The Frost Queen was silent for more than ten seconds, unable to see through the slightest mood in those purple eyes that were as clear and quiet as jewels, until this silence almost froze into suffocation, and she nodded lightly: "Oh." ”

Then she thought about it again and asked, "And how is the situation of the frost now?" ”

Duncan looked into her eyes and spoke in a calm tone, "...... Tirion is the new Consul, the Sea Mist Fleet is taking over the city-state in full swing, and the remaining Frost Navy will be reorganized. ”

A smile appeared on Ray Nora's face, "Ah, Tyrion, one of the possibilities...... Fate is really an unclear thing, and the result is not bad, what do you think? ”

Duncan didn't respond, but continued to speak calmly: "There is one more thing, the current rulers of the city-state church listen to my orders. ”

Ray Nora finally showed a slightly surprised expression, and she tilted her head slightly: "Huh? Sounds ...... Are you the actual owner of Frost now? ”

"I'm not interested in controlling a city-state - but you can think so."

"Now I'm more and more curious about what happened to make the Frost situation like this," Ray Nora's expression became serious, "I've had a lot of things planned, but your presence is out of all plans, you mentioned a catastrophe, but in my prediction, even if he gets out of control to a certain extent, the situation will not get worse to the extent you said......"

"An army of replicas in the deep has invaded Frost, and a mirror city-state is on the verge of resurfaced into the real world," Duncan said in a deep voice, "As you tried to appease the tentacles in the depths, a group of cultists sensed the power it was exuding—and the Frost City-State's continued exploitation of that boiling gold mine helped the heretics to some extent. ”

Duncan then did not hide it, and he informed the former queen of what happened to Frost, including the changes caused by his own intervention.

Ray Nora didn't interrupt from beginning to end, she listened quietly until Duncan's voice fell, she let out a long sigh of relief, and a complicated smile appeared on her face: "Compared to the old gods in the deep sea, it is indeed a crazy human who is a little more terrifying. ”

Then she paused and sighed with relief: "But fortunately, in the worst course, there is a not-so-bad end - most people just survive." ”

"Even if the city-state ends up being the property of me, the 'shadow of subspace'?" Duncan asked deliberately.

Ray Nora just smiled, and then looked into Duncan's eyes very seriously: "Then you must be the most powerful guardian that Frost has ever seen." ”

"You have a different attitude towards me than others," Duncan sighed a little, "I have met quite a few people since I regained my humanity, and most of them seem to be startled, and very few of them can remain calm when they first meet me, let alone have such an optimistic attitude as you. ”

Ray Nora shook her head: "It's not optimistic, it's true, you've regained your humanity and you're helping Frost, so you're the most powerful guardian of the city-state, I know most people have an instinctive fear of it, but I've embraced it for too long, and I'm used to seeing things as they really are." ”

“…… Now it's my turn to ask," Duncan was silent for only two or three seconds after hearing the Frost Queen's words, then he organized his words and spoke, "The clone of the Nether Lord...... When exactly did it invade the real world? Will a similar 'invasion' happen again? ”

"I'm sorry, I can't give a clear answer to the first question," Ray Nora said apologetically, "and when I became aware of His presence, He was already in the depths of the sea, and in the first few encounters, I heard only one voice...... He said He was a false replica, He said He needed to stop running. ”

"Contact?" Duncan instantly noticed the word, "How did you first 'get involved' with Him?" And listen to you...... This clone takes the initiative to tell you about the situation and even asks you for help? ”

Ray Nora nodded slightly, "I don't know if you've heard that I'm a natural psyker?" ”

“…… I've heard rumors about this, and they say you can even know everything from the past to the present. ”

"The rumors are exaggerated, I can neither predict the future nor see all things, but at least one thing is true, born psionics...... I can really 'hear' the 'voice' that ordinary people can't touch," Lei Nora slowly spoke as she thought as she seemed to fall into a memory, "At a very young age, I often heard those murmurs of unknown origins, or saw strange and bizarre scenes in my sleep, just like most innate psychics, these terrible 'diseases' were very dangerous, and even threatened the caregivers around me several times—

"Can you imagine? You're caring for a two- or three-year-old child, and then the child is just dreaming in a deep sleep, and the room suddenly appears with a deadly scream and a shadow of squirming and squirming...... After realizing that the horrible anomalies in the home were caused by the youngest child, my parents had to send me to church, and like any other innate psychic being, I was placed in the care of ...... 'professionals'.

"I grew up until I was twelve years old in the cellars of the deepest part of the cathedral, with armed monks and ascetics as my nannies, special shackles and neck bands as my toys, a blessed iron cage as my bed, and the gatekeepers checking three times a week to make sure that my mind was still on the human side—and it was not until my twelfth birthday, when my spirit and will were growing stronger, and my perception clearer, that the archbishop, believing that I had been stable on the 'human' side, blessed and baptized me, and declared me a human being.

"After that, I underwent rigorous training to adapt and control my talents, and at the same time learned to live peacefully with my 'nightmares', and over the course of four years, I gradually learned that my 'dreams' are essentially a kind of resonance with the world, and that the whispers and lights in dreams come from those beings who are outside the boundaries of reality, trying to connect with the real world, and after confirming that my mind can bear it, the mentors taught me to listen to those voices in a special way, and maintain myself in the process... …

"And it was in this process that my 'perception' began to be frequently directed to the deep sea, and I began to perceive...... His existence.

Or rather, He began to perceive my presence.

"Every born psychic will have their own tendency to resonate, some tend to hear the voices of history, most of them will become outstanding archaeologists and secret scholars, some tend to hear the voices of the four gods, as long as they can live to adulthood, they are almost destined to be 'saints', and even more unfortunate, they will resonate with the subspace - nine out of ten of these people will not leave the church cellar alive, and the few who survive will become extremely rare 'secret keepers' or 'secret saints' and be retained by the church.

"And I, on the other hand, have resonated with an ancient god who has awakened in the depths of the sea."

Ray Nora paused, her gaze to the end of the room, to the dark and chaotic fragmented land, and the darkness surged under her gaze, the chaotic light and shadow representing the subspace faded, and the floating islands in the endless deep sea and the silent "pillars" appeared in the depths of darkness.

It was her vibe, her nightmares, her fears and responsibilities, the beginning and the end.

"Actually, most of the time, I couldn't hear what 'Him' was saying at all - at first, I thought it was because of my own lack of strength and control over psionic resonance, but over time, I realized that the reason was actually in this 'Old God'.

"He is incomplete, He is just a 'fake' that has been mistakenly copied from a much larger individual, awakened in the depths of darkness without knowing anything, and his chaotic and broken mind is filled with only one thought—error, immediate termination.

"He repeated this thought in my head thousands, tens of thousands of times."

Duncan finally spoke softly, "So, you started the Abyss Project?" ”

"No, I became the Queen of Frost first," Ray Nora said lightly, "It took a little effort, but it was only by taking control of the entire city-state that I had more ways to investigate and confirm what I had 'heard', and in the process, I discovered the anomalies in the depths of the boiling gold mines, and the connection between it all and the 'deep sea' - the Abyss Project was the end result, and I did a lot of preparation for this end result." ”

Duncan didn't speak for a moment, but slowly got up from his chair and came to the end of the room, looking thoughtfully at the deep-sea "landscape" emerging from the darkness, and the tentacles that pierced through the frost "blueprint" like a giant pillar to the sky.

After a long time, he turned his head slightly: "So he has no malice?" ”

"There is no malice, and no good intentions," said Ray Nora, "and in fact he doesn't even have what can be called 'wisdom'—only a small mess of broken thoughts, repetitive simple judgments, and he can't even comprehend his own existence, and certainly not his 'attitude' toward the tiny and fragile creatures of the sea......

"He just exists, painfully and confusedly, in this cold darkness, but even this simple 'existence' is enough to subvert our delicate and fragile so-called 'civilized world.'"

Duncan muttered softly, "Existence itself is a threat......"

Ray Nora's voice came from behind him a moment later, "Now I can answer your second question."

"Will a similar 'invasion' happen again - I think...... It is possible, and even bound to happen. ”

Duncan instantly turned around: "Why?" ”

"Because this is not an 'invasion,' the Nether Lord has not 'entered' our real world from His realm—He does not need to.

"His 'ingredients' naturally exist in the real world, in every deep sea, in every city-state, and even in every human body, and what happens in the frosty deep sea is not an 'invasion', but an ...... 'awakening'."

Ray Nora slowly opened her hands, but with a strange calm look on her face, she looked into Duncan's eyes, and said the greatest truth she had learned in the nightmare slumber of half a century—

"Captain Duncan, in a sense, all of us, even the city-states beneath our feet, are children of the old gods."

(End of chapter)