Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 825 After Death Rests
Black soil fluttered and scattered, covering the not-so-wide tomb, like the night closing in at the end of time, burying the eternal death. The god who was born after the extinction of all things now rested, and at the moment when the world came to an end, he turned into a small mound on the hill.

The disorderly wind blew from the darkness, gently caressing the hills. The nameless wild flowers and weeds on the hills swayed in the wind, making a slight rustling sound. Duncan stood in the wind, supporting the shovel with both hands, staring at the pile of fresh soil in front of him for a long time.

Then he raised his head and looked around - the god of death had not prepared a tombstone for himself, and there was no material here that looked like it could serve as a tombstone.

Duncan then thrust the shovel he had used to dig the soil in front of the mound, and scooped up some soil from the side and piled it around the shovel to reinforce it, thus serving as a tombstone.

After doing this, he let out a long breath and put his hand on the shovel handle for the last time.

A few wisps of dim green firelight accompanied by faint starlight overflowed from between his fingers, slowly covering the "tombstone" of the god of death, and then disappeared.

"Rest in peace, Bartok, goodbye." Duncan said softly, and his figure slowly disappeared in the wind.

The messy and broken wind turned into a short whistle, light and shadow overflowed from the darkness and reorganized in an instant. After experiencing a brief period of weightlessness and changes in the five senses, the feeling of being grounded appeared again, and the scene in front of Duncan quickly stabilized.

The magnificent Gate of Death still stood quietly in the center of the rubble wasteland, and in front of the triangular gate, the tall figure sitting on the dark throne was slowly collapsing silently, like a fragmented dream waking up in the early morning. The invisible shadow shrouded by the black robe was dispersed by the wind, and the robe also fell like the night, rotting and weathering.

Amid the floating black debris and smoke, only a faint green flame emitting a hazy starlight flickered in the wind.

Duncan lowered his head and saw that the edge of the hourglass in his hand was flickering with a dim glow. A vague whisper seemed to ring in his ears. He realized something and then took a few steps forward and placed the quaint and exquisite hourglass next to the throne where the god of death once sat.

He stepped back and saw Agatha standing there quietly, staring at the empty throne in a trance. After an unknown amount of time, the "gatekeeper" born from an illusion slowly turned her head, revealing a complex emotion in her eyes: "... Is He at rest?"

"Well, I saw him off for the last time." Duncan nodded gently, and then added, "The hourglass contains a part of his power. I left it next to the throne so that the Church of Death in the mortal world can still borrow some of the 'blessings' for a short time... They can still use it now."

Agatha nodded slowly, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't. In the end, all her thoughts and emotions could only turn into a faint sigh.

"We should go back," Duncan said slowly, "The final countdown has begun. We must return to the Leviathan Queen's node immediately."

Agatha hummed and looked up in the direction she and the captain came from, but saw only a gravel wilderness with no visible signs.

The dark night shrouds this dead country, and there is no way back from the path that the dead walk.

But at this moment, she saw the "gatekeepers" standing around the throne of Death suddenly move - those tall phantoms standing silently slowly raised their hands, one after another, pointing in a certain direction in the darkness, and the dusk-like light seemed to escape from them, and then converge in the direction of their fingers, extending and flowing invisibly.

Under the guidance of thousands of tall illusions, a path appeared in the gravel wasteland. The path was shrouded in twilight, and nameless wild flowers bloomed on the side of the road, swaying slightly in the wind.

After the mechanism of death stopped working and after the god of death rested, for the first time a road appeared in this kingdom of death that allowed the living to return.

Agatha looked at this scene in astonishment, and subconsciously looked up at the tall gatekeeper who had initially led her and the captain, but saw that the gatekeeper just waved at her silently.

Go away, don't look back, and don't communicate with the kingdom of the dead anymore.

Agatha understood what the other party meant, so she turned around and walked with the captain onto the path that led away from the gravel wasteland.

There was no "gatekeeper" to guide them on the way back. Only the occasional breeze blowing from the darkness accompanied Agatha and Duncan. They walked on this path for an unknown amount of time until the gravel wasteland disappeared and the black and white nameless weeds reappeared in their field of vision, until they returned to the depths of the wilderness where the weeds were swaying, and the huge figures of the Lost Homeland and the Brilliant Star appeared at the end of their field of vision - and then, with just two steps in the direction of the Lost Homeland, Duncan and Agatha returned to where they had left at the beginning.

The paper boat was still parked in the open space. Lucrecia was standing on the bow in a daze. After seeing Duncan, she raised her eyebrows in surprise, then immediately jumped off the boat and headed towards this side.

"You've been waiting here all this time?" Duncan looked at the "Sea Witch" in front of him in surprise. "We've been away for a long time this time..."

"You left just a few minutes ago - just a few minutes after you and Agatha suddenly passed through a twilight curtain," Lucrecia was surprised when she heard Duncan's words, "I thought you had encountered something and suddenly turned back."

"A few minutes?" Duncan frowned when he heard this, but quickly put aside the incredibleness - after experiencing so many strange situations, he had become accustomed to it.

"We have done our business," he said simply, "and now we shall return."

Lucrecia looked at Duncan, then at Agatha who was following beside her. She instinctively felt that in the past "short few minutes", her father and Agatha seemed to have had an unforgettable experience or "witness", but in the end she didn't ask anything, just nodded slightly: "...Okay."

……

The pale flame in the brazier went out, and the low and vague whispers gradually disappeared in her mind. Agatha, who was kneeling in the prayer room meditating, raised her head, as if she felt something, and turned to "look" at the mirror beside her.

Her eyes covered with black cloth can no longer see the world normally, but her clearer spiritual eyes can allow her to see the "truth" from other dimensions more clearly than ordinary people.

In the mirror, she saw a grave, a wilderness plunging into darkness, and twilight fading in the distance.

This brief "revelation" lasted only a second.

The young gatekeeper and archbishop had already understood the truth that this scene conveyed to him.

She knelt quietly before the icon, then bowed her head for a moment and returned to prayer - her lips moved silently, reciting the blessing for the dead.

The prayer was not long, but she repeated it three times before slowly getting up from the cushion and walking to a shelf not far away. She took out a dried flower with pale petals from a wooden box on the shelf, turned around and placed it next to the candlestick in front of the icon.

In the distant city, the sound of a commotion could be heard across the street and into the church.

Slightly hurried footsteps came from the corridor, and a moment later, the voice of a priest came from outside the prayer room: "Archbishop, are you in there?"

"Come in," Agatha said casually.

The door of the prayer room was pushed open, and a middle-aged priest with short black hair and half of his face covered with bandages walked in.

Then his eyes were attracted by the small white flower in front of the icon.

The middle-aged priest frowned subconsciously. He instinctively felt that the flower seemed to have some meaning, which naturally led to some reasonable questions, but he found that he could not remember what it was specifically. He opened his mouth, and his eyes, which looked pale and turbid due to loss of vitality, were full of confusion.

Then, Agatha came over from the side and used her body to block between the middle-aged priest and the small white flower.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

A dazed look flashed across the middle-aged priest's face, and then he immediately reacted and hurriedly reported: "Archbishop, another group of people came to the cathedral to seek shelter and guidance. There are more than a dozen people. According to your instructions, I asked Mark to take Sister Natasha to receive them."

"Well," Agatha nodded, and then asked casually, "How are those people? Which neighborhood are they from?"

"They seemed to be frightened to some extent, and were in a state of vacillation and doubt, but they could not accurately describe what had happened," the middle-aged priest reported. "The one in the best condition among them said that he suddenly 'awoke' this morning, and then felt that many things around him were wrong. Even his relatives and friends seemed strange and... scary. He was very scared, so he went to the chapel to seek help, and then met other people who asked for help there...

“The priest at the chapel gave them an urgent comfort and blessing, and then sent two guards through the city to bring them here.

"Most of them are from the port area in the south, and three of them are from the cemetery area. They hardly know each other, have never crossed paths, and their places of residence do not have any common features..."

Listening to the middle-aged priest's report, Agatha said nothing but nodded calmly.

"The city hall will send people later. Temporary accommodation has been arranged in the shelter in the city at the foot of the mountain... Although the conditions are limited, it is safe there."

"Okay," the middle-aged priest responded, and then looked at Agatha with some hesitation and uneasiness. While observing the expression of the "interim archbishop", he hesitated and spoke, "Archbishop, what happened? This situation has occurred one after another recently, and the church has also..."

"John," Agatha interrupted, "Do you remember what I said when I summoned the priests the day before yesterday?"

The middle-aged priest's expression changed slightly, and then he nodded.

"I can't explain it to you now, because even if I explain it, you won't hear those voices," Agatha said calmly, "but when you suddenly 'wake up', you will understand - and then there is no need to panic, just go directly to the inner sanctum, there will be someone to make arrangements there."

(End of this chapter)