Those lines were moving.

Duncan heard Alice's exclamation. He instantly awoke from his contemplation, abruptly raising his head to look out the window, and a scene he would never forget imprinted itself upon his eyes—

On the sea where Pingtung once stood, countless invisible threads as profuse as strands of hair and interwoven like a thin mist were undergoing a dramatic transformation. The vast "gauze mist" swelled and contracted, writhing and undergoing intense changes between the real and the unreal. It gradually reshaped itself into a form, its portion above the sea surface shrinking, condensing, and rising, while the structure floating in the clouds slowly expanded, dividing into crisscrossing branches that drooped toward the edge of the sea like another firmament.

An indescribable sense of oppression from a massive entity transmitted from the constantly condensing and changing phantom. The entire sea area began to be gradually enveloped by the invisible crown. Only now did Duncan finally see the clue—it was a tree.

Those "threads" floating on the sea were intertwining like strands of hair into the appearance of a giant tree, a "World Tree" large enough to encompass the entire sea area!

Lorne leaned on the table, struggling to stand up. The old elf, who had resisted the call of Shirandi with his personal willpower, seemed to be reaching his limit. He also gazed out the window—without Alice's power, he could not see those invisible threads. To him, that sea area was still empty. But suddenly, large patches of shadow appeared on the empty sea—the originally invisible lines began to gradually reveal outlines visible to the naked eye.

He saw the tree, the towering tree that was growing rapidly, spreading from the elven racial dream.

"That is..." Lorne's eyes widened instantly. Memories and emotions that seemed to be sleeping deep within his soul surged out like a tide, causing him to subconsciously mutter to himself, "Shirandi... Shirandi has come to pick us up..."

But the next second, his eyes suddenly regained clarity. Rahm's power forcibly dragged his mind back to the real world. He pressed his forehead hard, "Captain Duncan, Shirandi's awakening has reached the next stage... She is recalling her original appearance..."

A melodious and loud whistle suddenly came from nearby. It was the pilgrimage ark anchored at the edge of the sea, signaling a warning to the entire fleet. The whistle seemed to be mixed with urging, as if the personnel left behind on the ark were worried about the Pope's safety.

Lorne raised his hand and quickly outlined several faintly glowing characters in the air.

Duncan immediately noticed his actions, "What are you doing?"

"I am ordering the ark and escort fleet to immediately move away from Shirandi," Lorne said quickly, "There are still many elves on those ships. Although they have not been affected yet, they cannot continue to stay in this sea area."

Duncan immediately asked, "What about you?"

"That's what I was going to... say," Lorne seemed to be dazed for a moment, but he quickly recovered, "Take me into Shirandi's dream—to the deepest part of the dream. I want to communicate directly with that 'Guardian'..."

"Communicate?" Duncan frowned tightly, "Don't tell me you plan to rely on your eloquence and sincerity to persuade a 'Great Old One' who has fallen into madness to regain her sanity."

"No, I have other methods that may have an impact on her..."

Duncan quietly looked at the old elf for a moment. When the second siren indicating withdrawal sounded from the nearby cathedral ark, he finally broke the silence, "How are you sure that I can take you into the depths of Shirandi's dream?"

Lorne calmed himself and met Duncan's gaze, "Because at the moment I established contact with Shirandi, I saw the *Lost Country*—although it is sailing in the darkness of the border, I am certain that is the evidence that you can establish communication with Shirandi."

Listening to the old Pope's description, Duncan's expression did not change, but his heart suddenly stirred.

What the other party was talking about... was the scene seen from Shirandi's "perspective"?

The previously vague plan suddenly had a direction. Duncan's gaze then turned to the nautical table next to him, landing on the keel sample on the table.

Lorne was a little uneasy because of Duncan's sudden silence, and couldn't help but confirm, "...You have a way, right?"

"...The situation has changed a bit compared to before, but..." Duncan was still looking at the piece of wood on the table, but gradually, a smile appeared on his face, "That's right, I have an idea and I'm planning to try it. I can take you along for the ride. The only problem is... the next voyage might be a little exciting."

Lorne was stunned when he heard this, "...Exciting?"

"Have you ever experienced sailing a ghost ship through the nightmare of an ancient god?"

...

When the whistling sound came from the street, Lucretia was confirming with Talan Ehl the strange scene he saw at the last moment in the Dream of the Nameless, and the voice from Shirandi he heard in a trance.

Talan Ehl said that he saw the scene of the world's destruction before the end of the Dream of the Nameless, which was likely a scene imprinted in the depths of the elven racial memory, the memory of the Great Annihilation at the beginning of the Deep Sea Era that scholars of all ages had been searching for. He also said that he heard a voice suspected to be Shirandi's, and the anger and horror contained in that voice seemed to reveal a secret. Lucretia felt that she had touched the ultimate truth of this dream, but just as she wanted to continue to ask, a strange whistling sound instantly swept through the entire city-state.

She suddenly stood up and came to the window.

The scene before her made even the "Sea Witch" suffocate instantly, and she was stunned on the spot for a short time.

The "sky" above the city was burning, and the whistling flames came from the sky, like a huge wave swept from the depths of endless nightmares, sweeping across the layers of tree crowns above Pingtung, and the chaotic and turbid sky between the tree crowns. The flames were like a blanket, covering everything, and they jumped and screamed into every street under the tree crown, and the flood-like torrent devoured every inch of land within sight.

This gave her the feeling that the forest extending from the dream had suddenly "transformed" into the entity of flames, and then the entity of flames began to burn the city-state.

In the instant when the flames suddenly descended, the sound of explosions, screams, and the loud noise of runaway steam walkers crashing into buildings almost instantly filled the entire city-state!

This amazing change came so suddenly that Lucretia had a sense of unreal tearing for a while. She stood blankly by the window, staring blankly at the scene outside the window. After another two seconds, her eyes could not help but move upwards, as if attracted by something, looking at the burning sky.

In the flames that had covered the entire sky, she saw a huge structure gradually appearing, like a materialized "Doomsday" constantly crushing down from the sky, inch by inch, descending on everyone's heads.

...What is that?

The question popped into Lucretia's mind subconsciously, and the exclamation from behind finally awakened her from this temporary daze.

"In the name of Rahm!" A knowledge guard stared at the window and exclaimed, "What is that thing!?"

Even Talan Ehl, who had not been in good condition and whose mind was always surrounded by noise and stinging pain, stood up from his chair and swayed to Lucretia, looking at the sky in flames and the chaotic streets outside.

A look of confusion and fear appeared in the scholar's eyes. He seemed unable to imagine that Pingtung would suddenly fall into this terrifying scene—even though the forest that had spread from the Dream of the Nameless had already swallowed the entire city, the scene outside the window still gave him a sense of unreality like falling into another layer of nightmare, which made him mutter to himself, "It's just a nightmare..."

"No, Master Talan Ehl," Lucretia's voice suddenly came from beside him, awakening Talan Ehl from his trance. He saw the witch turn her head, her eyes as deep as the sea, "This is a nightmare."

A moment of confusion appeared on Talan Ehl's face, and in Lucretia's eyes, the light of the flames was gradually reflected.

She saw the room collapsing, the figures in the room gradually curling and deforming in the flames. She saw the fire in the sky passing through the roof and turning into cold sunlight, sweeping across the air. She saw a giant tree emerging in the distance—it rose from the sea, as if it was a part of the city-state spreading out.

She stepped forward and put her hand on Talan Ehl's shoulder.

"My father said that Pingtung has disappeared in the real world. On that sea, there is only a blank space now."

"Mr. Talan Ehl, we haven't woken up from the beginning—the whole city is still asleep."

"But Shirandi is about to wake up from the dream..."

She exerted a little force and pushed Talan Ehl, who had fallen into stillness like a stone sculpture, forward.

"Let's go, let's see what Shirandi dreamed of."

The next second, under the cover of the burning flames and the constantly falling sky, Pingtung slowly and quietly disintegrated.

In the last instant when the flames swept in, it turned into bubbles, streamers, smoke, wind, and whispering voices. Its last shadow was reflected on the calm sea. The remaining fire and distorted and torn scene in the reflection were like an illusion, gradually swallowed by the broken waves.

And in the rising and falling of the broken waves, a huge shadow was gradually growing from the bottom of the sea—it seemed to be a huge tree.

And on the edge of this giant tree that was constantly growing from the bottom of the sea, there was another shadow, sometimes real and sometimes illusory, slowly moving.

It was a ghost ship that was gradually emerging.

(End of this chapter)