Deep Sea Embers

Ding Ding Ding

That was the sound of the god of history carving sand with a stone chisel in the burned history.

The giant sat on the ground, seemingly unresponsive to the approach of the uninvited guest. He was still the same as Vanna remembered: old,

tall, with the vicissitudes of history like a knife and an axe carving deep grooves on his face, messy hair and beard, and a pair of sunken eyes.

But compared to what Vanna remembered, he seemed older and more hunched. On his tattered robe, one could see a faint glow of dark red flickering, as if the remaining fire was still burning on him. Occasionally, tiny sparks would splash out from the corners of his clothes as he moved. The light of the fire fell on the desert, creating a brief and vague phantom. The giant raised his arm again, and the stone hit the chisel. The chisel fell into the loose yellow sand, but it splashed out sparks and crisp sounds like the collision of metal and stone. However, yellow sand is something that cannot be carved after all. There will be no traces left in the sand. Only the crisp chiseling sound echoed hollowly in this endless sea of ​​sand.

Vanna stood neatly beside a sand dune, looking at the familiar figure not far away. After a brief hesitation, she finally followed the captain and took a tentative step forward.

Then, the giant's deep and hoarse voice finally broke the silence and reached her ears: "Time is the illusion imposed by the observer on the changes of things, and history is the shadow cast by the intelligent race in the illusion of time. For the intellectual observer, all meanings are based on 'people'. Without people, there is no meaning." "Fanna stopped a few meters away from the giant. "A long time ago, there were stones here, and history could be engraved on the stones, but now there is only sand here, and even the flames are only a small pile of fire," the giant stared at the bonfire that was swaying in the cold wind, and said to himself, "It's about to end. "

"Civilization began with fire and stone, and it will end there," Vanna couldn't help but say. This was what Tarekin told her in person in the long dream at Breeze Harbor.

The giant finally raised his head, and his eyes fell on Vanna.

"I had a very short dream recently. That dream came from a long, long time ago, leaving only vague shadows, but I saw you in those shadows," he looked into Vanna's eyes, and the wrinkles on his face piled up into a smile, "Thank you for accompanying me on that journey. Although I can't remember it clearly, I still remember that journey was originally very lonely. "

Vanna opened her eyes slightly: "That happened in Silantis's dream, you also know it? "

'When time is about to close, all events that have occurred in the time stream are connected to each other," Tarekin nodded gently, ""When this shelter was just built, I was deeply tied to its time stream. Now, I know a lot of things. "

Then he turned his head and looked at Duncan who was standing next to Vanna.

'I've been waiting for you for a long time, Fire Usurper,' the giant smiled faintly, 'but it's okay, this is the only meaningful thing in this place where there is nothing.'

"To be honest, I didn't expect it to be like this before," Duncan exhaled and spoke his mind frankly, "I thought that as a recorder of civilization, you would be better than other 'gods'. After all, 'memory' is one of your powers, and you should be able to fight against 'rot' better. "

"An anti-intuitive fact is that when the process of disaster is prolonged to a certain extent, the demise of 'history' often precedes the ethnic group itself," Tarek shook his head, "It's not always 'the history of an ethnic group dies after their demise. In many cases, their history has ended when an ethnic group is still alive. Forgetting is a terrible thing. "

The giant paused here and sighed softly: "Forgetting is terrible, especially when many things in this world will suddenly disappear. The "correction" inside the shelter cannot completely fill the gaps caused by the "blasphemous prototype", so countless lesions and tears are left in history. I tried my best to cover up those historical distortion points that may cause the spread of pollution and re-carve the memory of the world, again and again, again and again. The stone finally turned into sand, and the sand turned into ashes. Now it is almost impossible to repair it. "

Tarrekin shook his head and threw down the stone and chisel in his hand. The moment they fell into the yellow sand, they shattered and turned into sand that was no different from the surroundings.

Duncan took a step forward and came to the giant who was taller than the tallest human when he sat down: "You should know what I am here for. "

"I know, Navigator II has contacted me," Tarrekin said calmly, "You are here to end this world. Just like what I saw a long time ago, you will burn everything, and everything will eventually be destroyed in your hands. This is your first step to save them. "

Duncan met the giant's gaze calmly and asked curiously: "Do you mean before the establishment of the shelter, when you and other ancient kings first discovered me? Since then, you called me the "Fire Usurper" because you foresaw the future?"

"I don't have the ability to calculate the entire world like Voyager 2, but I do have eyes that can see far away on the timeline. Although it doesn't always work that well," Tarezin laughed, with a nostalgic tone in his voice. , “In the old world, those who believed in me believed that I could do this, so I could do this.”

'I have always been worried that 'burning everything' will lead to the 'flame ending'," Duncan thought for a moment and said, "This worry arose shortly after Pilot One proposed the 'takeover plan' to me - one by one. A preacher of the end showed me the end of this ending. In that branch of history, I also burned the world, but the world still inevitably ushered in the end. "

He paused for a moment before speaking frankly about his long-standing worries: "This is what I've been worried about, and it's the only thing I'm worried about so far. That 'flame ending' is like a shadow, and I always feel Its effective conditions seem to be very close to the 'first step' I am going to do next. When I complete the 'first step', will I mistakenly enter the historical branch of the 'flame ending'?

Tarijin, who was sitting in the yellow sand, leaned forward slightly and stared into Duncan's eyes for a long time. After a while, the old giant finally withdrew his gaze.

"So, there is a key point of disagreement," he said, his voice low. "Whether it is Pilot 1's plan or your current plan, 'burning the world'" is the first step that cannot be avoided. "The difference then is who you are when it comes to executing this plan."

Listening to the words of this "Eternal Burning Fire", Duncan suddenly felt something in his heart!

He finally vaguely grasped the key point, which he had always been vaguely aware of, but had never been able to determine.

He subconsciously took another half step forward and stared into the giant's eyes: "What do you mean?

"Captain Duncan's power has its limits," Tarezin said calmly. "You have been in this incarnation for too long, but

This is just an incarnation after all. "

Duncan's eyes widened slightly. He lowered his head and looked at his hands. He finally understood what he had always vaguely felt was wrong and why he had that instinctive worry.

That was because his "self" that was bound in this body noticed the limitations of the incarnation, and thus subconsciously issued a warning that he was not Duncan, but Zhou Ming.

Duncan is just one of his incarnations, just like Pland's antique shop manager, just like Frost's cemetery guard - the captain of the Lost Home is just one of three incarnations.

Duncan's first spiritual walk occurred when he activated the brass compass. Zhou Ming's first spiritual walk occurred when he opened the door of his bachelor's apartment and walked through the thick fog. !

He took a gentle breath, letting his thoughts slowly calm down.

In fact, he had already noticed these things before. As "Zhou Ming", he had realized that his so-called "body" on the Lost Home was actually the same as the two "corpse incarnations" of Purander and Hanshuang. There is no essential difference. He realized that the identity of "Duncan" should be his first incarnation in this world, but until now, he had never thought carefully about the deeper meaning of this matter-is he Duncan or Zhou? Ming, this issue has been the key from the beginning. It has been the key from the beginning.

Zhou Ming suddenly frowned. He suddenly recalled the first words the goat head said when he saw him after he arrived at the Lost Home, and the words it would confirm to him every time -

"Name?"

"Oh, it seems you are beginning to understand the nature of this problem." At this moment, Tarijin's voice suddenly came from the side, awakening Duncan from his meditation, "Then can you control your thoughts a little bit? The starlight is almost burning my eyes."

Duncan reacted suddenly, and then he noticed that a layer of faint starlight had spread around him. The starlight shone in the surrounding yellow sand, and it even seemed that the desert was gradually being saturated with the starry sky. Tarijin raised his broken The robe blocked the starlight shining on him, and his tone seemed helpless.

On the other hand, Fanna, who was standing next to him, seemed to be fine, just standing there in a daze.

There was a kind of physical education student standing next to the teacher. Mei Duncan, who couldn't keep up with his thoughts, coughed twice in embarrassment: "Uh, sorry."

The starlight surrounding him gradually shrank.