October. 1978

We play as Judas “Saint” Miller, a 35-year-old Devote, one of the few that sacrificed his faith to escape from the Hushers instead to take refugee on the underground Secret Churches.

The government sends him to explore the Dark Zone of Navia, abandoned a few years ago. His mission is to set a safe route for the army to loot the area. For that, he needs to explore all the zone and search for survivors and resources that the government could use.

In his travel, he finds that violent groups control the area. They are using strange clothes and adore pagan goddesses. The first one that he faces is The Nothings, who adore the goddess, Morrigan. They use masks made of metal leftovers or wood and nails. The second one is the Ánimas who adore the goddess, Navia. They use white hoods and strange items, like ancient crosses, lanterns, and cauldrons.  Both are violent and attack Judas. Both are violent and attack Judas.

After these radical groups, Judas finds only pollution and wild animals that only want to protect their territory. The contamination of the area is so extreme that Judas faints after a while, dizzy by the fumes. He awakes tied to a tree, bleeding by his wrists, which have open cuts. Frightened, he tries to untie himself, but a female voice stops him. From the fog, Judas sees how a woman appears, which introduces herself as Annabelle. She wears a veil that prevents Judas from seeing his face and over her head, she wears a crown made with white branches and decorated with a red cord. She tells Judas that the bleeding is necessary to heal his body from the disease that the pollution produces. The only thing that he needs to do is rest and have faith. After a while, he awakes again, this time untied and with his wounds bandaged. When he starts to explore the forest, he discovers a new group that adores the white trees from the wood and that mysterious woman called Annabelle. They are sick and in a constant state of hallucination. Unlike the others, they aren’t crazy, just weak from the sickness. In the middle of them, Judas met their old leader, Sebastián Alvar, who tells him that he doesn’t trust Annabelle. He tells Judas that when Navia city became in a Dark Zone, lots of survivors from the near Dark Zones came to loot the town. That was the first time that they saw Rites, crazy people that attacked everyone and, like a plague, they devastated everything. For that reason, they decided to blow all the subway entrances and protect, that way, their Underground City, Annabelle. However, when they did it, they should break a pipe or something similar, because they started to feel sick.

− Wait, Annabelle? Like… Annabelle?

− Weird, no? Our city was called Annabelle in honor of a statue that we put in our main square that had that name. One day, in the middle of the worst fever that you can imagine, she appeared in front of my eyes. Annabelle. Or at least, a woman dressed exactly like the statue. She said that she had a cure for our disease.

Annabelle told Sebastián that their illness was a blood infection produced by the pollution and that the only way to cure it was putting out all of the blood from the sick body to purify it. She told him about some unusual trees that “clean” the blood and transforms it into some kind off «medicine». Sebastián followed the woman to the Dead Trees forest. There she took a knife and cut his wrists, letting the blood watered one of the trees.

− I passed out. The fever and the blood loss were too much for me. She wasn’t lying. The tree purified the blood and produced something like a flower. She called it a Blood Magnolia. She said that I must eat it and when I did, in just a couple of hours I felt like new. It was true that I still felt sick, but much better than when I arrived. So, I left the forest and returned to Annabelle’s to tell everybody about that miracle. And now I think it would have been better to have let them die.

Sebastián tells Judas that even when he feels better, almost recovered, the rest of Annabelle’s inhabitants are worse every day and that he thinks that is Annabelle’s fault.

− Their skin is whiter every day. They look like living dead… And she keeps using their blood to water the trees and get those flowers. When I talk to her about this, she ignores me and says that they need more «medicine»… But I never saw her giving any medicine to them or you. Look, I don’t have proofs, but, I know that there is something wrong with her and I need to discover it before it is too late. Can you help me?

Judas decides to help Sebastián and discover the truth about Annabelle. Investigating he arrives at a secret camp deep in the forest. There, he finds the costumes of the different goddesses from the other Rites and a lot off dried flowers.

− Who controls God, controls everything. Don’t you think? Even when God is dead, we still use His rests as we need. I am the one, Judas. I am the Mother of all Rites. I created them. I support them. I protect them. I CONTROL them. And you, you are just a hypocrite. You came here to loot us, even worse, to let this sick and blind government steal us again. I will not permit you. I will not let anybody use me again. No, you. No, this government. Not even God… Now, I am the goddess, so, now, I control everything.

Judas is forced at that moment to run away and face the ones that he was trying to save. Judas is forced at that moment to run away and face the ones that he was trying to save. After defeating them, he reunites with Sebastián and the ones that were loyal to him.

− Thank you for your help, my friend. You should come with us and leave that sick government behind.

− I can’t, Sebastián. If I don’t come back, they will send somebody else. I need to do what is right. I will let them know how dangerous this place is and then, I will come back, and I will help you to protect this place. I promise. I am tired of running away.