Deep Sea Embers

In the future of fire, the world is burned up.

The flame is not eternal, and the firewood in the shelter also has its limit. Beyond the reshaped earth and ocean, the eternal curtain still binds the entire world—and when everything within the curtain is turned to ashes in the flames, The world ends in a long cooling down.

It is said that this "cooling" lasted for four hundred years, and finally, the era of embers came - cold ashes covered the entire world, no new flames rose, no living creatures cried or breathed, the world was here It stagnated in a pile of cold ashes. Nothing new was born, and nothing old died.

In a sense, this sanctuary that has experienced the Great Annihilation has finally ushered in eternal peace, and embers will eventually become embers - the doomsday is permanently solidified at this moment, and no new suffering will come to this land. .

Duncan came to a big rock and sat down without any hesitation. He didn't care at all about the ashes everywhere. He looked at the ruins of the city on the plain that were still weathering and crumbling and turning into ashes. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly He said: "In other words, there is no turning back from this option."

"You can reshape everything," Crete came to Duncan's side, his thin and skinny body standing like a bent branch in the cold wind, "but there is only one exception."

"Myself," Duncan said softly, coming to his senses, "I can't redefine myself..."

Crete remained silent and spoke after a long time: "If there is really no way, the future of the flame will at least be a continuation - but I hope you can be cautious and cautious. Time is like a river, and many of its tributaries can be rewritten. , but only the main trunk crossing the end point, rushing past, there is no chance to look back."

"Don't worry about this. The moment I rejected the Pilot One plan, I had already figured out these things - what you showed me only further improved my original speculation," Duncan shook his head gently. He shook his head and said, "Compared with these, my real gain is that I finally confirmed one thing..."

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and slowly held it in the air - the green spiritual fire immediately burned from between his fingers, expanding and jumping in the air like a phantom.

The world of ashes seemed to be touched by this wisp of flame. The wind on the top of the mountain suddenly became a little restless, and even the nearby ashes undulated abnormally - but this was only a momentary illusion. The next second, the wind and ashes returned to their original state.

There is nothing left to move forward in this ended branch of history.

Duncan stared at the flame in his hand quietly, then turned his palm over.

The spiritual fire was extinguished in an instant, and the silent and broken flames turned into many fine sparks, briefly flickering on his fingertips. For a moment, they looked like the phantom of distant starlight.

Duncan looked at this scene with a solemn expression, thoughtfully: "These 'fires' are indeed just appearances."

Then he turned his head and looked at Crete, who was still standing quietly beside him: "If you can see this branch of history, can you see my other choices?"

"I'm sorry, we can't," Crete met Duncan's gaze calmly, "We are ghosts trapped in the time loop inside the sanctuary. We can only see everything within the scope of this time loop, and your other options are They are all outside the cycle - to us, it is like a huge void in the night, and I cannot see beyond the vast darkness."

"Outside the loop...that is to say, outside the 'known world' of Sanctuary?" Duncan reacted immediately, "Sure enough, we still have to find a way to break through the eternal curtain?"

"...Sorry, I don't know."

"Really," Duncan nodded slowly, suddenly feeling a little emotional, "At this time, I am a little envious of Duncan Abnomar a century ago. You revealed the future to him. Although this was an accident, at least He knows where he needs to go."

"Fumbling in the dark is suffering, knowing destiny is also suffering. At the end of time, there is no happiness - I'm sorry, we have no good news, not from the day we set out."

"It's not a big problem, and I don't expect good news. It's enough to get some enlightenment this time." Duncan stood up from the big rock without any ashes on his body. "It's time to leave here."

His eyes looked towards the sky and the earth here for the last time, scanning the faint sunlight behind the clouds and the towering cathedral in the ruins of the city. He did not ask Crete about the future of the others or their whereabouts at the moment. Instead, he turned around without any regret.

This branch of history collapsed behind him, like the fire at Pland.

Light and shadow were chaotically reorganized, things returned to their original positions, and the dim and closed cabin appeared in Duncan's field of vision again. The door to the subspace still stood quietly at the bottom of the cabin - it was as if nothing had happened here.

Crete was still standing next to the door, still reaching out and slapping the doorframe.

Then he took back his hand and bent slightly towards Duncan: "I hope this doesn't cause you any trouble."

"It's not a big problem. I've been troubled by enough things, not less than this," Duncan said casually, "At least now we have confirmed that there is a bad road."

"The shelter is in dilapidated condition, and there is no need to repair it. Although I shouldn't say this," Crete sighed, "but its destruction is already doomed - the doomsday has been chasing it in the long river of time from the moment of the Great Annihilation. The world is really catching up now."

"...Doomsday theory, this is the theory that the preachers of the end have been promoting. People have always thought that this is just your crazy words after madness."

"There is only a thin line between madness and reason, and 'truth' never cares about the difference between the two," Crete said with a calm expression, "Perhaps from another perspective, my companions have never been truly crazy. However, they were just... a little tired, so they chose to embrace all the truth and became madmen in everyone's eyes."

"Will you also become like that?" Duncan was suddenly curious, "In a certain branch of time, or in the near future..."

"...I don't know," Crete hesitated for a moment, then slowly shook his head, "Dusk has arrived, but the world will not suddenly go out. There is still a short period of my journey, and in order to meet him within this window period, You communicate, I can only intercept the most stable 'part' of myself and come here, so now I don't know what I saw at the end of the journey, maybe..."

He paused briefly and continued: "Maybe one day in the future, we will meet again. At that time, what appears in front of you may be a crazy lunatic, or a twisted and invisible monster. That means I have reached the end. , wandering in the darkness for too long, maybe..."

Crete suddenly stopped when he said this, and then his eyes changed slightly, as if he suddenly saw a direction in the long darkness, and suddenly thought of something, and the deep wrinkles and ravines on his face unfurled, Looking at Duncan: "By the way... I will try my best to see you again. No matter whether I am sober or crazy, I will definitely appear in front of you - I am afraid there is no suitable window period at that time, so I will most likely I can't talk to you directly like I do now, and you may not even be able to see me...but I will definitely find a way to leave something, so you can..."

The old man's voice stopped suddenly.

In the dark and empty cabin, only Duncan's figure stood quietly in front of the subspace door.

After standing like a sculpture for a long time, he finally turned around, picked up the brass lantern hanging not far away, and slowly walked towards the exit of the bottom cabin.

…

It is now twelve hours after dark.

Just as scholars warned - the sun did not rise and the morning glow did not appear on the sea level.

If there were still some people who had illusions before and were still hoping that the dusk that lasted for seventy-two hours was just an "isolated incident" and that the sun would still rise the next day, then now this fluke Has been completely extinguished.

The long night has become a fact.

Near Qingfeng Port, four giant ark ships were still docked near the coastline, and the "luminous geometry" located on the east coast continued to release soft, pale golden "sunshine", preventing the entire city-state from completely falling into darkness.

The Academy Ark is brightly lit.

The short and fat Rune stood in the "Temple of Knowledge" on the top floor of the Ark, praying devoutly in front of the icon of Lachem, the God of Wisdom.

The prayer composed of "0" and "1" with a very strange rhythm and pronunciation is gradually coming to an end.

The smoke of incense rose in the temple, and the icon of Lachem stood silently in the smoke. The icon did not have a human form, but was a dark rectangular stone tablet - the words "Eye of Wisdom" were inscribed on the top of the stone tablet. There are runes, dense symbols and fine lines all over the entire monument.

In the sound of Rune's blessing, those symbols and lines faintly and slowly changed in brightness and extinction, as if they were injected with life for a while.

But as the blessings ended, the short-lived "vitality" of the stone tablet also dissipated.

Lu En turned his head and looked at the Priest of Truth who had been waiting by his side since just now: "How is the situation now?"

"The bad news is that the sun has not risen yet, and the night seems to be going on for a really long time. The good news is that according to monitoring data from various city-states, the drop in temperature is gradually slowing down. According to the current cooling curve, it seems that The extreme low temperatures in each city-state during this night will not be lower than the lowest value in historical records, and the world will not be completely frozen in the long night as you fear... the 'cold disaster' will not happen."

After listening to the priest's report, Lu En finally relaxed slightly, but soon frowned: "...Is this really good news?"