At that final moment, a sharp cold light appeared in the boundless nothingness and depths of chaos, and the fragmented information that surged like a tide almost drowned the tiny flame that seeped into the "sample".
In a slight trance, Duncan heard Shirley beside him exclaiming, "Be careful!"
The hazy consciousness and the real world overlapped again, and Duncan instinctively took a half step back. The next second, he saw a sword tip flashing with silver light appear in front of him.
The tip of the sword stopped only ten centimeters away from the tip of his nose and was still slowly extending forward.
"Attacking behavior!" Ted Lear, who had been staring at the contained sample nearby, reacted instantly. He let out a low cry, and then quickly slapped the big book in his hand. A faint haze of light spread out from the pages of the book, covering the surface of the sample in an instant, and quickly condensed and thickened, turning into layers of barriers.
At the same time, Duncan retracted the flame that had penetrated into the sample. At the same time, his consciousness quickly regained, and his gaze was once again cast towards the "sample" in front of him.
On the containment platform, the originally solidified iron-gray metal mass suddenly deformed. Part of its "shell" bulged out in an instant and solidified into a shape like a sharp sword.
But the "sharp sword" that suddenly condensed did not hurt anyone. It only extended halfway and then seemed to be pulled by a tremendous force. Until now, it is still slowly extending outwards bit by bit. This scene is not so much a "stabbing" out... ... as it is more like a sword being gradually "expelled" from the sample.
Lucrecia had a small "baton" in her hand. She quickly took two steps forward and, while Ted Lill was controlling the sample with divine magic, she tapped the middle of the "sword" with her baton. But just as she was about to further destroy the structure, Duncan suddenly stopped her: "Wait."
Lucrecia abruptly stopped the spell she was about to cast and turned to look at her father in confusion. Ted Riel, who was about to take the next step, and Nina, who was almost mad, also stopped and gave her a puzzled look.
Duncan waved to them, then carefully walked around the blade that was still slowly extending outward. He came to the side of the iron-gray "living metal" and stared at its "shell".
It did not actually "activate". The only thing that changed was the section of the blade that extended outward. The rest of the sample remained static and solidified as before.
The chaotic and fragmented information was still swirling in his mind, as if a person's memories were torn into pieces and mixed randomly, and then "poured" in front of him all at once. Duncan sorted through those fragmented memories over and over again, trying to reorganize them into useful intelligence.
He saw many things - the ominous "crimson", the scar across the sky, the brave warriors who set out, the falling companions, a gradually distorted and decayed world, a meaningless journey, great confusion, anger, fear, the subsequent death and calm, and all kinds of bizarre images that kept emerging in mental disorder.
Duncan suspected that if other ordinary people saw these things - even if they only saw a small part of them, they would probably be completely contaminated by some dangerous knowledge carried by the information.
But these polluting "knowledge" are just some chaotic fragments to him. Through repeated sorting and recalling, he has gradually begun to combine them into continuous memories.
Then he raised his head and looked at the long sword that had already extended most of the way out. After a slight hesitation, he stretched out his finger and touched its surface.
The cold and hard touch of metal came from the fingertips.
Duncan slowly closed his eyes. He could feel that when he touched the sword, the chaotic and broken memory fragments in his mind became clearer and more coherent. Although still incomplete, it was enough for him to understand everything that had happened.
He opened his eyes and looked at the last remaining fragment of that distant and ancient world, and watched the nameless warrior's final counterattack against doomsday - he gently pinched the fragment, feeling the connection it conveyed to himself, and then slowly pulled it out.
The flames gave the sword, which failed to fly out of the sky, a little extra strength, and it finally broke away from the ball of living metal completely.
It is well-made, with a slender blade, the hilt is wrapped with fine linen, and the guard is inlaid with dazzling crystals of unknown purpose and material. Now, it has traveled through a long time and arrived in this... deep sea era in its original and "correct" posture.
Everyone in the room, including Ted Lill, stared in astonishment at the scene before them. Lucrecia finally couldn't help but ask, "Dad, what is this?"
Duncan lowered his head and looked at the nameless sword in his hand. After thinking for a long time, he slowly spoke: "This is a weapon that was planned to be used to fight against the end of the world."
"Fight the end of the world?" Shirley's eyes widened instantly. "Use a sword? Is this thing the kind of divine weapon in legendary stories that can split the sea? The kind blessed by the four gods?"
Duncan shook his head. "It's just a sword - their best sword. It's sharp, but even at its best, it can only be used to kill larger beasts or armed humans... That's the limit of what they can do."
Lucrecia and Ted Lill looked at each other, unable to understand for a moment, but Nina vaguely understood and immediately asked, "What did you see?"
Duncan was still sorting out the messy and fragmented memories in his mind, but after a brief thought, he broke the silence: "Just some fragments, things that happened a long, long time ago..."
He described what he saw—in the most understandable way possible.
He spoke slowly because there were too many incomplete fragments and too much information that even he himself could not understand. He had to find a way to complete those incoherent parts, or find a way to explain some concepts that were difficult for Nina and others to understand.
This was his first attempt to explain to the people of this world what a "planet" was - after his last conversation with Alice, he had finally decided to give it a try.
But explaining an unfamiliar concept requires ten more basic knowledge points, and each unfamiliar knowledge point requires more knowledge to supplement it. Among them, there are countless things that are completely counterintuitive and counterintuitive to the people in this world. Even if all of these are explained clearly, no one can imagine and reorganize them in their minds.
Ted Riel and Lucrecia were struggling to understand, and the questions they kept asking prolonged the explanation - in the end Duncan realized that if he wanted to explain all the basic concepts clearly, it would probably take at least half a year of full-time teaching.
So he could only gloss over many things, or temporarily fill in the gaps in his knowledge and concepts using metaphors.
In the end, despite his efforts, Nina and the others could obviously only understand part of it, but at least this time they had a general understanding of what was happening.
Shirley was still immersed in the shock brought by a long "story", Nina was still thinking about the strange words Duncan mentioned just now, and the two scholars on the scene... Lucretia and Ted Lear had gloomy faces, and it was obvious that they had thought of a lot.
"The end of the world..." Ted Riel whispered to himself, "If what you saw really points to the end of the world, then the time of its occurrence...
"Before the Great Oblivion," Duncan confirmed the other party's unspoken question, and then raised the long sword in his hand, "The 'black wall' that has long stood in front of historians has now opened a gap. This sword... may be the first relic that can be confirmed to have been passed from before the Great Oblivion time node to the current deep sea era."
"A historic moment... just happened like that." Ted Riel sighed with a complicated expression. In the face of this news that was enough to shake the entire academic community, he felt his mind was in chaos. The countless pieces of information that suddenly emerged were impacting the knowledge system he had built up over a long period of time, and even impacting his understanding of the world. He couldn't help but pray to Rahm in his heart, and gave himself mental protection and psychological suggestion to prevent himself from being
The sanity is impaired.
Lucrecia suddenly raised her head after a long period of silent thinking and looked into Duncan's eyes: "You mentioned a lot of strange concepts just now. Are those the things you mentioned before that are difficult to explain to me?"
"It's just a small part of it. A very, very small part," Duncan whispered. "I should have told you this sooner."
Lucrecia just shook her head gently. She neither complained nor asked why her father was willing to explain those things to her now - her father must have his reasons for doing so, and he would naturally tell her when he was willing to.
She was just a little curious as to why her father knew these unbelievable things.
Did that knowledge... come from the Warp
On the other side, Ted Lear suddenly realized a problem after thinking for a while.
"According to what you 'saw', under the influence of that 'red light', the world was engulfed by lava, the earth was torn apart, and everyone died... Then how did the current deep sea era begin?"
He raised his hand and gestured, chopping his palm downward, imitating a fault.
"There is no continuity here, Captain Duncan. There should have been a process of change between the destruction of that world and the beginning of the Deep Sea Age. The world you saw does not correspond to any race, place, or legend in the current Deep Sea Age..."
"Indeed, there is no match," Duncan nodded gently, his eyes fell on the "sample" on the platform. After a long time, he finally said a guess that he had in his mind a long time ago, "So... that world did not pass down as many things as the world of humans, elves and Sen'jin. What we see in front of us is all that is left of that world."
"That world..." Ted Riel and Lucretia looked at each other in surprise. At this moment, they finally understood what Duncan meant.
In Duncan's mind, the "moon" of his hometown finally appeared before him again.
Along with it, the words Alice once said to him with a smile also emerged in his mind -
"Captain, is this a brain teaser?"..
The expression on Duncan's face changed slightly. The muscles at the corners of his mouth trembled slightly a few times, and finally turned into a smile that neither Nina nor Lucrecia could understand.
"Yeah, this is quite a brain teaser..."
He whispered in a voice that only he could hear.