Chapter 849: Ch 848: The Heavenly Army Investigation

Gray-black volcanic ash drifted down from the sky, landing silently on the cloaks of those below.

Mata held out a finger and wiped away some of the ash. Then she narrowed her eyes at the building right in front of them. "Honestly, I really didn't want to come all the way out to some backwater place like this for an investigation."

Beside her, the white-robed man with a headscarf wrapped around his head stood with his eyes closed, silently observing as several suspects were escorted out of the building by members of the Heavenly Army.

He sighed. "Anything?"

"Kenshin went inside. Nothing's come out yet." Mata rubbed the gray-black dust between her fingers, looking thoroughly annoyed. "But I have a feeling we've found the real culprit."

They had descended to the lower layers this time to track down the Last Embryos responsible for attacking the Babylonian Pantheon.

And judging by Mata's instincts, they seemed to have gotten lucky.

'It hasn't even been a day...'

Mata helplessly tugged her hood farther over her head. It kept the ash off her face while also letting her observe the people being escorted away.

"What a pain. The Last Embryos and those snakes really need to learn how to behave themselves. Can't they just stay quiet for once?" At that moment, Brahma spoke with a hint of melancholy. "I can smell the scent of calamity..."

Mata glanced at him, then sighed, "Hopefully they're not working together."

If the Last Embryos and Ouroboros really had joined forces, Mata couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of disaster that would create.

Of course, judging from past precedent, a Last Embryo rarely formed alliances. It placed much more emphasis on independence and acting according to one's own will.

But honestly, that precedent didn't prove much. And that was precisely what worried Mata.

Once most of the suspects had been escorted away, Uesugi Kenshin approached them.

She was dressed in a women's business suit as always, her bearing sharp and heroic. "Brahma, are you certain the battle took place here?"

Brahma raised a hand.

With a soft flutter, the white robe covering his body transformed into a snow-white swan that perched on his shoulder and shook out its wings.

Brahma reached up and gently stroked the swan's head. When the bird narrowed its eyes contentedly, he said, "There was only a fleeting anomaly, lasting less than a microsecond, but this little one definitely noticed something strange."

He turned to Kenshin. "What about that member named Gis?"

"He's under secret protection..." Kenshin replied, then shook her head. "Unfortunately, his Spirit Rank contains sophisticated safeguards. There's no safe way to force information out of him. We'll have to let Indra think of a solution."

"Have you tried rewinding time?" Brahma asked. "From what I understand, I arrived very close to the time of the incident. If we could rewind things, we might be able to..."

"We already tried. It was blocked," Kenshin cut him off.

"Tsk, tsk." Mata clicked her tongue in amazement. "They even interfered with time. This has to involve at least a three-digit powerhouse."

Time-based Authorities were already exceedingly rare in the Little Garden. Anyone capable of interfering with the twelve Devas' ability to rewind time had to be at least three-digit.

Three-digit beings causing trouble in the Little Garden were hardly unusual.

But a three-digit being causing trouble in the lower layers? That was exceedingly rare.

"And of all times, it had to happen during the Godslayer War..." Brahma shook his head with a sigh.

Under normal circumstances, even a three-digit being descending in an incarnation would have to report their presence to the Heavenly Army.

As a result, whenever an incident involving a three-digit existence occurred in the lower layers, the Heavenly Army could usually narrow down the suspects considerably.

But the Godslayer War had forced countless God-Kings to descend in the form of Heretic Gods.

That had expanded the pool of suspects enormously.

And if they investigated every single one of them, the Heavenly Army might not be able to withstand the fury of the God-Kings.

Kenshin looked troubled as well. "There seem to have been around thirty God-Kings in the surrounding Outer Gates during that period. If we investigate every single one of them..."

She left the rest unsaid.

Getting thirty three-digit beings to cooperate with an investigation was obviously impossible.

"What we can establish for certain is that two three-digits fought here, and one of them subsequently disappeared," Brahma recalled what he had learned during his initial examination of the scene. His eyes narrowed. "What's suspicious is how thoroughly the traces at the scene were erased. Whoever cleaned up afterward possessed extremely sophisticated means of concealing their presence. And the victim was most likely a God-King secretly loyal to Ouroboros."

"An attack on a God-King, followed by the highest level of evidence concealment..." Mata's brow twitched, and her expression immediately became strained.

"Maybe a case of the thieves turning on each other? Or an internal power struggle?" Brahma calmly stroked the swan's head. "Anyway, determining which God-King has disappeared is our top priority."

He paused before continuing. "Take compulsory measures. Prioritize searching for the name of the missing God-King and nothing else. If we do that, we should be able to obtain accurate information before the suspect dies."

"Brahma, are you sure?" Kenshin asked, clearly reluctant.

Compulsory measures meant conducting an interrogation without guaranteeing the suspect's safety.

Such investigations often involved all kinds of terrifying methods. Even the Heavenly Army rarely resorted to them.

Brahma closed his eyes. "Do it. The sooner we obtain the lead, the smaller the consequences will be."

Kenshin sighed, shook her head, and turned to enter the building.

Volcanic ash gradually accumulated on Brahma's shoulders. Only then did Kenshin emerge from the building, her expression grim.

"Who is it?" Brahma asked.

Kenshin's face was heavy with gravity. "Anat."

"Shit." Mata couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath. "Algol did it?"

"Unlikely." Brahma remained calm. "If anything, framing her is far more likely."

"Mata, activate the Boundary Record." He looked toward her. "Find out whether Anat is actually dead. If she is, then while we're at it, ask her sleeping spirit who killed her."

Mata immediately began setting up the detection ritual.

Then she closed her eyes and began sensing for Anat's Spirit Rank.

Yet even after activating the ritual, she couldn't detect Anat's Spirit Rank.

Mata carefully searched again and again.

After a long while, the color drained from her face.

Her eyes snapped open in shock.

"Anat... has been annihilated."

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