The huge and heavy mechanical spider folded its long limbs into its abdomen and used the wheel structure on the outside of the limbs to slide at high speed on the straight road. Judge Vanna stood steadily as if cast on the shell of this mechanical creature. The night breeze with a slight smell of the sea blew through the street, and the cold air made her mind clearer.
Cults who worship the sun god are a scourge to modern civilization—and unfortunately, there are more than one such scourge.
There are always malicious gazes cast from the depths of the warp towards the human world, and there are always foolish mortals who try to get involved in those ominous forces. In between this collusion between ancient gods and mortals, there are twisted things, forbidden offspring and polluted remnants from ancient times lurking in the depths of the city-state, always ready to move, trying to pry open the order structure of this society.
Of all these threats, the followers of the sun god are the most vigilant and troublesome for the protectors of the city-state of Plande.
They are not only cultists, but also the product of a lost part of the old world's history. Compared with most stupid and blind ordinary cults, the most dangerous thing about these heretics who worship the dark sun is that they have some kind of "belief" - although they are fanatical and twisted, and although their lower-level members are a mixed bag, among the top leaders of this abominable sect, there is indeed some kind of "core belief" that has not changed for thousands of years.
This belief revolves around the "Era of Order" under the shining sun of the old day. It not only forms its own system, but also has a corresponding "real solar calendar" that is not recognized by modern civilization. They firmly believe that they are descendants of a long-lost ancient civilization and that that glorious ancient civilization will surely be revived.
As an inquisitor of the Deep Sea Church, Vanna had little interest in the heresies of those cultists, but she knew that it was the existence of these heresies that made the followers of the Sun God far more united and stubborn than other heretics, allowing them to survive after repeated blows and grow day and night in the shadows of many city-states.
But Vanna was still somewhat surprised by their resurgence in Plande.
Ever since the unprecedented attack four years ago, the believers of the Sun God in the city-state of Plande have been severely damaged. According to several investigation reports, the heretics should have transferred their main members to the nearby city-states of Lensa, Moko and even the farther city-state of Cold Harbor. The only ones left in Plande are some minions who have been bewitched and stubborn but are not qualified to move with the bishops.
These minions hid in the sewers, relying entirely on their knowledge of the underground world and the twisted blessing given to them by the Black Sun to avoid being hunted down by the Guardians. Over the past four years, their numbers have become increasingly fewer, and all they can do is to linger on.
But today, four years later, they suddenly gathered together again, and even dared to hold a sacrificial ceremony in the assembly hall at the risk of being exposed... Who gave them the courage
Or... what big event is going to happen in this city-state? Is there some reason enough for the cultists to draw the Black Sun's attention to Plande even at the risk of extinguishing the last spark of their fire
The mechanical spider could hear the vibration and noise of the steam core constantly running. A faint scent of incense overflowed from the steam pressure relief pipe and drifted along with the night wind. Vanna temporarily put away the random thoughts in her mind and looked up at the sky.
"The Creation of the World" hangs high in the night sky, and the pale light it sheds illuminates the tall and short houses, chimneys and towers in the city of Pland. Now the action team is crossing the edge of the industrial area. The huge steam and hydrothermal pipes that span between the factories run through the sky above the streets like the blood vessels of a giant.
Vanna vaguely recalled the past, the most profound and terrifying night in her memory - in that midnight filled with the smell of blood, her uncle carried her on his back to escape from the sea of fire, the streets were full of zombies trapped in collective hallucinations and bloody shadows that swelled and shrank, they fled from the factory pipes, the smell of blood and chemical grease seeping from the pipes was nauseating...
The mechanical spider under her feet suddenly vibrated, and Vanna woke up from her memories.
The flat road came to an end, and in front was an abandoned area on the edge of the city. The road surface was bumpy and uneven. The two mechanical spiders ended the gliding mode, stretched out their long limbs, and began to walk quickly on the uneven road surface.
It wasn't long before the team arrived at an abandoned sewer entrance.
Another eight-member team is on standby here and has blocked the surrounding area to prevent unauthorized persons from approaching the entrance.
Fanna greeted her subordinates here, and then followed the person in charge of the scene directly into the depths of the sewer.
Passing through deep corridors and dirty paths, Vanna finally arrived at the secret gathering place—here, she saw more guardian warriors and church priests performing purification rituals.
A temporary altar was located in the center of the gathering place. The wooden platform seemed to have been burned by flames. On the platform, one could also see the blasphemous totem built by the sun god believers - the totem had been burned by flames, but the basic structure was still intact.
Around the platform were dozens of cultists squatting on the ground with their hands tied. Most of them were trembling, while a few were moving their lips and silently mumbling their blasphemous prayers.
However, with the ritual site destroyed and the Storm Goddess already paying attention to this place, these heretical prayers were completely useless.
Not far from the altar were the remains of the victims found from the nearby caves. These miserable victims were placed on linen cloths painted with runes, and the undertaker who had hurried over was checking the condition of each body.
Several church priests were walking around the altar, the copper chains in their hands swaying slightly, and the incense burners at the end of the chains emitted white smoke. When the smoke touched the ground near the altar, it would immediately be stained with an ominous black shadow, and more white smoke would take away the pollution - the breath left here by the black sun would be cleared away bit by bit in the process.
"Your Excellency the Inquisitor, please come here. This is where we found something wrong," the young guard pointed to the corpses next to the altar and said, "Please be careful. The ground here is not very clean."
Vanna walked straight towards the corpses, and after seeing the condition of one of them, she frowned subconsciously.
It was a cultist wearing a golden mask—undoubtedly, the priest directly responsible for the sacrificial ceremony in this profane sacrificial site.
There was a terrible hole in his chest.
"… What's going on?" Fanna frowned. "Did this fanatical heretic get too excited at the end of the ceremony and sacrifice himself? I've never heard of such a rule among the cultists who worship the Black Sun."
"This is exactly what's so weird and strange—he didn't sacrifice himself," the guard who brought Vanna here immediately shook his head and said with a slightly strange expression on his face, "According to the description of the cultists caught at the scene... their 'envoy' was sacrificed by a sacrifice..."
"Sacrificed by a sacrifice?" Vanna raised her eyebrows immediately, "What kind of crazy talk is this?"
"It really sounds like crazy talk," the guard spread his hands helplessly, "In fact, when we arrived, most of the cultists here were already half crazy."
"Half crazy already?"
"Yes, their sacrificial ceremony obviously went terribly wrong. Many people went crazy, and quite a few even started to kill each other. They seemed to regard each other as... 'monsters' possessed by some terrifying thing. It was because they rushed out of the gathering place in a frenzy that they alerted the sheriff who was patrolling nearby, leading to the exposure of the situation... When we arrived, there were only a few people who could stay awake and answer questions, and the few who could still speak fluently insisted that it was the sacrifice that sacrificed the messenger."
"Falling into madness? Killing each other? And thinking that others are possessed monsters?" Vanna's expression immediately became serious. "Have you been examined? Is it the result of contamination by the black sun?"
"There is no trace of external contamination. It is more like a spontaneous madness - the factor that causes madness is rooted in their own spiritual world," said the guardian, raising his hand and pointing at a young lady in a black dress who was walking among the cultists. "Ms. Heidi has arrived. If it is confirmed that these cultists are not contaminated by the black sun, we can only think of a solution through hypnosis."