Chapter 174 Eve of the Storm

The nun who had been quietly praying before the Goddess statue was gone.

Only an empty floor remained before the pulpit. Bright gas lamps illuminated the spacious main hall and rows of seats. Vanna and the Guardian warriors searched the not-so-large hall, but couldn't find the strange "nun."

Of course, Vanna knew that the nun likely "didn't exist" from the start—her real body had obviously died in the underground cathedral years ago. What had been maintaining the prayer in the main hall was just a phantom of her. But even the sudden disappearance of this phantom made everyone feel uneasy and confused.

"The corridors and small rooms over here are empty too!"

The last two Guardian warriors who had gone to search also returned to the main hall. Their report confirmed one thing: the nun's "phantom" had completely vanished from the church.

Vanna frowned slightly, her mind racing—

The phantom disappeared, but when did it disappear?

Was it when she entered the underground cathedral for the second time? Was it when she saw the string of numbers the real nun had written before her death? Or…

Was it when that strange, ghostly green flame ignited out of nowhere, erasing the traces on the ground?

If it was the former, then the disappearance of the phantom was likely because she, the "observer from the real world," had seen through the truth, thus disrupting a part of the illusion here. But if it was the latter… then it meant the ghostly captain had intervened.

The ghostly captain erased the traces in the underground cathedral, and also erased the nun's phantom in the main hall—for reasons unknown.

Staying here wouldn't lead to any further discoveries. The top priority was to tell Bishop Valentine the current situation and then go to the archives to confirm the warning signs she had just noticed.

Vanna quickly led her team out of the church. They stepped through the church door, and when they looked back again, they saw that the church had indeed completely reverted to its dilapidated and ruined state.

Vanna breathed a sigh of relief. At least she had safely led her subordinates out of this strange place. Then, a sudden thought struck her, and she subconsciously raised her head, looking towards the top of the church.

A chubby white pigeon was standing on the high spire, tilting its head and looking over, appearing harmless.

Why was this pigeon still here?

Vanna couldn't help but feel a bit curious, but she quickly dismissed these doubts. After arranging for personnel to stay around the church, she turned around, got into the car, and set off on the road back to the Central Cathedral.

The white pigeon flapped its wings and flew away quickly.

But the pigeon didn't fly too far—after leaving the sight of the Guardians guarding the church, it flew directly into a nearby alley.

Ghostly green spirit fire rapidly rose in the deserted alley, transforming into doorways and vortexes. Duncan stepped out of the flames, then frowned slightly, thoughtfully looking in the direction of the church.

Stirring things up was the right decision. Attracting Vanna and the "official forces" behind her had indeed yielded unexpected gains—the investigation had moved forward. Professionals were professionals; their knowledge far surpassed that of wildcards like Shirley and A Gou.

When close enough, Duncan could directly monitor the movements around the target through the "mark" he left on them. And since the mark on Vanna had been strengthened the last time she visited the antique shop, this monitoring could even allow Duncan to sense the emotional fluctuations of the young inquisitor to a certain extent. Just now, he and Ai had stayed above the church, and through this monitoring, they had "witnessed" the Guardian team's exploration of the church.

Duncan quietly pondered in the shadows of the alley, organizing the information he had just obtained.

The nun was fighting against what was most likely his "subspace projection"—there were no other intruders at all. The intruder came from a "rift" in her own soul?

The clergy of this world… once completely contaminated and overwhelmed, would actually become a "channel" connecting subspace and the real world?

Was this only the case for the clergy, or did all humans have this hidden danger, and the danger of the clergy being contaminated was even greater?

This was the most concerning and surprising piece of information for Duncan.

Duncan didn't know much about the several orthodox gods of this world and the churches under their names, but at least through this period of observation, he could confirm that the positions of these churches were on the side of order and protection. The clergy ensured the security of the city-states in the supernatural realm, and they were also the most steadfast line of defense against the world's "deep" contamination.

But now he knew that this firm line of defense could itself become a "pipeline" between the real world and subspace under certain conditions… Why was this?

If this transformation didn't only happen to the clergy, but all humans would transform into subspace channels under certain conditions, then what would that mean?

Subspace, which was greatly feared by the world, seemed to have a more complex connection with the real world and with mortals than he had initially imagined…

In addition to this piece of information, there was also the string of numbers "1885" left by the nun.

This was indeed a detail that Duncan and Shirley had not discovered when they came here to explore before, and it was also a detail that surprised Duncan greatly at the moment.

If Vanna's judgment was correct, the nun didn't die in the sun fragment incident in 1889, but died in 1885—and in the years after that, this small church should have been shrouded in distorted time and space!

What did this mean?

Duncan's thoughts surged, and he slowly raised his hand, gently rubbing his fingertips. A cluster of ghostly green flames quietly burned in his sight.

He could clearly feel that the spirit fire was spreading—spreading in the invisible dimension, on the "other side" of this Pland city-state, and constantly sending him weak feedback.

This was his third puzzle.

Not long after Vanna discovered the string of numbers in the underground cathedral, the string of numbers disappeared out of thin air. At that time, the spirit fire briefly appeared. The young inquisitor must have thought this was the work of "Captain Duncan," but in reality…

Duncan was even more confused than her.

He didn't erase the string of numbers. He didn't know why the fire he had released would suddenly appear in the underground cathedral and specifically burn away the string of numbers "1885"—it gave him the feeling that the fire didn't spread to the church in space, but spread to 1885 in time!

Duncan suddenly froze.

Perhaps… this wasn't an illusion…

For some reason, he suddenly recalled when he was studying Alice's wooden box, recalling the entrustment he heard when he caught a glimpse of the scene of the Frost Queen's execution half a century ago—

"...Please don't contaminate history..."

Duncan's face was as deep as water, and his brows furrowed little by little. He thought of a sentence he had heard not long ago:

In this world, everything can be contaminated except subspace.

…

Vanna returned to the cathedral in a hurry. She originally wanted to go to the archives as soon as possible to confirm what was going on with the serious sense of disharmony in her memory, but she still went to see Bishop Valentine first and told the old man the results of her investigation in the Sixth District church.

After listening to Vanna's account, Valentine was silent for a long time. He frowned tightly and thought for a long time before muttering with a toothache-like expression: "Subspace… this is really the most troublesome of all troublesome situations…"

"When we were preparing to leave, the string of numbers in the small church pointing to 1885 and the nun praying in the main hall disappeared. It seems to be related to the power of that 'Captain Duncan'," Vanna added, "But we didn't stay in the church to conduct repeated tests because we were worried about the risk of contamination spreading."

"…Correct prudence," Bishop Valentine nodded slightly. "Now we can't be sure what the ghost captain's attitude is. It seems that although he did provide us with an important piece of information, he also erased some clues in the end… In any case, he is not our 'friend'."

Vanna pondered for a moment and looked at the old man in front of her: "Is there any response from the church headquarters? Have you reported the situation here to His Holiness the Pope?"

Valentine glanced at Vanna and nodded, saying, "I have reported the situation here in detail to the Storm Cathedral. His Holiness the Pope said that he will send support as soon as possible—but the Cathedral is still some distance away from Pland after all, and even the fastest clipper ship will hardly arrive in a few days, so… be prepared to rely on ourselves."

As he spoke, the old bishop sighed softly, turned around, and stared at the statue of the Storm Goddess.

"Disaster is brewing, and I don't know when it will erupt. Whether Pland, this pearl of the sea, can wipe away the haze depends on our own abilities."