History books say that the "mad poet" Puman, who lived hundreds of years ago, was a man who touched the forbidden truth but survived, and there are legends that this crazy poet often fell into dreams, and said that he had traveled through time and space in his dreams, visiting all kinds of strange places.

The mad poet left behind countless awe-inspiring passages, brilliant writing, and even in the early years of his career, the elegant and profound verses that conquered even the most demanding critics of the city-state, but at the end of his short life, his poems began to change gradually—words that increasingly depicted strange and grotesque, full of unsettling metaphors and almost prophetic mad babbles, and he chattered about things that did not exist in the real world. even something bordering on blasphemy, and thus turning into a suffocating and feared madman.

Those who once pursued him left him, those who once admired him gradually regarded him as dangerous, and the administrators of the church tried to contact him, but could not find any substantial, polluting and blasphemous information in the writings he left behind.

The end of this genius but madness poet is another mystery to the world: he was imprisoned by the Church and died quietly in an insane asylum on an isolated island, while others swore that he survived, even until the winter of 1842, when they insisted that they saw the poet in that year: he stood on the famous cliff of Frost, exactly like the portrait left in the book, and held a pen and paper in his hand to record the verses.

A "caretaker" who claimed to have cared for Puman in the last years of the "mad poet's" life and witnessed the poor man's final end wrote in his autobiography:

Puman is finally lost in his bizarre dreams—the poet who travels through each of his dreams, drawing from them into his gorgeous and bizarre verses, and finally sinks into a dream so far away that he doesn't want to wake up, and one sunny morning the poet disappears into his bed, leaving only a small poem on the bedside table.

Vanna walked forward, to where the crazy man had last disappeared, and bent down to pick up the crumpled roll of paper and pencil before the wind blew it away.

She frowned, looking a little confused, and then she opened the piece of paper, and looked at the sentence written on it in a bit of a daze—

“…… I saw that the sun had receded, and in the night, everything fell into silence...... The ship sailed from the sky, and the stars were like a curtain, giving the world eternal sleep...... In silence, in silence, in sleep, fall asleep, the dead embrace the world of the dead......"

The wind and sand rolled up, the pieces of paper rattled, and Vana suddenly heard a voice in her ears, the voice of the crazy man who had just disappeared—but only the voice came, and he was not visible around: "Look, look, do you see it?" The scene I saw...... It's so beautiful, the curtain rises from the end of the sea and is reflected in the whole world......"

Vanna looked in the direction where the voice came from, where there was only swirling sand, swirled in place by the disorderly wind, her brows furrowed tightly, and her voice was slightly hoarse: "You are trapped here too?" ”

The voice ignored her question, just muttered to itself, muttering something inaudible, and after a while, his voice became clear again—

"I've been chased, and they've been chasing me like vicious dogs that smell blood...... I fell into all sorts of places, and in every dream, there was always a rift for me to dodge. Hey, I'm finally tired, and it's no big deal to let them catch up...... So I was devoured by the vicious dog called the truth, and I saw things far away, and so I came here......"

Vanna frowned and listened to the other party's seemingly crazy self-talk, realizing that communicating with the other party seemed to be a bit difficult, but she couldn't help but ask again, "Do you know how to get out of here?" ”

"No, no, no, can't leave, my friend......" the voice said at once, followed by a confused gibberish, "...... I'm in the basement, and the robes say it's a safe place, the iron cage keeps my spirits from escaping out of my shell in my dreams, and the brazier scares away the smelling shadows that gather so that I don't get eaten by anything while I sleep......"

There was a series of muffled noises mixed in the wind and sand, and the voice was blurred for a few seconds, and then suddenly became clear again: "...... Hey, you know, you know, years later...... I was dead by then, and years later, a girl was put in a similar cage, but by then the technology was much more mature, and she walked out of the basement alive......

"Ah, poor girl, I saw her crowned, and I saw her beheaded by those who crowned her...... I'm hesitating to put it in my poem...... No, no, no, the people in the robes told me to stop writing about what I dreamed of and saw in my poems, they said that it would make me connect more and more with things outside of the real dimension, which was not good...... I don't have much left to write, and I have to save these precious sentences for more important things......

"Listen! Someone was knocking on the railing, and there was the sound of keys clashing...... Jingle bell, ding bell, ding bell...... The guards are coming, and they have to make sure I'm still in the cage......"

At this moment, the wind and sand rolled up, and Vana heard the familiar sound of "ding ding ding" again.

And the crazy voice was still babbling to itself: "But what about I'm not there? They'll see me lying quietly on the bed, but I'm not there, I'm not in that skin, I'm here, this place full of ashes...... What are you doing here?

"It's time for you to go, you don't belong here, your road is still ahead...... Give me my poems, and my pencils, they are my things, and they should not be held in the hands of others...... They're going to drag you deeper into the ......"

Vanna subconsciously let go of the pieces of paper and pen in her hand, only to see them turn into yellow sand in the wind in the blink of an eye, swirling and disappearing into the air.

"Which way do I go?" She asked the voice blankly, "I can't remember where I came from, and I don't know where I'm going...... Where can I leave this city? ”

"What? Nothing," the voice said, and it seemed to be moving away quickly, its voice getting more and more indistinct, fainter, "here is infinity...... He shut himself up in a closed-loop dream, as I saw just now, outside the city is the desert, outside the desert is the city, and you can't go out, and the further you go, the more you sink...... But I should go, I should go, aha, wake up again......"

The voice finally disappeared completely, disappearing into the increasingly chaotic wind and sand.

Vanna stood stunned, in the darkness of the night, countless lights illuminating the forgotten and ruined city, her figure seemed to gradually merge with the lights, in the light, she saw the shadows of chariots and horses looming on the broken roads, the bright windows of the collapsed buildings, the sound of music coming from afar, gradually covering the sound of the cold wind howling—and the stinging pain from the delicate wounds on her arms was turning into a gentle touch.

She slowly closed her eyes, as if she was about to sleep peacefully in this bustling and warm world.

But in the next second, her eyes suddenly opened again.

Invisibly, as if something had been broken, her will awoke in this slow but irresistible descent, the apparitions that had emerged in the light of the lights faded, and immediately after, she felt the bitter cold wind of the night desert wind blowing across her cheeks, and the countless fine wounds on her arms came with sharp tingles.

But she smiled—the pain is good, the pain is real.

She didn't belong to this place, and even though she couldn't remember her name or where she came from, she knew she had to remember one thing: she didn't belong to this place.

Only in this way will you not be "dissolved" here.

And in this moment of sobriety, Vana realizes another thing at the same time: she must find her "anchor point".

She had to figure out who she was and where she came from as soon as possible.

She seems to have gradually remembered something and understood the nature of this vast desert, and she realizes that she seems to be trapped in a strange world dominated by "forgetting", and the only way to get out of this place is to fight "forgetting".

She didn't blindly go "outside the city" anymore, after knowing the "infinity" of this city, she realized that simply breaking out of the siege could not really leave here, and there should be another way to leave here.

She stopped at the illusory crossroads, letting the wind and sand erode her body, and she let her mind gradually calm down, trying to find a way out with thought and perception.

She remembered the information she had seen and heard in the wind and sand—the words, conversations, and relics that seemed to correspond to various "times" and "events", which seemed to be the various "anchor points" in this forgotten desert.

She should also have her own anchor, something that proves that she once existed somewhere, that she once existed in some people's memories, that she existed in ...... in the world.

Her eyes were half-closed, and after some time, a slight throbbing finally appeared in the bottom of her heart.

In this boundless desert, she finally found a ripple related to herself-

Vanna snapped open her eyes and saw a broken piece of paper flying past her eyes.

She grabbed it suddenly, and read the handwriting on the piece of paper:

“…… The Frontier Exploration Fleet has once again 'crossed the border', and the Lost Land and the Bright Star have crossed the six-nautical-mile border...... Go to the end of the world in search of ......"

At the same time, she heard a familiar voice talking in her ear, and the voice was staccato and disjointed, as if there was some vague moment in history—

“…… Any news in particular? ”

“…… Briefing from the Deep Sea Church ......"

"They'll be safe, don't worry so much, Heidi......"

"Because of the mighty captain?"

"Because Your Father ......"

"Father, and Vanna, they're doing something great......"

Vanna's eyes widened suddenly, as if her heart had learned to beat again, and in the abrupt awakening of rebirth, she remembered her name, and—

"Lost Country...... Captain? ”

She looked at the piece of paper in her hand and muttered to herself.

Then, a faint green flame appeared at the edge of her vision, and a familiar and majestic voice appeared behind her almost immediately:

"I'm here."

(End of chapter)