Chapter 695

Chapter 695: An Unprecedented Situation

When the bell rang, Vanna had just finished her evening prayer on the deck. She stepped into the corridor, ready to return to her room, and saw Morris hurrying into the corridor from the other side.

With just one glance, she guessed something from the serious look on Morris’s face.

“You also heard the call of the Swift Bell?”

“Yes. Looks like you heard it too,” Morris nodded. “The bell has rung three times already—I was just about to hold the psychic resonance ritual.”

“…But it’s still the Deep Sea Church’s duty period,” Vanna widened her eyes a little as soon as she heard that. “How could you hear the bell?”

Morris let out a slow breath: “I don’t know. That’s why we need to go to the assembly and figure out what happened… It seems we are dealing with an unprecedented situation.”

Seeing the grave look on the old scholar’s face, Vanna thought of the string of unsettling events lately. Then she nodded silently. The two passed each other and went back to their rooms.

The soft sound of the sea echoed in her ears. The feeling of being submerged in water slowly wrapped around her. Vanna hurried back to her room and began the ritual. She watched the candles on the stand in front of her burn and swell in her sight. The jumping flames turned into a hazy glare. Her restless mood slowly calmed with the sound of the waves.

After a brief dizziness and a reset of her senses, she opened her eyes again and found she had arrived, in the form of a spirit projection, at that sacred ancient “assembly ground.”

Majestic stone pillars stood at the far end of the vast plaza. Chaotic darkness and never-ending streams of light swirled above the pillars. The ground was covered in old stone slabs, mottled and cracked. All across this huge assembly ground, the spirit projections of the Saints were gathering in a rush.

Vanna stood in a corner of the plaza, a bit stunned. She stared wide-eyed at the countless vague figures all around her. She had never seen so many spirit projections appear in the assembly ground at the same time. There was no doubt that these could not all be the Saints of the storm goddess.

It was clear that Morris was not the only Outer Gods believer who had heard the bell during the Deep Sea Church’s duty period.

All the Saints of the four Churches had gathered!

And people were still arriving. More and more spirit projections appeared on the open spaces of the plaza, many of them looking like they had arrived in a rush. Though it was indeed the Deep Sea Church’s duty period, every Saint who heard the Swift Bell still obeyed the iron rule agreed on by the Four Gods Church. As soon as the bell rang, they answered without hesitation and came to this assembly ground as fast as they could.

The dazed and confused spirit projections gathered together, buzzing as they discussed this unusual situation. Vanna walked among her fellow believers, listening to the talk around her as she headed toward the center of the plaza.

A hazy figure came over from the side and greeted her: “Vanna! I was looking for you—what is going on?”

Vanna turned toward the voice and at once recognized Bishop Valentine’s spirit projection. She nodded to him, then shook her head: “I don’t know either. But it looks like every qualified Saint from the four Churches heard the summoning bell… Mr. Morris should be here in the assembly ground too.”

“…The Swift Bell is sounded by the Pilgrimage Ark, but its source lies in the ‘direction’ from the Nameless King’s Tomb. If every Saint received the summons, the only explanation is that the Nameless King’s Tomb has actively sent out a strong signal to ‘gather everyone’…” Bishop Valentine’s tone was grave. He turned his head and fixed his gaze on the still-empty center of the plaza. Only after a long time did he look away. “This ancient covenant ritual has run stably for thousands of years, and nothing like this has ever happened.”

“…Maybe it’s connected to the recent ‘extinguishing of the Sun.’ Some great change is getting closer…” Vanna said softly. Then she suddenly felt something and looked to the side.

Another hazy figure, but one with a familiar aura, appeared in her sight.

It was Morris’s spirit projection.

Vanna at once walked toward him. Before she got close, she heard him speak first: “It seems things are just as I thought. I’m not the only extra one who heard the bell.”

“Yes. It looks like all the Saints are here… Maybe we should be thankful this place is big enough,” Vanna sighed, her tone a bit odd. “The ‘tomb’ itself hasn’t appeared yet. When it does… I don’t know what it’s going to proclaim to us.”

Morris did not answer. He only nodded seriously. After greeting Bishop Valentine, whom he had not seen for some time, he turned with Vanna to look toward the center of the plaza.

Just then, four special figures appeared in the Saints’ field of view, one after another.

Helena, Rune, Banster, and Frem—the heralds of the Four Gods—entered the assembly ground. Among the many vague, ghostly spirit projections, their clear forms were especially striking.

The appearance of the four Popes caused a brief stir, but it soon died down. The Saints restored order and quickly calmed down thanks to the presence of their leaders.

Today’s situation was far from normal. Many of the Saints who had heard the bell “extra” were confused and uneasy. Even so, the appearance of their leaders was a comforting sign. At the very least, it meant the present situation was still under the Church’s control.

Then Vanna noticed that the four Popes, the four Your Eminences, were walking straight toward her.

Her expression suddenly turned a bit awkward.

Under many gazes, full of gaze and formal greetings, Helena and Rune and the others stopped in front of Vanna. Helena spoke first: “The tomb hasn’t appeared yet?”

Vanna froze for a second: “Uh… not yet…”

“Good,” Helena nodded. “Then we’ll wait a little.”

Vanna did not even have time to react. She just nodded along in a daze: “…All right.”

Then the four Popes really did turn around and start patiently waiting with Vanna for that ancient, mysterious tomb to appear.

Vanna felt her mood grow very strange. She sensed that old Mr. Morris beside her was also giving her a slightly puzzled look, but she had no idea how to explain any of this. She could only give an awkward smile—she did not even know if, in this hazy spirit projection form, Morris could see the complicated look on her face.

Just then, another especially tall figure somehow appeared beside Vanna. He reached out and patted this Inquisitor miss on the shoulder: “Will we have to wait long?”

Vanna did not turn around. She answered naturally without thinking: “Hard to say, but usually the tomb shows up a few minutes after all the Saints arrive at the venue…”

She suddenly stopped.

The space around her seemed to fall silent at once.

Banster and Frem’s expressions froze a little. Helena and Rune’s necks turned stiff as they slowly turned their heads. Vanna also slowly turned and looked toward the source of the voice—

Duncan was standing there, looking (in his opinion) completely harmless as he faced the familiar people in front of him.

After a moment of silence, Vanna finally let out a cry that shattered the stillness: “Captain?! Why are you here?!”

Her cry was like a stone thrown into water. The brief quiet over the assembly ground at once turned into a roaring boil. Shouts of surprise rose one after another. Explosive discussions burst out in waves. Many spirit projections stepped back in shock. Tension, vigilance, and astonishment flooded outward in an instant and spread through the crowd.

Exactly as expected.

Duncan glanced back at the commotion over the plaza, then turned and spread his hands with a helpless look: “To be honest, I didn’t think there would be this many people.”

Vanna felt her brain start to lag. The Popes, however, had already reacted. They spoke in unison, giving a loud order—

“Silence!”

A great power went out with their words. Helena, Rune, Banster, and Frem swept their will over the entire assembly ground. Duncan did not know exactly what they did, but he could feel that the crowd, which had been slipping into chaos just a second ago, suddenly seemed to understand and accept the situation. Although unease still flowed through the air, order had been restored in the assembly ground.

Once order was restored, Helena turned her head first. She fixed her gaze on Duncan: “How did you come here?”

Duncan thought for a moment, then raised his hand and lightly swept it through the air beside him.

A skeletal roc wrapped in green flame flashed through the darkness.

“I came by pigeon.”

Helena: “…?”

“I heard the bell,” Duncan said when he noticed the rich, complicated looks on the Popes’ faces. After thinking for a moment, he added: “Don’t ask me the exact reason—when the bell rang, I just heard it. Then I noticed the gathering of spirit forms. Maybe because the four Pilgrimage Arks are all in Lightwind Harbor right now, this ‘gathering’ was very obvious to me, like lights in the night… I’ve always been curious about your ‘assembly,’ so I decided to give it a try. Mostly I tried following Vanna’s soul-starlight, and I ended up here.”

Helena stared, dumbfounded: “…That works?!”

Duncan thought seriously, then nodded: “I think it works.”

Helena: “…”

Vanna seemed already used to this. As soon as Duncan said “I think it works,” she accepted the situation as a matter of course (mainly because the athlete’s ability to adapt to new environments was very strong) and said: “Then what do you think about today’s special situation?”

“I don’t know,” Duncan said very honestly. “This is my first time here. What do you usually do after you all gather? Is there some kind of procedure?”

“We wait for Vision 004—Nameless King’s Tomb to appear,” Frem’s deep voice sounded beside him. He always seemed calm and steady, even now, his tone still as formal as ever. “Then a gravekeeper appears. The chosen one will be led into the tomb chamber.”

Duncan listened with great interest and slowly nodded.

As if to prove Frem’s words, a low rumble suddenly rose from the center of the plaza, at last breaking off all conversation!