Northern Shore of Conquest Sea, Navaha Inside a dimly lit room, the woman known as Garcia sat on a single-person sofa, her expression grim as she listened to her subordinate’s report. Concerned by the presence of the Church fleet at the port, she had dispatched people to investigate their true purpose in Navaha—but the results had taken her by surprise. “You’re saying… Inquisitors from the Tribunal are on their way? The Church is gathering personnel in Navaha?” Garcia asked with a solemn expression, and the young man before her responded with certainty. “Yes! Earlier, Pablo and I were outside the church looking for targets for a Dream Snare. Pablo chose a nun in white robes, and I picked an officer. In the officer’s dream, I asked why the Church fleet was still docked at the port. He told me they’re waiting for Inquisitors to arrive from Telva. I was just about to ask for more details when Pablo’s scream startled me awake. I ran back immediately to avoid being caught by the people in the church.” “Ma’am, the Church doesn’t deploy Inquisitors lightly unless there’s some sign of heretical or cult activity. If they’re on their way here, it means something about us was exposed… They’ve noticed us.” The young man spoke with a tense, anxious tone. After a moment of silence, Garcia exhaled slowly and addressed him again. “All right, I’ve got the general idea. You may go.” “Yes, ma’am…” Relaxing slightly, the young man took a few steps back, then exited the room. Once he was gone, Garcia turned her gaze toward the man standing nearby—Gómez, whose expression was equally grave. “Gómez… do you think the Church has really detected us?” Garcia’s question was met with a heavy response. “Based on the intel Pablo and the others gathered tonight… I’m afraid they have. According to Church protocol, if they’re deploying Inquisitors to a place, it’s essentially confirmation that they believe heresy or cult activity is present. In all of Navaha… there’s no other hidden faction besides us.” Gómez spoke with visible worry. Earlier, he had assumed that because the fleet at the port was made up of military personnel from the Sacrament Knight Order, they might have come for some unrelated reason, and that their group hadn’t been exposed. But if even the Tribunal was now involved, that assumption no longer held water. “Hmph… given the situation now, insisting that we haven’t been exposed is just self-deception. Damn it. After all the effort we spent hiding, we still slipped up somehow. The question is—just how much do those zealots know about us?” Garcia muttered darkly, rubbing her forehead in frustration. Gómez responded thoughtfully. “For now, it seems those zealots have sensed our presence, but likely haven’t uncovered everything. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have just sat still—they’d already have made their move instead of calling in the Tribunal…” “My guess is that something went wrong with our concealment. The zealots at the port sensed something off and immediately reported it. They may even have a rough idea of who we are and what kind of abilities we possess—enough to begin guarding against Dream Snares. I suspect Pablo died because he triggered their defenses. The nun he picked for the Dream Snare may very well be an important figure among those zealots.” Gómez analyzed calmly. After hearing him out, Garcia’s expression stiffened even further. “So what you’re saying is… the zealots at the port may really have just come here to drop off passengers at first. But in the process, they somehow noticed us… and now they’ve called in the Inquisitors to investigate further… Damn it! Where did we go wrong?!” Garcia clenched her teeth in frustration. Gómez, still stern, continued. “Madam Garcia, our top priority now is figuring out how to deal with the Inquisitors from Telva. Even if the zealots at the port can’t act for now, once those Inquisitors arrive, it’ll be a whole different story. They specialize in dealing with hidden cults like ours.” “Lady Garcia… I think we should pull out of Navaha while we still can—before the Inquisitors arrive!” Gómez proposed urgently. But Garcia shot him a cold glance and replied immediately. “Retreat? Are you joking, Gómez? Yes, we could run—but don’t forget, the Cocoon can’t. If we all flee and leave the Cocoon behind in Navaha, we’re basically handing it over to those zealot Inquisitors on a silver platter! All these years of effort would be completely wasted!” Garcia snapped sharply. Gómez quickly responded. “Yes… If we retreat now, it would mean abandoning the Cocoon completely. But Madam Garcia, once the Inquisitors arrive and join forces with those Sacrament Knight Order zealots at the port, they’ll become a force far beyond what we can resist. There’s no way we’ll be able to hold onto the Cocoon under that kind of pressure. If we try to, we’ll only end up getting wiped out along with it!” Gómez pleaded urgently with Garcia, hoping she would accept his proposal to pull out of Navaha before the Inquisitors arrived. But Garcia didn’t respond immediately. She sat still, her face unreadable, deep in thought for a long time before finally speaking. “No… we can’t abandon the Cocoon.” “We can’t… but Madam Garcia, if we don’t—” “If we don’t abandon it, we still have a way to protect it… and even protect ourselves.” Garcia’s expression was grim as she looked at Gómez, who paused in surprise before asking. “Madam Garcia, you mean?” “Gómez, I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to accelerate the Cocoon’s growth. I’ll hatch it—right now. As long as what’s inside can emerge ahead of schedule, not only can we retreat safely, we might not even need to worry about those zealots at the port.” Garcia’s voice was firm, deadly serious. Gómez was momentarily stunned by her declaration before speaking slowly. “Hatching the Cocoon early? Madam Garcia, that’s incredibly risky. We don’t even know if the acceleration will work. And even if it does, anything born from a prematurely broken shell is bound to have congenital flaws… The result could be completely uncontrollable. Are we really doing this?” “Of course. For both us and the entire society, the Cocoon is something that must never be given up easily. Rather than handing it over to those zealot Inquisitors and letting it be destroyed, we might as well reap the fruit now—whatever form that fruit takes.” Garcia’s expression was resolute, her tone carrying the conviction of someone ready to stake everything. Seeing her resolve, Gómez gave a silent nod. “Alright… if that’s the case, then we’ll have to move fast. We need to complete the acceleration before the Inquisitors arrive. I just don’t know whether the number of dream cocoons the Cocoon has gathered so far will be enough to sustain the process…” He muttered with a sigh. With no clue how soon the Inquisitors would reach Navaha, the acceleration process had to begin immediately. … Late night, Navaha. The port where the Church fleet was anchored. Under the bright glow of a streetlamp near the harbor, a group of men in Sacrament Knight uniforms stood gathered. At their head, Officer Giorde wore a grave expression as he looked at the scene before him. Lying on a stretcher at Giorde’s feet was a corpse—face twisted in terror, eyes wide open in eternal shock, blood having poured from nose, ears, and eyes. The man looked as though he had glimpsed something utterly incomprehensible in his final moments. “Has his identity been confirmed?” Giorde asked after taking a few moments to examine the corpse. His deputy answered promptly. “No, sir. We questioned the nearby churchgoers, but no one recognized him. As of now, we have no definitive ID.” “The only thing we can confirm is that he’s definitely not an ordinary civilian. We found sigils on his body associated with Shadow, which strongly suggests he was involved in mystical activities.” The deputy’s tone was serious. Giorde’s expression grew darker still. “A suspected Shadow Beyonder, suddenly found dead outside a church with all seven orifices bleeding… I’ve been sailing for years, and I’ve never seen a case like this.” Giorde spoke as he pulled a cigarette from his pouch, lighting it with a match and taking a drag. His deputy continued, equally serious. “Sir… could this guy be a remnant of the Abyssal Church here in the city? Maybe he’s snooping around, trying to gather intel and find an opening for revenge?” “I doubt it. People connected to the Abyssal Church usually work maritime jobs. Most of them are seafarers, and this guy’s skin clearly doesn’t belong to someone used to being at sea. Plus, those cultists typically have Water-Breathing Sigils on them. This one had none—instead, he carried obscure Shadow sigils. Doesn’t fit their profile at all.” Exhaling smoke, Giorde gave his assessment. Hearing this, his deputy spoke up in surprise. “Not the Abyssal Church…? Then where the hell did this guy come from? And how did he die so suddenly?” “That, we don’t know. The only thing that’s clear now is—this little port town we picked at random to dock at… is far less simple than it looks.” Giorde muttered as he turned to gaze at the shadowy cityscape nearby. The bizarre corpse lying at his feet had tipped him off that something hidden lurked within this seemingly ordinary place. “When are those Inquisitors from the Tribunal supposed to arrive?” He turned to his deputy. The man immediately answered. “According to word from Telva earlier this evening, the investigators just departed. It’ll take around two days for them to reach here.” “Two days, huh… Let’s hope they get here sooner. At this point… the Abyssal Church isn’t the only problem that needs their attention.” Giorde spoke slowly. He’d already concluded that some hidden cabal—one unrelated to the Abyssal Church—was operating in Navaha. All he could do now was wait for the Inquisitors to arrive and hand over all leads. With this sudden death on top of everything else, Giorde could already picture just how busy the Tribunal would be. … Late night in Navaha. Inside a luxurious inn. Dorothy, freshly bathed, sat by a cozy brazier. Having just intervened to drive off the threat within Vania’s dream, she now contemplated the events that had just unfolded. Even she hadn’t expected a hidden cabal to be lurking in this quiet little coastal town. “I’d been suspecting something off about this city for a while now… but I didn’t think there’d really be a hidden cabal. And one that belongs to the Shadow faction, with the ability to invade dreams no less.” “Those guys jumped into Vania’s dream all of a sudden, desperately digging for intel on the Church. Looks like they were spooked by the Church fleet’s sudden arrival—worried enough to use Dream Snare just to confirm the fleet’s purpose. Too bad they picked the wrong target…” Dorothy sighed to herself. She was now fairly certain why that mental hospital in the suburbs had suddenly decided to take down its signboard—it was likely an effort to keep the Church from noticing that such a small city somehow had three psychiatric institutions. “At this rate, Navaha’s ’Sleep Decay Syndrome’ and its mental hospitals are all linked to this cabal. Hah… yet another cabal, huh. Do I have some kind of magnetism for this sort of thing?” She grumbled mentally, though not without a hint of amusement. After all, she was running low on spirituality lately—so a well-timed encounter with a generous cabal was just what she needed. “The Church fleet’s still docked at the port, so I have a convenient authority to report to. With their help, dealing with this cabal won’t be hard at all. All I need to do is dig them out, then lead the Church straight to them. Once they clash, I can take advantage of the chaos.” Sitting by the brazier, a subtle smile curled on Dorothy’s lips. It had been a while since she’d stumbled into a situation this ripe for turning in troublemakers. As long as she could locate their base and report it successfully, she could fish some rewards out of the turmoil—just like she had in the past. “The Church fleet won’t be in port forever. I need to act fast. The mental hospitals are my best leads for now—I’ll start there tomorrow.” Rubbing her hands together eagerly, Dorothy felt it was time to resume her role as a helpful, law-abiding citizen.