Heidi suddenly sneezed loudly, which scared the young monk who was taking notes opposite her.

"Are you okay?" The young monk looked at the psychiatrist in front of him with some concern. "Are you feeling unwell? Do you feel anything unusual..."

"I'm fine. Maybe I just caught a cold from the cold wind in the square and my anxiety and nervousness." Heidi waved her hand before the other person finished speaking. She rubbed her nose and said, "Where were we talking about?"

"You mentioned that you saw two 'realities' superimposed in the city-state at the same time in a state similar to 'soul leaving the body', and the arrival of the Lost Homeland caused the separation and annihilation of one of the realities." The young monk glanced at the information he had just written, and at the same time flipped through the previous content, "You also mentioned that you had a crystal pendant. You realized that the crystal pendant might be the key."

"The pendant is broken," Heidi thought for a moment and nodded. "My father got the pendant from an antique shop, but I doubt that either my father or the store manager knew the specialness of the pendant. It was just a gift, and it even... had a label from a glass workshop."

"In other words, an object with extraordinary power but concealing its true form - flowed into the Lower Town by coincidence and ended up in your hands," the young monk said as he lowered his head to record. "Can you please tell us about the antique shop and some detailed features of the pendant? This may help us understand the true situation in more detail during the follow-up work. After all, extraordinary objects often have the ability to control fate, and its encounter with you may not be accidental."

"Of course, no problem," Heidi nodded immediately, and told what she knew. After she finished explaining the general situation, she hesitated for a moment, and finally couldn't help but asked, "Is everyone... back?"

"From what we have learned so far... yes," the young monk nodded. "Although almost everyone has memories of the city-state being destroyed by flames, everything has now returned to the state before the disaster. The Archbishop and the Inquisitor currently explain this as 'a historical pollution disaster at the level of a reality invasion', but the specific details have yet to be made public."

At this point, he paused and added: "But your case is the most special - almost no one remembers how the disaster ended, but you 'saw' the key process, so your testimony is crucial."

"I understand," Heidi sighed softly, and then suddenly seemed to think of something, "Then should I first report to my family that I'm safe? It looks like I won't be able to go back for a while..."

"We have already sent someone," the young monk smiled, "you don't have to worry."

"You've already been notified? That's good." Heidi thought for a moment and nodded. "Then let's continue. What else do you want to ask?"

"Okay, next question. Do you remember the specific details of the ghost ship that appeared in the two historical tracks? Did you experience any mental confusion, auditory or visual hallucinations when you were recalling those details?"

※※※

Vanna came to the cathedral.

This empty and sacred place seemed exceptionally quiet at the moment. Apart from the necessary guards at the entrance, there was only Bishop Valentine standing silently in front of the statue in the hall.

Vanna's footsteps broke the quiet atmosphere in the cathedral.

Valentine turned his head. He had taken off the gorgeous clothes and crown that he only wore on special occasions. He was only wearing a simple robe and a soft hat. Except for the long staff that represented the bishop of the city-state tightly grasped in his hand, he looked no different from an ordinary old man.

Vanna came to Valentine with a calm expression. "Order in the cathedral district has been restored. The garrisons are heading to their stations to restore order in the city. High-ranking priests have gone to the major factories to appease the steam cores. At least before nightfall, we can ensure that the evening bells will ring as usual and the gas supply in the city will not be interrupted."

The old bishop was obviously relieved: "Thank you for your hard work, Vanna."

"As it should be," Vanna said calmly. "After the pollution subsided, the remaining mental and cognitive confusion is still having an impact. It is difficult for ordinary people without training to wake up from the previous disaster all at once. Now even the city hall is in chaos. We can only let the 'professionals' take over order for the time being."

Valentine nodded and reminded, "After nightfall, in addition to ensuring the gas supply, we must also send more night patrols to each district, and bring enough lanterns and incense to prevent anything from 'running' in at night... We have just experienced a reality invasion, and the reality that Pland is in is at its most fragile. In addition, we must check all the night shelters in the city one by one. There may still be citizens who are too nervous and have locked themselves in... Once the holy oil in the shelter is exhausted, those panicked refugees will become a big problem."

Vanna nodded: "I understand, I will make arrangements later. I will personally lead a team to inspect the key areas in the evening."

"...Just leave it to your deputy," Valentine looked at the young Inquisitor with some concern, "Take care of the matters at hand and go and rest. You are still injured."

"My injuries have basically healed since I returned to the cathedral," Vanna said immediately, and looked the old man up and down, "Your previous injuries were more serious than mine..."

"How can it be the same?" Valentine said with a straight face, "I have recovered from the historical pollution, but you have killed the entire city-state twice inside and outside the veil! I can see how weak you are at this moment."

Vanna said nothing, but turned around silently, raised her head, and stared quietly at the statue of the storm goddess Gemona in the light of candles and gas lamps.

There was a brief silence in the cathedral until Valentine broke the silence: "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm wondering how to write the second half of this report," Vanna sighed. "When the Pope wants to know about the Plande disaster, how should we explain to her how it all ended?"

The expression on Valentine's face was suddenly quite interesting.

"In a sense... well, there's no need for 'in a sense'," the old bishop held it in for a long time, and could only sigh like Vanna, "The fact is that the arrival of the Lost Homeland extinguished the historical pollution brought by the End Preacher and prevented the Black Sun from being born in the world. Although we don't know what the ghost captain's purpose is in doing all this, there is no doubt..."

The old bishop paused, and after nearly half a minute of silence, he had to speak in a deep voice: "Prande survived because of the arrival of the Lost Homeland."

"Perhaps, he came for the 'Sun Fragment'," Vanna actually had a lot on her mind, but she didn't say all her thoughts out loud, "Do you still remember the 'White Oak'? That ship encountered the Lost Homeland head-on, and finally escaped unscathed, with only Anomaly 099 being hijacked - perhaps the purpose of 'Captain Duncan' is simpler than everyone imagined."

"Taking away a solar fragment is not the same as taking away an anomaly," Valentine shook his head. "But you are right. This is indeed the only explanation we can think of at the moment. If His Holiness the Pope needs an answer, this is the only answer we can give... All that is left is to report everything that happened here truthfully and see what conclusion the priests of the Cathedral of Storms can come to."

Vanna hummed softly, then turned her head and her eyes fell on the statue of the goddess again.

"You're still very upset," Valentine, who had known each other for many years, could of course sense that something was wrong with Vanna. "Vanna, we've discussed the city-state and the church. Is there anything else that's shaking your will?"

"I'm... fine."

"We have known each other for many years," Valentine shook his head. "Although you and I are equal in terms of clergy, you have always regarded me as an elder you can trust during our interactions. I can see that you have been a little bit off since you came back. What happened?"

Vanna was silent for a moment. She looked up at the veiled goddess. After a while, she lowered her eyes and looked at her own body.

Dante Wayne's words seemed to still echo in her ears.

In the fire eleven years ago, in the "fire source" that the End Preachers used to start the historical pollution, his uncle...actually failed to save him.

That fire was the beginning of historical pollution and the dividing line between "official history" and "pseudo history". Those who died that night were really dead, but after the fire, Pland's destruction and survival split into two completely opposite "world lines".

In other words, she, who died on the night of the fire...should not have survived.

It is the "blessing of the subspace" that has allowed me to survive to this day.

The frantic shouts of the end-preacher on the top of the bell tower are still ringing in my ears.

[“You will be reborn and die again…”]

She has returned from the dead.

But he did not live again and die.

The appearance of the Lost Hometown interrupted all this.

Now, she is still standing here, breathing the air of the world and enjoying the warmth of the living.

Even the goddess of storms was still blessing him, using the moistening power of the sea breeze to heal all the injuries he had suffered from the previous battle.

This even caused Vanna to have a confusion about the goddess for the first time in her life -

The Goddess of Storms... doesn't she care about the fact that she survived because of the "blessing of the warp"?

As this confusion continued to expand, the things she could think of made Vanna shudder even more -

If what the End Preacher and Captain Duncan said were true, the entire Plande city-state had actually been engulfed in the flames of the Lost Homeland at this moment. Every person in this city-state, and even the land itself, had become a "blasphemous heretic."

However... the blessing in the cathedral is still there, and the prayers of every deep-sea priest in Plande to the goddess are still responded to as before.

For the first time in her life, Vanna began to question her beliefs.