Deep Sea Embers

Truth be told, in this instant, Duncan’s instinctive reaction was that there was something wrong with the storm goddess Gomona. The cause must be because of the sinister side of the god, which led to this terrifying shadow taking hold inside the city-state. This distortion was the evidence.

But the next second, he had another suspicion: if there was really something wrong with the storm goddess Gomona, then why were the other churches in the city normal?

It wasn’t that he had seen other storm churches – there were community churches near the antique shop and churches next to the original maritime museum. Even if he hadn’t gone in to check it out, he had wandered around the neighborhood, and the aura released by those churches... It was obviously different from this eerie church in front of him.

He also had contact with other clergies, including the most low-level priests and guardians, as well as the inquisitor like Vanna, who was at the apex of the city-state. From what he could tell, these people who served the goddess of the storm were all normal, even more determined and clear-thinking than most.

He ignored the nun and looked up at the statue.

After the glimpse just now, the strange rift in the head of the statue did not appear again. Even in the other picture of the church, the spot was nothing more than a charred mess. He couldn’t find any evidence of that rift anywhere again.

Duncan frowned.

The weirdness of this church was obviously a special case. Assuming the fault didn’t lie with the storm goddess herself... then what he saw could only be interpreted as an evil force trying to use this chapel as a node to invade reality.

But what exactly is that?

The shape of that rift seems to have nothing to do with the evil sun god, and it is completely unrelated to the sun fragment. If I had to say it.... the swirling chaotic light reminds me of the bottom levels of the Vanished.

“Are you going to pray to the goddess?” The nun’s voice came again. She was neither impatient nor urging, but as if some keyword was triggered, she began to repeat this question over and over again when Duncan and Shirley stood beside the statue.

Shirley seemed a little overwhelmed and instinctively looked to Duncan, who finally responded at this moment: “Are you praying to your goddess?”

This should be an unquestionable question, and any normal believer would give a clear and affirmative answer at this point. Yet, the nun’s reaction made Shirley’s eyes widen in shock.

“I... I don’t know,” the nun shook her head calmly as if she didn’t feel anything wrong with her response, “I’m just praying, and he told me to pray here.”

Duncan immediately frowned: “Who is he?”

“The great existence,” the nun smiled.

Shirley felt a chill running down her back due to the nun’s gentle smile.

“I don’t pray to any gods,” Duncan said lightly, quietly pulling Shirley back half a step from the range of the prayer table, “including the goddess from your mouth.”

“Oh, that’s a shame.” The nun sighed softly, then bowed her head again, ignoring Duncan and Shirley.

Duncan stared at the wriggling mass of humanoid ash for a few seconds, confirmed that the ash had stopped paying them heed before turning elsewhere.

The chapel was limited in size and had few areas to hide, except for the main hall dedicated to prayers and service, there were only a few rooms connected to the main hall aside from the underground crypt.

Duncan first took Shirley to check the surrounding rooms but found nothing worth caring about. Finally, they came before a staircase to the basement at the end of a corridor outside the main hall.

“Are we really going down there?” Looking at the dark stairs in front of her, Shirley was obviously a little uneasy and glanced backward at the brightly lit hall, “Will that strange nun suddenly charge over?”

“That ‘nun’ is obviously trapped in the main hall and can’t get too far from the statue,” Duncan shook his head. “But if she does charge over... then we can only fight back. That thing can hardly be called a living being anymore.”

Shirley gulped. She was usually very bold and courageous, but no matter how bold she was, this was the first time she had ran to a chapel of the Storm Church and did something so “exciting”. It’s more than what her heart could accommodate.

But she knew better than to refuse – she still had no idea which was more dangerous, a nun who had mutated from a mortal or a shadow from subspace.

At this time, Duncan suddenly said something again, which made Shirley’s hard-earned determination to sway again: “By the way, summon Dog out.”

Shirley’s eyes widened instantly: “Huh?! Summon Dog? In the church of the storm goddess?!”

“I’m afraid this is no longer the storm goddess’s territory,” Duncan shook his head. “It’s hard to say what exactly is in charge of this place now, but don’t worry about summoning Dog. You see? Even though I am standing here, nothing is happening to me. In fact, I suspect this ‘church’ is more suited for Dog than anywhere else in the city right now.”

When Shirley thought about it, she felt that this was quite a reasonable theory. Of course, the main reason was that she did not dare to disagree, so she obediently raised her right arm and summoned her partner out into the real world.

Pitch-black flames swirled upwards like smoke, forming and taking on the shape of a dark hound in an instant.

As soon as the summoning process was over, Dog skillfully bowed under Duncan’s feet, his skeletal tail wagging at a mark-five speed of a fan. “Greetings, your great...”

“Okay, okay, you don’t have to perform this set every time.” Duncan interrupted the undead hound and waved him off. It’s bad enough he had to deal with a noisy goat head back on the Vanished, he doesn’t need another on land. “You should be able to feel it too already. Take a look. Tell me what you see in this church with that eye of yours.”

Dog properly got up from the ground and turned to peer down the dark staircase leading to the crypts.

“It’s really an evil place...” The hound’s voice was hoarse and low, “It’s dizzy to even look at...”

After speaking this, he paused as if making a further judgment. Then turning back to face Duncan, he explained his findings: “It’s somewhat similar to the situation of the abandoned factory from before, but it’s much more distorted here. I’m afraid the distortion is already approaching the threshold of what reality can bear.... There’s no mistaking it. The source of the veiled curtain must be here.”

“So the distortion is already approaching the threshold of the real world... No wonder I can observe it directly with my eyes too.” Duncan nodded nonchalantly, and his gaze fell on the stairs up ahead, “The entire church has been checked. Now all that remains is the basement... According to the layout of most storm churches in the city, the area is what the clergies call the underground church.”

“I’m starting to get excited,” Dog shook his ugly head, the chains around his neck rattling, “for the first time in my life, I broke into the forbidden land of the Storm Church... I wonder what’s down there!”

Shirley shot a weird look at Dog’s drooling expression: “Can you XXXX stop acting like a pedophile who’s ready to break into the women’s bathroom?”

Dog: “...”

Duncan ignored the combination of these two. He had already bypassed Dog and started going down the stairs. Eventually, he came to an entrance, which should lead into the underground sanctuary.

As a small community church, the so-called “underground church” here was nothing more than a spacious crypt, and the door to the underground area was an oak door reinforced with steel frames and sacred runes.

Duncan placed his hand on the door, pushed it slightly, and found that it was not locked. However, when he continued to drive forward, he felt some resistance, like something had blocked it from the other side.

“There’s something across the door.” Duncan stepped back slightly, observing the dark oak door in front of him.

For some reason, when he came to the door of the underground sanctuary, the strange “superimposition” scene subsided, and all he saw in front of him was this door.

It seems that the “two branches” of reality have completed their convergence here, leaving only the one “reality” as the truth.

“Do you want to smash the door open?” Shirley followed from behind. She had already picked up the chain in her hand with Dog ready by her side. Specifically, the pair had taken on the meteor hammer stance like they used on the suntists during that gathering.

“...... You may spoil the clues,” Duncan stopped the dog-wielding girl who was about to use traditional arts to solve the problem. Instead, he put a hand on the rune-strewn door and ignited a small flame between his fingers to follow the grooves, “Theoretically, this door should be some sort of supernatural item...”

In the next second, the blessed temple door had turned into firewood for the ghost fire. With the green flame burning rapidly, the gate faithfully carried out the “master’s” order.

It burned itself.

And as the door was wiped out, the thing that was against the door on the opposite side had revealed itself to the party by falling to the ground with a plop.

It was a nun in a black gown—scarred, still holding a sword in her hand, and glaring angrily at something in the darkness even though she had died.

Shirley saw the other party’s face clearly, and a chill instantly rose from the bottom of her heart.

“WAH! That nun we saw just now?!”