Deep Sea Embers

Something is emerging from the uniform gray-white background, like a long tunnel reaching the end, and the scene at the exit suddenly comes into view.

Shirley climbed up to the mast with dexterity. She stared excitedly into the distance with her eyes wide open, and shouted happily towards the deck: "There is something ahead! It's not a phantom, it looks like something real!"

The scene that emerged at the end of the "route" gradually became clearer, and the surrounding even gray-white background began to melt quickly like morning mist under the sun. Duncan first distinguished the sparkling water from the quickly clear scene - —Then, there was the mist floating on the water, and many shadows, large and small, beyond.

Those large and small shadows floated on the water, gradually becoming a clear island.

That was the mysterious "island" that Captain Kalani mentioned in her journal!

Everyone on the Lost Home came to the deck, looking at the sea and islands that seemed to suddenly emerge from nothingness with inexplicable excitement and faint nervousness. They saw the glowing sea surface quickly. It spread to the vicinity, and spread to the sides of the Lost Home. The sound of rushing water suddenly sounded, and then there was a shock and vibration throughout the ship - the Lost Home sailed into this sea water, and after experiencing that After a long and strange "journey between space and time", the sound of breaking waves hitting the hull of the ship sounded so beautiful.

The sailor tightly held the steering wheel in his hand and looked at the sea and islands that quickly filled the entire field of vision from the high platform at the stern. Fragmented memories seemed to be awakened, and countless coherent or incoherent pictures rolled in his mind. An unspeakable sense of time dislocation came over me——

He still remembers this place. He still remembers that when the Sea Song finally arrived at an island after a long drift, the chaotic sounds on the ship, the zombie-like sailors woke up from a long nightmare, and the priest who had lost himself suddenly recovered. During the Qingming Festival, people prostrate themselves on the ground, kissing the rusted and collapsed deck, and then turned into spirits and ashes in the sea breeze...

He still remembered this place - he even felt that he had never left, that he had always been standing on the bridge of the Sea Song.

It wasn't until his hands holding the steering wheel suddenly felt a slight sting that he suddenly woke up from the hallucination of time being displaced.

He lowered his head and saw a thin layer of flames floating on the dark surface of the helm. Then the flames dissipated, and the stinging sensation also disappeared.

"I still have a mission...Yes, I still have a mission to complete...Thank you for waking me up..." The sailor murmured to himself, thanking the Lost Home for waking him up when he was about to be lost, and then raised his head again , while carefully calibrating the course among those familiar islands, he whispered softly, "Captain Kalani, I'm back..."

The large-scale sailing expedition ship sailed cautiously in the mist-filled sea, passing between the dark "islands", looking for gaps in the fog. The Brilliant Star also slowed down and followed carefully. After Lost Home.

After a while, many more white shadows flew out from the deck of the Brilliant Star. They were countless paper-folded seabirds - they flapped their wings through the mist, first hovering between the Lost Home and the Brilliant Star. The ship circled around, and then cautiously expanded the range of its hovering little by little, flying over the surrounding islands.

Duncan raised his head and looked at the "scouts" released and controlled by Lucretia, and found that they had not been attacked or corrupted or deformed - it seemed safer than expected.

"There are many slender shadows around these 'islands', hidden under the water, like some kind of spreading limbs," Lucretia's voice rang in Duncan's mind, "In addition, when looking down from the air , it can be found that the shapes of these 'islands' are very similar, and biological structures can be discerned on the surface of some of the islands... Just like what was mentioned in the log, they are all Leviathan's corpses."

"Yeah." Duncan responded softly, his eyes also scanning the "islands" floating in the mist. In some shallow places, he also noticed the shadows spreading out from under the islands - those shadows were relatively They appear "slender" for an island, but in fact each one is still larger than the hull of the Lost Home. They stretch stiffly in the water, showing no response to the approach of outsiders, showing that they have been dead for a long time. appearance.

Duncan recalled the huge tentacles and the pale eyes he had seen beneath the frost.

He knew that the "Leviathan beasts" that carried the city-state were actually "fake" created by the Holy Lord Netherworld, and those here were the real Leviathans.

"His descendants died around him and rested at the end of the world..."

Morris's voice came from the side, with a slight metallic trembling sound. Duncan turned around to follow the sound and saw that Morris had transformed into that "casting form" again at some point. There was the sound of gears turning and valves opening and closing.

Morris turned his head, and a reed vibrated in his chest: "It's one thing to imagine it in your mind, but it's another thing to see it with your own eyes, right?"

Then he paused and then raised his finger to point at his body: "It never hurts to be cautious. Flesh and blood is very fragile here."

"...If your flesh and blood body is broken, you can still let Vanna help heal it. If your copper shell is broken, I'm afraid you will have to find a fitter - there are no fitters on the ship."

"Nina can help," Morris said casually, "I gave her the design of my body, and she is pretty good at it now."

Duncan thought about it and felt it made sense.

It's just a bit evil.

At the same time, Vanna was standing on the edge of the front deck, looking at the sea in the distance in a daze, and a hazy shadow stood in the mist beside her.

"I...can hear His voice, never been so close," she whispered as if talking to herself, "It's everywhere, as if the entire sea is His whisper...He's speaking in my ear , but I can’t hear clearly.”

"Maybe it's because we are too close, or maybe because this is really just meaningless babble," Agatha's voice came from the shadows, "No matter what, you need to be more cautious here than others. ——You are His saint, your hearing and perception of Him are keener than others, and you are more susceptible to its influence. Even with the protection of the captain, you must be careful that your mind deviates from human nature. "

"I know," Fanna nodded slightly, "Thanks for the reminder."

Agatha said nothing more, but stood thoughtfully in the fog. After a long time, she spoke softly: "What do you think... Bartok's country will be like?"

Fanna blinked, but didn't know how to answer this question.

"His descendants died around Him...here, the dead Leviathan turned into this archipelago, and the Storm Goddess slept surrounded by them. This made me suddenly curious about where other gods rested," Ah Gaza slowly said in thought, "My teachings tell me that the souls of the dead will pass through that gate and usher in eternal peace in Bartok's country. My memory tells me that those 'messengers of death' 'are real, they will pass through the spirit world and answer the gatekeeper's call...

"But where is that gate? Is it standing somewhere at the end of this world? Are those messengers there too? Those who died... will the wilderness of souls they finally arrived at be in the center of such a sea?

"I feel... these are hard to imagine."

Vanna opened her eyes slightly, looking at the figure standing in the fog with some surprise - these doubts should not come from the mouth of a saint, a former gatekeeper, but she could not help but be attracted by Aga Shah's series of questions aroused her thoughts, and she even began to have the same curiosity.

She turned around and looked into the mist in the distance.

What would the temple that "governs all storms and anchors the cornerstone of the sea" described in the "Book of Storms" look like?

"There is a large island ahead," Lucretia's voice sounded in Duncan's heart, with a hint of excitement, "There seems to be a large building on the island!"

The fog seemed to recede around the Lost Home, a gap appeared in front of the bow, and at the end of the sea that suddenly became clear, a huge island appeared in front of everyone, illuminated by the mysterious chaotic light coming from the sky. In eyes.

It is an "island" that seems to be "stacked" by countless huge black boulders. Rather than being a natural product, it is more like a "wonder building" artificially built by an ancient civilization. The cut and intricately arranged rectangular stones rise from the sea and are piled up into an undulating structure as far as the eye can see, and the huge "palace" stands on top of countless rectangular stones——

It is also made of stone-like "materials", with a black or dark green surface, and a crystal-like green substance embedded between the stones, creating a gloomy, complex and mysterious exterior wall. The "palace" as a whole presents a layered structure, with astonishingly huge pillars supporting the outer edge of its heavy lower layer, and the upper part has many weird hollows, as if they were deliberately reserved for some kind of huge creature. Used for entry and exit.

"Amazing... structure," Morris stared blankly at the huge palace standing in the dim light. The joint of his jaw almost fell off. He was stunned for a long time before he said, "How was it built?!"

"Anyway, it is definitely not something that the current city-state civilization can build." Duncan said casually, and then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed those... "things" spreading out from the side of the lower level of the palace.

It was some kind of huge limb, like the tentacles of a sea beast, extending from the gap on the side of the palace to the sea.

Gomona is there.

"We moved closer," Duncan said solemnly, "We found her."