Chapter 39 Echo

"Captain, are you sure this is really alright?" Alice looked nervously at the "little flame" in Duncan's hand, her hands constantly tugging at the lace trim on her dress. "Don't burn down my house…"

Duncan held a ball of spiritual fire in his hand, looking around Alice's "coffin" for a place to start, and turned back to the doll with a helpless look. "My spiritual fire is completely under control—don't you trust my power?"

As soon as Alice heard this, she quickly waved her hand. "I trust you, I trust you…"

Only then did Duncan turn his gaze back, steadying his mind.

With the current conditions on the Vanishing Ship, it was impossible to conduct a complete test on Alice's "coffin," but that didn't mean he couldn't do some "preliminary research" first. Now that his control over spiritual fire was becoming more and more refined, he had vaguely grasped some of the ways to use this flame to explore the secrets within extraordinary objects.

He still didn't dare to easily use this flame on Alice herself, but using it to study her wooden box… that was another matter.

After preparing for a while, Duncan finally slowly reached out and extended a cluster of flames from his fingertip to the surface of the ornate wooden box.

The flame sank silently into the box like a phantom reflection. Alice widened her eyes and carefully observed the movement in front of her. After a brief two or three seconds of silence, she saw a phantom-like light spreading out in her vision—

The spiritual fire began to burn on the wooden box, burning from the inside out! In the blink of an eye, the entire box presented a semi-transparent texture, and in this seemingly real and illusory scene, the raging flames began to quickly fill every detail inside the box, as if reconstructing its "skeleton" structure!

"Hey, Captain, Captain, it's burning, it's burning!"

The doll exclaimed in alarm, but her exclamation went unanswered—Duncan had already focused all his attention on controlling the flames and perceiving the "coffin." He stared solemnly at the dancing flames and the illusory wooden box in front of him, and Alice's voice seemed to come from another world.

Duncan's mind was gradually calming down. He felt that the surroundings were becoming more and more quiet, and even the endless wind and waves on the boundless sea seemed to gradually move away from his perception. He felt his power seep into an extremely vast "place," and more and more "perceptions" were pouring into his consciousness through the channel established by the flames—

This was completely different from how he felt when he used the flames to modify the Sun Amulet before!

If he had to make an analogy, using flames to modify the Sun Amulet felt as easy as filling a glass of water, while at this moment, he felt that his flames were pouring into a vast lake, and the scale of the two was completely different.

Was this the difference between mass-produced extraordinary items and a ranked 099 anomaly?

A sudden realization dawned on Duncan, and in that instant, he suddenly felt that the connection of the flames had finally reached some kind of peak—the transmission of power suddenly became as smooth as a river, and then, a flood of "memories" poured into his mind!

The sound of waves… waves lapping against an unfamiliar coastline, a cold wind blowing through high walls, towering ramparts standing in the distance, vaguely like ice, and crowds… swaying, dim, only the outlines of crowds…

Duncan's vision floated in a certain place, seemingly two or three meters above the ground. He looked around in astonishment, but only saw unfamiliar city-states and a high platform on the coastline. He saw countless shadows gathered around the high platform, which seemed to be vague crowds, but none of them could be seen clearly.

A buzzing sound came from all directions. It sounded like people whispering, but it was surprisingly loud and noisy. Duncan tried hard to distinguish it, and finally realized that it was not the sound of people talking at all, but countless "inner voices"—the chaotic thoughts in their heads, the murmurings under tense and oppressive atmosphere, prayers to the gods, and pleas in fear.

Those "shadows" did not open their mouths, but their voices swept across the coastal platform like a storm.

Duncan's heart stirred, and he suddenly turned his head.

Illuminated by the pale and dim light of the distant sky, he saw a towering object.

A guillotine—its sharp blade gleamed coldly in the dimness.

Through the little historical knowledge in his mind, combined with the origins behind anomaly 099, Duncan had already realized where he was.

He looked at the bottom of the guillotine, and as his understanding gradually solidified, a vague figure under the guillotine also quickly became clear.

He saw the queen, the Frost Queen who had been executed by the rebels half a century ago—her silver hair was like a waterfall, and her light purple eyes were still bright in the dimness. She wore a slightly thin dress in the cold wind, but gritted her teeth to keep her body from trembling at all.

She did indeed have the exact same face as Alice.

A strange feeling arose in Duncan's heart. He looked at the lady who had the exact same appearance as Alice. Although he knew that this was the "original" in history, he couldn't help but have the image of the lively doll on the ship appear in his mind first. And the next second, a sudden voice from nowhere interrupted his thoughts—

"Your time has come, Frost 'Queen'."

The voice was cold and distant, but it seemed to penetrate the curtain of history and resounded next to the guillotine.

The next second, Duncan saw two phantoms suddenly appear beside the guillotine. The two phantoms came to the Frost Queen, seemingly wanting to press the Queen's arms to make her kneel under the guillotine, but the Queen's posture remained unmoved, and the two tall phantoms were as weak and powerless as children.

Duncan heard the noisy voices around him suddenly become even more turbulent than before. The countless shadows suddenly shook, and even some clear shouts were mixed in. The cold and distant voice from before sounded again, this time with a bit more anger: "Silence! Maintain order in the execution ground!"

More phantoms appeared around the guillotine, and the Frost Queen was finally suppressed under the chilling instrument. She knelt in the cold dust, but still raised her head and calmly looked at the high walls of the distant city-state. Above her neck, the sharp and heavy blade began to rise slowly with the creaking sound of the winch…

Duncan frowned. Although he knew that this was just a phantom recorded in history, he still subconsciously took a step forward when looking at "Alice"'s face, wanting to reach out his hand…

But just as he had the "action," the Frost Queen under the guillotine suddenly turned her head slightly—she looked at the direction where Duncan was, looking at the place that should have been empty in her time, she opened her mouth and said clearly and softly:

"No matter who you are, please do not contaminate history."

Duncan stopped in astonishment, and then, he heard someone exclaiming next to the guillotine even more astonished: "Who are you talking to?!"

But the Frost Queen had already withdrawn her gaze. She seemed to have suddenly understood something, and a trace of relieved smile appeared on her originally cold face. She turned her head, seemingly speaking to the executioner next to her: "Do it, before the sun sets."

The guillotine suddenly fell.

Boundless darkness suddenly surged from all directions, and the illusions in history began to tear into fragmented light and shadows. Duncan felt that his connection with "here" was rapidly weakening. He knew that this "echo" had come to an end, and in the illusion that was constantly collapsing and moving away, he could still hear some chaotic and broken sounds. Those sounds were sometimes near and sometimes far, and he could only vaguely hear a few fragments—

"...The Frost Queen is dead, we have cut off the Vanishing Ship's channel to return to the real world…"

"...Lei Nola attempted to build a second Vanishing Ship… she colluded with the shadows of the sub-space, the evidence is conclusive, she deserves to die…"

"...The new governor will soon reshape order, all information related to the 'Deep Dive' exploration project will be destroyed… active informants still have a chance to be forgiven…"

"Pursue the rebel ship Sea Mist and the fleeing navy with all our strength… dead or alive… wait, what's that sound… get out of here, it's going to collapse!"

Exclamations, shouts, the loud noise of giant objects breaking and collapsing, the roaring and surging sea waves…

Duncan suddenly broke away from this boundless darkness, as if returning to the surface from a deep dive. At the end of the darkness, he heard a series of loud noises, which sounded as if the entire cliff had collapsed from the coastline into the sea.

He witnessed a piece of history, and heard this history falling into nothingness in the darkness.

He saw a phantom in history, and that phantom asked him not to contaminate history.

He slowly opened his eyes, saw the familiar cabin, heard the familiar sound of waves, and also saw the familiar doll sitting on the bedside, "pop" off her head, and "pop" it back on, having a great time.

Duncan: "…?"