Chapter 168

Chapter 168: Warnings Spreading.

The sleepy Bishop Valentine saw Inquisitor Vanna rush into the Cathedral in the middle of the night, and the moment he heard her first words, the old man woke up completely.

“Captain Duncan entered your dream?!” Bishop Valentine stared at Vanna in shock. He even wondered if he was still half asleep. “That ghost captain came to you on his own… just to tell you a location and have you investigate it?”

“It is absolutely true, even though I know how unbelievable it sounds.” Vanna nodded hard. On her way here she had already guessed this would be his reaction, but there was nothing she could do. Her confusion was no lighter than Valentine’s. “The small cathedral in the Sixth District… I spoke very little with that ghost captain, and this was the most important information he revealed.”

The old bishop fell silent. In the quiet, he turned around and looked up at the statue of the Storm Goddess at the far end of the sanctuary. After who knew how long, he finally broke the silence in a low voice: “Vanna, do you remember the corruption you picked up at that cult ritual site in the sewers? After that, we carried out an emergency purification. Now it seems…”

“I understand what you mean.” Vanna drew a slow breath, her expression still calm. “Now it seems our purification never actually succeeded. The Vanished is still chasing me, and that ghost captain has already extended his power into my dreams.”

“Are you still clear-headed?” Valentine turned back, his gaze fixed quietly on Vanna’s eyes.

“I am clear-headed. I tested it on my way here. I can fully recite my own name and the Goddess’s name, and recite passages from the Storm Canon.” Vanna nodded. “For now, the corruption seems shallow. Only my dreams are affected. It has not yet spread to my body and actions in the Mortal Realm.”

“Shallow corruption that we still cannot pull out…” Valentine’s tone grew low, his eyes full of worry. “Like an irreversible countdown. And you are the Inquisitor of the Pland city-state. No one can take your place in the short term…”

Vanna understood what the old bishop was trying to say.

She had already suffered mental corruption from a high-level supernatural power. As the Church’s Inquisitor, this “fortress” of hers was already being slowly breached. A fortress about to fall was unreliable, because no one knew how far this corruption would go. No one knew whether the Vanna who woke up the next morning would still be Vanna. Right now she still served the Storm Goddess, but in the next second… no one knew whom she might be loyal to.

If it had been an ordinary guardian or a Father who suffered this kind of corruption, the problem would have been easy to handle. A period of confinement and an exorcism ritual were simple enough. Or, if the city-state were peaceful, she could have temporarily handed her duties to a Deputy and gone into the deepest part of the sanctuary to receive the highest-level “Sacred Quarantine” and “Divine purification”. But…

Now this “Inquisitor” was in an irreplaceable position. Even if they requested aid from the Storm Church headquarters, it would not solve the problem quickly.

“I cannot leave my post.” After a short silence, Vanna shook her head. She knew she was giving the old bishop a hard problem, but she had to keep fulfilling her duties. “I have a very bad feeling. We are facing a real, massive crisis. This crisis might not even come from the Vanished or the Sun fragment. An even greater shadow is lurking inside the city-state. At a time like this, I cannot hand the Inquisitor’s duties to anyone, not even to my most trusted Deputy.”

Valentine heard a different kind of seriousness in Vanna’s tone and immediately frowned slightly: “A crisis beyond the Vanished and the Sun fragment? Have you discovered something recently?”

“I have been investigating some things in the archives. I was actually planning to tell you tomorrow morning, but now it seems the situation is far more complicated than expected, and its urgency needs to be raised.” Vanna nodded, her face unusually serious. “I began to doubt the time node of the Sun fragment’s appearance in Pland. Based on that, I called up records from 1889 and earlier. In them I found a large number of heretic worship records. They were all marked as low urgency, but they were strange and very dense…”

As Vanna slowly explained, Bishop Valentine’s eyes opened wider and wider.

“These records were just lying quietly in our archives?” When Vanna finished, Valentine cried out, his face full of disbelief. “All this time, no one noticed? Not even that missing year, 1885…”

“No one noticed. It is as if someone ‘stole’ a part of our city-state. Certain obvious pieces of the Mortal Realm simply vanished from everyone’s sight.” Vanna spoke in a low voice. “And that kind of disappearance… does not look like something the Sun fragment could cause.”

Valentine tightened his grip on his scepter. His knuckles turned slightly white from the force.

“What connection do you think there is between this and the information ‘Captain Duncan’ passed to you in your dream?” he suddenly asked.

“I am not sure. First, stealing Mortal Realm from a city-state is not an ability of the Vanished. Second, if this really were the work of that ghost captain, he would have no reason to then corrupt my dreams just to tell me key clues. That does not match the rough and chaotic behavior style recorded about him.” Vanna analyzed calmly. “Unless… he suddenly changed his nature, turned into some vicious demon who plays with the world. Or…”

“Or what?”

“Or he became someone very concerned about the city-state’s safety. A warm-hearted citizen who comes to me to report any dangerous factor he sees.” Vanna spread her hands.

“Ahem, that is a Subspace-level joke.” Valentine coughed at once, then glared at Vanna. “Do not joke like this when you know you are already under the gaze of a high-level supernatural being. It makes me doubt your mental state.”

He thumped his chest a couple of times. After he steadied his breath, he again fixed his gaze on Vanna: “Besides you, who else knows about the anomaly you found in the archives?”

Vanna thought for a moment, then shook her head: “Only I know. I went to check on my own…”

She suddenly paused, as if her thoughts had snagged for a second, then shook her head again: “I went by myself to check the files.”

“Good… If there really is a conscious hand behind this, they probably have not noticed that their scheme has been exposed.” Valentine let out a breath, then had to admit she had been right just now. “You really cannot leave your post now… You must already have an investigation plan for those records, yes?”

“Yes. It includes coordinated actions with City Hall.”

“Start tomorrow. I will give you every support.” Valentine nodded at once. “In addition, I will also report what happened here to the Pope. I hope the great Storm Cathedral can provide us with some help…”

As he spoke, the old man thought for a few seconds, then asked: “Can you still pray normally to the Goddess?”

“Yes.” Vanna answered at once. “My connection with the Goddess has not been affected by that dream.”

Valentine frowned: “But the Goddess has not given any revelation or warning about your mental corruption?”

“…No.” Vanna hesitated, then still nodded in admission. “The Goddess has not warned me.”

Valentine rubbed his chin. After thinking deeply for a moment, he suddenly raised his head and fixed his gaze on Vanna again: “For the time being, you must come back to the Cathedral to rest every night. Do not sleep anywhere outside the Cathedral. Also, you must carry the Storm Canon with you at all times when you are out. And if, while you are outside, you feel anomalous drowsiness or fatigue, you must immediately go to the nearest cathedral. Can you do that?”

“I can.”

“…Sigh, I hope you will not think of this as some kind of harsh treatment or doubt.” The old bishop sighed. Even though Vanna agreed very firmly, he still could not help explaining. “You cannot leave your post right now, and there is no priest in Pland ranked higher than you who can act as your ‘supervisor’. This is a necessary arrangement, made on the premise of keeping you able to perform your basic duties…”

“Do not worry, of course I understand.” Vanna showed a faint smile and instead comforted the old bishop before her. “I know as well as you what kind of dangerous things we are fighting. Compared to those seniors who died because they lacked experience and theory, we are already very fortunate to still be fighting under the protection of rules.”

She paused, then went on: “So, about the small cathedral in the Sixth District…”

“It must be investigated. No matter what purpose that ghost captain had in coming to you, we have to go and take a look at that cathedral.” Valentine nodded slowly. “And… when I tried to recall it just now, I could not even remember who is in charge there. It seems something really is wrong.”

“All right. I will personally lead a team there tomorrow.”

“Mm.” Valentine nodded slightly, then looked at Vanna with curiosity. “Aside from the matter of the small cathedral, what else did that ghost captain say to you?”

If he had not asked, it would have been better. The moment he did, Vanna’s expression turned strange.

Valentine asked: “…Why that look on your face?”

“He did say one more sentence. A very bizarre sentence.” Vanna’s face was full of hesitation. “I do not know whether we should take it seriously…”

“There is no ‘should’ about it. The more unbelievable something is, the more likely it is the key!” Valentine’s eyes widened at once. “What did he say?”

Vanna hesitated for two seconds, then finally let out a long breath and said very seriously: “Make some fries.”

Valentine: “…”

After a moment of silence, the old bishop finally spoke again: “Really?”

“Absolutely. As real as my faith in the Goddess.”

“…Ah. Then that really is… really a bit too unbelievable…”