Chapter 232 The End of the World and the Last Tree

The aftershocks of the explosion reverberated between the two worlds, the chaotic winds stirring up Vanna's silver hair. She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sand and dust, watching the burning ghost ship slowly descend into the sea of sand, and then saw the enormous black goat walk down from the clouds, step by step, to the side of the Vanishing Sail.

Then, a streak of flame fell like a meteor from the deck of the Vanishing Sail, and before her eyes, it suddenly expanded into a door, from which Duncan strode out.

"Captain!" Vanna immediately came to her senses. She stepped towards Duncan, but had only taken half a step when she felt a lurch and almost fell forward—in the last second before falling, she used the giant's staff to support herself, wobbled twice, and finally steadied.

Duncan quickly came to her side, "What's the situation?"

Vanna supported herself with the staff, lifted her head with some effort, and managed a smile. "This time, it seems... I'm really worn out."

Then she casually dismissed the longsword in her other hand, reached into her clothes, and pulled out the "sun" that was still emitting a brilliant, warm light, handing it to Duncan with a slight tremor. "Here, this is the 'sun' left behind by Tarejin... intact."

Duncan immediately noticed the name. "Tarejin?"

"Yes, the giant... His name is Tarejin," Vanna nodded gently. "He is the god who records history. Long, long ago, He fell on the day the Great Annihilation occurred."

Duncan frowned tightly, gazing at the ancient "star" in Vanna's hand, which radiated a warm light. As countless thoughts surged, he finally reached out and took the sphere.

A warm sensation came from the palm of his hand, the flames slowly running across the surface of the sphere gently licking his palm—but there were more important things now.

Duncan casually put the "sun" in his pocket, stepped forward and supported Vanna's arm, and then took the huge staff that looked like a rough tree trunk from her other hand—he could see that this beautiful and valiant girl was really about to collapse.

Vanna didn't stand on ceremony. She breathed a sigh of relief, putting most of her weight on the captain, and looked up at the enormous black goat still standing quietly beside the Vanishing Sail, thoughtfully asking, "...Is that 'First Mate'?"

"How did you recognize him?"

"His face. Although it's been enlarged many times, I can still tell," Vanna said, and couldn't help adding, "Besides, I can also use my brain to deduce things."

"It is him—I repaired the Vanishing Sail's keel, and gave him some of my flame so that he could temporarily regain this form," Duncan said, while leading Vanna towards the fiery doorway that was still standing on the edge of the dune. "We'll discuss the specifics later. Let's get back on the ship first. This isn't over."

As if to confirm Duncan's words, a low, strange rumble and an unsettling whistling gradually came from afar. It was as if two enormous millstones had begun to grind and tear at each other again, and terrible tremors and loud noises echoed through both worlds at the same time!

In the distant sky, the "collision" that had once stopped began again. Mountains were collapsing, clouds were boiling, and in the depths of Xilandis, which had been reduced to ruins, enormous flames reappeared. The forests and lands that had been almost completely swallowed by darkness seemed to be reversing time as they gradually reshaped themselves, but in that reshaping, they took on all kinds of twisted and terrifying forms—and in the next second, those reappearing and twisting forests and lands quickly disintegrated, and were once again swallowed by darkness. The whole process repeated itself, moving step by step towards madness.

Around Vanna, terrible winds were rising again in the boundless desert, but this time it was not Vanna controlling the "storm"—the winds seemed to hide countless, screaming,狰狞幻影 (zhengning huanying, ferocious phantoms), each phantom calling out the names of the departed. Huge walls of sandstorms were also taking shape in the wind, and within the walls, the illusions of cities and mountains faintly appeared.

The final collision and fusion of the two worlds had begun.

In the last second before the storm struck, Duncan dragged Vanna into the whirling fiery doorway.

The next second, she was already standing on the deck of the Vanishing Sail—the burning spirit flames formed a wall outside the ghost ship, and the terrifying scene of the two worlds colliding became a twisted and blurred illusion beyond the flames. Even through this layer of fire, she seemed to hear the roars of the two worlds at the same time, and the terrifying roar of all things collapsing!

"I thought it was all over..." She looked in astonishment at the world outside the deck that was falling apart, and felt the increasingly strong shaking on the deck. For a moment, she seemed unable to react. "Why..."

"We only destroyed the sunspawn that invaded the Nameless Dream—but Xilandis's nightmare will not end because of this," Duncan's voice sounded from the side. "This is the deepest part of the elven race's memory. The scene of the Great Annihilation is deeply imprinted here—the collision and annihilation of the two worlds is the inevitable end of this nightmare."

The shaking of the entire ship grew more and more violent. While struggling to stand firm, Vanna stared at the collapsing scene in the distance, and finally couldn't help but ask, "How can we stop all this..."

Hearing this, Duncan turned his head and quietly looked into her eyes. "Stop? Stop what? Stop the collision of the two worlds? Or stop the Great Annihilation from happening?"

Vanna was stunned when she heard this, and seemed to gradually realize something.

"The Great Annihilation has already happened—in real history, as the beginning of the Deep Sea Era, it has already happened and ended. What remains here is just a 'memory' that has already occurred. We cannot stop it, nor is it necessary to stop it," Duncan slowly shook his head. "What we have to do is just stop Xilandis."

Vanna said nothing more, but showed a thoughtful expression.

Duncan slowly came to the edge of the deck, looking out into the distance, at the apocalyptic scene of world annihilation.

The fusion of the two worlds had begun—at the end of the "collision", the two inverted lands did not actually overlap physically, but disintegrated before that, gradually transforming into something dark and chaotic in the process of repeated reshaping and twisted decomposition... "things."

Above and below the Vanishing Sail, around the deck, and beyond the ship's rails, the former forests, mountains, deserts, and rivers were torn apart and quickly lost their distinguishable colors and outlines. The light of the entire world was diminishing, and then those large and small remnants gradually became "lumps" with chaotic outlines in the dimness. These lumps floated in the endless darkness, colliding and merging with each other, turning into even more twisted and grotesque shadows.

After an unknown amount of time, in the midst of all things that had almost completely sunk into darkness, chaotic and obscure streamers appeared—as if they were the souls remaining after the world had burned out, as if they were the last sparks in the embers, the obscure streams of light appeared between those grotesque shadowy lumps, flowing erratically in Duncan's vision.

In the depths of those obscure and disordered streams of light, amidst the ruins of the world's collision, only one shape that could barely still be recognized remained.

It was a giant tree.

She floated quietly in the dark depths of all things dying, floating in the time and years that had stopped flowing after the Day of Destruction.

She had already died, completely dying at the time of the world's collision. The conflict of laws and order annihilated all things, and the gods died first in this process. The World Tree created by the gods was naturally no exception—Xilandis was just an illusion, an illusion that had long since disappeared.

But she could not truly die.

Because in the depths of the "elves'" memories, they always remembered that there was such a World Tree.

Even if they were elves that had been recreated, even if they were elves that had been restored by the "Abyssal Saint Lord" in the Third Long Night—after witnessing the truth of the Great Annihilation, Duncan had vaguely realized what the essence of the "things" in the current Deep Sea Era actually was.

Nothing could escape the conflict of laws in the world collision. Not the kingdom's strongest warriors, not the World Tree created by the gods, and not even the gods themselves.

Duncan didn't know what kind of existence the current "Four Gods," including the "Eternal Burning Ember Tarejin," were, but one thing he was certain of was that the entire Deep Sea Era was, strictly speaking, only a product restored by the Abyssal Saint Lord from the "blueprint" after the Third Long Night.

All were embers.

Duncan quietly gazed at Xilandis, who was floating peacefully in the darkness, at her remains, and at the chaotic shadows around her that had once been the homeland of a race.

This "World Tree" that appeared in the elves' memories was, strictly speaking, also a replica—but she could not understand this.

Similarly, she could not recognize the "elves" who had been reshaped from "ashes."

A faint light gradually diffused from the remains of Xilandis.

Glimmers of starlight, like fireflies, slowly seeped out from the remains of the giant tree, gradually converging into a river in the chaos. This river meandered, gently surrounding Xilandis at her feet, just like long, long ago, in the forests of the elven homeland, a river had once crossed the land, nourishing the World Tree.

Each point of light in that river was a sleeping mind.

And under the "nourishment" of this river, the remains of Xilandis began to grow once again—in the still-dead "corpse" state, the branches of the World Tree began to rise and extend in a strange way, and gray-white, fine, twisted leaves grew from the edges, like a zombie rising from a grave, trying to climb from the land of the dead into the mortal world.

Tide Reale's last resistance had failed.

Duncan reached out his hand.

The Vanishing Sail silently sailed towards that pale and twisted "Death Tree" in the darkness, which had been burned into ruins, but was still growing and spreading.

(End of Chapter)