The dead were crawling out of their coffins one after another, and the cemetery was littered with dangling corpses, bewildered and bewildered, or sitting on the morgue in a daze, reminiscing and thinking in vain in the slight sense of disobedience that had been left after the old order had dissipated, trying to grasp the uneasiness and shadow that had lingered in their hearts.

And the caretaker, who was supposed to guard the cemetery to prevent the dead from waking up, was guiding the awakened corpses, sending them out of this temporary place of rest, and sending them back to their homes.

The dim street lamps reflected this strange scene, and even Agatha, who was no longer able to sense the temperature of the living world, felt another cold that seemed to slowly diffuse from her soul, and she stood by the path in a daze, watching Duncan send out the moving corpses one by one, as if she was deep in a strange dream.

"Well, you're the last," Finally, the last rickety dead man set out on his way home, it was a young man who had died in a murder, he had a terrible hole in his chest, Duncan helped the fresh dead man down the platform, and gently and calmly admonished, "You remember the direction of home, go back, it's normal to not breathe, and soon you will get used to it all...... Now go home, be with your family, don't think too much, live well - get out of here, go forward, don't look back, you won't have to go back to this place for a long time. ”

The stiff-footed corpse finally walked away, the dim streetlights shining on him, knowing that he had finally disappeared into the distant night.

Duncan finally came to the Gatekeeper Lady, and despite the thick bandage, there was a gentle and calm smile in his eyes: "I've kept you waiting, Lady Agatha." ”

Agatha was suddenly in a trance, feeling as if she was about to forget something important, but then she suddenly woke up, and raised her hand to press her forehead while muttering, "The boundary between life and death is gone...... Your Excellency, what happened? I feel...... It seems that something is wrong, here in the cemetery...... That wasn't normal ...... just now."

Her body shook for a moment, as if her consciousness had suddenly been interrupted, and she almost fell.

"Relax, Agatha." Duncan reached out and gently hugged the gatekeeper, helping her slowly to a nearby morgue and allowing her to sit next to a coffin.

"Keep breathing—or not breathing, the main thing is to keep your mind calm," he said slowly, just as he had calmed the restless dead, "Trance and slight nervousness are normal, and they will soon pass, and Tirion is now well, and you will soon be too." ”

Listening to the voice of the words beside her, Agatha felt that the torn conflict in her mind finally subsided slightly, and her cognition temporarily stabilized, and after a moment of silence, she whispered, "How long?" ”

"We're heading to the last node, the Grim Reaper's node, which in experience will take about two to three days, after which I can confirm Bartók's state," Duncan looked into Agatha's veiled eyes, "but if you're asking about that final moment after that...... That will take a while. ”

“…… What else will the world become? ”

Duncan didn't speak, just looked at her calmly.

Initially, the sea loses its waves, the infinite sea becomes a calm mirror of water, and then, the dead no longer rest in peace, the concept of death is distorted, and the boundaries between life and death become blurred.

He suddenly remembered what the black sun had described to him—

One day, the ocean will forget what the waves look like, life will forget how to die, the flames will not remember how to burn, the wind will stop flowing, and the clouds will fall from the sky to the sea......

The gods sink in oblivion, the world in oblivion - that's the "rotten future".

It was the counterpart of the "future of fire", another lightless end.

Agatha didn't get the answer to her question, but in Duncan's gaze, she seemed to know the outcome, and as the cognitive tears and contradictions in her mind resurfaced, she was vaguely aware of the ...... This may not be the first time this kind of thing has happened in this world.

“…… I have undergone the most rigorous training and trials, I have honed my skills in the temple and I have strengthened my will, and I have sworn before the icon of the Lord to protect those who follow us with my strength and faith......"

She spoke softly, the coldness of the world soaking into her mind as if to freeze her mind, and her voice sounded in the cold night, as if coming from one tomb and echoing inside another—

"But how am I going to protect them in this situation? Captain Duncan, in this ...... In the face of the collapse of the world's cornerstones......"

"You're protecting them, and everyone in this city is protecting the city in their own way—the way of life here, the memories here, everything here," Duncan's deep voice interrupted Agatha's words, "I know that even so, everything is slowly dying, and the 'memory' of this world is disappearing like quicksand between your fingers, and no matter how tightly you clench your hands, it's only slowing down the process, but it's not anyone's fault." ”

He turned his head to look at the path in the cemetery, and at the morgues next to the path, which were now completely quiet.

Some of the morgues still bear the marks of bullets and blades, slashes, bouquets of flowers from the living to the dead, and even ...... It seems that there are still undried tears.

It was a place where people fought for the border between life and death, where there were people who mourned those who had passed through life and death to the other world, but it is now completely quiet, and it may not have any more "guests" for a long time to come.

People will gradually forget the role of the cemetery, and then, it will be an irresistible "neglect", death will become a state transformation that no one cares about, Bartók's priesthood will be blurred, the concept of the Church of Death will become a natural but incomprehensible, and no one even thinks of understanding it, this dying world will be "adjusted" again, and "ignorance" is another gift it gives to all beings - to prevent the fragile minds of mortals from accidentally peeking into the hidden darkness in the depths. Horror of horror of corruption and festering.

Agatha felt the cold air fill her chest, and slowly exhale out of her body as she breathed.

It seemed that she hadn't breathed for a long time, and after the death of this body, she became more and more accustomed to being a deceased, so much so that she slowly forgot about "breathing".

But now, she was starting to breathe naturally again.

The darkness of the night gently enveloped the world, and she felt that the trance in her mind was gradually fading, and all the confusion and anxiety were slowly dissipating.

She heard Captain Duncan speak beside her, with a reassuring calmness in his tone.

"Agatha, you know what? In fact, the human eye can always see the tip of its own nose - it will block a large part of the person's vision, and when the two eyes are focused, it will form a black shadow that cannot be ignored in theory.

"But your brain has been dealing with this 'trouble', it has learned to ignore that dark shadow and 'fill' the void in the field of vision through incredible imagination, deception and calculation, and only at certain angles and locations can you notice the presence of that 'blind spot'.

"At the same time, due to the influence of neural structure, people's vision is upside down, and your brain needs to pay a lot of calculations and adjustments to make the signals transmitted by the nerves flip into normal shapes - so some people, when they suffer from neuropathy, will briefly see the upside-down world, and even struggle to move in that upside-down world.

"Man is such an imperfect creature that the human brain has to go through means of ignorance, forgetfulness, and even self-deception in order to survive sane and normal in this world.

"And this world has the same 'correction' mechanism as your brain - those terrible tears and contradictions, after all, will be hidden under this correction mechanism, although they will accumulate more and more, although the whole world will still gradually sink...... But this is the best they can do.

"Agatha, the world is so imperfect that its designers had to ignore, forget, and even self-deceive in order for you to sanely survive in this world, and now this process is on the verge of limits.

"It's like the sand that runs through your fingers.

"But 'they' did their best."

Duncan withdrew his gaze into the distance and watched the gatekeeper sitting on the morgue in silence.

“…… I'll go back to the cathedral. ”

Agatha said softly suddenly.

The glow of the green fire danced deep within her shattered body, smoldering in her eyes.

"There will be people who will come to the cathedral for help, there will be other priests who are as momentarily confused and uneasy as I am, who need me—and after that, when this 'process' is over for the time being, I will continue to do my duty...... I should be with my followers and let everyone's life go on, even if it lasts one more day. And then ......"

She breathed a sigh of relief, then jumped off the morgue with a slick stance.

She stood like a calm tombstone in the night, as if the days of praying in the cathedral in a long dress as a nun had not lost her momentum as a gatekeeper in the slightest.

"Then, the world may get worse," Duncan's voice came from the side, "Life has forgotten how to die, the flames may also forget how to burn, wind and clouds, light and darkness, many things will gradually sink in this unstoppable decay—and the 'correction' of the world will reach its limit, and there will be people who will wake up in the darkness and perceive the terrible changes in the world, and then ......"

Agatha looked up and met Captain Duncan's gaze as the breeze began to rise beside her, and her figure gradually disintegrated into ash in the wind.

A smile crossed her face.

"I'm still going to do my job and be patient – we all have something to do, right?"

Duncan nodded slightly.

Agatha's figure turned into a gray wind, dissolved into the night, and left the quiet cemetery.

(End of chapter)