Deep Sea Embers

In front of the icon of the storm goddess Gamona, blessed candles burn peacefully, and the skylight from the dome shines around the icon, making the city-state bishop in black robes seem to be bathed in divine grace .

Bishop Valentine raised his head in the light like this, and looked quietly at Fanna's still firm gray eyes. There seemed to be some kind of magic in his words, and Fanna heard the gentle sound of waves indistinctly. There were ups and downs in her mind, and then there was a thunderous sound—with the help of external forces, the power of the goddess finally broke through the veil and exploded in her heart.

Fan Na suddenly took a deep breath, as if returning to land from a state of suffocation in deep water, her chest heaved violently, her heart was pounding, and the sense of God's gaze overwhelmingly suppressed her, while in a half-trance state , she heard Valentine's voice continue to pass into her ears:

"The existence of the Lost Homeland has been recorded in history, and the omen dream you encountered is an objective reality. When these two points are in place, your normal reaction should be to first assume the existence of the threat, and then seek a solution—— But just now you were subconsciously questioning whether the Lost Home really existed, which shows that you are subconsciously avoiding the message conveyed to you by the dream of omens.

"Judge, you are subconsciously denying the existence of the Lost Homeland. This is the evidence of the real existence of that ship—it seems that it is indeed approaching the borders of the civilized world."

Fanna felt a thin layer of sweat on her forehead, but the "veil" that always covered her and the goddess seemed to have disappeared, which made her feel a lot more relaxed, and what the city-state bishop said made her realize what happened. what:

Before I knew it, I had already been affected by the Lost Home!

This is exactly the characteristic of many visions or anomalies with a tendency to terror: it causes the contact person to be cognitively confused, resulting in subconscious ignorance and denial, so that the influence is getting bigger and bigger without knowing it!

This kind of subconscious ignorance and denial is the instinctive reaction of intelligent creatures to protect themselves, and it is an avoidance mentality towards danger. However, when in contact with abnormalities, this instinctive reaction will become the source of paralysis, and eventually lead to self-consciousness. Feel like a victim of visions and anomalies!

As a judge who often deals with extraordinary powers, Fan Na is well aware of this knowledge, but she never thought that she would fall into this "psychological trap"—her own toughness His willpower didn't produce the slightest effect?

"I don't know when I was affected," she said frankly. In front of the bishop, who is also a devout believer, she did not avoid the weakness she exposed this time-being affected by abnormalities or visions and falling into psychological abnormalities is another Under normal circumstances, shame and concealment are useless, "I came here directly after waking up from the dream of omens. I never talked to anyone in the middle, and I never touched any books or ancient objects. I think I am here There was no external erosion in the process."

"But you did show a deliberate avoidance of the omen dream just now... so the influence should have happened earlier," the bishop stared at Fanna's face, as if observing the changes in her eyes and the fluctuation of her breath at any time , "Have you been in contact with anything abnormal recently? It may be from the Lost Home... pollution, which left an anchor in your subconscious in advance."

"Recently..." Fan Na frowned, and then suddenly recalled the "sacrifice" who fell at the black sun sacrifice site, recalled the green flames flashing in the other party's eyes, and her severed finger.

She opened her eyes wide and stared at the bishop suddenly: "The day before yesterday I led a team to clean up the black sun sacrificial site in the sewer. After returning, did you report any unknown pollution on the site? Did you report that there was a polluted 'sacrifice' on the site?" Taste'?"

The bishop shook his head: "...No, you sent those cultists to the church and went back directly."

Fan Na's heart skipped a beat: "The other people who participated in the operation that day, did anyone report anything about this?"

"No reports have come in - all the files record only things related to the heresy of the Dark Sun."

Under the icon of the goddess, the bishop looked at Fanna, and Fanna looked at the bishop.

"It seems that we have found the time when the pollution first 'come ashore'." The bishop breathed out lightly, his expression still calm, but there was a strong force brewing in his eyes as if a storm was about to come. Holy Name, Judge, is your memory of that night still clear and complete?"

Fanna took a deep breath: "In the holy name of my Lord Gemona, I still remember all the details of that night."

The bishop nodded, turned around and lit the special incense, and then said in a calm voice while placing the copper incense burner at the foot of the icon, "What happened at that time?"

So, Fan Na revealed everything that happened in the sewer sacrificial field in her memory—she did not miss any details. With the help of the holy incense, her memory and thinking became clearer than ever. The experience is as clear as the second coming...

She still remembered that the victim suddenly opened his eyes, and she still remembered the green flames jumping in the eye sockets of the victim. She still remembered that the flame fell on her finger, but she was immediately purified by herself. On the way back to the church, She silently told herself that the pollution has been completely purified, the pollution has been completely purified, the pollution has been completely purified...

She was muttering this sentence all the way, and all the guards walking with her were also muttering this sentence!

No one thought there was anything wrong with that!

Looking back now, what a terrifying and weird scene it was—under the desolate night, the church’s guard team passed through the deserted streets, and everyone kept whispering the same sentence to themselves until they returned. church.

But in the process, they still thought they were doing things normally: guarding the newly captured heretics, cleaning up the dirty sacrificial site, and escorting the cultists back...

"...the astral fire falls upon the soul, and the purification of the physical plane by severed limbs is ineffective, and all you get is a deceitful consolation - the right thing to do is to immediately burn the spices and sprinkle the ground with holy oil Temporary shrines are set up, and then the power of the goddess is invoked in prayer rituals to perform purification of the 'spirit'."

"...This is my fault," Fanna said with a heavy tone, "I should have been more vigilant and alert."

"It was a mistake, but not a mistake," the old man shook his head. "You have great power, but after all, you have a little less experience as a judge. Fortunately, you have now got rid of the influence, which means that what was left on that sacrifice at that time The 'pollution' is not too strong, it only interferes with you on a psychological level... Through the incense ceremony just now, I can roughly judge its strength."

Speaking of this, he paused, as if he was deliberating and judging something: "The guards who acted with you at that time should be less affected, they were just standing around you, and the impact should be as they were in the church. The prayers in the middle of it quickly faded away.

"In general, although the pollution you suffered at that time was dangerous and weird, but because the source has been cut off, the follow-up impact is not terrible. According to your performance and the feedback from the incense just now, even if you didn't come today, you will be yourself in a few days. Noticing something was wrong.

"Compared with this, what we need to worry about is the future."

"In the future..." Fan Na repeated the last words of the bishop, her expression gradually becoming serious.

Yes, in the future, this thing is not over yet.

The picture shown in the dream of omens is a warning from the goddess - what I have come into contact with so far is probably just the prelude to a storm.

"The Lost Home has not appeared in the sight of civilization for many years. Many people think that it has returned to the warp space and has become one of the many shadows in the deepest part of the world. But now it seems that Captain Duncan is right. The obsession with the real world remains."

Bishop Valentine spoke slowly, turning around and staring at the icon of the Storm Goddess.

"A century ago, the Lost Homeland crashed into the depths of the subspace. Although there is no clear evidence, many eyewitness reports mentioned that there was a big storm wandering in the nearby sea at that time. The ship's fall was caused by certain factors. affected by the storm...

"The storm is the authority of our lord."

Fan Na frowned: "Do you think that Captain Duncan wants...to take revenge on God?"

"It's hard to say - even if it is a ghost returning from the subspace, it is unimaginable to seek revenge from the gods. The gods live in the kingdom of gods, and the kingdom of gods is hidden above reality, and everything in the world can only fall from the upper layer of the world. I have never heard of someone being able to go reversely to the 'God Kingdom' that is higher than reality...

"But if that Captain Duncan wants to seek revenge on the agents of our Lord in the world... the possibility is very high.

"The holy Cathedral of Storms patrols the world on behalf of the Lord in the boundless sea, and spends most of its time sailing in hidden routes, no one can find its trace. , the largest anchor point of faith in the world for the Goddess of Storms... It is also an anchor point of faith that everyone can visit.

"From this point of view, it is only logical that the vengeful ghost chose to land in Puland."