Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 819 Warm and Cold

The journey to the death node seemed to be coming to an end. In the extremely uniform gray-white background outside the ship's side, some extremely difficult to detect black lines had begun to appear faintly. A solid structure appeared in the distance and was slowly expanding in front of the Lost Homeland and the Bright Star.

But for some reason, this scene that he had seen more than once now made Duncan feel particularly... lonely and long.

He stood quietly at the bow of the Lost Homeland, waiting for the moment when the jump stopped. Footsteps came from behind him. Without turning around, he knew who was approaching.

"Lucy," Duncan whispered, "we're almost there."

"I know." Lucrecia came to Duncan's side and looked at the slowly changing scenery in the distance with her father. "The last node, right? Then we will return to the place where the goddess of storms sleeps... Every journey must come to an end."

"I'm sorry, I have to set off alone again," Duncan sighed softly. Although he knew that he was just occupying an "avatar", he still felt a lot of complicated emotions in front of Lucrecia. He couldn't tell how much of those emotions came from "Duncan Abnomal". "I promised you before..."

Before he could finish his words, Lucrecia suddenly interrupted him: "You have fulfilled your promise and taken me with you when you went to the end of the world."

The sea witch said, turning her head and looking at Duncan with eyes as calm as a pond. Her expression seemed particularly serious, but after two or three seconds, she suddenly laughed: "What do you think will happen? Should I cry like an ignorant little girl and hold you back from doing important things? Or should I scold you out of anger at this time, letting you embark on such an important journey with regret and frustration? And finally bury the hope of the whole world in my bad mood at this moment?"

Looking at the "witch" smiling in front of him, Duncan suddenly felt that he didn't know what to say, and could only smile helplessly and spread his hands.

"I'm not a child anymore, father." Lucrecia took a slow breath, with a serene smile on her face, and looked into Duncan's eyes seriously. "No matter what I do, I can't stop your next decision, and I can't find a better, feasible alternative to solve the problem for you. The most appropriate choice is to keep smiling at this moment... This is what you taught me."

"...I don't remember." Duncan said honestly.

"Every time you say goodbye, you should smile," Lucrecia said softly as she recalled the past, "so that if we can never meet again, at least when we recall each other, the last scene in our minds will be a bright smile."

Duncan did not speak. He did not ask at this moment what the scene was like when Lucretia and Tirian said goodbye to the captain of the Lost Homer for the last time a century ago when the Lost Homer decided to sail towards the Eternal Veil.

After a moment's silence, Lucretia suddenly raised her hand and looked at Duncan intently.

"What?" Duncan looked at the other party with some confusion.

"High five," Lucrecia said.

Duncan frowned subconsciously: "High five?"

“Promise me you’ll come back and high-five.”

The sea witch said calmly. She raised her head and looked at the tall figure standing on the bow. The slowly moving black lines gradually expanded in the distant background color. Her father's figure seemed to gradually melt into the changing light and shadow. In a trance, she seemed to see that afternoon when even the sunlight had faded. On the dock, her father stood in front of the gangway leading to the Lost Hometown, staring at her like a silent sculpture.

"High five, promise me and your brother that you will come back safely." This is what she said at that time.

She was still very young at that time, and she was not yet the "Sea Witch". She could not remember clearly whether she had a smile on her face at that time - most likely not, because she was far from being as mature and... strong as she is today.

In the yellowed memory, the tall figure finally turned around and left in silence.

The warm touch and the sound of "pop" awakened Lucrecia from the faded memory - she saw her father smiling and covering her palm with his broad palm.

Just like what my father did every time he went out when my brother and I were young.

Then, the floating black light in the distance suddenly expanded, occupying the entire field of vision outside the Lost Homeland and the Brilliant Star. The gray-white background channel collapsed silently, accompanied by a distorted voice that entered everyone's mind: "... jump... stop."

A vast wilderness without color, composed entirely of different shades of black, white and gray, came into the eyes of Lucretia and Duncan - there was no coastline, no sea, only wild wilderness. Black and white weeds grew wildly in the wilderness, swaying in the wind without making any sound, like dead waves.

The Lost Homeland and the Radiant Star sailed on the undulating grass waves, gliding silently across this wilderness of death shrouded in eternal night.

……

The night seemed to last forever, and the sun would never rise again.

Standing beside the big bonfire on the Flamebringer Ark, Fram looked back once again in the direction the Ark fleet came from, and at the borders of the civilized world, but he could still only see endless darkness, and the cold and pale light of the creation of the world shining on the mirror-like sea, as if the whole world had always been like this from the infinite past to the infinite future.

He withdrew his gaze and continued to pray in the light of the big bonfire.

The cold wind from the northern seas whistled in his ears, accompanied by the low noise of the giant steam engines running deep in the Ark. Occasionally, he could hear loud bangs or thunderous roars in the distance - that was the horrible sound of the ice being crushed by the giant icebreaking mechanism in front of the Ark.

The Ark of the Firebringer is sailing further north. It has already passed a series of "Northern City-States" including Frost, and has now officially entered the permafrost sea that was once regarded as the "end of civilization."

Here, endless layers of ice replaced the sea, and seemed to extend to the end of the world in the darkness. Hazy, undulating fog lingered in the depths of the ice field, rising up to connect to the sky. In the light of the sky sprinkled by the creation of the world, all of this was radiating a strange and uniform silver glow, and even... appeared quite "bright".

After an unknown amount of time, Frame finally opened his eyes from prayer. He frowned slightly, sensing something, and a vague phantom split from the shadow beside him, stood up and walked towards the magnificent bonfire in front.

As the historical clone disappeared in the flames, he nodded slightly, raised his hand to call a fire-guarding attendant who had been waiting by the side, and whispered instructions.

The servant took the order and left. After a while, a low mechanical roar was heard from deep within the Firebringer Ark. This huge engineering creation slowly and carefully adjusted its course, while resetting the operation of the icebreaking mechanism in front, and continued to sail deeper into the ice field.

The sound of ice breaking in the distance was mixed with some disturbing sharp noises.

A priestess wearing a black robe and a veil on her face appeared beside the bonfire and quickly came behind Frame: "Your Holiness, a transmission shaft of the ice-breaking mechanism is broken."

“…Can it still be used?”

"The power has dropped by 30 percent, but it's still usable," the priestess said quickly, "but the Mechanical Priest warned that the breakage of the first transmission shaft will trigger a chain reaction soon. Other transmission shafts may have problems in the next five to seven days, and the ice-breaking mechanism will be useless by then."

"It's okay. As long as it can be used for the time being, it was originally a temporary addition to the Ark... After all, this 'ship' was not designed to sail on the icy sea from the beginning," Frame said, slowly shaking his head. "Don't worry, we're almost there."

The priestess turned her head and looked at the huge bonfire burning in front of the Pope.

"Is the 'direction' that the Lord is guiding us to is just ahead of us?"

"Yes," Frame nodded gently. "The Lord told me in the vision of fire that this is the focus of the historical line in the real dimension. The most important documents and archives must be sent here. This is the key to leaving a 'trace'. Unfortunately, the Lord's voice is already very vague, and I can't fully understand what the 'trace' He is talking about, but there is only one thing that is certain... This is very important."

The priestess did not ask any more questions, but lowered her head and prayed devoutly in front of the big bonfire. She did not expect to hear any response from the flames, because since long ago, the Lord's vague whispers had only been heard by the Pope. However, "praying" had become part of the lifestyle of ordinary priests like her, and she was used to doing it even if there was no response.

The wind on the icy sea was bone-chillingly cold, and the chill that could almost freeze the blood could no longer be blocked by thick clothes or magic. But unknowingly, the priests on the ark began to adapt to the cold here, and the priests and sailors who had temporarily fallen ill due to the low temperature have also recovered one after another recently, which is more or less a good thing.

The prayer ended, and the priestess opened her eyes. The cold wind poured into her flesh, freezing her blood flow and heartbeat, but she still got a little comfort from the prayer.

"I will inform the ship's mechanics to extend the remaining life of the icebreakers as much as possible and try to keep the hydraulic hammers alive until they reach the 'focus'. But if the icebreakers can't hold on... we can only use explosives. We have a lot of explosives in stock."

"Yeah." Frame nodded slightly.

The priestess bowed slightly and stepped back, ready to leave, but before leaving she looked up at the big bonfire again and couldn't help but whispered softly -

“This fire is really cold.”

(End of this chapter)