Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 437 Nora's Confidence

"An interesting concept in topology, something you only learn in the most advanced math classes. Anyway, I understand what you mean. As long as my self-awareness is correct, other people's opinions of me won't affect me, right?"

Richard nodded: "Of course, otherwise the empress of that empire would be cursed to death by people all day long, wouldn't she?"

That makes a lot of sense.
"So cognitive interference only works on objects?"

“That’s not necessarily true,” Tata continued. “Do you remember Mira, the high priestess of the Mother of Life? We suspect she may have been affected by cognitive interference.”

The prince conducted a follow-up investigation and found that Mira had always believed that the "Mother" was under her control, but she was unknowingly being manipulated by Him.

Hughes seemed to realize something: "So, her self-perception has been altered?"

"Yes, the life of a Mother Goddess priest is often short. Her soul is gradually devoured by evil gods, and her weakened soul cannot maintain a firm enough self-awareness, creating a vicious cycle. In the end, she sinks deeper and deeper and can never turn back."

Tata sighed: "That's why the Church of the True God is cracking down on cultists. Their power is obtained illegitimately, making it easier for them to lose their self-awareness and become puppets of evil gods."

"Then you are like moths chasing fire."

“Oh, we are different. We pursue knowledge, not power or evil gods. The Moth Lord is merely a tool to cleanse the pollution. Speaking of which, I haven't been able to sense the Moth Lord lately. Richard, do you have any clues?”

Hughes froze.

It seems that the Lord of Moths was accidentally purified by him.
Alas, I didn't understand back then. Such a good evil god, it would have been better to catch him and put him in the furnace. What a waste!

Richard and Tata discussed it for a while, but ultimately came to no conclusion.

"In short, we, the Fire Moths, are different from other evil god churches. We are less likely to lose control, and our self-awareness is more stable!" Tata proudly raised her head.

Tsk.

Hughes clicked his tongue. The Fire Moths had indeed solidified their understanding, but in this world, pursuing knowledge was far more dangerous than the descent of an evil god. The Fire Moths were recognized as the most dangerous cult, even the Church of the Mother Goddess could only rank behind them.

but
Hughes suddenly remembered something from a long time ago, before he was born into this body. He had been telling a lot of random little stories out of boredom, and later thought that this would cause cognitive interference. Now it seems that he was overthinking it.

If simply telling stories could cause pollution, the world would have been in ruins long ago.

Only then did Hughes feel completely relieved.

"There's one more thing. Have you ever heard of 'named individuals'?"

Upon hearing this, Tata and Richard's expressions changed, and they took a step back as if facing a formidable enemy.

Richard's expression stiffened. Based on Hughes's years of observation of Chloe's escape records, he must have used his supernatural abilities, and the person standing here now was probably just an empty shell.

Hughes was somewhat surprised by their reaction and reached out to ring the bell on the table.

Soon a fully armed banshee entered the house. Her gaze swept over Tata and Richard with interest before she asked, "Which of them rebelled?"

Hughes caught a glimpse of a strand of golden hair through the gap in the armor and sighed helplessly, "Stop joking around, Nini might be in some trouble."

Nini's eyes immediately lit up: "What trouble?"

Tata and Richard exchanged a glance, somewhat embarrassed. "Uh, we didn't know." "We didn't know you two were reacting so strongly?"

Tata's face was bitter: "It's precisely because we don't know that it's troublesome. The most dangerous thing in the extraordinary world is the unknown. The word you just used is clearly related to the extraordinary. We are moths chasing after knowledge. Generally speaking, things we don't know are either extremely dangerous or extremely secretive, or more often, both—dangerous and secretive."

Chloe had mentioned this before, but Hughes had forgotten about it over time. Anyway, knowledge was linked to pollution, so at worst he would be corrupted by pollution—he wasn't afraid of pollution.

"So neither of you knew?"

The two exchanged a glance and shook their heads. "Never heard of that. Perhaps you could ask Chloe?"

Hughes sighed and looked at Nini: "Go and take Chloe down from the monument."

As Nini excitedly climbed to the top of the church, Chloe was still chatting with Nora. The two were originally mortal enemies, but after death, they were no longer enemies.

Chloe wasn't a member of the Candlelight Vigil, and Nora no longer belonged to the Silent Sanctuary, yet they were both under the same roof and, over time, became good friends.

Nini brought both of them along.

Having learned from his previous experience, Hughes didn't immediately ask any questions. Instead, his gaze fell on the diary: "Your current state isn't contaminated, is it?"

"Actually, it's possible, but the danger is much smaller. After all, I don't have a physical body, and my cognition is stable, so it's really difficult for anything to contaminate me."

"Nora, what about you?"

"The contamination of the buried will accumulate in the body. My body should already be destroyed, so there is no need to worry."

"If your body is still intact"

Nora tried to shake her head, but she forgot that her neck was broken. With a sudden effort, she rolled over, but luckily Nini caught her in time.

Nini grabbed Nora's head, looked at the flat table, hesitated for a moment, took a vase from the windowsill, took out the flowers and threw them away, and then put Nora in the vase.

I turned it around and it felt quite sturdy.

"Thank you."

Nora stretched a little and felt good; there was even a sense of familiarity—she felt the same way when she put on that icefield heavy armor, which felt slightly restrictive around her neck. The vase was also white, which matched her white hair and eyes perfectly.

Hughes opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing. He felt he needed to solidify his understanding.
"The severed limbs of the buried will decay and decay like the bodies of ordinary people. If it is only the loss of limbs, they may be able to recover with the help of supernatural power, but I have been beheaded and there is no saving me."

Her voice was as flat as ever, without any discernible inflection.

"The greatest punishment for a burial person who has made a mistake is to cut off their head. Perhaps Chloe will have a chance to find a body again in the future, but I can't."

Nora's eyelashes trembled slightly. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and opened them again, regaining her composure.

Hughes nodded heavily. It seemed that Count Bazel was not unaware that she was a superhuman, but rather deliberately used this method to torture her.

"So there's no need to worry about pollution accumulating inside my body. My body should already be decaying, so even if pollution does occur, it won't cause any harm."

(End of this chapter)