Duncan had barely spoken when the "sailor" imdiately knew what the captain intended to do—for ever since being "awakened" by Lawrence on the White Oak, his greatest nightmare had been this very mont: being set ablaze at the whim of Captain Duncan...
Now, that nightmare had co true—he was indeed struck by a massive fireball conjured by the ssenger nad "Ai Yi."
For this reason, after experiencing the horror of being surrounded by Spectral Flas, as if his soul could be evaporated at any mont, the mummy was visibly anxious, "...Won’t this just burn the mummy wrapping clean off?"
"Theoretically, no," Duncan said confidently, "I can precisely control my flas and use them to understand the ’truth’ hidden beneath the surface of various Transcendent items. I’ve used this thod to inspect and explore many things in the past; the process is quite safe..."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the sailor, who hadn’t yet relaxed, heard Sherry mutter from the side, "Who says that? The black leather book you got from the Zealots of Obliteration at Frost just burned up after one look from you..."
Nina quickly added, "And there was that gold mask we got from the Sun Cultists in Prand, that burned too..."
"Silantis also burned..." Lucresia murmured faintly, "That was recent."
Duncan’s expression visibly stiffened, creating a subtle shift in the atmosphere, but Alice, who was feeding pigeons nearby, suddenly had a realization and raised her hand to help out the captain, "My wooden chest didn’t burn though!"
After a pause, she added with a serious face, "Though after being ’seen’ by the captain, it beca a part of Holoss..."
"...You could have omitted that last part," Duncan barely managed to keep a straight face as he squeezed out a few words through clenched teeth to Alice, then refocused his gaze on the "sailor," forcing a serene expression, "...In any case, it’s perfectly safe."
The sailor looked at the imposing captain, then at the group of followers by his side, including two expressionless popes, and after a long struggle, finally nodded at Duncan, "I believe."
Duncan let out a light sigh, stepped forward, and patted the mummy on its shoulder, face sincere and earnest,
"Don’t worry—it might be the only remnant of the Sea Song, I’ll be careful."
The sailor nodded blankly upon hearing this, while Duncan turned away, his expression serious as he approached a low table, ceremoniously placing the mummy wrapping on it.
Helena and Frem’s gazes involuntarily followed Duncan’s movents and after much hesitation, Frem couldn’t help but speak up,
"This is the only piece of ’intelligence’ from beyond the border that has ever been returned, if there’s any sign of damage, I hope you can stop in ti."
"I understand." Duncan nodded gravely, and amidst many watchful eyes, he slowly placed his hand over the mummy wrapping.
"...Let talk to you," he murmured to himself.
A stream-like spectral fla ignited from his fingertips and silently fell—the Spiritual Fire flowed like water, infiltrating the dirty, tattered wrapping, slowly spreading and andering through every groove and fold.
Duncan gently closed his eyes, ticulously manipulating the flas penetrating the wrapping, feeling every bit of information the flas relayed to him, trying to establish communication with a vacant, distant, and fragnted existence—he had done this many tis before, and so the process was familiar.
An vast chaos appeared in his perception, initially there was nothing in the depths of this confusion.
But suddenly, as if a segnt of ti that had disappeared suddenly erged in the river of years, he "saw" a faint light appear in the depth of the chaos.
Duncan’s heart stirred, and he imdiately moved towards the light—before he even reached it, a faint and unclear voice was already audible:
"I am Karan, captain of the Sea Song, this is the record I left on my way back...
"We found ’It’—about half a century after crossing the critical line of Six Nautical Miles..."
Duncan abruptly "opened" his eyes, and in his "vision," the light standing in the mist suddenly took on a blurry shape—it was vaguely a woman in a Deep Sea Church naval uniform, standing tall yet with indistinct features.
She stood quietly in the mist, speaking as if to herself, seemingly unaware of Duncan’s "presence."
"...The ti beyond the border... is discontinuous, I only realized this after many years of being lost, the critical line of Six Nautical Miles is not just a physical ’border,’ but also a boundary of order for our world...
"Detached from the normal tiline in the mists, we encountered many bizarre and bewildering illusions, and in the densest part of the mist, I saw the edges of the world gradually crumbling...
"...Here, we saw past explorers who had beco lost at the border, they had completely lost their substance and selves, aimlessly wandering in the disjointed and chaotic flow of ti, vanishing and reappearing like the mist; Sea Song and several of these illusions crossed paths, and during this process, I realized we were becoming just like them..."
"My crew gradually lost themselves, almost half a century into our aimless journey, nearly everyone on board had beco a walking corpse—this I only recalled afterward, and at that ti, my condition was hardly better than that of my crew...
"...Only the first mate had always stood by his post... I do not know how long he persisted...
"Later, we heard the call of the waves again in a suddenly-erged physical sea area, which ’pulled’ the Sea Song toward a cluster of islands—I suddenly woke up then, astonished that such a vast physical entity could appear beyond the border, and only then did I realize that those ’islands’ were actually our master’s resting place.
"He was there—the lord of the Storm, the will of the deep sea, the goddess Gomona...
"The words I am recording might shock the world, but they are indeed what I witnessed—
"The kingdom of gods is not located ’above’ in the concept of dinsions, nor is it in the ’foundation’ of the world; the kingdom of gods does not exist, the gods have always been around us... around the world, outside the border’s mist, they are here, encircling the entire world.
"They... and their offspring, are part of the ’outer barrier.’"
Karan’s phantom paused, as if encountering a gap in mory, and Duncan approached the captain’s phantom, eye-to-eye with those unfocused eyes.
"The gods encircle the world, and are part of the outer barrier?" he suddenly asked, "What lies beyond that barrier? What is further out? Did you see it?"
But the phantom did not respond; she was rely a simple illusion—after standing silently for a mont, she began speaking on her own, still reciting from Captain Karan’s logbook:
"...Many of us stayed there.
"The Storm Goddess sleeps at the center of those ancient islands... Those ’islands’ are actually the bodies of Leviathans, surrounding the sea, collectively cradling her... The largest island holds a temple shaped like layered obelisks, made of countless dark green or jet-black boulders, with so mysterious, twisted symbols that resemble script, which I cannot decipher...
"I cannot describe that... existence sleeping at the center of the temple, I cannot describe our gods; they are entirely different from the goddesses I knew, I... saw their bodies, and for an instant, I felt as though my mind had been torn apart and reshaped countless tis, but a gentle voice awakened and my crew... That voice made us a part of ’Him,’ preventing us from disintegrating into the fog as monsters...
"Then, He apologized to us.
"He said He could no longer control Himself—He said He was already dead, but He was still trying to delay this dying process, and now, He needed us to complete a task.
"He instructed to chart a route, a route from the Endless Sea to the outer barrier—only the correct route could lead the Voyagers to ’Them’ within the mist between the Six Nautical Miles border and the outer barrier...
"For this, soone had to return."
Captain Karan’s phantom slowly bowed her head, softly continuing.
"Most people were already tired, they chose to find eternal rest in the lord’s harbor... I do not bla them, for this is one of the traits of ’humanity.’
"Eventually, only I and my first mate embarked on the journey back—the Sea Song was already consud by those islands, but the goddess reshaped its pre-consud illusion from the mist, and my first mate and I boarded that illusion, following the direction He pointed us on the way back ho...
"Now, we are nearly ho.
"I can feel myself gradually fading away, and so is the Sea Song... My ship and I are illusions shaped by the goddess in the mist, and the real world does not allow such illusions to exist for long... This feeling of fading is a sign of nearing ho.
"But the first mate is different from —he is not an illusion awoken from the mist, he has been awake from the day we set sail until now, he still exists in this world, faithfully carrying out commands.
"So, the navigation is left to him... He will find the way ho, and he will find the way back to those islands... no matter how long it takes.
"I am Karan, captain of the Sea Song, and I hereby entrust the Sea Song entirely to my loyal first mate, in this, my final logbook as captain...
"May you bear witness."
In the endless, dense fog of chaos, that faintly glowing figure returned to stand silently.
And then the fog dissipated, and Duncan opened his eyes—he was still in the living room.
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