Chapter 1 Vanessa

Vanna tensed her muscles and nerves the moment she saw the towering figure gradually emerging from the dust and mist, fully prepared – if things went south, she was ready to leap and cleave.

But from the wind and sand came only a gentle, rational voice: "Ah… a traveler. It has been many years since I last saw a stranger here."

Vanna paused slightly. Then she saw the giant emerge from the dust.

He stood four or five meters tall, forcing Vanna to crane her neck to see his face. A dark, tattered robe shrouded his body. It seemed once to have been a magnificent garment, but now only timeworn remnants remained. The giant's body was gaunt, as if worn down to the bone by a long journey—yet his withered hand gripped a disproportionately large staff.

Even in the giant's hand, the staff seemed too heavy and large. Its shaft resembled a straight, segmented tree trunk, the top swelling like a bloated rock with rough, unrefined contours. Countless dense, mysterious patterns covered the entire staff.

Vanna's gaze was drawn to the staff. It didn't seem like a tool for travel, but rather an astonishing weapon, or a ceremonial object with heavy symbolic meaning, inspiring an instinctive, almost reverent pressure.

But slowly, her attention shifted from the staff to the giant himself.

He was bending slightly towards her, his weathered face regarding her with a turbulent gaze. The giant's features were human-like, with distinct features, but the lines were too hard and sharp, almost like carved stone. His eyes glowed with a chaotic ochre, as if flames flickered deep within, each glance seeming to carry a subtle pressure.

"Traveler, where do you come from?" the giant asked.

When he spoke, even the surrounding sand seemed stirred by an invisible force. Chaotic currents swirled around Vanna, yet not a grain of sand landed on her.

"Vanessa…" the giant murmured, then shook his head. "That is not your name."

But the giant seemed to ask casually, as if he didn't really care about the question. He shook his head. "If you don't want to say, it doesn't matter. Everyone has their secrets."

"Are you a god?" Vanna asked cautiously, tensing. "Who are 'we'? And what is this place?"

Vanna paused, startled.

He stopped, seeming to fall into some distant memory. After a long while, he awoke as if from a dream, his voice low and deep. "But apart from the name, I do remember some other things. If you think it matters… long, long ago, they called me a god of this world. It was not like this then."

Did this mysterious giant… see the blessing and "resurrection" she received from the otherworld?

But before she could dwell on it, the giant spoke again: "Traveler, you say you come from far away. How far? Did you cross space, or time?"

"We once lived here," the giant said, seemingly unaware of Vanna's sudden wariness. He raised his hand, pointing the staff towards the endless sea of sand. "But that seems so long ago… or perhaps not so long ago?"

She looked up in astonishment at the giant's clear, burning eyes. "I… don't quite understand the question."

Not quite the same as humans in his memory?

Hearing this, Vanna's heart skipped a beat, and she immediately thought of how she was "different" from ordinary people.

Vanna tried to control her heart and expression, reporting the startling situation to the captain in her mind, while organizing her thoughts and carefully answering the giant: "I come from beyond the desert, far from here. I don't know why I came to this place. May I ask… who are you?"

He lowered his gaze to Vanna, the wrinkles on his gaunt face deepening like etchings. "Do you know, traveler, when there are no other voices in the world, a 'name' becomes a meaningless concept? No one needs to remember you, and you don't need to introduce yourself to anyone. You will slowly forget it, just as the world slowly forgets…"

"Oh, beyond the desert… it's a desert now," the giant slowly nodded, not answering Vanna's question, but speaking with a touch of emotion. "You… are interesting, traveler. You are not quite the same as the humans in my memory, but I'm not sure if I remember correctly – after all, it has been a very long time since I saw a stranger."

He said he was once a god.

Vanna was silent for a moment, then nodded after a brief pause.

The giant spoke slowly, as if he was unaccustomed to organizing his thoughts while speaking after such a long silence, so his words were somewhat jumbled and disjointed, like a dreamlike soliloquy. Vanna could only try to follow his narrative, to understand and guess at the information conveyed in his words, imagining what the desert once looked like in some distant past.

Vanessa, who was reporting the situation to the captain, stopped instantly. Although she controlled the expression on her face at once, she knew the subtle changes in her eyes might not have escaped the giant’s notice.

She couldn't rashly reveal her name to an unknown entity, especially one who claimed to be a "god," who was very likely a higher-level transcendent with unknowable power.

As the vanguard of the Storm God Gamora, as a saint of the Deep Sea Church, one of the seven orthodox churches, she had encountered a giant claiming to be a god in the depths of the mysterious Dream of the Known World. In theory… she should be fighting to eradicate this self-proclaimed god in fulfillment of her inquisitorial mission.

Vanessa unconsciously pursed her lips, and immediately restrained the urge to answer.

Vanna felt her heart beat faster.

Vanna composed herself, controlling the change in her facial expression while observing the mysterious giant's every move, and cautiously asked again: "Who are you?"

"Let's go together," the giant noticed Vanna's gaze, and offered a friendly invitation. "Although I don't remember those distant things, we can travel together for a while. I still have some impressions of this world…"

What did that question… mean?!

The chaotic wind gradually subsided, and the turbulent floating dust slowly settled. In the endless sea of sand, the giant and the lost traveler looked at each other.

Then, the giant suddenly stopped, looking down at Vanna, and asked curiously: "Then what about you? Traveler, who are you? Do you have a name?"

After a moment's hesitation, she cautiously replied: "My name is Vanessa. I don't have any important identity, just someone who lost her way."

"...Then just pretend you didn't hear it. Perhaps the starting point of the journey no longer matters, nor does the end," the giant shook his head, but then seemed to suddenly discover something, looking at Vanessa curiously. "Are you talking to someone else?"

He might not be able to, but certain transcendent existences strong enough to a certain degree often didn't need subjective goodwill to interfere with the fate of mortals. After becoming the vanguard of Captain Duncan, Vanessa understood this more deeply than ever before.

"Traveler," the giant continued, "where are you going?"

Vanessa did not speak for a moment, as if waiting for something.

"Accept the invitation."

"Okay," Vanessa nodded, looking up at the giant who claimed to be a god. "I am honored to travel with you."

"Are you asking for my name? Let me think…" This time, the giant finally responded to her question, but after a moment of thought, he shook his head. "It's been too long, I don't remember… it's been too long indeed."

Vanna hesitated, then looked towards the distant silhouette that resembled city ruins.

A moment later, Captain Duncan's command came from the depths of her mind—

The giant paused in confusion, looking at the staff in his hand, and after a while, he slowly shook his head. "Time… has changed into something I don't recognize. It was stretched to almost infinite lengths in an instant, and then compressed again. I can no longer determine when it happened. I only remember that this place was once the most prosperous hinterland of the kingdom. The yellow sand beneath your feet was once a forest and fertile land stretching for thousands of miles. Huge canals crossed the fields, diverting rivers from the highlands over the hills. I watched them build pure white cities here, high walls connecting the mountains, towering towers rising from the jungles, and dim flames illuminating the night sky… I remember, it was beautiful."

Vanna's eyes widened. This "answer" was not included in any of her guesses about the mysterious giant. She didn't know how to react for a moment, and then she felt an absurd contradiction—

But she was no longer the impetuous person who dared to leap and cleave at Captain Duncan. On the *Sea Wanderer*, she had learned to face these incredible things with a more rational attitude.

But then the giant waved his hand. "But it doesn't matter. Like I said, everyone has secrets. If you don't want to reveal your name, then I will continue to call you 'traveler' – anyway, there is no one else here, we won't mistake each other."