Vanna raised her head to look at the lady in black, who was checking the mental state of some heretics. Noticing Vanna's gaze, she too lifted her head and nodded slightly in her direction.
The woman appeared to be in her early twenties but possessed a composure that seemed far beyond her years. Her long black hair was coiled up behind her head, and the pale blue crystal earrings dangling from her earlobes reflected the light of a nearby gas lamp.
"...Heidi is also here... Did the city hall send her?" Vanna asked the young guardian by her side.
"No, Lady Heidi just happened to be nearby when the incident occurred. She came over directly after hearing the news—is there a problem?"
"No, nothing. Although Heidi is an employee of the city hall, she has also been working with the church for a long time. All she has to do is make a record of the scene when she gets back," Vanna shook her head and quickly refocused on the matter at hand. She inspected the Cult Priest who had died in delirium and casually inquired, "What else did the communicable heretics say? What exactly happened at that time?"
"Their speech was very confused. Two of them mentioned that the normal sacrificial ceremony had already ended, but then someone caught a runaway sacrifice near the assembly area, so the messenger decided to offer this sacrifice to the Sun God..." the guardian recounted, "Those two heretics were standing far from the altar and couldn't see the specifics of what was happening. They only mentioned the sacrifice was stabbed through the heart but did not die. Instead, the sacrifice shouted the name of the Sun God and designated the messenger as the sacrifice... and then the messenger was sacrificed."
"...A person designated as a sacrifice shouted the name of an Evil God and just like that sacrificed the person conducting the ceremony?" Vanna felt like she had heard some unbelievable tall tale. It seemed absurd to her, but since the words came from a well-trained, trustworthy church guardian, she had no choice but to take it seriously, which made her expression turn peculiar. "How could such an absurd thing happen—if that's possible, then wouldn't many victims at the scenes of heretical sacrifices be able to turn the tables on those heretic priests just by speaking up faster?"
"Exactly, even the most inept priest dominates the ritual. How could a weak common person utter a single sentence to disrupt the ceremony to such an extent—and we've also examined this priest. He indeed bore traces of Corrosion from the 'deeper layers' of our world, a true 'Baptized', and according to the testimony of the heretics at the scene, he was holding a ritualistic dagger blessed with a benediction in his hand..."
As the young guardian spoke, he shook his head and then moved to another body lying nearby.
"But... take a look at this, this is the 'sacrifice' who 'counter-killed' the priest."
Vanna glanced at the guardian and then her gaze fell on the completely lifeless body. In the next second, her eyes sharpened.
It was a frail young man, so gaunt that his physique was more akin to a boy's, and the most striking abnormality on him was the gaping hole in his chest.
"...He has been sacrificed..."
"Yes, this is a sacrifice who has already been offered. Combining the traces at the scene and the testimonies of the heretics, this 'sacrifice' had probably lost his heart before being brought onto the altar," the guardian said solemnly, "So... the real situation was that a walking corpse, in full view of everyone, walked onto the altar and killed the priest conducting the ritual as a sacrifice."
"...Necromancer's trickery?" Vanna mused to herself. "No, the power of the Black Sun has a significant suppression effect on necromancers; their controlled walking dead couldn't blatantly approach the Black Sun's totem... Was it a re-animated being under abnormal control?"
"Have you checked the lighting around here?" she suddenly raised her head to look at the guardian beside her, "Within a five-hundred-meter radius, is there a completely dark underground space?"
"We've checked, there are no lightless pits— even the heretics are aware of their danger. In the caves where they discard bodies, they've left torches and oil lamps; they were very cautious in this regard."
Farna didn't speak immediately but instead bent down in front of the young man's corpse with a heavy sense of doubt. She meticulously examined this "sacrifice," which had, in full view of everyone, been offered to a Transcendent and caused the ritual to spiral out of control. She stretched out her hand to turn over the stiff eyelids, attempting to find any traces of heretical powers left on him.
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, it seemed like a faint glimmer flashed — she thought she saw the young man's corpse slightly open its eyes, with pale green flames flickering within those empty sockets. A tiny spark shot out onto the fingertip of her extended right index finger then promptly dispersed with the wind.
Farna's eyes sharpened, and in an instant, she drew the dagger from her waist with her left hand and, without hesitation, sliced off her right index finger, then in a backhanded move, she nailed the dagger into the corpse's forehead. The cult priest dagger, engraved with runes, suddenly burst into fierce flames that completely engulfed the body.
It took her less than a second to do all of this, and the moment the body was consumed by the flames, she had straightened up and backed away two steps. Then she quickly took out the blessed holy oil from her waist, bit off the stopper, and poured its contents over her right hand, which was frantically bleeding — upon contact with the flesh, the holy oil let out a sizzling noise and emitted a thick white smoke.
A piercing pain rushed forth, but Farna's facial expression didn't change in the slightest. She saw that the guardian who had been by her side had quickly drawn his steel sword and decapitated the burning "sacrifice's" head. He then threw a concoction mixed with seaweed extract and silver powder into the flames.
Accompanied by continuous booming noises and the flames that suddenly shot high up, nearly licking the ceiling, the mutated corpse turned to ashes in the blink of an eye.
Yet this sizable flame didn't spread to any of the other corpses nearby.
The surrounding guardians had already snapped into action, with half of them drawing runic steel swords to form a protective circle around Farna, while the other half drew large-caliber revolvers to quickly form a perimeter. The two priests on-scene also drew the revolvers hidden under their robes, blessing the muzzles with their censers while chanting the name of the Storm Goddess Gomona and continuously aiming at the heretics who were agitated by the sudden changes in their surroundings.
"Your Excellency Judge!" A young guardian holding a steel sword approached Farna then, "How are you? Just now..."
"There was some force remaining in that 'sacrifice', a force that bypassed all the protections bestowed by the Goddess, and even my Spiritual Energy alarms," Farna gestured dismissively, her gaze on her right hand — the Goddess's blessing had taken effect, and the severed index finger was wriggling, slowly regenerating; yet even as the intense pain began to subside, she didn't feel reassured at all.
"Something's not right. There's not only the 'Black Sun' here, there might also be another powerful force that visited this sacrificial ritual... and this force has not completely left. It's still plotting something," the Judge quickly made her assessment. "Move all the people and evidence away, take them to the church for strict custody, and conduct all the inspections and interrogations within the church. This scene needs to undergo thorough purification... Are there others elsewhere?"
A guardian nearby immediately replied, "Yes, we rescued a group of 'intended sacrifices' from another nearby cave earlier. They're currently being temporarily sheltered in an adjacent pipe room."
"Take them too, to the church — even though they are victims, they must undergo strict inspections before we can let them go home," said Farna quickly, and then as if she had just remembered something added, "What about Miss Heidi? Is she alright?"
"I'm here," a calm female voice responded from nearby at that moment. The "psychiatrist" hired by the city hall, dressed in a black skirt, walked over unhurriedly and nodded at Farna, "No need to worry, I didn't react at all just now — so what exactly happened?"
"... As many classic tales tell, the heretics have summoned something more sinister than themselves," Farna glanced at the "psychiatrist". "I strongly suggest that you take extra precautions when examining these heretics and conducting hypnosis on them later... There was a presence here that should not have been, and it lingers."