Passing past the black "islands" that clustered around the surrounding seas, the Lost Country and the Bright Star gradually approached the "central main island" made of black boulders, as if it were some kind of man-made giant.

Around the two ships, a thin mist drifted slowly over the nearby sea like some kind of living thing, and the breeze between the mist swept across the deck, with a whisper and cascading murmur in it.

Vanna stood at the edge of the deck, looking at the "island of black stone" that gradually enlarged in her field of vision, and unconsciously slowly clenched her hands, the soft sound of the waves echoed in her mind at some point, and in a trance, she seemed to go back to many years ago, back to the time when she first heard the sound of the waves - in the prayer room of the cathedral, in front of the icon of the goddess, she had just finished her baptism, and that soft voice blew into her heart like a sea breeze:

"Ah...... My little fish...... You're here......"

Vana suddenly woke up from her trance, and she realized that it was not an illusion, that there was a voice in her heart, and almost at the same time, she saw a change in the dark and dreary island—the magnificent "palace" seemed to shake slightly, and countless huge limbs stretched out from every door and window of the palace, reaching into the air with their wrists, and then hanging into the sea, stirring the sea, weaving clouds.

Immediately afterwards, the tentacles suddenly disappeared again, as if they had retracted into the palace, but many hazy shadows, large and small, appeared near the island, which seemed to be gathered ships, and countless swaying figures came ashore from the edge of the island, carrying torches and flags, stepping on the black boulders like pilgrims, and entering the temple through two side doors......

It was as if Vanna had heard the sound of music, the sound of some kind of celebratory flute and percussion playing together, and the illusions kept emerging and dissipating before her eyes—

She saw the crowd of pilgrims, and the scene turned to see the craftsmen building the palace, she saw the behemoths of the sea and the humans on land gathering together to make a pilgrimage near the vast coastline, and she saw people in fine clothes lighting lamps on the high platform, and the distant sky was gradually swallowed up by the red light—she saw war, peace, heroes, travelers, young warriors covering the crowd to reach the temple, and then sleeping the next morning......

She struggled to keep her eyes open in the vision, staring at the huge shadow in the depths of all the illusions, and she saw the palace made of black and dark green boulders open its doors to her, and an entity with countless shapes walked out of it, turning into a "Silent Sea Maiden" with open arms in front of her: "We've been waiting for a long time......

A low tremor suddenly came from the depths of the ark, and Helena opened her eyes from meditation.

There was no main lamp in the prayer room, only a modest oil lamp burning quietly in front of the icon, the flickering flames casting shadows around it, as if there were many whispering figures hidden in the light and shadow.

Helena's eyes swept around, the whispers of the darkness faded away, and she came to the statue of the goddess, staring at a dark red "pillar" that extended from the floor—a nerve cord that stretched from the bottom of the ark to here.

"I thought I heard His voice just now." She whispered.

"They have arrived safely," an old, sluggish voice came to Helena's ear, "my countrymen...... They rejoiced, even the queen rejoiced. ”

Helena was a little puzzled: "Didn't the Sea Song also arrive there?" ”

"This is different, little girl," said the old voice, with a smile on her face, "the Queen has been waiting for this visit. ”

"Many years?"

"Yes, from the day the 'sun' rises......"

The Lost Land circled the black island for a quarter of a quarter, and finally found a suitable spot for docking and landing in a boulder gap - the sailors carefully controlled the rudder to stop the behemoth near the shoreline, and then a small boat was lowered from the Lost Land and carried Duncan and others to the island.

"Let's go to the island and have a look, you are here, don't move." Duncan turned his head and said to the boat that had brought him ashore.

The boat docked in a small "bay" made of several rectangular black stones, and immediately shook its bow up and down at the captain's command, making a rattling sound.

Then another gust of wind approached from the sky, and a whirlwind carried countless colorful pieces of paper from the direction of the Bright Star, and hovered and landed more than ten meters away from Duncan, condensing into Lucrecia's figure.

Now, everyone is on the island.

There was a solid touch under his feet, and the feeling of stepping on land somewhat removed the uneasiness of everyone after they came to the end of the world, Duncan came to a rectangular black stone jutting out of the ground, observing the road to the palace, and Fanna's voice came from the side-

"It was a place of pilgrimage, and I saw many people coming by boat from distant land, lighting huge bonfires in all directions of the island, and decorating the road in front of the temple with flags......"

Reminiscing about what she had seen in the vision, she came to another boulder beside Duncan and pointed up to a wide trail of rocks in front of her.

"The road leads to the temple, and the pilgrims come to the island from the morning, and the costumed procession stretches from the coast to the palace gate—the island itself was built by men, who melt and rerefine the stones of the deep sea into such boulders using a technique that I do not understand, and harness some kind of summoned beast to build the heavy boulders into islands......"

Duncan listened silently to Vanna's description, imagining what the place had been like in those forgotten ancient times, and he jumped off the rectangular black stone and walked slowly forward with the procession - following the "pilgrimage path" that Vanna had seen in her vision, to the temple.

"What else do you see?" Shirley asked curiously as she walked beside Fanna.

"Humans on land coexist with the giants of the sea—they see the giant sea beasts called 'Leviathans' as gods and messengers of the gods, but that is not a purely religious belief, but a ...... Closer relationships," Vanna said slowly, sorting through the knowledge that had suddenly been "stuffed" into her mind, "and they coexist with many other behemoths, the sky and the underground, the ...... that control the mountains and glaciers

"They make a pact with all the ancient beings, and they derive power from those behemoths, which is enough to transform rivers, lakes, seas, mountains and lands, and to build many incredible miracles...... But I don't know how to describe those things specifically, I only see a lot of trivial fragments, and some knowledge out of thin air, and I can't imagine what it is, what kind of scene it is, those ...... It seems to be just a memory of Him, and He showed me that memory......"

At this point, Vanna suddenly fell silent, and looked at the palace with a gloomy expression.

“…… He was in a terrible state, and he only showed me that, and then he stopped speaking. ”

Duncan stopped on the side of the road.

He noticed something on the side of the road—a crumpled black mass, like dried seaweed, that looked unremarkable.

But he was still frowning, staring at the crumpled "seaweed clump", as if he sensed something, and his expression was thoughtful.

"What's wrong with this thing?" Nina noticed, and she stepped over to the mass of "things", as if she wanted to pick it up and look at it, but she cautiously didn't reach out, so she looked at Duncan suspiciously, "Do you see something?" ”

Duncan frowned for a long time, and finally bent down and reached out to the crumpled black mass—something happened to everyone's consternation.

The crumpled black mass suddenly began to change, and with some dizzying visual distortion, it began to stretch and reorganize, and by the time the captain came into contact with it, it had become a rough cylinder, and when the captain picked it up, many intricate patterns began to appear on its surface, as well as structures like buttons and indicators.

Duncan looked thoughtfully at the delicate cylinder device in his hand, then pressed the most obvious button at the top of it.

Light music came from inside the cylinder—drums, bells, and bagpipes.

Duncan looked at the cylinder silently for a long time, then said nothing, just took it in his hand and walked on.

Vanna was in a trance, and the "memories" that permeated the island suddenly overlapped in her field of vision again, as if she saw the former owner of the small device, a child, staggering behind the adults who had taken refuge, one of the child's hands raised, and the adult led forward, and the delicate little device sounded in his hand, making a cheerful melody.

The illusion dissipated again, and she noticed that the captain was far away, so she hurried to catch up.

They finally came to the door of the solemn black temple, and an extremely large circular square came into view—in the center of which stood a figure silently.

Lucrecia reacted instantly, and the short baton in her hand was immediately raised—but before she could make any further movements, the figure standing in the center of the square, as if it had guarded the temple from the last time until the last moment, collapsed silently.

Ta turned into a pile of ashes that drifted in the wind, swirling and disappearing into thin air, and Lucrecia didn't even have time to see what the last guardian looked like, male or female.

“…… That was the deputy commander of the Guards Regiment. Vanna said suddenly.

"Guards?" Morris subconsciously spoke.

Vana frowned, and after a few seconds shook her head, "...... I don't know, I just popped into my head......"

A distorted voice interrupted her words.

The sound of the music from the small cylinder in Duncan's hand suddenly began to twist and screech, and then its surface began to fade in color, quickly crumpling and distorting, and in just two or three seconds, the music disappeared, and it turned back into a pile of black substance that crumbled like dried seaweed.

(Oh yes!) ）

(End of chapter)