Chapter 1 The Contamination of the Subspace

The contamination of the subspace will not recede on its own, just as justice will not be self-asserting—Vanna knew this very well after fighting against the twisted shadows in the depths of the world for so many years.

If this church had been contaminated by the subspace, and the attending nuns in the church had already fallen in the contamination, then whatever invaded this place would never disappear on its own.

Considering the bizarre 'echo' of the nun in the main teaching hall and the generally strange atmosphere of the entire Sixth Block, the gate of the underground church had obviously failed to stop the invaders. So where was the invading subspace power now?

Vanna raised the lantern in her hand. The whale oil containing sacred power burned quietly within, and everything in the underground sanctuary was reflected in her eyes by the light. The countless slashes and bullet marks covering the walls were like words carved repeatedly by a locked space-time, calmly telling her some secrets.

Words?

Vanna suddenly frowned, as if a flash of lightning had struck her heart.

If the nun who died in battle in this underground sanctuary had foreseen her fate when she closed the gate, would she have tried to leave some kind of record to warn later investigators?

This was the reaction expected of a well-trained cleric!

"Check this place again," she suddenly raised her head and ordered her warriors loudly. "All the marks, sword slashes, bullet marks, bloodstains, everything—this sister very likely left some kind of message before she died!"

"Yes!"

The guardians acted quickly, each taking a lantern and scattering, beginning a more detailed and targeted search of the underground sanctuary, which had already been searched once.

Vanna herself was not idle, of course. After realizing that the fallen nun might have left information before her death, she returned to the place where the nun had died, back to the entrance of the underground sanctuary, carefully examining the ground and walls near the gate.

She had completely shattered the gate of the sanctuary, but she believed there would be no information on the gate, because the sanctuary gate was part of a sealed seal, with sacred symbols of the goddess engraved on it. Leaving marks on it would weaken the sanctuary's protection, and the nun would not do that.

The nun with the sword still lay quietly on the ground, the uncoagulated blood slowly flowing away beneath her.

Vanna crouched down beside the nun's body, carefully examining her entire body. Then, based on the angle at which the nun had fallen when she had broken in, she speculated on her posture and position at the time of death. She bent down in the most likely angle, pried open the nun's clenched hand, and examined the state of the longsword.

Suddenly, her movements stopped.

Vanna's gaze fell on the ground beside the nun.

There were a series of sword marks, which at first glance looked like messy scribbles, as if they were marks made on the ground by someone who was unsteady with their sword at the moment of death.

In the previous inspections, Vanna and her subordinates had ignored these things, but this time, the young inquisitor finally realized that these seemingly chaotic scratches were actually a 'message' that had been severely distorted and repeatedly engraved several times.

"It's here." She raised her head and said loudly to the guards who were searching around. Then she lowered her gaze and carefully distinguished the information in the sword marks.

After looking for a long time, she finally made out a few characters:

"1885."

It was just a string of numbers.

The guardians had gathered around her. Standing beside Vanna, they also recognized the string of numbers from the sword marks. The short-bearded guardian at the head clearly didn't understand the meaning of this string of characters. He looked at his superior in confusion: "Inquisitor, this string of numbers... Inquisitor?"

He saw the look of astonishment on Vanna's face. The latter's eyes widened the moment she saw the string of numbers, as if thunder was exploding in her heart, preventing the inquisitor, who always appeared calm and collected in front of her subordinates, from controlling her expression.

Vanna was awakened by her subordinate's call. She took a deep breath, feeling her heart pounding. The memory of searching for information alone in the archives also surfaced, and she recalled the strange records of heretical worship, the archives before 1889, and the missing record of 1885.

All these memories ultimately focused on this underground sanctuary, on the messy sword marks in front of her: 1885.

"It's 1885... she's reminding us before her death that she actually died in 1885!"

Vanna murmured to herself. The guardians beside her looked at each other in confusion. One of them frowned: "But why would she specifically emphasize this?"

The young inquisitor was puzzled. A large number of clues had emerged, and it seemed that they were about to merge into one, but there was a huge gap in the middle, preventing her from completely connecting her thoughts.

If the number left by this nun was meant to indicate the year of her death, then this year must have a special meaning, and a 'warning' she wanted to convey was hidden in this year. But what exactly was the warning that would have a 'strong connection' to the year 1885?

Did this nun see something before her death? Did she foresee that the 1885 record would disappear from the cathedral's archives? Or did she know why this record would disappear?

Unfortunately, the truth had disappeared into the years with the gradually cooling blood. At the moment when the gate of the underground sanctuary was closed, the secret known by this nun was destined to be unknown to anyone. All she could do was use her life to cross time and space to pass on this string of incomprehensible numbers to Vanna.

Vanna raised her head and saw the accompanying guardians focusing their attention on her. Some of them had concern in their eyes, but also cautious observation.

"I went to the cathedral archives once before," she organized her thoughts and said to her subordinates. "In the archives, the information from 1885 has disappeared for some reason. Now it seems that this year is definitely..."

She suddenly stopped.

For some reason, the scenes of searching for information in the archives appeared in her mind once again, as if another force was constantly reminding her, making her repeatedly recall the memories of walking among the huge bookshelves. And between these memories, she suddenly heard a soft sound of waves.

Vanna slowly widened her eyes.

She still couldn't recall anything other than searching the archives alone, but she realized that there might be a problem with her memories in the archives. Her spiritual talent was warning her, and the goddess was also warning her!

"Return to the cathedral," she suddenly said to her subordinates, "I want to go to the archives!"

The guardians looked at each other, unsure why the inquisitor was so nervous and serious, but they quickly stopped hesitating and immediately obeyed.

Just as these guardians were about to leave, one of them looked down at the ground beside him and suddenly exclaimed, "The words are disappearing!"

Vanna immediately looked in the direction of the voice, and a faint, ghostly green glow was reflected in her eyes.

Her breath instantly caught in her throat.

On the ground, the marks engraved by the nun before her death were gradually disappearing, as if the pencil marks on paper were being erased by a rubber eraser. And at the places where the sword marks disappeared, faint ghostly green sparks were constantly jumping—these 'sparks' came from nowhere, as if they had been spreading in a dimension invisible to the naked eye, and now suddenly appeared in the vision of people in reality...

Vanna was all too familiar with these ghostly green sparks!

It was the owner of this flame who had guided her to this church!

In that instant, countless guesses flooded her mind, about the *Lost Ship*, about the ghost captain, and even more about the subspace and the string of numbers '1885', but none of the guesses matched.

No one could explain what role the ghost captain was playing, and Vanna couldn't understand why the other party's flames would erase the marks in front of her at this time, but one thing she was very clear about: it was not safe to stay here for long, and she had to return to the cathedral immediately.

In the blink of an eye, the marks on the ground had disappeared, and the ghostly green sparks that came from nowhere gradually disappeared from everyone's sight.

"Don't approach this area, be careful that the flames are still spreading outside the visible range," Vanna reminded her subordinates. "Now, send out the second team to stay outside the church and establish a seal barrier on the spot to await orders. The rest of you follow me back to the cathedral."

The guardians responded in unison, "Yes!"

Vanna nodded, then thought for a moment and ordered, "Also, notify the standby units in the nearby blocks to seal off the entire Sixth Block."

Inside the main hall of the small church, Vanna led the guardians through.

A guardian subconsciously glanced in the direction of the goddess statue and suddenly exclaimed, "The praying 'nun' is gone too!"