Deep Sea Embers

The living room on the first floor was silent, as quiet as the entire street outside. Everything was still as it was at night, and the puppets and Tin Man servants driven by clockwork and magic mechanisms stood quietly in various places. It seems that until the second before the "abnormality" happened, they were still executing the cleaning orders according to the programmed settings.

Duncan led the nervous Alice down the stairs, his eyes sweeping across the dark and silent living room. The footsteps of the two of them echoed in the dead silence, making everything seem even weirder.

While Alice carefully grabbed the captain's clothes, she turned to look to the side - a puppet made in the shape of a maid was standing not far away, holding on to the staircase railing with one hand. The puppet seemed to be wiping the railing a moment ago, " "She" kept her upper body leaning forward slightly, with a bucket at her feet. However, like other servants, "she" had become still, and the iconic ticking and gear grinding sounds no longer came from her body.

Alice always felt that the puppet would suddenly turn its eyes towards her, just like what was described in many horror stories - this association frightened her to the core.

"It's so scary..." she muttered behind the captain, "There are dolls everywhere... It looked like nothing during the day, but now it's really scary when they suddenly stop moving... But when they suddenly move, it feels even more..." Scary..."

Duncan turned back silently and glanced at the silly doll with a particularly strange expression.

However, Alice didn't notice at all... nor did she feel that she said anything wrong.

Duncan shook his head and focused again on the "marks" he left on Morris, Vanna and others.

Those marks were still shining in his perception, but the state was extremely strange - sometimes he would feel that those marks were obviously in this house, or even next to him, but the next second those marks would suddenly appear again. From a very far distance, it even seemed to be at the other end of the city-state, as if... teleporting in an irregular and instantaneous manner.

This was the first time Duncan encountered this situation.

He also tried to directly call those distant imprints in the spiritual world to establish contact with Nina and others. However, because he could never accurately determine the location and status of the imprints, several calls failed, or he was only in a certain place. A weak and meaningless "response" was received instantly - this was also an unprecedented situation.

But the good news is that he seems to have gradually mastered the laws of the strange status of those marks. Even if he cannot accurately locate their locations, he should be able to accurately establish contact with them after a period of adaptation. On the other hand, as long as those marks If it is still there, it can be confirmed that the person carrying the mark is at least not in danger, so there is no need to worry too much.

Duncan was sensing and familiarizing himself with the state of the mark in the distance while slowly walking forward. However, at this moment, a slight clicking sound suddenly sounded in the living room, instantly interrupting the conversation between him and Alice. action.

Duncan turned around suddenly and looked in the direction of the sound.

The puppet maid who had been staying next to the handrail of the stairs moved little by little in the darkness, turning her head stiffly like a long-rusted machine, and her lifeless eyes were slowly searching for something in the living room.

Alice's head was almost frightened for a moment: "Wow! It's really moving!"

Duncan finally couldn't help it anymore: "Why are you, a living doll, afraid of this?"

Alice was stunned for a moment before finally reacting: "Ah...right?"

Duncan no longer paid attention to this embarrassing fool, but turned his attention to the puppet maid who was moving stiffly - he seemed particularly calm because he had sensed a sudden and familiar aura from the puppet.

"Lucy? Is that you?" he asked tentatively.

"Ah, you are indeed nearby..." The puppet finally focused its sights on Duncan accurately. "She" moved her chin and made a somewhat stiff voice, "But I still can't see you, this temporary 'medium' The quality is really terrible. I really shouldn't have saved money on the housework doll. To make a long story short, how is the situation at your place? I have sensed your call a few times just now, but it was always interrupted before I could respond... "

"Everything is fine here, but the house is empty and you are all gone," Duncan said immediately, briefly describing the current situation on the street, "...that's it. In short, here I am. It seems that there should be something wrong with you, but Alice and I were not affected."

"It seems like this." After a delay of a few seconds, Lucretia's voice came again from the mouth of the puppet maid, "It should be us who have the problem. You are still in the real world, just watching. When it comes to anomalies occurring in the real world, we... seem to have been involved 'inside' this anomaly."

"Is anyone else with you?" Duncan asked immediately.

"No, I'm the only one here - it looks like we've been scattered everywhere."

"What's around you?" Duncan asked again.

"Surrounding? Trees, vines, endless green - it's a forest," Lucretia replied, "much like the one we saw in Master Taran El's dream. It’s a forest, but the atmosphere seems... different.”

…

The forest was shrouded in dusk-like skylight, and a strange and slightly gloomy sense of chaos seemed to wrap around the entire world. The sunlight shining down from the gaps between the layers of tree crowns also seemed groggy, unable to dispel the chaos among the lush trees. Eerie feeling.

Occasionally, the sounds of birds and beasts, or the sound of branches breaking, could be heard in the distance. Although there was nothing else out of the ordinary, Lucretia felt as if she could smell it in the air of the forest. An inexplicable feeling of... tension.

It's like something is about to happen here.

She held the short wand like a "baton" tightly with one hand, and at the same time maintained the connection with a certain "puppet" she made by herself, so as to exchange information here with her father in the distance: "...There is a sense of tension permeating the forest, very depressing, even with invisible fear... Yes, it is emotion. As a witch, I can sense this 'emotion' permeating the air... Here It looks very similar to Taran El's dream, but there are no invading Children of the Sun in the sky, and there seems to be something else deep in the forest... I am walking that way.

"The scene in the neighborhood? I can't see it here... Everything I can see is full of trees. Although the field of vision in the dense forest is limited, I can be sure that the scope of this forest is more than one or two blocks... This 'foreign land' 'It's so broad that what you see 'over there' should be only a small part of what it leaks into the real world."

Lucretia stopped suddenly. She listened carefully to the words coming from the distance. After a moment, she nodded slightly: "Yes, I also suspect that this is still the 'dream', which is called 'nameless' by the Annihilation cultists." The dreamland of the Dream of the Nameless One, but the situation is different from last time... The last time we entered the Dream of the Nameless One was through Taran El as a springboard. The information you got from the cultists also said so, To enter this dream, you must use the mind of an elf as a bridge, but this time things happened suddenly and weirdly..."

She paused, raised the wand in her hand and lightly tapped a vine in front of her. The vine instantly became active, squirming and growing forward, forming a structure like a bridge, spreading over the deep ditch ahead.

Lucretia walked forward along the vine bridge and continued: "...I haven't found the 'bridge' yet, or who the 'dreamer' is, but according to the laws of dreams, I It should be near the 'dreamer' now."

She stopped suddenly.

There were rustling footsteps nearby - the sound was very sudden, as if there was no one there one second, and then a person appeared out of thin air and walked towards here stepping on dead branches and leaves the next second.

Lucretia concentrated for a moment and cast many protective spells on herself before turning around. Then she clenched the wand with one hand and looked in the direction of the sound.

However, what appeared in front of her was not the cultists who invaded the dream, nor was it the twisted things that naturally grew in the dream.

A strange elf woman stood under the shade of a tree not far away, looking here in surprise and wariness.

The first thing Lucrecia thought of was the dreamer who acted as a "bridge" in this dream. However, she soon realized the sense of disobedience brought to her by the strange elf not far away - the other person was wearing a uniform. It is completely impossible to tell which city-state or era the style of the light armor belongs to. Weird "silk threads" of faint blue light are woven between the long pale golden hair. In his hand, he is holding tightly what looks like a combination of a spear and a long-handled axe. The strange weapon made from this, this look... She had never seen it in Qingfeng Port, nor anywhere else in the world.

While Lucretia was stunned, the elf woman holding a strange long-handled weapon had already spoken with a serious and vigilant face:

"Didn't you receive the order to evacuate? Why are you still outside the Wall of Silence?"

Lucretia narrowed her eyes slightly.

The situation...seems to have become more delicate.

…

Under the alternating reflection of the "sunlight" between the buildings and the cold radiance of the World's Creation, in this strange night unique to Breeze Port, the figures of Duncan and Alice were quickly crossing the street.

Alice also held a puppet head with a mouth that was opening and closing in her arms.

Lucretia's voice came from the mouth of the puppet's head, reporting the smallest progress "over there"——

"I was following this strange elf that suddenly appeared. She seemed completely unaware that she and I were not of the same race, and easily lowered her guard... We were heading to a place called the 'Wall of Silence'... …”

This scene is really as weird as it gets: a living doll is running in the night, holding the head of another doll in its arms. The head is still talking, and the voice is hoarse and distorted due to the limitations of the material - - Just looking at this scene, any sane person would be distraught if he took a look at it.

But Alice was no different.

She trotted behind Duncan, her expression even looking a little happy.

Probably because I'm used to holding a head in my arms... I'm used to holding myself, and the same goes for holding other people's.

(There are three updates today!!!)