Chapter 1 All Known History

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

If we regard the "Great Annihilation" 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. Archaeologists, despite all their wisdom and effort, cannot reconstruct any information from before that point in time. The world cannot even find any historical relics that point to the pre-Great Annihilation era--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 Captain Duncan, who returned from the sub-space, has given this wall a fitting 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 ingenuity of the term "horizon limit"!

"Our world seems to have been created out of thin air at some moment after the Great Annihilation, and the fragmented and contradictory history only proves 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 were like drilling deep into the dark earth, but in the end, they were all blocked by that invisible barrier!"

"Not even a second, not even a second before the outbreak of the Great Annihilation, is blank, unverifiable. Even the 'Three Long Nights' mentioned in the 'Book of Profanity' that Captain Duncan obtained from the Annihilation Cultists only describe the period from the Great Annihilation to the establishment of the ancient Cretan Kingdom--the information before the 'horizon limit' is still a blank!"

"It's dangerous to use the heretical nonsense of cultists as a reference!"

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

Luen shook his head gently: "The danger of heretical nonsense lies in its deceptiveness and its motivation to lead people to do evil. Apart from these influences, the 'Three Long Nights' is still a topic worth studying. Many of our achievements in the Dark Ages after the collapse of the ancient Cretan Kingdom are based on the study of the Sun Sect and the Annihilation Sect!"

"In short, what you're saying 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 the answer either."

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

Luen didn't speak, which was considered an admission of Freym'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 Frontier, after a large-scale 'Frontier Collapse'!"

"The Eastern Sea?" Banst frowned subconsciously!

"Yes, near the old site of the Visland Thirteen Islands," Luen nodded.

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

Helena and Freym nodded silently, while Banst had a thoughtful look on his face, but none of them interrupted Luen, but signaled him to continue speaking!

"When the Academy of Truth was responsible for patrolling the Frontier, one of our ships encountered an anomaly there," Luen continued as he sorted through his memories. "The specific situation is no longer verifiable, because the crew of that ship suffered severe cognitive confusion and memory gaps during the incident, and could not accurately describe their experiences during the event afterward, but there was a hastily written last will on board that recorded some of the situation at the time!"

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

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

A behemoth 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 his cognitive impairment and memory loss!"

"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 cold, and everyone on board was asleep. And in the depths of the gradually dissipating mist behind the ship, four behemoths appeared in the sight of the search and rescue personnel!"

"That's the Leviathan we found at sea--the giant beasts recorded in the *Storm Codex* that had long disappeared in the river of history, the apostles of the Storm Goddess!"

"You know what happened after that. The Academy of Truth found a way to 'revive' those legendary beasts, and built huge Cathedral Arks on them for the four God Churches to use!"

Luen finished his story. Freym and Banst were still thinking, but Helena gradually frowned: "Those Leviathans are actually one of the Frontier relics? No wonder you've been avoiding talking about these details. It turns out it's related to the Frontier Collapse!"

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

Luen nodded.

"But now that decades have passed since the Academy of Truth discovered the Leviathans, that Frontier Collapse incident, it's not so dangerous to mention these things again!"

"I have some doubts!"

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

"Who knows?"

Luen spread his hands, "Perhaps the four Leviathans we found on the Frontier were just some kind of 'small individual' or 'juvenile form'?"

"That shouldn't be the case in theory," Helena shook her head. "I often communicate with the Leviathans of the Cathedral Arks, although the specific form of the ancient abyss is unknown..."

"Then the problem lies with the biological tissues at the bottom of the city-states. Perhaps they are mutated individuals of particularly large scale."

"It's also possible!"

"It's related to the influence of those blueprints in the deep sea!" Luen said as he guessed, "After all, if the information from the *Lost Ship* 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 be the result of the Profound Lord's secondary processing!"

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

"May the Lord forgive me."

Helena and Freym 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 near-forbidden, even heretical topics from a higher perspective, and analyze the information from heretical lunatics with a calmer attitude and a more practical perspective, but as the 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 ultimately inevitable!

Only Banst, the Death God's spokesperson, tall and thin, with an aged appearance, had remained silent, as if he had been lost in thought since just now!

"Banst?"

Luen's attention was on this silent spokesman for the God of Death. "You seem distracted since just now!"

"I'm thinking about a question, Luen," Banst finally raised his head, his sunken eye sockets as deep as night. "Visland Thirteen Islands--the place where the Leviathans were discovered is near the Visland Thirteen Islands incident sea area. Don't you think this is worth paying attention to?"

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

"I know what you want to say--the *Lost Ship*!"

The old elf slowly said, "A hundred years ago, the *Lost Ship* opened a gate to the sub-space in Visland Thirteen Islands, dragging all those islands and residents into the depths of the terrifying world. This incident also caused the space-time structure of the entire sea area to be abnormally fragile, with frequent anomalies!

From this point of view, there is a certain causal connection between the incident encountered by the patrol ship of the Academy of Truth decades ago and the Visland Thirteen Islands incident!"

Speaking of this, he suddenly paused, then raised his head and looked at Banst very seriously, and continued: "But we cannot simply think that the *Lost Ship* 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 after-effects of Visland Thirteen Islands, Luen. This matter has actually been risky from the beginning!"

"You don't want the Cathedral Arks anymore?"

"I do!"