Deep Sea Embers

Accompanied by the deep roar from the pressurized tank, the submersible crossed the upside-down world of decay and continued to dive toward the more unknown and terrifying abyss.

The tentacles hanging from the bottom of the city-state completely disappeared from the forest and the huge pale eyeball in the light beam of the searchlight, and the empty and boundless dark water filled the porthole again, with only occasional flashes of stars emerging from the depths of the darkness ( Those are reflective bubbles or floaters) reminding Duncan that he is inside a submersible navigating seawater, not floating in the void of space.

But he couldn't help but have some strange associations—if only from the perspective of "unknown and hidden terror", what is the difference between the empty space and the dark deep sea filled with hundreds of millions of tons of seawater?

The steam core drives the propulsion device, and there is a low noise from the mechanical cabin. A series of pressure gauges in front of the console occasionally hiss, showing the current operating status of the submersible. Duncan slows down the sinking speed to avoid violent The change in pressure from the boat damaged the hull, and then he turned his head to look at the gatekeeper who stood beside him without saying a word.

"Agatha, what are you thinking?"

"I'm wondering... the pioneers who carried out the Abyss Project, did they actually see what we saw?" Agatha said hesitantly, "The truth below the city-state, the indescribable corpses, towards The tentacles and eyeballs hanging down in the deep sea... Before the whole plan got out of control, during the dives again and again, did no one really look back at 'above' out of curiosity—or even out of recklessness?"

Duncan didn't speak for a while, but he recalled in his mind the secrets about the Abyss Project that he heard from Tirian.

Even General Frost, who was once trusted by the queen, seems to have no idea of ​​the whole plan of Qian Abyss—is it true that no one has discovered the truth beneath the city-state? Or... was this too frightening truth buried like a secret in a boiling gold mine?

"Perhaps, someone really looked back, but what they saw is destined not to be recorded," Duncan said softly after a few seconds of silence, "You are the protector of the city-state, and you understand the meaning of the truth better than I do. What are you wearing?"

"...Many people will go crazy," Agatha said slowly, "even if they are not affected by the power in the deep sea, just one terrible fact is enough to cause nightmares and panic on a large scale—and then the nightmares and panic will follow Materialized, and may have an unforeseen connection with the 'reality' below the city-state, and in the worst case... 'it' may come to life."

"Mortals live in a sea of ​​darkness full of terror, and even their footholds are built on twisted and grotesque corpses. Stupidity and blindness are the only graces received by all beings, and it allows most ordinary people to stay away from those crazy things. The truth—and in most cases, as long as the truth is not perceived, it never enters our real world, but the point is that there will always be a 'small fraction'."

"...you want to publish our findings?"

"At least for now, I won't tell any ordinary people this kind of overly impactful news, because the vast majority of people don't need to be disturbed by this, but there is a sentence that you should have heard-'You know it It exists, and it is part of the destiny of the world'."

"The second law of anomalies and visions," Agatha nodded and said, "What is known must not be erased. The truth below the city-state has appeared before our eyes, and the connection in destiny has been established. Sooner or later, we will be with it again." dealing."

Duncan nodded lightly and didn't say anything more.

But at this moment, a strange, abrupt, low-pitched "bang bang" sound suddenly sounded in the submersible, interrupting his and Agatha's thinking.

It sounded... like something was beating on the shell of the submersible outside.

Agatha was startled by this sound instantly, she raised her head suddenly in astonishment: "Did you hear any sound? It seems that someone is beating outside..."

Duncan was also taken aback by the sudden sound, but soon he glanced at the several instruments in front of the console, frowned slightly and said in a deep voice: "This should be the water pressure—the huge seawater The pressure is deforming the shell of the submersible slightly. Don't worry, this is normal and within design values."

Agatha seemed relieved a little, but still looked a little nervous.

Submarining in the dark and deep sea is an unprecedented experience. Even as a powerful gatekeeper, she can't help but feel powerless and nervous in her heart, and this feeling is unimaginable on the stable surface.

In this place far away from the civilized world, the blessings of the gods have declined, and the power of the individual has become insignificant. There is an increasingly narrow "crack" between the cold laws of physics and the unknown destiny. In the gap is survival, There are no bones left outside the cracks, and all they can rely on... is just a spherical shell made of steel.

At this moment, the sound of "bang bang" from the shell of the submersible constantly reminded Agatha: Facing the pressure of hundreds of millions of tons of seawater, it is actually as fragile as paper, and nothing but steel can keep this shell from collapsing. The toughness of itself is only the delicate balance of its physical structure.

This is a completely different kind of terror from the face of heresy and evil gods and natural disasters. This kind of terror... is called "law of nature".

Perhaps it was due to nervousness, or perhaps the silence inside the submersible and the sounds outside the submersible made the atmosphere too oppressive. After a few seconds of silence, Agatha began to look for topics. She watched Duncan operate those levers and cranks: " You are very talented at operating machines-I thought you would ask the Tirian consul to send an engineer who knew how to drive, but I didn't expect you to be very skilled at operating them."

"Are you proficient?" Duncan tilted his head slightly, "But in fact, I don't know how to drive at all—at least not before today."

Agatha: "...Huh?"

"But neither will the people under Tirian, including those engineers who can understand blueprints," Duncan shrugged, and continued, "They can only tell me what these tie rods are for based on the drawings, but when they understand After every lever action, their 'driving level' is as good as I actually am. No one can drive it, no one has driven it, this thing was built by the Archons of the Frost Cities, and it operates the same way it did fifty years ago It’s a very different submersible than the ones we had, and the people who really understood it are dead, that’s the fact.”

Agatha opened her mouth, as if she suddenly didn't know what to say.

Duncan smiled and shook his head after noticing her reaction: "But I have at least two advantages over them. First, I don't have to worry about safety issues. No matter how bad the situation is, I can return safely. Second... ..."

He paused, looked down at the joystick in his hand, and the console in front of him.

There are tiny dark green flames swimming between the gears and connecting rods. The sacred steam and grease soaked this complex and huge machine, and the radiance of the spiritual fire filled the steam and grease.

The steam core is like a surging heart, obeying every command of Duncan.

Of course, it is not as "obedient and easy to use" as the Lost Homelander. This soulless machine can only feed back some rigid and weak perception signals at best, but this is enough.

"Second, these machines are fairly obedient in my hands."

Agatha felt the flow of flames.

The flames filled the steel and engine oil around her, filled the whistling steam and gears, and flowed like blood inside this soulless machine, just like the flames flowing in her body, the two faintly resonate.

This trickling spiritual fire even made her feel a little safe in this dark and cold seabed.

She bowed her head slightly, as if paying tribute to Duncan.

Duncan didn't care about Agatha's reaction, and his attention had returned to the driving work in front of him.

After all, even if the fire of the spirit body allows him to better perceive the state of the machine, he still has to do it himself when it comes to specific operations.

No way, he had never sailed a boat when he was pushed to the bridge of the Lost Homeland by the ducks - he had already adapted to this kind of "although I don't know how this thing works, but I can only bite the bullet and be reckless" The pace of life has changed...

And at this moment, another knocking sound suddenly came from outside the hull——

"Boom."

It was short and clear, as if it had hit something, and it was faintly different from the previous "knocking sound" from outside the hull.

Agatha immediately noticed this strange movement: "There was another sound... Is the shell deforming?"

Duncan frowned suddenly, and put his hand on another pull rod beside him.

"It's not like...it's something else."

He clearly felt that something really touched the shell of the submersible, from below.

There was a hum of mechanical operation inside the submersible, and the searchlight outside the porthole slowly turned its direction in the darkness, and the propellers rotated to adjust the orientation of the submersible.

Finally, something appeared in the light outside the porthole.

one person.

A humanoid-looking... thing.

Agatha "saw" it instantly—the outline of a human figure suddenly emerged in her field of vision, exuding a spiritual gleam just like she saw other people on the surface.

It's just that the shimmer is slightly dimmer and paler.

She exclaimed in a low voice, "Ah!"

Even Duncan's eyes widened in an instant, and he almost said "Damn!"

In the deep sea nearly 1,000 meters deep in the Infinite Sea, just below the Frost City-state, a person suddenly floated out of the porthole of the submersible. Lin, and the pale and huge eyeball between the tentacles!

And then, with the adjustment of the position of the submersible and the strafing of lights, a more weird, terrifying, and even creepy scene appeared in the field of vision of Duncan and Agatha——

People, densely packed "people", are floating in this deep, dark and cold water!