Chapter 195 Transmission
Chapter 195 Transmission
Vanna was back in the archives again.
Although even she herself was not sure why she had returned here, an inexplicable sense of dissonance and crisis as if it were an invisible shadow chasing behind her made her subconsciously keep recalling the details of the information she had rummaged through in the archive, and always felt as if she had forgotten something.
Of course, another reason for her to return to the archive was that there wasn’t much of a place to go now anyway.
Thanks to the ever-strengthening connection with the Lost Country, she was now effectively in a state of being watched 24/7 – she was still the Inquisitor of the City-State of Prand, but that was only because there was no one who could take her place in her important duties at the moment, and thus she had to stay in the Cathedral all the time, except for the necessary attendance.
After the anxiety-inducing encounter with “Captain Duncan” in her dream, and the unsettling clues she had found in the chapel in the sixth block, she was able to breathe a sigh of relief in the silence and sanctity of the archives, where she was more or less shielded from the stares and distractions of her surroundings.
The sound of footsteps echoed through the empty archives, row after row of shelves so tall that they reached the ceiling stood silent as giants in sight, the ancient volumes sleeping quietly on the shelves, looking down from top to bottom on the young inquisitor who was passing through the aisles.
Vanna raised her head and looked at the bookshelves that stretched out in her line of sight, once again recalling the last time she had rummaged through the materials here, while a middle-aged priest in charge of managing the archives quietly followed a short distance behind her, the lamp in the priest’s hand emitting a warm and soft glow.
Entering the archives, searching for information from 1889, finding suspicious traces of heretical sacrifices, using this as a clue to expand the search, discovering records of heretical sacrifices between 1889, and finally noticing the anomaly of the disappearance of the corresponding file from 1885 ……
These memories were combed through her mind over and over again, and Vanna couldn’t remember how many times she had recalled them, they were so clearly presented in her mind at the moment, flawless from start to finish, not a trace of missing distortion to be found.
But Vanna’s brow furrowed a little.
The young Inquisitor stopped abruptly, followed by the middle-aged priest who was flanking her.
“Your Honor the Inquisitor?” The middle-aged man’s voice sounded from behind.
Incorrect, there is something wrong …… one was definitely not alone in coming to look for information, there was definitely someone accompanying one …… but who exactly was it?
Vanna as if she did not hear the voice from behind her, just frowned and tried to think hard, she remembered again the chapel in the sixth neighborhood, and the nun in the chapel who died in battle in 1885 – that chapel disappeared from everyone’s sight, and even the Bishop of Valentine had forgotten its existence for many years, this is how similar it is! The situation ……
A similar “forgetting” has occurred in myself, everyone has forgotten the same thing, and that’s why I can’t notice the hole in my memory, and no one can remind me of it …… But what have I forgotten, and when did I start to forget it?
“Your Honor the Inquisitor?” The middle-aged priest’s voice once again came from behind him.
Vanna felt the power of the storm converging, and that middle-aged priest’s hand was already immovably close to her waist.
“How long have you been an administrator here?” Vanna said suddenly.
The storm power dissipated, and the middle-aged priest lowered his hand back down, bowing his head slightly, “Seven years – ever since I retired.”
“I don’t suppose you’re the only administrator here?” Vanna asked again.
“There are two, and a lady older than me who is on night duty, also retired from the Guardian force.”
As if making small talk, Vanna casually said as she continued to slowly walk between the bookshelves, “Can two people …… keep busy?”
“But it’s still busy, the archivist doesn’t really have much to do, there are guards everywhere, there are servants and trainee monks to carry and organize the work, only the construction of the files and access to them need to be handled in person – and most of the information here is stored in and then no longer ‘move’. And most of the materials here are stored and never moved again, so the workload is very small,” the middle-aged priest explained seriously, “Only because the position of administrator requires long hours in the pavilion and is surrounded by books, so there must be a strong-willed and experienced cleric in charge, and the workload is important even if it is small. .”
Speaking of this, the middle-aged priest paused and added, “Of course, after all, there are only two people, so once you encounter a special situation, it will still be more troublesome, I have always thought that it would be best to add another person, and it would be more reasonable for three people to work in shifts.”
“Three people in shifts ……,” Vanna muttered softly to herself, and then asked, “Are the files from 1885 still not found?”
“Yes, it still hasn’t been found,” the middle-aged priest shook his head, “After you mentioned the anomaly here earlier we organized manpower to check the entire archive, using hundreds of servants and apprentice monks, but found nothing.”
Vanna hmmm’d and said no more, just stood quietly in front of one of the bookshelves and fell into deep thought, and her silence in turn made the priest behind her tense up.
Vanna sensed the other’s nervousness and smiled, shaking her head, “Don’t worry so much, I only met with that ghost captain once, I haven’t reached the point of delirium yet, and I don’t know how many pairs of eyes and detecting devices are watching inside and outside of the archive right now, and I’ll be the first one to sound the alarm if I notice anything strange myself- -this professionalism I still have.”
“Forgive me,” the middle-aged priest sighed, “I’ve seen too many of my comrades lost to the world forever in a single moment of carelessness.”
Vanna didn’t say a word, her eyes looking to the end of the shelves, where the archivist usually stayed – circling herself between the large bookshelves and back near the entrance. Out of nowhere, she thought she saw a slightly hunched figure sitting there.
The young Inquisitor’s eyes suddenly widened.
The figure disappeared.
The middle-aged priest noticed something: “Your Honor the Inquisitor, what have you discovered?”
“It might be a mistake …… No, let’s go over and take a look.”
Vanna hurriedly put down a sentence, without waiting for the other party to respond she had already stepped forward, the faster she walked the faster she walked, in the end it was almost a few steps to the side of that huge curved table, and then carefully surveyed this table that had a large number of complicated mechanisms hidden inside.
There was no one beside the table, and the only few things on the table were visible.
Vanna walked around to the back of the table and looked it up and down.
Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw something – a few scattered small parts, casually discarded behind one of the stoppers at the edge of the table, the parts were rusted and looked as if they had been discarded for an unknown number of years, and judging from its outline …… that seemed to be a part of a mechanical tesseract.
For some reason, at the moment of seeing these parts, Vanna seemed to smell a strange odor …… that smelled as if it was incense mixed with mechanical grease, and the pungent smell of something being burned.
The middle-aged priest with a lamp in his hand also followed up, curiously following Vanna’s line of sight, and let out a puzzled voice: “Who threw these things …… here?”
“There are marks on the desktop.” Vanna, on the other hand, had already found some other clues next to those parts, which looked as if they were some oil stains but seemed to be conscious drawings when carefully discerned.
She felt her heart thumping, a harsh noise seemed to echo over and over in her mind, even the edges of her vision began to tremble and unsettle, as if there were fires burning and leaping between those wavering lights and shadows, but instead of bringing panic, these extremely uncomfortable sensations brought a slight thrill of excitement to her heart – the aura was pulsing, and she was observing and making contact with the Transcendent traces, the clues she was looking for …… were indeed in this archive!
Mentally chanting the name of the storm goddess Gemona, Vanna reached out her hand to the side, “Use the carrying lamp.”
The middle-aged priest immediately handed over the Administrator’s Lamp, which was protected by runes and fueled by sacred grease: “Here you go.”
Vanna took the lamp and carefully brought the light closer to the tabletop with the oil stains, under the light, it seemed like some fine soot or mist appeared out of nowhere and quickly faded away, and between the light and shadows brought by the flame, she finally saw the “stains” clearly.
It was dark red blood, as if a dying man dipped his trembling fingers in his own blood and drew traces on the table, which looked like a cluster of bonfires, and in the center of the bonfire stood something like a column.
It was not any of the sacred symbols used by the Church of the Deep, not any of the blessings of the storm goddess Gemona.
Yet Vanna still recognized the symbol – it was, after all, the mark of the Fire Bearer.
The Firebringer? Why was the Seal of the Firebringer in the church of the Church of the Deep?
Doubts arose in Vanna’s heart, even though the four main gods were indeed on the same side, and there were many cooperative relationships between the four churches of the four gods, we all had different belief systems after all, and such highly symbolic things as the sacred symbols of their respective sects wouldn’t appear within the sanctuaries of the other churches under normal circumstances, but why would …… the Mark of the Fire Transmitter appear here?
The Fire Bearer …… The Chapel in the Sixth Neighborhood …… Forgotten People, Forgotten Things, Hidden Beneath the Real World Another Prand ……
Vanna’s breathing suddenly became a little more rapid, and in that instant, she finally understood.
The symbol was a warning, the only message left to reality by a guardian who had been forgotten by all on his lonely battlefield.
“Someone is polluting history!”
The young Inquisitor suddenly exclaimed in a loud voice and jerked his head to look at the middle-aged priest following him.
The archives were empty.
It was as if she had been the only one here from the beginning.
(End of chapter)