Chapter 96 Infiltration

Chapter 96 Infiltration

Another handful of solar heretics who had infiltrated from Cold Harbor aboard a privateer were uncovered and imprisoned in a church near the harbor area.

Vanna returned from the prison area on the ground floor of the church and made her way to the lounge of the upper sanctuary, where the regional bishop in charge of the church here was already waiting in the room.

“Inquisitor Vanna,” the slightly slimmed down regional bishop saluted the young inquisitor, “May the waves shelter your soul.”

“May the waves of the sea shelter your soul,” Vanna returned the bishop’s salute, then took a somewhat weary step towards a side seat, “This is the second batch of solar heretics to be cast into prison in the harbor district alone, isn’t it?”

“Yes, we caught a dozen or so just three days ago – they were caught and stopped in time while attempting to kill a citizen, and now this is the second batch, who alerted a meter reader while performing a dark ritual in an apartment building,” the regional bishop Nodding his head, a slight concern in his eyes, “Unknowingly so many cultists have infiltrated …… Luckily we caught them early, otherwise there’s no telling how many people would have been killed by their dark rituals.”

“Prand is the transportation hub of the Infinite Sea, and the fact that everything has been calm for the past four years has paralyzed the nerves of many,” Vanna nodded, “But …… it’s still too early to tell if we found out early or late, and it’s highly likely that those heretics who arrived early have most likely been operating in the darkness for some time and have only recently been exposed.”

The Regional Bishop glanced at the Inquisitor’s demeanor and asked after a moment of hesitation, “I heard that a number of them were captured in other regions as well?”

“Yes, almost every urban area,” Vanna didn’t hide it, “Now almost every church’s underground prison holds captured Sun heretics, as few as a few, as many as dozens of people …… but most of them are the lowest level of the minions, moving through the city-states in order to spy, without much training, and thus easily exposed …… The true upper echelon of the clergy have so far remained undiscovered.”

Vanna’s tone was also unconsciously serious when she said the end, with a vague worry on her face.

Since these heretics looking for “sun fragments” action exposed, the Prand authorities and the church side quickly reacted, and in the whole city hidden channels launched a big search, and actively mobilized the public to report, investigation, this series of action results can not be said to be not rich -…….. –

Within a very short period of time, a large number of cultists who did not have the time to react were exposed and caught in the net, and these dirty and bloody members of the church are now almost filling the underground prisons of various churches, and their number is almost up to the sum of the number of cultists found in the city-state in the past four years.

However, so far, the ones who have fallen into the net are only minions who are moving around randomly, at most there are some low-level clerics with “mass-produced holy relics” who have just received the blessing, and the real high-ranking forces are still hidden behind the scenes.

This made Vanna vaguely uneasy.

“Every day there are results, but never catching their ‘backbone’ gives me the feeling that things are still deteriorating out of sight,” she said to the regional bishop in front of her, “With such a large number of cultists operating within the city-state , it is unlikely that there is not a high-ranking commander behind them to do the coordinating, but that ‘commander’ has yet to show up until now.”

The regional bishop pondered briefly and slowly spoke, “According to the results of the interrogation so far, all of these minions only listen to the orders of the ‘messengers’, and the so-called ‘messengers’ are a group of grass-roots clerics who, through the imitation of the sun masks Listening directly to the voice from the Heir …… you say, could there be a Sun Heir already lurking inside the city-state?”

“A sun heir lurking inside a human city-state? Seriously …… logically unlikely,” Vanna frowned slightly, “they have great power, but they also have obvious ‘traces of their existence’, and the foul and foul odor can’t hide them at all up …… The city-state is full of churches and patrolling Guardian crews, theoretically there shouldn’t be ‘blind spots’ present.”

“So it’s just a guess,” the Regional Bishop shook his head, “I also know that it’s hard for Sun Sons to hide in civilization, but those low-level ‘messengers’ do all carry Sun Masks with them, and even if they’re not directly under the heir’s control, they must have maintained contact with the Sun Heir to some extent……. After all, mass-produced holy relics are also holy relics, and those cultists also have to consider the cost of their actions, they won’t make meaningless arrangements.”

Vanna curled her fingers against her chin and suddenly spoke up in the midst of her thoughts, “I read the record of yesterday’s interrogation, and those heretics were mainly inquiring about the transcendent event that happened in the city-state eleven years ago …… They think that it has something to do with the sun shard?” “That seems to be the case now,” the Regional Bishop nodded, “Although their source of information is unknown, they seem to be convinced that it was the Sun Shard that triggered that ‘Great Chemical Plant Riot’ in Prand eleven years ago …… I remember you from back then as well ……”

The Regional Bishop said, suddenly stopping as he looked at the striking scar at the location of Vanna’s left eye and bowed his head slightly, “I apologize for my slip of the tongue.”

Vanna subconsciously raised her hand and brushed the scar on her face, but soon smiled bashfully and shook her head, “It’s okay, a scar is just a scar, you’re right, I was also a witness to that riot, it’s nothing I can’t talk about.”

“That gang of cultists was also present in that riot, as many as a hundred of the saboteurs apprehended afterward that year were Sun Heretics,” the Regional Bishop said in a deep voice, “but the Sun Heretics who have infiltrated the city-state now are inquiring about the truth of the events of eleven years ago… . it’s as if they really don’t know what really happened here eleven years ago, don’t you think that’s strange?”

“…… Either, eleven years ago it was the sun heretics of the city-state of Prand who acted without authorization, so the cultists of the other city-states don’t know the truth about what happened here… or …… the sun shard appearing in Prand eleven years ago was just an accident… Or it was the handiwork of some third-party force, and those heretics who participated in the riot back then were just being used as a gun,” Vanna said lightly, “According to the interrogation records from back then, it’s also true that the ‘saboteurs’ who were captured at that time were all in a delirious state of mind, the Their madness was not out of control like it was meant to be, but more like they were influenced by a powerful force.”

“…… Chasing after twisted and bizarre things, and being driven mad by the domination of bizarre forces, they become firewood for the fires of chaos in their muddled state, and are finally cast away in the ashes ……” the Regional Bishop sighed breath, “What a sad, sad life.”

Vanna didn’t say anything for a moment, she just stood up silently and went to the window of the common room.

Through the windows here, she could see the harbor area from a distance – the total blockade of the entire harbor had ended, and many of the docks and trestles were now back in service, but Pier 1 still maintained the highest level of blockade, and the beautiful, brand new steamer “White Oak” was still quietly berthed. The beautiful, brand-new steamer “White Oak” remained quietly moored at the end of the trestle, undergoing uninterrupted surveillance and daily purification rituals as scheduled.

The crew of the White Oak had been transferred to the Central Cathedral – as those who had been in close contact with the Lost Country, they were now under the highest level of surveillance.

Underneath the cathedral are the heretics who follow the Black Sun, in the harbor there is a “lost ship” that had contact with the Lost Country, and a group of seafarers who have had close encounters with Captain Duncan live inside the Central Cathedral……. It’s a big headache just thinking about it.

The sun was already setting, but it was not yet time for night and day to change, so the bishop of the region lit a few oil lamps in the room in advance, and the flickering flames reflected on the glass windows.

Vanna withdrew her gaze to the harbor area, “I hear the runaway notice document about Anomaly 099 has been sent down to the harbor area?”

“Yes, it just arrived this afternoon, would you like to take a look at it?” The Regional Bishop said as he fished out the folded document from his carry-on, “For some reason, it’s a little later than expected.”

“Let me see it,” Vanna reached out and took the document, looking at it directly through the setting sun’s rays next to the window while casually explaining, “A little bit later is normal – after all, Anomaly 099’s loss of control was a unique situation in that it was in a It broke free of its seal in a head-on contact with that ghost ship, and the bishops of the various city-states had to carefully weigh the wording and message pointing in the circular document to prevent too many ‘pointing links’ from being created by this document that was about to be distributed to all the voyages …… Otherwise, this is something that is supposed to help captains avoid risk may instead link them to the Lost Country.”

In the dim light of the approaching sunset, the oil lamp closest to Vanna in the lounge suddenly pulsed, and with her unconsciously blurting out the word “Lost Country”, the flame in the oil lamp made a small crackling sound.

(End of chapter)