy for the mixed-race person who had suddenly died before his eyes.

Amen!

Then, the mixed-race individuals standing around the doctor joined in the shout.

Faced with this situation, Skadi suddenly felt that perhaps she had gone mad.

She felt like a car driving in the wrong direction on a highway, seeing all the other cars on the road going the wrong way.

However, the eulogy is only one part.

After the eulogy was read, the doctor's words did not end there.

“My brothers and sisters.” He raised the hammer in his right hand and the leather suitcase in his left, looking rather comical and out of place, but the mixed-race people around him watched with great interest.

“Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have died today.” He closed his eyes and made a sorrowful expression, and the mixed-race people also made sorrowful expressions.

“It was those blasphemers who turned to heresy who caused the deaths of these brothers and sisters.” His voice was somber as he pointed his hammer at the mangled corpses on the ground. “These heretics are born sinful, and not only do they refuse to repent, they have become even more wicked, openly persecuting our own brothers and sisters, and have fled back to their rat dens.”

These words stirred their emotions, and the faces of the mixed-race people were filled with anger.

"Therefore, as the Lord's agents on earth, we must make them pay the price."

The doctor quietly uttered a statement that was far from calm.

Skadi's face finally showed some expression.

Chapter 116, Chapter 115: Deep Sea Tales - The Contents of the Forty-Nine Boxes

"so!"

The doctor shouted loudly.

He threw down the hammer in his hand and pointed his finger in the direction of the Cathedral of Afterglow.

In an instant, all the mixed-race people turned their gaze to the direction the doctor pointed to.

"We must restore dignity for our fallen brothers and sisters, for our blasphemed Lord!" he shouted, like a passionate agitator. "The enemy! The enemy is at the Cathedral of Afterglow! Hallelujah!!!"

Hallelujah!!!

Hallelujah!!!

With a final, decisive shout, all the red eyes flashing in the night sky ignited, and they raised their weapons and raced through the shadows toward the promised land.

Hallelujah—

The hybrids, whose physical abilities were already beyond those of ordinary people, appeared silently and disappeared without a trace. In no time, the doctor and his companions could only hear their voices but not see them.

The sacred cries echoed throughout the city.

This deafening shout will likely wake even the Iberian residents who are already asleep.

But none of that matters.

"you……"

From the moment she spoke, Skadi's face showed a look of shock.

"What exactly is going on here..." She slowly moved her feet, gradually approaching the doctor who was standing still in the same position.

But the doctor broke down first.

"Ha... Huff... Huff... Don't talk to me for now."

Like a punctured water balloon, the doctor, who had been so energetic just moments before, suddenly collapsed to his knees, his voice dry and weak.

The more magnanimous he was just moments ago, the more humble he appears now.

"Are you alright?" Skadi asked him with a hint of concern.

"Hoo...ha...normal...it'll be fine in a bit...it'll be fine in a bit." The doctor weakly made a gesture indicating that everything was okay, then collapsed to the ground, panting.

Skadi noticed that his carotid artery was throbbing up and down like a bulging water pipe, as if the blood circulation in his body was undergoing an abnormally chaotic gladiatorial contest.

"Will this be better?"

So she gently knelt down and placed her cold palm on the doctor's forehead.

"hiss……"

The doctor closed his eyes slightly, and breath escaped from his mouth.

Then, after an unknown number of minutes, the doctor slowly uttered two words.

"Thank you."

His condition finally stabilized.

-

"Now can you tell me what exactly happened?"

After waiting for the doctor for about half a minute, Skadi finally asked her question.

This moment is perhaps the most curious moment of her life so far.

“It’s simple.” The Doctor steadied his breathing, sat up from the ground, and patted the black leather suitcase resting on his crossed legs. “Didn’t I ask you a question when we were attacked?”

"What problem?" Skadi couldn't think of anything for a moment.

“I asked you then why I wasn’t affected by the madness when I was standing at the entrance of the courtroom. After all, as the cardinal is the epicenter of madness, I shouldn’t have been unaffected. But in fact, I didn’t feel anything unusual,” the doctor said. “However, I was interrupted by the attack of the hybrids as soon as I asked that question.”

“Ah, you mean this?” Skadi nodded. “To be honest, I can’t jump to conclusions, because all the facts are based on…”

“No, it’s alright.” The Doctor waved his hand at Skadi. “Because I already have the answer.”

"What answer?" Skadi asked.

"Words are rather inadequate, so I'll just show you directly, but be careful not to get too close." The doctor placed the suitcase on his lap in front of him and then unfastened the clasp.

Skadi suddenly realized that she had never actually seen the contents of this box before.

While I wasn't particularly curious, if it contained something extremely dangerous, then it would have been rather foolish of me to have helped him retrieve it.

"Click."

The black leather suitcase was opened directly by the doctor's movements.

The first thing Skadi noticed was a row of syringes already sealed in glass tubes, followed by several medicine bottles fixed in a compartment, and some medical instruments that could only be seen on an operating table.

He is indeed a doctor.

Seeing these things, Skadi could only think this way.

But this was only half of the contents of the box.

From Skadi's perspective, she can only see half of it.

The other half is on the side of the lid.

"How about this."

The doctor seemed to realize that Skadi's vision was limited, so he turned the box around and placed it in front of Skadi.

"this……?"

So this man had been carrying these things on his travels?

No, generally speaking, would a doctor carry these things in their suitcase?

Skadi's mind was filled with a great deal of thought about the current situation.

"A little surprised, aren't you?" the doctor said with a wry smile. "But it's normal, after all, this kind of thing is rare even in the whole of Terra, at least for the average person."

They were amber-colored crystals, tightly wrapped in a layer, sealed inside the lid of the doctor's suitcase. Even in this dimly lit alley, they stubbornly emitted a faint fluorescence.

“Pure Originium,” Skadi murmured.

“It’s something that’s both an angel and a demon.” The doctor nodded. “The whole of Terra prospered and rose because of its appearance, but it also caused the people to suffer because of it. Without it, there would be no Infected or Oripathy in Terra.”

"This box must contain at least dozens or even hundreds of Originium stones. How did you, a doctor, acquire such a huge fortune? Logically speaking, this should be enough for any ordinary person to live a comfortable life for the rest of their days." Even Skadi, who was usually indifferent, couldn't help but add a hint of surprise to her tone.

"Is it huge?" The doctor shook his head. "But this box of Originium isn't even enough to support the energy required for a single firing of the Saint-Germain's anti-city cannons."

“That’s not how it works…” Skadi frowned.

“No,” the doctor said. “If I want to achieve the ideal picture I want, I can only use this kind of analogy.”

“Well… your ideals are quite ambitious.” Although Skadi hadn’t heard the Doctor tell his story, she roughly felt that he couldn’t be an ordinary person.

“No, we’ve gone off-topic.” Skadi shook her head. “I’m not interested in your ideals or anything like that. I only care about how you did what you just did, and what your answer was.”

-

Thank you segment.