Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 814 The essential divergence
Ding…ding ding…

That is the sound of the god who carries history, carving sand with a chisel in the burned history.

The giant sat on the ground, seemingly unresponsive to the approach of the uninvited guest. He still looked the same as Vanna remembered - old and tall, with the vicissitudes of history leaving deep grooves on his face as if carved by a knife and an axe, messy hair and beard, and a pair of sunken eyes.

But compared to what Vanna remembered, he seemed older and a little more hunched, and on his tattered robe, one could still see a flickering dark red light, as if the embers were still burning in his body. Occasionally, tiny sparks flew out from the corners of his clothes as he moved, and the flames fell on the desert, creating a brief and blurry phantom.

The giant raised his arm again, and the stone hit the chisel. The chisel fell into the loose yellow sand, splashing out sparks and crisp sounds like the collision of metal and stone. However, yellow sand is something that cannot be carved after all - no trace will be left in the sand, only the crisp sound of chiseling, echoing hollowly in the boundless sea of ​​​​sand.

Vanna stood beside a sand dune, looking at the familiar figure not far away. After a brief hesitation, she finally followed the captain and took a tentative step forward.

Then, the giant's deep and hoarse voice finally broke the silence and reached her ears: "Time... is the illusion imposed by the observer on the changes of things. History is the shadow cast by the intelligent race in the illusion of time. For the intelligent observer, all meanings are based on 'people'... Without people, there is no meaning."

Vanna stopped a few meters away from the giant.

"A long time ago, there were stones here, and history could be engraved on the stones, but now there is only sand here, and even the flames have been reduced to this small pile of fire," the giant said to himself as he looked at the bonfire that was swaying in the cold wind, "It's almost over."

"Civilization began with fire and stone, and it will end with fire and stone..." Vanna couldn't help but speak - this was what Tarekin told her in person during the long dream in Breeze Harbor.

The giant finally raised his head and his eyes fell on Vanna.

"I recently had a very short dream. That dream came from a long, long time ago, and only vague shadows remained... but I saw you in those shadows," he looked into Vanna's eyes, and the wrinkles on his face turned into a smile. "Thank you for accompanying me on that journey. Although I can't remember it clearly... but I still remember that journey was very lonely."

Vanna widened her eyes slightly: "That happened in Silantis's dream, you... can also know it?"

"When time is about to close, all events that have occurred in the time stream are connected to each other," Tarekin nodded gently, "When this shelter was first built, I was deeply bound to its time stream... Now, I know a lot of things."

Then he turned his head and looked at Duncan who was standing next to Vanna.

"I have been waiting for you for a long time, Fire Usurper," the giant smiled faintly, "But it's okay, this is the only meaningful thing in this place where there is nothing."

"To be honest, I didn't expect this place to be like this," Duncan exhaled and spoke his mind frankly. "I thought... as a recorder of civilization, you would be in a better situation than other 'gods'. After all, 'memory' is one of your powers, and you should be more able to fight against 'rot'."

"An counterintuitive fact is that when the disaster process is prolonged to a certain extent, the demise of 'history' often precedes the ethnic group itself," Tarekin shook his head. "It is not always the case that 'the history of an ethnic group dies after it dies'. In many cases, their history has already ended while an ethnic group is still alive... Forgetting is a very scary thing."

The giant paused for a moment and sighed softly, "... forgetting is terrible, especially when many things in this world will suddenly disappear. The 'corrections' within the shelter cannot completely fill the gaps caused by the 'blasphemous prototypes', so countless lesions and tears are left in history. I tried my best to cover up those historical distortions that may lead to the spread of pollution, and re-carve the memories of the mortal world, again and again, again and again... The stone finally turned into sand, and the sand turned into ashes. Now it is almost impossible to repair it."

Tarekin shook his head and threw down the stones and chisels in his hands. The moment they hit the yellow sand, they shattered and turned into sand that was no different from the surrounding sand.

Duncan took a step forward and stood in front of the giant who was taller than the tallest man when sitting down. "You should know why I am here."

"Yes, Pilot No. 2 has contacted me," Tarekin said calmly, "You are here to end this world, just like what I saw a long time ago... You will burn everything, and everything will eventually be destroyed in your hands - this is the first step for you to save them."

Duncan met the giant's gaze calmly and asked curiously, "Are you referring to the time before the establishment of the Sanctuary, when you and other ancient kings first discovered 'me'? Since then, you have called me 'Fire Usurper'... Is it because you foresaw the future?"

"I don't have the ability to calculate the entire world like the Pilot II, but I have a pair of eyes that can see far into the timeline - although it doesn't always work well," Tarekin laughed, with a nostalgic tone, "In the old world, those who believed in me firmly believed that I could do it, so I could do it."

"I have always been worried that 'burning everything' would lead to the 'end of fire'," Duncan thought for a moment and said, "This worry arose shortly after Navigator No. 1 proposed the 'takeover plan' to me. A preacher of the end showed me the end of this ending. In that historical branch, I also burned the world, but the world still inevitably ushered in the end of the world."

He paused for a moment and frankly expressed his long-standing concerns: "This is what I have been worried about, and it is the only thing I am worried about so far. The 'Flame Ending' is like a shadow. I always feel that... its effective conditions seem to be very close to the 'First Step' I am going to take next. When I complete the 'First Step', will I mistakenly enter the historical branch of the 'Flame Ending'?"

Sitting in the yellow sand, Tarekin leaned forward slightly and stared into Duncan's eyes for a long time. After a long time, the old giant withdrew his gaze.

"So, there is a key point of disagreement," he said in a low voice. "Whether it is the plan of Pilot One or your own plan now, 'burning the world' is the unavoidable 'first step'. The difference afterwards lies in... who you are when executing this plan."

Listening to the words of this "eternally burning flame", Duncan suddenly had an idea!
He finally grasped the key point vaguely... the key that he had always been able to vaguely feel but had never been sure of.

He subconsciously took another half step forward and stared into the giant's eyes: "What do you mean..."

"Captain Duncan's power has its limits," Tarekin said calmly. "You have stayed in this avatar for too long, but... it is only an avatar after all."

Duncan opened his eyes slightly, lowered his head, looked at his hands, and finally figured out what he had always felt was wrong, and why he had that instinctive worry...

That was the subconscious warning from his "self" that was bound in this body and sensed the limitations of the incarnation.

He is not Duncan, he is Zhou Ming.

Duncan is just one of his incarnations, just like the antique shop manager in Plande and the cemetery keeper in Frost - the captain of the Lost Homeland is also just one of three incarnations.

Duncan’s first spiritual journey occurred when he activated the brass compass—and Zhou Ming’s first spiritual journey occurred when he pushed open the door of the bachelor apartment and walked through the thick fog!
He took a deep breath and let his thoughts slowly calm down.

In fact... he had already noticed these things before. As "Zhou Ming", he had realized that his so-called "real body" on the Lost Homeland was actually no different from the two "corpse incarnations" of Pland and Frost. He realized that the identity of "Duncan" should be his first incarnation in this world. But all along, he had never carefully thought about the deeper meaning of this matter -

Is he Duncan or Zhou Ming? This question has been the key from the beginning.

The key from the beginning...

Zhou Ming suddenly frowned. He suddenly recalled the first words that Goat Head said when he saw him after he arrived at the Lost Homeland, and the words that it would confirm with him every time - "Name?"

"Oh, it seems that you are beginning to understand the essence of this problem." At this moment, Tarekin's voice suddenly came from the side, waking Duncan from his deep thoughts, "Then can you control your thoughts a little bit - the starlight is about to burn my eyes."

Duncan reacted suddenly and noticed that a faint layer of starlight had spread around him. The starlight shone on the surrounding yellow sand, and it even seemed that the desert was gradually being dyed by the starry sky.

Tarekin lifted up his tattered robe to block the starlight shining on him, and there seemed to be some helplessness in his tone.

On the other hand, Vanna, who was standing next to him, looked fine. She just stood there in a daze.

There is a kind of beauty where a sports student stands next to a teacher and his thoughts can’t keep up.

Duncan coughed awkwardly twice: "Um... sorry."

The starlight surrounding him gradually shrank.

(End of this chapter)