Chapter 151 Clues

The clues seemed to be coming together.

The history of Pland had traces of contamination. The small chapel in the Sixth District contained a distorted and closed-off spacetime boundary. A bizarre sub-dimensional rift was hidden on the Storm Goddess statue. And the sub-dimension… could contaminate everything except the sub-dimension.

Shirley was one of the people who remembered the great fire from that year. When the fire broke out, she should have died like everyone else, but she had somehow merged with a Nether Hound and survived. And when everyone else's perception was twisted by the historical contamination, she retained the memory of the fire.

Now, a group of Doomsday Preachers had attacked Shirley – these deranged fanatics who worshipped the sub-dimension were incoherent and spoke absurdities, yet they never strayed from the idea of "correct history" and "loopholes."

Duncan certainly didn't believe the absurd "truths" they spoke of, and he took everything they said about "correct history" with a grain of salt. But one thing was undoubtedly true – these cultists were inextricably linked to the historical distortions in the Pland city-state, and the sub-dimensional force behind them was the root cause of everything. And people like Shirley who remembered the great fire from that year… were the great enemies in the eyes of these fanatics who sought to contaminate reality with a false history.

But not all questions had been answered.

How had these madmen suddenly discovered Shirley, this "loophole"? What was the connection between historical contamination and the "Black Sun"? The Black Sun didn't have the power to contaminate history, so what role did the "Sun God" play in this? And most importantly…

Would Nina, the suspected vessel of a sun fragment, also be targeted by these cultists?

Duncan looked coldly at the three crazed Doomsday Preachers, and slightly raised his fingers – a cluster of ghostly green flames suddenly ignited on one of them. The flames scorched the cultist's body, which could be regarded as a "supernatural item," causing him to suddenly scream and curl up on the ground. The other Doomsday Preachers fell silent.

"Fire… blasphemous fire…" One of the cultists widened his eyes. Even as a crazed and pain-defying follower of the sub-dimension, he revealed fear when he saw the green flame. "Blasphemy, blasphemy… a blasphemous thing!"

"If you don't want to be burned to ashes, continue to cooperate with my questions," Duncan commanded, igniting flames everywhere on the deck. A crisscrossing web of fire surrounded the three cultists, scorching their minds and bodies. "I ask you, how exactly are you contaminating history? Did it start in the Sixth District?"

"We are putting history back on the right track!" Even when intimidated by the ghostly flames, the Doomsday Preachers did not forget their rhetoric. One of them raised his neck and shouted, "The Sixth District… the Sixth District was just a failed attempt, but that's nothing, nothing…"

The Sixth District was just a failed attempt?

Duncan immediately frowned. The other party had not answered honestly, but had still revealed some crucial information!

First, the great fire from that year was indeed the work of these sub-dimensional followers, and not simply a fire caused by the appearance of a sun fragment, as he had initially thought. Second, the cultists' attempt to contaminate history did not seem to be completely successful – the great fire eleven years ago had not achieved the desired effect!

Then, he suddenly thought of another key year: 1885.

That was the number Vanna had found in the basement of the chapel, indicating the year the nuns had died in battle. In theory, it should also be the time when the chapel was invaded by sub-dimensional forces.

The great fire eleven years ago broke out in 1889, four years after the nun's death.

In other words, these Doomsday Preachers only started the great fire of 1889 four years after the chapel was invaded – and they called that fire a "failed attempt."

A timeline seemed to be gradually clarifying in Duncan's mind.

"You actually failed twice," Duncan said with a dark expression, staring at the Doomsday Preacher who was being scorched by the ghostly flames. "In 1885, you invaded a small chapel, wanting to use it as the origin to spread contamination to history, but a nun destroyed your plan with her life, sealing that year's 'invasion' and her own 'death' in the underground sanctuary;"

"Four years later, in 1889, you executed a second plan, creating a fire in the Sixth District where the chapel was located, wanting to use a 'city-state destroyed by fire' historical branch to cover reality, but you failed again. The traces of that fire were erased by unknown forces, and it couldn't continue to burn…"

"Then you lurked in the city-state until today, constantly looking for opportunities to continue this plan, until you discovered Shirley, a loophole. You believe that the failure of the plan that year was related to her survival, so you wanted to eliminate this 'hidden danger' first?"

The ghostly flames blazed fiercely. The Doomsday Preacher curled up in the flames. Even a body that defied pain seemed unable to resist the suffering of burning the soul directly. However, the crazed person had no intention of answering the question. Instead, he slowly grinned at Duncan, revealing a chilling smile.

"You don't need to answer. I can see the answer in your eyes – you are mocking and resentful, which means I'm right," Duncan said calmly, ignoring the other party's provocation. "Next, I have another question… What exactly is the connection between you and that 'Black Sun'? The great fire of 1889 was caused by sun fragments… Did you create those fragments?"

The Doomsday Preacher remained silent.

Duncan spread the flames to the other two, watching them writhe and twitch in the fire, but he still didn't get a single word in response.

"If you don't speak, I can only guess." Duncan sighed, waving his hand to dispel the flames – he had realized that this kind of simple "pain" was meaningless to these madmen who embraced the sub-dimension. Their bodies and minds had long been mutated and inhuman.

"I guess you have some cooperation with those sun worshippers… No, maybe it's with the 'Sun Offspring' behind those worshippers? You are helping those Sun Offspring to revive their 'Lord', and the way to revive him… is to summon the sun from 'history'?"

Looking at the few cultists who were still silent, Duncan paused slightly, then continued, "In the early years of the new city-state calendar, there was an unknown city-state called 'Wilhelm', which only had a name left. The last message this city-state left to the world was 'The Black Sun descended from history'… So, this isn't the first time you've done this, summoning a sun that should have been extinguished from history… Therefore, the summoning process itself is the greatest contamination of history, right?"

When all the trivial clues were suddenly pieced together, when all the lines were gradually connected, those things that were once incomprehensible or even unbelievable became conceivable facts. Duncan's imagination and memory were running at high speed at this moment. Those known, unknown, and knowable things gradually turned into clear trajectories in his mind.

Of course, there were still many unexplained questions – such as how this group of Doomsday Preachers got involved with the Sun Cult, how they summoned the sun from history, whether the ordinary Sun Cultists and priests knew these top-level secrets, and he still had no answers.

Moreover, even the things he had just thought of were based on speculation. If the Doomsday Preachers in front of him didn't admit it, he would lack key evidence.

The spectral flames on the deck gradually gathered, and finally only a ring of fire remained around the three cultists. Duncan stood in front of this flame, looking down at the "preachers" expressionlessly.

"There must be more than just a few Doomsday Preachers who have infiltrated the city-state, right?"

"Where are the others hiding? What are you planning to do next? Continue to eliminate the 'loopholes' you mentioned? Or are you waiting for an opportunity to create greater contamination?"

"Still refusing to answer?"

Duncan threw out the questions one by one, and finally one of the cultists moved his body.

The gaunt madman slowly twitched the corners of his mouth, looked up at Duncan, and said in a hoarse and mixed voice: "We are not hiding in the so-called city-state… we are hiding in this cursed and twisted history that should have ended long ago… Once it starts, it will not end… What the Fire-Keepers can't do, you can't do either, 'Captain'…"

The corners of the cultist's mouth widened even more, his smile was chilling, his voice was low, as if with bewitchment and coldness: "I just saw, your humanity is so dazzling, where did you pick it up?"

Duncan's eyes suddenly changed slightly. He took a step forward, his voice dignified and suppressed: "What do you mean?"

"…Have a nice day, Captain," the preacher seemed to have suddenly changed into a different person, from a crazy believer to a polite citizen. He slowly got up, sitting hunched over on the deck, but his gaze seemed to pass over Duncan, scanning the huge and deserted Vanishing Sea. "Ah… the promised land, the promised ark…"