Chapter 172 The Placenta

The room fell silent.

The oppressive silence lasted for an unknown amount of time before Duncan suddenly broke it. "All beings in the mortal world are descendants of the ancient gods—even the most fanatical Annihilation cultists probably haven't uttered such a heretical conclusion."

"Hearing the words 'heretical' from your mouth is quite unbelievable," Rei Nora said, a smile playing on her lips as she watched Duncan's eyes. "Yet this is indeed the ultimate truth I've learned in this long nightmare. Just like the scene you saw in the deep sea, the 'creation theory' of the Annihilation cultists is not false. Perhaps they have problems with their understanding, but at least one thing is true... this world of ours was created by the ancient god based on some grand 'blueprint,' and in this creative process... His flesh and blood are the foundation of all things."

Duncan was silent for a few seconds before slowly opening his mouth as if talking to himself. "The Gloom Lord used himself as raw material and shaped everything above the sea according to the 'blueprint' in the deep sea. His 'flesh and blood' naturally exists within all things, and due to the appearance of some 'error,' those 'flesh and blood' that had been shaped into all things in the mortal world were activated. So the ancient god awakens from the flesh and blood of mortals and the 'blueprint' of the city-states—is this the truth of the Frost crisis?"

Rei Nora slowly nodded, her voice soft. "Replication and creation are the Gloom Lord's authority. He can evolve all things from himself, so he undertook the work of Genesis. But obviously, after a long period of time, the original blueprint has begun to have problems, or perhaps the 'creator' as the source has a problem. He then began to wake up from his creation—constantly waking up in the form of 'erroneous copies.' Frost was the first, but it won't be the last..."

Even with Duncan's composure, he couldn't control the stormy waves in his heart after hearing these terrifying words. The ancient gods will gradually awaken from all beings in the mortal world and even all things in the mortal world. From the perspective of eerie horror, the terrible degree of this matter even exceeds the black sun high above the Pland city-state!

"Did you know all this when you communicated with...'Him' in the nightmare?" Duncan spent a lot of effort to control the thoughts surging wildly in his heart, while maintaining calmness, he turned his head and looked at the dark deep sea at the end of the room, looking at the huge "pillar" standing quietly in the darkness.

"As an incomplete copy, He can't tell me anything, but I can learn a lot from Him," Rei Nora said. "I know what you want to say—human intellect is weak. Even if we face the truth, our limited perception and thinking cannot completely and accurately understand what we see. So I'm not sure that what I said is 100% 'true.' That's just what I realized from a fragmented 'thought' of an ancient god through my own perception and understanding... just for your reference."

Duncan didn't respond for a while. He fell into a long period of thought. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly turned back. "'Alice' what exactly is she? Is she the body you used for resurrection?"

"Alice?" Rei Nora frowned upon hearing the name, and the doubt in her eyes didn't seem fake. "Who is Alice?"

"...It seems you don't know this name. I thought her cognition came from you," Duncan carefully confirmed the subtle changes in Rei Nora's expression before withdrawing his scrutinizing gaze. "She is a doll with the exact same appearance as you. Many years ago, after you were...'executed,' the Frost people salvaged a container in the Cold Sea. Alice was sleeping in that container—she was once called Anomaly 099, but now she is my crew member."

Rei Nora listened quietly to Duncan's description, a thoughtful expression gradually appearing on her face. After a long while, she suddenly showed a smile. "Ah, so that's how it is..."

"So?" Duncan instantly noticed this word. "What does this mean?"

"I keep dreaming, all kinds of dreams, like floating in a sea covered with thick fog. Most of the time, I am surrounded by coldness and darkness, falling asleep with the fragmented murmurs, and it is even difficult to distinguish whether the self in the dream is a human soul or an ancient god's copy floating in the deep sea, but sometimes... dry land appears in my dream, a swaying cabin, and some nervous, whispering strangers..."

As she spoke, she slowly raised her head, looking at Duncan with a smile.

"And recently, the frequency of the second type of dream has obviously been increasing. The whispering strangers in the dream have become many... strange but interesting items. They are playing around with me, and there is a trustworthy gaze that always watches at the edge of the dream... You care about that doll who calls herself 'Alice,' don't you?"

"She doesn't have many people she can trust in this world, and I don't have many people I trust in this world," Duncan looked very seriously at the "Frost Queen" in front of him, and didn't relax a bit because of the other party's gentle smile. "This uncontrolled sea area has 'copied' a lot of things, including sunken ships and sailors in distress, but the 'executed queen' is the most special. She is a doll with self-awareness... But judging from your attitude, you don't know anything about this?"

Rei Nora, however, didn't seem to notice Duncan's serious, almost stern eyes. She just frowned slightly, as if trying to think hard, and gradually showed a look as if she had thought of something. Then she closed her eyes as if carefully feeling it, and then opened her eyes again with a slightly strange expression and looked at Duncan. "That doll calls herself 'Alice,' is that right?"

Duncan frowned. "That's right, what's the problem?"

"Then... what if I said that doll is not actually a 'copy' of me?" Rei Nora said very seriously, "Or rather, not entirely a copy of me?"

"...What do you mean by that?"

"Is there a possibility..." Rei Nora paused, seeming to try to be serious, but there was always something awkward in her expression, "Alice Guillotine—the point is not Alice, it's the guillotine..."

Duncan: "...?"

"Actually, I don't really want to recall these," Rei Nora said, raising her hand and touching the back of her neck with a strange expression. "Do you know that when the rebels executed me, they used a type of instrument called the 'Alice Guillotine'..."

A light finally flashed in Duncan's mind, and he understood what this "Frost Queen" wanted to say.

But he felt that he would rather not understand.

"You mean, you suspect that 'Alice' was actually copied by this uncontrolled sea area from that 'guillotine,' rather than from you..."

Duncan said subconsciously, but stopped involuntarily halfway through, and muttered to himself in confusion: "But that's not right, she looks exactly like you..."

"Erroneous replication, Captain," Rei Nora obviously already had the answer. She shook her head and turned to look at the dark deep sea at the end of the room. "A defective, erroneously replicated ancient god created this uncontrolled sea area, so in this uncontrolled sea area, erroneous replication is the norm—when a beheaded queen and a guillotine sink into the deep sea at the same time, and accurately fall into the 'perceptual' area of the ancient god's tentacles because of my prior arrangements, perhaps it will trigger some... wonderful changes, mixing and reorganization, copying and completion, plus a little bit of... processing in the mysterious realm."

She stopped here, looking at the ancient god's tentacle standing in the darkness with a complicated expression.

"Obviously, He can't tell..."

The room fell silent again.

But this time the silence was completely different from before.

After this uncomfortable silence lasted for several minutes, Duncan finally broke the silence with a sigh. "So, in a sense, He raised a placenta..."

Rei Nora opened her mouth, and after a few seconds of stagnation, she blurted out: "An unprecedented but appropriate metaphor, as expected of you..."

Duncan sighed helplessly, what else could he say? In this dark and boundless deep sea, the direction of things has completely exceeded everyone's expectations. The ancient god's incomprehensibility and indescribability are truly reflected in all aspects. To use a not-so-appropriate metaphor—between keeping the big one and keeping the small one, the ancient god chose to keep the placenta...

But at least he understood one thing—

Why does that silly doll think her name is "Alice"?

Because she is really the Alice Guillotine.

Since coming to this world, Duncan has seen countless evil things, but even among those extremely evil things, this one is definitely the most evil.

"Look on the bright side, at least there is one thing you don't need to worry about," Rei Nora noticed that Duncan was in a bad mood, and comforted him from the side, "Alice is not the body I used for resurrection—in fact, from the beginning, I never thought about the so-called 'resurrection'."

Listening to the Frost Queen's words, Duncan turned his head and glanced at her again, and had to try hard to adjust his mentality, forcibly throwing the lingering sense of disharmony behind his head, and returning the topic to the right track: "Then... what about the key you mentioned at the beginning? What about the keyhole on Alice's back? These are not your arrangements?"

"I don't know what you mean by 'keyhole,' but if the key you are talking about is a brass wind-up key, then it is indeed what I left for the city-state's executive officer, and it is also what I just mentioned to you, the necessary item to enter this room normally," Rei Nora's attitude was frank, and then she changed the topic, "But I am not the creator of that key, nor its first holder."

Duncan was stunned, his eyes changed slightly: "...You are not the first holder of the key? Then where did you get it?"

"It was a gift from a friend," Rei Nora said frankly, "A knowledgeable and kind old man."