Deep Sea Embers

(Trek to the end.

The ranger who was born in the Evergreen Mountains often said this. When camping before sunset every day, he would always look at the crimson streak across the sky and sigh. In his own words, this is a kind of "quite Romantic parlance"—the greatest bravery and the most extreme romance in this world when the end is approaching.

However, neither bravery nor romance can stop the footsteps of death. The ranger fell at the last kilometer before the crossroads. A vicious arrow pierced his chest. The most ironic way of death-a master with a bow died between the bow and the arrow. Down.

The psychic eliminated the sneak attackers. They were two dilapidated corpses. They lay in ambush on the road and launched a sinister attack when the team approached. The characteristics of the undead without breathing and heartbeat escaped the ranger's attack. The reconnaissance and the wind masked the stench from them, creating another unfortunate accident, like every parting along the way.

The armored warrior came to the edge of the camp, sat down on a dry tree stump, looked up at the dusk quietly.

The disturbing crimson streaked across the sky, falling into the direction of the sun like a bloodstain that was about to tear the world apart. There seemed to be blood surging in the crimson, and there seemed to be countless transcendent secrets hidden and brewing. Ghostly apparitions of mortal minds, relentlessly watching a world that is rapidly falling into ruin.

The sound of footsteps came from the side, and the psychic sat down on the ground next to him, quietly looking at the bloodstain in the dusk together with the soldiers.

The silence lasted for a while, and a low voice came from the warrior's helmet: "The two attackers during the day..."

"It was the hunter siblings...the ones who died first," the psychic's voice came from his black cloth hood, sounding gloomy like a dead man, "they came after them, the dead don't need rest, so than We're fast."

"We buried them in the forest outside the Kingdom Gate with our own hands, and you performed a requiem ceremony—why do the dead people who have been appeased by you still get up?"

"A lot of things have climbed up along the way. Have you seen the crimson streak in the sky? The direction where the red light first fell... It has doubled in size compared to when the prophet made the prediction. It is a wound. Opened our world, the ground under our feet and the sky above our heads are dying from this wound, and... the decay is getting faster and faster.

"The transition process between life and death is beginning to be different from what I understand."

The psychic spoke quietly, lacking emotional fluctuations as usual, with only cold and sad "stating the facts" in his words.

Not everyone can accept his way of speaking. If the knight with the shield is still there, he must have started to preach and exhort at length by this time.

However, the soldier turned his head and saw only the lonely figure of the Templar sitting by the bonfire, and the short and thin figure of the Pyromancer curled up in the shadow of the fire, and there was no one else in the camp. The shield-bearing knight who always confronted the psychic and loved to preach to his teammates was gone—he fell on the wilderness outside the sandstone castle, and the cause of his death is still unknown.

"Afterwards, there may be others 'catch up'," the psychic seemed unaccustomed to the silence at the moment, and after a few seconds of silence, he abruptly changed the subject, "there is a high probability that the former team people here."

"Why? Just because the hunter siblings caught up during the day?"

"Because they still remember their mission to trek to the end-but they don't remember us anymore," the psychic whispered, "We didn't properly dispose of their bodies before the influence of the red light spread .”

The soldier was silent for a while: "...How to deal with it properly?"

"Burn it, burn it out with ghastfire, then smash any larger bones, and if you can, soak the skull in acid and bury it deep."

"okay, I get it."

The next day, the psychic died.

He was found lying on the edge of the camp, his heart stolen by some force in the darkness, leaving only a horrific hole in his chest, but strangely enough, he had a strange smile on his face before he died, as if... I feel lucky because I was able to get rid of this heavy mission ahead of schedule.

Together with the Templars and Pyromancers, the Warrior held a "funeral" for the necromancer - they burned the necromancer's body completely with ghast fire, smashed all the bones they could find, and then left his body Skull fragments were soaked in clay pots filled with acid and buried where the camp was made.

Now, there are three people left.

When the black smoke of burning bones rose, the warrior once again looked at the crimson in the distance that seemed to be cutting the entire world. The pyromancer came to him. After a long silence, the thin woman finally asked A question no one dared to ask.

"Are we still going on?"

The warrior turned to look at the red-haired Groska woman.

He still remembered what she looked like when she first set off—she was full of confidence at that time, with vitality in her eyes, and pride in her words. As the "chosen person of destiny" chosen by the kingdom and designated by the prophet, she was more than everyone else. Both firmly believe in their own strength and destined great destiny.

But now, she asked this question.

"Of course we have to go forward," the soldier said in a muffled voice, his expression was blocked by his thick mask, but his tone could only be heard to be firm, "We want to save our kingdom and stop the spreading doomsday. "

"Will trekking towards the end really be able to stop the end itself? At the end of that crimson road, is there really an enemy waiting to be defeated by us? As long as we defeat it, the problem will be solved? Just like the prophet said?"

"The Prophet is not at fault," said the soldier stubbornly.

After a moment of confrontation, Pyromancer nodded: "I understand."

Three days later, when the procession crossed an unnamed wood, the Groska woman collapsed in a clearing by the river.

There are no enemies, no traps, she is burned by her own flames—uncontrollable magical energy suddenly bursts out of her body, tearing her apart and burning her to ashes like countless living evil spirits, her scream is very short , The painful time may be only a moment.

The good news is that the out-of-control flames burned her body thoroughly, and there was no need to deal with her body—from the ashes, there was not even a bone fragment that exceeded the nail cover.

Now, there are only two people left in the team.

The Templar who was even more taciturn than the magician who died before, and became more and more silent as the journey continued, and the warrior himself who was always wearing heavy armor.

After entering the barbaric area completely, they are still moving in a straight direction, and they don't have to worry about getting lost, because the crimson doomsday will always guide their way forward.

How long will this trek last? Where does it end? And what is there... waiting for those who trek toward the end to face their own fate?

In the eyes of the constantly trekking warriors, the world illuminated by the red light is becoming... a little weirder every day.

The rising and setting time of the sun has changed a lot, and it is shifting a little in a certain direction every day. Now the setting sun is no longer in the west, but shifted to the north by an angle visible to the naked eye.

The sky is gradually being dyed a strange purple-red color, and strange lights and shadows can occasionally be seen emerging from the depths of the clouds. Sometimes, there are even living creatures walking through those lights and shadows.

The mountains in the distance seem to be distorted, the once straight cliffs now seem to be gradually bending and crumpling like damp planks, and the horizon in the distance is rising upwards, as if the whole land... slightly deformed.

Or, there is something wrong with the observer's own eyes.

And along with these many strange phenomena visible to the naked eye, changes that are invisible to the naked eye are also happening——

The magic energy between the heaven and the earth is changing strangely. The magic power that was once difficult to perceive is now active like a torrent of water. The magician once complained that it is difficult to gather arcane energy in the air outside the civilized world, but now, the early morning The wind seems to be full of strong magic power—the energy will be excited on the surface of the metal armor, producing tiny light and discharge, and there will be a "pop" when it accumulates to a certain level.

The warrior felt that these changes might be a sign that the journey was coming to an end—they were close enough to the place where the red light fell, and although it still seemed so far away, hope... seemed to be at hand.

But before an unnamed river, the Templars stopped.

The tall, taciturn woman took off her helmet and said abruptly, "Come here."

The soldier looked at the last traveling companion calmly: "Why?"

"You're not surprised?"

"I just want to know why." The soldier said in a stubborn tone as usual.

The Templar fell silent for a moment, took out a broken ruby ​​from his pocket, and placed it on the grass next to it.

"The kingdom was destroyed," she said. "Fire and magma surged from the depths of the earth, covering the entire kingdom within an hour. The prophet's soul held on until the last moment, confirming the end of everything."

Hearing this terrible news, the warrior still stood there quietly, looking calmly into the eyes of the Templar.

"This journey has no meaning," continued the Templar. "From the very beginning, it has no meaning."

"The Prophet lied to us," said the soldier slowly.

"No, the prophet deceived the people who stayed in the kingdom," the templar said softly, "to make the people who stayed believe that the kingdom sent a most elite team to solve this incident, just like a hundred Years ago, we sealed Elips who woke up from the ground, just like seven hundred years ago, we ended the rule of the frost giants - the world will be saved by warriors, if one warrior is not enough, use warriors to form an army .”

"...a prophet makes no mistake."

"Yes, as you said, a prophet cannot make mistakes—so, he is the first to know how the end will come."

As the Templar spoke, he pointed to the ground beside him.

"Sit down, we've been walking for a long time."

The soldier did not move.

The Templar didn't take it seriously, her silence along the way finally came to an end, and in the last peaceful evening, she smiled softly: "You, and many of us, understood all this halfway through the journey gone."

"Perhaps only the red-haired Groska woman really believed in that great destiny—she didn't realize it until death caught up with her."

"She might as well not understand," the Templar shook his head lightly, then was surprised to see the soldier step forward again, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to keep going."

"Why?"

"Aren't you curious? Why did I keep going, after realizing the futility of this expedition? Don't you want to know why?"

The Templar just watched him silently.

"I want...at least understand what it is," the soldier said softly, looking at the crimson streak in the dusk, "The kingdom has been destroyed, maybe the entire civilized world has been destroyed, but I still want to go on... …to wonder what is slowly killing the sky and the earth.”

The Templar watched silently at the last traveling companion, she was silent for a long time and finally let out a long sigh.

"I can't walk."

The soldier turned his head: "What?"

"That red light did not fall on the ground."

Under the warrior's visor, a surprised expression finally appeared on his face.

"When the prophet's soul left the earth, he persisted for an entire hour. During this hour, he saw a wider scene from a very high place-our world is a world floating in the endless void. The sphere, and that light... is larger than the earth beneath our feet, and farther than the distant sky."

As the Templar spoke, he raised his hand and picked up the broken ruby ​​on the grass.

"He told me at the end that the theory of astrologers is correct. The relationship between the stars and the earth is just as the scholars describe. They are all stars floating in a huge space...My friend, the crimson you are looking for, It is not the earth that is being split, but 'everything'.

"The only thing that can't be explained is why we who are on the ground can always see that ray of light appearing in a specific direction - even if the ground under our feet rotates like other stars, the light seems to be printed directly on our body. As before, it traverses the sky from east to west, so that we always think it falls on the earth...

"This is the last confusion of the prophet, and perhaps it will also be the last confusion left to this world."

The soldier's body became still. For some reason, an inexplicable sense of trembling... was gradually permeating his whole body.

And so, long, long ago, far, far away, in one last peaceful twilight, a man at last understood what the world looked like beneath him.

before the end.

"Let's rest," the Templar's voice was very soft, before the ever-diffusing and expanding crimson covered the sky, this woman who always gave the impression of being too tough and cold said softly to people for the first time, " It's all over."

It's all over.

At the end of the day, something should be done.

The soldier was silent for a moment, then silently drew the long sword from his waist.

He had planned to use this long sword to defeat the powerful enemy where the red light fell, just like the great heroes in the legend.

But now it seems that this sword is too short, far from touching the stars, let alone fate.

He and his civilization hadn't had time to make any preparations for the fate - the lights were suddenly extinguished, and he didn't know where the wind came from.

He raised the sharp blade made of the best material and the highest skill in the kingdom, and then used all his strength to throw it into the sky——

At the last moment when the long sword was released, he didn't know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to hear a voice in the wind——

"Who are you? Where are you from?"

The soldier didn't know where the voice came from, and he didn't know whether it had really appeared. In this short but eternal moment, what appeared in his mind was a sentence that a certain traveling companion often whispered in his ear— —

"We're trekking toward the end.")