Deep Sea Embers

Chapter 149 “Behind the Curtain?”

This gave Duncan a feeling that two diametrically different histories had once existed here at the church. The inside remained frozen in the past while the outside continued to move forward with time. It was neither destroyed nor survived that fire.

So.... does the nun here know anything?

“It’s been a long time since anyone visited this church,” the nun in a black priest’s robe repeated softly. She raised her head with a smile, but her gaze seemed to pass through Shirley and Duncan: “Where do you come from? Unfamiliar faces... you are not residents here?”

In front of the bright and warm scene, Shirley shrank her neck back the nun’s smiling gaze. She felt a chill for some reason and whispered nervously to Duncan: “I...why do I think this place is weird...it looks so dilapidated from the outside, but the inside...”

Duncan didn’t answer, just casually patting Shirley’s shoulder. Based on the girl’s reaction, he had guessed that the other party could only see one side of the picture and didn’t see the other. In this case, it’s difficult to explain his findings. Of course, there was Dog, who had a better perception of reality, but until he figured out the nun’s identity and threat meter, it was best to keep Shirley from summoning the dark hound.

“We’re passing through only,” Duncan said calmly to the nun with an unchanging expression, just like a normal visitor to the church. “Have you been here all this time?”

“Me? I have been living in this church,” the nun nodded lightly, “I have been praying here, praying to the great existence.”

“But the people on the block said that the nun in the church hadn’t returned for a long time,” Duncan added, observing the nuns’ reaction in front of him. “They said that the church was neglected and seemed abandoned.”

The nun listened quietly to Duncan’s words, but there was no violent reaction as if her heart had eternally fallen to rest.

“Oh yes, but I’ve always been here... Probably they forgot the day of prayer and thought that the church was not open.”

Duncan did not comment, but he’s got enough to confirm the problem stretched far beyond the church, but to the entire sixth block.

This deserted church was deep in the neighborhood. Just from the appearance alone, it has been abandoned for more than ten years! For ordinary people in this world, churches are not only a place of spiritual solace but also a functional facility for maintaining regional security, defending against evil forces after nightfall, and healing for many civilians after suffering from mental problems or nightmares... Such a critical facility has been abandoned for eleven years! Yet the residents of the sixth block did not feel the need to report this?

Imagine if a community has been cut off from water and electricity for eleven years, but the locals do not find anything wrong with it. Then when outsiders speak about the matter, they would only comment about it being strange. Now, how freaky does that sound?

As for the nun in this church... Duncan still had no idea what sort of intention this humanoid ash had in mind. Was she dangerous? At least from the conversation thus far, it’s not hostile. In fact, it’s so far off that it’s strange. It’s like the nun had fallen into a state of derision. He confirmed this by asking several questions back-to-back and got the same answer repeatedly.

She’s sane – but not much.

“Do you want to pray? Or do you need help with calming your mind and driving away evil spirits?” The nun asked with a smile and a soft voice.

“Thank you, but there’s no need.” Duncan shook his head, then looked around, and asked casually, “By the way, where are the guards of this church?”

Every church should have guards, even the smallest community church in the ghetto does to deal with general threats.

“The guardians ... they are resting in the church, and they won’t show up until after nightfall,” the nun’s smile remained unchanged. “Are you looking for the guardians for something?”

Duncan didn’t answer, but his gaze slowly swept over the benches beside the nun.

In his field of vision, the phantoms of the fire burned everything, and the ashes and ruins were superimposed on the brightly lit church like overlapping films. In the other dimension of that superposition, there was no shortage of... scorched bodies.

“Are the guards resting there?” Duncan raised his hand and pointed not far away, but in Shirley’s eyes, there were only two rows of empty benches.

The nun froze for a moment, looked in the direction of Duncan’s finger, and only spoke after a moment of delay: “Shh... They’re sleeping.”

Duncan hummed and continued asking, “Can we look around?”

“Of course, the church is open for visits,” the nun nodded lightly, “please take care of yourself then. I will continue to pray here. If you need anything, do call me.”

After saying this, the strange nun actually turned around and walked towards the statue of the sacred goddess not far away, completely leaving Duncan and Shirley to their own bidding.

It wasn’t until the nun left that Shirley, who had been nervous the entire time, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. She couldn’t care less about being afraid of Duncan at this time because the ubiquitous weird atmosphere in the church had already made Dog restless and agitated. A strange sense of tension was directly passing into her mind through the spiritual connection, making her subconsciously move closer to Duncan: “What the hell is going on with this place... Why does this nun feel so creepy? She obviously looks normal, but nothing seems to be normal...”

“There seem to be two churches here,” Duncan explained simply, “one has burned down, and the other is still intact. They are superimposed on this time and space together, and the nun in the church... she’s neither dead nor alive.”

Shirley was stunned, and after half a minute, she whispered in confusion and astonishment: “What do you mean?”

Duncan glanced at her: “When we get back, you better read some books. If you don’t know how I can teach you.”

Without waiting for Shirley’s answer, he marched straight for the depths of the chapel.

As the nun said, the church was open for visits, so of course he will “visit” at will.

Shirley blinked in shock but quickly hurried after seeing the man leaving her behind. They bypassed the benches and swung around the goddess statue. During of which, the praying nun never one raised her head like a devoted servant of God. It’s as if she’s completely forgotten the visitors here, maintaining the same posture of eleven years.

This caused Duncan to pay closer attention though. He watched the humanoid ash wriggling around as the tiny embers fell from the domed roof, just like fallen leaves from a tree. Then, a spark jolted in his heart out of the blue, causing him to flick his head up at the statue and blink.

The icon of the storm goddess, there’s a rift at the head!

In this brief moment, Duncan finally caught a glimpse of the truth behind this superimposed fractured world. Through the rift in the head of this sacred statue, there’s a faint light coming through. It’s chaotic, mad even, just like a terrifying slit of a mad god’s pupil peering through from the void. Whatever holy aura that lingered in the statue had long disappeared, replaced by the dark, vile powers of whatever evil that lurked here!

In the next second, the terrifying scene disappeared without a trace, and the icon of Gomona continued to stand quietly on the pedestal, her majestic image exuding the reassuring glow of a goddess.

“Are you going to pray to the goddess?” The nun, who was kneeling and praying, suddenly opened her eyes and asked the man.

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