Deep Sea Embers

There is a shadow, a shadow outside of Silantis, always floating in this vast dark space composed of Silantis' dreams and memories.

Now, for the first time, Duncan discovered its existence.

"The name of Lachem!" Rune's eyes widened, and he exclaimed as he looked at the huge structure that finally emerged from the dark space under the reflection of the green firelight, "What is that?!"

Duncan did not answer. He just stepped to the window and stared with an unusually solemn expression at the dark structure that seemed to be crushing above Selendis but was frozen in a certain moment. After a moment, his eyes finally turned slightly. Change, as if I suddenly understood something——

"The Great Annihilation...it turns out to be like this..."

…

Corruption and distortion are spreading in the forest, spreading across the land, and spreading throughout the world.

Something invisible is "immersing" in this elves' homeland. Wherever it permeates, the earth wriggles and rises like swollen flesh. Endless fangs and eyes open in the shadows. Trees grow wantonly, and dissolve and rise like flames. ...Everything seems to have lost its existing order and transformed into something else in a crazy, grotesque, nightmare-like drastic change.

The sharp and terrifying roars and howls kept rolling through the entire forest at all times, roaring through the huge canopy structure of Silantes, reverberating wildly between heaven and earth as if tearing apart the soul.

Shirley looked at the ground below in shock. She saw that the land that was lush and lush a moment ago had turned into a ridiculous purgatory that even nightmares could not describe in the blink of an eye. She looked at the huge mouths of the abyss and the huge mouths of the abyss that opened in the forest. The flesh, flesh and shadows that swelled and shrank subconsciously grasped the bulge on the edge of the "paper boat".

"Is this thing really not going to fall?"

She took another look at the "small boat" folded out of paper at her feet, and confirmed to the witch lady beside her very uneasily.

Not long ago, when a terrible "erosion" phenomenon suddenly broke out in the entire forest, and when it seemed that there was no way out, Lucretia took out a piece of paper in front of her and folded a ship The boat pulled her and jumped onto the boat together - Shirley couldn't understand the principle of this weird "witchcraft" at all. She only knew that the boat was floating over that terrible land, and there was a wave of noise coming from under her feet. The touch of the paper made her gasp.

Even the dog next to him carefully retracted his paws and huddled up, as if he was afraid of accidentally scratching the bottom of the paper boat.

"Anyway, I haven't fallen." Lucretia had already taken out more white paper and was skillfully folding more strange-shaped things while saying without raising her head. "If you are too worried, just Close your eyes and pretend you're lying on the couch at home."

"How can this be done!" Shirley screamed subconsciously, and then she exclaimed because the boat rocked in the wind. Then she noticed the movements of Lucretia's hands, "You What are you still folding?!”

"Soldiers, the kind of 'winged flying soldiers' described by Ginny Hedwig in "City in the Clouds"," Lucretia said casually, "We need to know the situation in other places. If we really encounter To defeat the enemy, we also need combat effectiveness to protect the ship."

As she spoke, she threw the origami figures in her hand into the air outside the paper boat - several exquisite origami figures spread their wings in the air, and their sizes quickly became like real people. He bowed in the direction of Lucretia and saluted, then quickly flew away.

Shirley stared at this scene dumbfounded, but just when she opened her mouth to say something, a voice seemed to penetrate directly into her head, interrupting her exchange with Lucretia: "... …Initially, those ‘erodes’ appeared, and at the borders of the world, things began to look weird and terrifying…”

Shirley and Lucretia looked at each other at the same time, and they both heard the voice - it was a voice that sounded a little childish, like a little girl's.

That was Silantis's voice.

The howling wind stirred up more sand and dust, but the storm in the desert dissipated at some point. Only disorderly dust mist rose in the field of vision, blurring the line of sight and distorting the distant scenery.

"When the weather just changed, scholars already issued warnings and called on people to prepare - but what to prepare for?"

The giant's voice sounded in the wind and sand, thick and steady, like a stone standing in the wind.

Fanna stood in the endless wind and sand, looking at the "giant tower" in the distance.

She has followed the giant back to this place called the "Archives" and back to this big pit that symbolizes the end of civilization. She doesn't know why the giant brought her back here, but she can feel that someone An earth-shaking change is taking place - with this "archive" as the center, something terrible is unfolding.

The sound of something being torn apart suddenly came, and the loud noise seemed to be enough to shatter mountains.

Vanna raised her head in astonishment and looked at the huge red crack in the sky, looking at the red light that represented the end. In the surge of blood-colored light, she saw the undulating shadows that destroyed the world. The thing finally began to reveal its true appearance before her eyes——

Fire appeared in the forest - there was no exact source. It seemed that in just an instant, countless trees became blazing torches, and the destructive tide began to burn the World Tree covering the earth in the blink of an eye.

Shirley watched in horror as the flames spread across her field of vision. She watched everything—the twisted earth, the lush forests, the shadows in the air, the tentacles and flesh spreading between heaven and earth, all covered in flames in an instant. .

She heard huge noises, countless creatures screaming in the flames, and she heard terrifying thunder. The thunder did not come from the sky, but the branches of Silantis were broken in the flames and distortion, like It fell to the ground like a continuous giant peak.

The paper boat swayed left and right in the roaring heat wave, and the terrifying sight of the sky and the earth burning at the same time made Shirley subconsciously curl up in the boat. While curled up, she looked up at the sky and saw the branches and leaves on the edge of Silantes. The sky broke and fell off, blazing flames roared down around the boat, and in the sudden collapse of the tree canopy, she could finally see the true appearance of the sky.

Suffocating and terrifying shadows filled her vision, and she felt as if her heart had stopped beating at that moment.

She heard Selantis speaking in her heart—or maybe the whole world was telling her about the destruction and death that happened in the eternity of time—

"...Then the sky fell, and the invisible hit our world, slowly... We couldn't see it, couldn't understand it, couldn't think about it... What about you? You guys Can you see these things that grow after darkness?"

Vanna's eyes widened. She watched the bloody cracks in the sky gradually bloom in her field of vision. The entire sky was gradually torn apart like some kind of cracked egg shell, and then moved toward the center in a chilling way. Depression, and then, a sea of ​​burning fire slowly rolled down from the torn sky——

"As their 'god', I felt 'it' coming one step earlier than they did. I felt something invisible approaching our world. I felt the end of history - the chronological pillar in my hand. Above, a crack appeared, and everything was no longer recorded after that, and the flame... went out at the end of my field of vision."

A low and depressing whistling sound and a strange creaking sound came from the sky and the earth, as if the world itself was making its last groan. Vanna finally understood what she was seeing, and finally understood what the giant had never understood. The “answer” you can understand.

A tall figure walked out of the corner of his eye and came to the edge of the huge pit.

Vanna saw the giant standing there, raising his head and looking up at the sky.

"Starting with fire and stone, ending with fire and stone - Traveler, I feel it, 'it' is coming again... You see it, don't you? You see it more clearly than I do... because you come from A different time stream than mine, you come from the After Dark, you have a pair of eyes born after that, you can understand it..."

On the folded paper boat, in the field of vision of Shirley and Lucretia, the upside-down earth kept drooping, and they were finally able to see clearly the many structures on its surface——

At a certain moment, Shirley felt as if she saw continuous mountains and abundant rivers on that upside-down continent, saw huge stone cities standing on the mountains and plains, saw huge canals and stretches of rivers. The road is connected to countless lights, and under the lights are countless fertile soil and fertile fields.

But in the next moment, she saw that the land fell into desolation. After some kind of... "boiling" illusion, the land turned into a desert and gravel Gobi.

Another world was crushed.

The piece of earth falling from the sky first touched the canopy of Silantis.

Silently, the final collapse of all things began to spread from that "contact point" to the entire world...

In the increasingly chaotic and disorderly wind and sand, in front of Vanna's eyes, the giant tower that symbolized "the last person in the world" seemed to have changed.

It began to shake and begin to crack. The upper layer of it, which looked like burnt black rock, suddenly cracked. After disintegrating and falling off, it showed some kind of gray-white... "skin".

The giant tower began to shrink, as if time was reversed. It was shrinking little by little, and little by little it turned back into a "human" appearance.

An upside-down, burning forest has completely replaced the entire sky, and another continent has rolled into this world. In the burning forest, Vanna finally saw what her companions had described, that they were in the nameless place. Some of the terrain seen when moving in the dream.

That "tower" finally collapsed.

At this moment when the whole world was recalling the end of the world, he also remembered his original appearance in his memories.

He became a human being.

A Senjin man with skin as textured as rock and metal-like lines on his body.

His size continues to shrink, and soon he will shrink to the point where Vanna can't see clearly from this distance.

He seemed to be making a cry of panic - in the last minute before the great annihilation, this "person" who had been frozen for countless years finally took steps in the flow of time.

"Traveler," the giant's voice came. The old god in rag robes bent down towards Vanna. He thrust the huge cane into the ground, and then put his other hand in his arms. He took it out and placed something in front of Fanna, "Take it away."

Vanna looked at what the giant handed to her in shock.

That is a sun that shines brightly and is burning quietly in the long river of time.

She raised her head, but before she could ask the question, the giant shook his head slightly: "You can take it now - Traveler, I have remembered it, I have remembered it all... Our sun is free Come on, take it away, it shouldn’t continue to sink into this fantasy.”

Vanna stretched out her hand in a daze - the bright ball fell into her palm.

Radiates warm heat.

The giant laughed, slowly straightened up, and turned his head.

"What are you going to do?" Fanna asked in surprise behind him.

"Tell him not to be afraid."

"wait……"

"It doesn't matter, traveler, the journey will come to an end, and one day we will have to say goodbye to each other... for Tarekin died, died a long, long time ago.

"In addition, the cane is also given to you as a souvenir."

The giant didn't look back until the end. He just waved his hand and then took steps towards the deep pit.

With every step he took, his body grew taller.

But with every step he took, his figure became more illusory.

The ruins known as the "Archives" are also gradually disappearing in the footsteps of giants.

The gods who recorded history finally disappeared into the wind and sand, and the last person recorded by history also disappeared in the slow and unstoppable collision of the two worlds——

In this boundless desolation and windy sand, Vanna slowly raised her head.

Burning Silantis hangs high above this world.

The time now is the last second of the Great Annihilation.

The Sen'jin world was destroyed in the final collision with Silantis.