Deep Sea Embers

The four major churches have assembled huge fleets at the borders of the civilized world - and they have been doing so for some time.

The reduction of regular patrol fleets and the accumulation of a large number of ships, personnel, and materials near the Eternal Curtain. Such a large-scale mobilization cannot be hidden from the border city-states. Before today, Lucretia had already transferred from Sarah Mel They learned about these unusual actions of the church from their mouths, but neither Duncan nor she could figure out the purpose of the church's doing so - until now.

The truth about the death of the gods, the true role of the Pilgrimage Ark, and the fact that the gods entered the "corruption stage" early made Duncan finally guess the purpose of those fleets.

"...We are looking for 'them'," Helena finally spoke after a moment of silence. "This is one of the purposes, and it is also the first purpose."

"You mean, the gods are in the thick fog of the eternal curtain!?" Lucretia instantly stood up and looked at the four popes opposite with disbelief, "Just outside the 'border' ?!”

"We are not sure," it was Banster who answered her. The old man in black robe slowly shook his head, "but we are sure that the first 'rotten breath' penetrated from the eternal curtain of the border - so we are now The plan at this stage is just to find the source of those breaths, but what exactly will be seen at that source... no one knows."

Rune took over the topic: "That might be the 'Kingdom of God' of the gods, or it might just be some kind of 'connection point' between them and the world, or it might be..."

He stopped here and didn't say any more.

Duncan suddenly asked after a moment of silence: "You just said that this is only one of the purposes, what about the other purposes? Besides looking for 'them', what else do you want to do?"

"The other purpose is to find out what happened in this world," Helena replied. In this frank "gathering", all the secrets finally had the opportunity to be revealed, "Report on border collapse Increasing day by day, with the recent "failures" of the 'sun', various anomalies related to the eternal curtain are becoming more frequent - an obvious fact is that there may be hidden things related to us in that thick fog. The secret that is closely related to the 'current' and 'foundation' of the world."

"... Figure out what happened in the world, and then what?" Duncan couldn't help but ask. He instinctively felt that Helena hadn't finished speaking.

"...If possible, try to find a 'new route' that can completely pass through the curtain, and then take as many people out before the worst happens," Helena said, "If The 'collapse' within the curtain is a foregone conclusion, so our only way out is to 'go out'. There may be other worlds outside the curtain - a wider world.

"Perhaps it is not so livable, and perhaps the outside of the curtain is more dangerous than the boundless sea, but as long as it can survive, no matter how harsh the environment is, it can become a new habitat for civilization... As long as you survive, life will find a way out, Even if it requires a long and painful adaptation... or even a mutation process."

Helena's words fell, and the hall fell into silence for a while. Duncan could feel Vanna, Morris and others around him holding their breath subconsciously. After several seconds, he heard Vanna break Silence: "Is the situation already so bad?"

"The worst thing is, we don't even know how bad the situation will be - without the 'warning' of the Homeless Ship, we don't even know that the sun was completely extinguished for twelve hours last time," Luen shook his head, "During those twelve hours, the four arks also disappeared into the world along with other city-states, which further convinced us... that we must face what may happen next according to the worst expectations."

"But the 'world outside the curtain' is just a conjecture, a baseless conjecture," Duncan suddenly said lightly, his voice was not loud, but it seemed to fall coldly on everyone's heart, "It's very possible that this is just you guys Wishful 'effort'."

"It's better than doing nothing," Helena's expression did not change at all. She just faced Duncan's gaze calmly and calmly. "We don't start acting because we are convinced that something will succeed, but because we have no choice. That's why we have to do this - there may be nothing outside the eternal curtain, and it is even possible that the eternal curtain has no end at all. We will never find the so-called new route, but we have to do something..."

She stopped, and Frame, who had not spoken much since just now, broke the silence with a low voice: "In a worse scenario, we are even considering how to survive in the eternal veil."

"Survive in the Eternal Veil!?" Nina exclaimed in shock - she never spoke, just sat quietly next to Uncle Duncan, because she felt that this kind of occasion was not the place for her to interrupt casually. , but this time she couldn't help it anymore, "Can people live in that place? Can humans thrive in that thick fog?"

"Not now," Frame shook his head calmly, "At least with the current life forms of mortals and our current understanding of the laws of the eternal curtain, human society is still unable to thrive in that thick fog - here. 'Human society' also includes elves and Sen'jin."

Nina opened her mouth: "Then..."

"This is what I just mentioned," Helena said softly, "We may need a long and painful process of adaptation or even mutation - we may need to no longer be 'us' in order to be able to survive in the world after that. Survival may be like the mysterious shadows appearing in the fog, or the noises whispering in the wind..."

"What if this is still not enough?" Duncan asked again, "The chaos of the Eternal Veil may not be 'adaptable' at all. If both the new route plan and the adaptation plan fail..."

"Then we will go to the spirit world. If the spirit world still doesn't work, then we will launch a general attack on the deep sea," Banster said calmly, "Since there is a group of people in this world who can summon demons to the real dimension, then we will also You can go to the world of those demons, they can survive in the deep sea, and we can too - if this still doesn't work, then we still have subspace."

This time, even Shirley finally couldn't help but speak: "A...subspace?"

Banster nodded slightly: "No one can survive from the subspace. All mortals who witness it will be dissolved in eternal madness and distortion. But if it really comes to the last moment, the subspace can also be a choice - Any choice, even the worst, is better than walking quietly and meekly toward that end."

Shirley and Nina stopped talking. A look of shock appeared on their faces.

Duncan showed a thoughtful expression. He stared at the four figures across the table for a long time. After a long time, he spoke softly: "Is this the 'revelation' you have received?"

"This is not a revelation, this is just an 'instruction' we got in the chaotic and weak exchanges," Helena said slowly. She raised her hand and drew the emblem of the storm and the deep sea on her chest, "They Let us live, at any cost, by any means necessary."

Duncan didn't speak for a while.

He fell into deep thought and was a little shocked.

He admitted that these people, who seemed late in every "incident" and even seemed a little slow and weak, actually did more than he imagined.

Compared to the Ancient Gods, and compared to the Lost Homes, they really don't have much power - but they are trying to do something that neither the Lost Homes nor the Ancient Gods can do.

After such silence lasted for an unknown amount of time, he finally broke the silence: "I want to know the progress you have made so far."

Helena hesitated for a few seconds and sighed softly: "...Unfortunately, the progress is still limited - we have set up several forward bases at the critical point of six nautical miles within the Eternal Veil, and we can temporarily gain a foothold in that position. But that's all... So far, no one has been able to break the 'record' left by the original Lost Home."

"Something happened to the Lost Home after it returned from six nautical miles beyond the Curtain." Duncan shook his head, his attitude was very calm, "Strictly speaking, that was not a successful 'expedition record'."

The faces of the four popes were a bit weird, and it was obvious that they were not comfortable continuing on this topic.

Duncan didn't care about this. He just adjusted his sitting posture, and after briefly sorting out his thoughts, he changed the topic: "So since your progress in this area has been hindered, I have some things here that may come in handy. 'Intelligence', you might be interested."

Helena subconsciously said: "Intelligence?"

"Two days ago, my daughter and I 'captured' a ship," Duncan nodded and said unhurriedly, "It was a large ship built by the Annihilation Cult. It was their previous port in Breeze. The 'base' used to invade the dreamland during the incident was full of traces of bloody rituals and desecrated creations... But that's not the point.

"The point is, it's obviously impossible for a ship like that to dock and supply supplies in a normal city-state - guess where its home port is?"

Helena, Lu En and others looked at each other, but they reacted almost immediately - Lu En was the first to speak: "Wait, is it... the border?!"

"Yes, they are hiding in that thick fog," Duncan did not continue to tell the truth, but nodded seriously, "That is a lair of the Annihilation Cult, and it may even be their largest lair and 'headquarters'. They Call it a 'Holy Land'. Now I'm not sure what the status of this so-called 'Holy Land' is, and I'm not sure whether it's 'inside' or 'outside' of the six-nautical-mile limit, but even if it's on the relatively safe inside , a 'veil colony' that has been hidden in the eternal veil for a long time, and can even be used as a large supply port to operate stably, must be something of great research value to us."

(There are some things at home, so I can only do one update for the time being... I will recover as soon as possible after they are dealt with. Cover your face manually.)