Chapter 204: Both Sides of the Curtain

Chapter 204 Both Sides of the Curtain
Heavy rain poured down, and the entire Prand was enveloped in an unprecedented downpour.

As if the sea was hanging upside down, the endless sea abyss looked down on the earth from the sky, as if the world had fallen into the abyss, the dark ink-like clouds hung high in the sky like iron blocks, the endless rain washed over the ancient bell towers, tall buildings, walls, and jagged coasts of Pouland, and the incessant winds and waves surged from the sea as if they were trying to form a siege of some kind, blocking off the entire city-state from all sides repeatedly.

Even the slowest of people detected a certain eerie atmosphere in the uncharacteristically heavy rain, as citizens fled for their homes, doors and windows closed, and street vagrants rushed into the nearest shelters or relief centers, and the less fortunate into sewer entrances or pipe exchanges-where at least the gas lamps and the sacred steam of the could provide the most basic sense of security on this stormy day.

Heidi had made it to the cathedral square in the midst of the storm – perhaps because of the Goddess’s patronage, the rain around the cathedral was a little lighter than elsewhere, but instead of feeling relieved, Heidi was getting more and more worried.

The fact that the rain in the cathedral was lighter than the rest of the city meant that the downpour at the moment was indeed related to transcendental powers.

The church guards opened the gates, and Heidi rushed out of the car and through the sacred triple spire doors, only to be drenched in freezing rain just a few steps away.

But she didn’t have time to think about that, because the moment she walked into the church, she sensed a restlessness in the air around her, a spiritual warning that an unseen “conflict” was unfolding, centered here.

She was received by a silent monk, who then, at her request, informed her of Bishop Valentine, who was praying in the main hall of the sanctuary, and Heidi waited for three minutes in a state of anxiety and uneasiness, before she saw the respected old man in front of her.

She noticed that the bishop was dressed in full ceremonial robes, with a heavy triple crown placed squarely on his head, that he carried a long sceptre, and that at his waist he hung the Stormy Canon, adorned with silver and precious stones.

This was no ordinary day’s attire, but one that would only be worn for the most important of ceremonies, and the heavy, opulent adornment of these garments was a burden that would have weighed down an able-bodied adult as he walked, yet Valentine walked with a steady, dignified stride, with thunder and lightning brewing in his eyes, and an air of transcendence and holiness– -Those sacred things made the old man briefly shed his mortal status and turn into some kind of symbolic shell, and he came to Heidi with a serious expression, looking at the “psychiatrist” who visited the cathedral in this bad weather: “What’s going on, my child? What happened?”

“I …… need asylum, asylum of the highest order!” Heidi immediately replied, recalling her father’s extraordinarily serious reminder before he left, and said with an extremely solemn expression, “I want the entire Storm Cathedral to be on alert to protect me – to protect the child of the most outstanding historian in Prand.”

“The most illustrious historian of Pland ……,” said Bishop Valentine, gazing quietly into Heidi’s eyes, as if a bolt of lightning were leaping in the old man’s eyes, and then he closed his eyes slightly, and nodded his head gently, “I have received your request, child, the cathedral will provide shelter, you are safe.”

“Thank you very much,” Heidi took a deep breath, she didn’t take her eyes off the old man, the moment she saw Valentine in this outfit, she knew that the Cathedral’s side seemed to be in a “state of readiness” even before her arrival, “May I ask what exactly is going on in the Cathedral? “May I ask …… what is going on?”

“It’s a war,” Valentine said calmly, “Someone has made war on Prand – a storm unblessed by the Goddess has descended on Prand, and that’s the signal for war, but it wasn’t until you arrived that I finally realized who the war was against.”

“War?!” Heidi was dumbfounded, “Who are the enemies? Where are they?”

Valentine gazed at Heidi silently for a long time before he whispered, “It’s Prand-

“A Prand that has been obliterated in history.”

A thunderclap exploded, and the whole church seemed to be violently shaken; Heidi was startled, and she looked up in horror at the glass windows, which were still clicking in the aftershock of the thunder, at the heavy chandelier, which was swaying from side to side above her head, and in the midst of this shaking and rocking she suddenly felt a slight tremor-a tremor distinct from the the tremor of thunder.

It was the hissing of the mass of steam walkers as they assembled in the square, the roar of the Protectorate steam tanks as they pulled out of their garages.

Heidi turned her head in fear and looked at Bishop Valentine, who stood as still as a reef in the sea in front of the icon of the goddess, and her words flew out of her mouth, “Is the enemy coming?!”

“The enemy has come,” Valentine said softly, his soft whisper still clear in Heidi’s ears amidst the constant noise of the thunder, “and arrived years ago ……”

……

The giant sword slammed down, and the rubble in the way was blown away like sand and dust, and Vanna stepped across a collapsed section of the road with her sword, and saw the houses in front of her toppling down like wax statues in a fire, and hot, heavy ashes covering the road like snow, and the remnants of sparks dancing and flying among the ashes and rubble, and there were suspicious humanoid things slowly writhing in those hot ashes, which was too horrible to look at, and it was eerie and miserable to look at.

Vanna controlled herself from focusing too much on the writhing humanoid ashes.

She knew that those were the citizens of Prand, everyone she knew, protected, and loved, and that they had died in the fire that would burn the entire city-state, all of it, none of it.

They had died in this history, only to be molded into this ghastly and pathetic phantom by the unquenchable flames.

These sights were disturbing her emotions and judgment.

The young Inquisitor pursed her dry, cracked, pale lips, felt her airways burn a little in the hot ash filled environment, felt her strength drain away, and reminded herself once more –

It had not happened, and it would not happen.

She lifted her head and looked to the end of the street. Between the writhing ashes and leaping sparks, occasional flashes of ghostly green flame streams could be seen, the imprints of some dreaded Ghost Captain left in this misguided history – a Ghost Captain whose position in this incident was so bizarrely difficult to discern that Vanna couldn’t see through to what the other side was really up to at all, only to know that the other side’s power Vanna could not understand the purpose of the other party, but only knew that the power of the other party had blended behind the curtain at some point, and was spreading all over this destroyed Prendergium, and was vaguely fighting against the existence of the power that twisted history.

At the end of the line of sight was the end of her journey, one of the “goals” she had set for herself in this destroyed Prand.

A small church, which had remained intact during the fire, stood quietly at the end of the street.

She had hiked halfway across the city-state to the chapel in the sixth block.

Technically, she had killed her way through a small half of the city-state.

As Vanna marched forward with her sword, over all obstacles, the doors of the chapel had collapsed down, and a long hall illuminated by the remaining fires presented itself vaguely before her eyes. “”

The long hall was devoid of the warm, bright light, the neat, holy prayer table, and the young nuns praying calmly.

Vanna crossed directly over this rubble to the back of the side of the main hall and found the staircase that sloped down to the ground floor.

A dark, heavy wooden door was standing silently at the end of the steps.

Vanna exhaled softly, easing the pain and exhaustion from every joint in her body, and then picked her way down the steps – the

The rotary machine gun that had been removed from the walker earlier had long since been scrapped and thrown away on the way, and now the only thing she had in her hands was the huge sword that had been her companion for many years and had been loyal and reliable.

She reached the door with the sword in hand, and gently pushed it with her hand.

The door was locked, but only with a latch, and the opposite side was not held against it.

Vaguely, it seemed that she could still feel the breath floating on the opposite side of the door, and there were sounds coming from it.

Vanna exerted force in her hands, and the fragile latch didn’t last more than half a second in her hands, and with a loud click of ripping metal, the door to the underground sanctuary was pushed open by her.

A startled and nervous young voice came from across the gate, “You can’t open the door!!!”

At the same time as this voice rang out, there seemed to be a faint noise mixed within it.

“Your late,” Vanna pushed the gate open, her giant sword rubbing fine sparks on the ground as she stepped inside, the tenacious tiki lamp at her waist still releasing its light, illuminating the subterranean sanctuary that had been plunged into total darkness, “Your sisters in battle.”

The sanctuary was illuminated by the shimmering light.

A nun with a long sword stood discreetly at the foot of the Goddess’s icon, watching Vanna with full attention as she pushed her way through the door – she wore an old nun’s cassock and dress from 1885, and her face was still young.

In the year of her death in battle, she was about Vanna’s age.

Vanna sighed softly as she looked across the room at the fully alert nun.

As she had imagined, the only way she could have stepped into the closed underground sanctuary before the nun’s death in battle – the brief moments before the nun’s death in battle were part of the tainted history – was within the contaminated and twisted curtains.

This chapel in the sixth block is the first point of distortion.

The young Inquisitor had finally investigated the most crucial piece of information, but …… how was she going to report it all next?
“Sister?” The nun with a long sword in hand adapted to the light that suddenly appeared, and it seemed that until now, she didn’t realize that the fires of the entire underground sanctuary had gone out, and she herself had stood in a darkness without knowing when, and under her feet, something seemed to have stirred in the depths of the darkness, and she raised her head and looked at the tall woman who appeared in the shimmering light, and finally saw the Storm Church’s logo on the other party’s armor and giant sword , “Are you sent by the Cathedral? Leave quickly! The pollution here is out of control, while I still have ……”

Vanna shook her head and slowly stepped forward, “Let me help you.”

(End of chapter)