Chapter 120: Chapter 124 Reflection of Fragments
In the prayer room filled with the scent of incense and watched over by the statue of the goddess, two long-time friends fell silent at the same time, the only blessing descending from the deity gently soothing their unsettled hearts, while the faint and gentle sound of waves gently echoed in Fenna’s ears, the whispers of the Storm Goddess Gomona.
The goddess was still paying attention here, unprecedented attention.
After an unknown amount of time, Heidi gradually calmed down, and cautiously broke the silence, “What exactly did I see?”
Fenna hesitated for a moment before quietly speaking, “Perhaps… that is exactly what those Sun Heretics have been searching for.”
“The Sun Heretics have been searching for it?” Heidi paused, “You mean…”
“Sun Shard,” Fenna gently nodded without waiting for Heidi to finish, “Perhaps only the Sun Shard is worthy of the scene of might you saw in the vision.”
While saying this, Fenna slowly raised her head, gazing at the statue of the Storm Goddess, and murmured thoughtfully, “After all… those heretics claim that the Sun Shard is a fragment that fell from the so-called ‘True Sun’…”
Heidi was stunned for a moment, her expression slightly changing, “If such a thing really appeared in the real world, Plunder City-State couldn’t possibly still be unscathed…”
“So the artifact must be in some kind of sealed state,” Fenna nodded, “The information shows that eleven years ago the Sun Shard appeared in Plunder City-State, but it seems that what was called an appearance at that time was probably just a slight leakage of power, and for the past eleven years, it has been dormant…”
“And now those Sun Heretics want to awaken that thing?!” Heidi looked horrified, “Are they trying to destroy the whole of Plunder?”
“You’re not a newcomer to dealing with heretics,” Fenna glanced at Heidi, “Aren’t you familiar with their mental state? For those fanatical heretics, bringing the ‘Black Sun’ to wake, sacrificing one or two city-states is nothing to them; they would not even mind letting the entire world blaze, serving as kindling for the resurgence of the Sun God!”
Heidi stood with her mouth agape, speechless for a long while, while Fenna calmed down before slowly continuing, “Now the most critical problem is, what exactly happened when you saw that vision—what happened to you, what happened around you, what happened to the museum itself, understanding these will help us understand in what state that shard is dormant, and where exactly it is sleeping.”
“…I can’t remember the details,” Heidi tapped her forehead gently, “But now I can roughly confirm that I saw its projection while I was unconscious, and I performed emergency hypnosis on myself to preserve important clues… Let me think, at that time I was rescued by someone and temporarily placed in a room on the first floor of the museum… Based on what they told me after I came out, that room was near the main exhibition area…”
As Heidi struggled to recall, she pondered in thought and asked, “Can’t we conclude that the clue is in the museum?”
“It’s hard to say, from a mysticism perspective, what you saw was not the shard itself but a fraction of its ‘shadow’ leaked into the real world by a gigantic transcendent entity. The museum might not be where the shard is dormant, there might just be a ‘rift’ there, and when in a state of unconsciousness, your mental barrier weakens, allowing your consciousness to accidentally cross this rift and see the scene on the other side.
“These rifts hovering on the edge of reality are often not fixed, it might have been in the museum before, but it likely has shifted to some other location by now.”
Fenna patiently explained, then suddenly shook her head, “Of course, we will still conduct a highest-level search of the museum and maintain surveillance thereafter, considering anomalies and apparitions always have their irregular moments. Maybe the shard truly is present there in some form of sealed medium, and even if it isn’t, we might still find some clues in the aftermath of a fire, explaining why the ‘rift’ happened to appear in the museum…
“But this subsequent search does not concern you anymore. For safety reasons, you’d best stay away from that museum for the next month.”
“Of course, I’d rather keep my distance from this matter,” Heidi immediately nodded, “I’ve had enough misfortune already!”
Fenna quietly observed her friend, who seemed unlucky from childhood, as if wanting to say something but ultimately remained silent. She just sat silently beneath the goddess’s statue, after half a minute of silence she suddenly spoke, “Who exactly rescued you?”
“Two girls who are still in school and a man who looked to be in his forties,” Heidi thought for a moment, “It’s also a coincidence, one of those girls just happened to be a student my father visited at home a few days ago, and the gentleman is her uncle… Have I mentioned him to you? His name is Duncan Strain, an antique shop owner.”
“…I’m a bit allergic to the name ‘Duncan’ now,” Fenna’s mouth twitched visibly, “though I know it’s definitely not the same person…”
“The first time I heard that name from my father, I reacted the same as you,” Heidi shrugged, “Speaking of which, I promised that gentleman to assess his niece’s mental state at their home tomorrow afternoon, and to formally thank him at the same time… Today everything has been so chaotic, I hurriedly said goodbye without proper courtesy.”
“Strictly speaking, it’s not only the ‘niece’ who needs a psychological assessment,” Fenna’s expression suddenly became serious, staring directly at Heidi, “All three of them need it.”
“Why did…” Heidi subconsciously started to speak, but then she realized, “Ah!”
“That’s right, they were all by your side, and you saw the form of the Sun Shard in your coma,” Fenna stared into Heidi’s eyes, “If that truly was a remnant of an ancient god, its contamination might have spread to them through your consciousness. Though the extent of this spread might have been slight, it could still be fatal for ordinary people.”
Heidi was dumbfounded.
…
In the antique store in the Lower City District, Duncan had already closed the shop early and was sitting relaxedly behind the counter, with Nina and Sherry sitting opposite him, one on each side.
Both girls had taken a bath in the simple upstairs bathroom, Nina had changed into fresh clothes, but Sherry was still wearing her black dress—not that Nina was unwilling to lend her clothes, but the difference in their sizes was a bit too much, and Sherry had voluntarily refused the few sets of clothes that were too large for her.
Of course, whether she had other concerns when refusing was unknown… Maybe she thought accepting Nina’s clothes was akin to accepting a gift from a follower of the Evil God? Only she knew.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the counter, was Ai Yi leisurely pacing back and forth.
Behind it, a large heap of fries was stacked on the table—these were what Duncan had promised it.
Ai Yi got the fries it had been longing for, Nina safely returned home, Duncan saved his niece, and further familiarized himself with the power of fire.
Everyone was happy.
Except for Sherry.
She was almost crying—she felt like crying several times today.
“So… Sherry, you’re not actually my classmate… You just used some kind of… ‘Detective Skills’ to sneak into the school to investigate some matters,” Nina looked at her hard-won friend with a complex expression, “And you don’t even like steam and machinery…”
“I can’t even understand those textbooks…” Sherry carefully started, responding to Nina’s words but occasionally glancing at Duncan, “I’m sorry… I’m sorry.”
However, Nina seemed to not notice Sherry’s apology; she was just very confused and furrowed her brows, “But how did you manage it? I… now that I think about it, you always seemed to appear suddenly in my classroom, and then you were often around me, but you never attended classes normally, and even the nearby teachers and students seemed not to notice you, you…”
Sherry quickly glanced at Duncan again, making sure his expression was still calm before she murmured softly, “It’s actually a bit of Transcendent skills…”
“Transcendent?” Nina widened her eyes in surprise, “Are you a church investigator?”
“No, no, I’m not from the church, I…” Sherry glanced at Duncan again, remembering the instructions he had given her when Nina went upstairs to bathe, although still completely confused about why this boss was playing the “pretend to be human” game in this antique store, she rigorously followed his instructions, “I’m kind of a wild… a wild Transcendent…”
Nina looked surprised: “There are wild Transcendents?!”
“If they are unregistered, isn’t that wild?” Sherry seemed to have given up on everything, speaking with a kind of resigned intensity, “Aren’t those troublesome people in the church usually the ones who refer to people like us that way?”
Nina was taken aback, listening to Sherry’s explanation, then looking her up and down several times. This scrutinizing gaze made Sherry uncomfortable, and she instinctively dodged, “Why are you looking at me like that…”
“You’re really awesome!” Nina suddenly blurted out seriously.
Sherry was momentarily at a loss: “…that’s what amazes you?”
“Yes!”