Gods with supreme power reside in the foundation of this world, watching the operation of this world with a vision that transcends time and space. Pious believers who turn to God for spiritual power will, to a certain extent, get a glimpse of the direction of the real future, or the changes that are taking place in an unknown corner of the world at this moment, from their own secret connection with God.
This kind of voyeurism is not bound by time and space, and it carries the risk of being eroded by the warp, but for those determined and devout believers, this dangerous and powerful force is their greatest reliance in protecting the fragile light of civilization in this endless ocean.
The devout Inquisitor has seen a similar vision for several days in a row.
In a half-asleep state, she saw the boundless ocean dyed with a layer of ink, and then a thunderous sound came from the depths of the sea. The ocean was divided into two, and a terrifying trench that reached the seabed appeared in the middle. A huge ship burning with flames rose from the seabed, slowly floating in the air like an airship, and an invisible giant covered with starlight followed behind the giant ship, walking step by step towards the direction of the city-state of Pland.
In the life of Inquisitor Vanna so far, "omen" of such a large and terrifying scale have only appeared twice.
The first time happened in her childhood, when she woke up from a nightmare filled with blood. She then lost her parents in an attack by cultists, leaving a scar on her face that would accompany her for the rest of her life.
The second time happened four years ago. In her dream, she saw a dark sun rising from under the city-state, thus wiping out the largest stronghold of the Sun God Cult that had infiltrated the city-state. To this day, the lingering minions of those cultists are still hiding in the huge, complex and ancient tunnel system under Plande, engaging in a meaningless entanglement with the defenders of the church.
This was the third time she saw a ship returning from the deep sea and bringing an unspeakable giant into the world.
She lied to the priest in front of her—the omen she saw was actually very clear, so clear that it made her, the inquisitor, sleepless for several days.
The pastor looked at the lady's calm gray eyes and after hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke: "But you prayed to God and it seems that you didn't receive any bad feedback?"
"... The goddess doesn't necessarily warn you of all the risks. Sometimes hardships are tests," Vanna said calmly. "Let's not talk about this. What's the news from the Explorers' Association?"
The priest nodded immediately. "The contact person of the association just sent a message. The holy object left at the association headquarters has sensed that the ship appeared in the southwest waters, but the ship's telegraph device seems to have a problem and is currently unable to communicate. We can only confirm that the ship is approaching the waters near Plande at a normal speed and heading."
"… It disappeared from the holy relic's perception for a time, and then reappeared out of thin air on another sea surface far away from the scheduled route. It is currently unable to be contacted, and is heading straight for the city-state… and was carrying out a mission to escort anomalies before it lost contact." The Inquisitor's brows gradually frowned, and her intuition brought by years of dealing with strange things was beating, making her alert. "I remember that ship was called the White Oak, right?"
"Yes, the White Oak. The captain is Lawrence Creed, a member of the Explorers' Association, an experienced captain. Because of the special cargo being transported, the ship reported to the church before it set sail from the city-state of Lunsa," the pastor said as he recalled. "By the way, the priest accompanying the ship is a registered priest of the Church of Storms."
"Fellow church members... I hope the situation is not too bad," Vanna said in a serious tone, "Anyway, something is wrong with that ship. The route from Lunsa to Plande is in the 'stable area' controlled by the Explorers' Association, but the ship has disappeared in the perception of the holy object... I suspect that the White Oak is very likely to have left the real world for a short time, and even... may have gone to a place it shouldn't have gone.
"Notify the harbor guards to keep an eye on the White Oak once it enters the harbor. No one or anything can leave the ship until all inspections are completed. Has the security forces responded?"
"Please rest assured, your uncle... The Archon has ordered the sheriffs to control the port area and raised the port's alert level. From now on until the alert is lifted, all ships entering and leaving Plande will temporarily dock at the backup port on the west side."
"That's good - my uncle has always been a cautious person." Vanna's tense expression finally relaxed a little, "As long as he doesn't let those ordinary people in the security forces get involved in this matter."
The priest looked into Vanna's light grey eyes and chose his words carefully before saying, "Do you think... that ship has been 'contaminated'?"
"It's still uncertain, but even if a ship leaves the real world for a short time and eventually returns, it's rare for it to be completely normal. It could be that some items on the ship have been transformed into 'abnormal' without anyone noticing, it could be mental illness hidden deep in the hearts of the crew, or even extra sailors and replaced captains... It's always right to be on high alert for ships that have experienced abnormalities."
"Alas... I hope that the ship and its crew are safe." The priest couldn't help but put his hands across his chest and chanted the name of the Storm Goddess. "May the Storm Goddess protect those who bravely challenge the sea."
"May they be well," Vanna also lowered her eyelids and whispered a blessing, and then as if to remind the pastor in front of her, "But if they are unfortunately not 'well', we must also be prepared."
"Yes, I understand."
Vanna nodded, but just as she was about to focus her attention back on the city outside the window, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly came from the direction of the stairs.
The next moment, a guard wearing a black uniform with silver edges and a wave and dagger emblem on his chest ran up the stairs.
"Your Excellency the Inquisitor!" The young guard took two breaths and immediately said in a hurried tone, "We found a cult sacrificial base that worships the sun god in the sewer, and we also captured a group of believers!"
Vanna's expression suddenly became serious. "Those cultists who worship the Dark Sun? Wait, you said you found a sacrificial site... not a hiding place? How dare they hold another sacrificial ceremony?!"
"Yes, it was the site of a sacrificial ceremony. We found evidence of a sacrificial ceremony," the guard said quickly. "We also found a large number of victims in a crypt not far from the ceremony site—most of whom had their hearts sacrificed. But... something is wrong at the sacrificial site."
Fanna saw a mixture of absurdity and confusion on the guardian's face. She picked up the heavy sword blessed by the goddess of storms and put it on her back while walking quickly towards the stairs. "Lead the way. I will go to the scene myself."
"yes!"
The heavy blessed greatsword and the metal shoulder armor made a crisp collision sound. Vanna hurriedly walked through the long stairs in the clock tower and came to the small square in front of the clock tower. She saw several guards gathered there and on standby. Two steam walkers were parked at the edge of the square, and a constant clicking sound came from their spider-like mechanical bodies.
Vanna did not stop, but gave the guards a gesture to start, and walked straight to one of the walkers - this huge machine, which was the size of two two-wheeled carriages, looked like a mechanical spider lying on the ground. The edges of its steel limbs were equipped with wheels for sliding on flat ground and steel hooks for dealing with special environments. On both sides of the walker's upper shell were shooting cabins equipped with rotary muskets.
It is difficult for purely technological creations to have a sufficient impact on "abnormalities" or "phenomena", but the crushing firepower can kill those heretics who hide behind and manipulate the abnormalities - of course, this thing is not very effective in the sewers, but it is quite useful to block doors.
The holy 8mm bullets were splashed out, and in the blink of an eye, a large group of heretics who tried to escape were sent to the warp to serve their master.
The grey-haired and grey-eyed Inquisitor jumped directly onto the carapace of the walker, standing steadily in the night with a long sword on his back. Two other guards climbed into the shooting cabins on both sides of the carapace with ease. Then, accompanied by a series of hissing sounds of pressurization and depressurization of cylinders and compression pipes, white steam spurted out from the joints of the walker's limbs. The huge mechanical spider immediately stood up, jumped onto the nearest main road in one step, and then quickly rushed to the nearest sewer entrance in gliding mode.
(It’s time to recommend a book again. The title of the book is “Into Unscience”, a black science article by a top student. It has been praised several times but is still alive and kicking. Now it has 1.4 million words and almost 10,000 subscriptions. If you are interested, you can go and have a look)