Chapter 49 Alertness
Chapter 49: Alertness
In front of the icon of the Goddess of Storms, Gemona, the blessed candle flame burned calmly, and the heavenly light that poured down from the dome shone around the icon, making the Bishop of the City State in his pitch-black robes feel as if he was bathed in divine grace.
Bishop Valentine thus raised his head in the light and gazed silently into Vanna’s still steadfast gray eyes, and as if there were some kind of magic in his words, vaguely Vanna heard the gentle sound of ocean waves rising and falling in her mind, and then a thunderous chirping – the power of the Goddess, assisted by an outside force, had at last broken through that curtain and exploded in her mind.
Vanna suddenly drew in a sharp breath, as if returning to land all at once from a state of deep-water suffocation, her chest heaving violently, her heart thumping, the sense of the gods’ watchful gaze overwhelming her, while in a state of semi-trance she heard Valentine’s voice continue to reach her ears:
“There are historical records of the existence of the Lost Country, and the omen dream that you encountered is even an objective fact, in the case that these two points are in place, your normal reaction should be to first assume the existence of the threat, and then seek a solution – but the fact that you were just now subconsciously questioning whether or not the Lost Country really exists, this suggests that you are subconsciously avoiding the message that the Omen Dream is communicating to you.
“Inquisitor, the fact that you’re subconsciously denying the existence of the Lost Country is evidence that the ship actually exists – and by the looks of it, it’s indeed approaching the boundaries of the civilized world.”
Vanna felt a thin layer of sweat on her forehead, but the “curtain” that had always been between her and the goddess seemed to have disappeared, which in turn made her heart feel a lot lighter, and the words of the Bishop of the City State made her realize what had happened:
Without realizing it, she had already been affected by the Lost Country!
This is exactly the characteristic of many visions or anomalies that have a tendency to terrorize: it causes the person in contact with it to be cognitively confused, subconsciously ignoring and denying it, so that he or she is unconsciously affected by it to a greater and greater extent!
This subconscious neglect and denial is originally an instinctive reaction of intelligent creatures to protect themselves, an avoidance of danger, but when in contact with anomalies, this instinctive reaction becomes a source of paralysis and ultimately leads to one’s own unknowingly becoming a victim of visions and anomalies!
As an Inquisitor who had often dealt with transcendent powers, Vanna knew this aspect of knowledge like the back of her hand, but she had never imagined that she would fall into this kind of “mental trap” – her own strong willpower hadn’t produced the slightest effect?
“I don’t know when I was affected,” she said frankly, in front of the bishop, who was also a devout believer, she didn’t avoid the weakness that she had revealed this time – it’s normal to fall into a psychological abnormality when being affected by an anomaly or a vision, and it’s not helpful to hide it or be ashamed of it. concealment would not help, “I came here directly after waking up from the dream of omens, without talking to anyone in between, without touching any scrolls or antiquities, and I don’t think I have been corrupted by the outside world in the process.”
“But you did just now show a deliberate avoidance of the dream of omens …… so the influence should have occurred much earlier,” said the bishop, gazing intently into Vanna’s face, as if observing at all times the changes in her eyes and the fluctuations in her breath. “In the recent past have you been exposed to anything out of the ordinary? That could have been …… contamination from the Lost Country ship that left an anchor point in your subconscious ahead of time.”
“Recently ……,” Vanna frowned, then suddenly recalled the “sacrifice” that collapsed at the scene of the Black Sun Ritual, the green flames that flashed in the bottom of the other party’s eyes, as well as her own The severed finger.
Her eyes widened, staring sharply at the bishop: “The day before yesterday, I led a team to clean up the Black Sun Sacrifice site in the sewers, and after I came back, did I report that there was an unnamed contamination at the site? Was there ever a report of the presence of a contaminated ‘sacrifice’ at the site?”
The bishop shook his head, “…… No, you went straight back after delivering those cultists to the church at that time.”
Vanna’s mind reeled, “And did anyone of the others who participated in the operation that day report anything in that regard?”
“No reports have come in – all the case files only record things related to the Dark Sun heresy.”
At the icon of the Goddess, the Bishop gazed at Vanna, and Vanna gazed back at the Bishop.
“It seems we have found the point in time when the contamination first ‘came ashore’,” the Bishop exhaled softly, his expression still calm, but with intense power brewing in his eyes as if a storm was about to come, “In the holy name of my Lord, Gemona. Inquisitor, is your memory of that night still clear and intact?”
Vanna took a deep breath, “In the holy name of my Lord Gemona, I remember all the details of that night.”
The Bishop nodded and turned to light the special incense, then said in a steady voice while placing the brass censer at the feet of the icon, “What happened then?”
And so, Vanna told her everything she remembered happening in the Sewer Sacrificial Grounds – she didn’t spare any details, and with the aid of the sacred incense, her memory and mind became more lucid than ever, and the experience of that night was as clear as if it were her own again… …
She remembered the sudden opening of the sacrifice’s eyes, she remembered the green flame leaping from the sacrifice’s eye sockets, she remembered the flame falling on her own fingers, but being purified by her own prompt execution, and on the way back to the church she told herself silently that the contamination had been completely purified, the contamination had been completely purified, the contamination had been completely purified… …
She murmured these words along the way, and all of the Guardians who walked with her, murmured these words as well!
Not one of them thought there was anything wrong with it!
What a terrible and eerie scene it was to recall now – the small band of church watchmen walking through the silent, deserted streets in the pale night, each one whispering the same sentence to himself over and over again until they returned to the church.
And all the while, they were doing what they thought was normal: watching over the heretics they had just captured, cleaning up the filthy sacrificial site, escorting the cultists back to the …… “…… spiritual flame falls on the soul, the purification on the physical plane brought about by severing the limbs is ineffective, and all you get is a deceptive consolation – the proper thing to do is to immediately burn spices and sprinkle the ground with holy oil to set up a a temporary sanctuary, followed by calling upon the power of the Goddess with a prayer ritual to perform the purification of the ‘spirit’.”
“…… It was my fault,” Vanna said in a heavy tone, “I should have been more alert and resourceful.”
“A lapse, but not a mistake,” the old man shook his head, “You have great power, but ultimately less experience as an Inquisitor. Fortunately you are now free from the influence, which means that the ‘contamination’ that remained on that sacrifice at that time was not too strong, it only interfered with you on a psychological level …… through the incense ceremony just now, I can roughly judge its strength. ”
Saying this he paused, seemingly weighing and judging something, “The guardsmen who acted with you at that time should have been even less affected, they just stood around you, and the effects they received should have faded quickly with their prayers in the church.
“Overall, the contamination you were subjected to at that time was menacing and bizarre, but since the source has been cut off, the subsequent effects are not terrible, and according to your performance just now and the feedback from the incense, even if you didn’t come here today, you would have noticed something wrong on your own a few days later.
“More than this, what we need to worry about is the future.”
“The future ……,” Vanna repeated the bishop’s last word, her expression slowly becoming serious.
Yes, the future, this matter was not over.
The images signaled by the Dream of Omens were warnings sent down by the Goddess – what she herself had been exposed to so far was, I feared, only a prelude to a storm.
“The Lost Country has not been in sight of the Civilized Frontier for many years, and many thought it had returned to subspace, one of the many shadows of the deepest worlds, but now it seems that that Captain Duncan’s obsession with the real world remains.”
Bishop Valentine spoke slowly, turning as he did so to gaze upon the icon of the Storm Goddess.
“A century ago, the Lost Country crashed into the depths of subspace, and while there is no definitive proof of this, many eyewitness reports mention that a great storm was hovering over the nearby waters at the time, and that ship’s crash was influenced by the storm to a certain extent ……
“The storm, it is the authority of my Lord.”
Vanna frowned, “You think that Captain Duncan was seeking …… vengeance on the gods?”
“It’s hard to say – even for a ghost returning from subspace, it would be unthinkable to seek vengeance on a god; gods reside in the Kingdom of God, which is hidden above reality, and the only way for anything in the world to fall downwards is to fall downwards from the upper levels of the world, and it’s never been heard of that anyone can travel backwards to a higher level than reality in the ‘Kingdom of God’ ……
“But if that Captain Duncan is looking for our Lord’s earthly surrogates to execute revenge …… the possibilities are great.
“The sacred Cathedral of Storms patrols the world on behalf of the Lord on the Boundless Sea, sailing most of the time on hidden voyages where no one can find it, whereas by contrast …… the city-state of Plainland is the largest anchor of the Storm Goddess’s beliefs in the world, apart from the Cathedral of Storms …… It is also a faith anchor point that can be visited by everyone.
“From this point of consideration, it is logical that that vengeful specter chose to land in Prand.”
(End of chapter)