The old man's tone was very flat, as if he was calmly telling a story and he just happened to appear in this story for a while.

"I'm sorry, I tend to talk too much when I get older," the old priest smiled and looked at Vanna and said, "Do you have friends from other sects?"

"...I have a good friend who is a clergyman of the Academy of Truth," Vanna thought for a moment, "but she doesn't often tell me about the teachings of Lahm, the God of Wisdom."

"The followers of the God of Wisdom... That's normal. Their beliefs usually require a college degree or above to understand, and sometimes you need to pass a higher mathematics score test," the old priest nodded as if it was a matter of course. "In comparison, the followers of the God of Death are the easiest to deal with - after all, we're all going to die."

At this point, the old man paused and looked at the neatly arranged files behind Vanna with some curiosity: "Your Excellency the Judge, can you tell me what you are looking for?"

Vanna suddenly hesitated.

She didn't know whether she should tell the secret to the old priest in front of her. The hidden fire was very likely pointing to a very dangerous shadow, and she couldn't be sure whether the "shadow" was monitoring the city-state in some way, nor was she sure whether the old man in front of her could really help her. If she rashly told the truth, it might alert the enemy.

But after a brief hesitation, she decided to reveal some information.

This is the deepest part of the Deep Sea Cathedral, a holy place favored by the Storm Goddess, and the old priest who guards the archives is a staunch warrior. He stays here to provide assistance to visitors in this situation.

"I'm looking for a file - it's not quite accurate to say it's a file, because it may not have existed in the first place," Vanna said slowly as she considered. "Strictly speaking, it's a clue that happened in June 1889 and may point to a fire, but the relevant information has been erased."

"The fire of 1889?" the old priest thought. "I don't remember any fire..."

He suddenly stopped and looked at Vanna thoughtfully.

"So, the erased data also includes our memories, right?"

"At least it includes people's memories," Vanna nodded gently, "I don't have enough evidence. Apart from my own 'cognition', I have no way to prove the existence of the fire. I am not sure what force is manipulating this matter. I... I am just suspicious."

She suddenly felt a little embarrassed. As an inquisitor, she was used to questioning and investigating, but the situation this time was completely different from the past. She didn't know who the target of her suspicion was, and she was not even sure whether the target was a human or a ghost. She started the investigation based solely on her own ideas, which was very inconsistent with her usual calm and steady style of doing things.

However, the old priest in front of her just nodded calmly: "Your piety and character are the evidence, Your Excellency the Inquisitor."

As soon as he finished speaking, the old priest quickly walked to a pillar between the nearby bookshelves and tapped on several specific protrusions on the pillar with his mechanical prosthetic hand. The next second, a low roar came from deep in the floor, followed by the creaking sound of gears and connecting rods.

The door of the archives closed, and some of the bookshelves inside began to move slowly, while some of them moved closer and closed. In the vacant areas, one pillar after another with many complex runes depicted on them slowly rose from the floor.

As the pillars rose, the subtle sound of waves echoed softly in Vanna's mind.

"...There's no need to mobilize so many people," Vanna was a little confused by the old priest's behavior, "This is just a preliminary investigation..."

"My past experience tells me that there is no 'preliminary' investigation into a huge threat," the old priest slowly walked towards Vanna. He raised his brass mechanical hand, "and I think something that can interfere with cognition on a large scale, or even erase certain historical events, is a 'huge threat'."

“…but your rash action of sealing off the archives may cause a lot of concern.”

"No, the archives are randomly sealed off a few times a month to give the sacred devices and bookshelves here some exercise," the old priest laughed, revealing a mouthful of uneven teeth. "'Don't let the ancient volumes remain silent for too long', that's the rule."

"Then I have no doubts."

"You just checked a lot of information. Judging from your expression, you must have discovered something, right?" The old priest nodded. "I can help."

"I found some records about 'heretic cults' - although they have no direct connection with the incident I want to investigate, and the records themselves are very scattered, I feel something is wrong," Vanna said frankly, "Those heretical cults have common characteristics, and they occurred in the first half of 1889 and came to an abrupt end after the factory leak in Block 6..."

The old priest listened carefully to Vanna's description, and then found the corresponding archival materials with the help of the other party.

"That's it," Vanna pointed at the documents she had found. "Sacrificial rituals that should have been invalidated, substantial mental damage, and although the scale was small, they were all real acts of heresy. The closing reports of all the cases also seemed normal. Those who should have been arrested were arrested, and those who should have been sentenced were sentenced. But I think that each of these cases was actually... not thoroughly investigated."

"For a case of this scale, arresting and trying the perpetrators is enough to complete the investigation. But you are right. When several similar incidents are piled up together... the situation is different," the old priest looked through the files and frowned. "All the people who held the sacrifices were under 'inexplicable bewitching', but the source of the bewitching cannot be investigated..."

He muttered, looking up suddenly.

"Your Excellency, you only examined the files from 1889?"

"Yes," Vanna nodded, and then immediately responded, "You mean..."

"The incident you're concerned about did happen in 1889, but have you ever thought that these strange cases of heresy did not necessarily start in 1889?" The old priest said quickly, and then looked up at the other rows of the bookshelf. "The earlier records are here, all three rows from the bottom up, you can read them all."

Vanna immediately walked towards the files and began to check the records in the case with the old priest.

But just a moment later, they almost simultaneously found records of similar heretical cult incidents in the files they were reading.

There are records from 1888, 1887, and even all the way back to 1886.

"There is also a record here... a sacrifice incident that took place in the port area. And here, it was only two months away from the last record!"

Vanna flipped through the file book in her hand quickly, feeling her heart pounding. She looked up and told the old priest about her discovery, but suddenly found that the old priest was standing in front of the bookshelf, staring at a certain place motionlessly.

"Did you find anything?" Vanna immediately frowned and asked nervously.

"There is no record for 1885," the old priest said softly as if he was mumbling to himself, "it should be here, in this row, after 1884... but now after 1884 it is directly 1886..."

※※※

"Let's stop here," Duncan said as he looked back at the direction he and Shirley came from at the edge of the sixth block. He exhaled slightly and said, "I don't think we'll get any more results if we investigate here any further."

They stayed in the small church for a long time, but their current level of mysticism, which was "two people combined are no better than a dog", was obviously not enough to crack the strange time and space closure phenomenon in the underground temple.

Before they left, the underground sanctuary returned to its original state. The nun between ashes and living people was still praying devoutly in the main hall of the church, and had no reaction to the departure of Duncan and Shirley.

The exterior of the church is still dilapidated and the area around it is still empty.

But Shirley no longer really cared about any secrets in the church.

"Can I...can I really go home?"

She looked at Duncan nervously, her tone tinged with an inexplicable hesitation.

"Of course, I have never restricted your freedom to leave," Duncan smiled and ruffled her hair. Although Shirley was about the same age as Nina, she was too petite and frail for him to treat her like a younger child. "Today's investigation is over, you can go home."

Shirley subconsciously turned her head to look in the direction of her home. She wanted to move, but suddenly hesitated: "Then...will we continue investigating after this?"

"Of course, this matter is far from over." Duncan raised his eyebrows, "Why? Are you reluctant to leave?"

"Ah, no, no, no!" Shirley waved her hands quickly, "I just... I will investigate next time..."

"I'll find a way to contact you, or you can come to me on your own initiative," Duncan smiled and rubbed Shirley's head. "And it's not just for investigations. If you encounter any other difficulties, you can come to me directly for help."

Shirley blinked, feeling that something was a little strange, but finally nodded slightly. However, before turning around and leaving, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Then...what are your plans next?"

"Me?" Duncan was stunned, thought for a moment and said, "I'm going to buy a bicycle this afternoon."

Shirley was stunned: "...Ah?"

"Buy a bicycle," Duncan repeated seriously, "I promised Nina a few days ago. Today is the day to fulfill my promise. What's wrong?"

Shirley opened her mouth for a long time before finally uttering, "Ah... Agou said that you have to do something about the subspace invasion..."

Before she finished her words, a shadow suddenly appeared in the air beside her, and Agou shouted hastily in the shadow with a hoarse voice: "I didn't say that!!"

The next second the shadow disappeared again - it was obvious that Agou was afraid that he would be seen if he showed his face outside.

Duncan: “…”

He held it in for a long time, and finally let out a helpless laugh: "Well, now Subspace Invasion is going to buy his niece a bicycle - let's say goodbye."