The bewildered and blindly ignorant wanderers loiter outside the power plant, the deep rumbling of the port’s power facilities carrying through the dense fog, the icy steam core operating hollowly, with the steam itself becoming a part of the distorted apparition, while the protection of the fire has already vanished into smoke.
But "Shelter" itself has beco optional in the world today, the boundary between "normal" and "abnormal" has long been blurred, when all minds fall with the world, "sanity" ironically becos the madn and pollution in the eyes of this world—now, the madn gather within high walls, constructing the last "Shelter," anxiously watching as the outside world gradually succumbs to darkness.
"We will prepare sufficient supplies for the Brilliant Starship," Helena stands on a platform high up in the power plant, saying to Fenna and Lucricia standing beside her, "You can Transition to the western docks—that’s currently one of the external passages we control."
"Can this ’lighthouse’ still provide supplies now?" Lucricia looks at the Female Pope in surprise, "Do you have so many resources?"
"Yes, we’re not short on supplies, this might be a little inconsistent with your first impression of this place," Helena smiles, "But in fact, the entire world’s ’operation’ continues, the production and transportation of various main materials, even the ’comrcial activities’ within the City-States... Every half month, a cargo ship full of supplies sails from the border base to refuel this lighthouse and other things, those who have fallen into a daze conduct the handover as usual, while we ’awakeneds’ take out permits from old files to transfer so of the supplies to another warehouse, using the sa thod, we can also operate many facilities and equipnt here."
She turns her head, looking at the vast platform outside the power plant.
"Yes, the world is still running, every part... is operating in a daze along the old trajectory, like a huge ship that has internally collapsed but is still drifting along its original path in the sea under inertia, we who have awakened on this ship have no strength to fix the ship, but at least before it capsizes, we can still ’sail’ with it."
Fenna and Lucricia are silent for a mont, unsure how to respond.
This world has beco completely unrecognizable to them.
But Helena obviously doesn’t care, she just waves her hand and continues, "Thanks for informing about what’s happening at the end of the world, with this, those of us waiting on the big ship now finally know the situation outside, thus waiting now has aning, no longer just a re struggle for survival."
"Holoss... is it still navigating at the ends of the earth?"
"Yes, the captain and Alice are at the ends of the earth, they continue to move toward the farther places," Fenna says softly, "The captain is preparing for the new world, once everything is ready... you can ’blink your eyes’."
"Okay, then I won’t delay your journey any further," Helena’s manifestation turns her head, exhaling lightly, "I’ll go arrange the supplies, and later soone will send you two back to the dock..."
She suddenly stops, staring intently into Fenna’s eyes, only speaking after a long while.
"Fenna, safe travels—see you in our new world."
Fenna nods solemnly, "Yes, Your Holiness, see you in our new world."
...
The howling wind has stopped at so point, leaving only the pure and extre "cold" lingering on this ice plain—the cold penetrates flesh and seeps into bones, freezing the souls, and among this cold wind, the Fire Transmitters have long forgotten the warmth of "fire."
The undying ones trek across the ice plain, in the cold night, the lanterns on their chests weave a andering, faintly flickering line deep in the ice field.
Frem stands on hastily built platform, gazing towards the distance of the ice field, at the end of his sight, the towering silhouette of the Church Ark stands silently far away, the lights on the Ark sketching a twinkling "mountain" in the night, while the light from the lanterns flows between this "mountain" and the ice beneath his feet, endlessly coming and going, tireless.
After the ice-breaking device is completely unusable, the Fire Transmitters opened the next section of ice with explosives carried with the ship, and after the explosives ran out, the Ark, with its surging power and sturdy armor, broke open another path, and after that, its power system finally ca to a complete halt—even if the steam core is still hollowly howling, the airflow surging in the pipes, the giant vessel still stops between the ice layers, stopping on the last leg before its destination.
But fortunately, it is not far from the final "focus", it is even already within the influence range of the focus—at this mont, civilization’s last "archive" is being established on this ice plain.
Footsteps sound beside him, a veiled priestess walks up to the platform, stops next to Frem, slightly bending over: "Eleven more have ’awakened,’ they’ve been settled in the camp, currently undergoing psychological soothing and guidance."
Frem nods lightly, "Hmm, how are they doing?"
"Better than the last batch," the priestess replies, "Continuously conveying so hints and reminders to those in a ’daze’ state is useful, so when they ’awake,’ most of them almost imdiately realize this is still a controlled ’situation,’ and seek help from the nearest contact person... These experiences can be conveyed to the City-State side."
Frem nodded slightly and said nothing more, rely lifting his head to quietly watch the archive building under construction.
Engineering machinery transported from the Ark bustled about on the ice plains, while a cluster of makeshift, even sowhat ugly buildings were beginning to take shape.
Compared to the grandeur of the Ark warship and the ancient solemnity of the onboard Church, these buildings that looked nearly identical to rugged factories possessed virtually no aesthetic appeal, because their sole design goal was to construct the most robust storage space in as short a ti as possible in an unfamiliar environnt.
A soft murmur ca from beside him: "Is this really aningful?"
Frem turned his head to look at the priestess standing beside him.
"Forgive , Your Holiness, I am not faltering, I just..." the priestess shook her head, explaining, "I was just thinking about the recent events—more and more people are waking from their ’haze’, and many of them, their last mory even dates back to the day we set off. Many have asked what happened along the way, so many questions..."
"I understand what you’re trying to say, Delis," Frem quietly interrupted the priestess’s explanations, while his gaze still lingered on that "construction site," "Many people believe that as long as humans survive, everything survives, because civilization itself is created by humans. Humans have created civilization once, they can rebuild it countless tis... Yes, I understand, and moreover, I agree—being the Fire Transmitter Pope, I comprehend more than many how civilization is established and sustained."
He paused for a mont, continuing softly: "Civilization without people is aningless, but, Delis, there’s also the latter part—people without civilization are the sa."
"Indeed, civilization is not just the cold stones and books, nor the voiceless sculptures, music scores, and artifacts; those things are rely carriers and manifestations of civilization, not the abstract idea of civilization itself, and there’s no mistake about that, but—
"Civilization needs carriers, it needs evidence.
"To steadfastly cling to ’carriers’ while abandoning ’essence’ is foolish, to only know the essence and think that carriers are unnecessary is also foolish—without carriers and evidence, the most splendid mories will also erode over ti, erode before we have the chance to rebuild civilization, and even if not considering it from this angle... Delis, we still need to leave so evidence, so that many years later, future generations can understand what happened in this world.
"One of the anings of artifacts and archaeology lies in this ’notification’."
The veiled priestess t Frem’s gaze openly, her eyes once bright had turned turbid and dim many days ago, but now, they still remained resolute.
"I understand, I will also convey your admonition to others..."
Frem nodded.
And a thin layer of "fog" had unknowingly ford around them.
Priestess Delis, surprised, raised her head to look at the fluttering white mist surrounding them.
After entering the ice plain, they had not seen "fog" for a long ti.
Even though at the edge of their vision lay the magnificent fog wall of the Eternal Veil, unlike other coastal regions, this ice plain was almost never foggy.
"The weather is changing..." She raised her hand, touching the ethereal fog, "Fog on the ice plain now?"
With a furrowed brow, Frem looked up at the sky, observing the drifting, fluid-like wisps of white, and after a mont finally realized.
"No, this isn’t fog," he suddenly spoke, surprise in his voice, "...it’s clouds!"
"Clouds?" The priestess hesitated for a mont, as if pondering what ’clouds’ ant before widening her eyes in astonishnt, "Clouds are falling from the sky?"
"...It’s the altitude of the clouds that has lowered," Frem spoke gravely, but he quickly realized that this explanation seed hardly different, so he added, "All clouds are descending in unison, rather than saying they’re ’falling’, it’s more like..."
He stopped, Delis had already grasped his aning, blinking uneasily, "The sky itself, is getting lower..."
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