Chapter 30 A Trail of Devastation

The massive and hefty mechanical spider folded its long limbs into its abdomen and, using the wheel structures on the sides of its limbs, glided at high speed on the straight road. Judge Fenna stood stably atop this mechanical creation as if she were cast from its very shell, the slightly fishy night breeze blowing through the streets, the cold air sharpening her mind further.

The worshippers of the Sun God who were heretics were a thorn in the side of modern civilization—and, unfortunately, they were not the only one.

There were always malevolent gazes emanating from the depths of Subspace, casting their sights on humanity, and there were always foolish mortals who attempted to dabble in those ominous powers. And amidst this collusion of ancient gods and humans, there lurked twisted remnants from ancient times, forbidden offspring, and polluted echoes hidden deep within the City-States, constantly seething, ever trying to pry at the structural order of society.

Among all these threats, the followers of the Sun God were the most worrisome and headache-inducing force for the protectors of the Plunder City-State.

They were not only heretics but also the product of a lost history from the old world. Compared to most blindly foolish ordinary heretical groups, the worshippers of the Black Sun were the most dangerous because they possessed some sort of "faith"—albeit fervent and twisted, and although the lower ranks were a motley crew, within the upper echelons of this detestable sect, there indeed existed some "core beliefs" that had not changed for centuries.

This belief revolved around the "Era of Order" basking under the light of the old Sun, not only forming their own system but even having a set of their own, unrecognized by modern civilization, "True Sun Calendar." They firmly believed themselves to be the descendants of a long-lost ancient civilization and were convinced that the glory of this ancient civilization was destined to be revived.

As a Judge of the Deep Sea Church, Fenna had little interest in the perverse doctrines of those heretics, but she knew that it was these perverse doctrines that gave the believers of the Sun God a unity and stubbornness far surpassing other heresies, allowing them to survive persistently after being struck down time and again, and to grow day and night in the shadows of many City-States.

But their resurgence in Plunder was still a surprise to Fenna.

After the unprecedented crackdown four years prior, the vitality of the Sun God believers within the Plunder City-State had been greatly weakened. According to several investigation reports, the heretics should have already moved their main members to the nearby Rensa, Moco, or even further to the City-States of Cold Harbor. What remained in Plunder were only the deluded and obstinate followers who lacked the qualifications to move with the bishop group.

These minions hid in the sewers, relying entirely on their knowledge of the underworld and the twisted blessings from the Black Sun to evade the pursuers' killings. For four years, their numbers dwindled, and the only thing they had left was to cling to survival.

Yet today, four years later, they had suddenly gathered again and even dared to hold a sacrifice ceremony at the meeting place, risking exposure... Who gave them the courage?

Or rather... Was something significant about to occur in this City-State? Was there a reason compelling enough for the heretics to attract the gaze of the Black Sun to Plunder, even if it risked snuffing out their last flicker of life?

The vibration and noise from the continuous operation of the steam core within the mechanical spider resonated, and a faint scent of incense emanated from the steam exhaust pipe and drifted along with the night breeze. Fenna temporarily set aside her jumbled thoughts and looked up at the sky.

The "Creation of the World" hung high in the night sky, its pale light illuminating the jumbled roofs, chimneys, and towers of Plunder City. The action team was now passing the edge of the industrial area, where the huge steam and thermal fluid pipes that stretched across the factories loomed above the streets like the blood vessels of giants.

Fenna vaguely recalled the past, the most profound and terrifying night in her memory—in that midnight filled with the stench of blood, her uncle had carried her on his back, fleeing from a sea of fire. The streets were full of walking corpses caught in a collective hallucination and undulating flesh shadows. They escaped along the pipes of the factory, the smell of blood and the chemical grease leaking from the pipes was nauseating...

Suddenly, a vibration came from the mechanical spider beneath her feet, jolting Fenna from her memories.

The flat road had reached its end; ahead was the abandoned area on the outskirts of the urban district, its surface pitted and uneven. The two mechanical spiders ended their glide mode, stretching out their long limbs, and started to move swiftly over the rugged terrain.

Before long, the squad arrived at the entrance to a deserted sewer.

Another team of eight had been waiting there, having sealed off the nearby area to prevent bystands from approaching the entrance.

Fenna greeted her subordinates here and then directly followed the site manager deep into the sewer.

Passing through the profound corridor and filthy pathways, Fenna finally reached the secret gathering place—where she saw more guardian warriors, as well as church priests conducting purification rituals.

A makeshift altar stood in the center of the gathering place, resembling a wooden platform charred by flames, with sacrilegious totems erected by the followers of the Sun God still visible although burnt, yet their basic structure entirely intact.

Around the high platform were dozens of heretics with their hands tied, squatting on the ground. Most of them trembled severely, while a few moved their lips silently, mumbling their desecrated prayers without sound.

But with the ritual site destroyed and the Storm Goddess's attention now upon this place, these heretical prayers were utterly futile.

Not far from the altar were the bodies of the victims found in nearby caves, laid out on linen marked with runes. Funeral workers, who had hurried to the scene, were checking the state of each body.

A few church priests moved around the altar, their hands clutching gently swinging bronze chains, from which incense burners emitted pure white smoke. This smoke, when touching the ground near the altar, would immediately stain it with an ominous black shadow, with more of the white smoke carrying away this contamination—the remnants of the Black Sun's presence were being cleansed bit by bit in this process.

"Judge, if you would come over here, this is where we found the irregularities," said the young guardian pointing to several bodies near the altar, "Please be careful, the ground here is not very clean."

Fenna walked straight toward the corpses, and upon seeing one of them, she instinctively frowned.

It was a heretic wearing a golden mask—undoubtedly the priest directly in charge of the sacrificial rites at this blasphemous site.

There was a horrific hollow in his chest.

"...What happened here?" Fenna furrowed her brows, "Did this fanatical heretic get too excited at the end of the ceremony and sacrifice himself too? I've never heard of such a rule among those who worship the Black Sun."

"That's just the bizarre part—he wasn't a victim of Self-Sacrifice," the guardian who brought Fenna immediately shook his head, speaking with a somewhat strange expression on his face, "According to the heretics detained at the scene... their 'messenger' was sacrificed by a sacrifice..."

"Sacrificed by a sacrifice?" Fenna raised her eyebrows, "What kind of madness is this?"

"It does sound like madness," the guardian spread his hands helplessly, "In fact, by the time we arrived, most of the heretics here were indeed in a state of semi-insanity."

"Already in a state of semi-insanity?"

"Yes, their sacrificial ceremony evidently had a serious breach. Many have been struck with madness, and numerous had already begun to slaughter one another. It seemed they all perceived each other as 'monsters' occupied by some horror. This led to the chaos spilling out of the gathering place, alarming the nearby peace officers, and hence the situation was exposed... By the time we arrived, there were hardly a few left who could remain lucid enough to answer questions, and those few who could speak fluently insisted that the messenger was sacrificed by a sacrifice."

"Plunged into madness? Slaughtered each other? And believed others were possessed monsters?" Fenna's expression immediately turned serious, "Has a check been done? Is this the result of contamination by the Black Sun?"

"No trace of external contamination has been found, it rather seems like a spontaneous type of madness—the factors inducing insanity are rooted within their own minds," the guardian said, pointing to a young woman in a black gown moving among the heretics, "Miss Heidi has arrived. If we confirm that these heretics aren't contaminated by the Black Sun, we will have to consider hypnotism as our next approach."