Chapter 14 In the Final Moments

In that final moment, a sharp, cold light appeared in the boundless void and depths of chaos, the tide of fragmented information almost drowning the tiny flame that had seeped into the "sample."

In a slight daze, Duncan heard Shirley cry out beside him, "Careful!"

His dazed consciousness reconnected with the real world, and Duncan instinctively took half a step back. In the next second, he saw the tip of a silver, shimmering sword appear before his eyes.

The sword tip stopped only ten centimeters from his nose, and it was still slowly extending forward.

"Aggressive behavior!" Ted Lear, who had been intently watching the contained sample, reacted instantly. He cried out softly and quickly slapped the large book in his hand. A hazy glimmer spread outward from the pages, instantly covering the sample's surface and rapidly solidifying and thickening, transforming into layer upon layer of barriers.

At the same time, Duncan withdrew the flame that had seeped into the sample, his consciousness swiftly clearing, and his gaze returned to the "sample" before him.

On the containment platform, the previously solidified, iron-grey metallic mass had suddenly undergone deformation. A portion of its "shell" had instantly bulged, solidifying into a form resembling a sharp sword.

But the suddenly solidified "sword" had not pierced anyone. It only extended halfway before seeming to be forcibly restrained by an immense power. It was still slowly extending outward, bit by bit. This scene was less like a "thrust" and more like a sword was being gradually "expelled" from the sample.

Lucrezia somehow had a small "baton" in her hand. She quickly stepped forward and, while Ted Lear used divine magic to control the sample, directly touched the baton to the middle of the "longsword." But just as she prepared to further destroy the structure, Duncan suddenly stopped her, "Wait."

Lucrezia abruptly halted the spell she was about to cast, turning to look at her father with some confusion. Ted Lear, who was preparing to take the next action, and Nina, who was almost burning with anticipation, also quickly stopped and turned questioning gazes.

Duncan waved his hand at them, then carefully bypassed the still slowly extending blade. He came to the side of the iron-grey "living metal" mass, staring intently at its "shell."

It had not truly "activated." Only the outward-extending blade had changed. The rest of the sample remained in a static, solidified state, as before.

Confused, fragmented information still swirled in his mind, as if someone had completely torn a person's memory into pieces, mixed them randomly, and then dumped them all before his eyes. Duncan sorted through those broken memories again and again, trying to reassemble them into useful intelligence.

He saw many things – an ominous "crimson," a scar across the sky, warriors setting out, fallen companions, a world gradually distorting and decaying, a meaningless journey, great confusion, anger, fear, followed by death and peace, and all sorts of bizarre scenes constantly surfacing in his delirium.

Duncan suspected that if ordinary people saw these things – even if they only saw a small part of them – they would probably be completely tainted by certain dangerous knowledge carried within the information.

But these contaminating "knowledge" were just chaotic fragments to him. In repeated sorting and recollection, he had begun to gradually assemble them into continuous memories.

Then he raised his head, his gaze fixed on the longsword that had already extended more than halfway. After a slight hesitation, he reached out and touched its surface.

The cold, hard touch of metal came from his fingertip.

Duncan slowly closed his eyes. He could feel that as he touched the longsword, those chaotic, fragmented memories in his mind became clearer and more coherent, though still incomplete, it was enough for him to understand what had once happened.

He opened his eyes, looking at the last piece of debris left behind by that distant and ancient world, looking at the nameless warrior's last counterattack against the apocalypse – he gently pinched this piece of debris, feeling the connection it conveyed to him, and then slowly pulled it out.

The flame gave this longsword, which had failed to fly into the sky, a trace of extra power. It finally completely separated from the living metal mass.

Well-made, with a slender blade, a hilt wrapped in dense linen, and a handguard inlaid with glittering crystals of unknown use and material, now, it had crossed the long river of time, arriving in its original and "correct" form in this... Deep Sea Era.

Including Ted Lear, everyone in the room widened their eyes, looking in astonishment at the scene before them. Lucrezia finally couldn't help but ask, "Father, what is this?"

Duncan lowered his head, looking at the nameless sword in his hand. After thinking for a long time, he slowly said, "This is a weapon that was once planned to fight the end of the world."

"Fight the end of the world?" Shirley's eyes widened instantly. "With a sword? Is this the kind of artifact from legends that can split the sea? The kind blessed by the Four Gods?"

Duncan shook his head. "It's just a sword – their best sword. It's very sharp, but even used to its fullest potential, it can only be used to kill slightly larger beasts or armed humans... This is the limit of what they could do."

Lucrezia and Ted Lear exchanged glances, unable to understand for a moment. Nina vaguely understood and immediately asked, "What did you see?"

Duncan was still sorting out the chaotic and incomplete memories in his mind, but after a brief thought, he broke the silence, "Just some fragments, things that happened a long, long time ago..."

He described what he had seen – in the most understandable way possible.

He didn't speak quickly, because there were too many incomplete fragments, too much information that even he himself couldn't quite understand. He had to find a way to complete those parts that couldn't be connected, or find a way to explain some concepts that were difficult for Nina and the others to understand.

He tried for the first time to explain to the people of this world what a "planet" was – after talking with Alice last time, he finally decided to try it.

But explaining a foreign concept required ten more basic knowledge points, and each unfamiliar knowledge point required more knowledge to supplement it. Among them were countless things that were completely counterintuitive and contrary to common sense for the people of this world. Even if all of these were explained clearly, no one could imagine and reconstruct them in their minds.

Ted Lear and Lucrezia struggled to understand, and the questions they constantly raised extended the explanation time – finally, Duncan realized that if he wanted to explain all the basic concepts clearly, it would probably take at least half a year of full-time teaching to do it.

So he could only gloss over many things or temporarily fill the gaps in knowledge and concepts with metaphors.

In the end, despite his best efforts, Nina and the others could obviously only understand a part of it, but at least this time they generally understood what had happened.

Shirley was still immersed in the shock brought by a long "story." Nina was still thinking about the strange words Duncan had mentioned earlier, while the two scholars on the scene... Lucrezia and Ted Lear, had grave expressions, obviously having thought of many things.

"The end of the world..." Ted Lear murmured to himself, "If what you saw really points to an end of the world, then its time of occurrence..."

"Before the Great Annihilation," Duncan confirmed the unspoken question, then raised the longsword in his hand, "The 'black wall' that has long stood before historians has now opened a crack. This sword... may be the first relic that can be confirmed to have been passed down from before the Great Annihilation to this Deep Sea Era."

"A historic moment... just happened like this." Ted Lear sighed softly with a complex expression. Faced with the news that was enough to shake the entire academic world, he only felt a mess in his mind. Countless pieces of information suddenly sprang up, impacting the knowledge system he had built up for a long time, and even impacting his understanding of the world, so that he couldn't help but pray to Raheem in his heart, applying mental protection and psychological suggestion to prevent damage to his reason.

After a long period of silent thought, Lucrezia suddenly raised her head, looking into Duncan's eyes, "You mentioned many strange concepts earlier. Are those the things you mentioned before that were difficult to explain to me?"

"Only a small part of them, a very, very small part," Duncan said softly, "I should have told you these things sooner."

Lucrezia simply shook her head. She neither complained nor asked why her father was now willing to explain those things to her – her father must have his reasons for doing so. When he was willing to speak, he would naturally speak.

She was just curious why her father knew these incredible things.

Was that knowledge... from the subspace?

On the other side, Ted Lear suddenly realized a problem after a period of thinking.

"According to what you 'saw,' under the influence of that 'red light,' the world was swallowed by lava, the earth was torn apart, and everyone died... Then how did the current Deep Sea Era begin?"

He raised his hand and gestured, his palm chopping down, imitating a fault line.

"There's a discontinuity in the middle, Captain Duncan – after that world was destroyed, before the Deep Sea Era began, there should be a process of change in the middle. The world you saw cannot correspond to any races, places, or legends in the current Deep Sea Era..."

"Indeed, it cannot correspond," Duncan nodded slightly. His gaze fell on the "sample" on the platform. After a long time, he finally said a guess that he had had in his heart for a long time, "So... that world didn't pass down as many things as the worlds of humans, elves, and Sorkins. What we see before us is all that remains of that world."

"That world'..." Ted Lear and Lucrezia exchanged glances instantly. At this moment, they finally understood what Duncan meant.

In Duncan's mind, his hometown's "moon" finally reappeared before his eyes.

Along with it appeared the sentence that Alice had once said to him with a smile –

"Captain, is this a riddle?"

The expression on Duncan's face changed slightly. The muscles at the corners of his mouth twitched a few times, finally turning into a smile that neither Nina nor Lucrezia could understand.

"Yes, this is indeed a riddle..."

He whispered in a voice that only he could hear.