After over an hour of driving, Yua finally managed to find civilization near the Iberian coast. "So, what I'm looking for is in this village," the white-haired lung thought while looking around the village. "Either the abyssal hunters or the church of the deep, either way, I need to find out." After parking up the vehicle, she entered the village. The village looked like a quiet fishing village; Yua noticed what looked like a town hall in the centre, a small boatyard, and a church on top of a hill.
It was getting incredibly dark now, and it looked like rain was coming in, so the lung decided it was best to find some shelter. Heading to the town hall, Yua headed for the door. When she reached it and knocked it, she then said, "Hello, is anyone here?" She received no response from any occupants. Trying again, she asked, "I need some shelter as it's about to rain. Can you let me in, please?" Again, there was no answer.
Deciding that no one was present, Yua entered the building. Once inside, the white-haired lung could notice that it was incredibly dark, with cobwebs covering the furniture from what she could see. It looked like nobody had been here in quite some time. "This is weird," she thought to herself. "Surely someone has to be here." Deciding that she needed to investigate, Yua opened up a flashlight she had and started to look around. As she looked around the building, the white-haired lung could not find any signs of life; the place seemed completely abandoned. The rain started hitting the windows, and that was the only sound the lung girl could hear apart from her own footsteps. "This is creepy," she contemplated. "It looks like nobody has been here in a very long time, but why do I feel like I'm not alone?"
Even though she was alone, Yua had a feeling she was being watched; she just couldn't shake that feeling. Eventually, after a while, she decided it was best to brave the rain and go outside. If she was being watched, Yua thought that if she was attacked, she would have better chances in the open than in close quarters in a dark building. Once outside, Yua could feel the rain coming down heavily. "Bad idea!" she internally exclaimed. "This rain is horrible! I need to find somewhere else."
Regretting her decision, the white-haired lung ran to the small building of the boatyard. As soon as she entered, Yua noticed that this building was also abandoned. "Okay," she thought to herself. "Something is clearly wrong here. What happened to all the Iberians? Where did they all go? And why is there a candle here?" Yua saw a burning candle on a desk; even though this small building was abandoned, someone must have just been here not long ago.
Yua decided to wait until either the rain calmed down or whomever lit the candle decided to come back. Hopefully, they weren't hostile and could give her answers. After a long period of time, the rain had calmed down to a reasonable level; the candle on the desk had nearly burned out—whoever lit it clearly wasn't coming back. "Okay, I need to leave," Yua realised she couldn't stay here any longer,"I still feel like I'm being watched. Was the person who lit this candle the one spying on me?" The lung still had a lot of questions as she left the small building. Who was watching her? Why was she being watched? Was it the abyssal hunters? The church of the deep? Yua couldn't decide. This village, however, clearly was hiding something, and Yua knew she had to find out. The only other place of note in this village was the church; Yua believed that it was worth checking out to see what she could find.
Walking up the hill to the church, Yua couldn't notice anything unusual about it. When she arrived at the large doors, Yua decided not to knock; she decided to slowly open it and see what was inside. Looking inside, Yua noticed that it was not like the rest of the village - it was clean and looked like people used it quite regularly. Stepping inside, Yua could not see any signs of life. "There has to be something here, it's no coincidence, I'll look around, I'm sure I'll find something." Beginning her search on the ground floor, Yua looked around and noticed a strange metallic symbol on the altar and some bookshelves. Taking a book out, she began reading it. As she was reading it, she kept noticing a name repeated in its contents...Ishar-mla.
"Ishar-mla, who or what is that?" Yua pondered as she was reading. This name caught her attention, wanting to find out more. Yua kept reading. The more she read, the more she discovered about the name. After more reading, she was able to discover who Ishar-mla was. "So Ishar-mla is the god of the seaborn!" Yua had discovered a chilling secret. "This must be a base of operations for the church of the deep! But where are they? This place is empty." Knowing now who resided here, Yua knew that they must be stopped. Deciding to carry on her investigation, Yua took the stairs up to the next floor.
Opening the first room, Yua searched and could not find anything. She kept doing this until she reached the end door. Once she opened the door, however, she immediately noticed this room was different. The room had strange patterns and many books. The desk had the same strange metal symbol on it as before. "What is this thing?" she asked herself. "I saw it on the altar when I first arrived." Once the white-haired lung tried to pick it up, however, she heard what sounded like a door opening downstairs. As soon as she was downstairs, Yua saw a passage where one of the bookshelves used to be. "So there was a hidden passage, I bet I'll find out more information wherever it leads." Deciding to head down the passage, Yua opened up her flashlight again and drew her sword; she didn't know if any church of the deep members were down there, but it was better to be safe.
As the white-haired lung walked down the passage, Yua remembered her own timetime, the death and destruction that the seaborn had caused, the people that she had lost. Why did these people want the seaborn to bring that to Terra? How could they follow and carry out the will of these monsters that caused all that suffering? Yua could not understand it and did not want to understand it.
As far as she was concerned, these people were just as evil as the seaborn, just as monstrous. When she came to the end of the passage, the lung found herself in a hall; hearing voices, she knew it was members of the Church of the Deep. She looked for cover behind a pillar. Behind cover, Yua could see many people in black cloaks, one of them standing on some stairs in front of an altar, giving a speech to everyone else.
"Rejoice my brethren! Our God has spoken to us! His will shall be carried out! We shall give his blessings to those of the land!" The one giving the speech was holding up what looked like a body part of a seaborn. Yua didn't know what the one speaking meant by blessings, so she continued listening. "With his gifts, those of the land shall become one with our God! They will become greater! They will become one in his image! They will become perfect! All they need to do is accept his blessing! His children!" The lung was disgusted by hearing this; did they have to eat seaborn, is what the one speaking meant? She couldn't imagine having to do something so horrific; Yua wouldn't wish that on anyone.
The leader then spoke again, "Our god will not be denied by any heretics! Their filth shall not be tolerated! They shall be washed away by the sea! Our gods demand it!" This got all the other members into a frenzy; they were ready to carry out whatever the leader was saying. Yua knew she had to stop this, she was ready to fight these cultists even though the odds were heavily against her, but before she could attack, she felt an object hit her on the head, and her vision went black…
Once Yua regained consciousness, the white-haired found herself on an altar and was currently chained down. She tried to move to get herself free, but she couldn't. No matter how much she tried; Yua was completely trapped. A voice then shouted, which got her attention, "A heretic has found us, it seems! One who would deny our god!" Looking in the direction of the voice, Yua saw the cultist leader from earlier, now that she was closer, the man's face looked horribly disfigured under that hood; he looked like a sentient seaborn creature, which terrified the white-haired lung. The man shouted again. "You would dare go against our god's will, heretic! You would reject his blessing! Our god will not allow it!" The man then walked up the stairs and stood next to the altar Yua was chained to.
The man then spoke again to Yua. "But fear not! Our god is merciful!" He then showed Yua the same body part of the seaborn creature from earlier. "Accept his gift! His children! Become one with him, and your sins shall be forgiven!" Two other members then grabbed hold of Yua's mouth and forced it open. She realized at that moment that he wanted her to eat the body part of the seaborn.
Yua was panicking; she did not want to become one of those monsters. She would rather die – becoming one of them was a fate worse than death. "Somebody! Anybody! Help me!" was the only thing Yua could think through her fear. Yua struggled as much as she could to prevent herself from having to eat the seaborn, but it was to no avail. The cultist brought the body part of the seaborn closer and closer. Yua could feel it on her lip and could almost taste it, but then the man suddenly slumped to the floor.
The two cultists holding her let go of her mouth, turning her head towards the direction the leader had slumped over. Yua saw four individuals standing at the entrance of the hall. One of them stepped forward, a tall, beautiful silver-haired lady. Looking at the altar, the lady could see someone chained up, and she quickly realised what was going on. The silver-haired lady simply shouted, "This evil stops now!"