Chapter 116 Homecoming

After bringing the newly added luggage into the living room, Heidi came to the dining table and stared blankly at Morris, who was sitting across from her.

It had been a long time since she had seen her father—although they occasionally managed to contact each other, even those intermittent contacts seemed like a long time ago.

Her father's sudden return home gave her a dreamlike sense of unreality.

Morris sat at the dining table, eating the freshly fried sausage and bread unhurriedly, chewing each bite carefully for a long time. After a while, he looked up, looked at his wife sitting beside him and his daughter across the table, with a smile on his face: "It's been a long time since I've had food from home."

"There's more if it's not enough, but after this meal, we have to go out," his wife said with a smile, just like in the old days when the couple discussed going for a walk in the park after lunch, "We have to go to the nearest shelter to report—the neighborhood is getting more and more uneasy, those dazed people... are becoming less and less like people."

"They have lost their self-awareness, and this world is gradually forgetting what 'human' looks like, and the result is that they become like that," Morris said calmly. "The foundation and anchors laid by the gods are rapidly failing, and those who haven't awakened will deviate further and further from 'normal' as time goes by... but in their own 'feelings,' everything has never changed."

Heidi's face was tinged with sadness: "...Is there no saving them?"

"Don't worry about them, Heidi," her father across the table simply shook his head with a smile. "It's all temporary, it will all get better. The captain is figuring out a way—my return to the city-state ahead of time is also part of his grand plan."

"...It seems you've experienced a lot of things outside," Heidi hesitated for a moment, and couldn't help but say, "Have the others returned as well? Has Vanna returned too?"

"Yes, Vanna has also returned. Apart from the captain and Alice, and that pigeon, all the other 'crew members' have returned," Morris nodded slowly. "Vanna has gone to the cathedral, and she will go to the city hall later. After arranging things there, she will contact you. Nina and Shirley have also returned home. We have agreed on contact times and methods. And Sailor and Agatha and the others... all have their own arrangements and tasks."

Heidi's face showed a hint of curiosity: "...Can you tell me about your journey?"

"Of course—the world doesn't have much time left, but it's still enough for an epic story."

In the mist that permeated the city, the figures of two girls ran all the way through the streets of the lower city.

They passed through the intersections piled with suspicious dark red clumps, walked between buildings that seemed alive, blinking countless eyes and walls undulating and wriggling, avoiding the blind and unconscious shadows wandering in the streets. Low, chaotic murmurs and occasional loud noises came from the mist, swirling around them as if chasing unwelcome guests.

"This is worse than what that female pontiff said!" Shirley felt a chill in the surrounding atmosphere. To embolden herself, she transformed into a terrifying demon form, and was now cautiously straddling the constantly jumping piles on the ground with twelve long, skeletal limbs. "She only said that the city was full of people who had lost themselves... but she didn't say it was this kind of 'lost themselves'!"

"The situation is gradually changing—we've been drifting at sea for so long after leaving the lighthouse, the situation in the city must be deteriorating," Nina said, following Shirley, while she couldn't help but look up at her friend in her terrifying form. "...Speaking of which, are you afraid? You look more frightening than that shadow just now."

"What frightening, I call this handsome, I don't call this frightening!" Shirley retorted immediately, then propped herself up and looked around, feeling a little emotional. "But speaking of which, there is one good thing about the current situation—I can run around the city in this form in broad daylight, they are like they don't see me, even if there are 'awake' people who see me, they will only treat it as part of the distortion, no one will yell and rush up to give me a shot..."

"You should still be careful, what if there is another priest with the same style as Miss Vanna patrolling the city, and seeing a Nether demon like you, they'll just come up and stab you with a sword..."

"Then you smear sunlight on his face," Shirley raised a skeletal limb and tapped Nina on the shoulder casually. "Let him know why there are still two sunny and beautiful girls in the city when the world is ending..."

Nina didn't want to pay attention to her friend, whose mind worked differently from ordinary people.

The ringing of a bell came from the mist, interrupting the conversation between the two girls. They looked up at the direction of the sound at the same time, and saw a steam bus with a bright yellow shell appearing on the street. A dozen pairs of messy hands and feet grew under the heavy body—the bus crawled on the mist-filled streets, using both its hands and feet, and bursts of white mist spewed from the rear. It stopped at a nearby station, and the middle section of the carriage tore open, revealing countless sharp teeth.

"Want to take a ride? Want to take a ride? Going to the museum!" The steam bus shouted loudly to Shirley and Nina, "The curfew period has reopened, there are dazzling painting and textile exhibitions!"

Nina looked at this scene somewhat blankly, while Shirley next to her waved her hands vigorously at the shaking bus after being stunned for a moment: "No! I have too many legs to get on the bus!"

"Okay, okay, goodbye, goodbye, I'm going to the next stop!"

The steam bus with a bright yellow shell shouted happily. The "door" in the middle of the carriage, which was full of sharp teeth, closed again. Then it spewed out a burst of steam, raised the dozen or so hands and feet under the carriage, and quickly crawled away, disappearing at the end of the road.

Shirley and Nina looked at each other.

A Gou's figure drilled out from the shadows between the two of them, and said in a muffled voice: "...The abyssal Deep Sea might be more normal than here."

Nina didn't say anything, just took another step in the direction of her home in her memory.

She and Shirley ignored all those strange shadows and sounds along the way. After a while, the small, familiar shop located in the lower city finally appeared in the two girls' sight.

Among the surrounding buildings that had been covered by various strange shadows and piles, and had even almost transformed into some kind of "living thing," the small antique shop still maintained its appearance from a long time ago, like a reassuring safe house, with warm and bright light shining in the glass windows.

Nina quickly stepped forward and pushed open the unlocked door—the bell at the door rang crisply, everything was the same as she remembered.

"Uncle Duncan! Shirley and I are home!" she shouted loudly into the quiet antique shop.

But there was no sound in response in the shop.

"Uncle Duncan, we're home!" Nina shouted again.

This time, she finally heard a response—but she couldn't tell whether the voice came from her own heart or from somewhere in the shop: "I'm behind the counter."

Nina was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously looked up at the counter next to the stairs.

She saw a thin and hunched figure, as if fused with the surrounding shadows, sitting quietly behind the old and mottled wooden counter.

Shirley returned to her human form and walked into the shop with Nina. They walked through the shelves that seemed to have not been cleaned for many days and came to the counter.

"Uncle Duncan..." Nina stepped forward cautiously. She saw "Uncle Duncan" behind the counter turn his eyeballs slightly, but there was no other movement, which made her a little worried. "Are you okay?"

"I have cut off most of the connection with this avatar," Duncan's voice sounded in Nina's heart, "But I temporarily retained the last vision, sitting here to watch you and Shirley get home safely—did anything happen on the way?"

Nina stood there somewhat blankly, the expression in her eyes a little complicated, but gradually, a warm smile reappeared on her face.

"No," she said with a smile, standing directly in front of the counter so that "Uncle Duncan," who was still at the end of the world, could see her more clearly. "A lot has changed in the city, but there is no danger—Teacher Morris has also returned home safely, and everyone else is fine. Shirley and I just came from the shopping street, and many people there have gone to take refuge."

"That's good, the range I can see is very small, and I've always been curious about what's going on outside the door."

"How is your side?" Shirley leaned over from the side and couldn't help but ask, "Did you and Alice find what you were looking for?"

"We have found it, and now we are preparing to leave here and go to the last stop."

"The last stop?" Nina and Shirley said in unison.

"Yes," Duncan said slowly, "Soon, you will be able to see the Vanishing Sail again—at that time, it will become the most conspicuous light in the sky."

A uniform gray-white background closed in outside the ship's side, and the Vanishing Sail's hull transmitted a slight tremor, and then everything returned to calm—in the seemingly ultimate "stillness," this ship embarked on its final voyage.

Duncan stood on the bridge at the stern of the ship, while Alice stood beside him, holding the rudder tightly, controlling the direction of the jump.

"We will first return to the border, but we will not enter the Boundless Sea—the Vanishing Sail will 'ascend' in the Eternal Shroud, we will cross the entire world from a very, very high place, until we reach the Worldscar..."

Duncan raised his head, his eyes looking into the distance, as if watching the end of time and all things through the gray-white jump channel.

"Then, that 'blink' moment will arrive."

"Ascend? Worldscar?!" Nina's surprised voice sounded in his heart, "Is that... also possible?"

Immediately afterwards, Shirley's exclamation also came: "The Vanishing Sail can fly?"

Duncan laughed, the corners of his mouth lifting into an arc.

"Yes—the Sea of Clouds is also the sea."