Deep Sea Embers

The figure with short black hair and a white robe passed by each other, and the moment when they passed each other seemed to be just Duncan's own illusion - he saw the other person walking towards the depths of Vision 004, and quietly passed through a wall. Silently disappeared from his sight.

Doomsday Observers... Doomsday Survey Team...

This title that inevitably evoked various associations made Duncan finally unable to restrain his curiosity. He turned to look at the tall leader next to him: "What is the mission of these people?"

"Enter the time stream to confirm within a known time frame that the shelter is operating according to the creator's original blueprint, and to confirm the timestamp of the system crash."

The tomb guard said calmly, while taking steps forward and continuing to lead Duncan deeper into the "Tomb of the Unknown King".

And the answer of this "gravekeeper" has already caused a wave of waves in Duncan's heart.

The observers traveling through the time stream, the survey team tracking the doomsday... It's really them! ?

Duncan raised his head suddenly and glanced at the quaint walls and columns in the surrounding corridors. He quickly thought of another thing: "What on earth is this place?"

He felt a little weird as soon as this question came out of his mouth, because it sounded like he was asking it knowingly, but for some reason, he felt that the gravekeeper in front of him should be able to understand his intention.

The steps of the tombkeeper paused for a moment.

"This is the first Cretan observatory - it will also be the last one," a low and calm voice came to Duncan's ears, "A long, long time ago, there were twelve hundred doomsday observatories of this type. And we directly control ten of them.”

Duncan was stunned for a moment. Suddenly, he recalled a passage of text he had read——

"...In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the King of Dreams and the King of Pale Giants, He divided the blueprint so that there would no longer be kingdoms in the world, turned the kingdoms into 1,200 cities, and made the clans take charge of the first ten The city was named 'Crete'..."

The stylistic characteristics of Vision 004 have been explained - it is indeed a ruin left by the ancient kingdom of Crete. This ruin has continued to operate for 10,000 years, even until it became a "Phantom", it still remains Keep working!

At the same time, what was recorded in the blasphemous book was once again confirmed. The "1,200 cities" mentioned in the book did exist, but they did not refer to the 1,200 city-states. , but 1,200 "Doomsday Observation Stations"!

People called the "Final Survey Team" set out from here and entered the time stream to monitor the operation of the "Sanctuary" and determine the "time boundary" when the Sanctuary reaches its limit...

Suddenly, a broad view appeared in the corner of his eye. Duncan was suddenly awakened from his thoughts and raised his head to look ahead in surprise.

At some point, he had been led by the "gravekeeper" through the seemingly endless corridor. After passing through a towering gate, the scene in front of him suddenly opened up - not only open, but also open. This is no longer like being inside a "building"!

He saw a square, a square shrouded in a dusky sky that seemed to be large enough to accommodate a gathering of tens of thousands of people.

The gate of the corridor where Duncan is located is located at a high place. There is a stone ramp sloping downwards leading to the edge of the square. The square is covered with huge and flat gray and white stone slabs, and there is a wide footpath crossing it. He also I saw some kind of solemn pillars with a slight metallic sheen standing on both sides of the road. The tops of the pillars seemed to have had more complex structures, but they had weathered and collapsed over the years. Various collapses and collapses could be seen all around the square. The huge decaying structure seemed to have once been many gates and pillars, but the only complete thing upon entering was the huge throne in the square.

The pitch-black throne stood in the center of the square, with its backrest high, as if overlooking everything around it. A chaotic, twilight-like skylight shrouded the sky above the square. Under this dim light, the slumped man in front of him could be seen. There seems to be an almost eternal...solitude lingering in the ruins.

For some reason, Duncan felt a sense of desolation in his heart. It seemed that the crumbling and dusty ruins in front of him brought a heavy atmosphere, which touched his heart.

The mausoleum guard in white robes had already passed Duncan. He walked up the downward slope and walked silently towards the ruined square.

Duncan hesitated for a moment, then followed suit silently.

They walked down the slope and came to the wide footpath that ran through the entire square, walking slowly between two rows of tall and solemn stone pillars. Duncan's eyes glanced around from time to time, looking at the once glorious and majestic buildings that had now collapsed. Broken ruins.

Occasionally, visions of the past would appear before his eyes - he would see people wearing white robes or gray short robes appearing outside the stone pillars. They were walking hurriedly through the square, or towards the abandoned gates on the edge, or Gathering in certain places to talk, as if discussing something.

He seemed to be able to imagine how busy and important this place had been - in the years of creation, when the "Creep King" was still adjusting the blueprint of the new world, and when the ancient kingdom of Crete was still serving as the creator's " During the days when the world was being built by "Assistant", they gathered here, busy building the shelter, and planning for the reproduction of civilization in the next 10,000 years.

At that time, the Great Annihilation had just ended, and the continuous ruins caused by the great collision of the world were still floating in the world, and the order of all things was being destroyed. At that time, the meetings of the kings were held again and again, the two long nights had failed, and the third long night had failed. The dawn has gradually dawned; at that time, the troops known as the "Endgame Survey Team" passed through the curtain of time and served as the vanguard to inspect the boundaries of the sanctuary - the boundaries in the time dimension; at that time, the Infinite Sea might It has just taken shape, and the city-state has not yet been established, and the "sun" has not risen. The first "human beings" are still sleeping in the database of the Creeping King. In the long night, only the lights of the ancient kingdom of Crete briefly illuminate this chaos. world……

At that time, this place had not yet become Vision 004 - there were 1,199 observation stations like it scattered in the ashes of the Great Annihilation, waiting for the moment when the new world opened.

Now, everything has gone with the wind.

Only this desolate ruin is left, floating in the cracks outside the real world, triggering thoughts and endless speculations in Duncan's heart.

The tall tomb guard walked slowly in front of Duncan, as if walking in the corridor of time. When another final survey team passed through the stone pillars, he suddenly broke the silence: "They haven't sent news for a long time. came back."

"...They're crazy," Duncan said softly.

"oh."

The tomb guard nodded and continued to walk forward slowly.

Then after a while, he spoke as if talking to himself: "In the beginning, they would send back a lot of information - within the first contact period after departure, they sent back news from the city-state era. , and then, the Far Sea Alliance rose and fell in the darkness.

"They mentioned the disappearance of the Kingdom of Crete, and also happily mentioned the appearance of the 'sun'. There were many bizarre things in the information they sent back that didn't look like blueprints, but in the creator's subsequent actions In the calculation, the appearance of those things seems inevitable..."

The tombkeeper stopped, raised his head and looked at the huge and dark throne in the center of the square. He was silent for a long time before gently shaking his head.

"Then, their news becomes less and less, and sometimes... there will be some content that we can't understand. They seem to have dived very deep in the time stream, or gone very far, which is beyond our reach. The plan to start...

"Many times, the messages they sent back were inconsistent and out of order, and this happened more and more frequently in the later period. The creator's calculations judged that this was normal because the shelter was a limited model - it was based on This is the center, just like a light illuminating the wilderness, and time is the distance the light extends. The farther away the place is, the more undefined darkness controls everything... At the boundary of time, if they fail to find another light, That means there really is nothing to report..."

The tombkeeper fell silent for an unknown amount of time before he whispered again as if talking to himself: "It's been a long time since they've sent any news..."

Duncan said nothing.

He had arrived in front of the black throne that seemed to be built for giants, and slowly raised his gaze to look at the figure on the throne.

A headless body is sitting quietly on the throne, and countless huge cables and pipes are intertwined like blood vessels and nerves extending from the body, connecting the whole body of this body and countless people on the throne. There are clear interfaces and slots, and some of those interfaces are still flashing faint lights, and some kind of active light is flowing in some pipes, constantly flowing into the body, and flowing out from the body.

The moment he saw the headless body on the throne, Duncan's eyes changed slightly. He suddenly recalled the scene that Ted Leal had described to him and seen in subspace, but Compared with this memory, what surprised him even more, and even made him a little confused, was a certain... familiarity coming from that body.

He raised his head in astonishment and stared intently at the body on the throne. After nearly a minute, he couldn't help but speak: "In subspace, there is a headless body sitting on a dark throne..."

"That's his shadow," the tomb guard said softly. "The creator took away his body, but he could only take away part of it - he was torn into pieces, but it was not only his body that was divided, but also his memory, soul, shadow, and thinking. , the past and the future... were all shattered in the second long night, the creator brought this body here, and the shadow remained at the place where he first died."

Duncan suddenly turned around and looked into the eyes of the tomb guard. He felt that the body on the throne was becoming more and more familiar to him, which finally made him unable to help but ask, "Who is that on the throne?"

"Saslokar - the creator used him as a prototype to create the original 'Crete'."