Chapter 1 The Beginning

The community church, outwardly dilapidated for countless years, was brightly lit and clean inside. At the same time, in Duncan's eyes, the illuminated interior was clearly overlaid with a ruined scene as if it were "another reality."

This gave Duncan the feeling that this small church was like an "error space" superimposed on reality, or a forgotten place stuck in the seams of time and space. Two completely opposite histories had converged here, yet the church remained at the point of convergence, its internal time having ceased to move forward since then.

It was neither destroyed nor did it survive the great fire.

So... did the nun who was solely guarding this church know something?

"It's been a long time since anyone has visited this church," the nun in the black clerical robe repeated softly. She smiled and looked up, her gaze seemingly passing through Shirley and Duncan, who were standing in front of her. "Where are you from? Unfamiliar faces... You're not residents here, are you?"

The scene before them was bright and warm, but Shirley suddenly shrank her neck under the nun's smiling gaze. For some reason, she felt a chill and whispered nervously to Duncan, "...I feel like this place is weird... It looks so dilapidated outside, but inside it's..."

Duncan didn't answer, but simply patted Shirley's shoulder. From the girl's reaction, he had already guessed that she could only see one "side" of the church, and most likely the side that hadn't been destroyed. But now he didn't know how to explain his guess to Shirley—

If he released A'gou at this time, with the "eyes" of that abyssal hound, it should be able to see the true situation here, right?

However, before figuring out the details of the nun in front of him, it was best not to let Shirley rashly summon A'gou.

"We're passing by," Duncan said calmly to the nun, his expression unchanged, just like a normal person visiting a church. "Have you been here all along?"

"Me? I've always lived in this church," the nun nodded gently. "I've always prayed here, praying to the great existence."

"But people in the district say the nun in the church hasn't been back for a long time," Duncan added, while observing the nun's reaction. "They say this church has been neglected and has looked abandoned for a long time."

The nun listened quietly to Duncan's words, but didn't react strongly, as if her heart had been eternally calmed.

She just gave a faint smile: "Oh, really? But I've always been here... Maybe they forgot the days of prayer and thought the church wasn't open."

Duncan remained noncommittal, but he had already confirmed that not only was there a problem with this church, but there was also a problem with the entire Sixth District outside the church.

This abandoned church was located deep in the district, and it already looked abandoned for more than a decade from the outside! And for ordinary people in this world, churches are not only places to provide spiritual comfort, but also functional facilities used to maintain regional security, resist evil forces after nightfall, and places where many civilians can rest after encountering spiritual problems or being troubled by lucid dreams. Such an important facility had been abandoned for eleven years, yet the residents of the Sixth District didn't seem to find anything wrong, but simply described it lightly as "the nun hasn't been around lately"?

Imagine if a community had been without water and electricity for eleven years, but the local residents didn't seem to find anything wrong, and outsiders asked about it, they would just vaguely say, "The water and electricity departments haven't been working lately." What a bizarre situation that would be!

As for the nun inside this church... Duncan wasn't sure yet what kind of being this humanoid ash that occasionally showed its true form in his eyes was. But through initial conversation, he could feel that the other party didn't seem to have any hostility.

Not only was there no hostility, but her thinking also seemed to be in a very strange state. One couldn't say she had no reason, but she certainly couldn't be considered mentally clear.

Duncan asked a few probing questions, and the nun in the church answered calmly, but her calm answers themselves were a manifestation of mental confusion.

Because under normal circumstances, if a stranger suddenly ran into a church and grabbed the resident nun to ask a lot of unrelated questions, the nun should have felt baffled long ago.

She had reason—but not much left.

"Do you want to pray? Or do you need help with calming the nerves and exorcising evil?"

The nun asked with a smile, her voice soft.

"Thank you, but no need," Duncan shook his head, then looked around, asking as if casually, "By the way, where are the guardians of this church?"

Every church should have guardians stationed there. Even the smallest community church in the slums had a guardian force sufficient to deal with general threats. This church should be no exception.

"Guardians... the guardians are resting in the church. They only show up after nightfall," the nun said with an unchanged smile. "Is there anything you need the guardians for?"

Duncan didn't answer, but slowly swept his gaze across the benches beside the nun.

In his vision, the phantoms of everything being burned by fire and piles of ash and ruins seemed to be superimposed on the brightly lit church like overlapping film, and in that superimposed other dimension, there were quite a few... charred bodies.

"Are the guardians resting there?" Duncan raised his hand, pointing not far away, but in Shirley's eyes, there were only two rows of empty benches there.

The nun was stunned for a moment, and looked in the direction of Duncan's finger. After a moment, she said softly, "...They're sleeping."

Duncan hummed and then asked casually, "Can we look around?"

"Of course, the church is open for visitors," the nun nodded gently. "Then please help yourselves. I need to continue praying. You can call me anytime if you need help."

After saying this, the strange nun really turned and walked towards the goddess statue not far away, completely leaving Duncan and Shirley aside.

It wasn't until the nun left that Shirley, who had been nervous for a long time, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. At this time, she didn't even bother to be afraid of Duncan, because the eerie atmosphere that permeated the church had already made A'gou, who was in a hidden state, restless. An unusual sense of tension was being directly transmitted into her mind through her spiritual connection, making her subconsciously move closer to Duncan. "This... what's going on here... How does this nun give people the creeps? She looks normal, but it's like nothing about her is normal..."

"There seem to be two churches here," Duncan said softly, explaining simply and directly, "One has been burned down, and one is still intact. They are superimposed on this space-time at the same time, and the nun in the church... is neither dead nor alive."

Shirley was stunned. After a full half a minute, she whispered in confusion and astonishment, "What do you mean?"

Duncan glanced at her: "Read a little more—or I can teach you."

Then, without waiting for Shirley's answer, he walked towards the depths of the church on his own.

The nun had said that the church was open for visitors, so of course he would "visit" as he pleased.

Shirley was stunned for a moment, and quickly followed Duncan's footsteps. They passed through the neatly arranged benches, and then passed by the statue and prayer table at the end of the benches.

The serene nun was already kneeling in front of the statue of the Storm Goddess, her hands lightly pressed against her chest, devoutly praying to the god, as if she had completely forgotten about the visitors, as if she had been kneeling here for the past eleven years, maintaining uninterrupted prayer.

Duncan blinked, and the nun turned into a writhing humanoid ash again, piled up next to the charred and destroyed prayer table, with scattered sparks of fire falling from the dome, like falling leaves.

He suddenly felt something and looked up at the statue of the Storm Goddess above.

The statue in a long dress stood quietly on the high platform, with a crack suddenly running across the head of the statue!

In that brief moment, Duncan saw the core of the truth superimposed on the double church. He clearly saw that a dim crack had opened in the head of the goddess statue, and in the crack there were vaguely dim and chaotic shadows, like a horizontal, terrifying eye, its pupils reflecting scenes that should never belong to the real world. And the "holy" aura that should have surrounded the goddess statue had long disappeared without a trace. Only coldness and emptiness were entrenched on this strange and terrifying stone carving!

And in the next moment, that terrifying scene disappeared without a trace again. The statue of Germana still stood quietly on the high platform, looking down majestically at the surroundings, exuding an aura of peace and awe.

The nun kneeling in prayer in front of the goddess statue suddenly opened her eyes. She tilted her head slightly and looked at Duncan calmly.

"Do you want to pray to the goddess?"