Chapter 169 – Warning Signs Spread
Chapter 169 – Warning Signs Spread
The sleepy-eyed Bishop Valentine met the Inquisitor Vanna, who had arrived at the church in the late-night wind, and the instant he heard the first words uttered by Vanna, the old man was fully awake.
“Captain Duncan entered your dream?!” The old bishop looked at Vanna dumbfounded, even a little doubtful if he was still awake, “That ghost captain took the initiative to find you …… just to tell you a location for you to investigate?”
“A thousand times over – although I do realize how unbelievable that sounds,” Vanna nodded vigorously, she had guessed that the old bishop would react in such a way on the way before she came, but there was nothing she could do about it, after all, her level of cluelessness was not at all less than Valentine’s, “The Sixth Block Chapel …… I’ve had very few interactions with that Ghost Captain, and this part is the most important piece of information he’s ever revealed.”
The old bishop fell silent for a moment, he turned in the silence and looked up at the statue of the Storm Goddess at the end of the sanctuary, after an unknown amount of time he broke the silence in a hushed voice, “Vanna, do you remember the contamination that tainted the site of your cultic ritual in the sewers, after that we performed a remedial cleansing, and now it seems that… …”
“I see what you mean,” Vanna breathed in softly, her expression still flat, “and now it seems that our purification never worked, the Lost Country is still chasing me, and that Ghost Captain …… has extended his power to extend into my dream world.”
“Do you remain awake now?” Valentine turned and gazed silently into Vanna’s eyes.
“Awake, I tried on the way, I can meditate on my name and the Goddesses name in full and recite from the Storm Primer,” Vanna nodded, “The contamination seems to be at a shallow level at the moment, the only thing that is being affected is my dreams, it has not yet spilled over into the reality of my limbs and words and actions. ”
“The contamination is at a shallow level, but it can’t be completely uprooted, like an irrevocable countdown …… ” Valentine’s tone is low, his eyes are thick with worry, “On the contrary, you’re still the Inquisitor of the City State of Prand, and no one can take your place in a short period of time. No one can take your place in a short time ……”
Vanna knew what the old bishop was trying to say.
She had already been contaminated by the spiritual pollution of the higher transcendent power, and as the Inquisitor of the Church, her “fortress” was already being gradually breached, and a fortress that was about to be breached was unreliable, because no one knew to what extent the spiritual pollution would develop, and no one knew whether the Vanna who woke up the next morning was still Vanna or not. , she is still serving the Storm Goddess now, but the next second …… no one knows who she is serving.
If it was an ordinary guardian or priest who was contaminated by this, things would be very easy to solve, performing a period of confinement and exorcism is a very simple matter, or if the city-state is peaceful and quiet, it is also good to do, she can temporarily hand over her duties to her deputy, and go to the deepest part of the sanctuary to receive the highest specification of “security quarantine” and “divine purification”. “Divine grace purification”, but ……
Now she, the “Judge”, is in an irreplaceable position, even if she asks for help from the headquarters of the Storm Church, she will not be able to solve this problem in a short period of time.
“…… I can’t leave my post,” after a short period of thinking, Vanna shook her head, she knew that she was giving the old bishop a hard time, but she had to continue to fulfill her duties, “I have a very bad feeling, we’re are facing a real, great crisis, one that is not even necessarily brought on by the Lost Country or the Shards of the Sun, a much larger shadow is lurking in the city-state, and it is times like these that I cannot relinquish my duties as Inquisitor to anyone, not even my own most trusted lieutenant.”
Valentine heard a hint of a different kind of seriousness in Vanna’s tone, and he immediately frowned slightly, “Crisis beyond the Lost Country and the Sun Shard? Have you found out anything lately?”
“…… I’ve been investigating a few things in the archives, and originally this was something I was supposed to tell you about the next morning, but it seems that the situation is more complicated than expected, and the level of urgency needs to be adjusted upwards,” Vanna said with a nod of her head, extraordinarily serious. “I became suspicious of the timing of the sun shard’s appearance in the city-state of Prand, and accordingly accessed a number of sources from 1889 and earlier years, from which I found a large number of less urgent, but bizarre and dense …… records of heretical worship… …”
As Vanna pontificated, Bishop Valentine’s eyes finally widened a little.
“This information is lying quietly in our archives?” When Vanna’s words fell, Valentine exclaimed with a face full of disbelief, “And all this time, no one has found it? Even that vanished 1885 ……”
“No one noticed, it was as if a part of our city-state had been ‘stolen’, some obvious ‘reality’ had just vanished from everyone’s sight out of nowhere,” Vanna said in a hushed voice, “and this ‘disappearance’ …… is not like something a sun shard could cause.”
Valentine gripped the scepter in his hand so hard that his knuckles whitened slightly from the effort.
“What connection do you see between this and the message ‘Captain Duncan’ conveyed to you in the dream?” He asked suddenly.
“Not sure, but first of all, things like ‘stealing reality from the city-state’ are not the capabilities of the Lost Country, and secondly, if this incident was the work of that phantom captain, there’s no reason for him to contaminate my dreams with key clues again- -This doesn’t fit that captain’s rough and chaotic demeanor on record,” Vanna analyzed calmly, “Unless …… he’s suddenly taken a turn for the worse and turned into a nasty devil who’s teasing the world, or ……”
“Or?”
“Or turned into a zealot concerned about the safety of the city-state,” Vanna spread her hands, “and came to me to report it when she saw the danger factor.”
“Ahem, that’s a subspace level joke you’re making,” Valentine coughed at once, then glared at Vanna, “Don’t make jokes like that with me when you know you’ve already been subjected to the watchful eye of a superior transcendent being, it makes me question your mental state. ”
With that said, the old man hammered his own chest to straighten out his breath before gazing into Vanna’s eyes with a serious look on his face, “Who else knew about the anomalies found in the archives besides you?”
Vanna thought for a moment and shook her head, “Only I know, I was checking it out on my own ……”
She suddenly paused, as if her mind was a little stuck, but then shook her head immediately after, “I went to the archives on my own.” “That’s okay …… if there exists a conscious black hand behind the scenes of this matter, then he shouldn’t have realized that the plot has failed yet,” Valentine exhaled, and then had to approve of Vanna’s statement just now, “You really now can’t leave your post …… You should already have an investigation plan against those files, right?”
“Yes, including a coordinated operation with the City Hall side.”
“Starting immediately tomorrow, I will provide you with all the assistance you need,” Valentine immediately nodded, “In addition, I will also report what happened here to the Pope, and I hope that the Storm Cathedral will be able to provide us with some assistance …… “
While speaking, the old man pondered for a few seconds before asking again, “Are you still able to pray to the goddess normally now?”
“Yes,” Vanna answered immediately, “The connection between me and the Goddess was not affected by that dream.”
Valentine frowned, “But the goddess did not make a revelation or a warning in response to the spiritual pollution you suffered?”
“…… Yes,” Vanna hesitated, but nodded her head in acknowledgement, “The Goddess did not signal a warning.”
Valentine stroked his chin, and after a moment of deep thought suddenly looked up and gazed into Vanna’s eyes, “…… During this time, you must return to the church at night to rest, do not sleep outside of the church, and you must carry the Storm Primordial with you at all times when you are out and about. Also, if you feel unusually sleepy or tired while you are out and about, you are to immediately go to the nearest church to you, can you do that?”
“It can be done.”
“…… Alas, I hope you don’t think this is some sort of harsh treatment or questioning,” sighed the old bishop, who couldn’t help but say, despite the firmness of Vanna’s promise, “You can’t be out of your post right now and there is no higher ranking god in the city-state of Prand There is no cleric of higher status than you who can act as your ‘supervisor’, this is a necessary arrangement under the premise of ensuring that you can fulfill your basic duties ……”
“Rest assured, I certainly understand,” Vanna said with a faint smile, in turn relieving the old bishop in front of her, “I know as well as you do what kind of danger we’re fighting against, and compared to our predecessors who sacrificed their lives due to a lack of experience and theories, the fact that we’ve been able to fight so far under the protection of the rules is already a great fortune.”
At this she paused and continued, “And about the chapel in the sixth neighborhood ……”
“It must be investigated, no matter what purpose that ‘Ghost Captain’ actually found you for, we need to investigate that chapel,” Valentine nodded slowly, “And …… I just recalled it slightly, and I can’t even recall who was in charge of that church, so it seems there really is something going on over there.”
“Good, I will personally lead a trip tomorrow.”
“Hm,” Valentine nodded slightly, then looked at Vanna curiously, “Besides the chapel thing, what else did that ghost captain tell you?”
It was fine if he didn’t ask this, but once he did, Vanna’s expression suddenly became odd.
Valentine: “…… Why do you have that look on your face?”
“He …… did say one more thing to me, a very mind-boggling thing,” Vanna’s face was filled with hesitation, “I don’t know if we should take it seriously… …”
“What’s there to take seriously or not? The more outlandish the content, the more likely it is to be the key to everything instead!” Valentine glared at once, “What exactly did he say?”
Vanna hesitated for a final two seconds before finally exhaling heavily with a serious look on her face, “Whole lot of fries.”
Valentine: “……”
A moment of silence passes before the old bishop finally makes a sound again, “Really?”
“A thousand times true, as true as my faith in the Goddess.”
“…… Ah, then this is indeed …… indeed a bit too unbelievable ……”
(End of chapter)