Chapter 335

Chapter 335: No Longer Real

The fight in the alley had been fierce but short. From the moment the two cultists’ movements were exposed to the end of the battle, only a few minutes had actually passed. But Vanna believed that in those few minutes they had made enough noise to draw the night guardians over.

Of course, whether in terms of position or strength, she was not afraid of Frostholm’s guardians – but this was not the time to start extra trouble.

Just as she was wondering how to signal Duncan, who had gone into the building, that dark, heavy door happened to open.

Duncan and Morris appeared in the light.

In the next second, Duncan strode quickly toward the alley where Vanna and Alice were. Morris, meanwhile, turned back to close the door and traced patterns in the air above it, patterns that looked like ancient letters, as if he were offering a prayer to the God of Wisdom to call on some extraordinary power.

“I sensed the commotion outside,” Duncan came to stand before Vanna and Alice, glanced up at the alley, frowned slightly, and asked quickly, “What happened?”

“As we expected, there were indeed Annihilators watching this place – Alice noticed their traces, and we fought with them for a short time,” Vanna answered at once. “Both heretics are dead, no one escaped. But the noise from the fight may have drawn the guardians. They will be here soon.”

“Alice noticed them?” Duncan glanced in surprise at the doll girl beside him, then saw the strange look on Vanna’s face and realized what had just happened was probably much more complicated than it sounded. He did not press for details, only nodded quickly. “No time for talk now. Get ready to move.”

“I have already erased the traces we left,” Morris had finished cleaning up and walked over. “When Galina wakes up, she will forget everything from the past twenty-four hours. Even a very skilled psychiatrist digging through her memories should not be able to recover much.”

“Good.”

Duncan nodded slightly. He did not actually care much about hiding his tracks, but having fewer people get in the way at the start of an operation certainly was not a bad thing.

Then he raised his hand and made a calling gesture into the darkness.

The flapping of wings broke the stillness of the night. The White Dove that had been perched on a nearby rooftop swooped toward them. A second later, a ghostly green flame flashed through the alley, and only the sound of beating wings was left, fading away into the veil of night.

The streets and alleys fell quiet again. Only after a few more minutes did a series of hurried footsteps and the swinging light of consecrated lanterns appear on the distant street.

…

Ai did not go very far – in fact, it only flew to the next block and found a place to land near an old factory.

It was a small corrugated-iron hut that no one lived in.

The metal hut leaned against the old factory. One of its windows had a hole, not too big and not too small. Ai slipped through the gap into the hut. As the spirit form flame flared up, the figures of Duncan and the other three appeared inside.

Vanna quickly looked around. Thick dust lay over the old hut. In one corner there was a plank bed and a simple table with chairs. A pile of odds and ends lay heaped on the other side of the room. The cold wind howled outside, and the hole in the nearby window let out a whining sound in the gusts.

“It is for pump-room maintenance workers to rest in. Outside inspection periods, no one usually stays here – though I don’t know when the inspection period is, at least today this is a place we can use for a while,” Vanna said as she walked to the window. She looked outside through the dirty glass. The old factory not far away stood silent in the veil of night. The lights in the plant were clear, and she could hear the sound of machines running inside. “The factory is still operating. A factory that runs day and night like this will certainly have a priest on duty. If an extraordinary fight breaks out in the nearby streets, the plant’s alert level will go up as well.”

“That won’t be a big problem. We just won’t light anything. They won’t be able to sense us here anyway,” Duncan said casually. “We’ll stay here until dawn before we move again – is that all right?”

As he spoke, he glanced at the three people in his view.

Alice was a cursed doll. Vanna was a strong, beautiful maiden. Even Morris, the older gentleman who looked the weakest, was an extraordinary who commanded many kinds of divine magic. In terms of strength, Duncan did not need to worry about them. He only wondered if the cold winter night in this northern city-state would be too harsh on an old mister like Morris.

“Don’t worry,” Morris obviously noticed Duncan’s glance. He smiled slightly and drew in front of his chest the Sacred Sigils granted by the God of Wisdom Rahm. “Until just two years ago, I often went to explore ancient ruins and cursed wasteland realms at the edge of dangerous seas. The conditions there were far harsher than here. Scholarly research has never been easy work, especially when it deals with history.”

Duncan thought for a moment and felt that the old mister was right.

In this world, being a historian or a folklorist really was a tough job. Even scholars who preferred to stay at home needed a few powerful tricks up their sleeves. After all, they ended up fighting the very things they were researching every so often. cursed books and bewitched relics were not the sort of things that sat quietly in display cases.

All the more so for an all-rounder scholar like Morris – Duncan suspected the man had probably mastered hand-to-hand combat and survival in the wild long before he ever turned to studying history…

“We could also get in touch with the informants Captain Tyrian placed in this city,” Vanna said at the side. “They should be able to help arrange lodging and provide information…”

“I’ll contact them, but not yet,” Duncan waved his hand, then his expression grew a little more serious. “From today on, whenever we deal with anyone in Frostholm, we have to be ready to examine them carefully. That includes the so-called ‘informants’ Tyrian mentioned.”

Vanna froze for a second, then realized what he meant. “You have confirmed that ‘Brown Scott’…”

“He was a Deep Sea replica, and he had already broken down on his own. We were a step too late and only found a few clues he left behind,” Duncan said, shaking his head. “But we had more or less expected that. Besides that, we saw a female apprentice in that house whose memory and understanding were in complete chaos – she is an ordinary person.”

Vanna’s expression immediately turned serious as well.

“She is Brown’s student, named Galina. In her memories and understanding, all parts related to her mentor dying in a shipwreck have already been completely erased,” Morris said from the side. “And in the captain’s and my judgment, this kind of thing… may no longer be an isolated case in Frostholm.”

“From a little more than half a month ago, Tyrian started to receive strange and contradictory reports,” Duncan continued. “Sometimes the reports said there were cases of ‘the dead returning’ in Frostholm. Sometimes they said it was all rumors and that the so-called dead had been normal residents of Frostholm from the very start. At times, these completely opposite reports even came from the same informant. At first, Tyrian thought this was the authorities of Frostholm controlling the flow of information, that the church was stepping in to reduce the impact of the strange events on the residents. But now it seems… it is very likely caused by confusion in people’s minds.”

“Captain Tyrian’s informants are spread all across Frostholm… you mean this is a corruption of cognition and memory that covers the entire city-state?!” Vanna realized how serious this was. “Then right now in this city-state…”

“No one can say how many people are replicants and how many are originals. And that’s the lesser problem. replicas shouldn’t escape my eyes. Once I meet them, I can tell quickly. The real trouble is the ordinary people who are already not normal…” Duncan said. He paused, thought for a short moment, then shook his head. “In short, the informants Tyrian left in this city are no longer that reliable. Some of them may already have been replaced. Some may have had their minds twisted. Some might even now be eyes and ears for the Annihilators… when we contact them, we must be cautious.”

Vanna nodded solemnly – but in her eyes, a spark of joy was slowly rising.

A cold, mysterious northern city-state. Residents constantly being replaced. The spies once planted in the city no longer to be trusted. Ordinary citizens who looked harmless and normal slowly growing warped memories and minds. Unreliable voices filling the whole city as corruption spread under the surface –

This was good, because everything here fell right back into her area of expertise.

Eliminating heretics. Purifying corruption.

She was beginning to understand another reason Pope Helena had sent her to serve aboard the Vanished.

Pland, where the Church had already secured a peaceful veil of night, no longer needing a inquisitor like her. But as long as she stayed with the Vanished, she would always have a stage where she could fully use her talents.

Duncan gave Vanna a strange look.

“Is it just my imagination, or did your mood suddenly get better?”

“Ah, I just thought about how I can keep hunting heretics. That made me a little happy.”

Duncan opened his mouth, but for a moment he did not know how to comment on this young inquisitor. Very soon, though, he turned his attention to something else.

He looked at the doll who was standing nearby, lost in thought.

“Morris and I have finished reporting our progress. It’s time to talk about what happened on your side.”