The massive, heavy mechanical spider folded its long jointed limbs against its abdomen and used the wheel structures along the outside of those limbs to glide at high speed down the level road. Inquisitor Vana stood as steadily atop the shell of the mechanical construct as if she had been cast into it. The night wind, carrying a faint briny scent, swept through the streets, and the cold air cleared her mind further.
Those cultists who worshipped the Sun God were a grave threat to modern civilization—and unfortunately, they were far from the only such threat.
Malicious gazes were always cast upon the human world from the depths of Subspace, and foolish mortals were always trying to lay hands on those ominous powers. Amid the collusion between ancient gods and mortals, there were also twisted remnants from antiquity, forbidden offspring, and lingering echoes of corruption lurking deep within the city-states, constantly stirring and attempting to pry apart the order of society.
Among all these threats, the followers of the Sun God were the ones Pland City-State's protectors found most alarming and troublesome.
They were not merely cultists, but the product of a lost fragment of Old World history. Unlike most foolish and blind ordinary cults, the greatest danger posed by these heretics who worshipped the dark Sun was that they possessed a certain kind of "faith"—though fanatical and twisted, though their lower ranks were a motley assortment, there truly existed among this detestable sect's upper ranks a "core belief" that had remained unchanged for thousands of years.
This belief revolved around the "Order Era" illuminated by the old sun. Not only was it a system unto itself, but it even had a corresponding "True Sun calendar" unrecognized by modern civilization. They firmly believed themselves to be descendants of some long-lost ancient civilization, and that glorious ancient civilization was destined to rise again.
As an inquisitor of the Deep Sea Church, Vana had little interest in the cultists' crooked doctrines. Yet she knew it was precisely the existence of those doctrines that gave the Sun God's followers a unity and stubbornness far beyond that of other heretics, allowing them to survive tenaciously after blow after blow and grow day and night in the shadows of countless city-states.
Still, their resurgence in Pland took Vana somewhat by surprise.
After the unprecedented crackdown four years ago, the Sun God's followers within Pland City-State had been severely weakened. According to several investigation reports, those heretics should have transferred their main members to nearby Rensa, Moke, or even farther away to Coldport City-State. Those left behind in Pland were basically just lackeys who had been bewitched and remained stubbornly unrepentant, yet lacked the qualifications to relocate with the bishopric.
These minions hid in the sewers, relying entirely on their familiarity with the underground world and the meager twisted blessings granted by the Black Sun to evade the protectors' pursuit. Four years had passed; their numbers had dwindled, and all they could do was barely cling to life.
Yet today, four years later, they had suddenly gathered again. They had even dared to risk exposure by conducting a sacrificial ritual at their meeting site... Who had given them the nerve?
Or rather... was something major about to happen in this city-state? Was there some compelling reason that made those cultists willing to risk extinguishing their last spark just to draw the Black Sun's gaze to Pland?
The mechanical spider's interior resounded with the vibrations and noise of its continuously operating steam core. A faint fragrance of incense wafted from the steam pressure-release pipes and drifted back on the night wind. Vana temporarily set aside her wild thoughts and looked up at the sky.
World's Creation hung high in the night sky, its pale radiance illuminating Pland's uneven rooftops, chimneys, and towers. The task force was now passing along the edge of the industrial district. Massive steam and thermal-fluid pipes stretched between the factory buildings like a giant's blood vessels, cutting across the sky above the streets.
Vana vaguely recalled the past—the most vivid and terrifying night in her memory. In that blood-scented midnight, her uncle had carried her out of a sea of fire. The streets had been filled with walking corpses trapped in collective hallucinations and shadows of flesh that swelled and contracted without cease. They had fled along the factory pipes, while the stench of blood mixed with the nauseating smell of chemical grease seeping from the pipelines...
The mechanical spider beneath her feet suddenly shuddered, jolting Vana from her memories.
The level road had come to an end. Ahead lay an abandoned area at the edge of the city, where the ground was pitted and uneven. The two mechanical spiders ended their gliding mode, unfolded their long jointed limbs, and began striding swiftly over the rough terrain.
Before long, the team arrived at an abandoned sewer entrance.
Another eight-man team was already standing by there. They had sealed off the surrounding area to prevent unrelated personnel from approaching the entrance.
After greeting the subordinates stationed there, Vana directly followed the officer in charge into the depths of the sewer.
After passing through deep tunnels and filthy paths, Vana finally reached the secret meeting site. There, she saw more protector warriors, as well as Church priests conducting a purification ritual.
A temporary altar stood in the middle of the gathering site. The wooden platform looked as though it had been scorched by flames, and upon it stood the blasphemous totem erected by the Sun God's followers. The totem had already been burned by fire, though its basic structure remained intact.
Around the platform, dozens of cultists with their hands bound crouched on the ground. Most of them trembled uncontrollably, while a small number moved their lips, silently muttering their blasphemous prayers.
But with the ritual site destroyed and the Goddess of Storms already watching this place, the prayers of these heretics were utterly useless.
Not far from the altar lay the bodies of the victims found in nearby caves. These pitiable dead had been placed upon rune-covered linen cloths, while hastily summoned morticians examined the condition of each corpse.
Several Church priests walked around the altar. The bronze chains in their hands swayed slightly, and the incense burners hanging from their ends emitted white smoke. The moment that smoke touched the ground near the altar, it was immediately stained with an ominous black shadow. More white smoke then carried away the contamination—the traces left here by the Black Sun would gradually be cleared away in this process.
"Inquisitor, please come this way. This is what we found suspicious," the young protector said, pointing at several corpses beside the altar. "Please be careful. The ground here is rather unclean."
Vana walked straight toward the bodies. When she saw the condition of one of them, she instinctively frowned.
It was a cultist wearing a golden mask—without question, the priest directly responsible for conducting the sacrificial ritual at this blasphemous site.
There was a horrifying cavity in his chest.
"...What happened here?" Vana frowned. "Did this fanatical heretic become too excited at the end of the ritual and sacrifice himself as well? I have never heard that cultists who worship the Black Sun had such a custom."
"That is precisely the strange part—he was not a self-sacrifice," the protector who had brought Vana here immediately shook his head. With a somewhat peculiar expression, he said, "According to the cultists captured at the scene... their 'Emissary' was sacrificed by a Sacrifice..."
"Sacrificed by a Sacrifice?" Vana immediately raised an eyebrow. "What kind of nonsense is that?"
"It certainly sounds like nonsense," the protector said helplessly, spreading his hands. "In fact, by the time we arrived, most of the cultists here were already half-mad."
"Already half-mad?"
"Yes. Their sacrificial ritual had clearly gone terribly wrong. Many had succumbed to madness, and quite a few had even begun killing one another. They seemed to see each other as... 'monsters' possessed by some terrifying thing. It was precisely because they rushed out of the meeting site in their madness that they alerted the patrolling constables nearby, exposing the situation... By the time we arrived, only a few people remained lucid enough to answer questions. And the handful who could still speak coherently all insisted that the Sacrifice had sacrificed the Emissary."
"Driven mad? Killing one another? And believing others were possessed monsters?" Vana's expression immediately turned grave. "Were they examined? Was it the result of Black Sun contamination?"
"We found no traces of external contamination. It seems more like a spontaneous madness—the factors causing it are rooted in their own mental world," the protector said, raising a hand to point at a young woman in a black dress walking among the cultists. "Heidi has arrived. If we confirm these cultists were not contaminated by the Black Sun, then we can only see what hypnosis can do."
Before you continue