Chapter 166

Chapter 166: The Captain Awaits You in Dreamwalking.

Over this period of time, Duncan wrote down all the known information one by one on paper. He then drew lines between them according to how they were connected. Among these clues, he threaded in Nina and Shirley’s memories of the great fire, as well as their own “dreams” that had clearly already become distorted.

After he finished listing all the clues, Duncan started a new line at the bottom of the chart. He frowned, fell into thought, and while thinking, he wrote down a few sentences—

First, in this world, everything could undergo “corruption”—everything except Subspace.

Second, the Mortal Realm of this world was built on unstable foundations. Space was unstable, time was unstable, and even the Mortal Realm itself was not necessarily as unshakable as people perceived.

Third, the power of Subspace had already invaded Pland. The Visions inside that small Cathedral in the Sixth District were proof of it. The shard of the Sun from eleven years ago might not have been the key part of the whole affair at all. In terms of “rank”… it was far more likely that Subspace itself had brought about Pland’s current Anomaly.

Duncan put down his fountain pen and looked at the three lines he had written. They were not clues, but “premises” and “conclusions” that had a great deal to do with Pland’s current state.

His gaze fell on the first line. It was the shortest, yet it was the foundation of everything. The “inspiration” for it came from an offhand remark he had overheard when he went to open an account at the city-state bank.

Thoughtful, he picked up the pen again and drew a line from that item to one of the clues above—the Cathedral in the Sixth District that was in a Space-Time Lock.

The corruption had started from the Cathedral. It showed itself as disordered time and space and an overlay of different “world-lines”. The level of corruption was very high. By the look of it, even the Storm Goddess’s monitoring of the Mortal Realm had been affected… So how exactly was this kind of corruption being carried out? Was what had been corrupted… really only the Cathedral itself?

He recalled what he had said when he parted ways with Shirley—that this matter ought to be made bigger, but an ordinary citizen’s report was not quite enough.

As he thought, a faint smile appeared on Duncan’s face. He turned his head and looked at the pigeon pacing back and forth on the windowsill.

The pigeon stopped at once and stared straight at Duncan: “There’s murderous intent!”

Duncan ignored it completely and snapped his fingers.

A tuft of ghostly green flame burst out of the spirit compass in AI’s chest. The spirit compass opened, and its needle began to spin. The boundary between the Mortal Realm and illusion blurred in an instant. Duncan’s vision swayed, and he stepped into the state of walking in the Spirit Realm. That familiar dark, chaotic space and the countless starlights filling it appeared before his eyes.

He stood still in the depths of the darkness and took a gentle breath to steady himself. Then he followed a faint sense and drew near a point of starlight not far away.

He came to the starlight. Without actually touching it, he could clearly sense the mind of that young Inquisitor. On the other side of this starlight was Vanna’s spirit.

Compared to the first time he had found this point of starlight, Duncan could clearly feel that the connection between him and Vanna had grown much stronger. Her last visit to the antique shop with Heidi had strengthened the link between them, and that strengthened connection could now be put to use.

Duncan turned his head and looked into the darkness beside him. AI, in spirit form, was circling in midair in boredom. When the bird noticed its Master’s gaze, it flew over at once: “Who is calling the fleet?”

“Remember how we connected to Shirley’s mind last time?”

AI thought for a moment and tilted its head: “You have to pay extra!”

“This time it will indeed be a bit harder. The other party is a devout Saint, so her will should be much firmer than Shirley’s, and it might even draw the Storm Goddess’s attention,” Duncan said with a slight nod. But he still slowly stretched out his finger, inching toward that cluster of starlight. “Still, the connection between Vanna and me has already been strengthened. If we only make a shallow contact and do no damage, it shouldn’t be a big problem.

“After all, this is just a righteous complaint from a concerned captain.”

The next second, his fingertip touched the starlight.

Waves of illusory surf seemed to come from some boundless distance, then vanished in an instant. Before Duncan even had time to notice the sound of the sea, he felt himself make contact with a mind.

…

Vanna rubbed her eyes and lowered her head. She saw that she was holding a thick file in her hands. She looked up again and saw that she was sitting in her room. Her dressing table was in front of her, and in the mirror of the table, her slightly tired face was reflected.

A brief daze rose from deep inside her, but she quickly shook her head and remembered what she had been doing.

She had been continuing her investigation into records of Heretic worship in the city-state of Pland before 1889. After leaving the archives, she had borrowed a portion of the documents she had not yet had time to study in detail from the old priest serving as the Warden there and brought the files home.

At the archives, she and that old priest had discovered an abnormal gap in the records for 1885, but in the end they had not found the files that had vanished. This unusual matter had raised her suspicions. As an Inquisitor who specialized in investigating Heretic cases, she had already decided this would be one of the main focuses of her next round of investigations.

She would assign clerical priests to look up files in several other archives in the city-state. She would have them extract public security reports for the corresponding years from City Hall. She would send Guardian squads to visit and watch the sites where Heretic worship had taken place that year. She would consult Bishop Valentine to see whether they could receive further instructions from the Goddess…

Vanna already had a rough plan for what came next. Before this series of actions unfolded, she first had to finish compiling all Heretic worship incidents between 1886 and 1889.

She glanced at the sky outside and saw the World’s Wound hanging high in the night. Its pale glow spilled over the whole city-state.

She lowered her head again and saw that she was only halfway through the thick file in her hands. Maybe she had been reading for too long and her eyes were tired. The lines of text looked a little blurry.

Wait, no!

Vanna suddenly snapped to attention. She slammed the file shut and turned to look out the window.

It was midnight now, the time when the World’s Wound had the strongest influence. Reading books at this hour was an extremely dangerous act. Even Stewards who had gone through special training avoided reading any text for that one hour around midnight. Let alone that what she had in front of her right now was a highly dangerous historical file she had borrowed from the archives!

A trained member of the Clergy would not make such a mistake… This was not the Mortal Realm. This was her own dream, a dream that was being influenced!

Vanna’s gaze sharpened. The instant she realized her dream had been invaded, she began to search the surroundings for any trace of Intruders. In the next second, she saw them—

On the dressing table right in front of her, in that oval mirror ringed with patterns, a dark and stern figure stood quietly in the shadows. Illusory green flames quietly burned along the edge of the mirror.

The figure, his expression gloomy and imposing, stood there and fixed a calm gaze on Vanna through the mirror. Only when Vanna looked up did he show a faint smile. A deep voice came from within the mirror: “Good evening, Vanna. This is our first meeting—but I have watched you for a long time. You may call me…”

“Captain Duncan!” Before the voice in the mirror finished speaking, Vanna reacted. This well-trained Inquisitor sprang backward a full two meters, kicking the stool out of the way as she moved. The moment she landed, she forced her mind into focus, pulled her greatsword out of thin air, and swung it down in a leaping strike!

Duncan: “…?!”

There was a deafening crash. The entire dressing table shattered, and the mirror exploded under the blow into countless pieces flying through the air. Duncan’s image turned into scattered light in front of Vanna’s eyes.

Shards of glass clattered to the floor. Vanna gripped her greatsword tight and swept a fierce gaze around her like a lioness already in battle. At the same time, she began to murmur a benediction and tried to use the mental self-control techniques she had trained in to break free of this corrupted dream and force herself awake.

Yet just as she felt herself about to reach the world of the Mortal Realm, that deep, commanding voice sounded again, echoing in her ears:

“Your reaction surprised me a little.”

Vanna’s eyes flew wide. She looked toward the source of the voice and saw only the broken fragments of the mirror scattered all over the room.

On the surface of every shard, illusory flames began to quietly rise. Inside every shard, a Captain Duncan stood silently in the darkness.

This legendary Great Terror, the moving calamity of the Boundless Sea, looked at the fully alert Vanna with a hint of helplessness in his gaze.

“Relax a little, child. I only want to talk to you about something,” came the voices of a thousand Captain Duncans, shaking Vanna’s resolve. “It concerns Pland…”

“So it’s the mirror…” the young Inquisitor murmured to herself.

Duncan: “Hm?”

Vanna did not answer. Instead, she angled the tip of her greatsword down toward the floor and suddenly smashed her fist into the blade!

There was a thunderous boom. The powerful impact turned into a controlled shockwave that raged through the room. In the next second, every smooth, mirror-like surface in the room turned to dust. Not a single intact reflective surface remained!

The room grew quiet again. Vanna let out a soft breath and slowly straightened up.

She saw Captain Duncan standing quietly in front of her.

No matter how she blinked or shifted her gaze, Captain Duncan remained at the center of her vision, his eyes fixed on hers in a gaze.

“Your guess was not quite accurate. It is not just mirrors, but anything smooth as a mirror,” the ghost captain’s dark, imposing voice sounded directly in her mind. “Right now, I am in your crystalline lenses.”