After crossing the six-nautical-mile threshold, the world around the Lost Country and the Bright Star entered a peculiar ...... "state".

The sea and the fog disappeared, and the eerie glimmer of the sky evenly covered the entire world beyond the ship's side - all the "demarcations" seemed to have failed, and everything that had been clearly divided seemed to have become a ...... "background color" with an even texture and no distinction in the blink of an eye, and the two ghost ships seemed to "float" in the air as if flying in this uniform background color.

“…… This is different from what has been recorded by the church," Vanna said subconsciously as she looked at the scene outside the ship, "According to the records, even if you cross the six-nautical-mile threshold for a distance, there is still the sea and the sky...... I remember Miss Lucrecia mentioning it as well. ”

Duncan looked up thoughtfully, looked up at the nervous "sailor" who was clutching the steering wheel, and broke the silence after a moment: "Maybe this is what Anomaly 077 should be like when it is 'in effect' - we are sailing in a special 'passage' that protects us from the turbulence of time beyond the critical line. ”

"How long will we sail in this 'passage'?" Alice on the side asked curiously.

Duncan thought for a moment and shook his head: "I don't even know about this. ”

So Alice set her curious gaze on the sailor who was at the helm.

Anomaly 077, who was already nervous, noticed the clear gaze cast by the puppet and suddenly became even more nervous, and shrunk his neck and spoke: "Don't look at me, I don't know - I'll just drive the boat......"

As he spoke, he tried to straighten his face seriously, grabbed the steering wheel and adjusted his position slightly, but in fact, he didn't know where to "drive", just shook the steering wheel in place to show that he was very busy - anyway, in such an evil situation, the specific "course" of this ship obviously has nothing to do with the rudder......

Duncan saw through it, and after sensing the state of the Lost Country and confirming that everything was normal, he didn't pay attention to the situation on the sailor's side, but looked up at the bright star that was floating near the Lost Country, and called out in his heart: "Lucy, how is the situation over there?" ”

"Everything is fine on the ship—except that the rabbi is so frightened that she hides in a box and can't get out," Lucretia's voice immediately responded, "and it kept yelling that we were 'crashing'...... 'Crash' towards the end of the world. I'm a little concerned about that. ”

"Crash to the end of the world?" Duncan frowned at this, his mind racing to the meaning of the mad rabbit's words, and then he looked to the other side, his gaze beyond the deck, at the even, even "gray" that seemed to be extremely empty on the side of the ship.

What does it refer to...... Maybe it's the 'outer barrier,'" Duncan whispered in thought, "or something outside of that barrier." ”

"Something outside the barrier?" Lucrecia's voice sounded dazed.

“…… Ember, the chaotic and unknowable embers of the old world that have never been used as shelters," Duncan said slowly, recalling his recent conversation with Ray Nora and the extremely pure and terrifying "nothingness" beyond the end of the world that the Frost Queen had brought up, "...... For fish, the gaseous world is indeed an incomprehensible nothingness and apocalypse. ”

On the bridge of the Bright Star, Lucrecia listened to her father's words and seemed to understand something, and then she turned her head to look at the gently trembling crate on the ground near the rudder—half of the rabbi's ears were hanging out of the crate and trembling.

Miss Witch frowned: "...... As a nightmare that brings horror to others, are you afraid to be like this? ”

"Rabbi...... The rabbi is not a terrible nightmare, the rabbi is...... It's the horror ......," the rabbi muttered sullenly in the box, as if to cheer herself up, but her voice changed mid-sentence, "What a horrible, wow, hostess!" We're falling, falling fast! Don't you feel it - it's getting colder, it's getting darker, it's getting narrower, it's like going headfirst down into a thin tube from a bottomless abyss, suffocating, freezing, crushing to death, you imagine, you imagine that scene......"

Lucrecia walked over with a blank face, kicked the lid of the box open, picked up the rabbit with one hand and patted it against the wall next to it.

The doll rabbit was slapped on the wall with a "pia" sound, and finally stopped moving.

"You have a lot of vocabulary and associative skills, right?" Lucrecia viciously looked at the rabbit doll that slipped off the wall little by little after being slapped flat, and subconsciously rubbed the goosebumps on her arms, "Don't describe that bunch of associations anymore - hold back your thoughts, otherwise I won't just slap you on the wall next time." ”

Lying on the ground, the flattened doll rabbit fluffed up again with a "poof-bang", and it got up crookedly and said "oh", and walked honestly back to the box not far away.

But as soon as she was halfway there, she was dragged back by Lucrecia's ears.

"Don't be lazy, go find something to do," said Miss Witch in an unquestioning tone, "take a few tin men and keep an eye on the stern demarcation, the spirit part of the ship doesn't seem to be very secure here...... Don't let those soulless shadows come out of it, I don't have the energy to deal with this kind of trouble right now. Go ahead. ”

"Oh, good hostess......" Rabbi agreed, hunching her head and stepping out of the bridge on her short legs.

After the rabbit left, Luni walked over from the side, "Were you a little too harsh with the rabbi just now...... It's just a little scary. ”

"It's scared too much—I need to find something to distract it," Lucrecia exhaled softly, waving her hand, "it's a shadow from the depths of the spirit world, and it can feel many 'changes' that humans can't feel, and the empty place in my eyes is probably 'lively' in its perception......"

Speaking of this, she suddenly paused, and looked at the clockwork doll in front of her with some confusion: "But then again...... Don't you feel it? In making your mimic soul, I have also used 'ingredients' from the spirit world. ”

Luni froze for a moment, thought about it seriously, and shook her head, "I don't feel it." ”

Lucrecia's expression was slightly subtle, and she looked Luni up and down - I don't know if it was an illusion, she always felt that Luni had revealed a clear and pure ...... "temperament" since she played with the living doll named "Alice" on the Lost Land, and this feeling was especially obvious after the two dolls learned to exchange heads with each other......

But the last time she secretly tested Luni's intelligence, it didn't seem to have changed much—she hadn't dared to mention it to her father.

"Mistress?" The clockwork doll noticed the gaze that fell on him and tilted his head in confusion.

“…… It's nothing. Lucrecia waved her hand, throwing aside some strange associations in her head for a moment, and at that moment, something suddenly appeared out of the corner of her eye.

Outside the porthole, in the uniform and pure "gray and white background color", some lines and shadows that are visible to the naked eye appear at some point.

"What's that?" Luni also saw the abstract lines that appeared on the "outer wall of the passage", and her eyes widened in surprise.

Almost as soon as her words fell, those abstract "outlines" that seemed to be stripped from a concrete individual suddenly changed in the gray background color—

The black lines fluttered, rapidly shrinking and twisting into orderly outlines, the shadows suddenly widening into the colors that filled the outlines, and a ship—a flattened ship that seemed to be "imprinted" on the outer wall of the passage, suddenly emerged from the gray background and gradually entered the course of the Lost Country and the Bright Star.

This scene is as if a Lost Navigator suddenly "broke into" in the passage, and the abstract and distorted shadow of the ship quickly acquired a logical ...... "form" after entering the "sight" of the Lost Land and the Bright Star.

Lucrecia was stunned for a moment, then came to the porthole like a gust of wind, and stared at the ship that had suddenly appeared in the passage.

She suddenly recognized the vague markings on the ship.

"It's the Sea Song!"

It was the Sea Song—the Sea Song on a long journey, wandering in a broken stream of time.

It drifted in a broken stream of time, and in this brief "meeting window", it entered the route of the Lost Country and the Bright Star.

There was a sudden silence on the aft deck of the Lost Place.

Everyone involuntarily raised their heads to look at the ship that was floating in the "air" on the side of the ship, at its gradually clear flag, and at the increasingly obvious name on the hull, the Sea Song, which was sailing in its own flow of time, and it seemed to be completely unaware of the Bright Star that was close at hand, as if the time dislocation of the two sides had obscured its "vision", and it swept past the side of the Bright Star from a distance that almost collided, and then came to the side of the Lost Land.

It adjusted its stance there, then ...... A series of light signals were played.

Anomaly 077 suddenly grabbed the steering wheel in his hand.

His eyes widened as he stared at the flickering lights on the side of the Sea Song, silently counting the intervals and flashes of the lights, as if counting his own long-vanished heartbeat—

"Short-Dark-Short-Dark-Long-Light......"

He didn't continue to count, he had already closed his eyes while the light signal of the Sea Song was still flickering, and then pulled his broken gong throat as if with all his strength—

"Captain! The ship ahead asks us what we are coming from! ”

The sailor's hoarse voice echoed across the Lost Land.

Duncan exhaled softly, his expression full of seriousness and solemnity.

"The lights respond," he whispered, "salute them." ”

(End of chapter)