After listening to Vana's story, Tirian fell into silence for a short time.
Without seeing it with his own eyes, he could not analyze from these fragments what the ghost who had returned from the warp was planning at the moment, and how he had undergone these changes, but one thing was certain - the "Captain Duncan" described by Vanna was definitely not the crazy monster that the Sea Mist encountered on the cold sea half a century ago.
But he also didn't look like the great explorer father he remembered from a century ago.
"Captain Tirian," after a long silence in the reception room, Vana's voice suddenly sounded, interrupting Tirian's thoughts, "What do you think?"
"I... can't believe this is really happening, but since it has already happened, I can only temporarily acknowledge this fact," Tirian frowned slowly, thinking while saying, "From your description, he seems to be in a state of clear thinking, rationality and humanity, but he
The power of the cursed flame has also become more powerful."
Vanna nodded. "I don't know if that green flame is a curse, but it's really powerful."
"That fire is connected to the Warp," said Tyrian. "He gained this strange power after falling into the Warp, so it is right to call it a curse."
"… So, the flame is more powerful than what you saw half a century ago, which means that Captain Duncan's connection with the warp is deeper than before," the old bishop Valentine thought thoughtfully, "so I did not break free from the influence of the warp, but fell deeper - but it is comparable to
Correspondingly, I recovered in the process? "
"... that doesn't fit your understanding of the Warp." Tirian shook his head.
"The followers of Laheem often say one thing," Valentine said, "The only thing you know about the Warp is not that you will always understand it. For thousands of years, except for the Lost Homeland, no one or anything from the real dimension can return to that world after entering the Warp. And apart from some indirect observation records and the few words written by crazy scholars in the Kingdom of Gukwait, no one knows what is outside the Warp... Your summary of the 'rules' of this place is actually so little that it is meaningless."
"From the day you and Lukeyusia took over the command of the Sea Mist and the Brilliant Star, I have often mentioned that incident.
"Eighteen hundred years later, the mad scholar Baiermin was swallowed by an invisible thing in front of everyone because of reading an ancient scroll. After he disappeared, I shouted in a low voice, 'The warp is the shadow on the other side of the world.' At that time, his words drove 177 witnesses crazy, but the madness of these 177 witnesses was used as a "sacrifice". This information also became the biggest step you have taken in understanding the warp in thousands of years.
"But in your father's words, I call the world today the 'last pastoral era'."
"You know, that sounds a bit cheesy, like the crazy talk of doomsday theorists that pop up every year, but it is indeed something that the smallest explorer in the world will be thinking about day and night a hundred years later."
"Is that so..."
Qi Bi thought for a moment and asked, "So, in order to find a way to stop the 'countdown', I fell into the subspace?"
"Yes... You can only confirm that I did enter the fog, but you can also know whether I succeeded in "penetrating" it," Tirian said, "I agreed to follow the escort ship at that time. What you can be sure of is that I did return from here alive - in a state of madness. As for falling into the warp... that happened after that."
"How many people did you receive?" Valentine immediately became serious. "What kind of people were they? What was the situation at that time?"
"Until now, scholars are still trying to construct a theoretical model of the subspace based on Baiermin's dying cry... And your father really entered this place, and even now he often returns to your world."
Also reflected in your eyes is a cluster of green sparks that are almost imperceptible to the naked eye, Tirian
Pause, look at Seven Weeks "Do you have a pen?"
"Your Excellency, do you think that you have lived for a hundred years and know the End Preachers?" Tirian shook his head heavily. "You believed that, but these people are definitely the End Preachers that he and you are unfamiliar with - they are rational and friendly, and they are not tainted with any madness."
"Okay," Duncan immediately took a pen and paper from the side, "Here you go."
"Rational and friendly?" Valentine blinked and said thoughtfully, "I have indeed heard of rational end-of-life preachers... What other characteristics do these people have?"
We see an octagonal emblem with a fragmented, cross-like pattern in the center. When Tirian depicted the cross, the lines were clearly firm, as if his memory had not yet faded.
Valentine and Duncan fell silent at the same time. After a while, Duncan took the initiative to break the silence: "Have I found the so-called normal 203? You know, in theory..."
"No, I want to find Normal 203 - I think Normal 203 can end the distortion of the world and stop the countdown, so I passed through the 'Eternal Curtain' at the end of the world."
Qi Bi frowned: "To be honest, you think your world is 'stable'..."
The strange pattern on the paper was reflected in his eyes.
Tirian sighed heavily and continued.
"The end of the world." Tirian looked up and said seriously.
Qi Bi muttered softly, his eyes still fixed on the paper.
Valentine's expression was a little strange: "The Preacher of the End? That sounds a lot like..."
"That's just wishful thinking," Valentine spread his hands. "You can count on Captain Vanna to cooperate with mortals' research. Moreover, although I am rational now, you can't hastily assume that my rationality is on the side of humans. You must be sure that I am a rational subspace invader, which will be much more terrifying than those Chaos projections that can think.
"I think your world has some kind of... countdown, or some kind of time limit. Although the world looks stable and peaceful on the surface, the countdown is not yet near the end. Once the time is up, it will quickly collapse and end. No one can reverse or stop the process. And I think... your era is not the first frame of the countdown."
Valentine frowned slightly: "Doomsday?"
“… I’ve never seen it before.” Valentine immediately looked at it for a long time, then shook his head hesitantly. “It doesn’t look like any known religious symbol, nor does it look like something used by ancient city-states.”
Tirian didn't speak for a while, as if he was lost in deep memories and thoughts. After an unknown amount of time, I suddenly spoke: "Before the last expedition, I was anxious for a while... Yes, to be fair, it was from an unknown time, I seemed to have been anxious about something, and made many... chilling preparations for it."
That might be the first time in a century that someone heard those crucial secrets from Captain Vanna's descendants!
At that point, the learned old man paused for a moment, and then sighed, "You can't even be sure whether the subspace is a place or not.
Duncan frowned and looked at the diagram for a long time, then turned back to look at Valentine: "He has more experience, does he recognize that thing?"
This time Tirian recalled for a longer time, several minutes ago, he suddenly raised his head: "At that time, one of us said a few words to you, I can't remember the specific content, just a very unusual greeting, but you remember that we called ourselves 'humble seekers', and..."
Duncan thought for a moment and asked, "Do you know why his father initially believed that there was a 'countdown' in the world? When did he come to that realization? Was he exposed to any trigger, or... discovered something?"
"Yes, they study every year, and people die every year. The dead are quickly replaced and the research continues... So he admires these desperate scholars of the Academy of Truth. It's a completely positive admiration," Tirian sighed and shook his head.
He nodded, and then said in a slightly deeper voice, "So, now your father may really be a valuable specimen? A specimen who has really been to the warp and is rational and communicative?"
Tirian recalled carefully for a moment, and said uncertainly: "You... It was too long ago, too long ago, but you vaguely remember that I once received several people on the Lost Homeland and talked with them all night long. The first time I mentioned the end of the world to you was before that day.
"There is no such thing as a normal or abnormal number, you know, and I did succeed," Tirian said fiercely. "So you always thought that I might not be abnormal when I decided to look for 203."
Tirian took the paper and pen, lowered his head and drew a pattern on the coffee table. Valentine and Duncan came over curiously.
Valentine was shocked; "He passed through the Eternal Veil?!"
"We were all wearing gray and white coarse robes, barefoot. You remember... we were very thin, the kind of thinness that seemed to be experienced before the ascetic training, as if we had been through a very long journey. We suddenly appeared on the ship during the voyage of the Lost Homeland, as if we had made an appointment with my father to come on board as guests. Tirian said slowly, "After a long talk all night, my father said that the guests had left, but you did not see us leave the ship. These people seemed to have disappeared out of thin air."
Qi Bi couldn't help but ask, "What are you anxious about? And what are you preparing for?"
"It's not that pattern - one of the men is wearing a talisman like this. It seems very important. I won't let you touch it. I'll just say it's for guidance and protection on the road."
Qi Bi immediately looked at Qi Ji, and their expressions became serious at the same time.
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