Chapter 1 Tirian was immersed in a brief state of disorientation and dullness caused by the massive impact for a full minute. His vision was blurry, countless noises churned in his mind, and his mind was like a lone boat tossing in a storm.

But even so, his reason remained clear.

He knew that the spectral flames that had appeared in the darkness had protected his mind, preventing it from being tainted by the power of the Abyss Lord.

After another moment, he gradually adjusted his breathing. Because he had not suffered too much mental pollution, the illusions in his mind were rapidly dissipating. At the same time, he heard a steady voice coming from across the room: "Looks like you've recovered."

Tirian raised his head, looking at the tall figure across the navigation table. "Was it you who 'pulled' me out..."

"You were staring at it for too long. Vanna said you were falling into a nightmare," Duncan said calmly. "Fortunately, I've been doing some research on 'dream intervention' lately."

"Nightmare," Tirian subconsciously rubbed his brow. "Did I look like I was falling into a nightmare just now..."

"Looks like you had an unusual experience?" Duncan's tone was curious. He had indeed urgently intervened in Tirian's mental world, but unlike the scenes he usually saw after entering another person's dream using the power of spirit world walking, this time he didn't "see" anything at all. Tirian's "nightmare" was just a darkness, and it seemed that the "source" of the nightmare had left before he intervened, which made him even more curious about what had happened.

"I... saw a being that's hard to describe in words," Tirian said with difficulty, recalling the scene he had just seen while cautiously describing it. "I can't describe its form, nor do I dare to recall all its details, but I believe it's the Abyss Lord."

Tirian recounted what he had seen and heard in the darkness, adding many of his own mental feelings in the middle, withholding nothing except for his inability to properly recall the outline of the mountain-like shadow.

After listening to Tirian's account, Duncan immediately frowned. "You're saying that this being, suspected to be the 'Abyss Lord,' said only one thing to you: 'Run'?"

Vanna didn't speak, only fell into thought for a moment.

Tirian was stunned, then realized, "I'm sorry, Father, I thought..."

But you only made that association, without making any judgments about the essence of the Abyss Lord -- the reason is simple, there's insufficient evidence. I won't draw conclusions carefully about things I haven't personally encountered.

Tirian didn't react for a moment. "What did you say, Father?"

He had stayed in this research facility for two days, and half of that time he had spent in this hall, dealing with this diving bell.

"...You're probably the only person in the world who describes the Abyss Lord as a slime mold," Duncan said with a strange expression, but he nodded slightly. "But it is as you said, if the information we've extracted from these demon souls and cultists is correct, the Abyss Lord is indeed such a 'silent heretical god,' whose only activity is to constantly differentiate more Abyss demons from its body, or to absorb these Abyss demons that died in battle."

"Regardless of whether this 'Run' showed kindness, the Obsidian is clearly the result of being affected by the Abyss Lord's power, and now there are Annihilation cultists active in Frost City-State, and they are probably here for this matter as well," Tirian slowly said. "If the influence I just received is really related to those who participated in this project back then, then now the Submersible Project is also tied to this matter – further reasoning leads me to believe that what we should be paying attention to now is probably this Dagger Island. It's the aftermath of the Submersible Project that has continued for half a century."

"Yes, we haven't opened its hatch yet," Professor Bellazaw nodded. "Naturally, we can't clean its interior either."

Duncan couldn't help but rub his forehead: "...This sounds like a creep tumor..."

"From Captain Tirian's description and his own feelings, even if that's not the Abyss Lord, it's at least a heretical god or something," Vanna immediately replied. "But as for what that 'Run' means... I'm sorry, Mr. Duncan, I dare not make a rash judgment."

"Yes--whether it's the Abyss demons differentiated from its body, or these Annihilation cultists who have signed contracts with the Abyss demons and are mentally insane, they are all great enemies of the civilized world."

He looked at the dirty, round glass window, curiously casting his gaze inside.

He paused at this point, as if feeling that this answer wasn't responsible enough, so he added, "There's a lot of information about the Abyss Lord, and even the information held by the four major churches is limited. The mainstream view is that the Abyss Lord is a huge, single entity located in the center of the Abyss Domain. It doesn't have the ability to move, nor does it actively project power into the real world. It can't communicate, and doesn't seem to think, like..."

Duncan tapped his forehead, seeming to be struggling over what word to use to describe such a being. Seeing this, Vanna casually said, "Like a slime mold sunk in the deep sea of the Abyss? Existing, huge, but unthinking and inactive fungal colony?"

"Irrelevant to subjective consciousness, its existence itself is a danger?"

Tirian rubbed his brow. The noise in his head hadn't completely subsided, and now there was only a slight dizziness and fatigue as if he had stayed up all night. As Duncan recounted information about the Abyss Lord, he also had his own thoughts.

"This is now a military restricted zone, and even with the power of the Sea Mist Fleet, it's impossible to approach easily -- the Forsaken should be able to force its way onto the island with its advantages, but it will probably be difficult to find that submersible in a short time. After all, the island is large, and the research facility has a simple structure. The military personnel on the island may directly order its destruction in an emergency..."

Vanna pondered: "So people in a state of high inspiration can't hear the whispers of the Old Gods..."

"Ah, it's nothing, it's unrelated to this matter," Vanna waved her hand, refocusing her attention on the matter at hand. She first thought for a moment, then turned to look at Duncan. "Do you think Tirian encountered the Abyss Lord? And it was for protective purposes that it told Tirian to 'Run'?"

"That's the only sentence I could understand," Tirian spread his hands. "It seemed to say a lot to me, but it was all annihilated in the huge noise. Finally, it seemed to give up, and said the shortest word, which I barely managed to hear..."

For some reason, what he thought of at this moment was the "Black Sun" that supported the false sun halo and was dying in the flames.

The more Vanna listened, the more wrong it sounded, and she quickly interrupted the pirate leader: "Stop, stop, stop, when did I say we were going to break in directly?"

But Duncan was already used to this, and he skillfully ignored this incomprehensible term, naturally letting the topic continue: "Overall, the Abyss Lord can actually be considered a relatively harmless heretical god, because at least it has never shown any tendency to erode the real world, but even so, in the classification of the Four Gods Churches, it is still classified as an evil god, class one."

It was rusty, and filled with dirt inside and out, hanging honestly on the iron hook like a piece of scrap iron, looking unremarkable.

Turbid, dark red mud surged slightly in the submersible, and something that looked like an eyeball stuck to the glass window, making eye contact with Myerson through the gaps in the dirt.

He was not a professional researcher. He didn't understand mechanical things, nor did he understand what the series of physical and chemical tests that scholars did on these samples meant. He was here purely because he was intrigued by this mysterious and strangely-backed mechanical device.

After a long time, the general withdrew his gaze. "It's dark inside, you can't see anything."

As a Frost person who was less than seventy years old, he had not experienced that major event half a century ago, but as one of the upper-level officials of the city-state, he had at least learned about the Submersible Project from these confidential files.

"The fourth 'Submersible Three'," Vanna said in a deep voice. "How much do you know about the situation on Dagger Island?"

Vanna waved her hand, signaling that he didn't need to explain: "Don't talk about that. Just tell me roughly what you know about the situation on Dagger Island, it might come in handy."

Submersible Three occupied the most important position in all the files, the most chilling part of the entire Submersible Project.

"Okay, about this small island..."

Professor Bellazaw stood next to the general, introducing the security measures of this laboratory.

"...The hoist cable leads directly to the furnace below. If there is an emergency, the hook will be released in an instant, and the submersible will smash through the grille and fall into the furnace. And if the release device is activated and the submersible doesn't fall into the passage, a linkage mechanism will be activated, and this entire room will be unhooked from the 'secret room' frame and fall along the chute into a cave behind the bay -- which is filled with nitroglycerin explosives."

An irresistible curiosity.

"We have thirty seconds to evacuate -- then the evacuation passage will be locked," Professor Bellazaw said. "But the real situation... the highest person in charge, which is me, can also choose not to open the evacuation passage."