Deep Sea Embers

There was silence in the room.

This oppressive silence lasted for an unknown amount of time before Duncan suddenly broke the silence: "All living beings in the world are descendants of ancient gods—even the craziest Annihilation Cultists have probably never come to such deviant conclusions."

"It's an incredible thing to hear the word 'deviant' from your mouth," Leigh Nora looked into Duncan's eyes with a half-smile, "but this is indeed what I learned in this long nightmare The ultimate truth - just like the scene you saw in the deep sea, the "creation theory" that the Annihilation Cultists say is not false, maybe they have a problem with their understanding, but at least one thing is true... Our world, It was created by the ancient gods based on some kind of grand 'blueprint', and in this creation process... His flesh and blood is the foundation of all things."

Duncan was silent for a few seconds before slowly opening his mouth as if talking to himself: "Using himself as the raw material, the Lord of the Deep shaped everything above the sea according to the 'blueprint' in the deep sea, and its 'flesh and flesh' exists naturally. Inside all things, due to some kind of "mistake", the "flesh and flesh" that had been shaped into all things in the world were activated, so the ancient gods awakened from the "blueprint" of mortal flesh and city-states - this is Han The truth about the frost crisis?"

Lei Nora nodded slowly, with a soft voice: "Copying and creation are the authority of the Youshen Holy Lord. He can evolve all things by himself, so he undertook the work of Genesis, but obviously, after a long time , the original blueprint has begun to have problems, or it may be that the source of the "creator" has a problem, and he began to wake up from his creation——in the form of "false replicas". Frost is the first , but it won't be the last..."

Even with Duncan's concentration, it is difficult to control the turbulent waves in his heart after hearing these terrifying words-the ancient god will gradually wake up from all beings and even everything in the world. The horror of the matter even surpassed the round of black sun hanging high above the city-state of Purdand!

"You knew all this when you communicated with..."His" in your nightmare?" Duncan took a lot of effort to control the frantic thoughts in his heart, turned his head while maintaining his composure, and looked at the darkness at the end of the room Deep Sea, looking at the huge "pillar" standing quietly in the darkness, said.

"As an incomplete copy, he can't tell me anything, but I can learn a lot from him," said Ray Nora, "I know what you want to say - human beings are weak, even if they face the truth , Our limited perception and thinking can't fully and accurately understand what we see, so I'm not sure what I'm saying is 100% 'true', it's just my perception and understanding from an ancient god The things I learned from the fragmented 'thinking'... are just for your reference."

Duncan didn't respond for a while, and he fell into long-term thinking. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly turned around and asked, "What the hell is 'Alice'? Is she your resurrection body?"

"Alice?" Lei Nora frowned after hearing the name, the doubts in her eyes didn't seem fake, "Who is Alice?"

"...It seems that you don't know this name, and I thought her knowledge came from you," Duncan carefully confirmed the subtle changes in Lei Nora's expression, and then withdrew his scrutiny, "She It is a puppet with the same appearance as you. Many years ago, after you were...'executed', the Frostman salvaged a container in the cold sea, and Alice slept in that container—— She used to be called Anomaly 099, but now she's on my crew."

Lei Nora quietly listened to Duncan's description, and her expression gradually became thoughtful. After a long while, she suddenly showed a smile: "Ah, so it is like this..."

"So?" Duncan noticed the word instantly, "What does it mean?"

"I have been dreaming, all kinds of dreams, like sinking and floating on a sea covered with thick fog. Most of the time, I was wrapped in coldness and darkness, and I fell asleep with the fragmented murmur, and it was even difficult to distinguish Is the self in the dream a human soul, or a copy of an ancient god who is wandering in the deep sea, but sometimes... in my dreams, there will be dry land, a shaking cabin, and some nervous, Whispering strangers..."

As she spoke, she slowly raised her head and looked at Duncan with a smile.

"Recently, the frequency of the second type of dream has increased significantly, and the whispering strangers in the dream have become many... strange but interesting objects, they are playing around with me, and they have something A trustworthy gaze, always watching from the border of the dream... You care about that puppet that calls itself 'Alice', don't you?"

"There are not many people she can trust in this world, and there are not many people I can trust in this world," Duncan looked at the "Frost Queen" seriously, and did not relax because of the gentle smile on her face at the moment. A little, "A lot of things have been 'replicated' in this out-of-control sea area, including sunken ships and dead sailors, but the 'executed queen' is the most special, it is a puppet with its own... But look at you Attitude, you don't know about it?"

However, Lei Nora didn't seem to notice Duncan's serious eyes that were almost stern. She just frowned slightly, as if she was trying to think hard, and gradually showed her eyes that seemed to think of something, and then closed her eyes again as if to feel something carefully. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Duncan again with a slightly weird expression: "That puppet calls itself 'Alice', doesn't it?"

Duncan frowned: "Yes, what's the problem?"

"Then... what if I say that the puppet is not actually a 'replica' of me?" Lei Nora said seriously, "Or, is it not exactly a copy of me?"

"...What do you mean by that?"

"Is there a possibility..." Lei Nora paused, as if she was trying to be serious, but her expression was always a little awkward, "Alice's guillotine—the point is not Alice, but the guillotine..."

Duncan: "...?"

"Actually, I don't really want to recall these things," Lei Nora said, raising her hand to touch the back of her neck with a strange expression, "Do you know that when the rebels executed me, they used a kind of torture method to kill me?" The instrument of torture known as the 'Alice Guillotine'..."

Finally, a light flashed in Duncan's mind, and he understood what the "Frost Queen" wanted to say.

But he felt that he might as well not understand.

"You mean, you suspect that 'Alice' was actually copied from the 'guillotine' in this out-of-control sea area, not from you..."

Duncan spoke subconsciously, but stopped involuntarily in the middle of the speech, and said to himself in doubt: "But it's not right, she looks exactly like you..."

"Wrong copy, Mr. Captain," Lei Nora obviously had the answer, she shook her head, and turned to look at the dark deep sea at the end of the room, "A mutilated wrong copy of the ancient god caused this out-of-control sea area , so in this uncontrolled sea area, false replication is the norm—when a beheaded queen and a guillotine sink into the deep sea at the same time, and because of my advance arrangement, they accurately fall into the "perception" area of ​​the ancient god's tentacles, Maybe it triggered some...wonderful changes, mixing and recombination, duplication and completion, plus a little...processing in the mysterious field."

When she said this, she stopped and looked at the ancient god's tentacles standing in the darkness with complicated eyes.

"Obviously, he couldn't tell the difference..."

The room fell into silence again.

But this time the silence was completely different from before.

After this uncomfortable silence lasted for several minutes, Duncan finally broke the silence with a sigh: "So, in a sense, he has a placenta..."

Lei Nora opened her mouth, and after a few seconds of sluggishness, she finally said: "This is an unprecedented but appropriate metaphor, as expected of you..."

Duncan sighed helplessly, what else could he say? In this dark and boundless deep sea, the development direction of things has completely exceeded everyone's expectations. The ancient gods are unreasonable and indescribable in all aspects. To use an inappropriate metaphor-between Bao Da and Bao Xiao, The ancient god chose to preserve the placenta...

But at least one thing he figured out—

Why does that silly doll think her name is "Alice"?

Because she really is Alice Guillotine.

Since coming to this world, Duncan has seen countless evil things, but even among those extremely evil things, this incident is definitely the most evil.

"Look out, there is at least one thing you don't need to worry about," Leigh Nora reassured Duncan noticing that he was in a bad mood, "Alice is not my resurrection body—in fact, from the very beginning. , I never thought about the so-called 'resurrection'."

Hearing the Frost Queen's words, Duncan turned his head and glanced at her again, and had to work hard to adjust his mentality, forcefully put the lingering sense of disobedience behind him, and brought the topic back on track: " So... what about the key you mentioned at the beginning? What about the keyhole behind Alice? None of this was your arrangement?"

"I don't know what you mean by 'keyhole', but if the key you mean is a wind-up key made of brass, then it is indeed the one I left for the city-state consul, which I just mentioned to you. The necessary items for normal entry into this room,” Lei Nora said with a calm attitude, and then changed the topic, “But I am not the creator of that key, let alone its first owner.”

Duncan was stunned for a moment, his eyes changed slightly: "...you are not the first owner of the key? Then where did you get it?"

"It was a gift from a friend," Lei Nora said frankly, "an old man with profound knowledge and a kind attitude."