Deep Sea Embers

Where is this giant taking himself?

Curious and confused, Vanna followed the giant's footsteps and stepped into the endless yellow sand. The sand and dust blown up by the wind seemed to form a hazy barrier in the distance, as if blurring the boundary between heaven and earth. At some point, the city ruins made up of black jagged boulders had disappeared into the depths of the sand. When Vanna wanted to look back, she could no longer see anything.

The sky is getting brighter, and the heat in the desert is rising little by little.

Vanna waved her hand and summoned a giant sword made of ice. She used the protection of the Storm Goddess to fight against the discomfort caused by the desert, and at the same time she looked up at the sky.

The huge crack emitting an ominous red light still covered the entire world. I don't know if it was an illusion, but the bloodshot threads spreading out from the edge of the crack seemed to be a little wider than when I first saw it.

There is still no sun visible wherever you look, but the entire sky is still getting brighter and brighter - this gives Vanna a feeling, as if the concept of "sunshine" has been imprinted on some kind of "cycle" between heaven and earth. ", even if the sun has disappeared, the light and heat it left behind will still appear in this world "on time".

The giant's attention was attracted by the ice giant sword in Vanna's hand.

He had seen the giant sword in the opponent's hand before, but he had not seen the process of Vanna summoning the sword - he seemed to think this power was wonderful.

"Your sword is made of a power that does not belong to this world. This power is incredible. It can attract miracles in the yellow sand - I haven't seen 'ice' in a long time."

"This is the ability given to me by the god I believe in," Vanna said immediately. "He is the master of the storm and the ocean, and ice is the authority extended by the storm."

"A god who rules the sea?" the giant whispered thoughtfully, "Storms and oceans... This place is far, far away from the coastline, and the so-called sea has dried up now. But I still remember that they were there A very splendid city was built on the seaside. The city had pure white exterior walls and many blue roofs. They named the city after a gemstone and built the first ship in the city. Ships crossing the ocean..."

Vanna quietly listened to the giant telling her about the forgotten ancient things, and then relayed the information she heard to others who were acting in the dream. The heat around her was still rising gradually, so she picked up the giant sword in her hand and let go He took a bite in his mouth and asked curiously while chewing the ice cubes: "What next?"

"Then, the city disappeared in the bubble. When the erosion occurred, many things changed in a way that I couldn't understand," the giant said, and couldn't help but look down at Vanna, looking at the being The opponent bit the ice sword with a chip in it, "...so this is how it is used?"

"It's a bit hot here," Fanna said a little embarrassed, "I... am more afraid of the heat."

"It's good to be afraid of heat. Being able to feel discomfort in the environment is proof of being alive," the giant said, and then he stopped. "Here we are, traveler."

Vanna stopped. She looked in the direction of the giant's gaze, her expression suddenly a little dazed.

There was a huge... sinkhole ahead, embedded in the ground like a shocking scar, and she and the giant had reached the edge of the pit at some point, only a few steps away from the wall.

After a brief moment of astonishment, she cautiously took a step forward and observed the situation in the pit. She saw that the walls of the pit were like glass, and the dark rocks showed the same molten and solidified shape as the ruins of the previous city. , and saw that the yellow sand around the pit receded, and the exposed ground showed a terrifying cracked appearance. The scale of the pit was huge, as if it was enough to accommodate a city-state as huge as Puland...

In the center of the pit, you can vaguely see a towering thing - it looks like a tower of amazing size, but at this moment, only its twisted and ferocious appearance is left, and meltdowns can be vaguely seen around the "tower" The road and the scattered high and low... stones.

"What is that?" Fanna asked in surprise, pointing to the tower.

The giant did not answer her directly, but slowly came to the edge of the pit, sat on the ground, put the huge cane beside him, and meditated quietly.

After an unknown amount of time, he broke the silence.

"I can't remember a lot of things, but I still remember this place... After realizing that the whole world was gradually collapsing and that human power could not save it, they built a huge archive here, and this big archive you see The pit is the ruins of the archives - they tried to keep all the evidence of their existence in this world in one building.

"Everything you can think of, culture, art, history, countless books and artifacts, seed banks and huge sculptures, all piled up in strong and well-protected warehouses, they also made huge stone slabs with properties The most stable material, a simple introduction to the world and civilization is carved on stone.

"Books will decay quickly, advanced recording devices are prone to malfunction, and delicate storage media cannot be read directly, but words engraved on stones can be preserved for thousands of years, or even longer, so those stones are placed at the end of archives. The center is regarded as the 'heart' here.

"They can't find a more reliable and long-term record method than this."

"Then...what then?" Fanna couldn't help but ask, although she already knew the answer before she opened her mouth.

"The stone turned into bubbles," the giant lowered his head and looked into Vanna's eyes, "within one second."

Vanna suddenly felt suffocated.

“The art melted and flowed like water, seeping into every crevice, the scrolls turned into shadows and were imprinted on the walls, the sculptures sublimated in the air and turned into pale mist, and then the whole building began to sink and shatter, The whole land sunk," the giant raised his hand, pointing to the deep pit. "People gathered there, the last survivors, where they wanted to mourn their civilization and be prepared to die calmly, but The truth is, mourning and dying peacefully are also a luxury.

"Right in front of them, everything they had recorded became... something indescribable.

"This is the reality: when the world itself reaches destruction, nothing recorded on 'the world' will be preserved."

"Then..." Fanna opened her mouth. After a long time, she raised her hand hesitantly and asked again, "That tower..."

"It was the last safe place when the whole building began to crumble," whispered the giant. "They ran to it, just as they had done many, many years ago when the first fires spread to the settlements in the forest. When they were on the ground, they ran down from the trees and ran towards the safety of the plains and clearings. Only this time, the 'fire' was going to burn down not just the forest...

“Only one person ran there in the end, and I don’t remember what he looked like, or whether he was a man, a woman, an old man or a child.

“He stopped there and died standing.

"In the last minute of his death, he grew as fast as a mountain, even as if it was about to touch the sky. In that scene, it was like...there was something wrong with the scale, because their 'science' told me that people My body structure cannot support a body of that size..."

The giant raised his head and looked at the "tower" in the center of the pit, as if after such a long time, the long-standing confusion still lingered in his heart.

Vanna finally knew what it was.

That is the last person in this world.

Her eyes slowly widened, and in shock, she stared at the center of the "big pit".

Even from such a long distance, she could see the astonishing scale of that "tower". It was taller than the tallest tower in Pland City, and even grander than the city-state cathedral. How could it... Is it a person?

However, gradually, Fanna finally saw the chilling details in the strange and ferocious appearance of the "high tower" in the distance. She saw the molten and deformed structure that was held up like an arm, as well as the rotating and twisted torso. , for a moment, she even thought she saw a creepy... face embedded in a certain part of the tower.

But she knew this was an illusion. From such a long distance, even if there were such details on the tower, she couldn't see clearly.

What's more, it has been distorted to the point where its original appearance cannot be seen at all.

Fanna could not describe what she was feeling at the moment. She only knew that her heart was shocked, and the huge questions almost overwhelmed her mind. She stared at the black "tower" for a long time, at the destroyed ancient The last tombstone left by the last person of civilization, and then slowly raised his head, staring for a long time at the sky covered with red cracks and unable to see the sun.

After an unknown amount of time, perhaps to divert the heavy feeling in her heart, she suddenly asked: "The sun...did the sun disappear at that time as well?"

"sun?"

Fanna raised her hand and pointed at the sky: "It shouldn't be like this originally. Where is the sun that shines on this world?"

"Oh, yes, the sun, I almost forgot, it is the sun..."

The giant muttered softly, with an emotion in his tone that Vanna couldn't understand. Then he raised his hand and groped for a while in his tattered robe. It seemed that he finally found something from the deepest part of the clothes, and then put it He took out the thing and placed it in front of Fanna.

"The sun is here."

said the giant gently.

Vanna stared at him dumbfounded, looking at what he showed her, looking at the thing lying quietly in the giant's hand, which seemed to be only as big as her fist...

Glowing sphere.

It exudes a bright light and a little warmth, and it seems to be floating there, floating in a dimension parallel to reality.

So... small and calm.

"It fell," the giant looked at Vanna calmly and continued, "I picked it up."