As soon as Duncan opened his mouth, the "sailor" immediately knew what the captain wanted to do, after all, since he was "woken up" by Lawrence on the White Oak, the biggest nightmare in his "human" life was this: he was burned by Captain Duncan's whim......

Of course, this nightmare has now come true - he was knocked over by a large fireball from the messenger named "Say".

It was precisely for this reason that after experiencing the horror of being surrounded by the flames of the spirit, as if the soul would be evaporated at any time, the dry corpse was extremely nervous at the moment: "...... Will this burn the shroud clean? ”

"Theoretically, no," Duncan said with confidence, "I can control my flame with precision, and use it to understand the 'reality' of various transcendent objects beneath the surface, and I have examined and explored many things in this way in the past, and the process is safe......"

As soon as his words fell, before the sailor could breathe, Shirley next to him suddenly muttered: "Who said that the black book that you got from the Annihilation Cultist during the frost was burned by you after you looked at it......

Nina followed up and added, "And even earlier, the golden mask that I got from the Suncultists when I was in Prand was also burned......"

"Silandis burned ...... too," Lucrecia whispered, "this is close." ”

Duncan's expression visibly began to stiffen with the naked eye, and the atmosphere on the scene was a little subtle immediately, but Alice, who was feeding the pigeons next to her, suddenly reacted this time, and immediately raised her hand to relieve the captain when she saw this scene: "My wooden box has not been burned!" ”

After saying that, she thought about it again, and added with a serious face: "Although it has become a part of the Lost Country after being 'seen' by the captain......"

“…… You can not say the last sentence," Duncan tried his best to control his expression, squeezed out a few words from between his teeth to Alice, and then returned his gaze to the "sailor", with a nonchalant expression, "...... All in all, it's safe. ”

The sailor looked at the majestic captain in front of him, then at the group of followers around the captain, and at the two expressionless popes next to him, and finally nodded to Duncan after holding it for a long time: "I believe it." ”

Duncan exhaled softly and stepped forward to pat the dry corpse on the shoulder, his expression serious and sincere: "Don't worry - it may be the only thing left of the Sea Song, I will be cautious." ”

The sailor nodded in dismay, and Duncan turned to the low table with a serious expression, and placed the shroud solemnly on the table.

Helena and Frem's eyes involuntarily moved with Duncan's movements, and after a long hesitation, Frem couldn't help but speak: "This is the only 'intelligence' ever sent back from outside the border, if it shows any signs of damage, I hope you can stop in time." ”

"I understand." Duncan nodded solemnly, and as many eyes watched, he slowly placed his hand on the Shroud.

“…… Let me talk to you. He whispered to himself.

An illusory flame like flowing water ignited from his fingertips and fell silently—spiritual fire like water, seeping into the filthy and tattered shroud in the blink of an eye, and slowly diffusing and swimming between its every furrow and fold.

Duncan closed his eyes slightly, and with extreme caution manipulated the flames that penetrated deep into the Shroud, feeling every message the flames conveyed to him, trying to establish communication with some empty, distant, broken being—he had done so many times, so he knew it with ease.

Chaos appeared in his perception, and at first, there was nothing in the depths of this chaos.

But suddenly, it was as if a time that had disappeared suddenly appeared in the long river of years, and he "saw" a glimmer of light emerging from the depths of the chaos.

Duncan's heart moved, and he immediately moved closer to the glimmer—and before he could reach the shimmer, a faint voice had already reached his ears:

"I'm Karani, the captain of the Sea Song, and that's the record I left on the way back......

"We have found 'Him' – about half a century after crossing the six-nautical-mile threshold......"

Duncan's eyes widened suddenly, and in his "field of vision", the glimmer of light standing in the chaotic mist suddenly took on a hazy silhouette, it was a vaguely tall lady wearing the uniform of the Deep Sea Church Navy, with a tall figure and a blurred face.

She stood silently in the fog and spoke to herself, as if she had not "seen" Duncan at all.

“…… Time outside the border...... It is discontinuous, and I only realized it many years after I was lost, that the critical line of six nautical miles is not just a physical 'boundary', but also the order of our world......

"We were out of the normal timeline in the fog, and in the abnormal flow of time, I saw many bizarre apparitions, and in the fog at its thickest, I saw the edge of the world gradually crumbling and falling off......

“…… Here, we see the explorers of the past who have been lost to the frontier, who have completely lost their bodies and selves, wandering in a broken and disordered flow of time, like a fog that rises and falls, and in the process I realize that we are becoming like them......

"My crew gradually lost themselves, and almost everyone on board had become the walking dead by almost half a century of being lost—something I only remembered later, and I wasn't much better off than the crew at that time......

“…… Only the first mate has been sticking to his post...... I don't know how long he held out......

"Then we heard the call of the waves again in a physical sea that suddenly appeared, and the call 'pulled' the Sea Song to an archipelago - I suddenly woke up to the surprise of such a large number of entities beyond the border, and then I realized that the 'archipelago' was in fact the sleeping place of our Lord.

"There He is—Lord of the Storms, Will of the Deep, Goddess Grimna......

"The words I recorded may shock the world, but I saw it with my own eyes—

"It is true that the kingdom of God is not located in the 'high places' of the dimensional concept, nor is it located in the 'cornerstones' of the world, the kingdom of God does not exist, and the gods are actually all around us all the time...... Around the world, beyond the fog of the borders, they are here, around the whole world.

"They...... and their children, who are part of the 'outer barrier'. ”

Carani's apparition stopped, and there seemed to be a void in his memory, and Duncan approached the captain's apparition, meeting the unfocused eyes.

"The gods surround the world, and are they part of the outer barrier?" He suddenly asked, "What about the outside of the barrier?" What's more outside? Did you see that? ”

The apparition didn't respond, it was just a simple vision—after a moment of silence before she spoke to herself, still repeating Captain Kalani's journal:

“…… A lot of us stayed there.

"The Storm Goddess sleeps in the heart of that ancient archipelago...... The 'islands' were actually the corpses of the Leviathan, and they surrounded the sea, embracing Him...... On the largest of the islands stood a temple, shaped like cascading obelisks, made of countless dark green or black boulders, with some mysterious, distorted symbol on the stones, which seemed to be words, but which I could not recognize......

"I can't describe the ...... sleeping in the center of the temple I can't describe our god, he's completely different from the goddess I know, I ...... At the sight of His body, for a moment, I felt as if my mind had been torn apart and reassembled a thousand times, but a gentle voice woke me and my crew...... The voice turns us into a part of 'Him', so that we don't fall apart, we don't turn into monsters in the fog......

Then He apologized to us.

"He says He can't control Himself anymore – He says He is dead, but He's still trying to delay the process of death, and now He needs us to complete a task.

"He asked me to mark a route, a route from the infinite sea to the outer barrier—and in this fog between the six-nautical-mile boundary and the outer barrier, only the right route could lead the voyagers to 'Them......

"For that, someone has to return."

The Phantom of Captain Karani slowly lowered his head and continued softly.

"Most of them are tired, and they have chosen eternal peace in the Lord's harbor...... I don't blame them, because that's one of the qualities of 'humanity'.

"Eventually, it was only me and my first mate who made the way home—the Sea Song had been swallowed up by the archipelago, but the goddess had reshaped its apparition from the fog before it was swallowed, and the first mate and I rode the apparition and followed the direction He had directed us home......

"Now, we're almost home.

"I could feel myself dissipating, and so could the Sea Song...... The ship and I are illusions created by the goddess in the mist, and the real world does not allow such illusions to persist for long...... This feeling of dissipation is a sign that you are about to go home.

"But the first mate is different from me—he is not a phantom who has woken up from the fog, he is always awake, he has been awake since the day he set sail, he is still real in this world, and he has been faithfully carrying out orders.

So, the route was handed over to him...... He'll find his way home, and he'll find his way back to that archipelago...... No matter how long it takes.

"I am Kalani, the captain of the Sea Song, and I have entrusted the Sea Song with full authority to my loyal first mate, and this is the last log I left behind as captain......

"Witness to you."

In the endless fog of chaos, the shimmering figure regained its silent appearance.

Then the fog cleared, and Duncan opened his eyes—he was still in the living room.

(End of chapter)