Vigilance

Before the holy statue of the Goddess of Storms, Gemona, the blessed candlelight burned peacefully. Sunlight streamed down from the dome, illuminating the area around the statue, making the city-state bishop, clad in a pitch-black robe, appear bathed in divine grace.

Bishop Valentine looked up in the light, quietly gazing into Vana's still-steadfast grey eyes. His words seemed to carry a certain magic. Faintly, Vana heard the gentle sound of waves rising and falling in her mind, followed by a thunderous roar—with the help of an external force, the Goddess's power finally broke through that veil, exploding in the depths of her heart.

Vana suddenly gasped, as if returning to land from a state of suffocation in deep water. Her chest heaved violently, her heart pounding. The sense of divine gaze pressed down on her overwhelmingly. In a semi-dazed state, she heard Valentine's voice continue to reach her ears:

"The existence of the Lost Homeland is historically documented, and the omen dream you encountered is an objectively factual event. With these two points established, your normal reaction should be to first assume the existence of a threat, and then seek a solution—but you were subconsciously questioning whether the Lost Homeland truly existed. This indicates that you are subconsciously avoiding the information conveyed by the omen dream.

"Inquisitor, you are subconsciously denying the existence of the Lost Homeland. This is the proof of that ship's true existence—it seems it is indeed approaching the domain of the civilized world."

Vana felt a fine sheen of sweat break out on her forehead. However, the "veil" that had always obscured her and the Goddess seemed to have vanished, which instead eased her heart considerably. The city-state bishop's words made her realize what had happened:

Unknowingly, she had already been influenced by the Lost Homeland!

This was precisely the characteristic of many phenomena or anomalies with terrifying tendencies: causing those who came into contact with them to experience cognitive dissonance, leading to subconscious neglect and denial, and thus becoming increasingly influenced without realizing it!

This subconscious neglect and denial was originally an instinctive reaction of intelligent beings to protect themselves, a mindset of avoiding danger. However, when interacting with anomalies, this instinctive reaction would become a source of complacency and ultimately lead to one unknowingly becoming a victim of phenomena and anomalies!

As an Inquisitor who frequently dealt with supernatural powers, Vana knew this aspect of knowledge like the back of her hand, yet she never imagined she would fall into such a "psychological trap"—had her strong willpower been completely ineffective?

"I don't know when I was affected," she said frankly. In front of the bishop, a fellow devout believer, she did not hide the weakness she had exposed this time—it was perfectly normal to be affected by anomalies or phenomena and fall into psychological distress; shame and concealment were useless. "After waking from the omen dream, I came straight here. I didn't speak to anyone in between, nor did I come into contact with any scrolls or ancient artifacts. I believe I was not corrupted by the outside world during this process."

"But you did indeed show deliberate avoidance of the omen dream just now... so the influence must have occurred much earlier," the bishop stared intently at Vana's face, as if constantly observing the changes in her eyes and fluctuations in her aura. "Have you come into contact with anything unusual recently? It might be a 'contaminant' from the Lost Homeland, having left an anchor point in your subconscious beforehand."

"Recently..." Vana frowned, then suddenly recalled the "sacrifice" who had collapsed at the Black Sun ritual site, the green flames that flashed in that person's eyes, and her own severed finger.

Her eyes widened, and she suddenly looked intently at the bishop. "The day before yesterday, I led a team to clear out the Black Sun ritual site in the sewers. After returning, did I report the presence of an unknown contaminant at the scene? Did I report the presence of a 'sacrifice' that was contaminated?"

The bishop shook his head. "...No, you went straight back after sending those cultists to the church."

Vana's heart tightened. "Did anyone else who participated in the operation that day report anything about this?"

"No reports were received—all case files only recorded matters related to the Black Sun heresy."

Under the statue of the Goddess, the bishop gazed at Vana, and Vana gazed back at the bishop.

"It seems we've found the time when the contamination first 'landed'," the bishop let out a soft breath, his expression still calm, but his eyes seemed to brew with intense power, like a brewing storm. "In the holy name of my Lord Gemona, Inquisitor, are your memories from that night still clear and complete?"

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

The bishop nodded, turned, and lit a special incense burner. While placing the copper incense burner at the foot of the statue, he said in a steady voice, "What happened then?"

Thus, Vana recounted everything from her memory that had occurred at the sewer ritual site—she omitted no detail. With the aid of the sacred incense, her memory and thoughts became clearer than ever before. The experience of that night was as vivid as if it were happening to her again...

She still remembered that sacrifice suddenly opening its eyes, remembered the green flames leaping in the sacrifice's eye sockets, and remembered the flames landing on her finger, which she had decisively purified. On the way back to the church, she silently told herself, the contamination had been completely purified, the contamination had been completely purified, the contamination had been completely purified...

She had been muttering this phrase all the way, and all the Guardians who walked with her were also muttering this phrase!

Not a single one of them felt anything was wrong!

Recalling it now, what a terrifying and bizarre scene it was—under the desolate night sky, the Church's Guardian squad walked through silent, empty streets, each person softly muttering the same sentence until they returned to the church.

And during this process, they still believed they were acting normally: guarding the newly captured heretics, clearing the filthy ritual site, escorting the cultists back...

"...The spiritual flame landed on the soul. The physical purification from severing a limb is ineffective. What you received was merely a deceptive comfort—the correct procedure is to immediately light incense, sprinkle holy oil on the ground to establish a temporary holy ground, and then invoke the Goddess's power through a prayer ritual to perform the purification of the 'spirit'."

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

"It was an oversight, but not a mistake," the old man shook his head. "You possess great power, but as an Inquisitor, you are ultimately inexperienced. Fortunately, you have now broken free from the influence, which indicates that the 'contaminant' remaining on that sacrifice at the time was not very strong. It only interfered with you psychologically... Through the incense ritual just now, I can roughly gauge its strength."

He paused here, as if deliberating and judging something. "The Guardians who acted with you that night should have been less affected. They were merely standing around you, and their influence should have quickly dissipated with the prayers in the church.

"Overall, although the contamination you all received was dangerous and bizarre, since the source was severed, the subsequent influence was not terrible. Based on your performance and the feedback from the incense, even if you hadn't come today, you would have noticed something was wrong yourself in a few days.

"Compared to this, we need to worry more about the future."

"The future..." Vana repeated the bishop's last word, her expression slowly becoming serious.

Yes, the future. This matter was not over.

The scene revealed by the omen dream was a warning from the Goddess—what she was currently encountering was likely just the prelude to a storm.

"The Lost Homeland has not appeared in the sight of the civilized world for many years. Many people believe it has returned to subspace, becoming one of the many shadows in the deepest parts of the world, but it now seems that Captain Duncan still harbors a persistent attachment to the real world."

Bishop Valentine spoke slowly, then turned around, gazing at the holy statue of the Goddess of Storms.

"A century ago, the Lost Homeland fell into the depths of subspace. Although there is no definitive evidence, many eyewitness reports mentioned that a great storm lingered in the nearby waters at that time. The ship's fall was, to some extent, influenced by the storm...

"Storms are the authority of my Lord."

Vana frowned. "Do you think Captain Duncan wants to... seek revenge on the Goddess?"

"It's hard to say—even for a ghost returning from subspace, seeking revenge on a deity is an unimaginable matter. Deities reside in the divine realm, which is hidden above reality. All things in the world only descend from higher planes, never ascend. There's never been a case of someone being able to reach the 'divine realm,' which is higher than reality.

"But if Captain Duncan wants to seek retribution from my Lord's earthly representatives... the possibility is very high.

"The sacred Storm Cathedral patrols the world on behalf of the Lord on the Boundless Sea, sailing in hidden routes most of the time, making it impossible for anyone to find its trace. In comparison... the Pland City-State is, besides the Storm Cathedral, the greatest anchor of faith for the Goddess of Storms in the world... and an anchor of faith accessible to everyone.

"Considering this, it is only natural that the vengeful phantom chose to land in Pland."