Deep Sea Embers

In the wreckage area of ​​Silantis, in the sudden wind blowing on this scorched earth, a phantom that appeared to be a modern resident of Breeze Harbor appeared.

Nina and Maurice both saw the phantom's presence - it was clearly not an illusion.

"There is nothing here..." Morris came to the place where the phantom had just appeared, carefully observed the surrounding situation, frowned and whispered.

The sudden situation made Nina a little nervous. She lowered her voice subconsciously: "Why did the one just now look like a ghost..."

Morris glanced at the girl strangely: "Do you need to be afraid of ghosts?"

"...Yes."

Nina muttered in hindsight, and just as she finished speaking, something suddenly appeared in the corner of her eye.

It was another "phantom" that emerged in the wind and dust mist, flashing between the charred ruins made of huge branches. In that brief moment, Nina felt like she could see the other person's face clearly... … She even thought that face looked familiar.

She seemed to be the owner of the clothing store in Qingfeng Port XC area, an elf lady who always had a smile on her face - she appeared in the wind with a dull face, and then disappeared with the wind.

"Over here!" Nina reacted instantly, dragging Morris and running towards the direction where the second phantom appeared. Before they could get to that location, Nina saw something in the distance. A flash in the fog.

Phantoms, the phantoms of elves, began to appear constantly between the wind and dust and mist. As Nina and Morris continued to go deeper into the ruins, the phantoms appeared more and more frequently. At first, they only occasionally appeared from the edge of the field of vision. It flashed by, and by the time I looked in any direction, I could see one or two hazy, ghost-like shadows appearing and disappearing in the air.

Nina's eyes widened unknowingly. She and Maurice were walking on this scorched earth covered with ashes and black residue, walking among the huge ruins of Silantis, and beside them, people wearing modern clothes The "residents of Breeze Harbor" are constantly appearing and disappearing like unstable ghosts. These phantoms have a sluggish appearance, floating blankly in the dust, without any reaction to the approach of Nina and Morris, with a sense of confusion. A... creepy atmosphere.

Finally, Nina and Maurice stopped in an open space.

There are phantoms everywhere around them, phantoms of elves, and even some shadows whose outlines are vague and whose race cannot be distinguished. They are far and near, the virtual and the real are intertwined, disappearing and appearing, and the disorderly wind stirs up the sand. Dust, passing through these empty ghosts, passing through the huge canopy ruins of Silantis, under the chaotic and dim skylight, countless phantoms gathered in the ruins of the legendary "World Tree", like a strange scene And the terrifying... gathering of ghosts.

"I'm really starting to get a little scared this time..." Nina nervously grabbed the corner of her clothes. The air around her was slightly distorted, and a burning glow emerged from her eyes from time to time. "These are really Qingfeng Harbor." The elves in there... I also saw the uncle selling 'elf burritos' at the intersection of Crown Street. He put stinky and rotten organ meat sauce in the burritos..."

As soon as she said the words, she immediately glanced nervously at the phantom not far away - because she still remembered that as long as she described "elf burrito" in this way, the uncle would immediately correct her very angrily and seriously, saying, That is actually "pure flavor sauce passed down for four thousand years", and the expression will look very scary.

However, that phantom just quietly dissipated, just like other phantoms that continued to appear and dissipate around it.

Nina turned her head and looked at Morris: "...Aren't all the people who disappear in Breeze Port here every night? Are they all inside the 'Wall of Silence'?"

Morris didn't speak since just now. He just frowned and looked around with a thoughtful expression on his face. After a moment, he suddenly broke the silence: "Silantis is 'protecting' them."

Nina didn't understand it at once: "Huh?"

"This is Selantis' 'protection'," Morris seemed to have figured something out. "She is trying to 'collect' the minds of all the elves inside the Silent Wall. She firmly believes that this can be used when the end of the world comes. protect them."

Having said this, the old scholar paused, and after a brief thought, he continued: "Under normal circumstances, every elf who enters the Dream of the Nameless One should be directly transported to this place and become a phantom here, but a few of us The captain's power allows us to stay awake in dreams, which is why 'Shireen' appears in front of us - Silantis thinks we are elves who are 'lost'."

Nina was dumbfounded, but she immediately understood what the teacher said, and her intuition told her that this was probably the truth.

But this cannot explain the situation Miss Vanna encountered - what happened to that desert and the giant who called himself "god"?

In addition to this question, Nina immediately thought of another more fatal question.

"Then the minds of these elves are trapped in the wreckage of Silendis every night... won't there be problems after a long time?!"

"Of course," Morris said with a solemn expression, "Outside of Qingfeng Port, sleeping sickness has begun to spread among the elven residents of various city-states. Inside Qingfeng Port, the erosion of dreams has begun to leave traces in the real world. If this kind of 'protection' continues like this... I'm afraid something big will happen."

Nina opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something more, but at this moment, there was wind and sand rising in front of her eyes, and a new phantom appeared in front of her eyes.

It was a middle-aged man with dry and messy hair, a beard that seemed to have not been shaved for several days, and a slovenly and tired look. As an elf, an elf whose racial characteristics are imprinted with several major traits: "health, longevity, and elegance." , but that appearance gave people the feeling that his health was on the verge of reaching its limit, as if he was about to die suddenly at any time.

Nina recognized the apparition immediately.

"It's Master Taran El." She looked at Taran El with a dull face in surprise. He was in a dazed and stagnant state like other phantoms. Although she had already seen other "acquaintances" here just now, at this time I was still a little surprised to see this elf scholar, "He also appeared here..."

"It seems that all the people who disappeared during the Dream of the Nameless One will appear here. There is no surprise." Morris looked very calm. As he spoke, he walked up to the phantom of Taran El and frowned. Looking at the other party with a slight frown, "The key is to understand the state of these elves in the 'dream' stage. They seem to have established an increasingly solid connection with Silantis, and are unlikely to be easily awakened... …”

Nina also came closer, and she boldly stretched out her finger to poke Master Taran Al's arm: "I remember that Mr. Al was trapped in a dream last time. What method did he use to succeed at that time? Wake yourself up and save yourself..."

Taran El's phantom blinked suddenly.

Nina thought she had seen it wrong, so she raised her head and looked again.

Taran El slowly turned his head and turned his attention to her.

Nina: "..."

The next second, a huge fireball soared into the sky from the remains of Silendis.

The astonishing shock wave shattered the chaotic clouds in the sky, and the disorderly wind hovering around the remains of the World Tree also stagnated in an instant. The terrifying fireball rose like a new star, scorching the entire land in a matter of seconds. Bright as day!

But the fireball did not directly explode on the wreckage of Silantis or the "phantoms" lingering within the range of the wreckage.

The hard training on weekdays worked. At the critical moment, Nina looked up to the sky - her exclamation turned into the roar of the sun, and the thin stellar material just created a cloud above the Dream of the Nameless One. The temporary sun's rotation lasted only a few seconds, and the damage was minimized in the massive coronal impact.

But even with such a brief impact, the Dream of the Nameless One reacted instantly. The forests near the Silent Wall roared and grew wildly. The earth almost boiled under the sunlight, and the mountains in the distance rumbled, as if if only If it lasts just one more second, Sirandis will wake up under the sunshine of this otherworld - but as the fireball in the sky dissipates, the dream of the Nameless One still calms down on the edge of crumbling.

In the Silantis wreckage area, the large-scale dust raised by the shock wave in the sky has not yet subsided. A gray-faced figure crawled out from a pile of ashes - Morris shook the dust on his body vigorously, and pulled out the dust from his hair. Shaking off the black residue, he picked his ears hard again, and then raised his head and stared at Nina: "How many times has the captain told you not to be so shocked?"

Nina's whole body was exuding golden sunshine, and her whole body had not completely cooled down. After hearing Teacher Morris's words, she immediately scratched her face in embarrassment. Before she could speak, Taran El's frightened voice came from the side. Passed it over: "Is this how one is shocked and one explodes?"

Morris puffed his beard and stared, with an annoyed look on his face: "Just tell me whether it exploded or not!"

It was not an easy thing for this normally elegant and calm old scholar to behave so gaffefully. This was the first time Nina saw her teacher almost jumping up and swearing, but she was more surprised than this little thing. It was Master Taran El next to him.

The elf scholar who was just a dazed phantom a moment ago has now turned into a vivid and agile "mental entity". He stood in the flying dust, although his whole body was a little bit affected by the "sun impact" just now. Embarrassed, but obviously completely "awake".

The great scholar was staring blankly at Nina, who was still glimmering in the corner of his eye, with a look of shock in his eyes.

Obviously, being bombarded by the sun at the moment of waking up is a bit too exciting for a sub-healthy middle-aged man.