Lucresia and Fenna walked on the chanical platform beneath the lighthouse facility, passing through the dense fog in the night, walking along those familiar paths and corridors. The dim yellow lights in the mist seed like obscure stars, and within those dim and indistinct shadows, soone was moving around near them.
A pale-faced harbor guard walked past Fenna, donned in a crisp uniform, holding a lantern that was still bright in his hand. His expression was ticulous, but when two uninvited guests appeared before him, he simply ignored them as if they were invisible.
With a complex gaze, Fenna watched the guard recede into the fog. After his silhouette gradually vanished, she whispered to Lucresia, "...he wasn’t breathing."
"Yes, the person before him wasn’t either; most people here no longer breathe," Lucresia replied softly, her face shrouded in shadows, "Even the few who still breathe don’t react to our arrival."
"Everyone seems to be in a state of..." Fenna began, but then stumbled over her words, finding it hard to co up with the right term to describe her feelings. After a long pause, she continued, "A state of confusion and ’ignorance’, they still maintain their daily routines, even performing thorough handovers at each post, but they simply don’t react to us."
Lucresia humd softly but said nothing more. Instead, she estimated the distribution of the facilities in the fog and started walking towards the church at the base of the lighthouse.
The situation inside the church was not much different from the outside, only with fewer people. Aside from a few figures resting and praying, there was only a priestess in a black nun’s robe cleaning the main hall. She seed to have a slight reaction to the appearance of Fenna and Lucresia—a brief pause and gaze—but when Fenna was just about to speak to the nun, the latter casually walked away.
Lucresia and Fenna went straight through the main hall of the church and entered the tower connected to the lighthouse from a side door, then ascended the misty spiral staircase, searching several empty rest and storage rooms until they found a slightly ajar door.
Bright light and a faint buzzing noise ca from behind the door.
Fenna stepped forward to push the ajar door open and saw a small room filled with various devices. The scent of incense lingered in the room, where a small brass incense burner hung from a central steam pipe, looking as if it had been recently lit.
The two walked around the steam pipe, and almost at the sa mont, a figure suddenly stood up from a corner of the room and headed straight towards Lucresia.
Lucresia was startled by the figure that had been sitting in the corner all along. Only then did she notice it was a middle-aged man cloaked in a priest’s robe—he had no breath or heartbeat; indeed, no "presence" at all. He sat there like a re "object," so much so that even Fenna failed to realize there was another person in the room!
Then, the middle-aged priest without any sign of life emotionlessly bypassed Lucresia and Fenna. In their bewildered gaze, he sat down at a table at the end of the room, cleared his throat like a machine reaching its designated position on a tir, and pressed a button on the table, bringing a microphone in front of him.
"Calling Holoss, calling Brilliant Starship, this is the Border Lighthouse. The current ti is December 17, 1902, we are waiting for your return... repeat, calling Voyagers, this is the Border Lighthouse, the current ti is... we are waiting for your return..."
The middle-aged priest repeated it three tis, then waited a while, pressed the button again, and repeated the ssage. After several tis, he switched the equipnt to listen mode, stood up from the table, and walked back to his previous spot.
He walked past Lucresia and Fenna, without casting a glance.
"That was the call we heard." Fenna watched the scene in a daze before speaking softly after a long while. She turned to the "witch" beside her, only to find that the latter was also looking up at her.
"I’ve heard my father describe the current state of the Endless Sea, but I never fully pictured what it would actually look like," Lucresia said with a complex tone, "This is even more... more..."
She repeated herself several tis but ultimately could not find the right words to express her feelings.
"...The situation inside the City-State shouldn’t be this bad," Fenna gently shook her head after a mont of thought, "This lighthouse is located in the deepest part of the border; order here faded earliest, and this place is also more susceptible to the corruption of the gods. On the other side in the City-State..."
"Yes, the situation will be sowhat better, though it may deteriorate later," Lucresia interjected seriously, "Let’s not think too much about it now."
"...Right, let’s not think too much about it now." Fenna was montarily startled by the response before quickly regaining her composure, pushing aside the associations and worries in her heart. Then, she heard footsteps approaching from outside the door.
The two instinctively turned around, and almost at the sa ti, the slightly ajar door was pushed open by soone from the outside—a man in a guard’s uniform appeared at the door.
Perhaps he was looking for the middle-aged priest.
Fenna, now accustod to the "environnt" here, thought so, stepping aside to give way, but as she did so, a look of astonishnt appeared on the black-garbed guard’s face—he seed to have suddenly noticed the two ladies in the room, his body shook slightly, and excitent and joy appeared in his eyes.
"Lady Fenna, and Miss Lucresia!" The guard exclaid with excitent, rubbing his eyes in disbelief, "Is it really you? Have you co back?!"
Frankly, Fenna was even more stunned than the guard in that instant, remaining frozen for two seconds before her eyes suddenly widened: "You’re still ’awake’?!"
"Awake?" The black-clothed guard was briefly startled, but quickly understood the implication. He lowered his head to look at himself, then glanced at his resting compatriot in the corner of the room, a complex smile surfacing on his face, "Yes, I am awake. And there are others who are awake too. Everyone will be very happy to see you..."
"Others ’awake’ as well?" Lucresia was greatly surprised, "On our way here..."
"Those who are awake are few and far between. To facilitate looking out for each other and confirming our statuses, we all gather in the internal living area beneath the lighthouse. We only venture out to patrol the sectors when necessary, to resupply, and to check for other awakened brethren in need of assistance," the guard spoke calmly, "Additionally... it is to confirm whether you have returned."
He paused, then lifted his head to look at the middle-aged priest sitting in the corner of the room.
"The communication devices are now occupied by ’them.’ Forcibly disrupting their side’s ’daily activities’ can provoke rather intense reactions. Sotis it can even trigger mayhem, so we only send soone up during specific ’window periods’ each day to check the listening antenna’s records, as well as to ascend to the top of the lighthouse to confirm whether there are ships returning from deep within the dense fog. Today it is my turn. But to be honest..."
The guardian let out a bittersweet smile, his eyes brimming with joy: "To be honest, I never really thought I would see you appear.
"I gaze out at that dense fog every day, but there is nothing but fog.
"Have all of you returned? What is the situation at the edge of the world like?"
Fenna and Lucresia exchanged glances, the latter hesitated briefly before nodding slightly, "The current situation is complicated, and it will take a long ti to explain. Take us to your ’Shelter’ first."
"Of course," the black-clothed guard imdiately nodded, "But before entering the Shelter, you need to undergo a ritual check—I hope you understand, this is after all the frontier, and you are returning from the dense fog.
"After that, an avatar of Helena will personally receive you."
Upon hearing this, Fenna instantly revealed a look of surprise: "The Pope’s avatar is here?"
"She was originally stationed at the mobile port that lies at the boundary between the Eternal Veil and the Endless Sea, but she ca here after the situation at the lighthouse deteriorated. The Shelter is also maintained thanks to her—she has always been with us."
The black-clothed guard said this, then made an inviting gesture and turned to lead Fenna and Lucresia toward the door.
When they reached the entrance, he suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked at the two Voyagers who had just returned from the edge of the world.
Joy and excitent gradually settled in his eyes, finally transforming into a smile.
"Although the ’ho’ situation isn’t so good right now..." he said solemnly, "welco ho—thank you for your efforts on the journey."
Fenna responded with a smile: "Yes, we’ve co back."
...
They had co ho; though there were so complications, those who had sailed back eventually arrived safely at the port of return.
Only after receiving a ssage from Lucresia did Duncan finally relax.
He and Alice remained on the "Ceremonial Island" where the Queen Leviathan slumbered, having spent several days on this black island.
Now, the island was burning amidst flas that seed like nebulae illusions, diffusing starlight.
The "flas" that resembled sprays of light from a nascent nebula spread across the entire black island, seeping out of every crack in the rocks, every block of stone, every pillar and rooftop joint, imrsing everything here and even spreading to the sea around, reaching the carcasses of the Leviathan Beasts that were like archipelagos.
Duncan sat on a large stone at the edge of the plaza in front of the dark temple, calmly watching the flas burn, watching it perate the "foundation stone" of this world.
The doll Eli stood quietly behind him.
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