Deep Sea Embers

The gods live in the kingdom of God far away from the real world. The world believes that that special dimension is the cornerstone of the world. Unlike common sense, this "cornerstone" is not located at the bottom of the world, but at the apex of all dimensions.

The ancient Kingdom of Crete described the structure of the world they knew in the leftover classics as follows:

The cornerstone of the world is at the top, guarded by eternal truth and order, and the Kingdom of God is in the cornerstone, self-existing;

Down from the Kingdom of God is the reality where all living beings live. All living beings in this world can enjoy the afterglow of order in this layer and can survive in a relatively stable and rich real world;

From the reality down, it is the spiritual world that gradually deviates from the cognition of mortals. In the spiritual world, the blessings of the gods have been thinned out, and the twisted and grotesque forces have begun to gain the upper hand;

Down from the spiritual world, there is a deep sea that is no longer suitable for living creatures and is dominated by strange forces. It can no longer be counted as a part of the material world, but more like a reflection of nothingness;

Across the deep sea is the bottom of the world—the depth of the subspace where the shadows of all things are entrenched. The extremely dangerous ancient gods and the bodies of all kinds of sinister things are entrenched in the subspace.

In the records of the ancient Kingdom of Crete, the gods made a contract in the cornerstone. This contract is the source and yardstick of all the laws in the world. , and as the "depth" continues to decline, the power of order will begin to weaken, and will gradually be dominated by the subspace—the "cornerstone" where the gods live and the subspace are like the upper and lower endpoints of the world. ” then flows in one direction between these two endpoints.

This is an ancient gift left to the world by the brilliant civilization that pioneered the deep-sea era 10,000 years ago. In the long years, countless scholars have studied this "hierarchical structure" exhaustively, but they have not found this model. Now, it has become the "world standard model" recognized by the world.

In this standard model, mortals in the world will fall into a deeper place, but few people can return to the "shallow layer" from the "deep layer". It has never been heard that any existence against the sky can reach the "cornerstone" dimension where the gods are located from reality.

It is precisely because of this that the Lost Homeland, which returned to reality from the subspace, became the most outrageous vision in the world—its return flight violated the world's perception of the standard model of the world.

But on the other hand, the existence of the Lost Country is in line with the classic statement about anomalies and visions: the law of permanent misalignment of anomalies and visions.

But no matter what, Bishop Valentine and Vanna didn't think that Captain Ghost had the ability to avenge the Storm Goddess—even if he had the heart, he couldn't do such a thing.

Because the "cornerstone" is not continuous with the real world, it is not like the relationship between reality and the spiritual world, and the spiritual world and the deep sea, where there is a relationship of continuous falling and material intercommunication. So far, no scholar has found the "cornerstone" and reality. Evidence that the world can be directly connected, and even the gods can only indirectly lower their influence through methods such as projections and metaphors. How can a ghost ship... how can it counterattack the kingdom of the gods?

Since it is impossible to seek revenge from the Goddess of Storms herself, the only remaining option is of course the Goddess' followers in the world.

The Cathedral of Storms, the headquarters of the Church of the Deep Sea, is a "Pilgrimage Ark" that sails hiddenly on the boundless sea. It comes and goes without a trace. The Pope who sits on the ark has the power to control the storm on behalf of the Lord, so it is not a good start. Target.

Then the Puland city-state, which is fixed on the sea, has obvious goals, and is open to the outside world, is naturally a better choice: 80% of the people in this city-state are believers of the Goddess of Storms.

Vanna has already determined that the ghost captain came for revenge—after all, the Lost Homeland crashed into the subspace in a storm a hundred years ago, and she couldn't think of any other reason to explain why it disappeared After so many years, the Lost Homeland will suddenly return to the real world, and point the finger at the city-state of Prand.

But what exactly is the ghost captain going to do?

Fan Na frowned, and slowly said in thought: "Bishop Valentine, do you think...the Lost Homeland has something to do with the recent changes in the city-state by those Sun believers?"

After she finished speaking, she paused, and added: "In the dream last night, I saw the burning sun and the Lost Country together appearing in Purland. The simultaneous arrival of the two disasters may be the omen given to me by the goddess... ..."

"But don't forget, in the underground sacrificial site, that polluted 'sacrifice' killed the priest of the dark sun, that was a baptized 'messenger'," the bishop shook his head, "at least in that sacrificial site , the positions of the Lost Homelander and the Black Sun appear to be hostile."

Fanna didn't speak for a while, but fell into deep thought because of the bishop's words. The old man opposite her continued after a brief silence: "As for those believers who worship the dark sun, I got some advice from the city-state of Rensa this morning. Newsletter..."

Fan Na immediately raised her head: "Information?"

"The sun heresy is not just revived in Pland. Recently, they have had changes in many city-states. A large number of sun heresies have recently transited through the ports of Lunsa and Moco and are gathering in Pland. Some of them have been arrested," the old man said. The bishop nodded, "During the interrogation, those heretics mentioned 'shards of the sun'."

"Shards of the sun... Those fragments of the 'true sun god' that were disintegrated and peeled off?" Fanna suddenly realized, "Do they think there is a piece of the sun hidden in Prand?"

"It looks like this at the moment. I don't know where those heretics got the information. It may also be the 'enlightenment' they got in their madness. In short, they now firmly believe that part of the wreckage of their 'lord' is hidden in this city. ,” Bishop Valentine said with a calm expression, “and they regard this as the hope for the recovery of the dark sun.”

"...those lunatics," Fan Na couldn't help cursing in a low voice, "to revive that dark and blasphemous sun, how many lives have they killed!"

"The dark sun is what we call it. The sun god in their minds is radiant and represents the most real order—you can't expect those irrational cultists to have any conscience when their hands are bloody. Valentine shook his head. "They firmly believe that what they say and do is justice. When dealing with them, there are only two languages ​​that work best. One is the caliber and the other is the pound."

Listening to the bishop's speech in the style of the Deep Sea Church, the corners of Fan Na's mouth couldn't help trembling: "It seems that we have to be busy."

"The infinite sea is never peaceful, and the cities are also in the infinite sea," said Valentine. "Captains face the storm of the sea, and we face the storm of the fools of the world, judge, be ready, The Puland city-state may be about to face a challenge."

"Two challenges," Fan Na corrected seriously, "in addition to the believers of the Black Sun, there is also a mysterious and terrifying ghost captain—if the Lost Home and the Black Sun are really not the same, then our troubles will come from one It became two."

Bishop Valentin pondered for a while: "Perhaps there is another possibility—according to the situation in the sewer sacrificial field, the Lost Home may fight with the believers of the Black Sun?"

"...Those two troubles have merged into one troublesome trouble, Bishop Valentine," Fanna looked at the old man who had obviously started to think differently, "The ghost ship returning from the subspace and a group of scramblers The cultists of the sun shards are fighting in the city-state of Purand, and there may be a godfall of the dark sun in the middle, and I can't think of a worse situation than this."

Valentine sighed, acknowledging that Vanna was right.

"In short, work together with the sheriff's troops first to arrest all the sun heretics that have infiltrated the city-state, and eliminate the threat of the black sun before the situation becomes serious. This is an easier goal to achieve," Fan Na said. After the Lost Homelander interfered with her mentally and entered her field of expertise, her thinking was obviously active, "As for that ghost ship...we don't know what it will do next, so we have no way of doing it for the time being, so we can only do it first. Good for monitoring the spirit world and the surrounding waters of the city-state..."

Speaking of this, the young judge couldn't help but shook his head, with a serious and helpless expression: "Damn, who knows what a ghost captain will want to do next..."

...

"I want to add some ketchup..." Duncan beckoned to Nina across the table, "Just pass it over and I'll make it myself."

Nina immediately handed over the ketchup: "Okay, Uncle Duncan."

It's noon now, and Duncan and Nina are having lunch in the small kitchen on the second floor. The meals in the antique store are very simple - a kind of salty pancakes with local specialties in Puland, served with tomato sauce or hot sauce, and vegetable thick The soup was not a delicacy, but both Duncan and Nina ate it with relish.

It's been a long time since Duncan had a normal lunch like this, and it's been a long time since Nina had a normal lunch like this.

Duncan thought he was beginning to like the place.