Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1455 Combination Attack
The two pointers made of blood have a magnetic ability to distinguish people with the same characteristics. Although Veronica still doesn't understand why they can guide people even though they can't analyze them, she can only say that magic sometimes doesn't make sense.

However, the two quickly realized the seriousness of the situation. In just the time it took to walk down one street, the pointer had identified at least thirty other infected individuals from the same source.

Neither of them dared to make a sound. Even Vanessa, who had initially suggested trying to resolve the matter, had become cautious. It was nighttime, and most people were either gathered in pubs or at home. There were very few people walking on the streets. This meant that even among such a small number of pedestrians, they could still find thirty people, which was a terrifying density.

“If we were to walk into a tavern right now, the pointers would probably turn into hedgehogs on the spot,” Veronica said to Vanessa with a wry smile, fiddling with the two red pointers floating in front of her.

"A covert, widespread infection—the number of people must exceed one hundred. Generally speaking, this would qualify as a medium-sized plague. However, since the current effect only seems to be causing loss of taste, therefore..."

Vanessa was pondering when a funeral procession carrying a coffin turned around the street corner ahead.

The procession was small and appeared to be just an ordinary funeral procession, so the two men stepped aside to let it pass. However, as the procession passed, the two blood-red pointers continued to rotate towards the coffin.

Vanessa noticed the change and immediately gestured to Veronica. The two of them quietly followed behind the funeral procession.

In Violet City, there are generally four types of funerals. Nobles of high status would purchase private family cemeteries, while ordinary families would choose church cemeteries or city cemeteries if they had a little extra money. Those who could not afford to be buried in a cemetery would be cremated and their ashes placed in a church mortuary, and after a year, their ashes would be moved outside the city and buried together.

This is the last scenario: when a migrant dies and no relatives or friends organize a funeral, a special funeral procession will take them to the bone bank, identify their name and appearance, and announce it to major cities. If no one claims them within six months, they will be cremated and sent to the funeral parlor.

Of course, it's possible that some people bury their dead outside the city, but Vanessa followed the process for a while and confirmed that this wasn't the case. Due to certain customs, funeral processions are usually carried out at night.

The two followed the coffin until it was taken into the bone storage room and placed in its place. Only then did they sneak in to check the deceased's information.

“Fugete…a foreign merchant, should have some wealth, the cause of death was suffocation…that’s not right.”

"Vanessa, what do you think is the problem?" Veronica didn't know much about the plague, so she asked Vanessa.

“Almost no plague kills by suffocation. While it certainly causes considerable suffering, plagues usually kill by destroying the body, such as causing the lungs to collapse or growing something on the trachea to prevent breathing and lead to death. This…”

Vanessa carefully examined the deceased's biography. There wasn't much information, which even made her question the cause of death, "suffocation."

“Veronica, is the spell still pointing here?” She pointed to the coffin.

"Yes, the sensation is very strong."

"The plague is still active in the deceased's body? What's going on?" Vanessa took a few steps back, keeping her distance from the coffin. "Theoretically, after a person dies, the activity of the plague in their body should gradually decrease and eventually disappear. Since this person's death has already been verified, at least half a day has passed. A typical plague should have—"

"Vanessa, watch out!"

The divine spell "Purification" immediately lit up around the two of them. At the same time, the coffin lid was pushed open with a muffled thud, and a large amount of powder gushed out from the gaps. This powder was swept away by the radiance of the divine spell and did not hit the two of them.

Thankfully, Veronica reacted quickly. Vanessa hurriedly looked into the cracks in the coffin and found that most of the corpse inside had turned into that powdery state, and countless maggots were crawling out of the powder, which looked disgusting.

"broken!"

Vanessa suddenly realized something, and she hurriedly ran out the door, with Veronica following behind. The two of them returned to the street, where Vanessa quickly changed out of her disguise and randomly chose a tavern that was still open and went inside.

The pointer of blood followed her in. After hovering around her for a moment, it slowly turned into a sphere in the air.

“The spherical shape means… no similar source of infection has been found.” Vanessa’s expression darkened. Veronica walked in from behind, beckoned, and the two spheres of blood returned to her palm.

This completely unexpected situation made the two realize that the plague was not so easy to handle. They simply did not have enough experience, and when such an unexpected situation arose, although they knew where the problem might lie, they were unable to immediately come up with effective measures.

"Vanessa, there can't be no infected people here... We're on our way..."

“This plague is very strange. The bloodletting just now clearly had a reaction.” Vanessa retreated from the shop entrance somewhat flustered. “Veronica, are you sure the divine magic wasn’t interfered with? Or—”

As she spoke, she suddenly realized something was wrong and immediately turned around to look.

The tavern door was still swaying gently, and dim light shone through the cracks. But there was neither the blood-stained pointer nor Veronica beside her.

She felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over her head, and she shivered.

The chill actually calmed Vanessa down from her panic. Despite her fear, she raised her arm, drew a small silver knife from her waist, and gently cut a small patch of skin on her elbow. Then she took out a bottle and poured a little powder onto the bleeding area. The powder immediately turned pale blue upon contact with her blood.

"I may have contracted the plague."

She knew perfectly well that the best course of action was to immediately return to the parish and seek help from the pharmacist or Father Thorne, but she wasn't sure if she could still find the right location. When exactly had Veronica separated from her? Was it when she saw the coffin, or did the powder not actually dissipate in time and instead get inhaled?

Undoubtedly, there was a discrepancy between her perception and the facts, which was almost certainly an effect of the plague. Vanessa wasn't worried about dying immediately; although the plague spread by the apostles had a high mortality rate, the onset of the disease usually took a long time, giving her time to deal with the situation.

Due to the misalignment in her understanding, she needs to construct a new set of connections to determine what to do next.

=
By the time the apothecary returned to his resting place, it was already quite late. Father Thorne, of course, hadn't returned yet. After all, he had brought a considerable number of people, including the merfolk, a special race. Even if the church were efficient, it would still need to discuss things for a while, usually taking about five days.

“When Thorne comes back, we’ll have to start all over again—hmm?” The apothecary sensed something was wrong as soon as she stepped into the house. A pair of shoes was missing from the doorway; if she remembered correctly, the missing pair should have been Vanessa’s.

"Veronica?" the pharmacist called out, but there was no response from inside the room. Although it was late at night, the pharmacist did not remember Veronica being so unguarded that she would not wake up when someone called her from downstairs.

The pharmacist hurried upstairs, opened Veronica and Vanessa's room, and immediately saw that Vanessa's bed was empty, with the blankets neatly folded, while Veronica was fast asleep on the bed, showing no signs of waking up.

"Veronica!"

The apothecary's calls still didn't wake Veronica. Seeing this, she immediately cast a protective spell on herself and then went over to check on Veronica's condition.

"She was drugged... Vanessa did it? But why would Vanessa drug Veronica and run away?" The pharmacist quickly found out why Veronica was unconscious. Since there were no other problems, things were easier to handle. She quickly returned to her room, retrieved some medicine, prepared an antidote, and then helped Veronica up and forced her to drink it.

Not long after, Veronica suddenly woke up.

"Pharmacist? Why are you here—no, is it already late at night? Vanessa, where is Vanessa?"

The panicked state didn't seem faked. The pharmacist patted her on the back: "Vanessa has gone out. Briefly describe your experiences over the past two days, especially the special events."

Upon hearing this, Veronica naturally got straight to the point, quickly describing to the pharmacist the situation of the people she had discovered that day who had lost their sense of taste. After listening, the pharmacist told Veronica to follow him out immediately.

"Pharmacist, what exactly is this...?"

“Vanessa’s judgment is correct; this is a precursor to the plague. However, you still lack experience. Now that we have discovered it is a plague, we must be more cautious. Even if we need to investigate the symptoms, we must first figure out the transmission route.”

The pharmacist quickly explained to Veronica.

"So Vanessa was infected?"

"Most likely. Don't worry, early-stage infections are relatively easy to cure, even with the plague. Generally speaking, plagues are divided into four stages: incubation period, symptom stage, outbreak stage, and lethal stage. Vanessa is probably in the symptom stage now. As long as it hasn't reached the outbreak stage, it's easy to handle."

She pulled a metal syringe from her pocket and tossed it to Veronica.

"Depending on the situation, you may need to receive an injection, so please prepare one as well. Simply remove the cap and draw up the liquid for injection. Do not hesitate, as we cannot know when the epidemic will enter its outbreak phase."

“But… what could be the transmission route? My sense of taste hasn’t changed,” Veronica asked.

"Have you ever considered that Vanessa might not have contracted this kind of plague?"

History is replete with examples of multiple plagues spreading simultaneously, generally resulting from multiple plague apostles wreaking havoc in one place at the same time. Typically, because each plague apostle operates independently, and the symptoms of the plagues differ, the Sacred Heart would then address each one individually, distributing medicine accordingly. The resulting records would clearly outline each plague lineage, allowing future generations to understand the situation. However, this approach can leave readers with a God-like perspective lacking real-world experience in dealing with such overlapping and complex plagues.

Now, if the Plague Apostles were more cunning and used a plague that could work together, or a plague specifically designed to cover up the truth, then Vanessa falling victim to it would be a lesson learned.

After arriving at the street where the plague had been discovered, the pharmacist looked around and pointed to the restaurant where the argument had taken place during the day: "Is this the place? It's closed now. Looks like it doesn't operate at night."

"Yes, but the surrounding taverns..."

“What will Vanessa do? You know her well, so you should know where she would go if she wanted to investigate.”

"She'll probably... try to check the extent of the plague's spread; she already had that in mind. She said she wanted to use my magic to investigate the extent of the infection, but I don't know what her plan is..."

Do you think Vanessa mistook you for someone else and drugged you, or did she drug you on purpose?

“She had told me before that she would investigate with me, and I did not disagree. She has no reason to target me directly.”

"Very good." The pharmacist closed his eyes slightly.

Finding Vanessa is not difficult. She is also under the Saviors. She can pray to the gods to mark the members of the Saviors around her, and then find people from among them.

But if Vanessa is currently in a state of confusion, she has to guard against possible attacks or backup plans from the Plague Apostles. The apostle who planted the plague may not have gone far, but is hiding nearby observing the effects of the plague. It remains to be seen whether that person dares to start a battle in Violet City.

However, just as she was about to expand her senses, Veronica suddenly exclaimed, "Pharmacist, look!"

The pharmacist opened his eyes and saw four guards leading Vanessa from one end of the street. Vanessa's expression was calm, and her eyes were closed.

"Hello, sir, this nun is my student. May I ask what happened to her?" the pharmacist asked as he stepped forward.

“Oh, someone we know? That makes things easier. We were just about to take her back to the parish for a checkup. When we found her, she wasn’t in a good state; she had cut her arm and drawn a picture on the ground. If we hadn’t barely recognized it as the church emblem, we probably would have arrested her as some kind of troublemaker,” a guard said. “Do you know what happened to her?”

“Please leave it to me.” The pharmacist said, reaching out to grab Vanessa’s wrist, then suddenly exerting force and slamming her to the ground.

The guards were all taken aback.

“I’m sorry, but this is a necessary measure.” The pharmacist glanced at Vanessa’s wound and immediately used a heightened bloodletting technique, drawing a wisp of blood from her body. After a brief analysis, she took out a vial and began preparing the medication on the spot. She quickly prepared a solution, diluted it, and handed it to Veronica: “Vanessa seems to have found a way to cope. She’s not struggling, so she must have realized something. However, she still needs to be treated with injections. I’ll leave it to you.”