Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 671 The gloomy future

Breeze Harbor, inside the "Witch Mansion" at 99 Crown Street.

Shirley was lying in front of the window sill in boredom, looking at the scenery on the street outside.

Peace and order have returned to the city-state. Although many people are still troubled by the "dream sequelae", the physical damage caused to the city by this incident in Breeze Harbor is obviously far less than that of Plande and Frost, at least to the naked eye. In the market, most people’s daily lives have returned to their familiar routine.

Children cheered and ran through the unblocked intersection, holding colorful windmills in their hands as they crossed the street in the bright sunshine.

The time is close to noon, Vision 001 is hanging high in the sky, and there are many beautiful blue roofs in the opposite block bathing in the sun. Occasionally, you can see knowledge guards wearing guardian uniforms standing high, vigilantly and carefully observing the block. Case.

"Yawn..." Shirley stretched her body and turned to look at Nina next to her, "What have you been doing since early in the morning?"

Nina sat behind a small table near the window, lowering her head and grabbing a pen to write and draw in a large notebook. She held a glowing "fire ball" in her other hand. From time to time, she brought it to her mouth to take a small sip and listened. When it came to Shirley, she didn't even look up: "I will do mechanical design, and then I will take it to the customization workshop..."

Shirley was stunned for a while after hearing this. She couldn't help but turn her head to take a look at the dazzling gears and connecting rods in Nina's notebook. She looked at her friend who was keen on learning in confusion: "...Old man Didn't I say that I wrote to Prand to help you withdraw from school? Why are you still working so hard when you don't have to take exams in the future? "

Nina immediately raised her head and looked at Shirley with a serious face: "It's not about dropping out of school, it's about graduating early - I didn't have much to do on the ship, so I just finished all the high school courses. Teacher Morris and Uncle Duncan discussed it and said It doesn’t make much sense for me to go back to school now, and the development path of ordinary people is not suitable for me, so I was given an early graduation..."

Shirley was dumbfounded: "Can it still be like this?"

"Most people can't, but Teacher Morris has guaranteed it - he can," Nina picked up the little sun in her hand and took another bite. She mumbled while chewing, "And I think it's pretty good, anyway. I don’t have many friends at school, and I’ve been adventuring outside with Uncle Duncan for so long, so I probably won’t get used to it when I go back..."

Shirley didn't notice what Nina said in the last sentence. Her attention had already fallen on the "little fireball" that the other party was chewing from the middle. After holding it in for a long time, she finally couldn't help but say: "You've been chewing on this all day...is this delicious?"

Nina casually handed the little sun over: "Do you want to try it?"

Shirley jumped two meters away in an instant: "I haven't lived enough yet!"

"Actually, it's not hot at all..." Nina took the little sun back angrily and muttered, "It's a pity. I wanted to ask Miss Vanna to try it before, but she also refused..."

"No one in their right mind can accept this - it's better to say that you can actually use this as a snack." Shirley kept a safe distance from Nina and looked at the other person's hand with strange eyes. Fireball, "You just eat it like this...is it really okay? The captain and the old man really asked you to do this?"

"Yes, after confirming that it had no effect on me, Teacher Morris encouraged me to continue 'testing' and 'observing'," Nina nodded. "He said that my 'devouring' process of the sun might reveal It can understand the transformation and compatibility relationship between certain fragments of the old world, and may even help find a way to solve the underlying chaos of all things... I don't understand the details, but he and Uncle Duncan have been discussing this matter for a long time... …”

As she spoke, she picked up the little sun and put it to her mouth and took a small bite: "The things they have been discussing recently have become more and more advanced. They discussed it for two hours after uncle came back from the boat this morning. I also I heard them saying that they wanted to find a way to capture another Evangelist, and came here to study it, and they were also discussing where to capture it..."

When Shirley heard this, she suddenly showed a strange expression and turned to look at the living room not far away.

Duncan and Morris are sitting on the sofa in the living room. In fact, their discussion has been going on intermittently and has not ended yet.

Alice was lying on the coffee table next to Duncan, holding a pencil in her hand and concentrating on scribbling her "drawing" on a piece of white paper.

"...We have never been closer to the 'truth' about the origin of the world than we are today, and the 'impact' observed in the deepest recesses of Silantis' memory is indeed the only 'event' so far that can explain the Great Annihilation... I learned from yesterday I have been in contact with my mentor since the beginning. As far as I know, he has shared this information with the other three popes..."

Morris said with a serious face, while unconsciously playing with a delicate crystal prism in his hand. The sunlight streaming in from the window shone on the prism, constantly refracting various brilliant colors in his hand.

Duncan nodded slowly: "The Great Annihilation brought about fatal chaos and conflict, and this chaos and conflict are still rooted in the essence of all things... The Third Long Night failed to resolve this underlying conflict, but only delayed it. Its onset, now it seems that this 'delay' has reached its limit, and the arrival of 'dusk' is indeed inevitable." "The key to the question now is, what will happen after the arrival of 'dusk', the so-called 'dusk' How will the Fourth Long Night occur and end?" Morris said with worry in his tone. "An obvious fact is that no matter what, our current 'Deep Sea Age' will be turned upside down in the process. Changes, and the city-states on the boundless sea...may disappear like the previous two long nights."

He stopped suddenly and shook his head after a few seconds of silence: "Even worse."

Duncan did not speak. After the topic extended to the coming "twilight", the scene he saw in subspace emerged in his mind involuntarily.

The ancient kings gathered around the pale giant who died after the creation of the world, burying an ancient god in the dim end of the world.

If every "long night" corresponds to a "twilight", then the reflection he saw in the giant's one eye was the scene at dusk.

He thought again of the diffuse starlight and a roar deep in the starlight.

After being silent for an unknown amount of time, he finally spoke softly: "Perhaps, only the 'Kings' can really answer my questions."

Morris raised his head in surprise: "What did you say?"

Duncan shook his head and did not answer Morris's question. Instead, he changed the topic after a moment of thinking: "Judging from the information currently available, whether it is the Annihilation Cult or the Children of the Sun, they are all preparing for the upcoming 'Twilight'" To prepare, one of the words most commonly mentioned by those Annihilation cultists is 'new position' - in the next era after the Deep Sea Age, they want to occupy a position in advance."

"This may correspond to the concept of the 'abandoned tribes' in the third long night," Morris nodded immediately and said, "According to the evidence you have found recently, not all 'groups' can coexist after creation. The third Many ethnic groups were excluded from the shelter during the Second Long Night, and Black Sun may be just one of them - more abandoned ethnic groups may not have survived even a little bit of information..."

He paused briefly here, seemingly lost in thought, and then continued: "According to the premise that 'the foundation of all things is conflict and destruction' and the condition that 'the gods build the next era on the ashes of the world,' The coming fourth long night may mean that the next era will be built on the ashes of the Deep Sea Age. One of the most likely results is..."

Morris hesitated, but Duncan had already finished what he said: "The next era will be a 'sanctuary' that is even narrower, cramped, and crowded than the deep sea era."

There was a brief silence in the living room, and only the soft sound of Alice's sketches on the paper continued - the doll didn't care about the questions she didn't understand, she was just immersed in her "creation", Still in high spirits.

After a minute or two, Morris finally slowly put down the prism in his hand.

"More 'ethnic groups' will be abandoned, and more civilizational creations will become 'blasphemous prototypes' of the next era, destroyed, exiled, and not allowed to stay in the real dimension, or even allowed to stay in the historical record. Here, many of the things we cherish in this era will become pollution and taboos in the next era, just like the remnants of the sun who were abandoned in the previous era..."

Duncan nodded slightly: "So, those cultists are making preparations so that they can occupy a living space for themselves in the next narrower 'world' in advance, or even just a 'place' that will not be easily erased, stealing The power or remains of the ancient gods is what they came up with - of course, whether this works is debatable."

"But what happens next? Will there be a fifth long night or a sixth long night? This cycle may continue forever, even faster and faster, until a certain limit is reached, and in the process...' Shelters' will become smaller and smaller, more and more cramped..."

Morris's thoughts were divergent, and in the end he was describing the outcome calculated from his dark and pessimistic reasoning as if talking to himself.

Embers can be rekindled, but rekindling has its limit. The shrinking fire can only accommodate fewer heaters than the last time, until the firewood is exhausted and everything remains silent in the cold.

In the next era, there may be no boundless sea. The last place where civilization lives may be just a city. After that, there may be only a small town, a block, a house, and a small piece of stone floating in nothingness." "Civilization", the last ray of confused reason is wrapped around the stone, recalling the afterglow of past civilization in confusion and ignorance, and dying in the sleep of the last time when the intelligence fades.

That will be the true end of all things.

(End of this chapter)