Deep Sea Embers

In front of the icon of the storm goddess Gormona, the blessed candle burns calmly, and the skylight from the dome shines around the icon, making the city-state bishop in jet-black robes seem to be bathed in divine grace. .

Bishop Valentine just raised his head in the light, staring silently at Fanna's still firm gray eyes, his words seemed to carry some kind of magic, and vaguely, Fanna heard the gentle sound of the waves In her mind, she heard a thunderous sound—with the help of external force, the goddess's power finally broke through the veil and exploded in her heart.

Fanna suddenly took a deep breath, as if she had suddenly returned to land from a state of suffocation in deep water. Her chest rose and fell violently, her heart was pounding, and the sense of gaze of the gods was overwhelmingly suppressed. , she heard Valentine's voice continue to enter her ears:

"The existence of Homeless has been recorded in history, and the omens dream you encountered is an objective fact. With these two points in place, your normal response should be to first assume the existence of a threat, and then seek a solution— But you just subconsciously questioned whether Homeless really exists, which means that you are subconsciously avoiding the message of the Omen Dream to you.

"Inquisitor, you are subconsciously denying the existence of the Homeless. This is the evidence of the real existence of that ship - it seems that it is indeed approaching the territory of the civilized world."

Fanna felt a thin layer of sweat on her forehead, but the "veil" that had always been between herself and the goddess seemed to have disappeared, which made her feel a lot more relaxed, and the words of the city-state bishop made her realize that what happened what:

Before I knew it, I had been affected by the Lost Homes!

This is exactly the characteristic of many visions or anomalies with terrifying tendencies: it causes cognitive confusion in the contact person, subconscious neglect and denial, so that the influence is getting bigger and bigger without knowing it!

This kind of subconscious neglect and denial is the instinctive response of intelligent creatures to protect themselves, and it is a mentality of avoiding danger, but when they come into contact with anomalies, this instinctive response will become the source of paralysis and carelessness, and eventually lead to their own ignorance. Feel free to fall victim to visions and anomalies!

As a judge who often deals with extraordinary powers, Fanna knows this knowledge well, but she never thought that she would fall into this kind of "psychological trap" - her own strong Willpower has no effect at all?

"I don't know when I was affected," she said frankly. In front of the bishop, who is also a devout believer, she did not evade the weakness she exposed this time - it is normal to be affected by abnormality or vision and fall into psychological abnormality. However, in this situation, shame and concealment are of no use. "I came here directly after waking up from the dream of omens. I never talked to anyone, and I never came into contact with any scrolls or antiquities. I think I am in this process. It has not been eroded by the outside world.”

"But you did show a deliberate avoidance of the dream of omens just now... so the impact should have occurred earlier," the bishop stared at Fanna's face, as if he was observing the changes in her eyes and the fluctuations in her breath at any time. "Have you come into contact with anything abnormal recently? It might have been from Homeless... pollution, which left an anchor in your subconscious in advance."

"Recently..." Fanna frowned, and then suddenly recalled the "sacrifice" that fell at the sacrifice site of the Black Sun, recalled the green flames flashing in the eyes of the other party, and her severed finger.

She opened her eyes wide and stared at the bishop: "The day before yesterday, I led a team to clean up the black sun sacrificial ground in the sewer. After I came back, have you reported the existence of unnamed pollution at the site? Have you reported the existence of a contaminated ' offerings'?"

The bishop shook his head: "...No, you went back straight after sending those cultists to the church."

Fanna's heart lingered: "The other people who participated in the operation that day, did anyone report this matter?"

"No reports have come in - all the eucalyptus records only have something to do with the Dark Sun Heresy."

Under the icon of the goddess, the bishop looked at Vanna, and Vanna looked at the bishop.

"It seems that we have found the time when the pollution first 'goed ashore'," the bishop sighed softly, his expression still calm, but there was a strong power brewing in his eyes as if a storm was about to come. Holy Name, Inquisitor, are your memories of that night still clear and complete?"

Fanna took a deep breath: "In the holy name of my lord, Gormona, I still remember all the details of that night."

The bishop nodded, turned around and lit a special incense burner, then placed the copper incense burner at the foot of the icon and said in a calm voice, "What happened at that time?"

So, Fanna revealed everything in her memory that happened in the sewer sacrifice ground—she didn’t let go of any details, and with the assistance of the sacred incense, her memory and thinking became more sober than ever, the experience of that night As clear as being there again...

She still remembered the sacrifice that suddenly opened her eyes, and the green flames jumping in the sacrifice's eye sockets, and she still remembered that the flames fell on her fingers, but she was immediately purified by herself, and on the way back to the church, She silently told herself that the pollution has been completely purified, the pollution has been completely purified, the pollution has been completely purified...

She was muttering these words to herself along the way, and all the guardians who walked with her were also muttering these words to themselves!

No one thought there was anything wrong with this!

Looking back now, what a terrifying and eerie scene it was—under the bleak night, the church’s guard squads passed through the silent streets, and everyone kept whispering the same sentences to themselves until they returned to the church. .

In the process, they still think they are doing things normally: look after the heretics they have just captured, clean up the dirty sacrifice scene, and **** the cultists back...

"...Astral flames fall on the soul, and the physical purification by amputation is ineffective, all you get is a deceitful consolation - the right thing to do is to immediately light the spices and sprinkle holy oil on the ground to make a temporary arrangement the holy place, and then invoke the power of the goddess in a prayer ritual to perform 'spiritual' purification."

"...It's my fault," Fanna said solemnly, "I should have been more vigilant and alert."

"It's a mistake, but it's not a mistake," the old man shook his head. "You have great power, but as a judge, you have less experience. Fortunately, you are now free of the influence, which means that you were left on that sacrifice at that time. The 'pollution' is not too strong, it only interferes with you at the psychological level... Through the incense ritual just now, I can roughly judge its strength."

Speaking of this, he paused, as if he was pondering and judging something: "The guards who were acting with you at that time should have been less affected, they were just standing around you, and the impact should have been with you in the church. The prayers faded quickly.

"In general, although the pollution you suffered at that time was dangerous and strange, since the source has been cut off, the follow-up impact is not terrible. According to your performance and incense feedback just now, even if you didn't come today, you will be on your own in a few days. Perceived something was wrong.

"More than this, we need to worry about the future."

"In the future..." Fanna repeated the bishop's last words, her expression slowly becoming serious.

Yes, in the future, this thing is not over yet.

The picture shown by the dream of omens is a warning from the goddess - what I have been exposed to so far is probably just the prelude to a storm.

"Homeless has not been in the sight of civilization for many years. Many people think that it has returned to the warp and become one of the many shadows in the deepest part of the world, but now it seems that Captain Duncan is right The real-world obsession is still there.”

Bishop Valentine spoke slowly, turning around and staring at the icon of the storm goddess.

"A century ago, the Homeless fell into the depths of the warp. Although there is no clear evidence, many eyewitness reports have mentioned that there was a large storm lingering in the nearby waters at that time. The crash of the ship was due to certain factors. affected by the storm...

"The storm is the authority of my lord."

Fanna frowned: "Do you think that Captain Duncan is going to... take revenge on God?"

"It's hard to say - even for a ghost returning from the warp, it is unimaginable to seek revenge from the gods. The gods live in the kingdom of gods, and the kingdom of gods is hidden above reality, and everything in the world only falls from the top of the world. I have never heard of anyone who can go backwards to the 'Kingdom of God' which is higher than reality...

"But if that Captain Duncan is going to seek revenge on my lord's agents in the world...the possibility is very high.

"The Holy Storm Cathedral patrols the world on behalf of the lord on the boundless sea, and spends most of the time sailing in the hidden route, no one can find its trace, in contrast... The city-state of Perland is, except for the Storm Cathedral, The Storm Goddess's biggest faith anchor in the world...and one accessible to everyone.

"From this point of view, it is logical for the vengeful ghost to choose to land in Prand."