Chapter 152

Chapter 152: When in Doubt…

Duncan had not expected that a casual question would make Dog spill such important information about the Vanished. He had already heard this Abyssal Hound talk about the Vanished’s fearsome name in the Abyssal Deep and the Deep Sea, but who would have thought that this fame had been “smashed out” in such a blunt and brutal way?!

A ghost ship that kept shaking between Subspace and the Mortal Realm was like a cannon shell flying back and forth between a rooftop and the foundations. Each time it rocked, it smashed through the “floors” of the Spirit Realm and the Abyssal Deep and the Deep Sea. Nothing survived wherever it passed. Every solid thing that touched it was dragged into Subspace. And from the sound of it, this had gone on for quite some time.

No wonder Abyssal demons like Dog had carved fear of the Vanished into their bones. A calamity that showed up every few days to slaughter people in front of you suddenly stopped, and then the captain came down from the ship, smiling and greeting you. Who would not have their knees buckling? Even if Dog did not even have tendons in his legs, they would still cramp.

After all, just because the ship had stopped in the Mortal Realm now did not mean it would stay. What if… a certain ghost captain suddenly wanted to go back to Subspace to visit some relatives?

But compared with the huge mess the Vanished had made back then, Duncan cared more about the state of that ship itself at the time, and what kind of state the real Captain Duncan had been in.

Was that kind of “shaking” something the real Captain Duncan had done on purpose? Or had it been some kind of out-of-control lost voyage? Had Goathead known what was happening back then? If all of this had been done on purpose, what had “Captain Duncan” and Goathead been trying to do? And if it had all come from the runaway state…

…then things would get even crazier.

Would the Vanished… go into a runaway state again?!

All this time, the Vanished had been Duncan’s greatest support, and also where his true body was. The safety of that ship was the same as his own safety. He explored that ship and took control of it so he could make that safety more sure. But if the whole ship had the hidden danger of a runaway state and might suddenly “smash” back into Subspace from the Mortal Realm again… then was the control he had over the Vanished right now still of any use?

Could he pull back a ghost ship that was charging madly toward Subspace?

The Vanished’s current steady sailing on the Boundless Sea might only be a short-lived balance. Its real normal state might actually be “runaway state”. That possibility spread through his heart beyond his control and made Duncan grow restless.

What troubled him even more was the big door at the bottom of the Vanished’s hull that led into Subspace, and Goathead’s tense reaction after learning that the door had opened a crack. That seemed to faintly prove his worries—

The Vanished was not stable, and Subspace’s call to that ship had never stopped, not even for a moment.

Duncan took a slow breath without showing anything on his face and forced himself to calm down.

No matter how much he thought about it, he still did not have enough power to meddle in things related to Subspace. He still knew too little about the occult.

If he wanted to gather more knowledge about Subspace, dealing with more supernatural events was one way. And right now, this cathedral in front of him… this cathedral that might once have been invaded by Subspace.

“We should pay more attention to this place,” Duncan said as he shook his head. “If something from Subspace did invade the underground sanctum, then what happened eleven years ago is much more complicated than anyone imagined…”

He raised his head and looked at the big door that had once been sealed.

“The nun here held this door before she died,” Duncan said. “Maybe to keep what was in the sanctum from getting out. But can a single door really block intruders from Subspace?”

“Invasion from Subspace also depends on the situation,” Dog said, thinking it over. “In most cases, the Mortal Realm is protected by the Gods… fine, I don’t really like Them, but the Mortal Realm really is under the Gods’ effective shelter. Subspace has a hard time affecting this side directly. What can come over here is usually not the true body. At most it’s some projection, some corruption, or even just illusions thrown out by using people’s minds as a lens…”

Dog stopped mid-sentence and stared at Duncan, suddenly nervous.

In his eyes, the light-and-shadow vortex inside this human body was spinning in chaos. Mad gleams kept rising from it, enough to send even demons’ minds into a runaway state.

This ghost captain who had come back from Subspace… damn it, he himself was the biggest Subspace invasion in this place!

“Keep talking. Then what? What about Subspace invasion?” Duncan asked.

In Dog’s eyes, the very embodiment of a Subspace invasion lowered his head and curiously asked about Subspace invasions.

“I… I mean, under normal conditions, a Subspace invasion can be blocked by the holy facilities in a cathedral,” Dog said. “And since what comes in isn’t the true body, as long as you cut off the invasion channel, the part that stays in the Mortal Realm will soon fade away…” Dog swallowed hard as he explained Subspace invasion to the walking Subspace invasion. “Of course, what a terrible price you have to pay in the process is another story…”

“So that’s how it works,” Duncan said with a knowing nod. When he looked again at the nun lying on the ground, his eyes were filled with even more respect than before. “She must have used everything she had to try to stop that disaster.”

“But she didn’t really succeed, right?” Shirley’s voice suddenly came from the side. Because what Duncan and Dog were talking about was either too advanced or too scary, she had not found any chance to speak until now. “The big fire eleven years ago still happened…”

“The fire eleven years ago was caused by the fragment of the Sun, but in this cathedral we have found traces that seem to come from Subspace. We still can’t say how these two things are linked,” Duncan said, shaking his head. Then it was as if something had just come to him. With a thoughtful look, he slowly walked to the statue of the Goddess standing in the middle of the underground sanctum. “But… I suddenly feel curious about one thing.”

He raised his head and looked up at the statue of the Goddess, which was a little different from the statue of Gamona in the cathedral on the surface. This statue stood in the dim light, with no sign of damage on its surface.

“What are you curious about?” Shirley came over, gave the statue a careful glance, and asked in a small voice.

“This Storm Goddess—what was She doing?” Duncan raised his hand and pointed at the statue. “The cathedral was invaded, the priest died in battle, and only a ghostly shadow that keeps praying was left outside like a leftover soul. Why did the God here have no reaction at all? At the very least… She should have given some warning to the believers in the other cathedrals and asked them to come support this place, right?”

“I don’t really know much about the Gods either, but this does sound suspicious,” Dog muttered. “Even though the Gods aren’t closely tied to the mortal world, they really do care about their own ‘holy places’. These buildings that gather congregations are like ‘anchors’ for the Gods in the mortal world. Now one of those anchors got pulled out in silence, and after eleven years… there has been no reaction at all. That’s not right.”

Duncan thought for a moment, then suddenly raised his right hand. A tiny flame appeared out of thin air on his fingertip, its ghostly green light shining around the statue.

With a clatter of chains, Dog instantly backed away two steps: “W-What are you going to do?”

“When in doubt, light a little fire,” Duncan said with a smile. “Maybe we can burn something that is hiding into showing itself.”

Dog jumped in fright and almost reminded Duncan that this was the underground sanctum, and they might bring Gamona’s gaze down on them. But before he could say it, he held it back. This place had already been messed up to this degree. Who knew how much holiness it still had? And the big boss in front of him was about to do his proper job as a “Subspace invasion”. Why was he even talking?

Even so, he calmly edged a few more steps away and tugged Shirley to stand farther back as well.

If some kind of divine punishment really struck in a moment, the big boss might not be afraid, but he and Shirley would not be able to take it.

Duncan noticed Dog’s movements, but he did not care.

Of course, he did not want to draw the Storm Goddess’s gaze onto himself. But in the main hall of the cathedral just now, he had already confirmed that this “holy place” had been completely corrupted. Even the statue was wrapped with the power of Subspace. Thinking about how the abnormal state here had been hidden for eleven years without anyone finding it, it was clear that the deity’s link to this place had already been cut.

Now, this place that had once been holy had long lost its holiness. Only shadows remained.

The spirit form flame burned in silence and dropped to the floor like drops of water. The hazy, unreal fire quickly rippled through the underground sanctum and filled the whole room in the blink of an eye.

Then the flames that had spread to every corner slowly went out without a sound.

Shirley and Dog looked at each other. After a long moment, Shirley finally spoke in a careful voice: “Did you… find anything?”

Duncan looked in mild surprise at the little flame still jumping on his finger, then at the empty underground sanctum where nothing at all had happened.

Was there really nothing here? Or… was the Power of Flame not enough to pry up the Veil that covered this place?

He frowned. And just then, a very faint whisper, almost like a hallucination, suddenly entered his ears—

“Who is there?”

Duncan started and snapped his head up, looking toward where the voice had come from.

Gamona’s statue stood quietly in the dark.