Chapter 54: The Breath Of God
"It’s bad, master." The imp came flying into the room, panicked and alert. "The members of the church are here, and they are planning to use that woman’s power to see what happened in this place, and they also brought in some artifact that can tear through any illusions or obstructing powers."
As the imp was relaying their plans to Jinn, the members of the church were preparing to enter the chapel.
...
"Did we have to come in so early?" Officer Chen groaned sleepily while looking at the sky that barely showed any rays of dawn crawling on it.
"The longer we wait, the higher the cost of my power." Angelia shot him a cold look but also explained her reasoning as they entered the church.
Instead of directly going down, she paused and placed the briefcase in her hand on one of the pews before opening it.
"Is this the artifact?"
Inside the case lay a metallic object the size of a palm. It has several holes all over the piece, but all one could see inside them was darkness.
"This is the artifact, the breath of god. The church lent it to us for our investigation." She explained calmly. "Once we activate and throw it, it will disperse all kinds of power in play and reveal the truth."
"And if nothing happens, that means there was nothing there to begin with." The silent man chipped in from the back with his usual feminine voice as his eyes stayed fixed on Agnes.
"Or it would be because of someone who had awakened their solar chakra or above." Agnes shot back.
Officer Chen backed away, seeing sparks flying between the two of them, and changed the topic.
"I am surprised the church even allowed you to take something like this."
His trick seemed to have worked, as Agnes scoffed with annoyance. "They would not, but the church seems to be in unrest."
"Mine as well. It seems there is something going on that is affecting the whole order." Acosta also nodded along.
"It seems we do not have enough clearance to know of these matters." Officer Chen let out a dry chuckle before turning back to the artifact.
"Shall we go do our work now?" with a yawn he added, "I want to get back in bed."
Agnes rolled her eyes. Taking the artifact out, she closed the briefcase back up.
Once they arrived at the trapdoor behind the sculpture, she sent a pulse of her dragon energy through the orb.
The silver orb suddenly shone with bright light, and it kept growing stronger with each rhythm.
Seeing this reaction, without even batting an eye, Agnes threw it down the hole.
Officer Chen’s eyes almost popped out in the middle of his yawn upon seeing this.
Soon he could see green smoke filling up the room, drifting in their direction. He was so lost in watching how the artifact worked, he did not even realize that Agnes and Acosta had stepped away from the hole.
In no time, the smoke reached the hole and climbed a little, trailing toward Officer Chen.
Instinctively, the man took a few quick breaths to smell the scent of the gas and the next moment.
"Owahh!!" He gagged so hard that Angelia’s cold face cracked as her lips curled upwards in amusement. She watched him stagger backward while forcing himself not to breathe and cough out the nasty breath that was already inside.
As he moved back, officer Chen happened to notice the amused faces of his colleagues and realized they had not warned him on purpose to let him suffer.
"You are... are r—really cruel seniors..." through some gags and spit, officer Chen choked out some words. "What a god’s breath. That nasty thing could be devil’s breath."
"What can we say, the church named it." Angelia shrugged; her smirk vanished as if it was never there. "Stop acting like a baby. You are up next."
"W—what?" The young man with orange hair stared at her as if he had seen a ghost. "Why me?"
"You can see hidden traps after all." Anglia replied with a straight face, but he knew she was messing with him on purpose. After all, the artifact was specifically designed for this purpose, and he had already inspected the room beforehand.
"Do I get no say in this?" Officer Chen tried to act pitiful, but he was met with the same cold face.
"What do you think?" Angelia asked back without missing a beat.
He did not even need to look at Acosta, as the man had already closed his eyes, like he was in some deep sleep.
"Urgh..." In the end, capitalism won over officer Chen as he walked to the trapdoor with a defeated sigh.
Taking out a piece of cloth from his pants, he wrapped it around his nose, which only did a little to help.
Ultimately, he was forced to hold his breath.
The only good thing about it all was that the smoke was slowly receding back deep in the hole like it was being pulled away.
Finally, after a deep breath, Officer Chen opened his eyes and...
Thump!
Seeing him jump in the hole, Acosta turned his head to his partner and asked, "Why are you so adamant on making the child look guilty?"
The sound of his words seemed to move only towards Angelia’s ears and did not go anywhere else.
"He is just a child, and it was because you recalled that he can use illusions that you brought an artifact to tell us what that young man can do. The boy has not even used his dragon energy for a week; can he match us who have been in this job for years?"
"I believe in my instincts, and they are telling me that he is hiding something," Angelia said, clicking her tongue.
Before Acosta could say anything else, they heard officer Chen’s scream.
"Mr. Acosta, Miss Angelia. You should come down there."
After a quick exchange of glances, the two went as well. The nasty smoke had cleared, leaving the orb lying in the middle of the floor.
Officer Chen slowly turned to face them with a pale face and repeated what they could already see by themselves: "There is nothing in the room. It’s clean... no traces of any energy signature as well."