Ashes Of Deep Sea

Thus it was in this light that Bishop Valentin lifted his head, serenely gazing into Vanna’s steadfast grey eyes. His words seemed to carry a form magic. Faintly, Vanna heard the soothing sound of ocean waves surging in her mind, followed by a thunderous clamor—the power of the goddess, with aid from an external force, finally broke through the veil and exploded at the depths of her heart.

Suddenly, Vanna took a deep breath, as if she’d surfaced from drowning in deep waters, returning abruptly to land. Her chest heaved violently; her heart hammered. The omnipresent gaze of the deities felt crushing her, and in her semi-stupor, she heard Valentin’s voice continue to reach her ears:

“The existence of Homeloss is chronicled in history, and the prophetic dreams you experienced are objectively real. With these two factors present, your natural response should be to first assume the threat is real and then seek a solution. But your earlier subconscious questioning of the existence of Homeloss indicates you are avoiding the message conveyed by the prophetic dreams on a subconscious level.

“Judge, your subconscious denial of Homeloss’s existence is evidence that the ship is real—and it seems, indeed, to be approaching the civilized world’s frontier.”

Vanna felt a fine layer of sweat form on her forehead, but the veil that had always blocked her connection with the goddess seemed to have vanished, lightening her heart considerably. The words of the City-State Bishop made her realize something:

Unbeknownst to her, she had been influenced by Homeloss!

This was a characteristic common to many apparitions or anomalies with a tendency to induce terror: making those who came in contact with them become disoriented and subconsciously ignore and deny the reality, thereby increasing the influence upon them without their awareness!

This subconscious neglect and denial were an instinctive response for intelligent beings to protect themselves, a mindset to avoid danger. However, when it came to contact with anomalies, this instinctive response could become a source of complacency and ultimately lead the individual unknowingly to become a victim of the apparition or anomaly!

As a Judge who frequently dealt with transcendent powers, Vanna was deeply knowledgeable about these matters. She never imagined, however, that she would fall into such a “psychological trap”—had her strong willpower really failed to take effect?

“I don’t know when I came under its influence,” she said frankly. Before the Bishop, a fellow devout believer, she didn’t shy away from admitting the weakness she had exposed—being affected by an anomaly or apparition to the point of psychological distress was not unusual, and shame and concealment would be of no help. “I came straight here after waking from the prophetic dream. I haven’t spoken to anyone, nor have I touched any books, antiques. I believe I haven’t been exposed to any outside corrosion during this process.”

“But you did display a deliberate avoidance to the prophetic dream just now… so the influence must have occurred earlier,” the Bishop said pensively, his gaze intent upon Vanna’s face, as if observing every shift in her expression and the rhythm of her breathing. “Recently, have you been in contact with anything unusual? It might be the… contamination from Homeloss, leaving an anchor point in your subconscious ahead of time.”

“Recently…” Vanna frowned, then suddenly recalled the “sacrificial offering” that lay in the Black Sun ritual site, the flash of green flame in the eyes of the offering, and her own finger that was amputated.

Her eyes widened in realization, she stared intently at the Bishop: “The day before yesterday, I led a team to clear the sewers of that Black Sun cult site, was there any report after that about some unnamed contamination present? Did any report mention a contaminated ‘offering’?”

The Bishop shook his head: “No, you sent those heretics to the Cathedral and then left immediately after.”

A chill ran through Vanna’s heart: “What about the others who participated in the operation that day? Has anyone reported anything of this nature?”

“No reports have come in—all the case files only mention matters related to the Sun Heretic.”

Under the gaze of the Goddess’s sacred effigy, the Bishop and Vanna looked into each other’s eyes.

“It appears we have found the first moment when the contamination ‘came ashore,\'” said the Bishop, exhaling softly, his expression still placid, yet a stormy power seemed to be brewing in his eyes, “In the holy name of Gomona, Judge, do you still have clear, complete memories of that night?”

Vanna took a deep breath: “In the holy name of Gomona, I remember every detail of that night.”

The Bishop nodded, turned, and lit specially crafted incense, then, placing the bronze censer at the feet of the sacred effigy, he spoke steadily, “What happened at that time?”

And so, Vanna laid bare every detail that occurred in the sewer ritual site, as she recollected from her memory—she didn’t omit a single detail. With the help of the holy incense, her memory and thoughts were clearer than ever before; the events of that night felt as vivid as if they had happened to her just anew…

She remembered how the sacrificial offering suddenly opened its eyes, the green flames dancing in its eye sockets, how the flames leaped onto her finger but were promptly purified by her decisive action. On the way back to the Cathedral, she had silently reassured herself, “The contamination has been thoroughly cleansed, the contamination has been thoroughly cleansed, the contamination has been thoroughly cleansed…”

“`

She was muttering these words all the way, and all the guardians walking with her were muttering these words as well!

Not a single one of them felt there was anything amiss!

Now, recalling that scene is terrifying and bizarre—beneath the desolate night sky, a squad of the church’s guards passed through the silent and deserted streets, each person continuously whispering the same sentence to themselves until they returned to the church.

During this process, they still believed they were carrying out their duties normally: watching over the recently captured heretics, cleaning up the polluted ritual site, escorting the heretics back…

“…Spectral Flame falling upon the soul means that physical cleansing through severing limbs is ineffective, what you get is merely deceptive solace—the correct procedure is to immediately light spices, scatter holy oil on the ground to arrange a temporary sanctified area, then call upon the Goddess’s power with a prayer ritual, to execute the cleansing of the ‘spiritual body.’

“…This is my fault,” said Fana, her voice heavy, “I should have been more vigilant, more alert.”

“It is a lapse, but not a mistake,” the elderly man shook his head, “you possess great power, but as a Judge you are still a little lacking in experience. Fortunately, you have now rid yourself of the influence, indicating that the ‘corrosion’ left on that offering wasn’t very strong, it merely caused you psychological interference… Through the incense ritual just now, I was able to roughly determine its intensity.”

He paused here, as if weighing and judging something: “The guardians who acted with you should have been less affected, they were just standing around you, and their influence should quickly diminish with prayers in the church.

“On the whole, although the pollution you were subjected to was sinister and eerie, because the source has been severed, the subsequent effects aren’t dreadful. Based on your performance just now and the feedback from the incense, even if you didn’t come here today, you would have realized something was wrong in a few days.

“Compared to this, what we need to worry about more is the future.”

“The future…” Fana repeated the Bishop’s last word, her expression gradually becoming serious.

Yes, the future—the matter has not yet concluded.

The vision heralded by the premonitory dream was a warning sent down by the Goddess—the experiences she had encountered so far were perhaps just the prelude to a storm.

“The Homeloss has not appeared within the boundary of civilization for many years now, and many believe it has returned to Subspace, becoming one amongst the many shadows in the deepest reaches of the world, but it now seems that Captain Duncan’s attachment to the real world remains.”

Bishop Valentin said slowly, while he turned around to gaze upon the Storm Goddess’s holy image.

“A century ago, the Homeloss plunged into the depths of the Subspace. Although there is no definite evidence, many witness reports have mentioned that there was a great storm lingering in the nearby Endless Sea at the time, the ship’s fall was, to an extent, influenced by the storm…

“Storms are the dominion of our Lord.”

Fana frowned, “You think Captain Duncan seeks… vengeance against the deity?”

“It’s hard to say—regardless of a ghost returning from Subspace, imagining one seeking revenge on a deity is inconceivable. Deities reside in their divine realms, divine realms hidden above reality, and all things in the world fall downwards from the higher planes, never have I heard of anyone who could travel upwards to the ‘divine realms’ beyond reality…

“But if Captain Duncan seeks to exact revenge on the Lord’s representatives on earth… the possibility is much higher.

“The sacred Storm Cathedral patrols the world for the Lord over the Endless Sea, most of the time sailing on secret routes, invisible to all, and in comparison… Plunder City-State is the largest anchor point of faith for the Storm Goddess in the world besides the Storm Cathedral… it is also an anchor point of faith that anyone can visit.

“From this perspective, it’s quite logical for that vengeful spirit to choose Plunder to make landfall.”

“`