Chapter 497

Chapter 497: Brewing Storm

Among all the cultists Duncan had met so far, the ones called Enders were the most mysterious and strange group of all.

Their numbers were far fewer than the believers of the Sun and the cultists of the Cult of Annihilation, but their ability to stir up trouble was unmatched. Their actions were bizarre, their goals a mystery. To this day, no one knew what kind of “organization” they had, how many of them there roughly were, or where they were hiding.

What concerned Duncan even more than their twisted way of acting were their own “traits”—they seemed to exist nonlinearly along the timeline, and every one of them was like that.

In this world, the Churches of the Four Gods and the Authorities of the various city-states grouped the Enders, the cult of the Sun, and the Cult of Annihilation together as the three major cults. But in Duncan’s view, the Preachers were so twisted and so out of step with the others that they ought to be taken out and put in a category of their own.

“From the information we have now, the Enders can be divided into two types. One type is the completely insane, extreme cultists. The other still has reason and even seems polite, like ‘sane scholars’,” Morris said from one side of the long table as he slowly cleaned his pipe and thought aloud. “The latter will actively approach people and try to give ‘mental guidance’ to the ones they choose. Judging by how often they show up, there seem to be far fewer of these ‘rational ones’ than of the mad ones.”

“In the heretic contact reports I know of, every recorded Ender was insane,” Vanna nodded. “That shows that those madmen make up the vast majority of these ‘preachers’. The rational ones are just rare exceptions.”

“They are, after all, a bunch of people tangled up with Subspace all day long—being mentally unstable is basically normal for them,” Dog said offhand, then quickly glanced up at Duncan. “Ah, Captain, I didn’t mean you…”

Duncan ignored Dog’s muttering. He only thought quietly, then suddenly said after a moment: “Whether mad or sane, these two kinds of Enders actually have one thing in common—they are all trying to meddle with ‘history’.”

On both sides of the long table, everyone fell into brief thought. Agatha, who had hardly spoken until now, looked up: “You mean the Ender who first approached the Queen of Frostholm was also acting for some specific ‘future’…?”

“Maybe we should try to look at history from the Enders’s ‘point of view’,” Duncan said, not in a hurry. “If we assume they really are a group of Nonlinear Existences, ‘time smugglers’ of a sort, then what does the ‘history’ we see look like to them?”

The cabin went quiet. After a short silence, Morris’s voice suddenly sounded: “…Everything has already happened, but everything can also not happen. The way the world goes can be adjusted. You only need to find the right ‘correction points’…”

“Exactly. The three Preachers who came to the Vanished a hundred years ago, the ‘mysterious scholar’ who contacted the Queen of Frostholm more than fifty years ago—their actions all greatly changed the later course of history. If we look only at how they ‘intervened in history’, the mad and the sane Enders actually behaved in the same way,” Duncan nodded. “Their difference is that the mad Preachers seem to want to wipe out history completely, while the sane ones seem to want to ‘correct’ history toward some direction they’re hoping for…”

“Correcting history…” Vanna frowned deeply. “That is a dangerous phrase. The Flamebearers devote themselves to protecting our history from outside interference. They are the Church of the True Gods that deals with the Enders the most. And according to the teachings of ‘Everburning Ember Tarrigan’, history has its own strictness and purity. It must not be touched, must not be reshaped—for ‘history’, any kind of ‘correction’ is also a form of damage…”

“Then what if it is restoring history that has already been damaged back to its original state?” Duncan asked, then added, “Of course, I don’t mean the actions of the Enders. I’m just curious about the question itself.”

“…I’m sorry. That already involves the deeper, more complex parts of the Flamebearer Church’s doctrine,” Vanna said after thinking for a moment. She lowered her head with a hint of apology. “Among the Churches of the Four Gods, they act in the most secretive way, and their teachings are the hardest to understand. I know very little about them.”

“Is that so…” Duncan nodded slowly, still thinking, and his gaze moved along the edge of the long table—Agatha, Vanna, and Morris all came into view.

“…We’re still missing an expert on the Flamebearers,” he could not help sighing quietly.

Vanna’s and Morris’s expressions instantly became a bit odd.

Agatha did not change much—she was new here and did not react right away.

Duncan himself did not realize there was anything strange about what he had said—he had only spoken his thoughts out loud. The next second, he changed the subject: “Vanna, do you think the Flamebearers know about the existence of ‘sane Enders’?”

Vanna quickly pushed aside the slightly irreverent thought in her mind. After thinking a little, she answered honestly: “I’m not sure, but logically… I think they do know, or at least they should have noticed something.”

“The followers of ‘Tarrigan’ have spent centuries dealing with heretics and malevolent spirits that try to damage history,” Morris nodded as well. “The Flamebearers are skilled and sharp in this field. And based on what we know, those rational Enders have been active for at least a hundred years. Unless they really only appeared those two times in all that time, and every time they somehow completely slipped past the Flamebearers’ eyes, the Flamebearer Church must have noticed them. We just don’t know why… but the Flamebearers don’t seem to have taken any major action.”

“I’ll try to contact the Storm Cathedral and see if the Pope, Your Eminence, can find out anything from the Flamebearers,” Vanna said at once. “In many cases, cultists with reason are more destructive than simple madmen. Even though, for now, they seem friendly and even look like they have good intentions, I really can’t believe that a group of people who deal with Subspace all day long could have true reason and goodwill…”

Right after she spoke, Vanna suddenly felt that something was wrong. She froze for a second, then quickly turned to Duncan and added: “Ah, Captain, I didn’t mean you…”

Duncan’s face stayed expressionless.

He felt he had heard that line somewhere just now.

Then he waved his hand to show he did not mind. After thinking for a moment more, he finally spoke slowly: “We’re not only going to contact the Storm Cathedral, and the message we send will not only be about those Enders.”

Everyone present exchanged looks. Vanna was the first to react: “You want to send out a warning—like before?”

Duncan nodded with a serious expression.

“This might be even more dangerous than before. The ‘Elder Gods awakening’ incident in Frostholm could very well happen again in the short term. It might be that right now, beneath some city-state, a wrong Elder God replicant has already awakened. There is only one Queen of Frostholm, but there are many city-states on the Boundless Sea. To keep everyone from being caught unprepared, we at least have to let the upper levels of the Churches and the city-states know this crisis exists.”

As he spoke, he looked up at the people on both sides of the long table.

“Vanna, you contact the Storm Cathedral. Morris, you find a way to reach the Academy of Truth. Agatha, you should also have a channel to speak directly with the upper ranks of the Church of Death. You three pass on everything we discussed here today to your Churches as completely as you can: the true structure under the city-states, the situation related to the Abyssal Lord, and the information on the Enders.

“Then there is the Explorer Association. Lawrence, and Lucy as well, think about some reliable way to warn the Explorer Association—about the awakening of the Elder Gods—without causing panic.

“The captains on the Boundless Sea are a sharp, experienced group, and well informed. They are best at noticing if something strange shows up in some corner of this world.

“Tyrian, sort out the matters in Frostholm as soon as you can, then find a way, as governor, to contact the other city-states. Again, without causing panic, think of a way to make the other cities set up an early warning system for ‘Elder Gods awakening’ incidents.”

He said all this in one breath, then gathered his thoughts and went on, explaining and stressing his point: “Remember, tell the Churches as much of the full information as you can. In the supernatural field, they are at least somewhat ‘professional’ and have plenty of people.

“As for the city-states and the Explorer Association, you must weigh things very carefully, because that involves too many ordinary people. When you go back, think hard about how to pass on this ‘warning’ without revealing too much hidden knowledge. Remember, the goal is not to make them uncover the secrets of the Deep Sea, but to make them pay careful attention to any strange signs that might appear under the city-states and along the route.

“I’m done. Do you have anything to add?”

Duncan raised his eyes and quietly looked along both sides of the long table.

At that moment, everyone in the cabin—even Shirley and Alice—suddenly felt that something like a huge wave was building.

A storm strong enough to shake the whole world was taking shape along with the captain’s string of decisions and orders. In this eerie cabin lit by the ghostly green flame, in this hidden meeting with only a dozen people present, the course of the world already seemed faintly decided.

A feeling that he was taking part in history, even shaping history, slowly rose in Lawrence’s heart. He unconsciously felt his breathing quicken and his heart pound.

“This really is going to stir up a storm…”

The old captain, who had only just become a member of the Lost Home Fleet, could not help murmuring to himself.

“It’s not that we’re going to stir up a storm. The storm has already drawn near,” Agatha said softly, shaking her head beside him. “It’s just that no one ever noticed it—and now, we’re going to open the window.”