Deep Sea Embers

Accompanied by a roar that tore through the air, the heavy alloy giant sword slashed towards the earth like a star falling from the sky. The heavy sword had no edge, but it cut through butter as easily as a giant demon that looked like a heavy tank. The ground was torn in half, and then with a loud roar of thunder, Vanna punched the ground. In the terrifying shock, several weak demons gathered around her were directly crushed into pieces by the shock. pink.

A weird and sharp scream sounded from behind, and a missile containing dirty energy struck from a tricky angle. Vanna stood up quickly, but before she was about to reach out to block the missile, a swift black shadow had already come from the side. Rushing forward, a two-handed sword with shining silver light blocked the dangerous sneak attack. Then several marines holding enchanted steel swords swarmed forward and chopped up the demon that launched the sneak attack not far away into minced meat.

Fanna looked up at the black figure and nodded slightly: "The reaction speed is very fast."

Amber's face showed a happy look, and she nodded happily, and then she couldn't help but glance at Vanna with an expression of wonder and envy: "You are really... better than I thought."

"Fortunately, I'm in better condition today," Fanna turned the alloy giant sword in her hand and stabbed it into the fog beside her with her backhand, piercing the head of a mysterious hound that had just emerged from the thick fog, and then another A hand flicked on the hilt of the sword - the demon was instantly crushed into fine dust, "And these demons are not very strong... much weaker than the enemies I have dealt with recently."

The expression on Amber's face seemed to be stiff for a moment, but she recovered quickly, and then returned to her position - continuing to direct the soldiers to clean up the wandering demons near the entrance of the cave, while organizing the combatants to take turns to rest and strengthen defenses.

Fanna also raised the giant sword in her hand again, but at this moment, she seemed to suddenly feel something, her eyes narrowed slightly, and she looked into the depths of the thick fog.

At a certain moment, she felt as if she saw a figure - a figure in a shabby robe, hunched over the rocky beach in the canyon.

The figure didn't seem to notice the fierce fighting around him, nor the demons and church warriors who were so close at hand. He was like a phantom emerging from another dimension of time and space, hurriedly walking through the mist.

This only lasted a moment - when Vanna blinked again, he had disappeared.

Then, a terrifying demon that was made up of countless stacked and intertwined bones and looked like a ferocious "bone ball" with a diameter of three meters emerged from the thick fog not far away. The hollow roar coming from the inside of the bone ball made all mortals... Na had to temporarily suppress the doubts in her heart and raised her sword to face the enemy...

Amidst a series of intensive musket fire, the weird demon crawling out of the black door was torn into pieces by the bullets fired by the toy soldiers before it had time to stabilize its form. Then, accompanied by passwords and whistles, it was covered in colorful paint. The toy soldiers quickly regrouped and began to dig fortifications on the ground, pushing gun carts carved from wood into position.

Morris watched this scene curiously, then reached out to grab a toy soldier from the ground and placed it in front of his eyes to observe carefully. The metal plate on his forehead receded, among the countless rapidly rotating gears and trembling reeds in the skull cavity. A set of precision lenses were pushed out by the mechanical arm and focused on the toy soldier.

The toy soldier struggled for a few times and began to hit Morris's fingers with the butt of the rifle in his hand. A series of "clang-dang-dang" sounds were made from the collision of wood and metal.

Morris let go of the toy soldiers, and while flexing his fingers, he turned to look at the "Sea Witch" who was using a baton to continuously control various toy soldiers, origami chariots, and origami soldiers to arrange their positions: "... quite irritable."

"...Can you stop arresting my soldiers to study them?" Lucretia glanced at Morris helplessly, "How about you go and study the remains of those demons? They are everywhere here..."

"What is there to study about the remains of demons? There are them on the ship every now and then." Morris casually took out the pipe, but when he put it in his mouth, he remembered that he was currently in a "casting state", so he had to put the pipe back into his pocket angrily. "When I have the opportunity, I want to ask you about puppet technology. The driving method you use seems to be somewhat related to the academy technology, but the route is different..."

"When things here are over, of course - I am also very interested in the casting body you are using," Lucretia said casually, "I have dealt with the Academy of Truth a lot, and I know that you people have this kind of short-term The 'magic' that transforms part of one's body into machinery, but the whole body is 'casted'... this is the first time I've seen it."

Morris smiled, and there was a vibrating hum of a reed in his throat, but at this moment, what he wanted to say was interrupted by a sudden sight from the corner of his eye.

Deep in the dark cave, in an open space beside the black door, a figure seemed to appear suddenly.

The figure was wrapped in a shabby white robe, and it seemed as if he had been standing there for a long time. Neither the demons around him nor the "soldiers" summoned by Lucretia seemed to notice this uninvited guest - he just stood there so quietly. Standing on the battlefield, his appearance was out of tune with the surrounding environment, as if he were a phantom projected from another dimension of time and space.

He seemed to be observing the black door, and remained motionless as he stared at the door.

However, in just a moment, when Morris blinked again, the strange figure disappeared.

Lucretia suddenly noticed something strange about Maurice. After commanding the soldiers to eliminate another demon that emerged from the black door, she immediately turned her head: "What's wrong?"

"...A figure appeared near the Black Gate," Morris said solemnly, "but disappeared in the blink of an eye. Didn't you see it?"

"No," Lucretia shook her head and frowned slightly, "Damn it, I didn't pay attention to that direction just now..."

"...It doesn't matter," Morris glanced at the "witch" and waved his hand, "I took the photo."

Lucretia's expression was stunned: "Shoot...?"

Morris nodded, and at the same time, a series of clicking sounds of gear rotation and mechanism switching began to be heard in his body, and then his entire jaw joint fell off in a very terrifying way - a dark opening was exposed, and slowly Slowly spit out a palm-sized piece of photo paper.

Morris took out the photo paper and shook it in the air. He casually reinstalled the jaw joint with his other hand, then handed the photo paper to Lucretia: "I'm not sure, it seems to have been disturbed, but still You can see a white shadow."

Lucretia took the photo paper with a strange expression and saw the blurry figure near the black door, but her eyes couldn't help but fall on Morris: "...Why does it even have this function..."

Morris smiled slightly: "I said, I had many adventure experiences when I was young..."

Lucretia: "..."

…

Duncan seemed to vaguely feel that when he took his hand back, something had been quietly changed - whether it was his destiny or the future of the world, he couldn't tell what it was.

He just had a vague feeling that the decision he made at this moment was very critical, whether it was good or bad.

He raised his head and saw that the dark red core was still floating calmly close at hand. The light in the core flickered on and off, while the majestic "mountain" behind the core became quiet, and the lights on its surface The array appears a bit dim.

His rejection did not "irritate" this ancient god, he seemed just a little...confused.

After a while, a voice came from the core: "Why?"

Then, the light inside the core became slightly brighter than before, and it continued to speak: "Theoretically, it should be in line with your wishes to allow the sanctuary to be repaired - you have saved three city-states and 'taken over' the world, All city-states can be more completely saved, and they will no longer be threatened by loss of control and pollution for a long time... I have calculated all the possibilities, and you should be happy to see such a result, but why are you Will you refuse?"

Duncan was silent for a while and then suddenly asked: "Then what?"

The light in the dark red core seemed a little confused: "Then?"

Duncan said calmly: "What about after that 'quite a while' you said?"

The dark red core fell into silence, and the slowly flickering light seemed to show its hesitation.

"I don't know if there are any other plans - maybe your proposal is indeed the best choice at this stage, maybe everything will develop as you said, but at least for now... I can't agree to you."

Duncan said calmly, taking a small step back.

"Just think of it as intuition... I feel that there is a big problem with your 'plan'. I think there are other ways - not just to reset this shelter and continue to survive."

He paused and looked at the few glimmers of light in the core seriously.

"And just like your reaction - it's obvious that you're not sure what will happen 'quite some time' from now. Maybe my takeover can really get the entire asylum back to its best shape and make up for its current state of affairs. All flaws, but even you are not sure how long a shelter like this that is repaired and fully in line with the 'blueprint' can run -

"The sun that was once considered 'eternal' has been extinguished twice. The border fog known as the 'eternal curtain' has been collapsing since decades ago. The gods are gradually dying. You are also aware of your status. ——All things are perishable, and I don’t think that I can change all this as long as I sit in the position of the ancient kings and gods... After all, as a 'world' for all living beings to thrive, this 'infinite sea' 'Whether it's in terms of resources or space, it's too... cramped.

"And from a selfish point of view, I don't hope that after taking over all this, in another ten thousand years, I will sit in your position again and watch this sanctuary fall into the end again like you - At that time, who should I find to 'take over' all this?"