In the future of fire, the world was burned to the ground.

The flames are not eternal, and there is a limit to the firewood in the shelter, and beyond the remodeled earth and sea, the curtain of eternity still binds the entire world—and when everything within the curtain is reduced to ashes in the flames, the world ends in a long cooling.

It is said that this "cooling" lasted for four hundred years, and eventually, the time of embers came—cold ash covered the whole world, no new flames rose, no more living beings cried or breathed, the world came to a standstill in this pile of cold ashes, nothing new was born, and no old thing died.

In a sense, this sanctuary that had undergone annihilation finally ushered in eternal peace, and the embers finally returned to the embers—the end was permanently frozen in this moment, and no new suffering befell the land.

Duncan came to a large rock, sat down without mind, not paying the slightest attention to the ubiquitous ashes here, he looked at the ruins of the cities on the plains that were still weathering and crumbling, and constantly transforming into ashes, and after a moment of contemplation, he suddenly spoke: "In other words, there is no turning back from this option. ”

"You can reinvent everything," Crete said as he approached Duncan, his thin, thin body standing like a bent branch in the cold wind, "but there was one exception. ”

"Myself," Duncan said softly, coming to his senses, "I can't redefine myself......"

Crete remained silent and waited a long time before speaking: "If there is really no way, the future of the flame is at least a continuation - but I hope you will be cautious and deliberate." Time is like a river, and many of its tributaries can be rewritten, but only the main trunk that crosses the end line and rushes past it has no chance to turn back. ”

"Don't worry about that, the moment I rejected the Pilot's proposal, I actually figured out these things - what you showed me only further refined my original speculation," Duncan shook his head slightly, "Compared to this, my real takeaway is that I finally have one thing ...... certainty"

As he spoke, he reached out and slowly shook it in the air—a green spirit fire that immediately burned between his fingers, expanding and jumping in the air like a phantom.

The world of ashes seemed to be touched by this wisp of flames, and the wind on the top of the mountain suddenly became a little restless, and even the nearby ashes fluctuated abnormally - but this was only an illusion for a moment, and in the next second, both the wind and the ashes were back to their original state.

There is nothing left in this branch of history that has ended to move it forward.

Duncan stared silently at the flame in his hand, then flipped it over his palm.

The spirit fire was extinguished in an instant, and the silently shattering flames turned into many small sparks, flickering briefly at his fingertips, and for a moment, they looked like phantoms of distant starlight.

Duncan looked at this scene with a solemn expression, thoughtful: "These 'fires' are really just appearances. ”

Then he turned his head to look at Crete, who was still standing quietly beside him: "If you can see this branch of history, can you see my other options?" ”

"I'm sorry, no," Crete met Duncan's gaze, "we're ghosts trapped in the time loop inside the shelter, and we can only see everything within this time loop, and your other options are outside the loop—for us, it's like a huge void in the night, and my gaze can't look beyond the vast darkness. ”

"Outside the loop...... In other words, the outside of the 'known world' of the shelter? Duncan reacted immediately, "Sure enough, you still have to find a way to break through that eternal veil?" ”

“…… Sorry, I don't know. ”

"Yes," Duncan nodded slowly, suddenly with some emotion, "at this time I have some envy of Duncan Abnomar a century ago, you revealed the future to him, although it was an accident, but at least he knew where he was going." ”

"It is suffering to grope in the dark, it is also suffering to know fate, and at the end of time, there is no happiness in the first place - I'm sorry, we don't have good news, we haven't had it from the day we set out."

"It's not a big problem, and I'm not expecting good news, it's enough to have some inspiration this time," Duncan said, rising from the big rock, not the slightest ash on his body, "it's time to get out of here." ”

His gaze looked at the sky and the earth for the last time, his gaze swept over the faint sunlight behind the clouds and the towering cathedral with its spires in the ruins of the city, and instead of asking Crete about the future of the others or their whereabouts at the moment, he turned away without hesitation.

This branch of history collapsed behind him, like the fire of Plant.

The light and shadow were confused and reunited, things were back in place, and the dimly enclosed cabin reappeared in Duncan's vision, the door to the subspace still standing quietly in the bilge—as if nothing had happened.

Crete was still standing next to the door, still reaching out and tapping the door frame.

Then he withdrew his hand and bent slightly towards Duncan: "I hope this doesn't bother you." ”

"It's not a big problem, I've had enough things to worry about, it's not bad for that," Duncan said casually, "at least now that we've confirmed that there's a bad path." ”

"The sanctuary is in tatters, and there is no need to tinker with it, though I ought not to say that," Crete sighed, "but its destruction is already doomed—the end has been chasing the world through time since the moment of annihilation, and now it is catching up." ”

“…… Doomsdayism, this is the theory that the Preachers of the Last Word have been preaching, and it has always been thought that it is just your madness after madness. ”

"There's a fine line between madness and sanity, and 'truth' doesn't care about the difference between the two," Crete said with a nonchalant expression, "Perhaps from another point of view, my companions have never really been crazy, they just ...... When he was a little tired, he chose to embrace all the truth and became a madman in the eyes of everyone. ”

"Will you be like that?" Duncan was suddenly curious, "In a branch of time, or in the near future......"

“…… I don't know," Crete hesitated for a moment and shook his head slowly, "Dusk has come, but this world will not suddenly go out, there is still a short part of my journey, and in order to communicate with you during this window, I can only intercept the most stable 'part' of myself to come here, so now I don't know what I see at the end of the journey, maybe ......"

After a pause, he continued: "Maybe one day in the future, we will meet again, and then you may be a deranged madman, or a twisted and invisible monster, which means that I have reached the end, wandering in the dark for too long, or ......"

Crete suddenly stopped when he said this, and then, his eyes changed slightly, as if he had suddenly seen a direction in the long darkness, and suddenly thought of something, the deep wrinkles and furrows on his face stretched out, and his eyes looked at Duncan: "That's right...... I'll do my best to see you again, whether you're sober or crazy, I'm sure I'll be in front of you - I don't think there was a proper window of time, so there's a good chance I won't be able to talk to you directly like I am now, and you won't even be able to see me...... But I'll definitely find a way to leave something behind and you can ......"

The old man's voice stopped abruptly.

In the dim and empty cabin, only Duncan's lone figure stood silently in front of the door of the subspace.

Standing like a sculpture for a long time, he finally turned around, picked up the brass lantern hanging not far away, and slowly walked towards the exit of the bilge.

……

It's now twelve hours after nightfall.

As scholars warn – the sun has not risen, and the morning glow has not appeared above the sea level.

If there were still some people who had illusions before, still hoping that the dusk that lasted for 72 hours before was just an "isolated mutation event", and that the morning sun would still rise the next day, then now this luck has been completely extinguished.

The long night has become a fact.

Near the Breeze, the four Ark ships are still docked near the coastline, and the "glowing geometry" located off the east side of the sea releases a soft pale gold "sunshine" as always, so that the entire city-state will not be completely plunged into darkness.

The lights on the College Ark were bright.

Standing in the "Temple of Knowledge" at the top of the ark, Lune prayed in prayer before the icon of Lachem, the god of wisdom.

The prayer composed of "0" and "1", with a peculiar rhyme and pronunciation, is nearing its end.

Smoke rose from incense in the temple, and the icon of Rahhem stood silently in the smoke, not in human form, but in a dark rectangular stone tablet with the rune "Eye of Wisdom" inscribed on the top of the stele, and dense symbols and fine lines all over the monument.

In the sound of Lune's prayers, those symbols and patterns faintly changed slowly and slowly, as if they had been injected with life for a while.

But with the end of the prayers, the temporary "vitality" of the stele also dissipated.

Rune turned his head to look at a priest of truth who had been waiting for him since just now, "How is it now?" ”

"The bad news is that the sun hasn't risen yet, and it really looks like the night is going to last a long time, and the good news is that according to monitoring data from the city-states, the drop in temperature is gradually slowing down - according to the current cooling curve, it seems that the extreme low temperature in the city-states during this night will not be lower than the lowest value in the record, and the world will not completely freeze in the long night as you feared...... 'cold disaster' will not happen."

Listening to the priest's report, Lu En's expression finally relaxed slightly, but he quickly frowned again: "...... Is this really good news? ”

(End of chapter)