The gods dwell in the kingdom of God far from the real world, and the world believes that that special dimension is the cornerstone of the world, and unlike common sense, this "cornerstone" is not located at the bottom of the world, but at the apex of all dimensions.

The ancient kingdom of Crete described the structure of the world as they knew it in the surviving texts:

The cornerstone of the world is at the top, guarded by eternal truth and order, and the kingdom of God is in the cornerstone, and it will exist forever.

From the kingdom of God downwards, it is the reality where all beings live, and earthly beings can enjoy the afterglow of order in this layer, and can survive in the relatively stable and rich real world;

From reality downwards, there is a spiritual realm that gradually deviates from mortal cognition, in which the blessings of the gods have been thinned, and the power of twisting and grotesque has begun to prevail;

From the spiritual realm downwards, there is the deep sea, which is no longer suitable for living beings and is dominated by strange forces, which can no longer be counted as a part of the material world, but more like a reflection of nothingness;

Beyond the deep sea, there is the very bottom of the world, the subspace depths where the shadows of all things are entrenched, and the essence of the extremely dangerous ancient gods and all kinds of sinister things are entrenched in the subspace.

In the account of the Old Kingdom of Crete, the gods made a contract in the cornerstone, which is the source and criterion of all the laws in the world, and this order flows down, determines the laws of the operation of the world, and also infiltrates all things in the world, and as the "depth" continues to decline, the power of order will begin to weaken, and gradually be overtaken by the subspace - the "cornerstone" and the subspace where the gods are located are like the upper and lower ends of the world, and the "order" flows in one direction in these two endpoints.

This is an ancient gift left to the world by the glorious civilization that pioneered in the deep sea age 10,000 years ago, and in the long years, countless scholars have studied this "hierarchical structure" exhaustively, but have not found the errors of this model, and now, it has become the world's recognized "world standard model".

In this standard model, mortals fall deeper into the depths, but few can return from the "deep" to the "shallow", and even if one or two lucky people occasionally return to reality from the spirit realm, I have never heard of a rebellious being who can reach the "cornerstone" dimension of the gods from reality.

It is precisely for this reason that the return of the Lost from subspace to reality is the most outrageous anomaly in the world—its return goes against the world's perception of the Standard Model.

On the other hand, the existence of the Lost Country is in line with the classic discourse on anomalies and anomalies: the law of permanent inaccuracy between anomalies and anomalies.

Either way, Bishop Valentine and Vana didn't think the ghost captain had the power to take revenge on the Storm Goddess—even if he had the heart, he wouldn't have been able to do that.

Because the "cornerstone" and the real world are not continuous, it is not like the reality and the spirit world, the spirit world and the deep sea between the relationship of continuous falling, material exchange, so far, no scholar has found evidence that the "cornerstone" and the real world can be directly connected, and even the gods can only indirectly descend their influence through projections, metaphors and other methods, a ghost ship...... How could it be possible to counterattack the kingdom of the gods?

Since there is no way to seek revenge on the Goddess of Storm herself, then of course, the only options left are the Goddess's followers in the earthly world.

As the headquarters of the Church of the Deep Sea, the Cathedral of the Storm is a "Pilgrimage Ark" that sails stealthily on the boundless sea, coming and going without a trace, and the Pope who sits on the Ark has the power of the vicar to rule the storm, which is not a good target to start.

Then the city-state of Plande, fixed at sea, with obvious goals and open to the public, was a better choice: 80% of the people in this city-state were followers of the Storm Goddess.

Vanna had already decided that the ghost captain had come for revenge - after all, the Lost had crashed into subspace in a storm a hundred years ago, and she couldn't think of any other reason to explain why the Lost had suddenly returned to the real world after so many years of vanishing and pointed the finger at the city-state of Purland.

But what exactly is the ghost captain going to do?

Vana frowned, and slowly spoke in thought: "Bishop Valentine, what do you think...... Does the Lost Country have anything to do with the recent movement of the Sun Cultists in the city-state? ”

After saying that, she paused, and added: "In last night's dream, I saw the burning sun and the Lost Land appear together in Purland, and the simultaneous arrival of two disasters may be the omen of the goddess to me......"

"But don't forget, in the underground sacrificial ground, the tainted 'sacrifice' killed the priest of the Dark Sun, it was a baptized 'messenger,'" the bishop shook his head, "at least at that sacrifice site, the position of the Lost and the Black Sun seems to be hostile. ”

Vanna did not speak for a moment, but fell into deep thought at the bishop's words, and the old man opposite her continued after a brief silence: "As for those worshippers who worship the dark sun, I got some information from the city-state of Lenza this morning......"

Vanna immediately raised her head: "Tip-off? ”

"The solar heretics are not just resurrecting in Plain, they have recently had movements in many city-states, and a large number of solar heretics have recently passed through the ports of Lensa and Moko and are gathering in Plain, and some of them have been caught," the old bishop nodded, "During the interrogation, those heretics mentioned 'solar fragments'. ”

"Fragments of the sun...... The wreckage of the 'real sun god' in the alien port that was peeled off after its disintegration? Vanna reacted suddenly, "They think there's a fragment of the sun hidden in Prand?" ”

"At the moment, it seems that it is so, I don't know where the heretics got the information, or maybe they got the 'revelation' in their madness, but in short, they are now convinced that part of the remains of their 'Lord' are hidden in this city," Bishop Valentine said with a calm expression, "and they see this as the hope of the resurrection of the dark sun." ”

“…… Those madmen," Vana cursed in a low voice, "how many lives have they killed to resurrect that dark and blasphemous sun!" ”

"The Dark Sun is what we call it, and the sun god in their minds is bright and represents the truest order—you can't expect that group of mindless cultists to have any conscience when their hands are bloody," Valentine shook his head, "They firmly believe that what they say and do is righteous, and there are only two languages that work best when dealing with them, one is the caliber and the other is the pound." ”

Listening to the bishop's speech in the style of the Deep Sea Church, the corners of Fanna's mouth couldn't help but tremble: "It seems that we are going to be busy." ”

"The Infinite Sea is never at peace, and the city-state is in the Infinite Sea," said Valentine, "Captains will face the storm of the sea, we will face the storm brought by the earthly fools, Inquisitor, get ready, the city-state of Prand may face a challenge." ”

"Two challenges," Vanna corrected earnestly, "in addition to the followers of the Black Sun, there's also a mysterious and terrifying Ghost Captain - if the Lost Country and the Black Sun really aren't all the way, then our troubles will go from one to two." ”

Bishop Valentine muttered slightly, "Maybe there is another possibility—based on the situation in the sewer sacrifice grounds, maybe the Lost Country will fight with the followers of the Black Sun?" ”

“…… Those two troubles merge into one world-shattering trouble, Bishop Valentine," Vanna looked at the old man in front of her, who had clearly begun to diverge, "the ghost ship returning from the subspace and a group of cultists vying for the fragments of the sun are fighting in the city-state of Purland, and there may be a god descending from the dark sun in between, I can't think of a worse situation." ”

Valentine sighed and admitted that Vanna was right.

"Anyway, working with the sheriff's forces to catch all the solar heretics that have infiltrated the city-state, and neutralizing the threat of the Black Sun before the situation becomes serious, this is a relatively easy goal," said Vanna, her mind visibly active after removing the Lost Land's mental interference from her and moving into her own area of expertise, "As for the ghost ship...... We don't know what it's going to do next, so we can't do anything about it for the time being, so we can only do a good job of monitoring the spirit world and the surrounding waters of the city-state......"

Speaking of this, the young inquisitor couldn't help but shake his head, his expression serious and helpless: "Damn, who knows what a ghost captain will want to do next......"

……

"I'd like to add some more ketchup......," Duncan beckoned to Nina across the table, "You can pass it over and I'll make it myself." ”

Nina immediately handed the ketchup over, "Okay, Uncle Duncan." ”

It was already noon, and Duncan and Nina were eating lunch in the kitchenette on the second floor, and the meal in the antique shop was simple - a salty pancake with local Perand, served with tomato sauce or hot sauce, and vegetable soup, which was not a delicacy, but both Duncan and Nina ate it with relish.

It's been a long time since Duncan has eaten a normal lunch like this, and Nina hasn't eaten a normal lunch like this for a long time.

Duncan felt like he was starting to like the place.