Ince Zangwill was sitting in a dim secret room. On the table in front of him, the quill '0-08' was jumping around restlessly.
He was in a terrible mood.
Tingen, in his plans, was supposed to be the stage for his magnificent revenge drama, the prologue to proving the foolishness of the Church of the Evernight.
But now, this stage had been turned into a complete mess.
He felt like a clumsy screenwriter whose script was being wantonly tampered with by an invisible director, filled with forced coincidences and absurd plot twists.
'I don't understand...' Ince Zangwill muttered to himself, his voice suppressing a volcanic rage.
'I don't understand why even 0-08 is talking about those foolish failures, as if this small Tingen is destined to be ominous for me.'
A few weeks ago, he set out from Backlund to begin his grand plan for revenge, having already mapped out the blueprint for usurping the ashes of Saint Samuel.
Everywhere he went, the believers of the Aurora Order welcomed 'his arrangements' wholeheartedly and actually stole the Antigonus Family notebook, if not for the fact that Klein didn't die.
This was a very perfect start.
However, this was of no consequence; he could just use Klein again to find that Antigonus Family notebook.
At that time, it could truly be said that he had the advantage of the right timing.
That state of vitality and everything competing for growth was still fresh in his mind.
After just one short week, had this place really turned into his Waterloo?
First, there was that old geezer, Old Neil, who inexplicably woke up and went to report himself, disrupting his plan to use Old Neil's death to strike at Dunn Smith.
Then, something even more outrageous happened.
Lanulius's scam den, that key piece he had carefully arranged to complete the evil god's descent ritual, had actually been raided by a group of people! Just like that, abruptly, without any warning, it was wiped out by an informant's report!
The ink of '0-08' seeped into the rough wooden board, carrying a sense of schadenfreude.
'Oh, my poor Ince. He must be wondering why the person who brought that little guy Leonard Mitchell was able to find Lanulius so accurately.'
Whenever Ince Zangwill thought of this, his temples throbbed.
He had questioned '0-08,' wanting to know what exactly happened at that time.
But this Sequence 1 quill, when writing about that plot, showed unprecedented caution and fear.
It seemed to want to write down the person's identity at first, but the nib trembled violently, and in the end, it only vaguely wrote: 'An existence that seems very familiar with a Marauder Pathway demigod... wearing a strange outfit... never mind, let's not talk about it.'
After all, although the little quill was cheeky, it also knew that Nairn, who had led Leonard and the others to raid Lanulius, was dressed as Amon!
If that guy who called himself 'thousand faces' wasn't the real Amon, then things were even more terrifying.
Daring to impersonate an existence like Amon, what kind of Monster was this that made it even more worthy of dread!
Therefore, Ince was destined to never know the truth.
An existence that even a Sequence 1 Sealed Artifact feared and dared not record?
A chill rose up his spine.
He forced himself to calm down, attributing this to an unforeseeable accident, an accidental intervention by a high-ranking existence.
This was just a small setback.
However, misfortunes never come singly.
However, the nib of '0-08' danced again, and this time, its handwriting was full of undisguised mockery.
'It's truly such a [coincidence], isn't it?'
'Klein Moretti, that rookie Nighthawk, just went for a walk in the docks and picked up the Antigonus Family notebook! According to his own words, he was shocked by the scenes in the slums and wanted to learn more about the lives of the lower-class people—hmm, this is very reasonable.'
The quill paused heavily on the word 'reasonable,' as if emphasizing something.
Ince Zangwill's face twitched.
He felt that with the last phrase 'very reasonable,' every letter seemed to be screaming, 'This is not reasonable at all.'
Ince's heart sank.
Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, but one 'coincidence' after another was precisely destroying his plans. This made him feel as if he were standing naked in front of a Fate Pathway demigod, allowing the other party to wantonly manipulate his fate.
Could I be cursed?
No! Impossible!
A long-suppressed anger and unwillingness surged from the bottom of his heart.
He was once an archbishop of the Church of the Evernight, a figure standing at the pinnacle of power!
How could a mere Tingen City become his Waterloo?
His thoughts began to churn, the past glory and current predicament forming a sharp contrast. A dusty memory welled up in his heart, and he subconsciously straightened his back, letting out a silent roar in his heart.
'Back when we besieged the heretics of the True Creator, I had the honor of personally leading three hundred church elites and winning a complete victory outside the port of Bayam!'
'I don't understand why everyone is talking about Roselle's failure, as if this Tingen is destined to be ominous for me. Twenty years ago, I graduated from Khoy University, stepped onto the Beyonder path, began the career of serving the Goddess, and the Authority of the Cathedral fell into my hands.'
'Everywhere I went, the believers welcomed me wholeheartedly; it could truly be said that I had the advantage of the right timing. That state of vitality and everything competing for growth is still fresh in my mind. Just twenty short years later, has this place really turned into my desperate situation?'
'No matter how you put it, the current situation is that I am in the dark and the enemy is in the light; the advantage is with me!'
Yes! The advantage was still on his side!
No matter how you put it, the current situation is that I am in the dark and the Nighthawks are in the light; the advantage is with me!
Ince took a deep breath, his eyes turning fierce again.
Lanulius failed, but the notebook was still there!
As long as Dunn Smith came into contact with that notebook, as long as he was corrupted by the madness of the Antigonus Family, his state would be damaged.
A Sleepless captain in a poor state would pose a greatly reduced threat to his subsequent plan to usurp the ashes of Saint Selena.
Klein Moretti picked up the notebook? That's even better!
As a Sequence 9 rookie, would he dare to hide such an important Sealed Artifact? He would definitely hand it over to Captain Dunn Smith!
This is the most logical and reasonable progression!
A cold arc curled at the corner of Ince Zangwill's mouth. He seemed to have already seen the scene of Dunn Smith opening that ancient notebook, his gray eyes gradually being eroded by madness.
He turned his gaze back to the quill, continuing to observe the movements of the Nighthawks team.
This time, the script would definitely proceed according to his vision!