Chapter 228: The Residual Power Remains

Chapter 228 – The Residual Authority Remains
There are often two times when a pious person is shaken, the first time, when they question their faith, and the second time, when they have questioned their faith and the gods still send down blessings.

Noise, thinly iterated, far and near, vague but certainly present, began to ring in Vanna’s mind, like tinnitus, and she recalled again the projection of the goddess that she had seen in her visions, and the incomprehensible words that the goddess had spoken to her, and instead of accepting it all without thought, as she once had done, she began to think hard, to think about the meaning of those words, and even to try to speculate on the Gemona’s …… intentions.

And the more she thought, the more the fine noise in her mind became more pronounced, making it difficult for her to concentrate.

But suddenly, all the noise disappeared again, and she shook her head in a trance, only to meet Bishop Valentine’s somewhat concerned gaze.

“Are you all right?” The old man said with some concern.

“I’m …… okay,” Vanna tapped her forehead gently, and then immediately looked at the elder with some dissension, “You too …… “

“At the ringing of the last bell, I faltered …… It’s nothing to hide, I don’t have a flawless will after all, like those saints enshrined in the Temple,” Valentine shook his head, and said frankly to Vanna, “I’m not sure why I’m not as good as those saints who are enshrined in the Temple. “I wondered why the contamination and infiltration of those final preachers could go to such an extent, why the sanctuary of the Cathedral still could not deter the sacrifices of those solar heretics – why the Goddess did not warn us once, even though the crisis had been spreading for more than ten years… …”

He listened and turned, gazing silently at the icon of Gemona, and the cold stone statue looked down upon him, reticent as ever.

“When I awoke again, I was mortified, and I knew that I had made the greatest mistake in the Storm Primordial Codex, and had shaken my will by treating the sanctuary of the gods as an all-purpose elixir, but even so, the doubts took root, until now.”

“…… The enemy infiltrated and breached the barriers from within, they had been planning this for many years, it was a sneak attack that would have been hard to resist,” Vanna said calmly after a few moments of silence, “Heretics will always take advantage of a situation, this does not mean that the Goddess’s authority can be easily subverted.”

“I understand that,” Valentine smiled, “which is why I say that even with a slight wavering, I remain devout, for the Goddess tangibly shelters our world, and that mercy is real, only . . that I have had some extra thinking.”

“Thinking begets heresy, Bishop Valentine,” said Vanna, with a grave face, but immediately afterward sighed, as if to herself, “as it does to me.”

“Consider this a test, then,” Valentine said softly, “for both of us.”

Vanna said nothing more, but simply went to the icon of the goddess, hung her head slightly, and offered a silent benediction as she always did.

And it wasn’t long before a footstep suddenly broke the silence in the great sanctuary.

Vanna was startled out of her consecration, she looked up in the direction from which the sound came and saw a middle-aged cleric in clerical robes walking briskly, this cleric first bowed to the icon, and then he handed a paperwork to Valentine, “Archbishop, this is the report you asked for.”

Valentine nodded his thanks, took the document, and after quickly flipping through a few pages, the expression on his face became oddly visible to the naked eye.

“What’s that?” Vanna was instantly a bit curious at the sight, “What’s written on it?”

“…… It’s an initial survey of the current state of the city-state after the disaster …… sent by the city hall,” Valentine frowned, seeming a bit hesitant, but in the end gave the document directly to Vanna, “Valentine frowned, seeming a bit hesitant, but in the end gave the document directly to Vanna. “Read it yourself.”

Vanna took the document quizzically, and knew what it was when she saw the opening section – a preliminary damage report, something she was familiar with, including whether there were any deficiencies in various parts of the city-state after the disaster, what changes had been made, whether there were any missing persons or “additions” of people, whether there were any areas of residual transcendental power, and whether there were any areas with residual transcendental power. Areas of residual transcendent power …… The first part of the report was nothing much, basically indicating that all parts of the city-state had been reset to the state they were in before the disaster, but the second part of the report made her instantly understand what was going on with Bishop Valentine’s strange look.

“…… A merchant in the docklands has reported a large quantity of French fries mysteriously disappearing, and ketchup on the damage report ……” The young inquisitor looked up with a wooden expression and looked across at the equally wooden expression of of Valentine, “…… Seriously?”

“Why don’t you lead the team over there yourself and ask?” The corner of Valentine’s mouth twitched, “Theoretically no one would dare to falsify such a report.”

Vanna held the report up in her hands, half-speaking.

After holding her tongue for half a day, she finally ventured out, “Why would this kind of content appear on such a serious report ……”

Valentine’s face was expressionless, “There’s an entire squadron of guardsmen who have been monitoring the fries at the docks – why do you think that is?”

Vanna: “……”

“…… All in all, the ‘something’ mentioned in the report is the only loss within the known city-state so far,” Valentine sighed, then seemed to hesitate for a moment before looking Vanna in the eye, “Why don’t you just ask directly next time you meet.”

Vanna froze, “Ask? Ask who?”

“…… What do you think?” Vanna: “……”

After a few moments, the young Inquisitor finally couldn’t help rubbing his forehead, “I feel like the thoughts are all a bit disjointed, just to confirm, we’re supposed to be discussing something very serious here, is that correct?”

“I can’t connect either.” Valentine scowled.

Vanna was speechless, but an odd thought suddenly occurred to her – if this was also the “influence” of that ghost captain, then he …… was indeed quite scary in a sense.

Just then, another footstep suddenly came from the doorway, again interrupting Vanna and Valentine’s thoughts – a cleric came quickly to the icon.

“Archbishop, Inquisitor, news has come from the harbor district ……”

The cleric bowed and spoke quickly, but when he was in the middle of his sentence, Vanna couldn’t help but interrupt him when she heard the word “harbor district”, “Stop, we already know about the fries, we don’t need to report it twice!”

“…… Fries?” The Magus was a bit stunned and looked at the usually calm and honorable Inquisitor with confusion, “What fries?”

“Ah …… you weren’t going to report on the fries?” Vanna took a look at the situation and was a bit embarrassed, hurriedly coughing dryly to cover it up, “I thought it was another report …… Don’t worry about it, go on, what’s going on in the harbor area?”

While speaking, she couldn’t help but sigh in her heart: it’s good that it’s not French fries – at least she doesn’t have to get involved with that scary ghost captain anymore.

The cleric who came to report, on the other hand, nodded with a serious face, “News has come from the harbor district that the Sea Mist is applying for entry into the harbor – Tirian Abnomar wishes to contact the Cathedral as soon as possible, and he brought news related to the Lost Country.”

Vanna erupted into a startled coughing fit.

The cleric was startled by the movement, “…… Your Honor the Inquisitor?”

“I’m fine,” it took a great deal of effort for Vanna to finally stop coughing, she felt as if the place wasn’t quite the same anywhere since the Lost Country made its grand entrance around the city-state, she couldn’t put her finger on it but it seemed as if so many things around her were changing- -she even tried to blame the ghost ship for the sun that was fifteen minutes late in the morning, “The Sea Mist? I know we did send a letter to its owner, but never got around to waiting for it ……”

“The Sea Mist did come, and it seems to have arrived offshore of Prand long before that ‘disaster’,” the cleric said with an immediate nod of his head, “It’s just that, according to the news sent by that ship, it accidentally encountered the Lost Country in the eastern waters and a vicious battle broke out, and it had to be overhauled due to power damage, only regaining its sailing ability last night.”

“A battle broke out with the Lost Country?!” Vanna finally looked solemn, realizing the importance of the matter, she turned her head to Valentine, “I have to go there myself.”

“That’s fine,” Valentine immediately nodded, “The Sea Mist is a special ship, and although it belongs to ‘one of our own’, the members on that ship are likely to lead to nervous trepidation amongst the ordinary people on the docks –You personally lead the team to meet it, which should calm the commoners.”

Vanna agreed, and left the Grand Sanctum at a brisk pace.

The Sea Mist had arrived – although a little later than expected, the massive warship, shrouded in the aura of legend and the legend of the Curse of Fear, had arrived, as promised, in the city-state of Prand, where the letter of distress had been sent, and now the intimidating steel battleship was slowly approaching the trestle bridge, which was reserved for the mooring of large ships, as directed by the dockside guides, and some of the Those who had received the news gathered near the docks, gazing nervously and curiously at the appearance of the steel behemoth.

Soon enough, the people around the docks realized that the imposing steel warship had arrived in the harbor after a fierce battle.

It was heavily scarred, three of the six main cannons had disappeared, there were gruesome gaps everywhere on the side of the ship after something had “gouged” a piece of it off, the bridge had been damaged by a third, with horrific scars spreading from the side of the bridge all the way up to the main armor belt, and even a few horrific holes could be seen on the side of the hull, near the waterline. Even near the waterline on the side of the ship, several horrible holes could be seen.

If these damages were placed on an ordinary warship, it would be enough to sink several times.

But the Sea Mist still stubbornly floated on the surface of the sea, it seems to have life in those holes in the abdomen, soft and metallic material has been dead blocked the leakage, but also constantly seeped into the bottom of the sea water was discharged out of the ship – the Sea Mist’s pumps have been shut down, so those seawater directly from the side of the hull penetration, just like people are sweating like a man. As if …… people were sweating.

This is an advanced steel warship, but also a cursed ship with abnormalities everywhere – everyone standing near the pier clearly saw the ship’s characteristics of “living things”, so the curiosity of the onlookers had a more terrified, and there were whispers everywhere. There were whispers everywhere.

It was not until several powerful steam-powered walking machines appeared on the dock, and the tall figure of Vanna silenced many of them.

(End of chapter)