Deep Sea Embers

Lei Nora's tone was indifferent but calm, as if she had already planned all the end-of-life scenarios for her own destiny many years ago—whether it was eternal nightmare or eternal exile, it was nothing more than It's just an inevitable part of her planned future.

As Duncan imagined, the Frost Queen never prepared for her "resurrection"—returning to the human world was not part of her plan in the first place.

But this generous attitude made Duncan feel strange.

"Are you really willing to give everything for Frost? Even give something more than your life?" He turned his head and looked into Lei Nora's eyes curiously, "You have lived in a cage under the church for more than ten years. You were treated as a human being when you were two years old. You were monitored, shackled, and tested. Every thought, every sleepy word of yours was to be analyzed repeatedly as a possibility of betrayal of human beings. You did everything you could do. Yes, in the end, you were still dubbed the 'Mad Queen' and pushed to the guillotine... I don't want to judge anyone from a dark perspective, but at least logically, I am deeply surprised by your decision."

Lei Nora fell silent. She leaned on her bed and looked up at the high veil. It seemed that her thoughts had spread far, far away. After some time, she suddenly smiled and shook her head: "Yes. Ah...why would I do this..."

She turned her head and looked quietly into Duncan's eyes.

"You know what, they could have burned me - very early on, the day I woke up from my first nightmare, before I learned to say 'Daddy' and 'Mama', before I realized Before I became a human... Captain, maybe my statement misunderstood something. You thought I should resent that cold city, but in fact... that city did its best to keep me alive.

"And from a broader perspective, it is our delicate and fragile 'civilized world' that is doing its best to keep everyone alive—including natural psykers like me, even if they have to use chains, To use an iron cage, to lock me in a dungeon for ten years, and they never expected me to die in that cold place... They expected me to come back as a human.

"I didn't hold a grudge against anyone, Captain, they didn't treat me cruelly—for the world treats everyone cruelly, and everyone just does what they can."

The former Frost Queen sighed softly, then slowly got up and stepped out of her cage-like sleeping bed-compared with the ten years she spent in the cathedral cellar, this bed was the only one. The difference may be that there is only a circle of railings missing.

She wandered to the end of the room, came to Duncan's side, and looked out at the dark and chaotic deep sea.

"My parents and the people in the church are doing their best to keep me alive. My supporters and I are doing our best to keep the city safe. The Winston consul and his predecessors are doing their best to complete my unfinished business. Work that can be done—but in many cases, hard work does not necessarily mean success, and failure naturally has the price of failure.”

She slowly raised her arm, pointing to the huge tentacles in the darkness.

"Even the ancient gods, aren't they also facing failure?"

"...If your theory is correct, then there will inevitably be new false copies that will wake up from the creation of the world," Duncan pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "Destroying the false copies here will not solve the entire world. fundamental."

"There will be others who will 'do their best'," Lei Nora said calmly, turning her head to look at Duncan. "What about you? Will you make a move?"

Duncan was silent, and after a while, he broke the silence softly: "Do your best."

"That's enough," Lei Nora laughed, "Then let's do it, I've slept for too long, now it's time to wake up from this nightmare... It's also time to free 'Him'."

There was urging in her tone, as if she couldn't wait.

Duncan hesitated for a long time, and finally nodded silently.

In the next second, a cluster of dark green flames suddenly appeared beside him, and the flames spun and expanded, gradually transforming into a vortex-like door.

He walked towards the door, and at this moment, Le Nora's expression suddenly changed slightly.

She stared blankly at the rising green flame, as if looking at a long and hazy memory, then suddenly turned her head and looked at Duncan who was about to step through the gate: "It's you?!"

Duncan stopped. After a short period of confusion, he finally realized why the Frost Queen behaved like this.

"I think this shouldn't be considered polluting history," he kept his posture about to step into the gate, and turned his face slightly, "What do you think?"

"So it's like this... So it's like this..." Lei Nora muttered to herself, the expression on her face changed several times quickly, as if many things that had troubled her for many years became clear in an instant, and then, as if something A gleam gradually appeared in her eyes, and for the first time she showed a truly bright expression from the heart, and looked up at Duncan, waving her hands like saying goodbye to an old friend many years ago, "You go, don't worry Do, I think . . . we're making the right judgment call."

Duncan took a deep look at the Frost Queen for the last time, and without saying anything else, he took a step forward and stepped into the revolving flame gate.

Le Nora stood there quietly, watching the figure disappear into the room.

Like many, many years ago, the kind and knowledgeable old man disappeared into the morning light.

She slowly withdrew her gaze, turned around, and stood at the fragmented end of the room, looking at the tentacles of the ancient gods who were in a stagnant state, looking at her nightmares of the past half century, and all her fate and responsibilities.

Wisps of faint green fire emerged from the dark abyss over there. At first, they were like small fireflies, but in an instant, they expanded and became stronger in a rapid spread, and began to diffuse and spread towards the entire "pillar". .

A slight tremor develops in the feet and rapidly intensifies over time.

This mansion is shaking, the power supporting this dream is fading, the "connection point" between the "drifting place" and the outside world is rapidly disintegrating and disappearing, the darkness outside the room seems to suddenly surge, there are countless layers The layers of ripples and light and shadows expanded wildly, and then retreated in the darkness, while the "Ancient God's Tentacle" began to change in the suddenly unbalanced light and shadow - it seemed to bend, with a hazy structure coming from its top Extending, growing, and crossing the boundary between virtual and real, hanging down and approaching this fragmented room.

Lei Nora just stood quietly in front of this horrifying scene, watching the illusory, newborn tiny tentacles continuously bend and extend towards herself, watching it finally come to the invisible boundary, The black "flesh and blood" fit on the surface of the invisible barrier and spread out.

Lei Nora slowly stretched out her hand, and placed her palm on the surface of the pervasive and fluctuating flesh and blood. Through the barrier of dreams, she felt everything that He passed on—confusion, nervousness, uneasiness, and a little bit of regret.

"Yes... I know, you don't want to appear in this world... It will be over soon, treat it as a dream, and you will return to the place you should be...

"I will leave too, soon, when the anchor line breaks, it's time to leave... I may go far away, and I may never have a next destination, even if my calculations are correct, this It will probably be an unimaginably long journey... so if there is a view to see, I will enjoy it."

The silent communication continued in the dream, and in this last moment before waking up, Le Nora suddenly became sentimental.

"We've been together for so long, and I haven't asked your name," she stared at the tentacle beyond the boundary of the dream, feeling the chaotic and fragmented information from the other party—most of which could not even be called It is a complete "thinking", but more like the fragments of inspiration that a broken soul bursts out accidentally during difficult thinking, but in half a century of getting along, she has long been used to how to "talk" with this broken will, "Of course, I know the title of Lord Youshen, and I also know that you have other titles...but that's not your name...

"Do you have a name? Whether it's yours or your 'body''s... nothing, I'm just suddenly curious."

Amidst the chaotic noise and whispers, a particularly clear thought suddenly came over.

Le Nora listened as she had been a child, among the cold bars and shackles, listening to the muffled whisper from the depths of the tide—a name that seemed to float to her mind in a half-dream. mind.

A smile slowly appeared on her lips: "LH-01...ah, what a strange name... Pilot One? Is this your original name?

"Okay, I've remembered. It's a pleasure to meet you, Pilot No. 1. Then... Farewell, good morning."

A raging flame like a tsunami spread from the depths of the darkness, swallowing the tentacle that was touching the "drifting ground" in the blink of an eye. While the flames were burning, the false copy of the ancient god turned to ashes, and dust to dust.

The blazing flame even ablated the barrier of the dream boundary for a short time. Under Le Nora's feet, in the air around her, and at the edge of the room, strange but bright fireworks bloomed.

Leh Nora watched the leaping spirit flames curiously, and reached out to touch their edges.

The warm fire dissipated at her fingertips.

In the dark and cold deep sea, the phantom flames that suddenly rose almost illuminated the entire sea area like a coronal ejecta, illuminated the dark floating island floating in the deep sea, and illuminated those floating in the dark water. , Empty humanoid shells like a swarm of bees.

Duncan quietly floated on the edge of the dark floating island, watching the flames of the spiritual body ignited by himself burn fiercely, and the momentum even made him, the "arsonist", feel a deep shock.