Chapter 1 Vanna looked up at the black-skirted woman who was examining the mental state of some cultists. The latter noticed her gaze and also looked up, giving a slight nod in her direction.

　　The woman appeared to be only in her early twenties, but she possessed a composure far more mature than her age. Her long black hair was coiled behind her head, and the light blue crystal earrings on her earlobes reflected the light of the gas lamps in the distance as they swayed.

　　"...Heidi's here too... Did the City Hall send her?" Vanna asked the young guard beside her.

　　"No, Ms. Heidi happened to be nearby when it happened. She came directly after hearing the news—is there something wrong?"

　　"No, it's nothing. Although Heidi is an employee of the City Hall, she also has a long-term cooperative relationship with the Church. Just fill out a field registration form when we get back," Vanna shook her head, quickly refocusing her attention on the matter at hand. She examined the cultist priest who had died from madness while casually asking, "What else did those cultists who could still communicate say? What exactly happened at the time?"

　　"Their accounts are very chaotic. Two of them mentioned that the normal sacrificial ceremony had already ended, but suddenly someone caught an escaping sacrifice near the gathering place. So the emissary decided to sacrifice this offering to the Sun God..." The guard recalled as he spoke, "Those two cultists were standing far away from the altar at the time and didn't see the specific scene on the platform. They only said that the sacrifice was pierced through the heart but did not die. Instead, it shouted the name of the Sun God, directly designating the emissary as the sacrifice... As a result, the emissary was sacrificed."

　　"...A person chosen as a sacrifice, shouting the name of an evil god on the spot, directly sacrificed the person presiding over the ceremony?" Vanna felt as if she had heard some Arabian Nights tale. She felt extremely absurd, but these words came from the mouth of a rigorously trained and loyal Church guard, so she had to take them seriously, which made her expression strange. "How could such an outrageous thing happen—if this works, wouldn't the victims at many evil cult sacrificial sites be able to counter-kill those heretical priests as long as they were quick-tongued?"

　　"Who knows? Even the most clumsy priest holds the absolute dominant position when presiding over a ceremony. How could a weak ordinary person casually say a word and cause the ceremony to lose control to that extent—moreover, we also examined this priest. There are indeed traces of being corroded by projections from the 'deep layers' of the world on his body. This is a true 'baptized one,' and according to the cultists present, he was also holding a ritual dagger with blessings in his hand at the time..."

　　The young guard shook his head as he spoke, then came to another corpse beside him.

　　"But... come and look at this. This is the 'sacrifice' who 'killed' the priest."

　　Vanna glanced at the guard before her gaze fell on the corpse that had completely lost its vitality. The next second, her eyes sharpened.

　　It was a thin young man, so thin that his body was more like a boy's. The most obvious abnormality on his body was the empty hole in his chest.

　　"...He has already been sacrificed..."

　　"Yes, this is a sacrifice that has already been sacrificed. Judging from the traces at the scene and the cultists' confessions, this 'sacrifice' probably lost its heart before being pushed onto the stage," the guard said solemnly, "So... the real situation at the time was that a walking corpse walked onto the stage in full view and killed the priest presiding over the ceremony as a sacrifice."

　　"...A necromancer's trick?" Vanna muttered to herself as she pondered, "No, the power of the Black Sun has great restraint against necromancers. The ghouls they control cannot blatantly walk in front of the Black Sun's totem... Is it a resurrected being controlled by an anomaly?"

　　"Have you checked the lights in this area?" She suddenly looked up at the guard beside her. "Within 500 meters, is there a completely dark underground space?"

　　"We checked, there are no lightless caverns—even the cultists know the danger of lightless caverns. They left torches and oil lamps in the caves where they discarded the bodies, they were very cautious in this regard."

　　Vanna didn't speak for a moment, but with a strong question, she bent down in front of the young man's body. She carefully examined this "sacrifice" who had sacrificed a transcendent being in full view and caused the ceremony to completely lose control, while reaching out to turn over the other person's stiff eyelids, trying to find some clues left by heretical forces on his body.

　　Suddenly, a glimmer of light seemed to flash in the corner of her eye—she seemed to see the young man's corpse slightly open his eyes, and a faint green firelight jumped in his hollow eyeballs. A tiny spark shot out on the tip of her outstretched right index finger, then scattered in the wind.

　　Vanna's eyes narrowed, and she instantly took out the dagger from her waist with her left hand, decisively waving her hand to cut off her right index finger. Then, she backhanded the dagger into the corpse's forehead. The priest's dagger, covered in runes, suddenly burst into flames, completely engulfing the corpse.

　　She completed all of this in less than a second. The moment the corpse was swallowed by the flames, she had straightened up and taken two steps back, then took out the blessed holy oil from her waist, bit off the stopper, and poured the oil inside on her right hand, which was frantically bleeding—the holy oil came into contact with flesh and blood, and instantly a large amount of white smoke billowed out.

　　Excruciating pain surged up, but the expression on Vanna's face did not change at all. She saw that the guard who had been following beside her had quickly drawn out the steel sword from his waist, and with one strike, he chopped off the head of the "sacrifice" that was burning fiercely. Then, he threw a potion mixed with seaweed extract and silver powder into the flames.

　　Along with continuous explosions and flames that suddenly rushed into the sky, almost licking the ceiling, the transformed corpse turned into ashes in the blink of an eye.

　　And this rather loud fire did not spread to the other corpses next to it at all.

　　The surrounding guards had already reacted. Half of them instantly drew out their rune steel swords and surrounded Vanna, while the other half drew out large-caliber revolvers and quickly formed a cordon on the periphery. The two priests on the scene also drew out revolvers hidden under their robes, blessed the muzzles with incense burners, chanted the name of the storm goddess Germona, and constantly pointed their guns at the crazy cultists who were agitated by the changes in the surrounding environment.

　　"Inquisitor!" The young guard holding the steel sword came to Vanna at this time. "How are you? Just now..."

　　"Some kind of power remains in that 'sacrifice,' and this power bypassed all the protection the goddess gave me, even bypassed my psychic warning." Vanna waved her hand, her eyes falling on her right hand—the goddess's gift had taken effect. The index finger that had been cut off by the dagger was wriggling and gradually recovering, but even feeling the pain gradually dissipate, she did not feel at ease at all.

　　"The situation is not right. There is not only the 'Black Sun' here, but also another powerful force may have visited this sacrificial ceremony... and this force has not completely left, it still has something to plot," the Inquisitor quickly made a judgment. "Move all the physical evidence and bring it to the church under strict guard. Afterwards, all inspections and interrogations will be conducted in the church. The scene here must undergo complete purification... Are there any other people in other places?"

　　A guard next to him immediately replied, "Yes, we previously rescued a group of imprisoned 'scheduled sacrifices' in another cave nearby. They are temporarily housed in the adjacent utility room."

　　"Take them away together, bring them to the church—even if they are victims, they must undergo strict inspection before they can be allowed to go home," Vanna said quickly, then seemed to suddenly remember something, "Where is Ms. Heidi? Is she okay?"

　　"I'm here," a calm female voice sounded from nearby at this time. The "mental physician" in a black dress, employed by the City Hall, walked over unhurriedly and nodded to Vanna. "Don't worry, I didn't react at all just now—so what happened?"

　　"...Like many classic stories say, the cultists provoked something more evil than them," Vanna glanced at the "mental physician." "I strongly suggest that you add another layer of protection when examining these cultists and hypnotizing them in the future... There is a power here that shouldn't be here, and there are remnants."