Deep Sea Embers

For a long time, scholars in this world have had many conjectures about the origin of the deep-sea era and the world before the Great Annihilation. They have also tried to explain the phenomenon of fragmented history, cultural relics, and inheritance contradictions among the city-states of the Boundless Sea, just like Any ethnic group that forms a civilization system will do the same when facing history——

If there is history, someone will study history, and if someone studies history, someone will try to explain those contradictions. There will never be a shortage of conjectures. Most of the things that a layman can think of have already been thought of by professional scholars, and may even have been constructed. A complete theoretical model is now available.

Scholars actually have many theoretical models that can explain the formation of the current deep-sea age-including this one guessed by Duncan, and each of them makes sense.

The only problem is that every theoretical model cannot find enough "empirical evidence" to support it. The Great Annihilation is like a magnificent high wall, blocking everything before that time node, and no information or relics can be handed down from before that node.

And now, Duncan believes that he has found a key "evidence" and extracted key information enough to support one of the conjectures:

The ruined remnants of a distant and strange world - and a "memory" that accurately describes the vision of the end.

Of course, in the face of a truly rigorous scholar, this isolated evidence may not be enough, and it is not enough to fully and irrefutably explain the current situation of the Deep Sea Age.

"World Aggregation Theory..." Ted Lear whispered to himself, "I know, my mentor has always been a supporter of this theory - he believes that today's deep-sea age is composed of a large number of worlds that were originally isolated from each other. , recombination, and this kind of stacking and reorganization may be a catastrophe that befalls several worlds at the same time. The so-called "big annihilation" is not a catastrophe, but a series of catastrophes that occurred at the same time, so the boundless There will be so many contradictions in the historical records of various races on the sea, and some ancient legends will be severely torn...

"This theory also explains why we can't find the 'original appearance of the world' before the annihilation at all, and we can't find any 'ancient cultural relics' that can support any kind of historical records-because those original appearances have already been reorganized, from the timeline To put it in perspective, 'this world' today didn't exist at all before the Great Annihilation."

He stopped, exhaled lightly, and then continued to speak.

"The entire boundless sea was born at the moment of the great annihilation, and before that moment there was no 'old world' that could be completely and accurately described and understood, only countless fragments of the old world were piled up as 'raw materials' in the time of the great annihilation On the node—the theory of world aggregation, among all origin theories, its 'explanation' is the best, explaining almost all the problems we face.

"But at the same time, it's also considered the most fanciful and the most difficult to prove, because it essentially denies the point of 'history can be traced' and puts everything in 'it's gone anyway,' so despite this The theory is good, but its supporters are few, and my advisor...is one of its few supporters."

After Ted Lear finished with an exclamation, Duncan finally broke the silence: "Now, we have evidence."

Ted Lear's eyes fell on the long sword, and after thinking for a long time with a serious expression, he still shook his head: "One evidence is not evidence-this evidence is indeed very likely to support the 'World Aggregation Theory' , but the single piece of evidence is flawed, unless we can find a second unmistakable 'world fragment', and it comes from a different world from the 'physical evidence' in your hand..."

When he said this, the tone of the secret keeper seemed very difficult and tangled. Obviously, from an emotional point of view, he hoped that an unresolved conjecture could be confirmed more than anyone else, and hoped that he had finally found the "answer", but never From a scholar's point of view, he must be rigorous, and even when he sees the first "evidence", he must show inhuman "harshness".

However, after his voice fell, Duncan just replied with one word: "Yes."

Ted Lear didn't react for a moment, and even Lucrezia next to him didn't react. After a while, they all said in unison: "Do you have other evidence?!"

Duncan was silent for two or three seconds, then turned his head and looked deeply into Lucrecia's eyes: "Moon."

"That'stone ball'..." Lucrezia reacted instantly, "You mean, it is..."

"It's just another 'shard'," Duncan nodded lightly, "it comes from another world—a world completely different from the hometown of this long sword. Although I don't know what happened to it, because As for becoming what it is now, but I'm pretty sure it's...

He stopped suddenly, it seemed that there was a force preventing him from saying that conclusion, this force of stopping surged in his mind like a howling storm, as a strong emotion, with him The rational part resists.

He instinctively rejected this conclusion.

Lucrezia noticed something, she looked at her father suspiciously and worriedly.

Duncan finally spoke, and finished the second half of the sentence: "...it is the remnant of 'that world'."

In the end, reason triumphed over emotion.

When he said this conclusion, he even had an illusion of "relief".

In fact, after seeing the "Moon" for the first time and returning to the Lost Lands to talk to Alice, he already had a guess in this regard——

Since the "moon" appeared in this world, it is very likely that this world is his "hometown", the "hometown" after serious mutations and distortions.

However, there are no "Elves" and "Senjin" in his hometown, and there are no humans in the legends of the elves themselves, and the word "earth" has never appeared in the historical records of the city-states of the Boundless Sea. The problem of "tearing" is particularly obvious in Duncan's eyes.

So... how did this boundless sea form?

The most likely explanation is: here may have its own hometown, but only part of it.

To confirm this conjecture, it is only necessary to find a second "moon"-like fragment of another world.

The only thing he didn't expect was that the second evidence would come so quickly and so directly.

Ted Lear and Lucrezia looked at each other, and after a short hesitation, they realized that Duncan had no reason to fool them on this matter.

It turns out that there are already two proofs—no wonder the greatest explorer ever declared so confidently and without hesitation that the world today is piled up with ruins.

Lucrezia did not ask Duncan where he got his knowledge of the "moon".

Because she knows that the answers to these questions will eventually point to the subspace—no matter what form it is, her father has completed his own reshaping and transformation in that "deep and dark place". Items of knowledge and abilities that I can't understand are part of those brandings.

She shouldn't have uncovered them repeatedly.

Ted Lear had been thinking in silence, but suddenly, he raised his head suddenly, as if he felt something.

The "Secret Keeper" quickly opened the heavy book in his hand, summoned the "stethoscope" from the pages, and rushed to the side of the group of "living metal" on the central platform with one stride.

He put the stethoscope on the surface of the "living metal", and his face suddenly became very solemn.

There was an extremely weak and slow heartbeat in the room, and each heartbeat was slower and weaker than the previous one.

"He is dying."

Ted Lear raised his head and said with complicated eyes.

For the first time in his life, this "Keeper of Truth" whose duty is to protect the city-state, actually had extraordinarily complicated emotions when faced with a "foreign object" that invaded the real world.

Because he suddenly realized that this group of indescribable "horrible things" that caused panic to many people in the market...in fact, it is very likely that they are the same existence as humans, elves, and Senjin—— A "homeless man" from the great annihilation to the deep sea age.

Unfortunately, his world was destroyed even more thoroughly, and the tiny fragments... were far from enough to support him and his race to survive.

The Deep Sea Age did not leave a place for a homeless person like him. Under the influence of some unexplainable mechanism, he became like this, and he was about to die.

Nina and Shirley grabbed each other's hands subconsciously, not knowing what to do for a while, and Lucrezia could only watch this scene with complicated eyes, because she knew that it was beyond human power to reverse it. something happened.

With the sound of his heartbeat gradually deepening and slowing down, Duncan finally walked forward slowly. He looked at the group of "living metal" that could not be seen as a human being at all, but another picture appeared in his mind——

Stubborn warriors, silent magicians, always energetic hunters and rangers, confident knights, pessimistic psychics, and the confident and proud red-haired Groska woman...

They set off on a sunny afternoon, carrying the best swords and armors, the best scrolls and sigils that the kingdom had made, and with the king's blessing and trust, they went to the distant wilderness together—just like the ancient As described in his poem, a team of brave men go to save their world.

Duncan stretched out his hand and gently pressed it on the cold and hard "steel".

"We're all homeless... Now, you're home."

The deep and slow "plop" sound finally gradually stopped, and after an extraordinarily weak and slow pulse, there was no more heartbeat in the room.

A final heartbeat, like a sigh.

Ted Lear turned around, as if announcing to the deep sea age——

"He is dead".