Remnants

Vana raised her head and looked toward the woman in black who was examining the mental states of several cultists. The latter noticed her gaze and looked up as well, offering a slight nod in greeting.

The woman appeared to be only in her early twenties, yet she possessed a calm, composed air far more mature than her age. Her long black hair was pinned up behind her head, and the pale blue crystal earrings dangling from her earlobes reflected the glow of the nearby gas lamps as they swayed.

"...Heidi came too... Was she sent by City Hall?" Vana asked the young guardian beside her.

"No. Ms. Heidi happened to be nearby when this occurred. She came straight over after hearing the news—Is there a problem?"

"No, nothing. Though Heidi is an employee of City Hall, she has worked with the Church for a long time. She can just file a scene report afterward," Vana said, shaking her head. She quickly turned her attention back to the matter at hand, examining the cult priest who had died after losing his mind as she casually asked, "What else did the cultists who can still communicate say? What exactly happened?"

"Their accounts are very confused. Two of them mentioned that the regular sacrifice ritual had already ended, but then someone suddenly caught a Sacrifice trying to flee near the gathering site, so the Emissary decided to offer that Sacrifice to the Sun God..." the guardian said as he recalled the details. "Those two cultists had been standing far from the altar and did not see clearly what happened on it. They only said that the Sacrifice survived being pierced through the heart and instead shouted the Sun God's name, directly designating the Emissary as the Sacrifice... Then the Emissary was sacrificed."

"...A person chosen as a Sacrifice shouted the evil god's name on the spot and directly sacrificed the one presiding over the ritual?" Vana felt as if she had heard some absurd fantasy. It sounded utterly ridiculous, yet it had come from a rigorously trained, loyal, reliable Church Guardian, so she had no choice but to take it seriously. Her expression turned strange. "How could something so outrageous happen? If that worked, wouldn't countless victims at cult sacrificial ceremonies only need to speak quickly enough to turn the tables on those heretic priests?"

"Exactly. Even the most incompetent priest holds absolute control while presiding over a ritual. How could a weak ordinary person casually make the ritual spiral that badly out of control with a single sentence? Besides, we examined this priest. He indeed bore traces of erosion by a projection from the world's 'deep layer.' He was a genuine 'baptized one,' and according to the cultists at the scene, he was holding a blessed ritual dagger at the time..."

The young guardian shook his head as he spoke, then walked over to another corpse nearby.

"But... please take a look at this. This was the 'Sacrifice' who 'turned the tables' on the priest."

Vana glanced at the guardian before her gaze fell upon the lifeless body. The next second, her eyes sharpened.

It was a frail young man. He was so thin that his build was closer to that of an adolescent, and the most conspicuous abnormality on his body was the gaping hole in his chest.

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

"Yes. This was a Sacrifice that had already been offered. Based on the traces at the scene and the cultists' testimony, this 'Sacrifice' had likely already lost his heart before being pushed onto the altar," the guardian said gravely. "So... what truly happened was that a walking corpse went up onto the altar in full view of everyone and killed the priest presiding over the ritual by treating him as a Sacrifice."

"...A necromancer's trick?" Vana muttered as she considered it. "No. The Black Sun's power heavily suppresses necromancers. The walking corpses they control could never brazenly walk up to a Black Sun totem... Was it a revived one controlled by some anomaly?"

"Did you inspect the lighting nearby?" She suddenly looked up at the guardian beside her. "Within a five-hundred-meter radius, are there any completely lightless underground spaces?"

"We checked. There are no lightless caves—even cultists know how dangerous lightless caves are. They left torches and oil lamps even in the cavern where they disposed of the bodies. They were extremely cautious in that regard."

Vana did not speak for a moment. Filled with questions, she bent down before the young man's body and carefully examined this "Sacrifice" who had sacrificed a Transcendent in full view of everyone and caused the ritual to collapse completely. She reached out and lifted his stiff eyelids, trying to find traces of heretical power left upon him.

Suddenly, a Faint Light seemed to flash at the corner of her eye—she seemed to see the young man's corpse open its eyes slightly, ghostly green flames leaping within those hollow sockets. A tiny spark shot onto the tip of her extended right index finger, then drifted away on the wind.

Vana's gaze turned cold. In an instant, she drew the dagger at her waist with her left hand and, without hesitation, swung it down to sever her own right index finger. Then she drove the dagger into the corpse's forehead with a backhanded thrust. The rune-covered priest's dagger erupted in roaring flames, completely consuming the body.

She completed all of this in less than a second. The moment the corpse was swallowed by flames, she had already straightened and retreated two steps. Then she pulled out blessed holy oil from her waist, bit off the stopper, and poured the oil over her right hand, where blood was gushing wildly—the instant the holy oil touched flesh and blood, it gave off great clouds of white smoke with a hiss.

A piercing pain surged through her, but Vana's expression did not change in the slightest. She saw that the guardian who had been following beside her had swiftly drawn the steel sword at his waist and beheaded the blazing "Sacrifice" with a single stroke. He then tossed a compound of seaweed extract and silver powder into the flames.

Accompanied by a barrage of explosions and flames that suddenly shot skyward, nearly licking the ceiling, the mutated corpse turned to ash in the blink of an eye.

Yet the violent flames did not spread to any of the other bodies nearby.

The surrounding guardians had already reacted. Half of them instantly drew Rune Steel Swords and gathered around Vana, while the other half drew large-caliber revolvers and swiftly formed a perimeter. The two priests at the scene also drew revolvers hidden beneath their robes, blessing the barrels with Incense Burners while reciting the name of Goddess of Storms Gemona. They kept their guns trained on the crazed cultists, who had begun to stir restlessly in response to the changes around them.

"Lord Inquisitor!" Only then did the young guardian holding the steel sword come before Vana. "How are you? Just now..."

"Some kind of power remained inside that 'Sacrifice,' and it bypassed every protection the Goddess granted me. It even bypassed my psychic warning." Vana waved a hand, her gaze falling upon her right hand—Goddess's Blessing had taken effect. The index finger severed by the dagger was slowly wriggling as it regenerated. Yet even as the searing pain gradually faded, she did not feel the slightest bit relieved.

"Something is wrong. There was not only the Black Sun here. Another powerful force may have visited this sacrificial ritual... and that force has not completely left. It still has something it wants." The inquisitor made her judgment swiftly. "Move away every witness and piece of evidence. Take them to the Church and keep them under strict guard. All further examinations and interrogations will be conducted inside the Church. This scene must undergo a complete purification... Are there any other people elsewhere?"

A guardian nearby immediately replied, "Yes. Earlier, we rescued a group of imprisoned 'designated Sacrifices' from another cave nearby. They are temporarily being housed in the pipe room next door."

"Take them too, to the Church—though they are victims, they must undergo strict examinations before they can be allowed home," Vana said quickly. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she asked, "Where is Ms. Heidi? Is she all right?"

"I'm here," a calm female voice sounded from nearby. The "mental physician" in the black dress, employed by City Hall, walked over at an unhurried pace and nodded to Vana. "No need to worry. I didn't react at all just now—so what exactly happened?"

"...Just like in many classic stories, the cultists provoked something even more wicked than themselves." Vana glanced at the "mental physician." "I strongly advise you to add another layer of protection when examining these cultists and hypnotizing them later... A power that should not have appeared was here, and remnants remain."