Chapter 199 Box

The cold, stagnant projections of distant stars rapidly flashed past the edge of vision. The navigation mainframe, Alice, calculated their return route. Shirley, who had reverted to her human form, and A Gou stared transfixed at the floating lights and shadows beyond the flames, remaining silent for a long time.

After a long while, Duncan's voice suddenly entered her ears: "What are you thinking about?"

Shirley was startled, then blinked her eyes, which glowed with the faint crimson light of a deep-sea demon, and muttered, "I just suddenly remembered... I always thought the Deep Sea Lord was a terrifying evil god... out of control, crazy, very, very bad..."

Duncan looked at Shirley for a few seconds, then looked away: "If you had faced him alone today, the situation would have been as you said. Your mind couldn't comprehend and process his voice, so you would have seen his out-of-control, insane side – the same is true for other 'gods'. In the end, the Deep Sea Lord you 'observed' today was actually seen from my perspective."

"Yes, I know – A Gou explained it to me before, after your meeting with the Four Gods Pope, about cognitive deviation... right?"

Duncan nodded, and didn't speak for a moment. After a dozen seconds, he suddenly said, "Do you think I should accept the 'Deep Sea Lord's' invitation?"

Shirley was stunned, seemingly caught off guard: "...Huh?"

Duncan simply looked at her gently: "If I accept, then those things you're hoping for can be achieved almost immediately – no more demons will run out and hurt people, no more people will disappear in the corners, the sun will rise and set every day, and the thick fog won't eat people. The world you're hoping for, where more people can live more peacefully, can be achieved as soon as I take over the Sanctuary.

"Perhaps for a thousand years, perhaps for ten thousand years, or maybe even longer, after I take over this world, every city-state will be as safe as Pland and Frost are now. Even the nights will be calm. As long as my flames are still burning, this Boundless Sea can maintain this tranquility until all the resources are exhausted, and the Sanctuary reaches the lifespan limit it was originally designed for... the true lifespan limit that the Deep Sea Lord once planned but failed to achieve."

Shirley was silent for a moment, then said softly, "And... everyone will still die, right?"

Duncan looked at her calmly: "But that will be after a long time. Even if you can live forever like ordinary deep-sea demons, you should have no regrets by then."

Shirley was quiet for even longer this time, seeming to be thinking hard and seriously. A Gou stayed quietly by her side, unreadable.

"Actually..." After a long while, Shirley finally broke the silence. "Actually, I don't quite understand. I think the Deep Sea Lord's plan is already very good – a safe Sanctuary, even if it's not eternal, it's at least safe. I... don't have such high aspirations, but isn't it enough to live out the last of our time peacefully like this? After all... there's nowhere else to go."

"Yes, there's nowhere else to go," Duncan said softly, "because this world will always only be this Boundless Sea, always only these city-states floating on the sea, always only this small patch of habitable land in the mist... But Shirley, the real 'world' shouldn't be like this. This is just a... narrow cardboard box."

Shirley listened, seeming to understand, but not really. Accompanied by the slight rattling of chains, A Gou suddenly broke the silence: "Like you said, this little box isn't enough to hold more 'possibilities', is it?"

"It's too narrow. The Boundless Sea, sealed off by the mist, is too narrow. The 'lifespan' of thousands or tens of thousands of years is too narrow. For the countless civilizations destroyed in the Great Annihilation, this little box is only enough to stuff a small portion of their replicas inside. And the limited lifespan of the Sanctuary isn't even enough for them to patch up their lost history...

"This isn't a 'new home', you understand? If the 'world' before the Great Annihilation was countless lush forests, then the current Boundless Sea is just a small potted plant. The result of the first three Long Nights was just to plant a few surviving flowers and plants from the forest in it, and then pretend that the forest still exists – but the fact is that no matter how much you water and fertilize it, it won't become a forest. It never will. And it only takes a small mistake for even this flowerpot to cease to exist."

"So, you rejected His plan because you've already seen that this plan has no future," A Gou said slowly. "You actually already know another solution, don't you?"

Duncan didn't speak, but lowered his head and looked quietly at his hands.

He blinked, and in the first 0.002 seconds of darkness as his eyelids closed, he saw stars twinkling. A magnificent and splendid galaxy shone in the deep space, and vast star-forming clouds, like a gorgeous curtain, stretched between the stars.

Even after leaving that cave, he could still see those "different landscapes" in the first 0.002 seconds of every blink.

Duncan knew that he was undergoing some kind of change, and that the things that had been hidden were now appearing in his vision were just part of this change. As for when this change specifically started... he didn't know.

But he knew that as long as he continued to seek the truth, to try to uncover the secrets on his body, this change would continue to appear, continue to develop, and constantly accelerate...

He didn't know if he was ready, but he knew that there was no time for him to prepare. Just like Navigator One said, neither he nor this world had any time left.

The phantom of distant starlight reached its end...

A field of blossoming flowers bloomed violently in the illusion. Lucrezia's short baton fell gently, and a few crisp notes burst from the flowers. Several Fear Demons covered by the sea of flowers silently turned into scattered ashes.

The hiss of pipe pressurization and the clang of metal came from beside her. Morris punched away a Deep Sea Hound that was pouncing on him, and shook his head with some helplessness: "These demons have no respect for knowledge and wisdom... Luckily, I still know some boxing."

"The number of demons is increasing," Lucrezia said with a solemn expression, looking at the black gate that was still expanding and contracting. A rare trace of fatigue appeared on her face. "This rift is widening. More and more demons are noticing this place. The entire island is sinking into the Deep Sea."

"The captain should be back soon," Morris muttered, a metallic resonance unique to reed vibrations coming from his throat. "Judging by the noise above, Vanna might smash through the entire valley if the captain doesn't come back."

Lucrezia frowned, listened to the low, muffled sounds constantly coming from the cave ceiling, and shook her head slightly: "This is unlikely to be the commotion caused by Miss Vanna. It sounds more like the sound of this holy island itself... It's about to be 'awakened' again."

Morris opened his mouth when he heard this, but before he could speak, a dazzling green flame suddenly rose from the black gate that was expanding and contracting!

In the blink of an eye, the flames gushed out of the gate and formed a rotating flame doorway in the open space of the cave. Immediately afterwards, several figures stepped out of the gate, accompanied by the captain's familiar and majestic voice: "That's right, this place is about to 'wake up' – notify everyone, evacuate the Holy Island. We're done here."

Lucrezia was surprised at first, but then she reacted. Without bothering with greetings, she immediately nodded: "Okay, Dad!"

Before her voice faded, she had already begun to quickly gather her toy soldier troops. Morris, after greeting the captain, immediately saw Shirley and A Gou standing beside the captain. He saw Shirley's blood-red eyes, which were the same as those of a deep-sea demon, and his eyes widened slightly: "Shirley is..."

Shirley's eyes, however, widened even more than Morris's. She stared blankly at the great scholar who was currently in a "Forged" state, and after a long while, she squeezed out a sentence: "Old man, why have you turned into copper?"

Duncan also looked at Morris with some surprise, nodded with a subtle expression: "...A very unique form."

Morris then realized that he was still in his Forged form. He quickly focused his mind, muttered the prayer of Rahm, and used divine magic to reverse his state – the texture of the copper shell quickly faded from his entire body. His flesh and blood replaced the gears, bearings, pumps, and copper pipes in an unbelievable way. A pair of ruby focusers faded from his eye sockets, and human eyeballs grew out of his eye sockets. He blinked, took out the delicate and complex brass mechanism from his body, and then nodded with a smile: "...The power of knowledge."

Shirley was dumbfounded: "...When you and the captain were giving me lessons, you didn't say that the power of knowledge meant this, did you?"

In such a short time, this girl had finally completely re-recognized the concepts of "knowledge changes fate" and "the power of knowledge" – she was probably never going to forget it for the rest of her life.

And just then, another strange whistling and murmur suddenly appeared in the cave.

The black gate that was constantly undulating and wriggling became agitated again. New demons began to enter the real world through this rift. Jagged, emaciated bones and countless hands, feet, and tentacles squeezed out of the wriggling surface and crawled and writhed towards the cave!

Lucrezia subconsciously raised the short baton in her hand, but before she could act, Duncan waved his hand at the gate: "Go back."

The jagged, emaciated bones and countless hands, feet, and tentacles began to hurriedly and chaotically crawl back into the gate.

"Close the door, by the way," Duncan added from the side.

The black gate that was expanding and contracting gradually calmed down.

Lucrezia: "..."

Duncan turned his head and waved his hand at the "Sea Witch" to bring her back to her senses: "Let's go, we still have many things to do."

(End of Chapter)