The Mysterious Deep Sea seed to quieten in that instant—the entire dinsion fell into a deathly silence, even the dust floating between the float islands stilled, and for a long ti, no one spoke. The only sound was that of the ancient god, mountainous in stature, patiently awaiting a response, its body flickering with dim, star-like lights.
After an uncertain amount of ti had passed, Sherry’s voice finally broke the silence: "Wow..."
Duncan raised his head, looking calmly at the "mountain": "I wish you would be more explicit—’taking over everything,’ what do you an by that?"
With a soft tremble in the voice, it seed as if from the depths of the star-shaped mountain range ca a profoundly human sigh, before it slowly began to speak: "Usurper of Fla, you may already know... during the so-called ’Third Great Dusk,’ not all of my plans on the blueprint were realized—the Endless Sea is far from a perfect Shelter; in a sense, my ’Creation’ has failed just like the efforts of the King of the Pale Giants and the Dreaming King. It’s just that... this failure was delayed for ten thousand years."
Standing at the deepest part of the Mysterious Deep Sea, hearing an ancient god who once sculpted the cosmos admit to its failure—this was a profoundly shocking experience for Duncan, despite already possessing many clues in this regard. After hearing the words of The Saint of the Deep, he couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh.
So ti passed before he finally broke the silence: "Yes, I’m aware. There are nurous clues pointing to this. I have seen the City-State mirrors located deep within the real dinsion’s sea, as well as the incomplete ’half-finished products’ in the Mysterious Deep Sea. I have also encountered the truth about the Profound Demons—in a place called Holy Land Island, I saw that hall, holding records of tens of thousands of living creatures...
"All signs suggest that the current deep sea age is really nothing more than a semblance of civilization remnants reluctantly surviving after the apocalypse, and as a ’Shelter,’ it is brimming with flaws."
Alice listened and murmured softly to the side: "Isn’t that a bit too harsh to say..."
"That’s pretty mild already," Sherry also lowered her voice, whispering in reply.
Then, their whispered conversation was interrupted by a quiver from the dark mountain range: "Yes, it is full of flaws—and now this flawed Shelter is gradually reaching its limits... Usurper of Fla, how many tis has the observer effect anchor destabilized?"
Duncan’s gaze imdiately shifted subtly: "...Twice."
"It is key to ensuring the various ’ashes’ within the Shelter can remain stable, balanced, and compatible. Its illumination allows the conflicting and untranslatable world fragnts, after the great eradication, to collapse into a single reality. And its failure signifies the flaws at the inception of the Shelter have accumulated to a breaking point—after it completely goes out, this clump of ’ash’ that we’ve forcefully held together will scatter once again."
"...So, what does this have to do with taking over ’all this’?" Duncan slowly began, "The Shelter is on the edge of its limit; could it be that my taking over can revitalize it?"
"By my calculations, yes."
Hearing this, Duncan’s heart stirred. In The Saint’s quick and certain reply, he instantly realized sothing—this "ancient god" knew him, the "Usurper of Fla," better than he had anticipated!
He imdiately beca focused, asking seriously: "Why?"
"Because you are an observer that is far more powerful and stable than the observer effect anchor," the lights on the dark mountain range flowed and twinkled like a river of stars, as The Saint’s voice echoed through the entire dinsion, "If you take over all this, your power will be enough to cover all the flaws within the Shelter—all imbalance systems will regain stability and return to the most perfect state they were in at the onset."
"...It seems you know more about than I do myself," Duncan said, frowning after a mont of silence and without responding to the "invitation," "you and the other so-called ’ancient kings,’ you all seem to understand better than I understand myself."
"...We too are only guessing at your true nature from our long observations, but even after guessing for ten thousand years, we have never fully understood what you really are..." The Saint’s tone beca slow and hesitant, as if deliberating and worried about sothing, but after a brief mont, it continued, "Usurper of Fla, do you really not know where you co from, or what your true nature is?"
Duncan did not reply imdiately.
His origin and true nature... as of today, he had already garnered many clues. The information erging from the darkness, the ssage sent by the end-ti human civilization to the distant past, and that 0.002 second of the universe... all were revealing the truth about the individual nad Zhou Ming.
But after several seconds of hesitation, he did not choose to directly answer the "ancient god" he had just t for the first ti. Instead, he asked back, "I would like to know, what do you an by ’long observation’ you ntioned just now? You, and the other ’ancient kings,’ when did you discover ?"
"...In the first wave of impact that ca after dozens, if not hundreds, of world collisions, we saw you—you were one of the earliest among us, the Usurper of Fire."
Duncan’s facial expression changed slightly, but in the next instant, it returned to calm.
He was one of the earliest... Long before the era of the Mysterious Deep Sea had even begun, he had co to this world, in a ti far older than ten thousand years.
It wasn’t the year 1900 of the City-State era, it wasn’t the day Holoss returned to the reality dinsion, nor was it the day he, as "Zhou Ming," pushed open that door...
He had rely awakened on that day.
Expecting it in his heart was one thing, hearing it with his ears and confirming it himself was another.
However, Duncan just stood there calmly, as if all the emotional fluctuations had already settled into the deepest parts of this shell before he lightly nodded his head, "...Continue."
"...To this day we have not figured out what caused that collision, but what we can confirm is that only a very few ’survivors’ erged from that catastrophe, and those lucky—or unlucky—survivors were the so-called ’ancient kings.’
"Our survival is the result of a series of accidents and distortions. Our essence...underwent an earth-shattering transformation after that collision when ti was in chaos and space was being compressed, torn apart. We rose from the hot and chaotic ashes after the great calamity, and many perished from contamination during ’the first contact,’ the mont we first beca aware of each other’s existence. The weak, the unlucky quickly turned into new ashes amidst the ashes, and afterward, only a dozen or so figures remained, among which... were so of the nas you know.
"And you, you were there from the beginning, sleeping in the depths of so ’cocoon’ beyond our comprehension. You never woke up, nor did you have a physical form. In our observation...you were an amorphous glow, seemingly independent of everything around you, reacting not at all to the outside world—three long nights, countless assemblies, nurous world-altering events, none interfered with your existence.
"In fact, if you hadn’t started to move recently, I would have thought you would sleep forever in that intangible glow, until the world after destruction destroys once more...
"And ’our’ ’observation’ of you was conducted under such unresponsive circumstances... Tarrikin was the first to grasp your na, he called you ’Usurper of Fire,’ but he remained tight-lipped about the origin of that na. Then, the navigator of Number Two to so extent understood your power or ’trait.’ The King of the Pale Giants...he watched you in the heart of the ashes for seventy-seven revolutions of the clock, leaving only a phrase—he said he would see you again, and then until he died in the first long night, he never spoke another word again."
The ancient god’s deep, tremulous voice echoed in the Mysterious Deep Sea, and the ancient, dim starlight sprinkled from the sky, emanating a naless chill.
"The Usurper of Fire—we still do not understand what you truly are, but throughout the long ages before your awakening, we have been watching your sleeping ’cocoon.’ That intangible glow revealed different truths and futures to each of us, and now, it is my turn to be the first to co into contact with you."
Duncan did not speak for a long ti.
He needed to take it slow—his chaotic thoughts were in need of sorting.
An incomprehensible "cocoon," sothing intangible sleeping deeply within the "cocoon"... Was this how the "ancient kings" had always seen him?!
And those "kings" who had survived the collision with the world of the great annihilation had been watching him all this ti... and they had also gained many "revelations" from this lengthy "observation"?
A strange feeling filled him, and after a long while, Duncan furrowed his brows and said, "What about you? What ’enlightennt’ did you get from the long observation? Is it that you want to ’take over’ this ’Shelter’ you’ve created today?"
Beneath the obscure starlight, the grand and solemn Star-shaped Mountain Range montarily plunged into darkness, and then, all the lights on its surface suddenly lit up, each stream of dark blue light also began to fill up gradually, a deep rumbling emanated from deep within the range, and then before the astonished eyes of Sherry and the others, the central "peak" of that mountain range slowly parted, a flickering, dark red core rose from its deepest part, like a giant eye, calmly gazing at Duncan.
"No," the dark red core spoke, with a rough, icy chanical texture to its voice, "The revelation I have received is that you will ignite the entire world—all tilines, all processes of history, the light of every civilization that remains on each world, will be gathered in a cremation unprecedented in history."
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