Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 438 The Power Has Failed

"Well then, I'll just ask directly: have either of you ever heard of the 'Named Person'?"

Nora paused for a moment, as if she had thought of something, and frowned as she fell into deep thought.

Chloe simply replied, "I've heard of it."

Do you remember the Mechanical Sanctuary?

That left a deep impression on me. The priest who killed him was suspected to be from the Mechanicus. The Mechanicus's prayers were used to summon the Mechanicus, and the steam rifles in the Banshees' hands were also creations of the Mechanicus.

Hughes's impression of this church was that it was full of all sorts of bizarre and outlandish black technologies. They all seemed to make some sense at first glance, but the more he thought about them, the more something seemed off.

For example, that steam rifle actually uses mercury steam, and the mechanical priest's steel prosthetics don't look like they're made of servo motors at all.

The predecessor of the Mechanical Sanctuary was the Mechanical Society. Back then, we were the Flame-Chasing Cult under the Candlelight Society, and we had a very friendly relationship with them, so we knew some of their secrets.

For example, the great sage Bruno referred to himself as "the one with a name."

But we don't know much more about what exactly a "named person" is.

Hughes turned to look at Nora: "Do you remember her?"

“I have some recollection of it, but I don’t know the specifics.” Nora shook the vase from side to side. “This matter must be recorded in the sanctuary.”

"Oh, you're so sure? You've met before?"

"The Burial Master buries a portion of harmful knowledge; this is our way of resisting contamination. I suspect that I have already buried this part of the relevant knowledge—but the Silent Sanctuary must have a backup."

After saying that, she stared intently at Hughes: "The world may forget, but the White-boned Raven will not."

Hughes nodded. He had heard similar statements many times before, and he had also seen them in the images Nora had shown him—"The wind and snow bury the past, but the sanctuary will never forget." These words were engraved on the church.

“The Silent Sanctuary was called the Forgotten Sanctuary a thousand years ago. We know many secrets, but unlike the Candlelight Church, we don’t keep them; instead, we bury them and forget them.” Nora glanced at Chloe.

"Let me say it again, I'm not a member of the Candlelight Society. And what's the use of you forgetting or not? The White Raven Kingdom is gone; the Bone White Raven is truly just a skeleton now."

boom!
Nora, being a superhuman, possessed exceptional muscle control. With a sudden burst of strength in her neck, she smashed the vase straight into the crevice of Chloe's diary.

"Alas!!" Chloe wailed, the pages of her diary snapped straight up, then drooped softly again.

"Alright, stop fooling around. Nini, hurry up and hang them up, one on the east side and one on the west side. Tata, you and Richard should go back too."

Seeing that his office was about to descend into chaos again, Hughes decisively kicked everyone out. Nini left with her diary and vase, humming a song, while Tata and Richard also quietly discussed their conversation as they went out.

Hughes walked to the door, locked it several times from the inside, and sat back down in his chair.

There's one more thing he needs to confirm.

Hughes's face quickly became blank and stiff, and his head drooped down; he had returned to normal.

A moment later, Hughes, the worker with a large hole in his chest, opened his eyes.

"Ok?"

As soon as Hughes opened his eyes, he sensed something was wrong. Why was it foggy here?
He was still on a sea full of floating ice, his lower body frozen in the ice. He didn't know where he was, but it seemed to be in the North.

After all, only the North has oceans full of floating ice.

The fog was so thick that it was practically pitch black, and with the nearby ice floes also being white, Hughes was practically blind. He took a few deep breaths, letting the fog flow into his lungs through the hole in his throat and chest, and nodded in satisfaction.

He actually quite likes the smell of fog. He's always liked it since he was a child. Whenever there's smog, he'd run out of the house and wander around outside, enjoying the fun of exploring the unknown when he can't see anything.

"This is really nice. I'd only ever heard of sea fog before, this is the first time I've ever seen it."

Sea fog is a common phenomenon, but he hadn't seen it since arriving in Castel. Hughes looked at it curiously for a while, then stopped paying attention and pulled the silk thread to pull a few people into the link.

In reality, one needs to be cautious and avoid probing, but now that he has a different body, it shouldn't be too difficult for him to gather information.

He reached out and grabbed a few threads, then pulled them—

At this moment, the group entered the link, where the invisible threads that reached their souls allowed them to transcend distance and communicate with each other.

That's how it should be.

But the feeling in his hand was not the light and nimble one he had felt before; instead, it was extremely sluggish, as if something was holding him up. Hughes opened his eyes wide and looked along the thread, but could only see the thread disappear into the mist.

"That's strange, why can't I pull the link?"

I had a bad feeling about this. I tried a few more times, but it still didn't work. I couldn't pull the thread at all.

Hughes kept pulling on the silk threads, but the threads extending into the mist seemed to be stuck and couldn't be pulled at all.

Just as he was about to give up, the silk thread in his hand suddenly trembled.

It was as if someone was pulling on one end of a fog.

Grizzly Town in the North.

The town's residents were cheering for driving away the winter wolf, but not long after, another group of people arrived in the town.

They are said to be a resistance force against the Winter Wolves, and judging from their appearance, they are indeed refugees from the White Raven Kingdom.

The townspeople had long harbored a deep loathing for soldiers. Whether it was the lord's Winter Wolf Knights or these resistance fighters from the North, they were all the same to them, only bringing trouble.

The people in the town closed their doors early.

But this group seemed different. They didn't loot the grain or steal their savings. Instead, they helped the townspeople clean up the Winter Wolves' camp, which used to be the town's market.

Now it has been restored to its original function, and the resistance fighters have set up various items on the cleared ground, saying they want to trade with the town's residents.

There were many kinds of things, from the fur of various wild animals to dried salted meat. Ironically, although the North had quite a few forests and was not short of prey, those were the private property of the lords, and free people were strictly forbidden from hunting there.

Even if someone poachs, it's only a small-scale operation, so the furs still fetch a decent price here.

But the townspeople all clutched their wallets tightly, no one dared to buy their things, and they didn't even dare to leave their homes.

Who knows if this is a trap set by the resistance—they'll just rob anyone they find who has money. These townspeople are just honest people, and honest people are always the ones who get bullied.

The next day, the resistance fighters left disappointed after finding nothing.

However, before people could even rejoice, a Winter Wolf Guard stormed through the town's gates.

(End of this chapter)