Sothing was gradually erging from the uniform grey-white backdrop, like a long tunnel approaching its end, with a scene at the exit suddenly entering into view.
Sherry agilely climbed up the mast, her eyes wide with excitent as she peered into the distance, shouting joyfully towards the deck, "There’s sothing ahead! It’s not an illusion; it looks like sothing solid!"
The scene that appeared at the end of the "course" started to clarify. The surrounding uniform grey-white background began to dissolve as quickly as morning mist under the sunlight. Duncan was the first to distinguish the glimring water light—then ca the mist floating on that water surface and many shadows, big and small, farther away.
Those shadows, large and small, floated upon the water, gradually forming a clear chain of islands.
It was the mysterious "archipelago" that Captain Karan had ntioned in her log!
Everyone aboard the Holoss had co up on deck, watching the sea and islands that seed to erge from nothingness with a mix of bewildered excitent and subtle nervousness. They watched as the illuminated sea rapidly spread to the vicinity, surrounding the Holoss, the splashing sound of water abruptly rising. Following was a jolt and vibration through the entire ship—the Holoss had entered these waters. After that long and bizarre "journey through the cracks of ti and space," the sound of breaking waves against the hull was unexpectedly lodious.
The sailor gripped the steering wheel tightly, standing on the elevated platform at the stern, his gaze filled with the rapidly expanding scope of the sea and islands. Fragnted mories seed to awaken; a series of coherent and incoherent images tumbled through his head, bringing a surge of indescribable dislocation in ti—
He rembered this place; he rembered when the Sea Song, after a long period of drifting, finally reached an island, the chaos of voices aboard, the crewn waking from a lengthy nightmare like walking corpses, the priest who had lost himself suddenly coming back to clarity, people prostrating on the deck that was rusting and collapsing, and then transforming into spiritual bodies and ashes in the sea breeze...
He rembered this place—he even felt he had never left, that he had always been standing on the Sea Song’s bridge.
It was only when the hands tightly gripping the wheel suddenly felt a slight sting that he was abruptly pulled from the illusion of temporal dislocation.
He looked down and saw the surface of the dusky wheel coated with a thin layer of fla; then the fla dissipated, and the stinging sensation vanished along with it.
"I still have a mission... Yes, a mission unfinished... Thank you for waking up," the sailor murmured to himself, thanking the Holoss for awakening him when he was about to lose himself. Then he raised his head again, cautiously adjusting the course among those familiar islands, whispering softly, "Captain Karan, I’ve co back..."
The massive sail exploration ship was cautiously navigating the mist-covered sea, winding through the dark "islands," searching for a gap in the fog. The Brilliant Starship also slowed its pace, carefully trailing behind the Holoss.
After a while, many white figures flew out from the deck of the Brilliant Starship, which were countless paper-folded seabirds—they flapped their wings through the fog, first circling around the Holoss and the Brilliant Starship and then cautiously expanding their circling range, flying above the surrounding islands.
Duncan lifted his head, watching those "scouts" released and controlled by Lucresia, noting they were neither attacked nor corrupted nor deford—it seed safer here than anticipated.
"There are nurous slender shadows around these ’islands,’ hiding underwater, like so sort of sprawling limbs," Lucresia’s voice echoed in Duncan’s mind, "Additionally, from an aerial view, one can discern that the shapes of these ’islands’ are very similar. So of the island’s surfaces even reveal biological structures... Just like ntioned in the log, they are all bodies of the Leviathan."
"Uh-huh," Duncan responded softly, his gaze also scanning those "islands" floating in the mist. In places where the water was shallower, he noticed those shadows that sprawled out from beneath the islands—relative to the islands, the shadows appeared "slender," but each was still larger than the Holoss itself. They stretched stiffly through the water, unresponsive to the approach of outsiders, indicating they had been dead for so ti.
Duncan rembered the colossal tentacles and pale giant eye he had seen beneath the Frost.
He knew that the "Leviathan Beasts" carrying the City-States were actually counterfeits created by The Saint. What lay here were the true Leviathans.
"His offspring surround Him in death, resting at the edges of the world..."
Morris’s voice ca from beside him, with a faint tallic tremor, and Duncan turned to see that Morris had once again transford into his "cast form" at so point—gears ticking and valves opening and closing could be intermittently heard from deep within his brass shell.
Morris turned his head, a vibrating reed-like sound emanating from his chest, "It’s one thing to imagine in your mind, quite another to see with your own eyes, right?"
He paused and then pointed at his own body, "A bit of caution can do no harm; in this place, flesh and blood are all too fragile."
"... Flesh and blood can at least be healed by Fenna if damaged; if your copper casing breaks, it seems we’d need a smith—and we have no smiths on board."
"Nina could help," Maurice said casually, "I gave her the design of this body of mine. Her craftsmanship is quite decent now."
Duncan thought about it and felt it made sense.
Though it was a bit eerie.
At the sa ti, Fenna was standing at the edge of the front deck, staring absently at the distant sea, while a hazy shadow stood in the mist beside her.
"I... can hear Its voice, closer than ever," she murmured as if to herself, "It’s everywhere, as if the entire sea area is filled with Its whispers... It’s speaking beside my ear, yet I can’t make out the words."
"Perhaps it’s because we’re too close, or maybe it really is just aningless gibberish," Agatha’s voice ca from the shadows, "Regardless, you need to be more cautious here than others—you are Its saint, your hearing and perception of It are sharper than others, and you are more susceptible to its influence. Even with the captain’s protection, you must be careful not to let your mind stray from humanity."
"I know," Fenna nodded gently, "Thank you for the reminder."
Agatha didn’t say anything more, just stood thoughtfully in the fog. After a while, she finally spoke softly, "What do you think... Bartok’s realm looks like?"
Fenna blinked but didn’t know how to answer that question.
"Its offspring circle around It in death... Here, the dead Leviathan Beast has turned into this archipelago, and the Storm Goddess rests within their embrace. This has made suddenly curious about the resting places of other deities," Agatha said slowly in contemplation, "My doctrine tells that the souls of the dead pass through that gate to find eternal peace in Bartok’s realm, and my mories tell that the ’ssengers of death’ are real. They traverse the Spirit Realm and answer the call of the gatekeepers...
"But where is that gate? Is it also standing sowhere at the ends of this world? Are those ssengers there too? The souls’ wilderness that those dead individuals ultimately reach, could it be at the heart of a sea like this?
"I feel... it’s all so hard to imagine."
Fenna’s eyes widened slightly, astonished by the figure standing in the mist—these questions should not co from a saint, from a forr gatekeeper, yet she couldn’t help but be stirred by Agatha’s series of inquiries, and she even began to harbor the sa curiosity.
She turned back, looking into the deep mist in the distance.
What would that temple described in the "Storm Scriptures," which "dominates all storms and anchors the cornerstone of the sea," look like?
"There’s a large island ahead," the voice of Lucrecia rose in Duncan’s mind, carrying a hint of excitent, "There seems to be a large structure on the island!"
The fog seed to recede around the Holoss, a gap opened up in front of the bow, and at the suddenly clarified end of the sea, under the mysterious and chaotic light from the sky, an imnse island appeared in everyone’s sight.
It was an "island" that seed to be "piled up" by countless huge black rocks, which resembled a "wonder-building" artificially constructed by so ancient civilization rather than a natural product. Rectangular rocks of varying sizes, precisely cut and complexly arranged, rose from the sea, piling up into undulating structures that stretched as far as the eye could see, and atop those countless rectangular rocks stood a massive "palace"—
Constructed from materials that seed like stone, its surface glimred in black or dark green hues, with crystal-like green substances embedded between the rocks, forming a gloomy, complicated, and mystical exterior. The "palace" exhibits a progressively ascending structure, its colossal pillars supporting the heavy outer edges of the lower levels, while its upper parts had many strange hollows, as if deliberately left for so gigantic creature to enter and exit.
"An astounding... structure," Maurice gaped at the enormous palace standing amidst the dim light, his jaw nearly dropping in awe before he finally blurted out, "How was it built?!"
"Definitely not sothing that the current City-State civilization could have built," Duncan said offhandedly; then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed those... things spreading from the lower areas of the palace’s side.
They were massive limbs, resembling the tentacles of sea creatures, stretching from the gaps on the palace’s side into the sea.
Gomona was there.
"We’ll get closer," Duncan said gravely, "We’ve found her."
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