This is everything.
The sandglass was gently turned over, the few remaining grains of sand were kept within the container—while the portion that had flowed away dissipated like life that had passed.
Duncan’s figure vanished into this miraculous "crack in the Spirit Realm," and peace returned to the hall built of black, white, and grey, where Queen Leviathan’s massive form lay quietly by the shore, and the young woman in the white robe, along with the two warriors, stood in silence beside her.
The ti to return to slumber had co, but there was still a little ti left, the vitality leaking from the sandglass wasn’t much, but it was enough for friends who hadn’t spoken in a long ti to exchange a few words.
"Lillian... I haven’t seen you for such a long ti..."
A deep, gentle tremor echoed through the hall, those pale limbs by the pool’s edge stirred slightly, emitting a longing sound.
The woman in the white robe smiled, sat down slowly by the pool, leaning her back against one of Leviathan Queen’s tentacles: "Yes, Gomona, it has been a long ti since we’ve t—but Lancelot and I have always been by your side."
"...Do you still rember those days, brushed by the sea breeze, under the bright sunlight?"
"I rember, it seems like just a short while ago... I also rember the first ti I t you, you burst into my dreams, tired of the life within the temple, planning to run away from ho for a few days... Together we visited many places, Lancelot, Owen, and now Parno who stands outside the God Temple, along with the rest of the fellowship. We granted your wish to see the desert, volcanoes, and the tundra—ultimately, I escorted you, the ’Her Majesty’ who fled from ho, back to the God Temple. We even beca your royal guards... It was always bustling back then."
"...Yes, it was bustling, and though so much ti has passed, the mories are still precious. We even planned to stealthily open a little shop at the starting point of the pilgrimage route—’Queen Leviathan personally selling souvenirs to the pilgrims,’ sounded like an amusing idea..."
"That was your idea alone," one of the taller warriors suddenly broke the silence, "Lillian, Owen and I never agreed to it."
"...We probably should have agreed," said the woman identified as Lillian, her voice was soft, "It does sound like an amusing idea..."
Silence fell by the poolside, only for the deep yet gentle tremor to puncture it monts later: "I don’t want to sleep."
"But you must sleep, Gomona," Lillian whispered, tilting her head up and brushing her hair gently against the Leviathan Queen’s tentacle, "You must slumber here, then awaken within the tiline outside the God Temple... The other three ’Kings’ are awaiting your ssage; they must be anxious."
"But you won’t be there outside the temple... I miss you."
"We will et again, on so distant day in the future. Do you rember what the Beacon No. 2 said? It calculated the outco of the Shelter countless tis, and though each ti concluded with the Annihilation of All Things, not a single result was an absolute ’100 percent.’ There was always an unpredictable deviation, a ghostly value lingering at the tail end of countless zeros..." Lillian spoke softly, her voice fading as if she were about to fall asleep—
"At the sa ti as the conclusion of the ’Annihilation of All Things,’ sothing is hidden at the end of ti. Perhaps that is a distant hope, and we will et again there... Then, together, we can travel, maybe even open that souvenir shop..."
The voice ceased, and the one briefly "resurrected" returned to their restful slumber. After a ti unknown, gentle tremors again stirred the silence: "Goodnight, Lillian, goodnight..."
The colors of the real dinsion returned to the field of vision, and the hall made of black, white, and grey regained its original form. In Duncan’s sight, the pool with its faint blue radiance and black stones intermixed with dark green reappeared. The Leviathan Queen’s tentacle once more took on that lifeless posture, silently resting by the poolside.
Beside that tentacle lay scattered fragnts of a skeleton.
Duncan lowered his head, glancing at the sandglass in his hand—less than a fifth of the fine sand remained inside, emitting a faint glimr of gold, shining brightly in the darkness.
The others gathered around in an instant, Sherry, using her size advantage, squeezed to the front: "Captain Captain! What happened? Just now you suddenly turned into a shadow standing still. It looked terrifying..."
Duncan didn’t respond at first, but carefully placed the sandglass on the altar. Then he lifted his head: "I t with the Leviathan Queen and discussed so matters with her."
Upon hearing this, Fenna imdiately stepped forward: "You spoke with the Goddess? What exactly is this place..."
Before she could finish, Duncan waved his hand and took the initiative to say, "This ’God Temple’ splits the tiline here into two."
At these words, the others looked at each other in bewildernt, while Morris instantly assud a thoughtful expression, murmuring to himself as he pondered, "The tiline has been split into two parts?"
""
Duncan thought for a mont, organized his thoughts, and began to share the intelligence he had just acquired, including so speculations, "If I’m not mistaken, the tiline outside the temple belongs to the ’Deep Sea Era.’ Gomona, as one of the four gods of the Endless Sea, guards the ’Outer Barrier’ outside this temple. There, she exists in a state of being ’half-alive and half-dead,’ in response to the believers’ calls and to ensure the order of the Endless Sea— that is also the Storm Goddess known to Fenna."
"Within the temple, however, is a part stripped from the Deep Sea Era—Queen Leviathan Gomona has isolated her ’death’ and ’corruption’ within the tiline of the temple, along with mories of the great annihilation and much information concerning the essence of the world... She has confined all this within the temple, to prevent these ’things’ from contaminating the Shelter."
At this point, Duncan paused, glancing back at the lifeless tentacles by the pool and the scattered bones.
"That is why, after entering the temple, Fenna could no longer hear the Storm Goddess’s voice at all, and all we can see before us is a body that is thoroughly dead—because Gomona has ’locked’ her ’death’ here. When we stepped in, she was indeed dead."
Lucresia slowly began to understand, her gaze landing on the hourglass on the altar, "So, this hourglass is..."
"A ’dialogue window’ left for ," Duncan nodded, "It cos from Bartok, the Death God, who has left a gap between life and death here. When I turn the hourglass over, I can converse with Gomona who regains life temporarily—but the life force remaining inside it is already scarce."
The poolside fell silent, the sheer volu of information causing everyone there to ponder deeply. Maurice, looking at the hourglass and the pool, broke the silence after a while, his tone filled with an uncontrollable sense of awe, "...Incredible... So, was this place co-created by the Death God and the Storm Goddess?"
Duncan shook his head slightly: "Not just them."
Thoughts ebbed and flowed in his mind, as he gradually understood the concept of this "temple," and the so-called "Outer Barrier" using the temple as a "node."
The power of the hourglass ca from the Death God Bartok, and the thod of imprisoning "information" by cutting the tiline appeared to be related to the God of Wisdom. anwhile, the information recorded and the "mories" about Annihilation of All Things were manifestations of the eternal kindling, with the entire Outer Barrier situated at the world’s frontier, outside the Orderly World, where a calm sea surface existed as the carrier of the "barrier"... This, obviously, was the power of the Storm Goddess/the Serene Sea Maiden.
The entire Outer Barrier was the result of a cooperative effort by the four gods, anchoring the true frontier of the world—thereafter, the King of the Pale Giants, the Dreaming King, and the Crawling King had the opportunity to "create" within the Shelter ti and ti again.
As clear threads began to appear in Duncan’s mind, his "understanding" of the world beca clearer, and with the establishnt of his "awareness" of the Outer Barrier, imperceptibly, he felt his own "essence" loosen a bit...
He dimly realized that he now understood how to "interfere" with the operation of the world, how to start from the Outer Barrier and infiltrate his power into the entire Endless Sea—his "awareness" of the world was rapidly transforming into actionable "knowledge," and this "knowledge"...
Could be used to "complete" the apocalypse.
Duncan abruptly halted his line of thought, his expression notably grave.
Now, he understood how to "destroy" the Outer Barrier and everything within it—perhaps this was the very "intelligence" Gomona truly wanted to impart.
Alice, sensing sothing, approached Duncan, clutching the hem of his garnt with so concern, "Captain? The expression on your face is a bit frightening..."
Duncan finally snapped out of his deep thought, seeing the doll’s face before him, those beautiful purple eyes filled with concern—his sowhat restless thoughts gradually cald, and he exhaled softly, gently patting Alice’s hair.
"Don’t worry," he slowly said, "I’ve just suddenly realized a few things..."
While speaking, he lifted his head to glance once more at Gomona’s "corpse."
"If I’m not mistaken, the other ’three gods’ must have similar arrangents—their ’deaths’ and ’corruptions’ are confined on the other side of the hourglasses, to slow down the decay of the entire world."
Nina lifted her head, glanced at Uncle Duncan, and then at the hourglass not far away, finally breaking the silence, "So, are we going to look for the other three gods next?"
"...Yes, we will go find them."
Duncan nodded gently.
He already knew what he had to do next.
He would visit each of the main nodes upon the Outer Barrier—in preparation for the end of the world.
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