Chapter 31 Residual

Fanna looked up at the woman in a black dress who was inspecting the mental conditions of the cultists. The woman noticed her gaze and greeted her back.

The woman appeared to be in her early twenties, yet she had a mature temperament far beyond her years. Her long black hair was curled up at the back of her head. The faint blue crystal earrings on her earlobes reflected the light of the nearby gas lamps as they jiggled.

“So, Heidi has also come. Did the Town Hall send her?” Fanna asked the young guardian beside her.

The guardian replied, “No. When the incident occurred, Lady Heidi just happened to be nearby. When she heard the news, she immediately rushed over here. Is there anything wrong?” “No, it’s nothing. Although Heidi is an employee of the Town Hall, she has cooperated with the church for a long time. When we go back, just make up an on-site registration for her,” said Fanna as she shook her head. She quickly turned her attention back to the matter at hand. She inspected the cult priest who had died from having his heart removed. While she did this, she asked, “What did the cultists who could still communicate say? What was the situation?”

“Their words are very confusing. Two of them mentioned that the ordinary sacrificial rite had already ended when someone suddenly caught an escaped sacrifice near the gathering place. Hence, the emissary decided to sacrifice the latter to the Sun God,” stated the guardian as he reported their statements. “The two cultists were standing far away from the altar, so they did not manage to see what exactly happened. They merely said that the sacrifice did not die even with his heart removed. He instead called upon the Sun God and declared the emissary as the sacrifice. In the end, the emissary was sacrificed.”

“A person chosen as a sacrifice called upon the name of the evil god and sacrificed the officiant of the ceremony?” questioned Fanna. It was as though she had just heard a fairy tale. She felt that the whole thing was extremely absurd. However, these words were uttered by a church guardian who was highly trained, loyal, and reliable. She could only take it seriously. She had a strange look on her face as she said, “How could such an absurd thing happen? If that were possible, how many sacrifices at cult rituals could kill the cult priest with just their words?”

“I never said it wasn’t absurd. Even the clumsiest cult priest would hold absolute authority when officiating the ceremony. How could he possibly lose control over the ceremony to such an extent with just a weak ordinary person uttering some words? Moreover, we have inspected this cult priest. He indeed has traces of being eroded by projections from the Deep End of the World. This is a true baptized person. Based on the cultists’ descriptions, he was holding a blessed ceremonial dagger at the time.”

The young guardian shook his head as he said this. He then walked up next to another corpse.

“Come take a look at this. This is the sacrifice who killed the cult priest.”

Fanna looked at the guardian before turning her gaze toward the corpse. The next moment, she narrowed her gaze.

It was a skinny youth. Due to being overly scrawny, his physique even appeared like that of a teenager. The most abnormal part of his body was a gaping hole in his chest.

Fanna stated, “He had already been sacrificed.”

“Yes, this man had already been sacrificed. Combining the traces we found here and the confession of the cultists, this man most likely had already lost his heart before he was pushed onto the altar,” the guardian said in a serious tone. “Hence, the actual situation back then was that a walking corpse walked up onto the platform before the eyes of the crowd. He then killed the cult priest officiating the ceremony.”

“Is this the work of a necromancer?” mumbled Fanna to herself as she thought. “That is not right. The power of the Black Sun greatly restrains the power of necromancers. It is impossible for the corpses they control to just walk up before a totem of the Black Sun. Was it an undead controlled by an abnormality?”

“Have you checked the lamps nearby?” she asked as she suddenly looked up at the guardian beside her. “Within a 500-meter radius, is there any underground space completely devoid of light?”

The guardian replied, “We have inspected the place, and there are no such caverns. Even the cultists know the dangers of the lightless underground. They left behind torches and oil lamps in the caves where they disposed of the corpses. In this respect, they were very cautious.”

Fanna fell silent for a while. She was deep in doubt as she bent over the youth’s corpse. She closely inspected this man that had killed an extraordinary person before a crowd and caused the ritual to go entirely out of control. She reached out to flip open the corpse’s rigid eyelids, attempting to find some residual trace of supernatural power.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up. She seemed to see the corpse of the youth slowly open its eyes. Faint green fire leaped out of its hollow eyes. A tiny spark flashed on the tip of her outstretched right index finger, dissipating in the wind.

Fanna’s gaze lingered momentarily, and she immediately drew the dagger on her waist with her left hand. Without hesitation, she swung the dagger and cut off her right index finger. She then twirled it around and stabbed it into the forehead of the corpse. The dagger carved with runes suddenly burst into flames which consumed the corpse completely.

She did all of this in less than a second. The instant the corpse was consumed by flames, she had already gotten up and retreated two steps. She then took out sacred oil that had been blessed from her waist pouch. After pulling off the cork with her teeth, she poured the oil inside over her right hand, which was bleeding heavily. When the sacred oil came in contact with her flesh, a large cloud of white smoke immediately burst forth.

Excruciating pain washed over Fanna, but her facial expression did not change in the slightest. She saw that the guardian, who had been beside her all this while, had already swiftly drawn the steel sword from his waist. With a slash, he cleaved off the head of the burning corpse. He then threw a potion of seaweed extract and silver powder into the flames.

With continuous explosions and flames that suddenly shot into the sky and almost licked the ceiling, the beheaded corpse was burnt to ashes in the blink of an eye.

The vast flames did not spread toward the other corpses around them.

The other guardians around reacted one by one. Half of them immediately drew their rune steel swords and surrounded Fanna, while the other half took out large caliber revolvers and swiftly formed a perimeter. The two priests present also pulled out the revolvers hidden under their long robes. They then used incense burners to apply blessings to the revolvers as they chanted the name of the Wind Goddess, Gemora. They also kept pointing their firearms toward the cultists, who broke into a frenzy due to these changes.

“Lady Judge!” called out the young guardian wielding a steel sword as he came to Fanna. “Are you alright? Just now..”

“Some power remained in the body of the sacrifice. This power bypassed the defenses bestowed upon me by the goddess and even bypassed my psionic alerts,” explained Fanna as she waved her hand. Her gaze landed on her right hand. The blessing of the goddess had begun to take effect. Her index finger, which the dagger had sliced off, was wriggling and recovering slowly. However, even though she felt the intense pain subsiding, she could not calm down at all.

“Something is off. This is not just the work of the Black Sun. Another powerful force might have visited this sacrificial rite. This power has not left completely. It is after something,” this judge swiftly determined. “Take all witnesses and evidence back to the church and closely guard them. All investigations and interrogations after this will be carried out within the church. This area is to be completely purified. Are there any people elsewhere?”

A guardian to the side immediately answered, “There are. We rescued a group of reserve sacrifices locked up in another cave nearby. They are now temporarily placed in the adjacent pipe room.”

“Bring them back to the church as well. Although they are victims, they also need to be strictly inspected before returning them home,” Fanna quickly said. She then remembered something and asked, “What about Lady Heidi? Is she okay?”

“I am here.” A calm woman’s voice cried out. This psychiatrist wearing a black dress that the Town Hall hired, walked over towards Fanna. She nodded at the latter and reassured her, saying, “You need not worry. I missed everything. What happened here?”

“Just like in many classic stories, the cultists disturbed something even more evil than they were,” said Fanna as she glanced at the psychiatrist. “I strongly recommend that you take extra precautions when you inspect and hypnotize these cultists later. A power that shouldn’t be here has appeared, and it has left behind residual energy.”