Chapter 1 The Silent Cathedral

In the heart of the city-state, where the Frostwind reached its peak, the Silent Cathedral stood quietly atop the mountain. The gloomy sky added to the solemn, somber building, as if it were shrouded in an even greater oppressive silence. Its towering spires stood in the mist, like thorns and blades, overlooking the entire city.

A tall figure, conspicuously standing out from the crowd, strolled across the square in front of the cathedral, surveying the scenery around the plaza like an ordinary tourist.

Before long, a gentlemanly old man in a dark brown coat emerged from the crowd and walked straight towards the tall figure.

Vanna saw Maurice approaching from the crowd and discreetly moved to a relatively secluded spot.

"There's nothing unusual around the cathedral square," Vanna said softly, leaning against a lamppost, her eyes fixed on the cathedral's front doors.

"The same goes for City Hall. At least on the surface, none of the people here show signs of mental or cognitive corruption," Maurice said, wiping his monocle. "But I did discover something."

"Something?"

"Some people near the square were discussing the authorities' recent exploration of the sewers. If I'm not mistaken, they were talking about the Second Waterway," Maurice said. "They mentioned Gatekeeper Agatha in their discussion—the Gatekeeper is personally leading the team."

"Gatekeeper Agatha?" Vanna's expression changed slightly. "But the captain said..."

"The real Agatha should be trapped in a mirrored Frostwind City right now," Maurice said in a low voice. "The one leading the team...is most likely a fake."

Vanna took a light breath, then suddenly looked up towards the Silent Cathedral.

The majestic, solemn building stood against the backdrop of a gloomy sky, its towering spires standing silently in the mist.

Her expression turned grave. "...There's nothing unusual about the cathedral, so there are only two possibilities. Either the fake has fooled the cathedral's eyes, or..."

"Or the Frostwind Church is no longer trustworthy—at least there's a major problem within the cathedral," Maurice nodded gently. "Either way, the Frostwind Church has clearly lost control of the whole situation. We should leave here. We need to tell Duncan about this immediately."

Vanna nodded silently and walked with Maurice towards the exit of the square. Before leaving, she looked up one last time at the open space opposite the Silent Cathedral.

That was where City Hall was located, where the Queen's Palace, once known as the "Winter Court," stood. Mist was rising on the mountain, and in the slightly denser fog, Vanna saw the building standing silently beneath the sky, just like the Silent Cathedral, its spires towering, its turrets standing like thorns and blades in the mist, silently overlooking the city.

Vanna suddenly stopped.

Maurice turned his head. "Vanna? What do you see?"

Vanna stared intently at the hazy mist.

In the swirling mist, City Hall returned to its original state, a palatial building with various curved arches. Around the majestic, grand, gray-white main building were long halls and undulating arcades extending to both sides like wings.

There were no gloomy black spires, no forest of towers.

"Vanna? What's wrong?" Maurice's voice sounded again from the side.

"I just saw another cathedral—in the location of City Hall," Vanna said suddenly in a low voice, her expression particularly solemn. "It was only for a moment, but I'm sure I didn't see it wrong!"

"Another cathedral?" Maurice was startled. He instinctively looked across the square, but all he saw was the seemingly normal City Hall.

But he didn't doubt Vanna's judgment at all.

"This isn't a good sign," the old scholar said in a low voice, raising his hand to press down on his top hat. "It seems you were the only one who saw that just now. It's probably because your clairvoyance as a cleric is far beyond that of ordinary people—that strange phenomenon appeared directly around the cathedral. This is evidence of the increasing encroachment."

Vanna didn't say anything. She just frowned and looked towards the city area at the foot of the mountain. After a long while, she slowly said, "It's getting foggy. It's everywhere."

Fog was rising, first in the central area of Frostwind City-State, and then the fog began to spread throughout the city. From wisps of mist at first, the fog quickly became dense. Within a few short hours, the entire city was shrouded in a haze.

"It's so foggy outside!"

Shirley leaned on the windowsill of her second-floor bedroom, craning her neck to look at the street scene, exclaiming with a surprised expression.

Doggy also leaned against the window, his ugly bone head squeezed alongside Shirley's, and after staring outside for a long time, he suddenly spouted a string of words: "The reason for fog in urban areas is usually the large temperature difference between day and night, and human activities cause water vapor to rise and dust in the air to increase. The water-containing air between buildings will form..."

Shirley was completely confused. "Doggy, what are you talking about?"

"Doggy is talking about Chapter Two of *The Logic Behind Nature*. He's been reading that book for the past two days," Nina said, glancing over from her desk, where she was doing homework. "You should try reading simple books yourself occasionally. It's very helpful for mastering vocabulary—if you really can't, you can start with picture books."

Shirley thought for a moment and said uncertainly, "Are you mocking me for not knowing enough words and only being able to read picture books even now?"

Nina's attention had returned to her homework. "No, because you really can only read picture books. Describing facts isn't mocking..."

Shirley's eyes widened, as if she wanted to get angry, but then she was attracted by the denser fog outside the window, waving her hands repeatedly. "Hey, I'm not talking about that with you—come and see! It's really foggy outside! I've never seen such fog in Pland..."

"Pland has a small temperature difference between day and night, and it's windy in the morning and evening, so it's not easy to get foggy," Nina said without looking up. "I'm not looking. I haven't finished my homework yet. This set of papers that Mr. Maurice gave us is really difficult, and the multiple-choice questions are too confusing. I always feel like I chose the wrong answer..."

"Hey, if you encounter options you can't figure out, just choose C for all of them," Shirley said casually, then her eyes flickered, as if a new idea had come to mind. "Nina, do you want to go out and play? Just nearby, not far—there's a pastry shop across the street. There definitely won't be many customers in this kind of weather, maybe we can buy some very cheap cake..."

"I'm not going," Nina said casually. "Go by yourself. If Uncle Duncan comes back, I won't tell on you..."

She was only halfway through her sentence when a strange, rustling sound suddenly rang out in the room, interrupting the conversation between the two girls.

"Did...did you hear something just now?" Shirley quickly jumped back from the windowsill, looking around warily.

Nina also became nervous, and as she instinctively tried to look around, she suddenly saw an abnormality on the surface of the test papers and books spread out in front of her.

The words were moving, the symbols were rotating, and the black and white ink marks were trembling as if they had come to life. At the edges of those trembling pen marks, black shadows were spreading rapidly like ink bleeding, quickly filling the entire paper.

In almost an instant, all the books and papers that Nina had just been looking at began to tremble violently, and overlapping whispers mingled with rustling sounds, echoing throughout the room!

"Ah! The books you're reading are cursed!" Shirley exclaimed, and subconsciously raised the chain that connected her to Doggy. The moment her exclamation fell, the cursed thing that had been drawn by the scent of knowledge and was rising towards the real world entered the room!

Black smoke spun wildly, and a solid form condensed and emerged from the smoke. Fragments of bone rattled as they scattered on the floor, and in the blink of an eye, they transformed into hideous and terrifying demons—three Deep Sea Hounds landed on the floor, emitting terrifying growls, their chaotic, crimson eyes filled with madness and chaos!

Then, they saw Doggy lying prone in the open space next to the window, seemingly a little dazed.

The Deep Sea Hounds looked at each other—

Shirley even thought she saw a moment of confusion in the posture of those chaotic, unintelligent "native demons."

But this did not affect her reaction in the slightest.

The black chain rattled instantly, and Shirley raised her arm high, using her immense strength to swing Doggy around in a full circle like a meteor hammer. The next second, he hurtled towards the demon closest to the window!

"I'm gonna beat you to death!"

In a deafening crash, the two dog heads collided in an earth-shattering impact, and the demon who had just run out of the Deep Sea was clearly no match for Doggy, who had been practicing combat with Shirley for many years—both in terms of skull hardness and reaction speed.

The first Deep Sea demon was smashed to pieces in one encounter.

The second Deep Sea demon only had time to open its mouth, but before it could let out a roar, it suddenly felt a rush of scorching heat.

A flame came from the side, and Nina launched a 6000° flying kick.