It wasn’t there — the sun that blazed furiously in the void was just another shadow.
After the initial surprise, Duncan quickly realized this. He did not sense any real presence from the "Crawling Sunwheel" before him, nor did he feel its ostensibly scorching heat. It seed to him that the fireball was empty and distant, a feeling... very similar to when he first peered at it through the "Golden Mask."
This "True Sun God" must have found Alice’s Mansion by so ans and sent its projection here... What exactly attracted this ancient deity? Was it so change triggered by his own entrance into this place, or was it the noise made by Alice while analyzing the "course"?
Duncan quickly collected himself and asked with a hint of curiosity, "How did you find this place?"
His tone was cautious, yet bore no hostility — although he had dealt with those mad believers of the Black Sun and the Scions of the Sun, as well as remnants, and none of these encounters had been pleasant (although each had ended successfully on a violent note), he harbored no grievances against the "Crawling Sunwheel" itself. In fact, knowing that this ancient god too was against its will, and had never intended harm to the mortal world from the start to the end, he felt sowhat sympathetic.
After all... the world might teem with ancient gods, but only one such god was tornted by its own followers and children over a slow-burning fire. If the True Sun God had a bit more freedom in its actions, each of its tendrils would probably be etched with the word "Tragic"...
"I ’heard’ a sound coming from Subspace. Navigation Unit Three had laid dormant for many years, but suddenly beca active; I knew then that the day was near," the deford sun spoke with a trembling voice, weak yet gentle, "Usurper of Fla, we et again."
"The day is near... Did you know I would appear here?" Duncan imdiately frowned, noting the detail in the other’s words, "You also know about Navigation Unit Three?"
"...I am ’one of them,’" the Crawling Sunwheel slowly said, "Before Navigation Unit One decided to raise a new sun, I too played a role in constructing this Shelter."
Duncan remained silent, his eyes suddenly showing a shift.
After several seconds of silence, he spoke solemnly, "What are you here for? Do you still hope that I can help extinguish you? If so, I’m afraid I’m too busy — your ’Scions’ and ’Believers’ keep rekindling you, and I don’t currently have ti to deal with them..."
Before he finished speaking, he heard the deford sun tremble, "You need not worry about my scions... nor those mortals who follow the ’Sun God.’"
Duncan’s expression beca stern, "What do you an by that?"
"At this mont, there is no worship of the True Sun God left in this world, and soon, no one will rember what the Black Sun is... the mories and records related to it will gradually blur into distorted ’impressions,’ and will be replaced with semblances of truth... Usurper of Fla, if you doubt, you can always verify this in the mortal world; I know you can do it."
Duncan’s expression quickly grew grave, and he did not rashly question the other but broke the silence after a mont’s contemplation, "...What happened? Why is this happening?"
His first thought was that the "True Sun God" couldn’t bear the slow-roasting tornt anymore and had sohow eliminated all the Scions of the Sun, Sun remnants, and Black Sun worshipers, but soon he realized it wasn’t that simple — the other party also ntioned that the mories and records related to the Black Sun were gradually vanishing from the world, to be "replaced with semblances of truth," a notion... that made him think of historical contamination!
He stared intently at the coronae-shrouded tendrils and flesh, watching those chilling limbs slowly writhing, and the sound coming from that flesh seed to carry sorrow —
"Because I am decaying; after such a long ti, it has finally reached its final phase."
"Decaying?" Hearing this familiar word, Duncan was instantly struck!
He had heard this word several tis before, first from the four Pontiffs, then from Gomona, and now from this "True Sun God"...
And through these encounters, he was gradually understanding the concept of the gods’ "decay."
"I am forgetting everything associated with ’,’ and this world is forgetting too," as if sensing Duncan’s thoughts, the deford sun took the initiative to speak, "I... can barely rember the appearance of my holand, the individuals who created , who ’constituted’ , who turned into this current form with ... They are all evidence that the ’Old World’ existed, and they are also the ’essence’ of my current form.
"Usurper of Fla, I don’t know if you can understand — my ’essence’ is falling apart; it is vanishing bit by bit, and this, this is the result of ’decay.’"
Duncan’s expression turned grim; he rapidly pondered, struggling to keep up with the other’s abstract and profound descriptions. He gradually understood and hesitatingly broke the silence, "...So you an that your self-awareness and mories are uncontrollably dissipating, thereby causing things built upon your self-awareness and mories to also vanish from this world... This is the ’essence’ of decay?"
"As you said—and it is a gradual process," the Deford Sun spoke softly, and it seed, perhaps it was an illusion, that it had beco weaker than before, "Since we arrived in this ’world,’ our decay had already begun, and this ’decay’ has accompanied the entire history of the Shelter...
"And the sad part is, our ’rational’ part has actually always been conscious throughout the process—I clearly know what I am ’forgetting.’ Even after those things disappear from my essence, I still clearly know what exactly those disappeared things were; yet, such ’mory’ is aningless. Those ’elents’ we brought over from the old world will keep peeling off over ti, until they turn into indistinguishable fragnts...
"I am like this, and so are those known as the four gods, ’they’ are the sa...
"Usurping Fla, through the long passage of ti, I have experienced not just one stage of ’decaying’ exacerbation. The disappearance of the ’Black Sun’ from this world might be its last and most severe exacerbation—my ti is short."
The Deford Sun quieted down, seemingly too weak to continue speaking after saying so much.
Duncan gradually furrowed his brows, understanding the "decay" of the "gods," and vaguely connecting it to many things. But before that, he was more curious about the purpose of this "Black Sun."
"You ca to , you must want more than just to tell these things—what do you hope I will do?"
The Black Sun remained silent for a long ti before a voice finally reached Duncan and Alice’s ears: "I still beg you to extinguish ... but when that day cos, I also hope you will do another thing—light my remains with your fla, burn it down, and then rember it."
Burn down the remains? Rember the remains?
Duncan slightly frowned, and after a brief mont of puzzlent, he suddenly understood sothing.
"...You seem to have a certain understanding of my ’power,’" he said gravely.
"I have always been watching this Shelter, although continuous decay and isolation prevent from acting, but I am aware of many things happening in this world—including yours," the Black Sun slowly stated, "I hope... to secure a place."
"A place in the ’New World,’" Duncan’s brows remained tightly knit, he neither agreed nor refused imdiately, "...you make sowhat confused. How do you know this will definitely secure a place in the ’New World’? Or in other words... how do you know there will definitely be a ’New World’?"
He paused, his expression beca serious and his tone especially solemn, "You must know, although I now have a ’plan’ to reshape everything after the end of the Shelter, even I am not sure if this plan is feasible—I haven’t even figured out exactly how to implent it yet... and here you are, asking to reserve a place?"
"This is exactly the ’exchange’ I propose," the pale flesh suddenly started slowly rippling and expanding, tiny tendrils stretching out from its coronal edges outward, as if to illustrate sothing, "If you agree to my request, I am willing to show you... the evidence of a future continuation, and this evidence will be very helpful to you."
Duncan’s gaze sharpened instantly.
"You have a piece of ’evidence’?!" he stared intently at the fleshy sun, "You an, evidence that can prove the ’New World’ can indeed be successfully brought about?"
The Black Sun was silent for a few seconds, giving a strange answer: "Right now, it does not exist."
Duncan felt choked, even suspecting for a mont whether the dreadful ancient god was deliberately playing tricks on him, but soon he ca to a realization—after dealing with many strange and bizarre occurrences, and witnessing many incredible phenona on this "frontier," he seed to understand the other’s aning.
"How can this ’evidence’ co to exist?"
"When you agree to my proposal," the Black Sun slowly said.
Duncan did not respond, just silently pondered.
"I still have so ti, I can wait patiently for your answer," the voice of the Black Sun reached his ears, as the tendrils spreading from the corona began to retract into the sea of fire, "I understand your concerns and hesitations—the ’Black Sun’ has brought many threats to this world, and I... may not be an enemy to you, but am also not yet trustworthy."
"I want to ask you a question," Duncan suddenly raised his head, steering the conversation in another direction, "the position you seek, is it for yourself? Or for those ’Scions’ you’ve forgotten? Or perhaps for..."
"It is for our civilization," the Black Sun spoke softly, "It once existed."
Reviews
All reviews (0)