Deep Sea Embers

Obviously, the sudden news from Duncan shocked the views of several popes - they were relieved on the spot for a long time, but in the end they still didn't recover much.

After concealing the information related to Alice Mansion, Duncan briefly told Rune and others about his exchanges with Black Sun and Holy Lord Netherworld.

He is not worried that this information will "contaminate" the people staying at the scene at this moment. On the one hand, his followers have all been baptized by his "spiritual fire", which has proven to give them extremely high resistance to mental pollution. Sex, on the other hand, the several popes present also deal with mental pollution almost every day. Visually, their resistance is very high, and they are not going to go crazy just because they heard a few words from the ancient gods - if it was the bishop just now He certainly wouldn't mention these things while Tuan was still there.

Helena and the others looked at each other in confusion. After a moment of thinking and hesitation, three eyes fell on Lu En.

The short, fat elf old man suddenly looked a little embarrassed: "...Why are you all looking at me?"

"You are the most knowledgeable person among us." Helena looked sincere.

Banster nodded: "You often have unique insights and a prophetic acumen in the difficult field of mysticism."

Frame said nothing, and just continued to stare at Rune without blinking.

Luen was silent for a few seconds with a subtle expression. After a moment of thinking, he seemed to suddenly think of something. He turned to look at Duncan who was watching the show next to him: "Are you sure you heard the clear and rational words from Holy Lord Netherworld and Black Sun?" The sound, right?”

"Of course," Duncan spread his hands, "as sane as we are talking to each other right now."

"Then the second question," Lu En thought about it for a moment, and his expression became extremely serious, "...since returning to the real world from subspace, you have encountered people who are completely unable to communicate, incomprehensible, and completely indescribable in your eyes. 'Creation of Chaos'?"

Duncan was slightly startled when he heard the words, and then he vaguely understood what the old pope meant. After a moment of pondering, he spoke: "...I have met many freaks who are 'chaotic, chaotic, and incommunicable' by the world's standards. ', but almost every time... I heard something useful in their noisy roars... Sometimes, I even felt like they were intentionally talking to me."

He stopped, but there was still half a sentence left unsaid - he always thought this was normal!

Lu En showed an obvious change in expression after hearing Duncan's reply. His brows instantly furrowed, and Helena on the side also reacted: "Wait, so..."

"...In the eyes of the Captain, there are no crazy and out-of-control ancient gods," Rune looked into Duncan's eyes and spoke slowly with a serious expression, "You can understand under any circumstances those who have completely deviated from the 'basis of reason' 'The voices, even those existences that would cause a mortal to collapse and go crazy just by looking at them, are probably understandable to you and can be communicated with."

The hall fell silent for a while. Except for Alice who was not thinking enough and Shirley who was not thinking, everyone immediately began to subconsciously think about what this meant and the "reason" behind this incredible "phenomenon".

While in deep thought, Morris broke the silence in a low voice: "If we follow the 'cognitive deviation' conjecture that you just proposed, teacher, it means that the captain..."

"No matter how deviated everything is, it is still within the scope of his cognition," Lu En nodded slowly, "It's a bit like... wait, wait, I need paper and pen!"

Morris reacted immediately: "Here it is."

A piece of paper was quickly laid out on the table. Lu En took the pencil, leaned down under the curious eyes of everyone, and began to quickly sketch a pattern on the paper - but to Duncan's surprise, it was not something complicated and mysterious. The occult runes are not some difficult mathematical formulas. What Rune draws are just seemingly loose and random circles one after another.

He drew many circular patterns - they were randomly distributed on the paper, some overlapped each other, some were only slightly staggered at the edges, and some were completely independent.

"Do you still remember the Great Annihilation? And the conjecture about the formation process of the new world after the Great Annihilation..." Rune said quickly while describing, "Many worlds collided together, and their debris accumulated to form the foundation of the new world. , I call these piled-up debris 'primitive ashes', and these ashes initially carried the 'rules' of their respective worlds. We regard ashes with the same set of rules as such a ring...

"Yes, the concept of set, the remaining 'primitive ashes' of each world is a subset. Have you seen these intersecting rings? Those intersecting ones are the 'compatible' parts of the original ashes... …

"In the third long night, the compatible primitive ashes were reorganized to form the deep sea era we are now in...the 'intersection' of the set, yes, it is here..."

Rune paused and pointed with his pencil to the center of the white paper.

Several large and small rings intersect there, and the intersection of the rings has an area only the size of a fingernail.

"This is our Deep Sea Age...the primitive ashes from the wreckage of various worlds that are 'compatible' with each other and can barely be 'established' under the same set of rules. Together they built this boundless sea and the many city-states on the boundless sea. …

"Beyond this 'intersection', in the other disjoint parts of these circles, that is, their 'difference sets', are those things that we can touch, but cannot understand or control - they Wandering at the edge of our real world, it may appear as a vision, an anomaly, or other strange phenomena or pollution carriers..."

Lu En thought for a moment, then pointed to the rings that were outside all the rings and had no contact with other patterns.

"This is the location of the Prototype of Profanity, the location of the Black Sun and other lost ancient gods and exiled ethnic groups. We are completely unable to understand their existence, and they are completely incompatible with the real world. Some of them have completely disappeared. In the darkness, while others... still wander in the form of primordial ashes... in some space and time that we cannot understand."

Morris looked at the simple and clear graphics drawn by the teacher on the paper and quickly understood: "We are within the scope of 'intersection', so we can only 'understand' the information within the scope of the intersection, and things outside the intersection." To us they are nameless noises and shadows..."

Lu En nodded: "Yes, this is the 'fact' shown by this model."

Morris then continued: "But for the captain, whether it is the 'weird shadows' outside the intersection, or the lost ancient gods that are completely outside the collective system, it is understandable - in his eyes , there is no world 'outside the intersection'..."

"as you said……"

Duncan stood aside and listened silently to the discussion.

They are discussing him, they are trying to use a set of logic to explain him, they are trying to recognize, they are trying to understand, they are trying to get in touch with his "real mystery".

But he didn't care.

He just listened silently, thoughtfully while listening.

He looked at the patterns drawn by Rune, at the intersecting, overlapping, and independent rings, at the "primordial ashes" floating and scattered in the ruins, and at the piece of paper. .

For some reason, he recalled his recent experience in subspace in his mind, and recalled the overflowing starlight he saw in the eyes of the pale giant...

Fanna also came to the piece of paper. She looked at the pattern on it and couldn't help but whisper softly: "Where is the captain..."

Lu En looked serious: "Only in one case, a 'general set' can accommodate all the subsets that have appeared here and those that have not yet appeared."

Fanna thought for a while, stretched out her hand and made a gesture on the paper: "A larger circle that includes them all?"

"No."

Morris shook his head.

Then, the old scholar stepped forward and gently pressed his hand on the piece of paper.

"It's this paper."

After the words fell, he raised his head and looked around.

Endless starlight filled his vision, his memory, and his cognition.

It filled the eyes of everyone in the hall.

Helena's eyes widened in the starlight. She felt her mind crumbling in the huge waves of truth. She saw an undulating shadow rising in the starlight, an outline, and the outline approached her. Make a roar——

"Isn't it incredible?"

Lu En stood stiffly in the starlight, noise and tremors squeezed out of his mind: "Truth...Beauty..."

Then, all the starlight suddenly dissipated - the huge and undulating shadow shrank and collapsed into the real world in the hall in an instant that humans could not detect.

Vanna barely broke free from the horrific afterimage caused by the starlight. In the intense dizziness, she saw the captain walking towards the table and slowly rolling up the paper.

"Let me give you a suggestion," Duncan turned his head and looked into Lu En's eyes. "Next time you discuss me, make more preparations."

The horrific afterimage left by the starlight finally faded away completely - the piece of paper had been completely rolled up by Duncan and stuffed into his clothes.

With the "truth" temporarily obscured, reason suddenly returns to everyone's mind.

Banster took a deep breath, subconsciously took a step back, and then glared at Lu En: "I should have kept a distance from 'scholars' like you from the beginning!"

"You asked me to analyze it just now!" Lu En took two deep breaths, first glanced at Duncan with lingering fear, and then looked at the three Bansters, "Just tell me whether it has any effect!"

"Captain..." Morris turned to look at Duncan with a somewhat embarrassed expression on his face, "I'm sorry..."

"It doesn't matter, curiosity is human nature," Duncan smiled, with the same gentleness and tolerance as before, "Fortunately, everyone is alive."