Chapter 424: Talismans

Hannah looked at the message, still puzzled, but before she could do anything, her silenced phone chimed again with another message.

The message included a very detailed address, even down to the building number in the complex.

As she looked at it, Hannah shook her head and set her phone down on the desk. Then, focusing on her computer screen, she scooted closer and began typing rapidly.

She had done this type of investigation many times before, all thanks to tasks assigned by the Father, some even more bizarre than this.

"With a detailed address and building number, it's not hard to find out."

Hannah muttered, her eyes not even glancing up as her hands continued their rapid typing, the computer screen flashing with various pages.

She hacked into the local police database and, with Erin's provided address and some software assistance, quickly filtered out all the families with children in that apartment building.

Easily managing this step, Hannah glanced at her phone screen that suddenly lit up.

"The target is children? If so, then I'll filter by age, roughly between 3 to 12 years old."

Hannah returned her gaze to the computer screen, looking at page after page of family records, her hands resuming their rapid typing.

She filtered out families whose children were outside this age range, and within moments, she had narrowed down the targets from dozens of families to just five.

Looking at the swiftly filtered targets, a sharp gleam passed through Hannah's eyes; in her domain, she was a god.

"Next step is"

Hannah's hands never stopped dancing over the keyboard, their speed creating a blur.

"Where there's abuse, there will always be traces."

Hannah effortlessly hacked into these families' computers, including every personal account applied for by each family member, whether parents or children.

These accounts included every app registered by their owners.

Besides this, she easily pilfered all the data from their surveillance cameras.

"Found it, the guy is named Tanihara Hideki, a despicable scammer. He presents himself as a good father and a good man on his perfect family blog, but in reality, he's a hypocritical and selfish man. His daughter was hospitalized with a fever, yet he took photos for his blog claiming he was worried about her, totally ignoring his daughter's condition."

Erin held her phone, scrolling slowly through the video Hannah sent.

It was a very dark video.

The living room was dimly lit, only the laptop on the table was still on.

In front of the laptop, a little girl lay on the bed with a cloth on her forehead. It was unclear what was happening, but a person was next to her, taking pictures with a phone, then sitting on the floor pressing this and that on the phone, his face showing a satisfied smile.

This smile, in conjunction with the little girl lying in the bed behind him, was very eerie.

Finally, the camera panned away, seemingly rotating, and the shot widened.

The dining table in front of the man was covered with uncleared leftovers, and the floor was filthy.

Seeing this video, Erin had her suspicions confirmed. She scrolled down quietly.

It was Hannah's final instruction.

"This situation should meet your criteria, right? This family fits the bill, the rest are pretty normal."

Erin could imagine what Hannah looked like now, probably yawning and lying back down to sleep.

Thinking this, Erin replied with a message.

"Thank you, Hannah."

The phone vibrated the next second after the message sent.

Hannah: "Tonight I want good roast and curry rice!"

Erin smiled and replied, "Okay!" After sending the message, she put away her phone.

At this moment, Higa Makoto, who couldn't wait any longer, asked, "Sister Erin, what did you find?"

Erin nodded, calmly stating, "We've found the target."

Higa Makoto's eyes lit up: "Really!"

Erin smiled, "You should inform your sister now. Once the source is identified, everything else will be easy to handle."

Higa Makoto nodded vigorously.

But just then, a gust of wind came from the front door, and Erin sensed something, looking toward the entrance.

At the same time.

John Wick, who had already returned, had his right hand subtly reaching towards his waist.

This made Higa Makoto realize something, "Sister Erin, what's wrong?"

Erin narrowed her eyes, calmly stating, "It has come again, indeed a very formidable evil entity, able to sense danger." Saying this, Erin looked up.

Suddenly, a strong wind blew outside, the wooshing sound making the tree branches in the front yard sway continuously.

Only then did Higa Makoto feel something, her expression becoming grave.

This revealed the capabilities of each individual.

The church's lighting seemed to gradually dim, eventually appearing as if it were night, illuminated only by candlelight.

"It seems we have been

 pulled into that vengeful spirit's illusory world," Erin stated calmly.

"The appearance of bugs outside was the triggering medium."

"Sister Erin, should I go out and check?" John Wick looked at Erin, asking.

"No need," Erin shook her head, instead smiling.

"Brother John, did you forget the overlay magic circle the bishop set up before he left? Besides Saint Maria Cathedral, this place is actually the safest."

As she spoke, the sky outside suddenly darkened, a reddish hue like blood appearing, but as it darkened, suddenly a massive circle emitting fluorescent light appeared outside the church.

This circle appeared out of nowhere, cycling through streams of light, blocking the falling blood from above.

The blood disintegrated upon contact, evaporating as if burned by fire, with a hissing scream. Within just a second, the sky returned to normal, as if nothing had happened, with pedestrians still passing by and cars slowly driving down the streets.

Inside the church, the candle flames flickered once, and the light returned to normal.

John Wick's posture unchanged, Erin looked towards a surprised Higa Makoto with a smile.

"It retreated. Tell this to your sister."

As Higa Koto stepped down from the plane that had just arrived at Tokyo Airport, she removed her dark glasses, looking down at the group waiting for her, including clergy and official police officers, and walked down slowly.

"I'm sorry to have you come all this way," Higa Koto said to the approaching police chief, calmly stating.

"I have some things I need your help with."

"Saint, this is our duty," the police chief, his hair a mix of black and white, bowed deeply.

"Please command us."

"Besides Tanihara Hideki's family, please evacuate everyone from Tanihara Community, including the surrounding residents," Higa Koto stated calmly.

"The vengeful spirit we need to deal with is the legendary Spirit Demon. I don't want anything to interfere with my actions, so please take this seriously."

Hearing the word Spirit Demon, everyone from the police side visibly shuddered.

Spirit Demon was a legendary monster.

"Yes!" The police chief at the front responded.

"Please rest assured, Saint. We will take care of this! No matter the reason! Even if we must forcibly evacuate, we will fulfill the evacuation requirements!"

"Thank you." Higa Koto nodded, walking past these policemen towards the car parked there.

As the clergy followed her a step behind, one of them asked, "Saint, should we send more people over?"

Hearing this, Higa Koto paused, remembering the recent casualties, and after a moment of silence, said,

"No need, I can handle it myself."

With that, she continued walking towards the car waiting for her.

But the clergy behind her all knelt down in unison.

"Please consider, Saint. We all know about your recent expenditure!"

The voice was loud, attracting the attention of everyone present.

The police behind her, including the young clergy stationed around, all watched silently.

"We can't be without you! We are all willing to die!"

However, Higa Koto ignored them completely, opened the car door, and sat inside. Before closing the door, she looked towards the kneeling old clergy, her cold face unchanging, and said indifferently,

"I know my situation."

With that, she looked at her female subordinates who were still in a daze, "Aren't you getting in the car?"

"Yes!"

The two female subordinates snapped to attention and hurriedly ran to the front seats.

Seeing this, Higa Koto ignored everyone else, closed the car door, cutting off all gaze, then closed her eyes to rest.

Finally, the car was started and slowly drove towards the exit, blending into the traffic.

"Saint, are you planning to go there first?" the driver, a female subordinate, asked softly.

Higa Koto opened her eyes, a deep weariness flashing in them, she hadn't fully recovered in such a short time,

"First to Pluto Church."

"Yes!"

As the command was given, the car turned into a less crowded intersection under the control of the female subordinate.

Higa Koto silently pulled out her phone, glanced at it.

This time, she would need Nissan's help.

Back at Pluto Church.

"Sister Erin, go and get ready," Erin said to John Wick, who was looking at his vibrating phone.

"Okay!"

John Wick had only this response, his expression calm but his heart stirred, preferring to deal with supernatural beings than humans.

He strode off, continuing towards the back yard, heading for his arsenal.

Higa Makoto watched, taking a deep breath, knowing what that meant, and looked at Sister Erin.

"Sister Erin, thank you!"

Erin shook her head and smiled, "I've told you, this is what I should do." She came next to Higa Makoto and handed her a bottle of

 holy water.

"This bottle of holy water has been blessed by the bishop after praying to God, it's much more effective than ordinary holy water."

Higa Makoto paused, taking it.

Seeing Higa Makoto's expression, Erin smiled, "I think you'll be going with them? The bishop has told me about your situation."

Higa Makoto looked at the holy water bottle in her hand, nodding silently.

"Then it can protect you, just smash it on the ground," Erin said calmly.

"What about you?" Higa Makoto asked.

"Me?"

Erin's expression unchanged, "The bishop gives me a bottle like this every day, I have about a thousand bottles accumulated by now."

Hearing this, Higa Makoto felt a bit embarrassed, having thought Erin had given her the only bottle of holy water.

"Don't worry."

Erin patted Higa Makoto's hair, confidently saying, "As long as you stay with us, we can protect you. This way, you can learn much more."

Higa Makoto smiled brightly, nodding vigorously, "Yes."

Erin smiled and walked towards the high altar, then pulled out a large box from underneath the high table in front of Higa Makoto's astonished gaze.

"Sister Erin, what is this?" Higa Makoto hesitated, feeling a familiar sensation about the box but unsure where she had seen it before.

"This is something the bishop left me before he left, capable of dealing with the vengeful spirits here." Erin said gently, "He was worried we might not be acclimatized."

With that, Erin opened the large box, revealing its contents.

Inside were neatly arranged bottles of holy water and a large number of talismans.

Before Erin could say anything, Higa Makoto already started explaining.

"These are talismans that purify the holder's spirit with the tranquility and peace of the Tea Zen path, removing evil thoughts and resentments, making it impossible for spirits to possess—a Zen Tea Heart Purification Charm?"

"And talismans that repel evil spirits, bringing tranquility and peace, keeping spirits at bay—the Wind Chime Demon Repelling Charm!"

"Calling the fiery power of the phoenix god to burn all evil spirits to ashes—the Phoenix Driving Evil Charm."

"And the Mirror God Breaking Evil Seal that reflects, breaks, and disperses all evil spells and curses, making spirits unable to hide..."

Listing each talisman's functions, Higa Makoto couldn't help but comment.

"Many of these talismans are lost, what exactly did elder sister do over those years to know so much?"

Erin raised an eyebrow, looking at Higa Makoto, "It seems these talismans all possess great magical effects."

She had not used such localized products before.

Higa Makoto nodded, "These talismans can exert great power against spirits, but they also need the user's spiritual power infused to unleash their full potential."

Continuing, she added, "I'm too weak, and you haven't cultivated our kind of spiritual power,"

Higa Makoto looked at Sister Erin, her face serious, visibly relaxed after seeing the talismans.

"So it's best for elder sister to use these talismans since her spiritual power is the highest in our island country!"

Erin, however, smiled and shook her head, "Who said we can't use them."

Higa Makoto was taken aback.

"The bishop told me he had left spiritual power in each of these talismans that allows us to use them, just throw them, and they will activate." Erin looked at a stunned Higa Makoto, smiling gently.

"So Makoto, do you want to try? It seems this is also something the bishop intended to hand over to you."

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