Ever since discovering the eerie Lost Land, sailing in endless darkness and fog, Duncan has been careful not to attempt to take over its steering wheel.

Because he could not be sure what the essence of the ship was, nor how the ship would react to his "takeover".

But now that he knew that the ship was a shadow of the Lost Land, that it was the goat's head's unconscious "dreaming" that caused this change, he dispelled many of his concerns.

It's time for this ship that sails in dreams to know who the real captain is.

Duncan slowly walked up to the bridge on the aft deck, and his steps passed the hooks and cables near the bridge—the cables were silent, dormant in the dark, while the dull steering wheel swayed slightly from side to side in the center of the platform, as if the rudder was still fine-tuning the rudder even in this dream world, as if the goat's head was still dutifully controlling the course.

Duncan came to the helm and took a soft breath, recalling the first time he stood on the bridge and put his hand on the rudder.

Throwing the irrelevant thought out of his mind for a moment, he reached out and slowly grasped the wooden handle on the edge of the steering wheel—a smooth, cold touch came, along with a slight resistance.

Ignoring the resistance that followed the dream, Duncan mobilized the "safety sparks" that had been sent to the ship and ordered them to converge towards the bridge while clenching the rudder hard.

In the next second, wisps of flames appeared out of thin air in the darkness, and the spirit flames ignited the bridge at the stern of the ship in the blink of an eye, Duncan's body turned into a translucent spirit in the flames, and the entire bridge, including the steering wheel, was also enveloped in flames in an instant!

In an instant, Duncan felt that the ship was changing in his hands, that it was taking on a clear structure in his mind like the real-world Lost Country—he felt its deck, its masts, every sail and every sail line, and the cabins and corridors below the deck that were shrouded in darkness and seclusion......

There was a creaking sound from the whole ship, and the Lost Homeland, which was made of shadows as "raw materials" and shaped by the power of dreams, seemed to wake up suddenly, and it finally recognized its captain, and every part of the ship seemed to cheer, and the cables, barrels, and other things that had been silent a second ago began to shake in the darkness.

Then, as the spirit sail gradually filled, Duncan felt that the ghost ship, which had been just slowly wandering in the dark mist, began to accelerate, as if it had a sailing goal, and began to sail in a certain direction in the darkness.

Duncan was surprised to feel the changes in the ship, especially its sudden acceleration in the darkness, but before he could take a closer look at what was ahead of this course, a voice suddenly came from nowhere, directly into his head: "...... Who's there? ”

It was a somewhat immature-sounding female voice, with a dazed vagueness as if she was half-asleep and half-awake, the voice was everywhere in the dark, and the next second he heard this voice, Duncan felt that a light and shadow suddenly appeared in front of him, and then, a huge structure suddenly appeared from the darkness ahead, and a hazy phantom light appeared in front of the sail!

It looked like a huge whirlpool, but in the whirlpool you could see countless structures that looked like vines or branches, endless vines and branches surging from the front of the Lost Country, and in the blink of an eye, almost every inch of space beyond the ship's side, the massive plant structure dominated all the view before Duncan's eyes, and continued to extend and move backwards as the Lost Country sailed.

It feels as if the ship has suddenly "flown into" into a "tunnel" woven by some kind of huge plant structure, and the vines and branches are intertwined into the walls and dome of the tunnel, and a huge sense of oppression follows, and at the same time, countless glimmers of light emerge along the vines and converge like water.

The "lights" eventually came into contact with the Lost Country, and began to move along the deck and side of the ship closer to the stern deck where Duncan was, and something seemed to be converging in the light, but it never came out of view, they just kept converging, getting closer, as if they were looking for something.

Duncan clung to the steering wheel in this overwhelming visual pressure and mysterious glow, he controlled himself, no matter what happened, he did not intend to take a step off the bridge, he watched the dark vines and branches move overboard, and felt that the speed of the Lost Land was decreasing little by little, as if there was an invisible resistance slowing down the ship, and then, those wandering lights finally converged near him, and he heard the childish, childlike voice again—

"Who is it? Who's there? ”

Duncan stared at the light as he saw it come near him, wandering aimlessly around the bridge, listening to the sound in his head.

"Are you back? Saskoca ...... Are you home? You've been away for a long time......

"I can't see you...... Where are you? Can I open my eyes? Is it all over?

"I ...... I can't open my eyes, Sasloca, I'm a little scared, I can't see anything...... But what's coming......

"I've protected them all, I've built a wall so you can see them when you come back...... But I can't see you, are you? Are you back? ”

The light called over and over again, converging around the bridge, and then dispersing into a stream of blind, chaotic light, and several times, the glimmer even flowed near the steering wheel, and even touched the corners and cuffs of Duncan's coat.

However, "she" does not seem to be aware of Duncan's presence.

"She" couldn't see anything, as if ...... The owner of this voice is separated from Duncan by a different dimension, in a different time and space.

Duncan looked at the wandering streams of light, listened to the voices that seemed to ring directly in his head, he could even feel a slight heat as the light approached, and the repeated words of the voice seemed to convey a lot of vital information—he frowned, and after a brief hesitation, finally reached out, one hand continuing to hold the rudder, and the other reached for one of the streamers.

The light touched his palm, and there was a temperature that seemed real and illusory.

Then, the glimmer of light penetrated his arm, and the temperature it brought subsided, as if it were in another dimension, and the light flowed in the direction of the stern of the ship.

But it was in this momentary contact that Duncan knew, or rather "confirmed", the name of the glimmer and voice—she was Silandis, the Elven Tree of the World.

The name came straight into Duncan's mind in the form of a message, as if presenting a ...... The contamination of knowledge.

Duncan was stunned for a moment, and then he felt a sudden tremor on the deck beneath his feet.

In the next second, this tremor appeared on the entire ship, the "Lost Country" sailing in the dark fog began to shake violently, the spirit sail quickly extinguished in the darkness, the deck showed countless cracked lines, everything that made up the hull was fading and disintegrating, and even the steering wheel in Duncan's hand began to gradually lose its solid touch.

Duncan was stunned for a moment, then realized what had happened—

The stability of the dream is declining, and the time for "awakening" has arrived.

But this time, he obviously bypassed the stimulation of the flames on Silandis, and in the contact just now, he didn't feel any signs of Silandis's "waking up...... Why is the stability of dreams still decreasing rapidly?

……

The sudden wind of disorder in the desert woke Vanna from her thoughts, and she abruptly rose from the sheltered rocks and looked in the direction of the sand.

Wind and sand rose in the distance like a wall, everything in the dust and fog quickly became hazy, and the jagged boulders became illusory and distorted, as if they would disappear into the world at any moment.

After a brief moment of stunnedness, Vanna received a message from the captain -

The stability of the Nameless Dream is declining, and this time the dream is coming to an end.

The flying sand and the distorting vistas are the boundaries of the dream that are rapidly approaching.

Vanna snapped back to the other side of the dying campfire.

The old giant was looking up, a calm fire burning in his stone-carved sunken eye sockets.

"Traveler, looks like it's time to say goodbye."

Fanna was stunned for a moment, and suddenly reacted: "Why are you ...... Will know ......"

"I don't know what's going to happen, but I can feel the temporary end of a journey, you're leaving, are you?" The giant said softly, slowly rising from between the pile of rubble, his body standing up in the wind like a tower, looking down at Vanna's eyes calmly, "You don't belong to this ruined world—you still have life in you, and this world hasn't been alive for a long time. ”

Vanna opened her mouth, but she didn't know what to say—in the brief moment when she was about to wake up from the dream, the only time left for her seemed to be goodbye.

The giant smiled, and bent down to pick up the strange-looking staff.

Vanna noticed that there were several more symbols on the surface of the huge "cane", which was a cut above the giant's height.

It was a few letters, with an inexplicable ...... There was a plausible familiarity, and for a moment, she even felt like she was about to be able to read them, but the next second, the meaning of the words faded from her mind like water.

It was a text she didn't recognize.

"Traveler, maybe we'll meet again," the giant's voice came from above, interrupting Vanna's distraction, "and probably soon." ”

Vanna was stunned: "Why?" ”

The giant pointed to the cane: "Because there is a sentence here, I haven't finished carving it yet." ”

Vana blinked, about to ask something, but the wind and sand were already rushing from behind her—the world in her vision quickly shook and crumbled in the sudden rise of dust.

In the next second, the collapsed world reorganized into a familiar living room, a familiar dining table, and a familiar roof.

Those familiar faces also reappeared in front of her.

(End of chapter)