The robed figures with hoods naturally noticed Duncan standing unmoved in the middle of the road.
Duncan still looked just as he did when he had left the cave, his thin and emaciated body wrapped in tattered clothes, with a piece of rag temporarily covering the large hole on his chest. He stood brazenly in the middle of the road, but appeared to be startled by the sudden appearance of the "hooded people"—who, evidently, were just as surprised. They paused for a moment before the leader suddenly shouted, "One of the sacrifices has escaped!"
Immediately after, Duncan saw them running toward him, with one person shouting as they ran, "Quick! Stop him! Don't let him get away!"
Duncan shrugged his shoulders and just continued to watch, expressionless, these figures who didn't look like good news running toward him. After assessing the situation, he had no intention of running, but the others kept rushing over and yelling, "Don't let him escape!" "One of the sacrifices has gotten away!"
As a result, Duncan's straightforward action of standing immovably in the middle of the road had made the situation rather awkward. The shouting people obviously felt something was off halfway through their charge and involuntarily stopped their cries, but they had to keep running toward him, and Duncan could almost smell their embarrassment mixed with irritation under those dark hoods—then these embarrassed and annoyed figures surrounded him from all sides.
Only then did Duncan look around at the people surrounding him and, after hesitating for a moment, said, "Should I have made a run for it just now? After all, it's come to this..."
But the robed figures seemed not to hear Duncan's attempt at humor. They only gave him a wary and cautious glance before turning their attention to the area behind Duncan. Two of them quickly bent down for a quick, hushed exchange; Duncan could just make out their conversation:
"Why did one run out?"
"Could the Church's hounds have discovered this hiding spot... but he doesn't look like he was let out..."
"Take him back first, this escapee sacrifice seems off... We need to deal with it quickly."
"Let the Messenger decide."
Duncan had no idea what these people were all about, nor did he understand what they meant by "Messenger," but combining the things he'd seen on the way with the term "sacrifice" they mentioned, he was already vaguely guessing some of the truth here.
He didn't know how a "normal sacrifice" was supposed to react, nor did he have any intention of playing along with these people. Outside of Homeloss and inhabiting a temporary shell, he had significantly fewer concerns to weigh, so after observing his surroundings for a moment, he simply asked, "Where are you taking me?"
The robed people were visibly taken aback when the "sacrifice" before them spoke so calmly. Despite their hoods being completely covered with a black veil that hid their faces, Duncan could sense their surprise. One of the robed figures glared at the "sacrifice" through their veil, his voice deep and threatening, "You have no right to ask questions—take him away!"
The robed figures moved forward immediately, but before they could lay hands on him, Duncan took a step forward, "No need for that, I'll go with you."
The robed figures looked at each other, probably thinking that this "sacrifice" was mentally off in some way, but the leader gestured dismissively, "That's for the best, you can't escape anyway... Come with us, you might yet meet glory with dignity."
Thus, the robed figures closed in around Duncan, sealing off all of his potential "escape routes" front, back, and to the sides, and led him deeper into the sewer.
The foul stench of the sewer was nauseating, but the robed figures seemed completely unfazed, walking boldly along the moldy and filthy path as if it was nothing. Duncan remained expressionless and silent, following the robed figures while attentively listening to their conversations. They didn't talk much among themselves, but Duncan still caught useful words like "Plunder," "Governor," and "Church" during their infrequent exchanges.
"Is this the Plunder City-State?" Duncan suddenly asked, sounding as casual as if chatting with a friend.
"Obviously..." one of the robed figures reflexively responded, but then quickly caught himself, giving Duncan a demonic glance, "You're remarkably calm, kid, do you know what's going to happen next?"
"I can guess," Duncan nodded, even allowing a small smile to cross his face before he ventured another question, "The true Sun God...right?"
The robed figures paused visibly for a moment, perhaps misinterpreting Duncan's unusual reaction as something else entirely. One of them whispered to his companions, "Wait, could he also be a Believer of the Lord?"
"Impossible, he's clearly an escaped sacrifice…" another figure in a black robe said in a low voice, then glanced at Duncan, "You're quite clever, but don't think that you can avoid the sacrifice like this… The Lord has already decreed your fate, you'd best accept it gladly."
Duncan neither agreed nor disagreed. He knew it was his overly calm reaction that led these people, who he suspected to be heretics, to the wrong assumptions. They probably thought he was feigning calm and disguising himself as a "believer" in an attempt to survive, but only Duncan knew the real situation.
The body he had temporarily taken over could barely perform normal actions, his facial muscles as stiff as if in the throes of necrosis... hence the calm, expressionless face!
But he didn't care what these heretics were thinking. He just wanted to gather as much information as possible during this "one-time exploratory operation." Therefore, he casually asked, "Do you think the current 'sun' in the sky is a fake sun? Do you believe it will eventually fall?"
"Of course, the false sun will inevitably fall!" This was clearly a topic that excited the heretics, and Duncan got the enthusiastic and fanatic response he was hoping for from one of them, "Even the church's lapdogs have to admit in their complete history that the sun in the sky appeared after the Great Annihilation as a freakish monstrosity! It was the Sun God who truly brought vitality and order to all beings, yet our Lord was usurped by that despicable fake... That vile pretender will eventually fall from the sky!"
Then, Duncan heard the surrounding heretics responding in kind, "The false sun will eventually fall!" "The true Sun God will soon awaken!" "The superfluous seawater of the world will be expelled by the Sun God's mighty power back into the void of space, and the earth will return to an era of fertility and stability!"
Listening to the words of the heretics, which were beginning to show signs of getting carried away, Duncan's thoughts were racing. He knew these fanatic heretics couldn't be reasoned with in the usual way, and that most of their beliefs were likely twisted and distorted information, but he still found some of the information they leaked worth considering—
The "sun" hanging in the sky is a falsehood…
The true sun has been robbed of its authority…
They believe that the true sun is a fallen deity and are convinced that this deity will "rise from blood and fire"…
They also mentioned the excess seawater of the world and spoke of a fertile and stable era... What did these words mean?
Duncan's mind was swirling with thoughts, but after a while, those few heretics calmed down. They remembered their duty; they remembered they were escorting an escaped "sacrifice." The ones closest to Duncan resumed their silence, while the two at the end of the group muttered to each other:
"Do you feel there's something sinister about this 'sacrifice'?"
"He seems a bit off... I'm feeling uneasy."
"Maybe this sacrifice's mind got… when he escaped earlier and stayed too long in the lightless underground,"
"All the better, the Lord's might will purify him."
Duncan, listening to the conversation behind him, paid particular attention to the phrase "the lightless underground." However, just as he hoped to gather more information from their exchange, the lead figure in the black robe stopped.
"We have arrived."
The voice of the dark-robed heretic was deep and cold.
A slight regret surfaced in Duncan's heart, but soon after, his attention was captured by the scene before him.
Ahead was the end of a path, the convergence of several sewage channels, and in this space as wide as a small underground hall, there stood the assembly site of the heretics in black robes!