Chapter 1 All Known History

All known history of this world began with the "Great Annihilation" of the ancient era!

If the "Great Annihilation" is regarded as a wall, then this invisible wall is clearly not a simple "event node" but has in fact "cut off" the entire historical timeline!

Everything before the Great Annihilation is unknown. No matter how much wisdom and effort archaeologists expend, they cannot restore the slightest bit of information from before that point in time. There isn't even a single historical relic in the world that could point to the history before the Great Annihilation--not even a stone with writing on it!

This despairing "black wall" has stood for ten thousand years in the eyes of scholars, and now that Captain Duncan, who returned from the subspace, has given this wall an appropriate name!

As the leader of the Academy of Truth, the Pope of the God of Wisdom, Luen can deeply appreciate the existence of that black wall and the subtlety of the term "horizon limit" more than anyone else!

"Our world seems to have been created out of thin air at some moment after the Great Annihilation. The fragmented and contradictory history is just ironclad proof of the existence of that 'horizon limit'."

In front of his three old friends, Luen said with emotion, "Since the rise of the city-states, even from the Dark Ages, countless scholars have tried to trace back to the past, trying to find the source before the Great Annihilation. They are like drilling deep into the dark earth, but in the end, they are all blocked by that invisible barrier!

"Not a single second, not even the second before the Great Annihilation erupted, is blank, unverifiable. Even the 'Three Long Nights' mentioned in the 'Book of Blasphemy' that Captain Duncan obtained from the Annihilation cultists only describe the period from the Great Annihilation to the establishment of the ancient Cretan Kingdom—information prior to the 'horizon limit' is still a blank slate!"

"It is dangerous to regard the heretical fallacies of cultists as reference material!"

Pope Banster of Death couldn't help but remind him from the side!

Luen gently shook his head. "The danger of heretical fallacies lies in their deceptiveness and the motivation to do evil. Apart from these influences, the 'Three Long Nights' themselves are still a topic worthy of research. Many of our achievements in the Dark Ages after the collapse of the ancient Cretan Kingdom were built on the study of the Solar Cult and the Annihilation Cult!"

"In short, what you want to say is that you can't explain what's going on with the leviathan under the city-state."

"And those leviathan beasts carrying the Cathedral Arks can't give us answers either."

Frem broke the silence. "Because this is an event that happened before the Great Annihilation, all information pointing to it is unknowable, unmeasurable, and unverifiable!"

Luen didn't speak, which was regarded as tacit approval of Frem's words!

Helena, after a moment of thought, suddenly spoke. "But at least you can tell us where the Academy of Truth found the four leviathans--at least those beasts carrying the four Cathedral Arks were indeed discovered and resurrected by you, weren't they?"

"They came from the border, after a large-scale 'border collapse'!"

"The Eastern Sea?" Banster frowned subconsciously!

"Yes, it's near the old site of the Thirteen Islands of Vessellan," Luen nodded.

"Since that terrible subspace disaster a century ago, the Eternal Veil in the east has always been a fragile node. The thick fog there often collapses inward or temporary anomalous areas appear on the sea. You should also know this!

"

Helena and Frem nodded silently, while Banster looked thoughtful, but none of them interrupted Luen, but signaled him to continue!

"When the Academy of Truth was in charge of patrolling the border, one of our ships encountered an anomaly there," Luen continued, organizing his memories. "The specific situation is no longer testable, because the crew of that ship suffered severe cognitive confusion and memory loss during the incident, and could not accurately describe the experiences during the event afterwards, but there was a hastily written will on board, recording some of the situation at that time!"

"The sea suddenly recessed inward, like the edge of a strange 'bowl' was smooth and calm, and the water seemed to be solidified, but the ship did not fall with the recessed sea, but floated above the recessed sea!"

"The ship lost power, unable to move forward or backward, and hovered in a terrifying way hundreds of meters above the sea!"

"A huge monster emerged from the recessed sea, like some kind of creature!"

"The above is the record hastily written by a crew member on that ship before cognitive disorder and memory damage!"

"

"Later, another fleet of ours found the missing patrol ship. It was slowly drifting out of a mist, with all power lost, the steam core was cold, and everyone on board was asleep. And in the depths of the gradually dissipating mist behind that ship, four huge monsters appeared in the sight of the search and rescue personnel!"

"That is the leviathan we found at sea--the beast recorded in the Storm Codex that had long disappeared in the river of history, the apostle of the Storm Goddess!"

"

"You know what happened next. The Academy of Truth found a way to 'revive' those legendary beasts, and built huge Cathedral Arks on them and handed them over to the Four Gods Churches for use!"

Luen's narration ended. Frem and Banster were still thinking, but Helena gradually frowned. "Those leviathans are actually one of the border relics? No wonder you have been avoiding talking about these details before. It turns out that it is related to the border collapse!"

"The awareness of the border collapse will increase the probability of the border collapse occurring within the civilized world. The closer the time, the higher the probability. This is a law summarized a century ago when that Captain Duncan Abernathy was still a great explorer."

Luen nodded.

"But now that decades have passed since the Academy of Truth discovered the leviathans and that border collapse incident, it is not so dangerous to mention these things again!"

"I have some doubts!"

Frem suddenly said at this time, "Although the Cathedral Arks are large in scale, they are obviously not at the same level as the city-states. If the biological structure at the bottom of the city-states is really also a leviathan, then their volume is several times the size of the Cathedral Ark leviathan. Is this really the same population?"

"Who knows?"

Luen spread his hands. "Perhaps the four leviathans we found on the border are just some kind of 'small individuals' or 'juveniles'?"

"Theoretically, it shouldn't be like this," Helena shook her head. "I often communicate with the leviathans of the Cathedral Arks. Although the specific image of the anti-city-state before..."

"Then the problem lies in the biological tissues at the bottom of the city-state. Perhaps they are exceptionally large mutant individuals.

"Maybe!"

"It is related to the influence of those blueprints in the deep sea!" Luen guessed and said, "After all, if the information from the Deep Sea Embers is true, then all the city-states on the boundless sea today can actually be regarded as creations of the ancient gods, and even the biological structures at the bottom of the city-states may also be the result of the Submerged Lord's secondary processing!

Speaking of this, Luen suddenly stopped, then shook his head self-deprecatingly, and brushed his eyes with his hand, making a gesture of praying to the God of Wisdom, Lahem: "May the Lord forgive me, it feels so strange to talk about these heretical remarks!"

"May the Lord forgive me."

Helena and Frem also made gestures of prayer, confessing to the Storm Goddess and the Eternal Flame behind them!

As the leaders of the churches, they can look at these topics that are on the verge of being forbidden, and even regarded as heretical fallacies, from a higher perspective, and analyze the information from heretical fanatics with a calmer attitude and a more practical perspective, but as spokespersons of the Four Gods, they also abide by the precepts of their respective sects and are bound by faith. When discussing certain dangerous topics, that sense of incongruity and resistance in their hearts is inevitable!

Only Banster, the spokesperson of the God of Death, who was tall and thin and had an old appearance, did not speak, as if he had been lost in thought since just now!

"Banster."

Luen's attention was on this silent spokesperson of the God of Death. "You have seemed distracted since just now!"

"I am thinking about a question, Luen." Banster finally raised his head, his sunken eye sockets as deep as night. "The Thirteen Islands of Vessellan--the discovery site of those leviathans is near the sea area of the Thirteen Islands of Vessellan. Don't you think this is worth paying attention to?"

Luen nodded calmly, obviously he had already expected that Banster's attention would fall on this detail!

"I know what you want to say-- Deep Sea Embers!"

The old elf slowly said, "A hundred years ago, Deep Sea Embers opened a door to the subspace in the Thirteen Islands of Vessellan, dragging all the islands and residents into the depths of a terrifying world. This event also caused the spatiotemporal structure of the entire sea area to be abnormally fragile, with frequent anomalies!

"From this point of view, the incident encountered by the Academy of Truth's patrol ship decades ago has a certain causal connection with the Thirteen Islands of Vessellan incident!"

Speaking of this, he suddenly paused, then raised his head and looked at Banster very seriously, and continued: "But we cannot simply think that Deep Sea Embers sent the leviathan beasts into the real world, this lacks evidence, and there is not enough theoretical support yet!"

"But those four leviathans may indeed have entered our real world due to some lingering influence of the Thirteen Islands of Vessellan, Luen. This matter has actually been risky from the beginning!"

"Don't you want your Cathedral Ark anymore?"

"Yes!"