Chapter 1 The Evening Summons

The evening summons bell rang three times, and Vanna had already arrived in the Grand Cathedral before the third ring.

Old Bishop Valentine was already waiting. The venerable elder, clad in black pontifical robes, stood silently before the statue of the Storm Goddess Gomona, his eyes closed in prayer. He heard the sound of someone entering the cathedral, and knew it was Vanna without turning around.

"Inquisitor Vanna," Valentine said in a deep voice, "the Storm Cathedral has sent an order to summon a Listener."

"Directly from the Storm Cathedral!" Vanna was taken aback. She hurried to the statue, placing herself fully in the light of the lamps. "Wasn't it just the discovery of a new anomaly or phenomenon?"

"If it were merely a new anomaly or phenomenon, the summons bell wouldn't have rung three times." Valentine shook his head. "It was a message directly from the Graveyard Keepers at the 'Tomb Chamber', saying that the Nameless King's body is acting strangely, though it's not yet clear...what information it wants to convey, but it seems...that the existing list is changing."

As he spoke, the old Bishop turned his head, quietly looking into Vanna's eyes.

"This time, we need to send a Listener into the Tomb Chamber to directly receive information from the Nameless King's body. The Deep Sea Church is currently on duty at the Tomb Chamber, and the Listener will be chosen from among the followers of the Storm Goddess—the specific candidate hasn't been decided yet; both you and I are on the waiting list."

Vanna steadied herself and calmly asked, "When do we depart?"

"Now." Valentine nodded, signaling Vanna to follow. He walked behind the Goddess's statue, where a door depicting numerous sacred symbols was already open, revealing a deep, long tunnel behind it. "The psionic conduit is ready."

Vanna bowed to the statue of Gomona, then turned and followed the old Bishop's footsteps.

They passed through the door, and then through the long tunnel. In the flickering lamplight, the two devout believers arrived at the deepest part of the ancient cathedral—a special chamber located at the end of the tunnel.

This was a small room, and unlike the concrete and brick structure of the main cathedral, this small chamber was entirely built of stone. Gray, irregular stones were stacked tightly together to form the walls and roof of the room, and in the center of the room's floor was a recessed fire pit. A crackling fire burned fiercely in the stone pit—but no fuel could be seen at the bottom of the flames, as if the fire was condensing out of the air.

Apart from the fire in the center of the room, there was no furniture or decoration in the entire chamber. Only a faint sound of flowing water, of unknown origin, echoed illusionary from all directions. Every wall seemed damp.

Even the floor of the room seemed to have tiny streams of water flowing over it at all times—giving the impression that this stone house was not a room in the cathedral, but...an underwater cave.

This was not Vanna's first time in this chamber—as an "Inquisitor" of the city-state, with a status equal to that of a Bishop, she also had the right to use the "psionic conduit" here. This inconspicuous room was the "port" for constructing the psionic conduit. Every central cathedral of every city-state had similar facilities, and every church had similar technologies—the clerics of the Storm Goddess used such "submerged caves," while the clerics of the God of Death constructed interconnected paths in the "Pale Vine Chambers."

These seemingly gloomy and oppressive facilities actually had magical effects: they could strip the user's spirit and send it into a vast and interconnected psionic space, no matter how far apart these city-states were, no matter how turbulent the waves on the Endless Sea.

This was a miracle achieved under the blessing of the gods, allowing the far-flung church branches on the Endless Sea to communicate in a timely manner. In more ancient times, when ocean-going ships were not as reliable as they are now, this was even the only way for many city-states to maintain communication and confirm each other's survival.

The door of the chamber slowly closed. The dark, heavy metal door made a muffled sound, and the complex and dense runes on the two doors immediately moved quickly, like living things, intertwining and meshing together, completely sealing the entire room.

Vanna and Valentine stood together next to the fire pit in the center of the chamber. They lowered their heads, watching the leaping sacred flames, silently chanting the holy name of the Storm Goddess Gomona.

The illusory sound of flowing water came continuously from all around, rising and surging, and becoming extremely rapid. In the rising waves, Vanna saw the trickling streams on the ground suddenly transform into churning waves, and begin to rise with incredible speed.

She watched the flames in the center of the room, the flames burning fiercely in the rising waves as always.

Vanna closed her eyes, calmly and serenely allowing the illusory seawater to completely submerge her.

The cold sensation quickly dissipated. She opened her silver eyes again, and saw no longer the rocky chamber of the submerged cave, but a vast chaotic space—it seemed to be a plaza, an almost boundless plaza, ancient and vast, with many magnificent pillars supporting it at the end of her vision. The tops of those pillars were all fragmented, their tops seeming to shatter and dissipate into the distant sky. A turbid, obscure light enveloped the plaza above, and something seemed to be hidden in the depths of that light, something that could never be pierced by mortal eyes.

Vanna steadied herself. She saw many figures already standing in the plaza—all black shadows with only outlines. Although she could not see their faces, she could confirm through the familiar aura emanating from each figure that these were all devout saints of the Storm Goddess—saints from various city-states, various mobile cathedrals, and even the Storm Cathedral.

Only "saints" could become potential "Listeners"—because some "voices" could only be listened to by powerful saints while remaining conscious.

"It seems we're the last to arrive," a black shadow drifted closer. Because they were very familiar with each other, Vanna recognized Bishop Valentine before the shadow spoke. The old man's tone seemed slightly awkward.

"I was the last to arrive at the last meeting too..."

"Are the saints from other city-states living in the chamber...?" Vanna muttered, "Every time the summons message comes out, they can gather half the people in less than ten minutes...."

"They started after Saint Folsom wrote 'First' on the registration form at the assembly twenty years ago, vying to arrive early." Valentine shook his head. "Seriously, I can't understand...the Goddess won't bestow extra attention because of that." Vanna remained noncommittal, and just then, a sudden roar came from the end of the crowd, interrupting her thoughts and the conversations between all the saintly shadows.

Vanna and Valentine looked up in unison, and were shocked to see that the ground in the center of the plaza was rising—the fragmented, ancient stone bricks were rippling like water. In the layers of ripples, a gigantic object was rising rapidly, first a pale spire, then tilted stone walls and ancient pillars.

Almost instantly, the object completely entered Vanna's vision—a massive building constructed of pale giant stones.

It was a solemn "palace," an ancient building built in a long-lost history. It had a pyramid as its main body, surrounded by several obelisks and towers. No city-state in the world had such a style, and its low and restrained atmosphere did not seem like a building for the living to inhabit.

Rather than a palace, it was more like a huge mausoleum.

In fact, it was indeed a mausoleum—a tomb belonging to some ancient and powerful being.

Like everyone else, Vanna's gaze fell involuntarily on the bottom of the giant pyramid building. Under the gaze of countless eyes, the door of the tomb finally slowly opened. The heavy, pale stone doors receded to both sides, and an extremely tall figure slowly walked out of the tomb.

In Vanna's view, it was difficult to say whether "he" was still a living human.

His body was wrapped in layers of cerement cloth, half of which and the cerement cloth were almost charred black, while the other half of his body was surrounded by heavy rune locks. Some of those gloomy chains even extended directly from his flesh, their ends entwined with pulsating blood vessels and nerves—this ancient Graveyard Keeper was like a terrifying creature made of a mixture of flesh, steel fetters, and death curses, stepping out of the Nameless King's tomb and walking with heavy steps towards the shadows gathered in the plaza.

Although it was not her first time seeing the "Graveyard Keeper," Vanna still subconsciously gasped at this moment, feeling her muscles tense.

Then, she saw the "Graveyard Keeper" walk straight towards her.

The candidate had been chosen.

The Graveyard Keeper unhesitatingly passed everyone in the plaza, until he stopped in front of Vanna. Only one eye was exposed on his head, which was wrapped in cerement cloth and iron chains. This eye calmly stared at Vanna—although the latter was already quite tall, the Graveyard Keeper was still a full head taller than her.

"You, may enter the tomb." The Graveyard Keeper spoke, his voice as hoarse as if it came from a corpse. Then he raised his right hand, which seemed to be burned, and in that hand he held a quill pen and a roll of parchment. "Record what you hear," the Graveyard Keeper ordered succinctly.