Chapter 31: "Residue"

Chapter 31 "Residue"

Vanna turned her focus on the black-dressed lady who was examining the mental state of the cultists, who also greeted her with a slight nod.

The other party appeared to be in her early twenties, but due to that calm temperament, she gave off a mature air that's older than the perceived age. It also helped that she had tied her long black hair into a bun to appear older. Then matching with that pale blue crystal earing, this young lady was what you call a seductress in a brothel. Truly a fine female specimen that oozed allure.

"Heidi also came... Did city hall send her?" Vanna asked the young guardian beside her.

"No, Ms. Heidi was right here when it happened, so she came straight over when she heard the news. What's wrong?"

"No, it's nothing. Heidi may be an employee of city hall, but she also has a long-term cooperative relationship with the church. Make sure to register her as a person on site afterward." Vanna shook her head and quickly refocused her attention on the matter at hand. Asking casually while examining the cult priest who had lost his heart, "What else do these cultists have to say? What was the situation at that time?"

"Their language was confusing to piece together, but we did get two members of the cult mentioning the normal ritual had ended when they caught an escaped prisoner. So, the emissary decided to make an exception and performed a second ritual for the sacrifice...." The guardian said as he recalled, "The two cultists were standing further away from the altar so the specifics are unknown. They only said that the sacrifice had its heart pierced but didn't die, that it turned things around and designated the priest as the sacrifice by shouting the sun god's name..."

"...... A person who was selected as a sacrifice turned the ritual around and sacrificed the presiding assailant?" Vanna showed a face as if she had heard an absurd story. Nevertheless, she restrained her urge to lash out knowing these subordinates were absolutely loyal to the church. "How can there be such an outrageous thing? If that's the case, wouldn't it mean the one with the faster mouth can dictate who gets to be sacrificed during the ritual? It doesn't make sense at all."

"I agree it doesn't make sense. The presiding priest occupies a dominant position during the ceremony. There's no way a weak and ordinary person can overcome their captors under such circumstances with only a sentence. Moreover, through our examination of the priest here, this individual has been eroded by the 'depths', a real 'baptized' person. Also, according to the other cultists, he was still holding the blessed ritual dagger in his hand when he died...."

The young guardian shook his head as he spoke before moving over to the corpse next to himself.

"But... look at this, this is the 'sacrifice' that 'killed' the priest."

Vanna glanced over to the indicated corpse, which had been entirely devoid of life for a while based on the level of decay. However, it's precisely this level of decay that caused her eyes to sharpen.

It was a thin young man, too thin to be healthy, but more than that, the gaping hole around the heart area left her on alert.

"He has been sacrificed..."

"Yes, this is a sacrifice that has already been sacrificed. Judging by the evidence on scene, plus the confessions we gathered, this 'sacrifice' may have lost his life long before he was placed on the stage." The guardian grew heavier in his voice, "So... the real situation at that time was that a moving corpse, in full view of everyone, walked up to this stage and killed the priest in charge."

"...... Necromancy?" Vanna thought to herself, "No, the power of the Black Sun has great constraint on necromancers, and the walking dead would never be able to draw close to the totem.... Could an anomaly have controlled this corpse?"

"Have you checked the lights around here?" She suddenly raised her head and looked at the guardian beside her, "Within five hundred meters, is there an underground space that's completely lightless?"

"We checked, and there was no lightless crypt — even the cultists knew the dangers of the darkness so they were very cautious in making sure every area had some sort of lighting using torches and lamps. This includes the caves used to discard the bodies."

Vanna did speak for a while and instead bent down to examine the corpse further. She had no way to confirm the story of what happened, but she could look for clues of outside forces at work here, which she did by flipping open the body's eyelids to peer inside using her powers.

All of a sudden, a glimmering flash seemed to overtake her sight - a spark of faint green fire jumped out of that hollow eyeball. Before she could react, the flame had already drifted out into the air and disappeared from existence.

Vanna's eyes flinched out of reflex once she returned to her senses. Then, without hesitation, her hands instantly drew the dagger from the waist and cut down on her index finger that made contact. As a follow-up, she pinned the rune-engraved dagger into the corpse's forehead and caused the body to burst into flames using her holy power.

It took her less than a second to complete all this, and at the moment when the corpse was engulfed in the burning heat, she got up and took two steps back. Then with practiced maneuver, she took the blessed holy oil from her waist, bit off the cork, and poured the oil onto her wounded right hand. The holy oil did its job because the flesh and blood instantly started sizzling with large puffs of white smoke coming off of it.

Intense pain seared into the inquisitor's heart, but Vanna's face never once waivered as the other guardians promptly drew their weapons and cut off the "sacrifice's" head.

They were trained for this stuff. Without delay, the closest threw some kind of potion mixed with seaweed extract and silver powder into the fire that caused a continuous series of explosive flares that brought up the heat. Before everyone knew it, the corpse had incinerated into ash from the chemical explosion.

The surrounding officials had also noticed the commotion and drew their rune steel swords and circled around Vanna. Some even had large-caliber revolvers out aimed at the surviving cultists. As for the two priests at the scene, they too brought out a strangely threatening gun of sleek design, albeit smaller than the others, but no less lethal based on the runes inscribed on the surface. It also helped the clerics were chanting the storm goddess's name and giving off a faint glow with their guns.

"Inquisitor!" The young guardian with the steel sword rushed up to Vanna, "Are you alright? Just now..."

"There is some power that remains in that 'sacrifice.' It managed to bypass all of my defenses from the goddess." Vanna raised her right hand and saw her blessing taking effect as the flesh began squirming to regrow itself.

"Something is wrong here. Not only is the Black Sun involved, but another powerful force." The inquisitor immediately made a judgement on the next course of action, "Transfer all the evidence away and take them to the church. Any further inspection and interrogation will be carried out under strict supervision. Have more priests come here and thoroughly purify this area... Is there anyone else here aside from us?"

A nearby guardian immediately replied, "Yes, we have previously rescued a batch of 'predetermined sacrifices' in another cave nearby. They are now temporarily placed in the pipe room next to us."

"Take them to the church as well. Although they're victims of this, it's too dangerous to let them go for now. Subject them to strict examination for the next few days before allowing them to go home." Vanna said quickly before adding like she remembered something, "What about Ms. Heidi? Is she okay?"

"I'm here," a calm female voice sounded. It was the "psychiatrist" in the black dress as she unhurriedly walked over, "Don't worry, I didn't react in time at all just now. Mind explaining why such a big commotion?"

"...... Like many classic stories, these cultists have provoked something far more evil." Vanna glanced at the "psychiatrist" before continuing, "I strongly recommend that you get yourself checked by the church too, and if you want to hypnotize the cultists later, do so only with extra protection... there is a force here that shouldn't be, at least a lingering remnant remains...."