Chapter 105

Chapter 105: After the Gathering

Anomaly 099 – Doll.

That was all that remained on the parchment sheet. It was the only piece of information Vanna had brought back from the Nameless King Mausoleum.

The moment she saw those scrawled letters, Vanna’s face went blank. She could feel that Valentine the Bishop and the other figures beside her were just as stunned. After a brief silence, one of the Saints’ shadows suddenly spoke in a low voice: “An existing Anomaly has been changed out of nowhere… and it happened outside the civilized world’s sight.”

“It has fallen into the hands of the Vanished,” another Saint said with a nod. “Maybe that ghost captain did something…”

“But what kind of change could give this result?” The Saint who had spoken first sounded deeply worried. “Doll: spirit coffin and Doll differ by more than just a few letters… and this change stirred the Nameless King Mausoleum directly, even making the Gravekeeper suddenly call a Listener into the chamber to deliver this piece of information…”

The Saints discussed in low, grave voices, and in the end their gazes all fell back on Vanna. By then Vanna had mostly recovered. With Valentine the Bishop’s help she stood up, looked at the scrap of paper in her hand, and said: “…I don’t remember anything that happened in the chamber. I only remember walking in the passage.”

“Forgetting what happened inside the chamber is normal. Your mind is protecting itself. That is why we need the parchment sheet and the quill the Gravekeeper provides, to record the useful information,” Valentine the Bishop said slowly. “But your parchment sheet has only these few words left. That is… not quite right.”

Vanna stared blankly at her own hands. After a long time, she muttered hesitantly: “Did I tear the parchment sheet myself…”

“In theory, it could only be you,” Valentine the Bishop said as he looked at her. “There is no one else inside the mausoleum. The Gravekeeper never interferes with the exchange between a Listener and the Master of the chamber, and the Master does nothing beyond delivering the message.”

Confusion swelled in Vanna’s heart. Before she could speak again, a deep, solemn female voice suddenly came from the edge of the plaza and cut off the Saints’ discussion: “The time for this gathering to end is almost here.”

The Saints all straightened at once and turned toward the source of the voice. Vanna quickly composed herself and looked to the figure at the far end of the plaza — a woman in what seemed to be splendid robes stood there in silence, casting her gaze over each of the gathered Saints.

There were no attendants at the woman’s side. She stood there alone, yet her presence and authority were more than enough. Like the other “souls”, she appeared as a black silhouette, but her shadow was clearer and more solid than anyone else’s, so solid that one could faintly see the outline of her features and see that she was a dignified, noble-looking woman.

Filled with awe, Vanna bowed her head slightly to that figure.

That was the leader of the Deep Sea Church, the vicar of the Storm Goddess Gamona in the mortal world, the Pope who sat in the Storm Cathedral. This supernatural, blessed by the deity, was so powerful that even her soul had changed in nature. Even in this field of the psychic conclave, she could faintly show the full outline of a “human” form.

Even the Saints, whose power far surpassed that of ordinary supernaturals, could only barely keep a human outline in this gathering place.

Vanna felt the Pope’s gaze fall on her.

“You have already done very well, Saint Vanna,” the Pope said with a small nod. Her voice was solemn yet gentle, soothing Vanna’s faint disappointment. “How much information a Listener can bring out of the chamber has never been something we can control, and many times the information does not only exist on the parchment sheet.”

“You mean…” Vanna looked up in curiosity and asked, mustering her courage.

“The less content remains on the parchment sheet, the more dangerous the information the Master of the chamber has given. It was your Spiritual Insight warning you, driving you to destroy the words you wrote in the chamber, so that that dangerous Truth would not be revealed to the world. This single piece of information is enough. It is enough for the Storm Cathedral to use as a reference to chart the coming course and to offer specific prayers to our Lord for guidance.”

Vanna listened carefully to the Pope’s words, and her mood slowly settled.

She knew this was not a casual comfort. Her Eminence the Pope would not do anything so meaningless. Since Her Eminence had said this, it meant that this matter had, to some extent, already gained the Goddess’s approval.

She had already brought out information of enough value from the Nameless King Mausoleum.

“Disperse for now,” the graceful Lady said softly. “This gathering is at an end. The Storm Cathedral will carefully evaluate the signal Vision 004 has given this time. If necessary, I shall issue further decrees or summon the Saints again.”

Vanna quickly steadied herself. She bowed toward the Pope in salute, and then her figure slowly faded in this vast, chaotic space. The shadows of the other Saints disappeared from the plaza one after another. In the blink of an eye, the place was silent again.

In the great gathering ground, only the old cracked stone slabs, the pillars that held up the chaotic sky, and the spirit projection of the Storm Pope Helena remained.

This Pope, favored by Gamona, did not leave. After dissolving the gathering, she still stood quietly on the plaza, unmoving, staring at the empty space in the center.

After who knew how long, Helena suddenly turned her head and looked to a spot not far from her side. The air there rippled like water, and in an instant a tall, thin figure appeared in her sight.

The tall, thin figure seemed to be wearing robes. Like Helena, his features could also be faintly made out — he was an elderly man with a stern expression.

Then another figure appeared beside the tall, stern old man. This one was a short, plump elder, his face also faintly visible and wearing a kind smile.

“Banster.” Helena first nodded to the tall, stern old man, then looked toward the short, kindly smiling elder. “Rune — what is this? Are you both very free? Does the Church of Death and the Truth Academy not need to patrol the border?”

“The border has been stable lately. Reliable monitors are in place,” said the tall, thin elder called Banster, in brief words.

“We have temporarily handed the patrol duties at the border to reliable people,” the short, plump elder named Rune said with a nod. “This time we mostly came to see how things are on your side… It looks like the civilized world is not very peaceful.”

“The last time the mausoleum had a similar situation was also during the period when the Deep Sea Church was on watch,” Banster said, his face blank. “About a hundred years ago, I think?”

“You know perfectly well,” Helena said calmly. “Of course it was a hundred years ago. That time I went into the mausoleum myself as the Listener. Back then I was not yet the head of the Storm Cathedral. I remember it clearly.”

“Yes, last time it was you who went in. I remember it very well too,” Rune said, stroking his beard with some emotion. “You were also thrown out by the mausoleum right after you went in and stayed dizzy for a long time before you woke up. And just like that little young lady today, the parchment sheet you took into the chamber ended up as only a small slip, with only a few scrawled letters on it. Helena, do you still remember what message you brought out of the chamber a century ago?”

The head of the Storm Cathedral was silent for a moment before she said softly: “I remember it clearly — ‘Vision 005 – the Vanished’.”

Rune nodded lightly. “Yes. You were the first to bring back the news that the Vanished had become a Vision… And the few letters you brought back then were confirmed in less than a month. The phantom of the Vanished roared past the edge of the Church of Death’s great cemetery, and this unlucky fellow Banster here watched his brand-new escort ship get swallowed whole before he could even cut the ribbon. Only the ribbon rope was left…”

Banster, Pope of the Church of Death, gave Rune a blank look.

Helena seemed not to hear Rune’s last few words. She only stayed silent in thought, and after a long time she slowly said: “Whether it is ‘Doll’ or ‘Doll: spirit coffin’, it is only an Anomaly ranked near the nineties. It cannot be compared to a Vision ranked fifth.”

“There is no comparison, but you also know that the key is not the information left on the slip,” Rune said, his expression finally turning serious. “It is the part that could not be left. It is the Truth that can push even a Saint’s mind to the edge of collapse, so that, driven by instinct, they must destroy it and bury it in the chamber. The fact that Anomaly 099’s name has changed from ‘Doll: spirit coffin’ to ‘Doll’ alone is nothing. It is the information related to it, but now hidden, that is deadly…”

“At present, the only direction for our guesses is that this is connected to that ghost ship,” Helena said. “But a few days ago, when I sought enlightenment from the Lord…”

She stopped suddenly there, then shook her head, as if she did not intend to continue that topic.

“Why did Frem not come?” she asked, looking at the two figures before her. “Does he not always enjoy a spectacle too?”

“Frem and his Flamebearer Church are busy with something very important,” the short, plump Rune said with a smile. “The leaders of the four orthodox Churches cannot all crowd over here just to watch the fun…”

“Something very important?” Helena frowned. “What is he doing?”

“Patrolling the border,” Banster said, brief as ever.

Helena: “…”