Deep Sea Embers

On the gravel wasteland shrouded in night, countless figures in black robes silently walked in the same direction. The dusk light from an invisible dimension illuminated their night-like robes, surrounding these tall phantoms. As they walked on the wasteland, a layer of light seemed real and illusory, gradually converging into rivers of dusk flowing in the darkness. In the end, these rivers of dusk came to the center of the wilderness of death, lingering around the funeral. There was a gate standing nearby. The triangular door was silent and solemn. At first, Duncan even thought it was a hill, but in almost the blink of an eye, he came to the door and saw that it was like another piece of earth rising up. It is majestic and towering, but the door in the center of the triangle is tightly closed, and dark red veins like blood vessels cover the door, like layers of chains.

The order of death has been locked by this door, and now the god who locked it himself is sitting quietly on the throne in front of the door - he is taller than Duncan imagined, even surpassing Tarrikin, even though Sitting on a chair, the body is almost as big as a house.

The robe is wearing a tattered robe as dark as night, and the outside of the robe is entangled with dark red thorns. But the face cannot be seen clearly under the shadow of the robe, as if the robe has no face in the first place, but is just a black shadow outlined by the robe. As stated in the sacred scriptures of the Church of Death:

Death is a faceless shadow, hidden in a coat called darkness. This shadow is everywhere, and when you see it, it sees you.

But now this faceless shadow of death is dead. A short sword with twists and sharp edges like alien thorns penetrated his chest, almost nailing him to the dark throne. His hood was tilted to one side, as if At the last moment of his death, he was still looking back at the triangular door behind him that represented the order of life and death.

This scene is like murder, except that the murderer is the deceased himself.

This is the most special scene among the four "dead gods" - at the end of death and decay, Bartok performed the second "killing" on himself.

Countless phantoms covered in twilight surrounded the gate, standing silently and motionless like frozen tombstones, but there was a path between them, as if specially reserved for visitors, stretching from the wilderness to the dark building. Beside the throne.

The tall gatekeeper who led the way slowly walked forward, with Duncan and Agatha following behind him, passing through the phantoms standing quietly along the path, and the dusk glow cast by the surrounding phantoms also reflected on them. Duncan was not affected by the dusk glow. Agatha's originally illusory and transparent body gradually solidified in the glow, and even seemed to have a physical entity for a short time.

They finally stopped in front of the throne. The tall gatekeeper who led the way nodded silently, then silently walked aside and stood between the other gatekeepers.

Duncan raised his head and looked at the figure who was taller than Tarrikin on the throne, looking at the first and last dead person in the world.

It’s no wonder that the “dead” that Agatha faked using the sailor couldn’t attract the gatekeeper’s attention—because the real, final dead is here.

Agatha raised her head and stared at the dark god for a long time. Even Duncan had no way of knowing what she was thinking at the moment - this person had all the memories of a devout believer in the Church of Death, but only had a " The "gatekeeper" of "Pin" never thought that he could come here, to this place that countless devout believers could not reach after their whole life of hard work, and never thought that he would see this scene, the funeral scene of the God of Death.

She stood like this quietly for a long time, then slowly looked away and said in a complicated tone: "Captain, what should we do next?"

Before Duncan could speak, another gatekeeper who was standing next to the throne came over silently. This tall phantom bent down and put something in Duncan's hand, and then turned back to the queue around the throne.

Duncan lowered his head and saw an ancient and exquisite hourglass in his hand - he recognized it, he had seen exactly the same thing in the palace where Queen Leviathan last slept.

But there is no sand in the hourglass in front of me.

Duncan frowned subconsciously and raised his head to ask the gatekeeper who brought the hourglass, but suddenly, he seemed to hear a low murmur from the breeze around him, and gradually understood something.

Under Agatha's concerned gaze, he stretched out his hand toward the top of the hourglass, and a cluster of flames soaked in starlight danced at his fingertips, and then slowly penetrated the shell of the hourglass and flowed into its glass container - the hourglass once The recorded life was briefly revived in the flames and began to flow as the hourglass turned over.

The next second, Duncan heard the illusory wind whistling in his ears. Light and darkness shattered silently, then circled and reorganized in his field of vision. He stood on a small mound, and the mound was illuminated by a sourceless dim light. In the distance, But it was a dark night with no end in sight, and nameless wildflowers were blooming under his feet. The breeze blew, and the wildflowers swayed in the wind, exuding a fragrance that seemed both real and illusory.

The sound of shovel digging came from the side. Duncan turned his head and saw a thin and small old man bending over and digging hard on the ground.

He had already dug a shallow pit, and next to it was piled black soil. He was digging with spades, and even though the pit he dug was very shallow, it felt like he was already here. Excavated for a hundred centuries.

Duncan watched this scene, and then walked towards the old man who was digging.

I'm here. Sorry, I may be a little late. "

"It's never too late," the old man said as he continued to bend down and dig. "Death is never early, but it's never too late. It's the right time to attend the appointment."

He stretched out his hand again and pointed to the small pile of soil next to him. At some point, an extra shovel was inserted into the piled black soil: "Can you help me?"

Duncan didn't say anything, he just stepped forward and picked up the shovel, then silently came to the old man's side, bent down and shoveled it into the soil hard.

For a moment, the only sound on the hillock was the sound of digging.

After an unknown amount of time, the thin old man suddenly spoke again: "The last time I saw the other three was a long time ago. Since then, I can only communicate through the channel left by Pilot 2. Their current situation How about it? "

"They are okay," Duncan said calmly while digging the soil carefully, "I made a promise with them to meet again in the new world."

The old man nodded: "Oh, that's good. It's something worth looking forward to." "

Duncan was silent for a few seconds, then raised his head and looked at the old man beside him: "Is this your true appearance?"

"No," the old man did not raise his head, but said slowly while digging the soil carefully, "I have no face, not from the beginning, but I feel that since we have decided to leave, I should still leave a face. "

"You don't know yourself?" Duncan was a little surprised and curious.

"Yes, I am different from the other three - I am Death itself. "The old man said calmly.

Duncan didn't speak, he waited for the old man to continue.

'The destruction process of each world is different. Some lasted for several years, some lasted longer, and the civilizations of some worlds struggled to support themselves, using various methods to delay the end, and even persisted for a hundred years. Long. "

The old man continued while digging into the soil under his feet.

In my world, everything happens very fast - too fast to experience any form of decline and resistance, but not short enough for people to be unable to detect the moment when things collapse. It is just right, Enough to let everyone know the process of approaching death.

"Many people, one by one, died at that moment. Death roared in time and space, even shaking the crumbling stars. At the last second of the home world, 'death' became the most shining and common thing in the entire universe. of, and the only thing born of.

“And all the good, the ugly, the fearful, the brave, the tough but fragile humanity and thinking were compressed in that one second.

"In this way, death is born after death. One by one, I opened my eyes. When I blinked for the first time, everything was undergoing its final collapse in front of me. When I blinked for the second time, hot and chaotic ashes had replaced the ash that I had only seen. "One side of my hometown."

The old man pressed the shovel hard, shoveled the soil out of the pit, and threw it aside.

I have been digging for a long time, I have been digging this hole since the day the sanctuary was established, but the job is almost impossible. It is difficult to kill death itself, but luckily, I have you to help, Fire Usurper. "

"Don't you want to go to the New World? If you are willing, there may be a way

"No, thank you for the invitation." The old man shook his head gently, shoveled a shovel of soil again, then raised his head and looked at Duncan calmly, "I am different from other 'people', you should have thought that I am not A survivor of the old world, I am a product of the Great Annihilation and a part of the scorching ashes. It is also for this reason that the work of determining the rules of death for this world has only been done by me - the shelter needs a recycling mechanism like me. ", to complete the complete cycle of birth and death, but the death of things in the new world should not be carried out by a similar 'god', even if this possibility is left.

"What is born from the Great Annihilation, leave it to the Great Annihilation."

Duncan stood silently for a moment before throwing another shovelful of soil into the grave.

"Don't you feel sorry?"

"No," the old man smiled, "I have done everything I need to do, and I will enjoy a peaceful sleep that will never be disturbed.

This is the greatest compliment to ‘death. But I have a word of advice for you. "

The movements in Duncan's hands stopped.

"Don't talk about sacrifice lightly, although you may feel that this sentence should not be uttered by me," the old man looked calmly into Duncan's eyes, "but in you, I feel like I am going to die. This smell is very familiar to me. But it shouldn't happen to you."

Duncan didn't speak, he just stood quietly.

Beside him, there was no figure of the thin old man, nor was there a second shovel - he was the only one standing here.

The God of Death lay quietly in the tomb, with most of his body buried in the soil. He closed his eyes calmly, as if he had been lying there a long time ago.

After a long silence, Duncan bent down and continued to scatter soil into the grave.