As soon as Duncan opened his mouth, the "sailor" immediately knew what the captain wanted to do. After all, since being "awakened" by Lawrence on the White Oak, the biggest nightmare of his "life" has been this: being burned by Captain Duncan on a whim...
Of course, this nightmare has now come true—he was hit by a huge fireball from the messenger named "Ai Yi".
That is why, after personally experiencing the horror of being surrounded by the flames of the spirit body and feeling as if the soul could be evaporated at any time, the mummy seemed particularly nervous at this moment: "... Will this burn the shroud clean?"
"In theory, no," Duncan said confidently, "I can precisely control my own flames and use them to understand the 'truth' beneath the surface of various extraordinary objects. I have used this method to examine and explore many things in the past. This process is very safe..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the sailor hadn't had time to breathe a sigh of relief when Shirley next to him suddenly muttered, "Who said that the black book I got from the Annihilation Cult in Frost was burned after you took a look at it..."
Nina added: "There was an earlier one, the golden mask I got from the Sun Cultists in Plande was also burned..."
"Silantis is also on fire..." Lucrecia whispered, "This one is closer."
Duncan's expression became visibly stiff, and the atmosphere became a little tense. However, Alice, who was feeding the pigeons nearby, suddenly reacted and raised her hand to help the captain: "My wooden box is not burned!"
After saying that, she thought for a moment and added seriously, "Although after being 'seen' by the captain, it became a part of the Lost Homeland..."
"... You don't have to say the last sentence," Duncan tried his best to control his expression, and squeezed out a few words to Alice. Then he turned his gaze back to the "sailor" and said calmly, "... Anyway, it's safe."
The sailor looked at the majestic captain in front of him, then looked at the group of followers around the captain, and the two expressionless popes beside him. After holding back for a long time, he finally nodded to Duncan: "I believe it."
Duncan exhaled softly, stepped forward and patted the corpse on the shoulder, his expression serious and sincere: "Don't worry - it may be the only remnant of the Sea Song. I will be careful."
After hearing this, the sailor nodded in a daze. Duncan turned around, walked to the low table with a serious expression, and placed the shroud solemnly on the table.
Helena and Frame's eyes followed Duncan's movements involuntarily. After hesitating for a long time, Frame couldn't help but speak: "This is the only piece of 'intelligence' ever sent back from outside the border. If it shows any signs of damage, I hope you can stop in time."
"I understand." Duncan nodded very solemnly. At the same time, under the gazes of many people, he slowly placed his hand above the shroud.
"… Let me talk to you." He whispered to himself.
A phantom flame like flowing water ignited from his fingertips and fell silently - the spiritual fire was like water, seeping into the dirty and tattered shroud in the blink of an eye, and slowly spreading and wandering through every groove and fold of it.
Duncan closed his eyes gently, and carefully manipulated the flames that penetrated deep into the shroud, feeling every bit of information the flames conveyed to him, trying to establish communication with an empty, distant and broken existence - he had done this many times, so he was very familiar with it.
Boundless chaos appeared in his perception. At first, there was nothing in the depths of this chaos.
But suddenly, as if a period of time that had already disappeared suddenly emerged in the long river of time, he "saw" a ray of light emerging from the depths of chaos.
Duncan's heart moved, and he immediately moved closer to the faint light. But before he reached the faint light, a faint voice reached his ears:
“I am Captain Kalani of the Sea Song, and this is the record I left on my way back home…
"We found Him - about half a century after crossing the six-mile line..."
Duncan suddenly "opened" his eyes. In his "field of vision", the faint light standing in the chaotic mist suddenly showed a hazy outline. It was vaguely a lady wearing the navy uniform of the Deep Sea Church, with an upright figure and a blurred face.
She stood quietly in the fog, talking to herself, as if she didn't "see" Duncan at all.
“… Time outside the border… is discontinuous. I realized this only after many years of wandering. The six-mile critical line is not only a physical ‘border’, but also the scope of the order of our world…
"We were separated from the normal timeline in the fog. In the abnormal time flow, I saw many bizarre phantoms. In the thickest part of the fog, I saw the edge of the world gradually collapsing and falling off...
“…Here, we see the figures of explorers who were lost in the border in the past. They have completely lost their entities and selves, wandering aimlessly in the broken and disordered flow of time, just like fog that rises and dissipates. The Sea Song crosses paths with some of these phantoms. In the process, I realize that we are becoming the same as them…
"My crew members gradually lost themselves. After being lost for almost half a century, almost everyone on the ship had turned into zombies. This is something I only recalled later, and at that time, my condition was not much better than that of the crew members...
“… Only the first mate remained at his post… I don’t know how long he held on…
"Then, we heard the call of the waves again in a suddenly appearing entity sea area, and that call 'pulled' the Sea Song to an archipelago - I suddenly woke up at that time, surprised that such a large-scale entity would appear outside the border, and then I realized that the 'archipelago' was actually the place where our Lord was sleeping.
"There He is—the Lord of Storms, the Will of the Deep, the Goddess Gemona...
"These words I have written down may shock the world, but they are what I saw with my own eyes—
“The Kingdom of God is indeed not located at the ‘high place’ in the dimensional concept, nor is it located at the ‘foundation’ of the world. The Kingdom of God does not exist. The gods have always been around us... around the world, outside the fog of the border, they are here, surrounding the entire world.
"They... and their descendants, are part of the Outer Barrier."
Kalani's phantom stopped, as if there was a gap in his memory. Duncan came to the captain's phantom and looked into his unfocused eyes.
"The gods surround the world and are part of the outer barrier?" he asked suddenly. "What's outside the barrier? What's beyond that? Do you see it?"
The phantom did not respond. She was just a pure illusion. After standing in silence for a moment, she spoke to herself, still repeating Captain Kalani's log:
“… A lot of us stayed there.
"The Storm Goddess is sleeping in the center of that ancient archipelago... Those 'islands' are actually the corpses of Leviathan. They surround the sea and surround him together... On the largest island stands a temple. It is shaped like a stacked obelisk, made up of countless dark green or black boulders. There are also some mysterious, twisted symbols on the stones. They seem to be words, but I can't recognize them...
"I cannot describe the existence... that sleeps in the center of the temple. I cannot describe our god. He is completely different from the goddess I know. I... saw His body. In an instant, I felt as if my mind was torn apart and reassembled thousands of times. But a gentle voice woke me and my crew again... That voice turned us into a part of 'Him', which prevented us from being torn apart and turning into monsters in the fog...
“Then He apologized to us.
“He says He is no longer in control of Himself—He says He is already dead, but He is trying to slow down the dying process, and now He needs a task from us.
“He asked me to mark a route, a route from the Infinite Sea to the Outer Barrier. In the fog between the six-mile boundary and the Outer Barrier, only the correct route can lead voyagers to find ‘Them’…
"For this, someone must return."
The phantom of Captain Kalani slowly lowered his head and continued in a soft voice.
“Most people are tired and choose to find eternal peace in the haven of the Lord… I don’t blame them because this is part of ‘human nature’.
"In the end, only my first mate and I set out on the return journey. The Sea Song had been swallowed by the archipelago, but the goddess recreated its phantom from the mist. My first mate and I boarded the phantom and set out on the journey home in the direction She guided us...
“Now, we’re almost home.
“I can feel myself gradually dissipating, and so is the Sea Song… Both this ship and I are illusions created by the goddess in the mist, and the real world does not allow such illusions to exist for long… This feeling of dissipation is a sign that I am about to return home.
"But the first mate is different from me - he is not a phantom that wakes up from the fog. He is always awake, from the day he set sail until now. He still exists in this world and has been faithfully carrying out orders.
"So, the route is up to him... He will find his way home, and he will find his way back to the islands... no matter how long it takes.
"I am Kalani, Captain of the Sea Song. I entrust the Sea Song to my loyal first mate. This is my last log as captain...
"May you bear witness."
In the boundless chaotic fog, the figure emitting faint light returned to its silent standing state.
Then the fog lifted, and Duncan opened his eyes—he was still in the living room.
(End of this chapter)