Cloud shadows and the ocean’s gloom share the sa origin.
The sea breeze brings the indistinguishable coldness of waves and rainfall.
Lu Li stands on the deck of the drifting Immortal Giant, gazing at the distant, silent, yet familiar Seaview Cliff.
"Tillage Garden."
Lu Li murmurs, summoning a dreamlike haze of consciousness.
"Why did you send here?"
The Immortal Giant with its broken anchor continues to drift, and Lu Li thought he would be sent to the ti of the Black Ring’s arrival.
Or is this the ti of the Black Ring’s arrival?
"The Ancient Gods divided the firewood, leaving little of the Tillage Garden... Tillage Garden once encountered the Master of Dreams, who shared dreams with it..."
Tillage Garden tells a fragnted story: the dying Tillage Garden was saved by an entity known as the Master of Dreams, granted Fragnts of Dream, thus capturing the only nearby human in decades. But the weakened Tillage Garden unexpectedly failed, as seen—unable to successfully send Lu Li to the ti of the Black Ring’s arrival.
"Now I’ll send you to..."
"Wait a mont."
Lu Li gazes at the distant land as mist begins to rise.
Since I’m here, it’s only right to spend so ti investigating what happened before the arrival of the Black Ring.
Lu Li lowers the lifeboat, protected by Tillage Garden, with nothing but a wooden boat and an oar, paddling towards the hazy Seaview Cliff.
The mist envelopes swiftly, and soon there’s nothing but dense gray fog all around, yet Lu Li is already close to the shore.
Unlike the tidal sounds that fade away, a deep ship’s horn sounds from the depths of the mist behind him as the oar bumps into sothing.
Moo—
Lu Li pauses his paddling, looking back towards the mist from where he ca: "What happened to the Immortal Giant?"
"It has sunk."
"Why?"
Tillage Garden remains silent for a mont: "Tillage Garden doesn’t know..."
"Is it the sa in reality?"
"If it’s unrelated to you..."
Lu Li is the variable of the dream. Without his influence, everything happening in the dream extends to reality.
Continuing to paddle, Lu Li sees the beach only a dozen ters away, and suddenly there are "companions": objects from the Immortal Giant float ashore along ocean currents.
The wooden boat shudders gently, halting on the shallows.
Foamy waves wash alongside, trunk. Planks, clothes land alongside him.
Among these items, Lu Li sees a familiar black-covered notebook, reaching out to retrieve it.
Soaked in seawater, the notebook hasn’t yet decayed and can be opened normally. As he flips open the cover, blurry familiar content erges:
[I bought this diary book, it will record my journey seeking you, when I et you, I’ll give it to you as a gift.]
This is Aired’s diary from the ship.
Turning to the end, Lu Li finds new content has appeared.
[Goodbye, my dear Lisa.]
This isn’t the end, because a few pages later, crooked scribbles appear:
[Lisa... where are you... I want to... find you...]
Lu Li closes the diary, places it back in the sea, letting the waves take it away, stepping into the shallow tidal water over his calves and onto the sandy shore.
Along the path back to Seaview Cliff, the edge of the cliff school remains silent and empty, only a bonfire rises in the air, burning brightly.
Within the depths of the fog, toward the direction of the town, there’s an aura stemming from the bonfire’s source. As Lu Li prepares to approach the town, a dense, pitch-black monstrous shadow brushes past his feet, extending forward—
At this ti, yet to beco the Light Thief, the Shadow Thief of Fire stretches from the continuous ocean waves, reaching towards the burning bonfire.
Just as it’s about to touch the bonfire, Lu Li steps onto its slender shadow. The monstrous claw recoils in fright.
In thought, Lu Li suddenly steps towards the Shadow Thief of Fire, stomping again. The shadow claw continues to retreat. Lu Li follows the Shadow Thief of Fire to the coast, once again stepping onto the shadow after it retreats into the rolling shallows.
"Tillage Garden, protect as I dive."
"Alright."
"And give an oil lamp."
An oil lamp appears in Lu Li’s hand, he picks it up, stepping into the seawater.
The waves are separated by invisible forces, Lu Li holds the oil lamp, following the Shadow Thief of Fire’s guidance, delving along the seabed into this ocean region.
The dark and calm seabed is dust and silt, damply reflecting the oil lamp’s light.
After about ten minutes, Lu Li steps on the Shadow Thief of Fire for the umpteenth ti. The slender shadow slightly retreats, stopping ahead—
On a pure black stone platform is placed a pure charred head.
"Tillage Garden, do you know what this is?"
Lu Li asks upon realizing what it is.
"A will suffering pollution..."
A mad spirit.
After observing the charred head for a good while, Lu Li’s gaze falls into the deep sea area—where the water turns murky, whirlpools stir, lifting a curtain-like cloud of dust.
"What happened there?"
"The Immortal Giant is sinking..."
"Is it sinking here in reality too?"
"If it never left..."
Lu Li’s gaze returns to the black stone platform and the black head.
Whether they had always been here, or lost from the Immortal Giant remains unknown.
Without disturbing the essence of the Shadow Thief of Fire, Lu Li rely notes the position, then returns the way he ca—because everything happening at this mont is rely a dream.
Following the seabed back to Seaview Cliff’s coastline, past the headland and school, Lu Li perceives the town of Seaview Cliff bubbling with a strange atmosphere prior to the arrival of the Black Ring.
When the locals beco aware of this intruder nad Lu Li, he retreats back by the bonfire of Seaview Cliff.
"Send to that ti."
"Alright."
As if the curtain drops and rises again on stage, a new performance grandly unfolds before the eyes:
Countless whispers of chanting intermingle with singing, echoing beneath the starry sky:
"Look to the heavens, high above. The ti when stars align has co"
"Days past are lost, apocalypse arrives. Unnaable beings awaken"
"They shall return, mankind shall fear. Hope returns to darkness when they co back"
"Madness will rule over fear and pain"
"Ignorance and stupidity beco the new rulers"
"Wherever they are, they are the rules"
"Stars shine and blaze, boiling and trembling"
"The abyss remains silent, cold, and soundless"
"Rising from the sea floor, surging from the earth, descending from the sky, erging from the abyss, they are everywhere"
"Unnaable beings... descend"
A pure black line of worldly evil descends from the sky.
Lu Li watches the black line sink into the dead sea. Like a drop of thick ink into clear water, then, an endless darkness with substance spreads toward him.
Everything disappears in its path.
Lu Li briefly averts his gaze, looking towards the town of Seaview Cliff behind him.
Cloaked figures gather in the town’s center ground, the source of cryptic chanting, the culprits calling forth the unnaable beings’ arrival.
Shadows envelop Seaview Cliff, Lu Li lifts his head, seeing a black sun high in the void, a slender pure black line extending to the sea surface, the horizon left with nothing but outline.
The world falls into despairing darkness.
Reviews
All reviews (0)