The mirror image turned to ashes, the darkness began to subside, the apparitions of the Queen's Guard vanished, the profane creations of the invading city-state disintegrated into rapidly dried black mud, and the guns and cannons of the city-state fell silent—replaced by an unspeakable fear and silence that enveloped the city.

Everyone could see the massive being, the one standing in the middle of the endless sea, overlooking the city-state from the clouds.

Just a few minutes ago, Mirror Frost had turned to ashes in the hands of the "giant", and what was going to happen next, no one could have guessed.

Only the dark green flames that spread across the city and covered the surface of the sea were still burning - but they didn't hurt, they just swept through the real world like phantoms, and when touched, only a harmless warmth could be felt.

Agatha lowered her head and picked up the high-ranking priest with a terrible face, the flames burning in her arm made the latter a little nervous, but compared to the atmosphere that enveloped the city at the moment, these little nervousness was not enough.

"Next...... High Rank Assistant's face was a little pale, he looked at Agatha, looking at the ghostly green spirit fire burning on the other party's body, the same as the flames that filled the city at the moment, and his voice trembled a little, "What will happen next?" ”

Agatha thought for a moment and shook her head, "I don't know. ”

The high-ranking assistant priest's eyes widened: "You don't know?!" ”

“…… "I didn't ask," Agatha said calmly, "and the situation was urgent, and I had no more options. ”

The High Assistant Priest was dumbfounded, he had many questions to ask—the origin of the "giant" on the sea, the nature of these flames in the city, and the reason for Agatha's appearance at the moment, but he couldn't ask any of them for a while.

Agatha ignored the reaction of the High Priest, she just turned her face slightly and watched as the last delicate pale ash slowly fell on her shoulder.

The ashes fluttering in the city-state had stopped at some point, and what fell on her shoulder seemed to be the last piece—in a trance, she felt as if someone had tapped her on the shoulder.

"I have to leave," she heard someone whisper in her ear, "the earthly journey is over, and there is still a long way to go." ”

"Have a nice trip, Bishop Ivan."

The wind blew from afar, through the gates of the Great Chapel of Silence, through the square in front of the gate, and rolled up the light ashes, allowing it to dissipate quietly in the wind.

……

On the top of the bell tower at the back of the church, Shirley, dressed in a black dress, looked down at the street below, and she sat on a stretch of wall at the edge of the eaves, her legs hanging outside, a little bored, while muttering, "It's quiet......"

"Everyone seems to be terrified...... Nina said as she stood on the small platform behind Shirley, glancing up at the sky, "I'm scared too......

"Who is not afraid to see it," Shirley craned her neck, looking cautiously at the large, hazy figure on the distant sea, "I really didn't expect that Mr. Duncan would end up solving this problem in this way—bigger than the last time he was in Plain." ”

"Uncle Duncan said that the root of the frost crisis is the mirror image, so to solve the problem, the mirror image must be completely solved - the ritual of sealing or stopping the cultists can only be safe for a while, and the solution once and for all is to uproot the mirror image and pull it to the real world to burn it," Nina looked serious, "but the scale of the mirror image is too large, so he needs a large enough 'fire' ......"

"Okay, okay, I know, you set the fire to it, right, I'll definitely mention it to Mr. Duncan when I get back," Shirley waved her hand repeatedly, and then raised her head a little confused, "But then again...... What is Mr. Duncan doing now? Isn't the matter settled? When will he come back? ”

Hearing this, Nina raised her head, looked at the huge figure on the sea outside the city, thought for a while and said, "Then I'll go up and ask?" ”

"Go, go," Shirley waved her hand quickly, "Don't forget to tell Mr. Duncan when you go up, just say that our homework was eaten by the Hound of the Shadows......"

Before she could finish speaking, Nina had already turned into a bright arc of flame in mid-air, and then rushed straight into the shadow that covered the sky and the sun outside the city.

……

From a height overlooking the frosty sea, Duncan's gaze pierced the gaps between the clouds, silently observing the sea and the city below.

The sea is boundless, stretching far into the distance, and the city-state is like a disc floating on the sea, bathed in the light of the sky, and at the end of the sea and the sky can be dimly seen a magnificent fog, which is like a wall, showing a faintly visible arc, surrounding the entire frontier of civilization.

It was an unprecedented perspective - he had never seen the world from this vantage point, and presumably no one in the world had ever done anything like it.

He could feel that the "flame" that supported his current posture was gradually extinguishing in the sea and in the city-state, and this state of standing in the sky could not be maintained for long, but he still wanted to take a closer look until the accumulated energy was exhausted.

At that moment, a small flame burst out of the clouds suddenly entered Duncan's field of vision.

The small flame danced among the clouds like a lilting swallow, and as the flame approached him, he heard Nina's voice come into his ears: "Uncle Duncan! What are you doing? ”

"I'm observing the world," Duncan smiled and whispered to the flame, raising his finger to make the latter jump at his fingertips, "how did you get up?" ”

"Shirley asked me to come up, she wondered what you were doing," Nina said cheerfully, the flames swaying at Duncan's fingertips—even though her posture had swelled into a cluster of flames larger than the clock tower, and still very small in Duncan's eyes, "You say you're observing the world?" What's so interesting? ”

Duncan smiled and raised his chin, "Look, down there." ”

The flame shook to the side.

“…… Wow. ”

"It's amazing, isn't it," Duncan whispered, "no one has ever looked down on the endless sea and the city-states of the sea from this height—and the fog in the distance, so large that even from my perspective at the moment, I feel suffocated when I see it." ”

Nina thought about it very seriously: "...... But if it is really a human of normal size, it will not feel it when it is at the border of the Eternal Veil, because it cannot see everything. ”

Duncan was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Yes, you're right, when ordinary people really come to that fog wall, they won't be aware of this feeling of depression and suffocation, because they can't see it all...... We were in high places, and there was so much to see. ”

"Uncle Duncan, how do I feel...... Do you seem to have another meaning in your words? ”

Duncan didn't respond to Nina's question, he just looked quietly into the distance, and after a while, he suddenly spoke: "Are you curious, on the other side of the fog...... What's there, exactly? ”

“…… The book says that the fog is endless, there is no opposite, there is only fog outside. ”

Duncan looked at his fingertips: "This is what the book says, what do you think of yourself?" ”

“…… I think the book is just a scholar's speculation, and Mr. Morris has said that everything that involves anything outside the civilized world is a scholar's speculation—the so-called research is the process of verifying conjecture," Nina said happily, "and there may be another world on the other side of the fog!" ”

Then she paused, as if she suddenly reacted: "Ah! Uncle Duncan, are you planning to walk through that fog? Do you really want to try it? It's close to the northern border, and you're so tall that you might ......."

"Unfortunately, it's not feasible," Duncan shook his head slightly, interrupting an excited Nina, "I can't stay in this state for long, let alone leave this sea in this state - there is a limit to ritual means, and all we can do now is watch here." ”

Nina seemed a little frustrated for a moment, and after a while, she tentatively spoke again: "Then I...... Can you go over and have a look? I can fly in the sky now~"

"But only for a short while, you know your limits yourself," Duncan shook his head again, "and I don't recommend it, we know too little about that fog, and adventurous is not the same as recklessness." ”

Nina was silent for a moment, then lengthened her voice, "Oh—then we're really just going to have to look here." ”

"The first step on the journey is to look into the distance," Duncan's mouth curled, he felt the flames supporting him begin to fade rapidly, the costly gesture had reached a critical point, but he still smiled before dispersing the projection of himself, "And we need to look beyond the distance, Nina, have you noticed the appearance of the city-state?" Such a regular disk, so neat that it does not look like a natural product, and the sea below, so deep and vast, that we still don't know what is at the bottom of the sea......

"The cultists believe that this world will eventually be destroyed and that they can create a new one, and the Holy See firmly believes that following the guidance of the four gods is the only way to maintain the eternity of the world, but there are too many things unknown in this world...... Whether it is the cultists, the Orthodox Church, or the scholars of the various city-states, all the views of everyone about the boundless sea are one-sided. ”

Between the sea and the sky, the huge body of the giant is quietly dissipating, and the mirror-like sea gradually recovers its undulating waves.

A flame fell from the clouds towards the city-state.

Duncan's conversation with Nina continued:

"Alright, Nina, let's go back, we still have a lot of things to do."

"Oh...... Oh yes! Uncle Duncan! I forgot to tell you that my homework with Shirley was eaten by the Hidden Hounds! ”

“…… It's okay, Maurice and I will prepare new ones for you. ”

(End of chapter)