As Ian's figure turned into a shadow rushing toward the direction of the temple, a figure in a black robe quietly emerged from the shadows of a collapsed bell tower in the northern part of the city.
She was the mysterious woman in the black robe. When the Ghost Bride first appeared, she quietly withdrew, neither hiding with the other members of the Dusk Hermit Association nor getting caught in the initial massacre. At this moment, she stood at the edge of the ruins, watching Ian's departing figure, with a complex emotion flashing in her eyes.
There was astonishment, worry, and a faint glimmer of something akin to relief.
"Priestess Carina, there are over two hundred injured in the northern district." A young priest hurried over, with his linen robe stained with blood and dust, "Our holy oil is almost used up."
Priestess Carina's veil gently fluttered in the morning breeze as she watched Ian's figure disappear into the dust toward the temple. She stood still for a moment, not withdrawing her gaze until the sound of a child's sobs reached her from behind.
Carina didn't answer immediately. She knelt down and gently stroked the hair of a little girl who was crying. The child's mother lay beside her, with a deep, bone-exposing wound on her leg.
"Use this." Carina took out a delicate blue glass bottle from her bosom, in which a silvery liquid swirled, "One drop diluted in ten bowls of clear water is enough for five hundred people."
The young priest's eyes widened: "This is... the divine hall's last holy..."
"Now it is the people's holy artifact." Carina interrupted him, her voice calm but unquestionable. She turned to the twelve white-robed priests standing behind her—a group of followers she had protected in secret, each one wearing a look of exhaustion yet firm resolution.
"Amun, take three people and tend to the injured in the west district." She swiftly assigned tasks, "Horus, take two and clear out any survivors from the collapsed buildings. The rest, follow me to the grain storage to distribute bread and clear water."
The group dispersed into action immediately. Carina quickly moved toward the temporary rescue station set up in the central square, where the sight was heartbreaking—collapsed buildings looked like toys crushed by a giant, the streets littered with bodies not yet tended to, the air thick with a pungent mix of blood and dust.
"Priestess!" An old woman, her face covered in ash, rushed over and grabbed Carina's robe, "Please, my granddaughter is still in the house to the east..."
Carina helped the woman up and signaled to one of the priests beside her.
The young man immediately understood, taking two stout men with him to the East District. Carina herself continued forward, occasionally stopping to check on the injured or comfort terrified children.
Although the city had regained its calm, its people had not.
"It is time we fulfill our neglected duty."
The woman in the black robe, Carina, raised her hand, her fingertips tracing the air, and a dark red rune appeared in the void, like a signal. Moments later, dozens of shadows quietly gathered from various parts of the city—they all wore gray-black robes, with a secretive silver hourglass emblem embroidered on their chests, precisely the secret followers of the temple that Carina had previously evacuated and organized.
"We have counted the northern district, where at least three hundred people are injured, over fifty are missing, and more than sixty buildings have collapsed... The Ghost Bride may have disappeared, but the disaster's aftermath is just beginning."
A believer spoke.
Carina nodded, her eyes cold as ice: "I know. Fear, hunger, pain, are the true plagues. We must act immediately."
Her perspective was not wrong in this ancient space-time.
So.
The black-robed priestess raised her hand with a swift command.
"First team, head to the central square, set up temporary medical tents, use the 'Blood malediction' and 'Bone Healing Technique' to treat the wounded, prioritize internal bleeding and soul fragmentation cases."
"Second team, open the 'Storage Grain Vault', distribute pre-stored dry food, purified water, and blankets to each district, register by household for rationing."
"Third team, organize search-and-rescue squads, enter collapsed buildings to find survivors, using 'Life Resonance Technique' to detect faint breaths."
"Fourth team, block off a three-mile radius around the temple, establish a perimeter, no one is allowed close, violators will be treated as hostile." The woman's orders were clear and decisive.
The followers moved swiftly, as if rehearsed a thousand times. Carina led the team personally to the worst-hit disaster area of the city—the East District Slums. This was once the densest hunting ground for the Ghost Bride, with houses collapsed in clusters, streets strewn with broken furniture and bloodstains. Many survivors huddled in corners, their eyes vacant, evidently having suffered severe Soul Shock.
She knelt down and lifted a shivering little girl, gently asking, "Are you okay? What's your name?"
The girl trembled, barely able to speak. Carina raised her hand, and a ball of soft silver light gathered in her palm, which she gently pressed against the girl's forehead. The silver light seeped in, and the girl's breathing gradually stabilized, her eyes regaining clarity.
"This is the 'Soul Calming Technique', which stabilizes soul oscillations." Carina explained to the young priest beside her, "Many people didn't die from physical injuries but had their mental anchors destroyed by the Ghost Bride's 'Death Gaze'. We must first stabilize their 'sense of self', or they will gradually forget who they are, eventually becoming living corpses."
The young priest nodded and took notes, then asked, "Ma'am, how were we able to evacuate in advance? Why didn't other associations... have any warning?"
Carina stood up, looking towards the temple, her voice low: "Because I saw the 'Future Fragment'."
She raised her hand, and a cluster of dark mist formed at her fingertips, manifesting a scene: the Ghost Bride dragging a coffin, priests committing suicide, the city engulfed in flames, with Ian standing atop the bell tower, silver light sweeping across the city.