Fenna imdiately tensed her muscles and nerves, watchfully observing the tall figure that was erging from the dust—if sothing were even slightly amiss, she was ready to leap forward with a split attack.
But coming through the sand and dust was only a gentle and rational voice, "Ah... a traveler, it seems I haven’t seen a stranger here in many years."
Fenna was montarily stunned, and then she saw the giant-like figure walking out of the dust.
He stood at a towering four to five ters in height, forcing Fenna to tilt her head back as far as she could to make out the giant’s face. Draped over his fra was a dark, tattered robe that seed like a piece of rags—it must have been a piece of exquisite clothing once, but now only the remnants of its many trials and tribulations remained. The giant’s body was gaunt, almost to the point of being skeletal, as if worn down by a long journey—yet in those skeletal hands, he firmly grasped a staff so huge it was almost comical.
Even in the hands of the giant, the staff appeared overly heavy and massive. Its body resembled a straight tree trunk with knots, and at the top, it swelled like an inflad rock with rough and nearly uncarved contours. On its surface were countless dense and intricate mysterious patterns covering the entire staff.
Fenna’s gaze was involuntarily drawn to the staff—it hardly seed like an aid for traveling, but rather an impressive weapon or so kind of ritualistic item with a profound symbolic aning, instilling in her an almost reverential pressure.
But soon her attention shifted back to the giant.
Because the giant was bending slightly toward her, his weathered face looking at her with a gentle gaze. The giant’s features were unlike those of humans; although he had a clear set of facial features, their lines were too harsh and sharp, almost giving the feeling of being sculpted from stone. His eyes shimred with a chaotic brownish-yellow, and deep within them seed to dance flas, each glance carrying a heavy burden of pressure.
"Traveler, where do you co from?" the giant asked.
When he spoke, even the surrounding sand seed stirred by an invisible force, with chaotic air currents swirling around Fenna, yet not a single grain of dust fell on her.
Fenna struggled to control her heartbeat and expression. She hurriedly reported the astonishing situation to the captain in the depths of her consciousness while arranging her words, thinking carefully before replying to the giant, "I co from a place beyond the desert, far from here, and I don’t know why I ended up in this place. May I ask... who are you?"
"Oh, beyond the desert... now this place is a desert," the giant slowly nodded, not answering Fenna’s question, but spoke with a hint of lancholy, "You... are interesting, traveler. You’re not quite like the humans in my mory, but I’m not sure if it is I who rember incorrectly—it has been so long since I’ve seen strangers."
Not quite like the humans in his mory?
Fenna felt a stir in her heart at his words and imdiately thought of the ways she was "different" compared to ordinary people.
This mysterious giant... could he see that she had been blessed by Subspace and "revived"?
But before she could ponder further, the giant spoke again, "Traveler, you say you co from a faraway place. How far is that? Did you cross space, or ti?"
Fenna was montarily taken aback.
What did that question an?!
She looked up in astonishnt at the giant’s murky, burning eyes, "I... don’t quite understand what you an by that question."
"...Then pretend you didn’t hear it," the giant said, shaking his head, "perhaps the origin of the journey no longer matters, and neither does the destination." But then he seed to suddenly realize sothing and curiously looked at Fenna, "Are you conversing with soone else?"
Fenna, who had been reporting to the captain deep in her consciousness, paused abruptly. Although she managed to keep her facial expressions under control imdiately, she knew the unconscious shift in her eyes might not have escaped the giant’s notice.
However, the giant seed to have asked casually, as if he wasn’t truly interested in the answer, shaking his head again, "It’s okay if you don’t want to say. Everyone has their secrets."
Fenna steadied her spirit and, while controlling the changes in her facial expressions, observed the mysterious giant’s every move. She cautiously asked again, "Who are you?"
"Are you asking for my na? Let think..." This ti, the giant finally responded to her question, but after a mont’s reflection, he shook his head, "It’s been too long, I no longer rember... indeed, it’s been too long."
He lowered his gaze to look at Fenna, and on his withered face, the wrinkles piled up like carvings, "You see, traveler, when there are no other voices in the whole world, ’na’ becos a concept without aning. No one else needs to rember you, and you don’t need to introduce yourself to others either. You slowly forget it, just as the world slowly forgets you..."
He paused, seemingly plunged into so distant mories, and it took him a long while to snap out of it, speaking in a deep voice, "However, aside from the na, I do rember so other things, should you find them of any significance... A very, very long ti ago, they said I was a god of this world, back when this place wasn’t like this."
The chaotic and disordered wind gradually died down, and the swirling dust around them also unknowingly ca to a stop. In this boundless sea of sand, the giant and the lost traveler locked gazes.
He said he had once been a god.
Fenna’s eyes widened, as none of her speculations about the mysterious giant had included this "answer." She was at a loss for how to react; and then she felt a ridiculous contradiction—
As a follower of the Storm Goddess Gomona, as a saint of the Deep Sea Church—one of the four major orthodox churches—here in the depths of the enigma-laden Dream of the Naless, she had encountered a giant who claid to be a god. Theoretically... at this mont, she should have risen up to fight and eradicate this self-proclaid deity, to fulfill the Judge’s mission.
But she was no longer the reckless person who dared to leap forward and slash at Captain Duncan on sight. Onboard Holoss, she had learned to confront those inconceivable matters with a more rational attitude.
"You are a god?" Fenna asked cautiously while tensing up, "Who are those ’they’ you spoke of? And what exactly is this place?"
"They used to live here," the giant, seemingly oblivious to Fenna’s instant vigilance, simply raised his hand and pointed with his staff toward the vast sea of sand, "But that seems to be from a very long ti ago... or maybe not so long ago?"
The giant seed confused and paused, looking at the staff in his hand before slowly shaking his head, "Ti... it beca sothing unrecognizable to . It was stretched to near infinity in an instant, and then compressed again. I can’t be sure when all this happened. All I rember is that this place used to be the thriving heart of a kingdom, the yellow sand beneath your feet once was a forest and fertile soil that stretched for miles. Huge aqueducts crossed the fields, directing the rivers from the plateaus over the hills, I watched them build pure white cities here, tall walls connecting the mountains, towers rising from the forests piercing the sky, bright flas lighting up the night... I rember, it was beautiful."
The giant spoke slowly, as though he had beco unaccustod to conversation after not engaging in it for a long ti. His speech was sowhat disordered and upside down, like a soliloquy in a dream—Fenna could only struggle to keep up with his narration, to understand and imagine the vision he described of this desert as it once was, in a distant past.
Then, the giant suddenly stopped again and looked down at Fenna, asking curiously, "And you? Traveler, who are you? Do you have a na?"
Fenna subconsciously pursed her lips, her first instinct was to restrain the urge to answer.
One should not rashly reveal their own na to an unknown entity—especially one that claims to be a "god," likely a Transcendent being with formidable powers.
He might not harbor any ill will, but certain Transcendent beings, simply by virtue of their imnse power, often do not need any malicious intent to interfere with the fate of mortals. After becoming a follower of the captain, Fenna understood this deeper than ever before.
After a mont’s hesitation, she cautiously spoke up, "My na is Vanessa, and I have no remarkable status, just soone who has accidentally strayed here."
"Vanessa..." the giant murmured quietly, then shook his head, "You do not go by that na."
Fenna felt her heartbeat quicken.
However, right after that the giant made a dismissive gesture, "But no matter, as I said before, everyone has secrets. If you do not wish to reveal your na, then I’ll continue to call you ’Traveler’—after all, there’s no one else here, we won’t confuse each other."
Fenna fell silent for a mont, nodding after a brief awkward pause.
"Traveler," the giant continued, "where are you heading?"
Fenna hesitated a bit, then looked up toward the silhouette that seed like the ruins of a city in the distance.
"Let’s journey together," the giant noticed Fenna’s gaze and extended a friendly invitation, "Even though I don’t quite rember those distant events, I still have so impressions of this world."
Fenna didn’t respond imdiately, as if waiting for sothing.
After a short while, a command from the captain echoed in the depths of her consciousness—
"Accept the invitation."
"Alright," Fenna nodded, looking up at the self-proclaid god of a giant, "I would be honored to embark on this journey with you."
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