Chapter 29 Protector of the City

Chapter 29: The Protector of the City
The gods with supreme power reside in the cornerstone of this world, watching the workings of the world with a vision that transcends time and space, while devout believers who have converted to the gods with their spiritual power will, to a certain extent, be able to glimpse from their own hidden connection with the gods the direction of the future of reality, or the changes that are happening in some unknown corner of the world at this moment.

This kind of peeping is not bound by space and time, and there is a hidden risk of being eroded by subspace, but for those firm-willed devotees, this dangerous yet powerful power is exactly what they use to protect the fragile civilization light in this endless ocean.

The devout Inquisitor had seen a similar vision for many days.

In a half-awake dream, she saw the boundless ocean being colored with a layer of ink, followed by a thunderous roar coming from the depths of the sea, the ocean splitting into two, with a horrifying trench right down to the seabed in the middle of it, and a huge burning ship rising from the seabed, slowly floating upwards in mid-air like a dirigible, and a disembodied giant covered in starlight following this huge ship, walking step by step in the direction of the city-state of Prenland. direction.

Only twice in the life of Inquisitor Vanna had there been an “omen” of such horrific proportions.

The first time was in her childhood, when she woke up from a nightmare of blood spilling, then lost her parents in a cultist attack, and was left with a scar on her face that would last a lifetime.

The second time was four years ago, when she saw a dark sun rise beneath the city-state in a dream, and thus destroyed the largest infiltration of the Sun God Cult into the city-state – and to this day, the Cultists’ shadowy minions still hide in the vast and complex system of ancient tunnels beneath Prand, tangling senselessly with the Church’s defenders. The cultists are still hiding out in the vast, complex, and ancient tunnel system underneath Prand, tangling pointlessly with the church guards.

For the third time, she saw a ship return from the depths and bring an unnameable giant into the world.

She had lied to the priest in front of her – the omen she had seen was actually very clear, so clear that it had caused her, the Inquisitor, to lose sleep for days.

The priest looked into the stoic gray-white eyes of the lady in front of him, and after a long hesitation, he still spoke, “But it seems that you have not received bad feedback from your prayers to God?”

“…… Goddesses don’t always warn of all risks, sometimes trials and tribulations are exactly that,” Vanna said calmly, “Enough of that, what news from the Explorer’s Guild?”

The priest immediately nodded, “Contacts from the Association side have just come through, the holy relics left at the Association’s headquarters have sensed that the ship has appeared in the southwestern waters, but the ship’s telegraphic device seems to be out of order, and is currently in a state of incommunicado, and can only ascertain that the ship is approaching the offshore of Plainland at a normal speed and heading.”

“…… disappeared from Sacred Thing’s perceptions for a time, then appeared out of thin air in another part of the sea that deviated considerably from its intended course, is currently in a state of uncommunicable, heading straight for the city-state …… and was on an escorting anomaly prior to its loss of connection Objects,” the Inquisitor’s brow furrowed a little, the intuition brought about by years of dealing with bizarre things was pulsing, making her wary, “I remember that ship was called the White Oak, right?”

“Yes, the White Oak, the captain was Lawrence Creed, a member of the Explorer’s Guild, an experienced captain, due to the special cargo it was carrying, that ship had reported to the church before it sailed from the city-state of Lunsar,” the priest said as he recalled, “By the way, the accompanying priest on that ship was a Deep Sea Church registered clergyman.”

“A fellow member of the Church?” …… I hope things aren’t too bad,” Vanna said in a serious tone, “Anyway, something isn’t quite right with that ship, the entire route between Lunsar and Prenland is in the Explorer’s Guild-controlled ‘stabilized area’, but that ship had disappeared from the Sacred Perception …… I suspect that it is highly likely that the White Oak had briefly left the real world, and may have even …… been somewhere it shouldn’t have been! .

“Notify the harbor guards to keep an eye on that ship immediately after the White Oak enters the harbor, and until all inspections are complete, no one or anything can leave from the ship – any response from the security forces?”

“Please rest assured, your uncle …… His Excellency the Consul has ordered the vigilantes to take control of the harbor perimeter and raised the alert level of the harbor, from now until the alert is lifted, all ships entering and exiting Prand will temporarily dock at the alternate harbor on the west side. ”

“That’s good – Uncle’s always been a cautious man,” Vanna said as the tense expression on her face finally relaxed a little, “as long as he keeps the commoners in the security forces out of this. ”

The priest looked into Vanna’s pale gray eyes, and after carefully choosing his words said, “Do you think …… that ship has been ‘contaminated’?”

“It’s too soon to say for sure, but ships that leave the real world briefly are rarely completely normal even when they eventually return; it could be that some of the ship’s contents have unknowingly alienated themselves into ‘abnormalities’, it could be mental illnesses hidden deep within the crew, or it could even be that the extra sailors and the replaced captains …… It is never wrong to be on the highest alert for a seagoing vessel that has experienced anomalies.” “Alas …… may all be well with that ship and its crew,” the priest couldn’t help but place his hand across his chest and recite the name of the Goddess of Storms, “may the Goddess of Storms shelter those who brave the sea. ”

“May all be well with them,” Vanna whispered a soft blessing as she similarly lowered her eyelids, followed by a reminder as if to remind the cleric in front of her, “But if they unfortunately fail to be ‘well,’ we need to be prepared for that as well. ”

“Yes, I understand.”

Vanna nodded, but just as she was about to refocus her attention on the urban area outside the window, a rush of footsteps suddenly came from the direction of the stairs.

In the next moment, a guardsman wearing a uniform with silver trim on a black background and an emblem of waves and daggers depicted at the chest position ran up from the stairway at a fast pace.

“Your Honor the Inquisitor!” The young guardsman gasped twice and immediately said in an urgent tone, “We found a cult ritual stronghold worshipping the Sun God in the sewers, and we also captured a group of worshippers!”

Vanna’s expression instantly became extraordinarily serious, “That group of cultists who worship the Dark Sun? Wait, you’re saying that what you found was a sacrificial site …… not a hiding spot? They dared to hold rituals again?!”

“Yes, it’s the site where the ritual was held, and we found evidence that a sacrifice ceremony had been held,” the guardian said quickly, “And a large number of victims were found in the crypt not far from the ritual site – most of which Most of them have had their hearts sacrificed. Only …… something is not right over there at the site of the sacrifice.”

Vanna could see a look of mingled absurdity and confusion on the guard’s face as she picked up the heavy greatsword that had borne the blessings of the storm goddess from the side and darted towards the stairs while slinging it on her back, “Lead the way, I’ll go to the site myself.”

“Yes!”

The heavy blessed greatsword and the metal shoulder armor let out a crisp crash, and her hurried footsteps passed through the long staircase inside the great bell tower, and Vanna arrived at the small square in front of the great bell tower, and saw that a few members of the Guardians had already gathered here to standby, while the two Steam Walking Machines were parked at the edge of the square, and the clicking and clacking noises kept on coming from their spider-like mechanical bodies.

Vanna didn’t stop, just gave the guardsmen a sign of departure, and went straight to one of the walkers – this huge machine was the size of two two-wheeled carriages as if it were a mechanical spider lying on the ground, with steel limbs fitted with wheels for easy skidding on flat surfaces and steel hooks for special environments, while the armor on the upper deck of the walkers was made of steel and steel. The upper armor of the walking machine was flanked by firing cockpits fitted with rotary-barrel muskets.

Purely technological artifacts would hardly have enough impact on anomalies or visions, but the crushing firepower would take out the heretics who manipulated the anomalies from behind the scenes – of course. Of course, it’s not very effective in the sewers, but it’s pretty good at blocking doors.

A splash of holy 8mm rounds could send a horde of fleeing heretics off to serve their Lord in subspace in the blink of an eye.

The gray-haired, gray-eyed Inquisitor jumped directly onto the armor of the walker, standing firmly in the night with his longsword on his back, while two other Guardians climbed gingerly into the firing cockpits on either side of the armor, and then with a series of snorting noises of cylinders and compression tubes pressurizing and depressurizing, white steam erupted out of the walker’s knuckle joints, and the hulking mechanical spider rose up with it, jumping in one step to the nearest main road, and again darted in a skidding pattern to the nearest sewer entrance.

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(The end of this chapter)