Chapter 1 Another Wave

Another small group of Solar Heretics who had infiltrated Cold Harbor via smuggled ships were rounded up and imprisoned in the church near the port district.

Vanna returned from the prison area beneath the church to the upper-level sanctuary’s lounge, where the local bishop in charge of the church was already waiting.

“Inquisitor Vanna,” the rather gaunt local bishop greeted the young inquisitor, “may the waves protect your soul.”

“May the waves protect your soul,” Vanna returned the greeting to the bishop, then wearily walked towards a nearby chair. “This is already the second batch of Solar Heretics thrown into prison just in the port district, isn’t it?”

“Yes, we caught over a dozen people three days ago—they were discovered and stopped in time while trying to murder a citizen. Now this is the second batch, they aroused the suspicion of a meter reader while holding a dark ritual in an apartment building,” the local bishop nodded, a hint of concern in his eyes. “Without realizing it, so many cultists have infiltrated… Fortunately, we discovered them early, otherwise, who knows how many people their dark rituals would have killed.”

“Pland is a transportation hub on the boundless sea, and the past four years of calm have numbed many people’s nerves,” Vanna nodded. “However… it’s still hard to say whether we discovered them early or late. Those heretics who arrived earlier may have been active in the dark for some time, only recently being exposed.”

The local bishop glanced at the inquisitor’s expression and hesitated for a moment before asking, “I heard that many people have been caught in other areas as well?”

“Yes, almost every district,” Vanna didn’t hide anything. “Now almost every church’s underground prison holds captured Solar Heretics, a few at least, dozens at most… but they are mostly the lowest-level pawns, moving around the city-state to gather information. They haven’t been trained much, so they are easily exposed… The real high-level priests have not been discovered yet.”

Vanna’s tone unconsciously became serious when she spoke of the latter, a hint of worry on her face.

Ever since the actions of these heretical cultists in search of the "Sun Fragment" were exposed, the Pland authorities and the church quickly reacted and launched a secret city-wide dragnet, while also actively mobilizing citizens to report and investigate. The results of this series of actions were undeniably fruitful—

In a very short time, a large number of unprepared cultists were exposed and captured. These filthy and bloody cultists now almost filled the underground prisons of various churches, their numbers nearly equaling the total number of cultists discovered in the city-state in the past four years.

However, so far, all that had been caught were just lackeys acting randomly. At most, there were some low-level priests holding "mass-produced holy relics" and having just received blessings. Those truly high-ranking forces were still hidden behind the scenes.

This made Vanna feel vaguely uneasy.

"There are results every day, but we can't catch their 'backbone'. It gives me the feeling that the situation is still deteriorating beyond our sight," she said to the local bishop in front of her. "With such a large number of cultists operating in the city-state, there must be a high-level commander behind them to coordinate and arrange things, but this 'commander' has not yet appeared."

The local bishop pondered for a moment and slowly opened his mouth, “According to the current interrogation results, these pawns only obey the orders of ‘messengers,’ and the so-called ‘messengers’ are a group of grassroots priests who directly listen to the voices from the progeny through imitation sun masks… Do you think there might be a Solar Progeny lurking in the city-state?”

“A Solar Progeny lurking in a human city-state? Seriously… it’s logically unlikely,” Vanna frowned slightly. “Although they have great power, they also have obvious ‘traces of existence.’ Their filthy and foul aura cannot be hidden at all… There are churches and patrolling Guardian members everywhere in the city-state. In theory, there shouldn’t be any ‘blind spots’.”

“So, it’s just speculation,” the local bishop shook his head. “I also know that it’s difficult for Solar Progeny to hide in civilized society, but those low-level ‘messengers’ do carry sun masks with them. Even if they are not directly controlled by the progeny, they must have maintained contact with the Solar Progeny to some extent… After all, mass-produced holy relics are still holy relics, and those cultists also have to consider the cost of their actions. They wouldn’t make meaningless arrangements.”

Vanna bent her fingers and pressed them against her chin. While pondering, she suddenly opened her mouth, “I read yesterday’s interrogation records. Those heretics were mainly inquiring about the extraordinary events that occurred in the city-state eleven years ago… They believe it’s related to the Sun Fragment?”

“It seems so now,” the local bishop nodded. “Although I don’t know their source of information, they seem to firmly believe that the Sun Fragment caused that ‘chemical factory riot’ in Pland eleven years ago… I remember you were also…”

As the local bishop spoke, he suddenly stopped. He looked at the conspicuous scar near Vanna’s left eye and lowered his head slightly, “Sorry, I misspoke.”

Vanna subconsciously raised her hand and stroked the scar on her face, but soon smiled indifferently and shook her head, “It’s okay, it’s just a scar. You’re right, I was also a witness to that riot. There’s nothing I can’t say.”

"That gang of cultists was also involved in that riot. As many as a hundred of the saboteurs arrested after the incident were Solar Heretics," the local bishop said in a deep voice, "But now the Solar Heretics who have infiltrated the city-state are asking about the truth of the events eleven years ago… It’s as if they really don’t know what happened here eleven years ago. Don’t you find that strange?"

"… Either, the Solar Heretics of the Pland city-state acted without authorization eleven years ago, so the cultists in other city-states don’t know the truth here, or… the appearance of the Sun Fragment in Pland eleven years ago was just an accident, or the work of a third party, and those heretics who participated in the riot were just used as pawns," Vanna said lightly, "According to the interrogation records of that year, the ‘saboteurs’ who were arrested at that time were indeed in a state of mental confusion. Their madness and loss of control did not seem to be intentional, but rather as if they were influenced by a powerful force."

"… Chasing twisted and strange things, and then being controlled and driven mad by strange forces, becoming fuel for the fire of chaos in a daze, and finally being abandoned in the ashes…" The local bishop sighed, "What a tragic life."

Vanna didn’t speak for a while. She just silently stood up and came to the window of the lounge.

Through the window here, she could see the situation in the port district from afar—the complete lockdown of the entire port had ended. Currently, many docks and piers had been put back into use, but Pier No. 1 was still maintaining the highest level of lockdown. The beautiful and brand-new steamship "White Oak" was still quietly docked at the end of the pier, undergoing continuous monitoring and a daily purification ritual as planned.

The crew members of the White Oak had been transferred to the Central Cathedral—as the parties who had been in close contact with the *Ghost Ship*, they were now receiving the highest level of monitoring.

The church basement held heretics who followed the Black Sun, a "lost homecoming ship" that had been in contact with the *Ghost Ship* was docked at the port, and a group of sailors who had met Captain Duncan up close lived in the Central Cathedral… Just thinking about it was a headache.

The sun had gradually set, but it was not yet the time of transition between day and night. The local bishop lit a few oil lamps in the room in advance, and the swaying flames were reflected on the glass window.

Vanna retracted her gaze from the port district: "I heard that the out-of-control announcement document regarding Anomaly 099 has been issued to the port district?"

“Yes, it was just delivered this afternoon. Would you like to take a look?” the local bishop said, taking out the folded document from his person. “For some reason, it was a little later than expected.”

“Let me see it,” Vanna reached out to take the document and directly used the remaining light of the sunset by the window to read it, while casually explaining, “It’s normal for it to be a little late—after all, the out-of-control situation of Anomaly 099 is very special. It broke free from its seal during a direct confrontation with that *Ghost Ship*. The bishops of various city-states must carefully weigh the wording and information pointers in the announcement document to prevent this document, which is about to be distributed to all routes, from creating too many ‘directional connections’… Otherwise, this thing that should help captains avoid risks may actually connect them to the *Ghost Ship*.”

In the dim twilight near sunset, the oil lamp closest to Vanna in the lounge suddenly flickered. Accompanied by the word "*Ghost Ship*" that she blurted out unconsciously, the flame in the oil lamp made a subtle crackling sound.