Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Underground Assembly Hall

The robed, hooded figures naturally noticed Duncan, who stood in the middle of the path without dodging.

Duncan still looked the way he had when he first left the cave. His thin and dried-up body wore tattered clothes. The rags he had wrapped around his upper body hid the big hole in his chest. He stood in the middle of the path, looking as if he had been frightened still by the sudden appearance of these “hooded people”. The robed figures were clearly surprised too. They froze for a moment, and then the one in the lead suddenly shouted: “A sacrificial victim has escaped!”

Right after that, Duncan saw them running toward him. One of them shouted as he ran: “Hurry! Cut him off! Don’t let him get away!”

Duncan shrugged. He just kept watching these figures who, in every way, did not look like good people, running toward him while his face stayed blank. After weighing the situation, he had no intention of running at all. But the people on the other side still shouted as they charged: “Don’t let him run!” “A sacrificial victim has escaped!”

Duncan’s honest choice to stand there without moving actually made the whole scene awkward. The ones who were running and shouting clearly felt something was wrong halfway. Their cries stopped on their own, yet they still had to keep running toward him. Duncan could almost smell the mix of embarrassment and anger from under their dark hoods. Then these embarrassed and angry people surrounded him from front, back, left, and right.

Only then did Duncan look around at the figures around him. After hesitating for a moment, he said: “Should I have tried to run just now? The mood seemed to call for it…”

The robed figures acted as if they had not heard Duncan’s dry joke. They only gave him a wary, cautious glance, then turned to look in the direction behind Duncan. Two of them ducked their heads and whispered to each other. Duncan faintly heard what they said:

“Why is there one out here?”

“Did those hounds from the Church find this hideout… but he doesn’t look like someone they let out…”

“We’ll take him back first. There is something wrong with this escaped sacrificial victim… we have to deal with him quickly.”

“Let the Envoy decide.”

Duncan had no idea who these people were, and he did not know what this “Envoy” they mentioned was. But thinking of what he had seen along the way and the word “sacrificial victim” they used, he already had a rough guess about some of the truth here.

He did not know how a “normal sacrificial victim” was supposed to react, and he had no wish to cooperate in their little “play”. He was outside the Vanished now, and using only a temporary body, so he had very little to worry about. After briefly looking around, he simply asked: “Where are you taking me?”

The robed figures were clearly surprised that this “sacrificial victim” spoke so calmly. Even though black veils on their hoods hid their faces completely, Duncan could still guess their expressions. One black-robed man glared at the “sacrificial victim” through his veil and lowered his voice: “You have no right to ask questions — take him.”

Several black-robed men stepped forward at once, but before they could lay hands on him, Duncan took a step on his own and said: “No need to drag me. I’ll go with you.”

The black-robed men looked at each other. They probably thought this “sacrificial victim” was not right in the head. The leader only waved his hand and said: “Even better. You can’t escape anyway… come with us, and you might at least greet glory in a decent way.”

The black-robed men closed in around Duncan, blocking every “escape route” in front and behind, and led him deeper into the sewer.

The foul and dirty smell in the sewer was enough to make anyone sick, but the black-robed men seemed not to notice it at all. They walked calmly along the moldy, filthy path. Duncan followed them in silence, his face blank, while he pricked up his ears to listen to their talk. The black robes did not speak much, but in a few short exchanges, Duncan still heard some useful words, like “Pland”, “governor”, and “Church”.

“This is the city-state of Pland?” Duncan suddenly asked, as calmly as if he were chatting with old friends.

“Obviously…” one of the black-robed men answered without thinking, then suddenly realized something and gave Duncan a startled look. “You’re quite calm, kid. Do you know what’s going to happen next?”

“I can roughly guess,” Duncan said with a nod, even showing a small smile. Then he tested them with another question: “The true Sun God… right?”

The black-robed men clearly paused for a moment. They seemed to get the wrong idea from Duncan’s strange reaction. One of them whispered to his companion: “Wait, could he also be a believer of the Lord?”

“Impossible. He’s clearly an escaped sacrificial victim…” another black robe whispered, then glanced at Duncan. “You are clever, but don’t think that will spare you from the sacrificial rite… Our Lord has already judged your fate. You had better accept it gladly.”

Duncan did not comment. He knew his overly calm reaction had made these suspected cultists imagine the wrong story. They probably thought he was just pretending to be calm and acting as a “believer” to try to live. But only Duncan knew the truth.

This temporary body had trouble even moving normally. The muscles on his face were stiff, as if the nerves at the edges had died… of course all that was left was a calm, blank expression.

He did not care what these cultists thought. He only wanted to gather as much information as possible during this “one-time expedition”. So he casually asked: “You think the ‘Sun’ in the sky now is the False Sun? You think it will fall one day?”

“The false Sun will certainly fall in the end!” This was clearly a topic that could excite these cultists. Duncan got exactly the heated reaction he had hoped for from one of them: “Even those dogs of the Holy See have to admit in the history books that the Sun in the sky only appeared after the Great Annihilation, as a twisted and bizarre thing! The one that truly brought life and order to all things in this world was the Sun God. But our Lord’s divine authority was stolen by that vile impostor… That vile impostor will fall from the sky sooner or later!”

Then Duncan heard the cultists around him all join in: “The False Sun will fall sooner or later!” “The true Sun God will soon awaken!” “The extra seawater in this world will be driven back into the void of deep space by the Sun God’s power. The land will return to an age of plenty and stability!”

As he listened to these cultists, who were clearly getting carried away, Duncan’s thoughts spun rapidly. He knew fanatics like these could not be judged by common sense, and what they believed was mostly twisted and altered information. But some of what they let slip was still worth noting—

The “Sun” hanging in the sky was a fake…

The true Sun had had its divine authority stolen…

They believed the true Sun was a fallen deity, and they believed this deity would “rise again from blood and fire”…

They had also spoken of the extra seawater in the world, and of an age of plenty and stability… What did those words mean?

Duncan’s mind was full of thoughts, and the cultists soon calmed down again. They still remembered their task, and that they were escorting an escaped “sacrificial victim”. The ones closest to Duncan fell back into silence, while the two walking at the very back muttered softly:

“Don’t you think this ‘sacrificial victim’ is a bit strange?”

“Something is off about him… I feel uneasy.”

“Maybe when he ran earlier, he stayed too long in the lightless underground, and something down there messed with his mind…”

“All the better. The Lord’s power will purify him.”

Duncan listened to the talk behind him. He paid special attention to the phrase “lightless underground”. Just as he hoped to get more information from their chatter, the black-robed leader stopped walking.

“We are here.”

The cultist in the black robe spoke in a low, cold voice.

Duncan felt a hint of regret, but then the sight in front of him took all his attention.

Ahead was the end of this stretch of tunnel, the place where several sewers met. In this wide space, like a small underground hall, there was an assembly of black-robed cultists!