Deep Sea Embers

In the deserted city, Fanna walked cautiously, her invisible travel companion walking beside her, happily introducing this prosperous, lively and beautiful place to her.

This is the most prosperous city on the entire "continent". Almost everyone knows it, and most people live here or at least pass through it on their travels. The guards here are dedicated to their duties, and the residents here are friendly and generous. All the new and interesting products in the world are gathered here, as well as all the new and interesting ideas and stories in the world.

"Everyone likes it here, and you will too," the cheerful voice said beside Fanna. "As long as you stay here for a few days, you will know its appeal!"

Fanna listened to the enthusiastic tour guide beside her talking about her, but some weird but practical thoughts were running in her mind.

She was thinking that she couldn't see "people" in this city at all, but she could occasionally hear the voices of other people next to her.

So to the residents here (who may actually exist), am I equivalent to a blind man carrying a big sword?

Such a dangerous armed man walks on the street with his eyes closed, swaggering around, are the invisible residents really not reacting at all?

She then thought about the noisy guide next to her - judging from her voice, she was a young girl - she couldn't see her or even touch her, so it was naturally difficult to "visit" this place according to the other person's guidance. place, so Fanna just explored among these ruins based on her own judgment along the way, basically not paying attention to whether the "traveler" beside her was following her or whether the other party could keep up, but the "guide" "Miss" didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with this.

She just naturally followed her around. No matter which way Fanna suddenly walked towards, her voice remained at a distance that was neither far nor close, and she communicated with Fanna smoothly and naturally, as if this was what she was doing for "new life". Visiting routes planned by “Friends”,

Fanna stopped near a crossroads, silently sorting out her thoughts. What kind of existence does she, a "foreigner", have to the residents of this invisible city and the invisible traveling companion beside her?

The moment this doubt emerged, a trance stronger than before suddenly hit her heart. Fanna suddenly felt that her mind went blank for a moment, as if she had forgotten something very important.

She raised her head in confusion and looked at the strange and desolate ruins. She vaguely remembered that she had noticed something "irrational" before, but now this sense of irrationality had disappeared.

"Would you like some fruit?" A voice suddenly came from the nearby roadside, interrupting Fanna's thoughts. The voice sounded like a gentle old woman, "They were all delivered to the city this morning. , fresh and thirst-quenching, you must have been traveling for a long time, right?

Fanna looked around and saw a pile of planks and stones half buried by the yellow sand on the side of the road, and a vague black figure sitting in the ruins. The black figure stretched out its hand to her, like a salesperson selling goods. Vendor 1——

The ball of yellow sand was blown by the wind and fell from the black shadow's hand, while there was only sand on the wooden board in front of him.

Fanna blinked, and the black shadow disappeared in an instant.

She stood alone at the crossroads, with only the hollow sound of wind in her ears. After a while, she realized that even the voice of her "invisible traveling companion" had disappeared, and had not sounded for a long time.

Fanna turned her head, looked towards the direction where she last felt the other person's breath, and asked tentatively: "Are you still there?"

She got no response.

Some dust was blown up by the wind and fell from a nearby abandoned wall. A vague and intermittent familiar sound came from the wind and sand: "ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding."

Fanna handed the giant sword to her left hand, and used her right hand to draw a familiar symbol on her chest. She couldn't remember the meaning of this symbol, but her body did this action naturally. This seemed to be a habit she had developed a long time ago. , some kind of prayer gesture, and then she cautiously held the giant sword in her hand and walked deeper into the city.

She walked in these ruins for a long time. The wide and complicated roads in the city seemed to never end. There were buildings and paths buried in the yellow sand everywhere. Even if the broken and collapsed buildings were buried in the sand, they were still vaguely visible. You can see some of the exquisite appearance of the past.

Fanna suddenly thought that this might really be the liveliest and most prosperous city in the world. I don’t know how many people live in this huge city, and I don’t know how many busy caravans shuttle through the city, supplying here with supplies from all over the world. Supplies from around the world and stories from far away.

But that was before it was abandoned.

Why was such a prosperous city abandoned? When was it abandoned? And after all, why did you come here?

Fanna crossed a fork in the road and continued walking forward with questions popping up from time to time. But when she passed a building, she suddenly stopped.

There was a strange sound of Kerala in the wind, and then a piece of paper flew out of the wind and sand, swirling and drifting past her eyes. There were faintly visible words on the paper.

Paper? Can any paper be preserved in this windy sand?

Fanna's heart moved, and her body had already reacted first - she grabbed the piece of paper that flew past her eyes, and then looked at the content on it with surprise.

It turned out to be a broken newspaper. The words related to the masthead of the newspaper could still be seen in the incomplete upper part. On the lower part of the paper, there were many badly worn and worn handwritings. Fanna carefully identified it for a long time. , only to find a relatively complete sentence:

"A fire broke out in Puland. The fire spread from the upper city to the lower city. Many factories and neighborhoods were damaged in the fire. Resident casualties

Fanna stared blankly at the words on the paper that seemed to have been baptized by time, and her mind was filled with confusion. After a long time, she came up with a question:

Where is Jinland?

The next second, she saw the fragments of newspaper in her hand turning into yellow sand silently, drifting in the air with the wind.

Fanna stood there and felt comfortable for a while, then shook off the remaining sand and dust from her hands, and then slowly walked forward.

After walking forward for a long time,

She suddenly stopped in front of a building again.

In the floating dust and mist, the appearance of the building seemed very abrupt. It seemed to have suddenly emerged from the wind and sand, standing somewhat incongruously among the surrounding piles of broken and collapsed building debris, like a giant beast, silent. He stared at Vanna. It was a small church with multiple spiers. For a church, it was not grand in scale, but it also looked particularly solemn.

It has obviously been abandoned. Its outer walls are mottled and cracked, the doors and windows are broken and scattered, and the roof tiles have fallen off. It looks abandoned for a long time, but compared with the ruins around it that have completely collapsed into broken bricks and tiles and were buried in the sand. It at least maintained the integrity of its main structure—and what Fanna was concerned about was that there was a small flower bed in front of the church.

The flower bed has also been damaged, and there are only some dead plants in it. But what is incredible is that there is not a grain of sand in the flower bed. Even in this place where yellow sand is everywhere and the wind never stops, the flower bed looks dry. Clean.

It was as if someone was still taking care of the cracked flower bed and the withered plants inside. Vanna stopped in front of the flower bed for a while, looked up at the dilapidated chapel, and then stepped forward after a brief hesitation.

The moment she stepped through the church door, she felt something change - the eternal heat in the desert seemed to be instantly isolated to another world, and the next second, she saw bright lights in front of her.

On the outside, the church looks abandoned for an unknown number of years, but inside it is actually clean and tidy. The doors, windows and roof are intact, and bright lights illuminate the entire main hall. Rows of empty wooden benches are neatly arranged. The floor was arranged in the hall, and at the end of the bench was a high pulpit - lamps shone from above the wooden pulpit, bathing it in soft light.

Fanna frowned, vaguely feeling that this place was familiar.

She had seen this place before, or at least heard people mention it, but she couldn't remember it. She couldn't even remember what kind of life she had experienced before she stepped into this boundless desert.

She held the sword tightly and walked down the aisle in the middle of the hall. After checking her surroundings, she finally stopped in front of a bench.

She had been trudging for so long that she felt she needed to sit down and rest, if only for a few minutes.

She sat down on the bench. The old chair made a slight creaking sound. She took a long breath and felt that her joints, like the old chair, were overwhelmed after being filled with sand. Crunch.

Then, she suddenly heard a slight breathing sound.

There was a man sitting next to her.

Vanna turned back suddenly.

It was a young nun wearing a black church robe, who looked to be about the same age as Vanna. She sat quietly next to her, her head lowered, as if she was praying devoutly.

one person! A visible, real person? !

Vanna has almost forgotten the last time she saw "another person". In all her memories, she seems to have been trekking on this never-ending journey, accompanied only by sand and weird sounds. , she even began to feel that the world was originally like this, and she was the only "human being" in the world, but now she saw a person!

The excitement was hard to suppress, and at the same time, a subtle sense of confusion and familiarity emerged in her heart. Fanna subconsciously said: "You are -

"You have stayed here for too long, sister," the young nun who was praying suddenly raised her head and interrupted Vanna's words. She looked at the latter calmly, "Ashes are easily assimilated by ashes."