Deep Sea Embers

The huge and heavy mechanical spider folded its long arthropods to its abdomen, and used the wheel structure on the outside of the arthropods to slide at high speeds on the straight road. Inquisitor Vanna stood as if cast on the carapace of this mechanical creation. As the night wind with a slight smell of sea blew through the street, the cold air made her mind more and more sober.

Those cultists who worship the sun **** are a scourge of modern civilization — and unfortunately, there are more than one scourge.

There are always malicious eyes cast from the depths of the warp to the human world, and there are always stupid mortals trying to get their hands on those ominous powers, and between this kind of collusion between ancient gods and mortals, there are twisted things left from ancient times. , forbidden children and the reverberation of pollution lurking in the depths of the city-state, ready to move all the time, trying to shake the order structure of this society.

Of all these threats, the followers of the sun **** are the most alarming and troubling to the protectors of the Perand.

They are not only cultists, but also the products of a part of the lost history of the old world. Compared with most stupid and blind ordinary cults, the most dangerous thing about these heretics who worship the dark sun is that they have a certain "belief"- -Despite being fanatical and twisted, and even though its bottom members are mixed with dragons and snakes, there is indeed a certain "core belief" at the top of this hateful sect that has not changed for thousands of years.

This belief revolves around the "era of order" illuminated by the old sun. Not only is it a self-contained system, but there is even a corresponding "true solar calendar" that is not recognized by modern civilization. The descendants of the ancient civilization, and believe that the splendid ancient civilization will be revived.

As the judge of the Deep Sea Church, Fanna is not very interested in the heresies of the cultists, but she knows that it is the existence of these heresies that makes the followers of the Sun God have unity and stubbornness far beyond other heresies. It survives stubbornly after blows and grows day and night in the shadows of many city-states.

But their resurgence in Prand still took Fanna by surprise.

Since the unprecedented attack four years ago, the Sun God believers in the Prand city-state have been severely damaged. According to several investigation reports, those heretics should have transferred their main members to nearby Rensa and Morocco. In the city-state of Cold Harbor even further away, what remained in Plantene were basically only some stubborn, bewitched and stubborn, but not qualified to be transferred with the bishops.

These minions are hiding in the sewers, relying entirely on their understanding of the underground world and the twisted blessing given to them by the Black Sun to escape the pursuit of the guardians. Four years later, their numbers are getting smaller and smaller. All that's left to do is linger.

But today, four years later, they suddenly gathered again, and even dared to risk exposure to hold a sacrifice ceremony in the assembly hall... Who gave them the courage?

Or... what big event is going to happen in this city-state? Is there some good enough reason for those cultists to draw Black Sun's attention to Prand even at the risk of snuffing out the last flame?

The vibration and noise of the steam core constantly running came from the mechanical spider, and the fragrant fragrance overflowed from the steam pressure relief pipe and drifted along the night wind. Fanna temporarily put away the nonsense in her heart and looked up. Sky.

"The Creation of the World" hangs high in the night sky, casting a pale light that illuminates the scattered houses, chimneys and towers in the city of Pland, and now the operation team is passing through the edge of the industrial area, those who are straddling the factories Huge steam and hydrothermal pipes run through the sky above the street like the blood vessels of giants.

Vanna vaguely recalled the past, recalling the deepest and most terrifying night in her memory-in that **** midnight, her uncle escaped from the sea of ​​flames with her on her back, and the streets were full of wrecks. The collective hallucinations of the walking dead and the ebb and flow of flesh and blood, their flight from the factory pipes, the nauseating smell of blood and chemical grease oozing from the pipes...

There was a sudden shock from the mechanical spider under her feet, and Fanna woke up from her memory.

The flat road came to an end, and the abandoned area on the edge of the city lay ahead. The road was full of potholes and undulations. The two mechanical spiders ended their sliding mode. They stretched their long limbs and began to walk quickly on the uneven road.

It didn't take long for the team to arrive at an abandoned sewer entrance.

Another eight-person team is already on standby here, and they have cordoned off the surrounding area to prevent unrelated people from approaching the entrance.

Fanna greeted the subordinates here, and then directly followed the person in charge of the scene into the depths of the sewer.

Passing through the deep corridors and through the dirty paths, Fanna finally arrived at the secret meeting place - here, she saw more guardian warriors, as well as the church priest who was carrying out the purification ceremony.

A temporary sacrificial altar is located in the center of the assembly hall. The wooden high platform seems to have been burned by flames. On the high platform, you can also see the blasphemous totem built by the sun gods. The totem has been burned by the flames, but the basic structure is still intact. .

Around the platform were dozens of cultists crouching on the ground with their hands tied, most of them shivering, and a few with their lips quivering, silently muttering their blasphemous prayers.

But when the ceremony site was destroyed and the storm goddess had paid attention to it, these heretical prayers had no effect at all.

Not far from the altar, are the remains of victims found in nearby caves. These tragic victims were placed on linen with runes painted on them. The mortuary who arrived in a hurry was examining each one. state of the corpse.

Several church priests were walking around the sacrificial altar. The copper chains in their hands swayed slightly. The incense burner at the end of the copper chains emitted white smoke. When the smoke touched the ground near the sacrificial altar, it was immediately dyed with an unknown layer of smoke. The black shadows of the black sun, while more white smoke will take away these pollutions - the breath of the black sun left here will be removed little by little in the process.

"Your Excellency Judge, please come here, this is what we found wrong," the young guard said, pointing to several corpses next to the sacrificial altar, "Please be careful, the ground here is not very clean."

Fanna went straight to the corpses, and after seeing the condition of one of the corpses, she subconsciously frowned.

It was a cult with a golden mask - no doubt, the priest directly responsible for the sacrificial ceremony on this profane shrine.

There was a terrifying hole in his chest.

"...What's going on?" Fanna frowned, "Did this fanatic heresy get too excited at the end of the ceremony and sacrificed himself? I've never heard of those cultists who worship the Black Sun and Such a rule."

"This is the weird and weird place - he is not self-sacrifice," the guard who brought Fanna immediately shook his head and said with a slightly weird expression on his face, "According to the description of the cultists caught at the scene ...their 'messenger' was sacrificed by a sacrifice..."

"I was sacrificed by a sacrifice?" Fanna raised her eyebrows immediately, "What kind of crazy talk is this?"

"It's really like crazy talk," the guards spread their hands helplessly. "In fact, when we arrived, most of the cultists here were indeed half-mad."

"Already in a semi-crazy state?"

"Yes, there is obviously a big flaw in their sacrifice ceremony. Many people are infected with madness, and many people have even started to slash each other. They seem to regard each other as... by some kind of terrifying thing. The 'monsters' occupied, it was precisely because they rushed out of the assembly hall in a frenzy that they alerted the sheriff who was patrolling nearby, which led to the exposure of the situation... When we arrived, people who could stay awake and answer questions There are only a few left, and the few remaining who can speak fluently insist that it is the sacrifice that sacrificed the messenger."

"Fall into madness? Hack each other? And think others are occupied monsters?" Fanna's expression immediately became serious, "Have you been checked? Is it the result of being contaminated by the black sun?"

"There is no trace of contamination by foreign sources, it is more like a spontaneous madness - the factors that lead to madness are rooted in their own spiritual world," the guardian said, raising his finger to a cultist who was cultivating A young lady in a long black dress walking between, "Ms. Heidi has arrived. If it is confirmed that these cultists are not contaminated by the black sun, we can only think of a way from hypnotism."