When Duncan woke up, the overflowing starlight began to gather rapidly, and the desert, which had been almost soaked in starlight, quickly returned to its original state, and Tarijin breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, the "Eternal Flame" turned his head and glanced at Fanna not far away.

When the starlight was pervasive, Vanna was barely affected—in fact, she didn't even seem to notice the spreading starlight, she was just contemplating something like Duncan, and only then did she raise her head and look around.

A faint light of purple starlight permeated the edges of her long silver-white hair, as if those starlight had existed a long time ago, and only now did it manifest under some kind of "illumination".

"You have been transformed by the power of the Usurper and have begun to become an extension of his power," Tarigin broke the silence and nodded lightly to Vanna, "This confirms my judgment that the essence of the Usurper is not the flames, but what is hidden beneath the flames. ”

At this moment, Vana finally began to understand what was being discussed between the captain and the "old god" in front of her, and her expression changed several times, and her expression was thoughtful.

"So strictly speaking, you've never set foot in this world, usurper," Tarijin set his eyes on Duncan again, "you've been observing everything in the infinite sea through a veil, and only occasionally do you perceive its 'true side' with your 'own eyes', and the 'end of the flame' that you mention—I can think of what it is—is the result of this limitation."

"The 'takeover' of Pilot One is based on the fact that you have to continue the shelter, and continuing the shelter means that you maintain your 'awareness' of the current state of the shelter, but you have to maintain the awareness of the current state of the shelter...... You have to be 'Duncan'. ”

Tarijin paused for a moment, as if to give Duncan time to think, before continuing in a low voice, "Because the usurper's gaze will destroy the world—what it looks like depends on what you observe.

"And the reverse is true, when you want to carry out the 'first step', you must be a usurper - because the gaze of 'Captain Duncan' will cause the shelter to continue in the flames, and thus usher in the 'end of the flames', which has nothing to do with your subjective will, and is perhaps the only thing in this world that you have no control over."

The Usurper's gaze will destroy the world......

Duncan didn't speak, he thought about what Tarijin had said, about the plan for Pilot-1 and his own plan, and thought about ......

In the eyes of "Duncan" and "Zhou Ming", the world presents a different appearance.

"I see," after a long time, Duncan—he still needs to be "Duncan" now—finally exhaled softly, and he raised his head to meet Tarigin's gaze, "thanks for the reminder, it's really important." ”

"That's good." A smile appeared on Tarijin's face, and then the old, rickety giant reached out to support his body and the ground beside him, and gradually exerted his strength, slowly rising from the yellow sand in a difficult but determined gesture.

The sand fell from him like a bygone year in the wind, and he stood in the desert at night, looking up into the distance.

After a while, he sighed softly: "There is almost nothing left......

"What was this place like?" Hearing the other party's exclamation, Fanna couldn't help but ask.

"Originally? Originally, it was not a thriving place, because from the very beginning, the 'history' in the shelter was just a phantom built in the long river of time, it was my 'carving', and the continuous ritual recording and repair of the fire bearers, so that the real world outside seemed to have been 'developing and continuing normally along time', but here...... It's never flourished here.

"But at least, it wasn't a desert at that time—a vast stretch of dry land dotted with extremely rare rivers and oases, because even in the hallucinatory flow of time, there was a reflection of what really happened, what really deserved to be recorded.

"At that time, there were even cities on this land, and intellectual races lived next to the oases, and those were the reflections of the real world, reflected in this dream carved by me, and in their memories...... The world was and always has been. ”

The old giant bent down, grabbed a handful of sand from the ground, and watched as it gradually fell between his fingers and passed away in the cold night wind.

"Then, I ushered in 'rotting', more and more things disappeared into the real world, and the history of the shelter was also full of holes, and each 'self-adjustment' of the shelter meant that more and more 'gangrene' appeared in the flow of time, and the dry earth was gradually covered with yellow sand, and the memories and voices of the past echoed in the ruins, and finally became what you are looking like."

Vanna couldn't help but think of the city, of the sounds she had heard, the relics she had seen as she trekked through this vast sea of sand.

Then it suddenly occurred to her that something else: she thought of some deviant "theories" and "academic conjectures" that she had seen in the archives of the cathedral when she was still in Plante—the two sides of the world.

Some scholars believe that the whole world is one and the same—in a certain dimension, there is a "dry land" where the sea and the land are completely mirrored, where there is an endless dry land, and the extremely rare rivers and oases are dotted with drought, and in that dry land there are even intelligent civilizations, which are a reflection of everything in reality......

Vanna's eyes widened, and she couldn't help but look into the distance, at this endless sea of sand, imagining the ruins of the city-states large and small dotted in the sea of sand......

This is the place that scholars guess is a reflection of the world.

It really existed—at the end of the world, in the decaying memories of an old god that was constantly weathering and disintegrating.

Vanna jerked her head up, as if to say something to Tarigin, but just as she was about to speak, a gust of wind suddenly swept through the sand.

The wind and sand rose like a curtain from heaven and earth, closing beside her and the captain, and then disappeared in the blink of an eye—the wind had stopped, and the giant who had stood on his stomach in the desert had disappeared from her eyes.

The chaotic sky shone through the clouds and fog on the island of ashes, and a breeze blew from nowhere, a delicate and pale ash danced with the wind, floating like a light veil around.

Vanna awoke from her stunned stupor, and looked into the distance, seeing only a boundless ash in front of her, and a sparse column of smoke rising from a distance, rising crookedly into the sky.

Not far from her was a bonfire that seemed to be about to go out.

Tarykin sat there—emaciated, cricket, almost a pile of depleted bones, he was the bonfire itself, his flesh and bones were the firewood for it, small, faint flames burning between his charred bones and remaining flesh, gently shaking in the breeze.

The giant sat there with his head bowed, motionless, beside him what seemed to have been piled up, but now there were only undulating, unformed ashes, and in his hand he still clung to a black stone chip like a chisel—as if he was carving something earnestly until he could not move.

Vanna slowly walked over to the dying flames, looked up, and looked at the giant's face in long, silent silence.

In a trance, she seemed to hear that familiar voice again-

Bite...... Ding Ding ......

Duncan walked over and gently pressed his hand on Vanna's shoulder.

"We should go," he whispered, "while the fire here isn't completely extinguished." ”

Vana nodded slightly.

Duncan stepped forward and pointed his finger at the remaining cluster of flames on Tarygin's body.

Silently, the cluster of flames quietly dyed a layer of dark green, and then the flames jumped, and a magnificent starlight appeared in the firelight, as if it was slowly extinguishing as if breathing.

In the vague perception established by the flames, he whispered in his heart: "See you in our new world." ”

……

In the eternal darkness of night, a large fleet is sailing north.

The night breeze blows through the calm sea, bringing the cold that is unique to the cold sea of the north, as if it can make people's hearts and lungs gradually freeze, and the pale and cold light of the creation of the world shines on the whole world, and the large and small ice floes that float on the surface of the sea like a mirror reflect the brilliance of the creation of the world, and in the night like a series of hideous and pale ghosts, it seems to move slowly and quickly outside the ship.

Even a huge and sacred bonfire could not dispel the chill that enveloped the entire sea—as Frem stood by the fire in the center of the church ark, for a moment he felt as if the burning flame in front of him had suddenly lost its temperature, and what came to his face was no longer the heat of the fire, but an endless emptiness, a sharp cold.

The sound of footsteps wakes the pope the flame bearer, who was meditating with his eyes closed, and Frem looked in the direction from which the sound came from, and saw a priestess wearing a long black fire stripe dress and a veil walking towards him and bowing her head to herself by the fire.

"Your Majesty, we have crossed the waters around the frost and have just received a signal from the ships of the Deep Sea Church that they will join us in half an hour to deliver the 'cargo'."

"Well," Frem replied, "...... Is the archives ready? ”

"Preparations are ready," replied the tall Senjin priestess, "and the storage areas have been readjusted to make room for new documents. ”

Frem nodded silently.

"Besides, the Frost City-State has just sent a message," said the priestess again, "Greetings from the Archon of Tirien, the original text is as follows—

"With all the good wishes of the world, I salute and salute the records and inheritors, please move forward with peace of mind, all acts of existence are meaningful, and 'they' have crossed the point of fire and will go to the last stop."

(End of chapter)