Deep Sea Embers

Nina didn't expect this scene to happen at all - she had imagined that Mr. Morris might experience some changes after touching the light curtain, such as something running out of the light curtain, or the surrounding environment turning upside down. She even imagined a click. There was a loud noise, and Uncle Duncan and the entire Homeless Ship fell from the sky, but she didn't expect this.

This light curtain, which is suspected to be a "silent wall", will burst silently like a soap bubble.

The majestic wall of light that formed the barrier instantly shattered into pieces, and the structure that once supported heaven and earth dissipated into light dust in the blink of an eye.

At the moment when the barrier shattered and disappeared, it seemed that the entire forest fell into a short period of stasis, and then another second passed, and the mist that filled the forest began to continue to flow - Nina finally reacted and ran in twos and twos. Arriving next to his teacher.

"Mr. Morris!" she exclaimed, "Are you okay? Why did this thing suddenly..."

"I don't know..." Morris was obviously a little confused. This old scholar who always seemed calm, reliable and elegant seemed a little at a loss. The corner of his mouth trembled, but in his mind he remembered inexplicably what he had done many years ago. When he was studying at the Academy of Truth, his teacher Lu En taught him the seven rules of archeology——

First, don’t touch things randomly; second, handle the environment carefully; third, don’t touch things randomly; fourth, don’t jump to conclusions; fifth, don’t touch things randomly; sixth, respect the traces of civilization; seventh, don’t touch things randomly. TM touches things randomly...

The old gentleman lowered his head and looked at his hands in confusion. After many years, he finally had that feeling of "this must not be known to the teacher" again.

But soon, the messy thoughts in his mind were interrupted by a sudden low exclamation from Nina next to him.

"Ah -" Nina couldn't help but exclaimed in a low voice. At the boundary of the broken light curtain, in the mist that continued to flow from the forest, she widened her eyes and looked into the distance - the place that once was A place shrouded by a "wall of silence".

Morris subconsciously raised his head and followed Nina's gaze.

It was dim skylight, turbid sky, and chaotic fog shrouded everything. It was the end of the forest, where the vast mountains and hills continued. In the endless fog, huge things gradually revealed their outlines.

At first Morris thought it was a mountain, a grotesque, jagged and twisted mountain.

Later, he discovered that it was a tree, a tree that had been almost torn into pieces. Its remains covered the ground in a twisted and twisted manner, making it almost impossible to imagine its original appearance... a giant tree.

The tree crown that once covered the entire plain has collapsed and collapsed, and the trunk has been broken and collapsed. The lush green has long faded from it, as if it was burned away by fire, leaving only twisted branches like ferocious skeletons, jagged and weird. Point to the sky.

The huge branches there are like towers, and the remaining roots are like cities. The horrifying wreckage forms a doomsday-like wilderness, and ashes and dust like ashes fill every inch of the ravines on the ground, sprinkling a cloud around the giant tree. Pale and barbaric - Maurice and Nina stood on the edge of this extinct country, as if standing on the border of the end of the world, looking at the ancient day of destruction.

There was a breeze blowing from the land of ashes, rolling up a layer of fine pale ash, mixed with the mist that diffused from the forest, hovering around Morris and Nina as if entangled.

In the disorderly wind, Nina seemed to hear someone whispering beside her - the voice sounded familiar:

"...Because she knew from the beginning that the Wall of Silence could not save anyone. She was just a sapling. When that day came, all she could give them was a beautiful bubble..."

Nina opened her eyes slightly and looked in the direction of the sound.

But there was no one there, just a small tree.

A thin little tree, quietly rooted among the dust and ashes, its trunk and branches grow upwards in a crooked way, but the outermost branches hang down, swaying left and right in the breeze, it looks like... Shirley mentioned the tree that Shireen finally turned into.

Any tree in the Dream of the Nameless One is taller and stronger than it.

Nina slowly came to the small tree. After hesitating for a while, she took a step forward, put her hand on its trunk, and said tentatively: "Shireen?"

The little tree said nothing, only the branches hanging from the edge of the crown swayed in the wind.

The whisper that reached his ears just now seemed to be just an illusion, and what came from his fingertips was just the rough and hard touch of tree bark.

However, Nina couldn't help but imagine how the elf girl who took herself and Mr. Morris on a long journey, and finally returned home excitedly in the mist of the Silent Wall, crossed the border of the dense forest and passed through the forest. After passing the tomb of light, we came to the edge of this land of ashes, and quietly turned into a tree at this place where we could overlook the remains of Silendis.

"Nina, look here."

Morris's voice suddenly came from not far away, interrupting her random thoughts.

Nina suddenly woke up and immediately came to Morris' side and looked in the direction of the teacher's finger.

More small trees appeared in her field of vision - on the edge of the remains of the giant tree, on the dividing line between the dusty land and the forest, on this doomsday border, one small tree after another appeared one after another. They were arranged as if guarding the ashes and debris.

Or guarding the lush forest outlined in dreams outside the wreckage.

The entire ruins are surrounded by countless small nameless trees.

There is a breeze blowing, and the small trees sway their branches, making a very subtle sound that makes it difficult to tell whether it is the sound of the wind or the sound of the trees.

Nina stared at this scene blankly. After an unknown amount of time, she couldn't help but said to herself: "So many...these are Shireen..."

Morris didn't speak. The old scholar just looked at the small trees arranged around the remains of Silendis quietly. Then he seemed to think of something and came to a nearby slope to look at himself and Nina. From the direction they came from, they were looking at the vast dense forest in the distance.

The mist escapes from the dense forest and mixes with the ash and dust over the plains, outlining a hazy "border".

He came down the slope and came to Nina with a thoughtful look on his face.

Nina noticed the expression on the teacher's face: "Mr. Morris, did you find anything?"

"...I have a bold guess - 'Shireen' is the Wall of Silence." Morris said in a deep voice.

Nina was in a daze.

"Sylantis created the Silent Wall and gave it the mission of protecting the elves, but this was an impossible task, and it seemed that Sylantis, the 'creator', knew this from the beginning - but The Wall of Silence is still executing this order," Morris said with a serious expression. "I just observed the scene at the edge of the forest and confirmed that the 'nameless trees' are arranged along the dividing line between the forest and the ruins, and the arrangement is There is a faint pattern in it, like some kind of... array, rather than a random natural distribution. These are traces of careful design."

"Then..." Nina hesitated and couldn't help but ask, "But we are not elves..."

"But this is not the real Silendis and the 'Original Dream'," Morris shook his head and said, "Don't forget, this is just the 'Dream of the Nameless One.'"

Nina was startled when she heard this, and immediately understood the profound meaning of the teacher's words.

This is just the dream of an unknown person.

The era described in the ancient myths of the elves, the great demon "Saslokar" who created the world in dreams, and the world tree "Silantis" who protected the elves in dreams, the era in which they were truly active , long before the Deep Sea Age.

That era ended long ago—in the Great Annihilation.

What appears in Qingfeng Port now is nothing more than a large-scale anomaly caused by the failure of the sun and the approach of "dusk", a suspected "echo" left in the memory of the elven race.

Silantis and the Wall of Silence in "Echo" will regard every individual who enters this forest with good intentions as an "elf".

Because they died many, many years ago - before there were intelligent races other than elves in this world.

"Then what should we do next?" Nina asked.

Morris did not answer immediately, but immediately calmed down and communicated with the captain in the depths of his mind - he reported everything that happened here, and then waited patiently.

…

Duncan was a little confused.

He is still staying with Agatha at the bottom of the "Dream Lost Home", studying the huge ancient god's spine, hoping to find some more useful ones here related to the "Great Demon God Sasloka" information, or unearth more secrets of the Lost Home itself.

He didn't expect that during the short period of time when he wasn't paying attention, the team of Morris and Nina actually performed such a shocking act.

They broke through the wall of silence, saw the truth inside the wall of silence, and even... saw Silantis who had turned into a wreckage.

Duncan felt a little unreal in his trance.

The "witch" and the illiterate group are still wandering in the forest, and the athletes are still eating dirt alone in the desert, but the historian has already led his students to the middle of the map to dig out the graves of the ancient gods.

There is a thrilling feeling of sending out two investigators at the beginning, only to find Cthulhu dead at the door three turns later.

Duncan shook his head, temporarily putting aside the random thoughts that suddenly popped up in his mind.

Morris was still waiting for his instructions.

He raised his head and looked at the dark and foggy space around him.

Sasluoka's spine stretched under his feet. This fragmented ancient god seemed to be conveying certain messages to him in this way. Even the Homeless Ship built on this ancient god's spine... seemed to be running out of steam. Show your "memory" to the best of your ability.

Duncan exhaled slightly.

"Get closer to the 'ruins,'" he said in his mind, "and investigate Silantis."