Deep Sea Embers

Seeing the quietly sleeping figure in the garden, Duncan instinctively called out the name he was familiar with.

But he stopped immediately, and recalled the scene when he saw Frost Queen Leh Nora in that gorgeous dormitory not long ago—won't he recognize another one, right?

A strange feeling appeared in Duncan's heart, and then he cautiously came to the sleeping figure, bent down and observed carefully.

He noticed the spherical joints of the opponent's hands and feet, as well as the obviously bloodless, pure white "skin" texture like porcelain.

Really Alice.

Duncan finally confirmed that it was the Gothic doll he was familiar with sleeping here, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Immediately afterwards, he focused on the black thorns entwined around the other party—the thorny vines. Extending from the flowers, it spread across the open space around the puppet, like a gorgeous and weird skirt. The thorns wrapped around the puppet's hands, feet and torso, as if imprisoning her, binding her between the flowers and vines.

Alice fell asleep in the middle of the "bed" made of flowers and thorns, and did not respond to Duncan's approach and call.

Duncan carefully avoided the thorny flower vines and criss-crossing thorns, reached out and gently touched the doll's cheek, and called her name again: "Alice, can you hear me?"

A slightly chilly touch came from her fingertips, but Alice didn't respond. She just fell asleep quietly, like... a real, lifeless puppet.

Duncan frowned slightly, and then he noticed something else.

In the hands of the sleeping "Alice", she was holding something in her arms, which looked like a drawing board - thorn bushes wrapped around her arms, but the drawing board seemed to be able to be pulled out from the gap.

Duncan hesitated for a moment, stretched out his hand to grab the edge of the drawing board, and pulled it out little by little with careful force.

During this process, he also kept an eye on Alice's changes, observing how his action of taking away the drawing board would affect her—the puppet was still asleep.

Duncan breathed a sigh of relief, and looked at the drawing board he had drawn out.

The "paintings" with bright colors and messy lines came into his eyes - just like the weird "sky" above the garden, children's graffiti-like strokes depicted abstract pictures on the drawing board.

There is a vortex, a vortex made up of various colors, which occupies almost two-thirds of the entire painting area, and there are many dots of light around the vortex, and the "author" of the painting uses many crossed lines to represent those all It is a glowing star, and in the center of the vortex of color, one can see a rich red light—even though the graffiti is simple, Duncan still seems to be able to feel some kind of strong... danger from the red.

Duncan frowned, the red light in the vortex made him a little familiar for some reason.

After thinking desperately and recalling in his mind for a long time, he found the source of this sense of familiarity—it was on the platform on the second floor of the "Alice Mansion", on the wall near the spiral staircase, there was an oil painting depicting The sight of a burning ship descending from the sky, and behind that ship, the sky is filled with this deeply unsettling dark red glow.

Duncan's expression became a little dignified.

This is the second time it has appeared... In this weird "Alice's mansion", the dark red light with strong and ominous symbols appeared again... What does this dark red light represent?

Is it a symbol of some kind of constant pursuit and imminent disaster? Or is it a true portrayal of a certain phenomenon when the end comes? The headless butler has repeatedly warned not to open the gate of the mansion... what's outside the gate? Is it the body of this "dark red light"?

Dangerous thoughts briefly appeared in his mind, but they were immediately suppressed by Duncan.

He is indeed very curious about what is outside the gate of Alice's mansion, but curiosity does not mean recklessness. He will try to avoid disrupting the "order" in this "mansion" until he has more clues and confirms Alice's safety.

The thoughts in his heart gradually calmed down, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief, looked up at the graffiti-style sky above the garden, and looked down at the same graffiti-style drawing board in his hand.

The puppet is still quietly sleeping among the flowers beside him, as if embracing all the secrets and silently holding all the answers.

Who "created" the sky and the graffiti on the drawing board here? Is it this sleeping doll? Is it Alice?

Duncan recalled the information he got from Le Nora, and suddenly felt that Alice might not be what the Frost Queen thought, just a wrong copy of "Le Nora" and "Guillotine", or Say... Miss Doll's body may indeed be obtained in this way, but her inner body obviously hides a secret far greater than that body.

This magnificent and weird "Alice's mansion" and the doll sleeping quietly in the garden are her "inside", and these secrets are obviously far beyond those things that Le Nora has mastered.

This is a very simple reason: if a copied file carries more information than the main body, then there is only one possibility—someone wrote something else into the "file" during the "copying" process .

Duncan's thoughts flowed, and after a long time of quiet meditation, he sighed, and was about to put the drawing board back into the puppet's hand——

It is necessary to be careful to return things to their original state and beware of changes.

But just when he turned the drawing board in another direction and was about to stuff it back, some uneven marks on the back of the drawing board suddenly caught his attention.

Duncan's eyes froze for a moment, and he quickly brought the drawing board to his eyes again, carefully observing the back part of it that he had ignored at first.

The uneven trace is a line of text that was deeply engraved on the border on the back of the drawing board——

"...messengers brought news from afar, the chosen clan picked up the lost ancient stars and forged them into blessed crowns—the third long night is over."

Duncan's eyes fell on that simple and meaningful line for a long time, and he maintained the same expression for a long time.

After an unknown period of time, he exhaled lightly, bent down, avoided those thorns and vines, and slowly put the drawing board back into the puppet's hand.

But in his mind, the sentence on the back of the drawing board was played back over and over again as if hovering.

The Chosen Clan... The Ancient Stars... The End of the Third Long Night...

Duncan stood up with a thoughtful expression on his face, and some known information was gradually reorganized and connected in series in his thinking.

The third long night is the most critical information. It is recorded in the "Book of Blasphemy", which is very likely to hide the historical truth, that the era of the deep sea began after the third long night passed safely, and the whole world was there survived to this day.

And the only "chosen clan" that can correspond to "the third long night" is the founders of the ancient kingdom of Crete, those mysterious "ancient sages".

Pick up the lost ancient stars...

Could it be that what this sentence describes...is actually the historical event in which the ancient kingdom of Crete created the vision 001-the sun?

It's a pity... there is too little information, just a vague "message", which can't play any role except to make people have specious associations.

Duncan shook his head, temporarily pressing this regret to the back of his mind, and then took a serious look around this vibrant but eerie garden.

He didn't find anything worth paying attention to - except for a sleeping doll in this huge garden, there were only lush plants and well-kept paths.

Finally, he returned to the "sleeping doll".

After making a circle around this dormant "Alice", he suddenly stopped behind her.

Keyhole.

But it wasn't the back that was blocked by the clothes, but the exposed neck position—behind the sleeping doll's neck, the familiar keyhole caught Duncan's sight.

He subconsciously approached the past, observing the small keyhole.

Sure enough, the doll in the garden also has a keyhole...but why isn't it in the same place as Alice's? Is there any symbolic meaning to this distinction of position?

Having come into contact with too many weird and evil things in this world, Duncan can't help but think of "symbolic meaning" and other directions at the first time when he thinks about the problem, but he quickly restrained these thoughts that are destined to have no answers, and hesitated He took out the brass key he was carrying.

After entering Alice's mansion, this key inexplicably appeared in his hand... Could it be used in this place?

This thought flashed across Duncan's mind, and then he made up his mind, slowly brought the key close to the keyhole on the back of the sleeping doll's neck, and inserted it carefully.

There was a light click, and the key bit into something smoothly, and then, it began to rotate by itself as before.

Familiar feelings came from all directions in an instant, the light and shadow were replaced, the senses were reshaped, and the weightlessness was followed by a down-to-earth touch—almost in the blink of an eye, Duncan's surroundings became the captain's quarters he was familiar with on the Lost Country again.

The smooth and white back appeared in front of her eyes, and Alice was still sitting obediently on the round stool, waiting for the captain to wind herself up.

Duncan was a little dazed, staring blankly at the scene in front of him for several seconds before he could react, and then a strange idea popped up in his mind——

"Such a good back, it's a pity not to pull out a few cupping pots..."

Alice heard a low murmur from behind, and turned her head cautiously while clutching her clothes: "Ah? Captain, what did you say?"

"No, it's nothing." Duncan woke up immediately, and quickly coughed twice to cover up the embarrassment at this moment, and then took the key out of the keyhole, "It's over, are you okay?"

"Ah?" Alice was obviously taken aback, then turned her head in surprise while groping for the zipper on her back, "Didn't it just start?"

Hearing this, Duncan paused slightly when he put away the key.

He stayed in "Alice's Mansion" for so long... Only a moment passed in the real world?