Chương 31: Chapter 31 Remnant

Biên tập viên: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Fenna lifted her head and looked at the lady in the black dress who was examining the mental state of some heretics. Noticing Fenna's gaze, the woman also lifted her head and nodded slightly in her direction.

Despite appearing to be in her early twenties, the woman possessed a calm and mature demeanor that belied her age. Her long black hair was coiled up behind her head, and the pale blue crystal earrings on her earlobes reflected the light from the nearby gas lamp as they swayed.

"...Heidi is here too... Did the city hall send her?" Fenna asked the young guard beside her.

"No, Ms. Heidi just happened to be nearby when the incident occurred and came straight over after hearing the news—is there a problem?"

"No, nothing. Although Heidi is an employee of the city hall, she also has a longstanding collaboration with the church. She can just fill out an on-site registration when she gets back," Fenna shook her head and quickly refocused her attention on the matter at hand, examining the cult priest who had died of a lost mind while casually inquiring, "What else did those heretics who were still able to communicate say? What exactly happened at the time?"

"Their words were very confused. Two of them mentioned that the normal sacrifice ritual had already ended, but suddenly someone near the gathering caught a runaway sacrifice, so the messenger decided to offer this sacrifice to the Sun God..." The guard recounted while speaking, "Those two heretics were standing far away from the altar and did not see the exact scene on the stage. They only said that despite being pierced through the heart, the sacrifice did not die. Instead, he cried out the name of the Sun God and directly designated the messenger as the sacrifice... and then the messenger was sacrificed."

"...A person chosen as a sacrifice suddenly cries out the name of the Evil God and sacrifices the one presiding over the ritual?" Fenna felt like she was hearing a wild fantasy tale; it was utterly absurd, but coming from a strictly trained, loyal and reliable church guard, she had to take it seriously, which made her expression bizarre, "How can such an outrageous thing occur—if that were possible, wouldn't many victims at heretic sacrificial sites be able to counter-kill those heretical priests by just being a bit quicker with their words?"

"Exactly, even the most incompetent priests dominate the ritual proceedings; how could a frail, ordinary person disrupt the ceremony to such an extent with mere words—and we examined this priest; he indeed had traces of having been corroded by projections from the world's 'Deep,' a true 'Baptized One,' and according to the description by heretics on site, he also held a ritually blessed dagger in his hand..."

The young guard continued speaking, shaking his head before moving to another corpse nearby.

"But... take a look at this, this is the 'sacrifice' who 'counter-killed' the priest."

Fenna glanced at the guard, then her gaze settled on the completely lifeless body; in the next second, her eyes sharpened.

It was a gaunt young man, or rather, due to his thinness, his frame more closely resembled that of a teenager. The most noticeable abnormality on his body was the gaping hole in his chest.

"...He has already been sacrificed..."

"Yes, this is a sacrifice that has already been offered. Combining the traces at the scene with the testimonials of the heretics, this 'sacrifice' likely lost his heart before being put on the stage," the guard said with a solemn tone, "So... the real situation at the time was, a walking corpse climbed onto the stage before everyone's eyes, and killed the priest presiding over the ritual as a sacrifice."

"...Is this a trick of the Necromancer?" mused Fenna to herself in thought, "No, the power of the Black Sun has great restraint over Necromancers; their controlled zombies couldn't just brazenly walk in front of a totem of the Black Sun... Was it a resurrected body under abnormal control?"

"Have you all checked the lights in this area?" she suddenly lifted her head and asked the guard beside her, "Within a five-hundred-meter radius, is there a completely dark underground space?"

"We've checked, and there are no lightless dungeons here—even the heretics know the dangers of such places. They were very cautious, leaving torches and oil lamps in the cavern where they discarded the bodies."

Fenna didn't speak at once but bent over the corpse of the young man with deep suspicion. She carefully examined the "sacrifice" who had, in broad daylight, offered up a Transcendent to the ritual which then spiraled out of control. Extending her hand, she flipped the stiff eyelid of the deceased, searching for any trace of heresy left by an aberrant power.

Suddenly, a flicker of light caught the corner of her eye—she thought she saw the young man's corpse briefly open its eyes, a ghastly green fire leaping within those hollow orbs. A fine spark sizzled on the tip of her right index finger before scattering in the wind.

Fenna's gaze hardened. In an instant, she drew the dagger from her waist with her left hand and, without hesitation, sliced off her right index finger. She then quickly drove the dagger, etched with runes, into the corpse's forehead. The cult priest's dagger burst into raging flames, completely engulfing the body.

It took her less than a second to do all this. As the body was consumed by flames, she had already straightened up and stepped back twice, then drew the blessed holy oil from her waist. Biting off the bottle cap, she poured the viscous liquid over her right hand, which was bleeding profusely—the holy oil hissed on contact with flesh, billowing thick white smoke.

Excruciating pain surged through her, but Fenna's expression remained unchanged. She saw the guardian who had been following her quickly unsheathe his steel sword, slashing off the burning "sacrifice's" head, then throwing a concoction mixed with seaweed extract and silver powder into the flames.

With continuous explosions and flames that surged high into the air, nearly licking the ceiling, the mutated corpse turned to ash in the blink of an eye.

Yet, the intense flames didn't spread to the other corpses nearby.

The surrounding guardians had already caught on, half of them drawing their rune-engraved steel swords to surround Fenna, the other half drawing their large-caliber revolvers to form a precautionary ring around the perimeter. The two priests also pulled out revolvers hidden under their robes, blessing the muzzles with the incense burner while chanting the name of the Storm Goddess, Gomona, and pointing the guns at the heretics, who were agitated by the changing environment.

"Your Excellency the Judge!" A young guardian with a sword in hand finally approached Fenna. "How are you? What just..."

"Some sort of power lingered inside that 'sacrifice,' a force that bypassed all the Goddess's protections granted to me, even my spiritual vigilance," Fenna waved her hand, eyes falling on her right hand—the Goddess's grace was working, the severed index finger writhing and slowly regenerating. Even as the intense pain subsided, however, she didn't feel any more at ease in her heart.

"Something's not right here, it's not just the Black Sun. There may be another powerful force that visited this sacrificial ritual... and this force hasn't completely left. It still has designs," the Judge quickly assessed. "Move all the people and evidence away, bring them to the church for strict custody. All subsequent inspections and interrogations should take place in the church. This place needs thorough purification... Is there anyone else here?"

A guardian immediately replied, "Yes, we rescued a group of 'intended sacrifices' previously imprisoned in another nearby cave. They are currently being temporarily housed in the adjacent conduit room."

"Take them too, to the church—even if they are victims, they must undergo strict inspections before being allowed to go home," Fenna said quickly, and then as if remembering something, added, "How about Miss Heidi? Is she okay?"

"I'm here," a calm female voice sounded from nearby. The "spiritual physician" hired by the city hall, dressed in a black dress, walked over unhurriedly and nodded at Fenna, "Don't worry, I didn't catch on at all just now—so what exactly happened?"

"...Just like many classic stories tell, the heretics have invoked something even more sinister than themselves," Fenna glanced at the "spiritual physician," "I strongly recommend that when you inspect these heretics and conduct hypnosis on them later, you add an extra layer of protection... A force that shouldn't have been here has appeared, and there are remnants."

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