The fine sand in the hourglass was still flowing downward, as if it could last for a long time, and Duncan carefully held the hourglass in his hand and talked to the ancient "god".

The gods were rotting - it wasn't the first time he had heard it, the popes of the four gods had said it to him, and they said that the rotten breath of the gods had gradually penetrated into the world and was eating away at the world with the end times.

But it was the first time he had heard it from one of the "gods" and realized that the current situation had been the result of them delaying the process as much as possible.

"This hastily built shelter has too many flaws...... Everything is short, the Veil, the 'Sun', the cornerstone of the archipelago, and ourselves—we are actually coming to an end before the first long night begins. ”

In the monotonous black, white and gray tones of the "spirit world", the ancient Leviathan queen whispered, but this terrifying beast had a gentle voice, which was like a dream floating in deep water, slowly telling Duncan about the past—

"It took us a long time to realize our 'death', and then it took a long time for Bartók to figure out what was going on in our 'dying' state.

"We are the 'inertia' of the old world."

"Old World Inertia?" Duncan immediately frowned, a slight guess in his mind.

"You should already know what destroyed our world, so many worlds - then you should also know that the Great Annihilation did not completely destroy everything in those worlds, there was always some 'dregs' that were saved from the impact of the worlds, and we, who are called 'gods', are also part of those dregs.

"But the dregs are dregs because they are no longer complete, and when the sand peels off the boulder, it is just sand and not a boulder, and so do we—the impact of the Great Annihilation has forever changed our nature, and from that day on, strictly speaking, we have become part of those scorching 'ashes...... But unlike the ashes, we keep the 'self'.

"We know what we used to be – this 'cognition' allows us to rise from the ashes again, and even reshape some of the rest of the ashes into what we look like in our 'memories'.

"In the beginning, it made us think that we had a chance to reshape all the worlds, to restore all the ashes, but it didn't take long for us to realize the limits of this 'reinvention' and to perceive our own weakening......

"We are not really alive, we are just obsessions left in the corpses, and the 'cognition' of the self and the 'memory' of the old world are the only reason why we can continue to move, and this 'cognition' and 'memory' ...... It wears and falls over time.

"Bartók, one of us who knows 'death' best, calls this phenomenon 'the inertia of the old world', arguing that we do not survive because of our own will or individual strength, but because 'the world does not want to die'. The old worlds were destroyed in the Great Annihilation, but the fact that they once existed became the 'inertia' of the post-apocalyptic era, and became the various residues that still exist after the Great Annihilation—we have become us. ”

"The 'cognition' of the self and the 'memory' of the old world......" Duncan said thoughtfully, holding the hourglass in one hand and rubbing his chin in the other, "So, this is the basis for the birth of the 'shelter'?" ”

"Yes," the gentle voice said to him, "we have used our own memories and cognitions to reshape the original 'cornerstone' from the ashes, which is why there are many plausible 'records' that point to the Great Annihilation in the earthly world, but we have never been able to find any real 'evidence' that can prove the Great Annihilation, because there was no 'evidence' from the beginning, and even the entire infinite sea was made up of the residue we picked up from the ashes......

"But even those residues continue to decline because of the wear and tear of our 'cognition' and 'memory'...... This is where the 'life limit' of the original design of the shelter comes from. ”

Duncan listened intently to Germona's story, sometimes in thought, and then in thought he said to himself: "The 'inertia' will eventually subside...... Therefore, the final survey team will inevitably encounter that 'limit', and no matter how perfectly they fulfill their mission, the 'end of the world' is already doomed on the day the world is born......"

He suddenly recalled what the "Crete" told himself:

"It is pointless to perpetuate the sanctuary ......"

"Yes, there's no point in continuing the Sanctuary," Queen Leviathan repeated softly, "but there's a higher level of interpretation to this statement—there's no point in continuing to 'delay' that apocalypse. ”

Duncan's eyes changed slightly, and he looked up at the pale limb that was crawling on the edge of the waterhole, and saw that the limb gradually raised, and one eye slowly opened from its surface.

"Remember? The end of the world brought about by the Great Annihilation is not over, it has been going slowly in the lowest logic of everything, the conflict of rules and the encroachment of chaos are only its appearance, in essence, it is the confrontation between 'inertia' and 'doomsday' - as long as our 'inertia' still exists, as long as the shelter still exists, the Great Annihilation will never stop, it will continue until everything in the world is crushed into powder, and then it will ...... The end of the world is over. ”

The pale limbs drooped slightly, and the eyes that were not human, but seemed to be full of humanity and intellectual brilliance, also drooped down.

"Yes, usurper, it is precisely because the 'world' refuses to die, that the end of the world refuses to stop, and it is precisely because we still exist that the great annihilation continues to this day, even until this moment...... It also hangs high above the heads of living beings. ”

"Hanging ......above his head for the rest of his life," Duncan reacted instantly, "You mean the creation of the world?!" ”

“…… The chasm, which is what it appears to the observer, is essentially a 'result', a ......'focal point' that leads all the possibilities of all worlds to the same 'collapse fact' – it is the 'end' of the boundless sea. ”

Gemona's voice stopped, but Duncan was silent for a long time, and after a long time, he spoke softly as if talking to himself: "So, on the day this 'world' was born, its 'ending' hung high above his head. ”

After a while, he looked into Gemona's "eyes" again, breaking the silence: "So, no matter what the final plan is, we must first solve the 'never-ending apocalypse', and we must first find a way to bring the Great Annihilation to an end - but the only way to make the Great Annihilation end is to ......"

He paused for a moment, but Gemona's soft voice spoke for him: "Let the end of the world be 'finished'." ”

The temple fell silent, as dead as the silence of the universe.

After a long time, Duncan exhaled softly, "This shouldn't be the 'conclusion' that you will tell me in the end—there are other things that you haven't told me yet." ”

"Yes, there are other things - there are many ways to make the end of the world 'complete', but within our cognition and ability, 'the death of all things' is the end result of all paths, but as I said, this is only the conclusion of 'our cognition and ability'......"

The pale limb lowered again, and then suddenly a hazy shadow appeared in front of it—a young girl in a long dress and veil, standing in front of the waterhole, and bending deeply to Duncan.

Many, many years ago, she learned to converse with her "friends on land" in this form, and only in very solemn occasions would she appear in this form.

"Usurper, you are not within our knowledge and capabilities, strictly speaking, you are not even within the scope of the Great Annihilation—though you are one of the first of us to arrive, and though you have been asleep in the ashes of the primordial ashes, you ...... You are not a 'dregs'.

"We can't understand what you are, but Pilot-2's calculations show that you're the only one of us who is 'healthy' - perhaps, you have a way to protect the shadows of the old world when that 'end' happens."

Duncan didn't speak, he just frowned tightly, his expression tense than ever.

Then, something suddenly occurred to him - the "collections" that appeared in his room!

He heard the voice of the "Girl of the Quiet Sea" continue to ring in his ears:

“…… Observation and cognition, memory and information, this seems to be the cornerstone of the existence of the world, Navigator 2 once told me that it comes from a brilliant and advanced civilization, its creators have almost touched the basic laws of the universe before the end of the world, and in the top and most esoteric research of that civilization, a scholar has put forward a conjecture.

"This conjecture is the most impressive part of the Pilot-2 memory bank-

"Information is everything, everything is an expression of information."

"Information is everything...... Everything is an expression of information......" Duncan subconsciously repeated this sentence, in a trance, he seemed to hear a "roar" from the depths of himself, as if he suddenly understood a lot of things, the scene in front of him swayed, there was a scattered starlight filling the edge of the vision, and then these illusions gradually dissipated - the voice of the "Girl of the Quiet Sea" came from his ears, the voice was hazy, as if suddenly separated by a thick layer of curtains:

“…… Pilot-2 still thinks about this sentence to this day, its creators seem to have touched the threshold of truth, but they only have time to throw out this conjecture, and with the resources at the disposal of us 'residues', and with the existing conditions in the shelter, Pilot-2 thinks that it may never be able to translate this conjecture into usable theories and 'means', but your existence ...... Let it perceive one thing.

"Perhaps there was a civilization, a civilization more advanced than the creators of Navigator II, that had crossed that threshold."

(End of chapter)