Struggle in the Steam Age

It's around five o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun has started to slowly set. Especially now that this small alley has become dark because of the surrounding buildings.

Because it is not time to get off work, the whole alley is now empty. In this case, the rapid and messy footsteps behind him made Lawrence feel a gust of cold wind blowing on the back of his neck and the back of his hands, and his whole body became tense. He immediately unbuttoned the top two buttons of his jacket, reached into his arms and grabbed the handle of the gun, then turned around and looked behind him.

Sure enough, two people ran over from the corner of a house behind him, holding short knives and sticks in their hands, looking like common punks. When they saw Lawrence turning his head, the two not only did not leave, but accelerated their approach.

"Bowler hat." Lawrence noticed that one of them was wearing a hat that was absolutely out of character for him, and the strange attire reminded him of what Aunt Susan had told her a few days ago: "—Jack asked me Tell you that one of his men yesterday noticed two strange young men, one of whom was wearing a rather worn bowler hat, coming out of the alley where you were attacked."

"It seems that these two guys are probably the ones who hit my sap." Lawrence looked at the two gangsters who were running closer and closer with weapons, and suddenly pulled out two pistols from their arms, and pointed at them His knee pulled the trigger.

"Crack, crack—" After two gunshots, the two gangsters immediately threw themselves on the ground, dropped their weapons, covered their knees and wailed.

"It seems that the scene in the movie where you can charge forward nonchalantly after being hit by more than a dozen large-caliber bullets should be fake." Lawrence slowly walked into the two people holding a pistol while thinking about this problem. .

"Why are you attacking me?" Lawrence asked his own question after walking beside the two and pointing a pistol at them. "I don't remember ever offending you."

"It's true that you didn't offend either of us, but you made a huge mistake." The hooligan in the bowler hat raised his head and said viciously. "I taught you a lesson last time and wanted you to give up voluntarily, but I didn't expect that you didn't know how to repent."

"Yes, your crime is so deep." Another gangster also raised his head and stared at Lawrence, his eyes were bloodshot, "No one can save you now, and we——is just the beginning. "

As soon as the words fell, the bodies of the two people in front of them began to twist, and at the same time they shriveled visibly with the naked eye. Seeing this, Lawrence quickly backed away, while pointing his pistol at the two bodies that looked ominously.

After only a few seconds, the two bodies were reduced to ashes at the same time, but two pieces slowly bulged up under the pile of ashes covered by clothes, and then the two bulges became bigger and bigger, looking like they were hiding under the pile of ashes. Like a pair of rabbits.

"Crack, crack." Lawrence pulled the trigger with his left and right hands simultaneously to prime the exorcism bullets in the two guns, and then two silver bullets flew out of the barrels and went straight to the two bulges. For him who has watched many movies, he must act decisively at this time, and he cannot wait for the monster inside to grow up before doing it.

Sure enough, after eating two exorcism bullets, the two bulges stopped moving, and then a blue flame burned on the whole pile of ashes with the two bullet holes as the core. After the flames were extinguished, only two black human-shaped traces remained on the ground.

"Now the situation seems to be more complicated." As a person who grew up in the Church of Knowledge, Lawrence's first reaction was that these two people were cultists who believed in a certain evil god or low-level creatures. But under normal circumstances, cultists would often say who they believed in the first time, rather than simply threatening them now.

Thinking of this, Lawrence immediately took out a glass bottle from his arms, squatted there and scraped off some residual ash on the black mark with a knife, put it into the bottle and plugged it. After doing all this, he went straight to the intersection and caught a stagecoach to St. Gutenberg's Cathedral.

The church was naturally opened at this time, and when Lawrence rushed to the door of the church, he just saw Priest Carter sitting behind a table under the steps of the church writing letters to those illiterate workers.

Although five years ago, the White Eagle Federation established an education committee and established some public schools for the poor. At the same time, various churches have opened their own affiliated schools for hundreds of years to provide low-cost and even free education.

But for these poor people, there are still very few people who can successfully acquire reading and writing skills in school. Because most of them need to go out to work early to support themselves. So there is still a great demand for jobs like writing letters for others. For example, Lawrence has been renting in the tavern for several years, and he does not know how many letters he has written for the workers.

Seeing Lawrence, Priest Carter immediately finished writing the letter in his hand and asked apprentice Peter to take his place, then walked over and asked. "Lawrence, why did you come here suddenly today?"

"I just encountered a strange attack." Lawrence said in a low voice. After hearing this, Priest Carter immediately led him into the church. Because according to the habits within the Church of Knowledge, when discussing matters related to the extraordinary world in public, the word strange is often used to refer to the extraordinary.

After the two of them came to a side hall, Priest Carter asked seriously. "I just said that you encountered an attack related to extraordinary power. Can you tell me about the specific situation?"

"Of course." Lawrence nodded and then narrated what happened today. The main description focused on how those two people suddenly began to shrink and turn into ashes, and what happened after hitting the two strange newborn things. The blue flame that burns everything. Finally, he took out the two pistols he shot just now and the ashes he collected from the wreckage and handed them to Priest Carter.

"This should be related to the power of evil. You wait here for a while, I will find a professional." Priest Carter made a few gestures and summoned a silver-white light in his hand, but the light touched The color faded immediately after reaching the glass bottle containing the ashes.

Seeing this scene, he gave Lawrence a word and immediately walked into a door next to him with these things. A few minutes later, he came out with an old man with a serious expression on his face.

"Lawrence, this is High Priest Arthur of the Faith and Doctrine Department," Priest Carter introduced, "Now tell me what happened just now."

Next, Lawrence explained in detail what happened to the high priest in front of the high priest. After listening to the narration, the high priest named Arthur discussed several details and the previous attack. The matter raises several questions.

Finally, after Lawrence finished answering all the questions raised by the high priest, Arthur nodded with a serious face, then looked at him and said. "This is indeed caused by some kind of evil supernatural power, and your way of interrupting in time is very correct. According to my decades of experience in fighting these evil forces, if you didn't react in time to let the other party take shape completely It will be very troublesome."

Hearing this, Lawrence breathed a sigh of relief. After all, two people who died this time would always cause various troubles. But now the high priest's words are equivalent to endorsement for himself, and he doesn't have to worry about this issue in the future.