Deep Sea Embers

First and foremost, everything inside this world can be corrupted. The only exception is subspace.

Second, the reality of this world is built on unstable foundations. The space is unstable, time is unstable, and even reality itself is not necessarily as unshakable as people perceive.

Third, the forces of subspace have invaded Pland! The vision in the chapel of the sixth block is proof of this. The sun fragment from eleven years ago is probably not the most critical link in the whole event. In fact, the likely culprit is subspace!

Duncan placed the pen down and reviewed his three main conclusions. Eventually, his gaze shifted back to the first point, which caused him to recall something he had heard at the bank. Without hesitation, he jotted down the details about the corrupted church in the sixth block on a separate paper.

Pollution began with that church, causing two different realities to lapse over one another. It’s so strong that even the goddess’s monitoring is affected… It’s unsure how this was achieved or happened. Was the church itself first contaminated, or was something else inside the cause?

At this point, Duncan suddenly remembered what he had told Shirley about blowing this up across the city. With a grin, he turned to the dove pacing around the windowsill and narrowed his eyes.

In response, Ai abruptly froze at the added attention and swung her bird head over: “Murderous intent!”

Not minding the wacky phrasing, Duncan snapped his finger and caused a flame burst from the compass hanging around Ai’s neck. The pointer spun and spun, shifting the room’s occupants from reality and into the spirit world.

As usual, Duncan had come into the dark void that’s filled with a billion starlights. Taking a small breath, he calmed his mood and allowed his subtle perception to guide him toward what he wanted.

In no time at all, he had come before a small starlight. Even without touching it, he could tell this belonged to the female inquisitor, Vanna.

Compared to when he first discovered this star, Duncan could clearly tell his connection with Vanna had become much stronger—her last visit to Heidi’s antique shop had strengthened their bond, and those strengthened connections would now come in handy.

Turning his head to face the ethereal Ai, the ghost captain didn’t even get to say anything before the bird cried out: “Who is calling the fleet?”

“Remember the last time we connected Shirley’s mind?”

Ai thought for a while and tilted her head: “Gotta add money!”

“This time will indeed be a little more difficult; after all, the other party is a devout saint. Her mind should be stronger than Shirley’s, and it may also attract the attention of the Storm Goddess,” Duncan nodded slightly but still slowly stretched out his finger and approached the cluster of starlight little by little. “But now that the connection between Vanna and me has been strengthened, it should not be a big problem if there is only a shallow communication without causing damage.”

“After all, this is just a righteous complaint from an enthusiastic captain.”

In the next second, his fingertips touched the starlight.

The layers of illusory waves seemed to come from an infinite distance, but they were fleeting, and Duncan didn’t even have time to notice the presence of the waves when his mind connected through the line.

……

Vanna rubbed her eyes as she looked down at the thick file in her hand. By the time she looked up again, she was already sitting in front of the dresser mirror inside her room with a tired face.

A momentary trance floated up from the bottom of her heart, but she soon shook it off and recalled what she was doing.

After leaving the archive with some borrowed documents, she had been investigating the heretical cult materials predating 1889. While there, she and the old priest had discovered some anomalies regarding the lack of information from 1885. Sadly, they could not find the missing materials, which alarmed the inquisitor here. As the leading figure in the combat against heretical entities in Pland, Vanna had every reason to pursue this matter at the highest level.

Firstly, the lady had already arranged for civil priests to search for the files inside the other archives around the city, hoping to extract any information from other sources since the church wasn’t the only entity keeping records of the past. She also ordered a guardian team to monitor the heretical places that were affected back then. Of course, she also informed Bishop Valentine of the matter and requested he acquire further instruction from the goddess…

That’s about everything Vanna had done thus far on a surface level. Until she finished reading through every document between 1886 to 1889, the inquisitor had no other leads to go on.

Sighing at the heavy burden on her shoulder, the lady glanced at the window and toward the giant crack in the sky. The faint glow was soothing to her senses, something she desperately needed under the recent discoveries.

Then she glanced back down at the thick files in her hand to find the words starting to blur and become unreadable. Perhaps it was due to fatigue, but she wanted to look away and stop like something’s nagging at the back of her head.

Wait, no!

Vanna jerked to attention. Slamming the document closed, she swung her head like a bat and glared out the window.

It’s midnight, the most influential time for the World Creation and the most dangerous time to read any book or document. There’s no way she would take a dangerous historical text out of the archive and read it in the middle of the night when she’s so tired!

Professional clergies do not make such a mistake… This is not reality. It is your own dream, a dream that is being influenced!

Vanna’s eyes widened with blood filling those veins. She realized her dream had been invaded by some unknown intruder!

As if on cue, the oval-shaped mirror in front of her suddenly started to ripple. From within the reflection came a majestic figure standing quietly in the darkness, the illusory green flame quietly burning on the edge of the mirror.

The figure calmly observed Vanna through the mirror, and after finding Vanna had noticed him as well, the being faintly smiled and greeted her in a deep voice: “Good evening Vanna, I believe this is our first meeting, but I have been watching you for some time now. You can call me…”

“Captain Duncan!” The words did not even get the finish when the female inquisitor leaped into action. As a trained fighter, she jumped several meters into the air and kicked the dressing table back to put distance between them both. Then without hesitation, the lady drew her giant broadsword out and slashed down in a somersault!

Duncan: “…?!”

With a loud bang, the entire dressing table split into two, the mirror directly shattering into pieces by the huge force. Duncan’s phantom was also scattered with the mirror shards that went flying.

However, this wasn’t enough for the lady. Like a finely tuned machine, she clutched her giant broadsword in hand and vigilantly scanned the room like a prowling lioness. She’s also whispering the prayers she learned from the main church to awaken herself from a corrupted dream, as per protocal.

“Your reaction surprised me a little.”

Vanna’s eyes widened as she followed the source of the voice. From what she saw, it’s coming from the mirror shards littering the room.

“Relax, child, I just wanted to talk to you about something,” came the voice of the infamous Captain Duncan. “It’s about Pland…”

“Is it the mirror?” The young inquisitor suddenly muttered to herself.

Duncan: “Huh?”

Without replying to the man, Vanna raised her broadsword into the air again and smashed down with crushing force. Under the loud explosive impact, a shockwave reverberated across the room, sending every mirroring item in the room to dust!

Now that silence returned to the room, Vanna spent another minute scanning the room before issuing a long sigh. But then she froze due to what’s in front of her. Instead of hiding behind a mirror, the infamous Captain Duncan was now standing openly in her field of vision.

“Your guess is not exactly correct. It’s not just the mirrors, but everything smooth that has a reflective surface.” The ghostly captain’s voice directly entered her ear, “Now, I’m inside your eye lens.”