Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Bruce and the Pale Knight were speeding down the highway in their car, racing back to Faralines at top speed.

It was the Pale Knight driving this time, while Bruce was busy with a newly purchased cell phone, checking something. The Pale Knight glanced over, it seemed like Bruce was chatting with someone.

"What are you doing?" asked the Pale Knight.

"Looking for someone to ask about clues," Bruce replied. "I just connected with a guy and asked him about the situation with Siltex Company."

The Pale Knight's curiosity about him grew, but he didn't ask about anything beyond the game. Instead, he said, "You said earlier you were an agent, so the psychiatrist identity is your cover?"

"Sort of," Bruce said.

"Who do you work for?"

"Is that important?" Bruce said without looking up. "You're a lawyer, but I haven't asked who you work for."

"I don't have a clear employer," the Pale Knight admitted. "In my own scenario, I just need to investigate strange incidents and collect more favorable evidence. Of course, based on previous deductions, I might also be involved in insurance compensation cases."

"I'm much the same," Bruce said.

Since he was unwilling to talk, the Pale Knight didn't ask further. Just then, the Pale Knight hit the brakes hard, and Bruce was jostled, hitting his forehead, but the Pale Knight was staring intently ahead.

Two black sedans were coming from the opposite direction, and as they approached their car, made a turn to block the road.

The Pale Knight saw the Faralines road sign; they were almost at the edge of the village, but now someone had blocked them, and the newcomers were undoubtedly hostile.

Indeed, before the Pale Knight could react, several fully armed people rushed out of the black vehicles ahead. Not only were they carrying guns, but they were also wearing bulletproof vests and riot shields, quickly encircling their car.

The Pale Knight instinctively picked up his gun, but they were outnumbered and outgunned. A head-to-head confrontation was not a good idea.

Bruce gave the Pale Knight a look, and the two could only get out of the car. The group surrounding the car was led by a woman who waved the gun in her hand, signaling the Pale Knight to drop his.

After some hesitation, the Pale Knight threw his gun to the ground, and immediately someone came over and handcuffed their hands behind their backs. They had sacks pulled over their heads and were shoved into a car.

Using his sense of direction, the Pale Knight determined the car was heading towards the village, meaning these people were likely from the Church, even more vigilant than they had imagined.

After driving for about fifteen minutes, the car stopping and starting intermittently, the Pale Knight couldn't fully sense their route, only that they probably hadn't left the village.

Soon the car came to a complete stop, and the Pale Knight was led out. He was pushed into a room and seemed to be handcuffed to the railing of an extinguished fireplace, so he could only sit on the ground.

He heard no sound from Bruce and suspected they had been separated to extract information from them.

Sure enough, after a while, footsteps approached the door, and the Pale Knight's sack was removed. He saw the woman who had trapped them sitting opposite him.

Noise from next door suggested Bruce might be there, and someone went over.

The woman took off her bulletproof vest and jacket to reveal the robe underneath, which looked a bit like a nun's habit but clearly a simplified version, a little longer than a priest robe and without so many patterns.

A cross necklace hung around the woman's neck. After sitting down and mumbling a few words while clutching the cross, she looked at the Pale Knight and asked, "What did you do at Sigeltek?"

As the day grew late, Shiller and Batman had successfully infiltrated near the lighthouse. They circled around from the woods, and Batman found the door to the power distribution room not far from the lighthouse.

The power distribution room for the lighthouse wasn't inside it but underground on the east side. Both the Joker and Batman had modified the Electric Shock facilities here, and the Church's people seemed unaware of it, assigning no one to guard it, allowing them easy entry.

They waited there until it was completely dark, and Batman cut the power to the lighthouse, plunging it into pitch blackness.

Shiller heard the commotion of those from the Church stationed here, who were taken by surprise by the sudden power outage. They took advantage of this and made their way to the side of the lighthouse.

An agent had left a rope when descending from the lighthouse earlier, and as mentioned before, the lighthouse was large and circling it took time. A thin rope was inconspicuous, and the Church's people hadn't noticed it.

Using this rope, they successfully reached the windows of the second floor and jumped in without alerting anyone.

Shiller surveyed the lighthouse, and as he had expected, the fog-shrouded lighthouse was almost entirely dark. Only about a meter around the windows had a bit of light, everywhere else was black.

It was essentially a natural hunting ground for the Night Demon.

However, Shiller didn't rush to bring out the biased dodecahedron. Instead, he and Batman climbed two more floors to the lighthouse's midpoint, the fourth floor next to the atrium. They placed the biased dodecahedron under the handrail of the atrium.

During this time, Shiller kept the flashlight on the box, preventing the Night Demon from appearing. After setting the box down, he continued to shine the flashlight toward it until both moved back to the window, and footsteps began to ascend the adjacent stairs.

"…Why did the power suddenly go out? Didn't that group go to check the electric switch? I didn't bring a flashlight."

"First, walk by feeling the wall, be careful, don't trip…"

As the sound of speaking grew clearer, Shiller and Batman had already climbed out the window. The two reattached themselves to the rope, and the moment Shiller turned off his flashlight, a shadow flashed through the courtyard.

Then, a piercing scream came from inside the Lighthouse.

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!!!!"

However, the two hanging outside the Lighthouse didn't descend; instead, they climbed higher. Through their earlier observation, it seemed the Church had turned the Lighthouse into a base, now serving as their command center. Many people were coming and going to report, and the one commanding them was likely at the top of the Lighthouse. Even if it wasn't the Great Prophet, it would still be an important figure within the Church.

Shiller and Batman didn't immediately enter the top floor because if the Great Prophet was in hiding as Shiller speculated, he might be in the highest level, where security was undoubtedly the tightest. Storming in directly was tantamount to walking into a trap.

So they went to the eighth floor, intending to quickly seize the opportunity while the opponents were still confused by the sudden darkness, hoping to breach more swiftly.

As expected, when the two entered through the window, the Church's guards stationed there hadn't yet adjusted to the sudden absence of light and were unnerved by the screams from below, throwing their defensive formation into complete disarray. Shiller and Batman took this chance to quickly take down two or three people.

They skirted around the massive courtyard to the other side, intending to rush up the stairs. However, Shiller, wearing night vision goggles, spotted a lot of people gathered at another passageway and instinctively felt something was off.

So he immediately pulled on Batman, and they quietly moved along the opposite corridor.

The group gathered at the crossing seemed very disorganized. The sudden power outage had left the area around the courtyard pitch black, rendering human vision useless, and everyone groped their way along the walls.

As Shiller passed, he noticed someone holding a riot shield; their weapons were superior to those below and their unit formation more strategic, evidently a well-trained defense squad.

But what were they guarding this passageway for?

Shiller was curious. He glanced towards the stairwell, and Batman understood his concerns, saying, "The power system of the Lighthouse has been completely destroyed, no matter how many they send to repair it, it's useless."

Shiller couldn't help but give Batman a thumbs-up. Having Batman as a teammate was indeed very reassuring. Without power restoration, they had plenty of time.

Therefore, Shiller took advantage of the chaos among the defense squad and slipped quietly past them along the wall gap, with Batman following behind.

With night vision goggles for Shiller and Batman utilizing X-ray vision, the two slipped by the blind-sided group, who mistook the sound they made for their comrades.

They walked along the corridor and saw a door slightly ajar at the far end. As soon as Shiller pulled the door open, he came face to face with a panicked-looking man.

The person had not expected anyone to show up, and just as he was about to cry out, Shiller quickly covered his mouth and pulled him into the room.

In that brief encounter, Shiller recognized who the man was—one of the Three Saints, the Great Prophet Gad.

Shiller covered his mouth and dragged him to the deepest part of the room, whispering in his ear, "Shut up, or you're done for."

The terse threat was evidently effective. As the man regained composure from his initial shock, he nodded slowly.

As Shiller retreated further into the room, he noticed the overturned chairs in the living room and ropes scattered by the side, indicating someone had been tied up there.

After Batman secured the door, Shiller released his hand and lighted the flashlight.

Great Prophet Gad's recently improved complexion split again when he saw the pattern on the robe Shiller was wearing.

"That's not important," Shiller said. "I can assure you that you've never seen me with the Pope's personal guard."

Gad paused, looked up at Shiller's face, scrutinized him for a while, and found, to his surprise, that Shiller was telling the truth. Lowering his voice, he asked, "So, you're impersonating? You're not one of the Pope's men?"

"Should I be?"

"You do look different from the personal guards," Gad breathed deeply. "Did you come to rescue me?"

"First, tell me why you're here," Shiller addressed him firmly. "I hope you'll be truthful. I think you can see that probably only we can sort out your problem."

After looking at him for a while, Gad said, "I don't know where you get your confidence from; everyone here is the Pope's man..."

"So you didn't come here voluntarily?"

"Of course not," Gad bit out. "Why would I come here willingly to be sacrificed? I'm not mad!"

Shiller's brow furrowed deeply as he spoke, "The Pope is sacrificing you? But I met someone on the Ghost Ship who claimed to be your subordinate, he wanted to go to the Captain's Room..."

"Whoever claims to be my person is lying to you; the Great Prophet Gad in public is just a puppet, they're all the Pope's men."

"But I heard the Pope is not long for this world."

"That's true, and if the old man wasn't dying, he wouldn't have gone this crazy," Gad sighed deeply. "He's been preparing this for many years; if he wasn't at the end of his life, he wouldn't have chosen to act now."

"So what exactly is going on?"