Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 824 Burial
In the gravel wasteland shrouded in the night, countless figures in black robes walked silently in the same direction, the twilight from an invisible dimension illuminating their night-like robes, surrounding these tall phantoms with a layer of glow that seemed real and illusory. They walked in the wasteland, gradually converging into rivers of twilight flowing in the darkness - and finally, these rivers of twilight came to the center of the wilderness of death, surrounding the funeral.

There stood a big gate, the triangular door was silent and solemn. At first, Duncan even thought it was a small hill, but in almost the blink of an eye, he came near the gate and saw that it was as majestic and tall as another piece of upright earth, while the doorway in the center of the triangle was tightly closed. Dark red lines like blood vessels covered the door, like layers of chains.

The order of death has been locked by this door, and now the god who locked it himself sits quietly on the throne in front of the door - He is taller than Duncan imagined, even taller than Tarekin, and even when sitting on a chair, his body is almost as big as a house.

He was wearing a tattered robe as black as night, with dark red thorns wrapped around the outside of the robe. His face could not be seen clearly under the shadow of the robe, as if He had no face at all, but was just a black shadow outlined by the robe - just as it is recorded in the sacred scriptures of the Church of Death:

Death is a faceless shadow, cloaked in the cloak of darkness. This shadow is everywhere, and when you see it, it sees you.

But now, this faceless Shadow of Death is dead. A sharp and twisted dagger like an alien thorn pierced His chest and almost nailed Him to the dark throne. His hood was tilted to one side, as if at the last moment of death he was still looking back at the triangular door behind him that represented the order of life and death.

This scene was like a murder, except that the murderer was the deceased himself.

This is the most special scene among the four "Dead Gods" - at the end of death and decay, Bartok performed a second "killing" on himself.

Countless phantoms clad in twilight surrounded the gate, standing silently and motionless like frozen tombstones, but there was a path between them, as if specially left for visitors, extending from the wilderness to the dark throne.

The tall gatekeeper who led the way walked forward slowly, and Duncan and Agatha followed behind him, passing through those quietly standing phantoms along the path. The twilight glow cast by the surrounding phantoms also shone on them. Duncan was not affected by the twilight glow, but Agatha's originally illusory and transparent body gradually solidified in the glow, and even seemed to have a physical body for a short time.

They finally stopped in front of the throne. The tall gatekeeper who led the way nodded silently, then walked aside and stood among the other gatekeepers.

Duncan raised his head and looked at the figure on the throne who was taller than Tarekin, the first and last dead person in the world.

No wonder the "dead person" forged by Agatha using the sailors could not attract the gatekeeper to stop - because the real, final dead person was here.

Agatha raised her head and stared at the god clad in darkness for a long time. Even Duncan had no idea what she was thinking at the moment - this "gatekeeper" who possessed all the memories of the devout believers of the Church of Death but was just a "fake" had never thought that she could come here, to this place where countless devout believers could not reach even after a lifetime of hard practice, and she had never thought that she would see this scene, the funeral scene of the god of death.

She stood there quietly for a long time before slowly looking away and speaking in a complicated tone: "...Captain, what should we do next?"

Before Duncan could speak, another gatekeeper who was originally standing next to the throne walked over silently. The tall phantom bent down, put something in Duncan's hand, and then turned back to the queue around the throne.

Duncan lowered his head and saw that he was holding an old and exquisite hourglass - he recognized it, he had seen exactly the same thing in the palace where Queen Leviathan had last slept.

But there is no sand in this hourglass.

Duncan frowned subconsciously and looked up to ask the gatekeeper who handed him the hourglass, but suddenly, he seemed to hear a low murmur in the breeze around him and gradually understood something.

Under Agatha's concerned gaze, he stretched out his hand toward the hourglass. A cluster of flames stained with starlight danced on his fingertips, then slowly penetrated the outer shell of the hourglass and flowed into its glass container. The vitality that the hourglass once recorded was briefly revived in the flames and began to flow as the hourglass turned over.

The next second, Duncan heard an illusory sound of wind whistling in his ears, and the light and darkness silently shattered, then swirled and reorganized in his field of vision.

He stood on a small mound, which was illuminated by an invisible faint light. In the distance was a dark night with no end in sight. Under his feet were nameless wild flowers in full bloom. When the breeze blew, the wild flowers swayed in the wind, emitting a faint fragrance that seemed real and illusory.

The sound of a shovel digging came from the side. Duncan turned his head and saw a thin old man bending over and digging hard on the ground.

He had dug a shallow pit, next to which was a pile of black soil. He dug with a shovel, and although the pit was very shallow, it felt as if he had been digging here for a hundred centuries.

Duncan watched this scene, then walked towards the old man who was digging.

"I'm here... Sorry, I might be a little late."

"Not too late," the old man continued to bend over and dig. "Death is never too early, but never too late. It is always the right time to come."

He reached out his hand again and pointed to the small pile of dirt next to him. At some point, an extra shovel had been inserted into the pile of black dirt. “Can you help me?”

Duncan didn't say anything, he just stepped forward and picked up the shovel, then silently walked to the old man's side, bent down and shoveled hard into the soil.

For a moment, the only sounds on the hillock were those of digging.

After an unknown amount of time, the thin old man suddenly spoke again: "The other three... the last time I saw them was a long time ago. Since then, I have only been able to contact them through the 'channel' left by Pilot No. 2. How are they doing now?"

"They are fine," Duncan said calmly while digging the soil seriously, "I made a promise with them that we will meet again in the new world."

The old man nodded: "Oh, that's good...it's something to look forward to."

Duncan was silent for a few seconds, then raised his head and looked at the old man beside him: "Is this your original appearance?"

"No," the old man said slowly while digging the soil seriously without looking up, "I don't have a face. I didn't have one from the beginning. But I think... since I have decided to leave, I should at least leave a face behind."

"You don't have a face?" Duncan was a little surprised and curious.

"Yes, I am different from the other three - I am 'Death' itself." The old man said lightly.

Duncan said nothing, waiting for the old man to continue.

"The destruction of each world was different. Some lasted for several years, some lasted longer, and some... the civilizations of those worlds struggled to hold on, using various methods to postpone the end of the world, and even persisted for a hundred years."

The old man continued as he dug the soil beneath his feet.

"And in my world... everything happened very quickly - so quickly that there was no time to experience any form of decay and resistance, but not short enough for people to fail to notice the moment when everything collapsed. It... was just right, enough for everyone to know the process of death approaching.

"Many people - everyone, died at that moment. Death roared in time and space, even shaking the crumbling stars. In the last second of the hometown world, 'death' became the most shining, common, and only thing born in the entire universe.

“And all the beautiful, ugly, fearful, brave, tough yet fragile human nature and thinking are compressed into that one second.

"And so, death was born after death - I opened my eyes, and when I blinked for the first time, everything was undergoing its final collapse before my eyes, and when I blinked for the second time, the burning and chaotic ashes had replaced the hometown I had only seen once."

The old man pressed down hard on the shovel, shoveled the soil out of the pit and threw it aside.

"I have been digging this pit for a long time. I have been digging this pit since the day the sanctuary was founded, but the work is almost impossible - it is difficult for death to kill death itself. Fortunately, I have your help, Fire Usurper."

"Don't you want to go to the new world? If you are willing, there may be a way..."

"No, thank you for your invitation," the old man shook his head gently, shoveled up another shovel of soil, then raised his head and looked at Duncan calmly, "I am different from other 'people', you should have thought about it - I am not a survivor of the old world, I am a product of the great annihilation, a part of this burning ashes, and that is why the work of defining the rules for the death of things in this world has always been done by me - the shelter needs a 'recycling mechanism' like me to complete the complete cycle of birth and death, but in the new world... the death of things should not be executed by a similar 'god', even if this possibility is left.

"Those born from the Great Oblivion, should be left to the Great Oblivion."

Duncan stood in silence for a moment, then threw another shovel of dirt into the grave.

"Don't you feel sorry?"

"No," the old man smiled, "I have done everything I should do. After this, I will be able to enjoy a peaceful sleep without being disturbed. This is the greatest compliment to 'death'. But for you... I have a piece of advice."

Duncan stopped what he was doing.

"Don't talk about sacrifice lightly, although you may feel that I shouldn't say this," the old man looked into Duncan's eyes calmly, "but I smell the scent of death in you... I am very familiar with this scent, but it shouldn't appear on you."

Duncan didn't say anything, he just stood there quietly.

And next to him, there was no figure of the thin old man, nor a second shovel - he was the only one standing there.

The God of Death lay quietly in the tomb, with most of his body covered by soil. He closed his eyes calmly, as if he had been lying there for a long, long time.

After a long silence, Duncan bent down and continued to spread soil into the grave.

(End of this chapter)