Deep Sea Embers

Fanna raised her head and looked at the lady in black dress who was checking the mental state of some cultists. The latter noticed her gaze and raised her head to greet her slightly.

The other person looks to be only in his early twenties, but he has a calm temperament that is far more mature than his age. His long black hair is tied up behind his head, and the light blue crystal earrings on his earlobes are shaking and reflecting the gas lamp not far away. of reflection.

"...Heidi is also here...did the city hall send her here?" Vanna asked the young guard beside her.

"No, Ms. Heidi happened to be nearby when it happened. She came right over after hearing the news - is there anything wrong?"

"No, it's nothing. Although Heidi is an employee of the city hall, she has also had a long-term cooperative relationship with the church. She can just complete the on-site registration when she returns." Fanna shook her head and quickly focused on her eyes again. Regarding the incident, she examined the cult priest who died of a heart failure and asked casually, "What else did the cultists who could still communicate say? What was the situation at that time?"

"Their language was very confusing. Two of them mentioned that the normal sacrificial ceremony had ended, but suddenly someone caught an escaped sacrifice near the assembly venue, so the envoy decided to sacrifice this sacrifice to Sun God..." the guardian said as he recalled, "The two cultists were standing far away from the altar and did not see the specific scene on the altar. They only said that the sacrifice pierced the heart and did not die, and instead Chanting the name of the sun god, he directly designated the messenger as a sacrifice... and the messenger was sacrificed. "

"...A person who was selected as a sacrifice shouted the name of the evil god on the spot and directly sacrificed the person who presided over the ceremony?" Fanna seemed to have heard some fantasy, and she felt extremely absurd in her heart, but These words were spoken by a strictly trained, loyal and reliable church guardian, and she had to face it seriously, which made her look weird, "How could there be such an outrageous thing - if this is also If it works, wouldn’t it be possible for the many victims at the cult’s sacrifice sites to kill those heretical priests if they speak faster?”

"Who says it's not the case? No matter how bad the priest is, he still occupies an absolutely dominant position when presiding over the ceremony. How could a weak ordinary person make the ceremony get out of control to that extent with just a casual word - not to mention us The priest was also examined and found that he did have traces of being eroded by projections from the 'deep' world. He was a real 'baptized person', and according to the description of the cultists at the scene, he was still holding a blessing in his hand. The ceremonial dagger..."

The young guard shook his head as he spoke, and then came to another corpse next to him.

"But... come and see this, this is the 'sacrifice' that 'killed' the priest."

Vanna glanced at the guard before her eyes fell on the completely lifeless corpse. The next second, her eyes became sharp.

He was a thin young man, and even because he was too thin, his body shape was closer to that of a teenager. The most obvious abnormality on his body was the empty hole in his chest.

"...He has been sacrificed..."

"Yes, this is a sacrifice that has been sacrificed. Judging from the traces on the scene and the confessions of the cultists, this 'sacrifice' may have lost its heart before being pushed onto the stage," the guard said in a serious tone. "So... what really happened at that time was that there was a walking corpse that walked onto the stage in full view of everyone and killed the priest who was presiding over the ceremony as a sacrifice."

"...The trick of the necromancer?" Vanna said to herself while thinking, "No, the power of the Black Sun has great restraint on the necromancers. The walking corpses they control cannot walk carelessly in front of the totem of the Black Sun... ...A resuscitator controlled by an abnormality?"

"Have you checked the lights around here?" She suddenly raised her head and looked at the guardian beside her. "Is there a completely lightless underground space within a range of 500 meters?"

"We have checked and there are no lightless crypts - even cultists know the dangers of lightless crypts. They have left torches and oil lamps in the caves where the remains were discarded, and they have been very cautious in this regard."

Vanna didn't speak for a moment, but bent down in front of the young man's body with deep doubts. She carefully examined the body of the young man who had sacrificed a transcendent in full view of the public and caused the ceremony to completely get out of control. "Sacrifice", while reaching out to flip the other person's stiff eyelids, trying to find clues left by some heretical power on his body.

Suddenly, there seemed to be a glimmer of light in the corner of her eyes - she seemed to see the young man's corpse slightly opening its eyes, with green fire jumping in the empty eyes, and a tiny spark shooting out of her eyes. The tip of the index finger of his right hand was released, and then flew away in the wind.

Fanna's eyes widened, and she instantly took out the dagger from her waist with her left hand. Without hesitation, she cut off her right index finger with a wave of her hand. She then nailed the dagger to the corpse's forehead with her backhand. The priest's dagger engraved with runes suddenly appeared. The raging flames completely devoured the corpse.

It only took her less than a second to complete all this. At the moment when the body was swallowed up by the flames, she had straightened up and took two steps back. Then she took out the blessed holy oil from her waist and bit it with her teeth. After removing the cork from the bottle, he poured the oil inside onto his right hand, which was bleeding crazily. When the holy oil came into contact with the flesh, a large amount of white smoke suddenly emitted.

Heartbreaking pain surged up, but the expression on Vanna's face did not change at all. She saw that the guard who had been following her had quickly pulled out the steel sword from his waist, and chopped off the burning "sacrifice" with one sword. "Pin"'s head, and then threw a potion mixed with seaweed extract and silver powder into the flames.

Accompanied by continuous explosions and flames that suddenly shot up into the sky and almost touched the ceiling, the alienated corpse turned into ashes in the blink of an eye.

But this huge flame did not spread to the other corpses next to it at all.

The surrounding guards had reacted one after another. Half of them instantly drew their rune steel swords and surrounded Vanna. The other half drew out their large-caliber revolvers and quickly formed a guard around the perimeter. The two priests on the scene also drew out their weapons. He hid the revolver under his robe, blessing the muzzle with an incense burner while reciting the name of the storm goddess Gemona, and constantly pointed the muzzle at the crazy cultists who were agitated by the changes in the surrounding environment. them.

"Your Majesty the Judge!" The young guard holding a steel sword came to Vanna at this time, "How are you? Just now..."

"There is some kind of power left in that 'sacrifice', and this power has bypassed all the protection given to me by the goddess, and even bypassed my psychic alert." Vanna waved her hand, her eyes falling on her own On her right hand - the goddess's gift had taken effect. The index finger that had been severed by the dagger was slowly recovering, but even as she felt the severe pain gradually dissipate, she was not at all at peace in her heart.

"The situation is not right. There is not only the 'Black Sun' here, but there may be another powerful force that visited this sacrificial ceremony... and this force has not completely left, it has its own agenda," the judge The officer quickly made a judgment, "Move all the evidence and bring it to the church for strict supervision. All subsequent inspections and interrogations will be conducted in the church. The scene here must be thoroughly purified... Is there anyone else elsewhere?" ?”

A guard next to him immediately replied: "Yes, we previously rescued a group of imprisoned 'predetermined sacrifices' in another cave nearby, and they are now temporarily placed in the pipe room next to it."

"Take them together and bring them to the church - even though they are victims, they must undergo strict inspection before they can be released home," Vanna said quickly, and then she seemed to suddenly remember something, "Where is Ms. Heidi? She?" Are you okay?"

"I'm here," a calm female voice sounded from nearby. This "psychiatrist" wearing a black dress and employed by the city hall walked over slowly and nodded to Vanna, " Don't worry, I didn't react at all - so what happened?"

"...As told in many classic stories, cultists provoke something even more evil than themselves," Fanna glanced at the "psychiatrist", "I strongly recommend that you check these cultists and other people in the future. They put in an extra layer of protection when performing hypnosis... There have been forces that should not have appeared here, and there are residues."