The lines were moving.
Duncan heard Alice’s exclamation and instantly awoke from his deep thoughts, violently lifting his head to look out the window. The scene that t his eyes was unforgettable —
Above the sea where Light Breeze Harbor once lay, like strands of hair, like interwoven mist, invisible threads were dramatically transforming. The elongated "gossar mist" swelled and contracted slowly, writhing between the tangible and the intangible. It gradually reshaped into a form whose parts above the sea surface retracted, condensed, and rose upward while the structure floating in the clouds slowly blood. It branched out into crisscross paths, and like another do of the sky, it gently dangled towards the seascape’s horizon.
A formidable sense of pressure emanated from the continuously aggregating illusion, as the entire mariti area began to be enshrouded by an invisible crown. Only at this mont did Duncan finally see — it was a tree.
The "threads" floating on the surface of the sea tangled together into the shape of a massive tree, a "World Tree" capable of enveloping the whole mariti expanse!
Rune struggled to his feet, using the table for support. Even this elf elder, who had resisted Silantis’s call through sheer willpower, seed to be reaching his limit. He too stared out the window — without Alice’s power, he couldn’t see the invisible threads, and the sea remained empty for him. But suddenly, massive patches of shadow began to materialize in the barren sea — the once invisible lines were gradually taking visible form.
He saw the tree, a towering tree growing at a staggering rate, spreading from the elves’ ancestral Dreamscape.
"It’s..." Rune’s eyes widened, a wave rushing out from a mory buried deep in his soul, prompting him to murmur unconsciously, "Silantis... Silantis has co for us..."
But the next second, his expression cleared fiercely as Rahm’s power forcefully dragged his senses back to reality. He pressed his forehead hard: "Captain Duncan, Silantis’s awakening has moved to the next stage... She is recalling her original form..."
Suddenly, a resonant and lodious horn sounded nearby. It ca from the Pilgrimage Ark stationed at the edge of the mariti area, warning the entire fleet. The urgency in the horn suggested worries about the safety of the Pope staying behind on the Ark.
Rune raised his hand, rapidly tracing several faintly glowing symbols in the air.
Duncan imdiately noticed his actions. "What are you doing?"
"I’m ordering the Ark and the escort fleet to imdiately distance themselves from Silantis," said Rune rapidly. "There are many elves on those ships who are still unaffected, but they can no longer remain in this area."
Duncan promptly asked, "What about you?"
"That’s exactly what I wanted... to say," Rune seed briefly bewildered, but quickly recovered, "Take into the deepest part of Silantis’s Dreamscape — I need to communicate directly with the ’Guardian’..."
"Communicate?" Duncan frowned deeply, "Don’t tell you plan to rely on your eloquence and sincerity to persuade an ancient god, now maddened, to regain her sanity."
"No, I have another way that might influence her..."
Duncan observed the elderly elf silently for a mont. When a second, urgent horn sound from the Church Ark indicated evacuation, he finally broke the silence: "How can you be sure I can take you deep into Silantis’s Dreamscape?"
Rune steadied himself, eting Duncan’s gaze. "Because the mont I connected with Silantis, I saw the Holoss — even though it sails in the darkness of the frontier, I’m certain that’s the proof that you can establish a connection with Silantis."
Listening to the old Pope’s description, Duncan’s expression remained unchanged, but his heart suddenly stirred.
Was what the other party described... what was seen from Silantis’s "perspective"?
A previously vague plan suddenly gained direction, and Duncan’s gaze turned to the nautical chart on the nearby table, landing on the piece of dragonbone sample on the table.
Rune, sensing Duncan’s sudden silence, couldn’t help but confirm anxiously: "...You do have a way, right?"
"...The situation has changed sowhat, but..." Duncan was still looking at the piece of square timber on the table, but a faint smile gradually appeared on his face, "Yes, I have a plan and I’m about to try it out. I might as well take you with . The only issue is... The next part of the journey might get a bit thrilling."
Rune was startled: "...Thrilling?"
"Have you ever experienced riding on a Ghost Ship, sailing through an ancient god’s nightmare?"
...
As the wailing sounds ca from the streets, Lucrecia was confirming with Taran El the mysterious scene he had seen in the last monts of The Dream of the Naless and the voices he heard from Silantis while his mind was in a trance.
Taran El said he had seen the scene of the world’s destruction just before The Dream of the Naless ended, which might well be an image deeply engraved in the mory of the Elf race—a mory of the Great Annihilation at the beginning of the Deep Sea Era that scholars of generations had desperately sought. He also ntioned hearing a voice resembling that of Silantis, filled with anger and terror, which seed to reveal a secret—Lucrecia felt she might have touched upon the ultimate truth of this dreamscape. However, just as she was about to ask further, a strange wail swept through the entire City-State instantly.
She abruptly stood up and went to the window.
The sight before her made this "Sea Witch" choke up and pause in shock montarily.
Above the city, the "sky" was ablaze. The roaring flas surged like a massive wave sweeping from the depths of endless nightmares, tearing through the layered canopies over Light Breeze Harbor and the chaotic, grim sky between them. Like a blanket, the flas covered everything and scread as they leapt into every street below the tree canopies, flooding and devouring every inch of land in sight.
It gave her the feeling—just as if the forest extending from the dreamscape had suddenly "transford" into a physical entity of fire and then begun to burn down the City-State.
And at that instant when the flas descended, explosions, screams, the thunders of steam walking machines crashing into buildings, and all kinds of trendous noises almost imdiately filled the entire City-State!
This incredible change happened so suddenly that Lucrecia montarily felt a surreal tearing sensation. She stood sowhat dazed at the window, staring blankly out at the scene for another two seconds until her gaze involuntarily moved upward, drawn as if by sothing, toward the raging burning sky.
In the flas that now covered the entire sky, she saw so massive structure gradually becoming visible, like a "Doomsday" crystallizing and rolling down from the sky, inch by inch descending upon everyone’s heads.
...What was that?
Lucrecia’s mind instinctively flashed that question, and the next second, an exclamation from behind finally roused her from her temporary stupor.
"In the na of Rahm!" a Guardian exclaid sharply while staring outside, "What is that thing!?"
Even Taran El, who had been in poor condition, constantly haunted by noises and headaches, stood up from his chair and staggered to Lucrecia’s side, gazing at the fiery sky and the chaotic streets outside.
A look of bewildernt and fear appeared in the scholar’s eyes; he seed unable to imagine that Light Breeze Harbor would suddenly plunge into this horrific scene—even though the forest that had spread from The Dream of the Naless had already devoured the entire city. The current view outside the window still gave him the uncanny sensation of tumbling into another layer of nightmare, making him murmur, "This is simply a nightmare..."
"No, Master Taran El," Lucrecia’s voice suddenly ca from beside him, snapping Taran El out of his daze, as he saw Miss Witch turning her head, her eyes as deep as the ocean, "This is a nightmare."
Taran El’s face showed a fleeting look of confusion, while in Lucrecia’s eyes, the brilliance of the flas gradually reflected.
She saw the room falling apart; the figures in the room gradually curling and distorting in the flas. She saw the sky flas through the roof, turning into cold rays of sunlight sweeping through the air; she saw a gigantic tree erging in the distance—it rose from the sea, as if it were a part of the City-State extending outward.
She took a step forward, placing her hand on Taran El’s shoulder.
"My father said that Light Breeze Harbor has already disappeared from the real world, and now over that sea area, there is only emptiness.
"Mr. Taran El, we have never woken up from the beginning—the whole city is still asleep.
"But Silantis is about to wake up from the dreamscape..."
She exerted a slight force, and pushed Taran El, who had unknowingly beco as still as a statue, forward.
"Let’s go see what Silantis has dread of."
The next second, under the engulfing fierce flas and the constantly falling sky, Light Breeze Harbor slowly and quietly disintegrated.
In the last instant that the flas swept through, it turned into bubbles, light flux, smoke, wind, and a whispering voice. Its last shadow was reflected on the calm sea surface; the remnant flas and the distorted tearing scene seed like an illusion, gradually swallowed by the splashing waves.
And amidst the rising and falling of the waves, a massive shadow was gradually growing from the seabed—it appeared to be an enormous tree.
And next to this growing gigantic tree from the seabed, there was a sotis clear, sotis vague shadow slowly moving.
That was a Ghost Ship gradually erging.
Reviews
All reviews (0)