Chapter 165 Epitaph

"We are guardians, and a group of poor people who are always fighting against danger and madness."

Dunn's words echoed in Old Neil's house, among the corroded floors, walls, and ceilings, and echoed in Klein's mind and heart.

There has never been a moment before that can make him more impressed by that sentence than now.

He felt that he might never forget this feeling for the rest of his life, even if he returned to Earth in the future.

In the almost frozen atmosphere, Dunn walked towards Old Neil's "corpse", squatted down, took out a white handkerchief from the upper side pocket of the black windbreaker, and covered the pair of dark red, crystal, and painful on the eyeballs.

At this moment, out of the corner of Klein's eye, he saw that the keys of the piano stopped jumping on their own, and a nearly transparent figure vaguely appeared there.

This... Klein, who had activated his Spirit Vision outside the door, froze for a moment.

He hadn't even noticed this strange "spirit" before!

Was it disturbed by Old Neil's spirit or was he affected by his own ability after losing control? Klein watched the nearly invisible figure evaporate quickly, completely disappearing from his eyes, and vaguely understood something.

In the heavy and depressed feeling, he heard the captain order:

"You carefully searched Old Neil's home, looking for possible clues."

"Okay." As soon as Klein opened his mouth, he was stunned by his own voice for a few seconds. It was so hoarse and deep, as if he had a bad cold.

"Okay." Luo Yao replied aloud.

Her voice is in the same condition as mine... Both nostrils are blocked... Klein glanced at this female teammate who had never expressed any expression, as if he was meeting her for the first time.

He put his cane on the umbrella stand in the hallway, walked around the sealed item "3-0611", walked into the living room with heavy steps, and went up to the second floor, looking for clues from bedroom to bedroom.

Old Neil would regularly hire short-term workers to clean the room, so there was no clutter typical of most bachelors here, everything was neat and orderly, and there seemed to be a real hostess.

Half an hour later, Klein found some manuscripts on the bookshelf of Old Neil's bedroom, which messily recorded some strange and weird rituals:

"Life is made.

"

"The materials needed include: 100ml of spring water from the Spirit Spring (Golden Spring on Sonia Island), 50 grams of star crystals, half a pound of gold, 5 grams of phlogiston, 30 grams of hematite...and a lot of blood from living people."

Under the blood of the living, Old Neil commented:

"I can consider extracting my own, accumulating one after another, and saving it with ritual magic."

I can consider drawing my own... Klein closed his eyes, crumpling the draft with his fingers.

…………

At nine o'clock in the morning on Thursday, at moon time, Raphael's cemetery.

Klein stood quietly in a corner of the cemetery, wearing a pure black formal suit and shirt, holding a silver cane.

In his breast pocket was a neatly folded white handkerchief, and in his palm was a solemn and serene deep sleep flower.

At this moment, Dunn, Frye, Leonard, and Kenley carried the black coffin containing Old Neil's "corpse" to the front of the tombstone step by step, and silently put it into the dug grave.

Seeing the yellow-brown soil shoveled down one by one, Luo Shan, who was wearing a long black dress and white flowers on her head, sobbed softly:

"Who can tell me, is this all true?"

"Why do you have to lose control, why do you need to take potions, why do you need to become a superhuman, why do you have resentful souls, why do you need monsters, why can't there be a safer way, why, why, why..."

Klein listened silently until Old Neil's coffin was covered with mud, until all traces of his existence were buried deep in the tomb.

"May the goddess bless you." He drew a crimson moon on his chest, then stepped forward, bent down and placed the bouquet of deep sleep flowers in his hand in front of the tombstone.

"May the goddess bless you." Dunn, Frye and the others tapped their chests clockwise four times at the same time.

Klein raised his head, straightened his waist, and saw the black and white photo on the tombstone:

Old Neil was wearing his classic black soft hat, his exposed hair was mottled and gray, the corners of his eyes and mouth were deeply wrinkled, and his dark red eyes were slightly cloudy.

He was so peaceful, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more fear.

There is a line of epitaph engraved under the photo, which comes from what Old Neil wrote in his diary recently:

"If you can't save her, then go and accompany her."

The morning breeze blew slowly, and the coolness, quietness and silence of Raphael's cemetery infected everyone present.

…………

At noon, Klein walked to the weapon arsenal with the list signed by the captain.

He pushed open the half-closed door and saw Brett with a bushy black beard sitting behind the desk.

Klein was obviously taken aback, and then handed over the application form:

"Fifty regular bullets."

While speaking, he glanced at the silver-encrusted tin can on the table. His nose seemed to smell the aroma of hand-ground coffee, and he seemed to hear those words with a hidden smile in his ears:

"But why wait until you have extra money? You can write an application to Dunn and ask him to approve the fee!"

...

Brett glanced at Klein's expression and sighed:

"I can guess how you feel. I myself can't believe that Old Neil left us like this. Sometimes, I even think this may be a dream created by the captain."

"This may be the fate of many Nighthawks." Klein replied with a wry smile.

After this incident, he felt a lot of disappointment and resentment towards the high-level church members who concealed the "acting method" from the bottom of his heart.

"I hope such tragedies will become less and less, and may the goddess bless you." Brett drew a crimson moon on his chest, took the application form, got up and walked into the rear arsenal.

…………

boom! boom! boom!

The smell of gunpowder permeated the surroundings, and Klein shot at the target in front of him as if venting. He didn't pack himself until the brass bullets were exhausted, and he took a trackless public carriage to the home of fighting teacher Gao Wen.

He masochistically carried out group after group of exercises until he was stopped by Gawain.

"Fighting exercises are not for hurting yourself." Gawain stared at Klein with slightly cloudy dark green eyes, and said in a deep voice.

"Sorry, teacher, I'm not in a good mood today." Klein exhaled and explained a little.

"What happened?" Gao Wen asked calmly.

Klein thought for a while and replied briefly:

"A friend of mine passed away suddenly."

Gao Wen was silent for a few seconds, raised his hand to touch the mottled golden temples, and said in an erratic tone:

"I've lost 325 friends in five minutes, and at least 10 of them were the ones who could turn their backs on."

Klein sighed in a daze, "This is the cruelty of war."

Gao Wen glanced at him, and suddenly laughed at himself and said:

"The cruelest thing is that I will never be able to avenge them, I will never be able to fulfill their wishes, there will never be a way."

"And you still have such opportunities. Although I don't understand what happened, I know that you are still young and you still have many opportunities."

Klein was silent for a while, then took a breath suddenly, cheered up and said:

"Thank you, teacher."

Gao Wen nodded lightly, and said without expression:

"Rest for 10 minutes, then redo the previous exercise for ten sets."

"..." Klein suddenly didn't know what expression to use to respond.

…………

On Friday morning, the Nighthawks entertainment room.

Klein, Sika Thon, and Frye were sitting around the round table, but they were not playing cards. One was reading newspapers and flipping through magazines, the other was staring out of the oriel window in a daze, and the other was holding a pen, wanting to write something, but was delayed. Doesn't fit on paper.

The room was so quiet, no one spoke, no one joked, and the atmosphere was almost calm.

Phew... Klein exhaled, put down the newspaper, and planned to focus on reading various materials.

At this moment, Dunn Smith knocked on the door and came in, looked around and said:

"Klein, come out for a moment."

whats the matter? Klein stood up with some premonition, and followed him out of the entertainment room.

Dun En stood at the entrance of the stairs leading to the ground, turned around and glanced at him and said:

"The people from the church are here."

The person who examines me is here? Klein's spirit tensed up.