After crossing the six-nautical-mile critical line, the world around the Lost Homeland and the Brilliant Star entered a strange... "state".
The sea and the fog disappeared, and the strange glimmer in the sky evenly covered the entire world outside the ship's side - all "boundaries" seemed to have become invalid, and all things that were originally distinct seemed to have turned into a uniform texture and no distinction between up and down in the blink of an eye... "background color", and the two ghost ships seemed to be flying in this uniform background color, "floating" in the air.
"... This is different from what the church has recorded," Vanna said subconsciously as she looked at the scene outside the ship's side. "According to the records, even if you cross the six-mile critical line for a distance, there are still sea and sky... I remember Miss Lucrecia also mentioned this."
Duncan looked thoughtfully, raised his head and silently glanced at the "sailor" who was holding the steering wheel tightly with a nervous look on his face. After a moment, he broke the silence: "Perhaps this is what should happen when Anomaly 077 is 'normally effective' - we are sailing in a special 'channel' that protects us from the influence of time turbulence outside the critical line."
"How long will we sail in this 'channel'?" Alice asked curiously.
Duncan thought for a moment and shook his head: "I don't even know that."
Then Alice cast her curious eyes on the sailor who was at the helm.
Abnormal 077, who was already nervous, noticed the clear gaze from the puppet and became even more nervous. He shrank his neck and said, "Don't look at me. I don't know either - I just drive the boat..."
As he spoke, he tried to keep a serious face, grabbed the steering wheel and slightly adjusted the direction, but in fact he didn't know where to "drive", so he just shook the steering wheel in place to show that he was busy. Anyway, in such a weird situation, the specific "course" of the ship obviously had nothing to do with the rudder...
Duncan saw through it but didn't say anything. After sensing the status of the Lost Homeland and confirming that everything was normal, he no longer paid attention to the situation on the sailor's side. Instead, he looked up at the Brilliant Star floating near the Lost Homeland and called out in his heart: "Lucy, how are you doing?"
"Everything is normal on the ship - except that Rabbi is so scared that he hid in the box and refused to come out," Lucrecia's voice responded immediately, "It keeps yelling that we are 'crashing'... 'crashing' towards the end of the world. I am a little concerned about this."
"Crash towards the end of the world?" Duncan frowned when he heard this, and his mind quickly thought about the meaning of the crazy rabbit's words. Then he looked to the other side, across the deck, at the uniform "gray and white" outside the ship's side that seemed to be extremely empty.
"It may refer to the 'outer barrier'," Duncan said softly in thought, "or something beyond that barrier."
"Something beyond the barrier?" Lucrecia's voice sounded a little confused.
"... Embers, the chaotic and unknowable embers of the old world that have never been used as the 'bricks and stones' of a shelter," Duncan said slowly, recalling his recent conversation with Lenora, and the extremely pure and terrifying "nothingness" beyond the end of the world mentioned by the Frost Queen. He suddenly realized, "... For fish, the gaseous world is indeed an incomprehensible nothingness and doomsday."
On the bridge of the Brilliant Star, Lucrecia listened to her father's words and seemed to understand something. Then she turned her head and looked at the box on the ground near the rudder that was shaking slightly - half of Rabbi's ear was hanging out of the box, trembling.
The witch frowned: "... As someone who brings horrific nightmares to others, are you so scared?"
“Rabbi… Rabbi is not the one who brings horrible nightmares, Rabbi is… is the horrible…” Rabbi muttered in the box, as if to encourage himself, but his voice changed in the middle of his words, “It’s really horrible, mistress! We are falling, falling very fast! Can’t you feel it—it’s getting colder, darker, and narrower, just like diving headfirst into a thin tube from a bottomless abyss, about to suffocate, about to freeze, about to be squeezed to death, just imagine, just imagine that scene…”
Lucrecia walked over expressionlessly, kicked the lid of the box open, picked up the rabbit with one hand, swung it and slammed it against the wall next to her.
The rabbit doll was slammed against the wall with a "pia-ji" sound and finally stopped moving.
"You are the only one with a rich vocabulary and associative ability, right?" Lucrecia looked at the bunny doll that was slid down the wall bit by bit after being slapped, and subconsciously rubbed the goose bumps on her arms, "Don't describe your associations anymore - if you have any ideas, hold them back, otherwise I will not only slap you against the wall next time."
The flat stuffed rabbit lying on the ground suddenly became fluffy again with a "pop-bang". It climbed up crookedly, said "oh", and walked obediently back to the box not far away.
But when he was halfway there, Lucrecia pulled him back by the ear.
"Don't be lazy, find something to do," the witch said in an unquestionable tone, "Take a few tin men and keep an eye on the stern dividing line. The spiritual part of the ship seems to be uneasy here... Don't let those soulless shadows run out. I don't have the extra energy to deal with this kind of trouble now. Go."
"Oh, yes, mistress..." Rabbi agreed with his head down, and walked out of the bridge with his short legs.
After the rabbit left, Luni came over and said, "Were you too harsh on the rabbi just now? It was just a little scared."
"It's too scared - I need to find something to divert its attention," Lucrecia exhaled softly and waved her hand, "It is a shadow from the depths of the spirit world, and it can sense many 'changes' that humans cannot feel. The place that is empty in my eyes may be very 'busy' in its perception..."
At this point she suddenly paused, and looked at the clockwork doll in front of her with some confusion: "But then again... didn't you feel it? When I made your mimic soul, I also used 'ingredients' from the spirit world."
Lu Ni was stunned for a moment, thought about it seriously, and shook her head: "I don't feel anything."
Lucrecia looked at Luni with a slightly subtle expression. She didn't know if it was an illusion, but she always felt that Luni had exuded a clear and pure "temperament" since she started playing with the living doll named "Alice" on the Lost Homeland. This feeling was particularly obvious after the two dolls learned to exchange heads with each other...
But she secretly tested Luni's intelligence last time, and there seemed to be no changes - she hasn't dared to mention this to her father.
"Mistress?" The clockwork doll noticed the gazes falling on it and tilted its head in confusion.
“…Nothing.” Lucrecia waved her hands, temporarily putting aside the strange associations in her head, and at this moment, she suddenly saw something out of the corner of her eye.
Outside the porthole, in the uniform and pure "gray-white background color", some lines and shadows visible to the naked eye appeared at some point.
"What is that?" Luni also saw the abstract lines and patterns that appeared on the "outer wall of the passage" and her eyes widened in surprise.
Almost at the moment when she finished speaking, those abstract “outlines” that seemed to be separated from a specific individual suddenly changed in the gray-white background—
The black lines trembled, quickly shrinking and twisting into orderly outlines. The shadows suddenly expanded and became the color that filled the outlines. A ship - a flat ship that seemed to be "printed" on the outer wall of the passage - suddenly emerged from the gray and white background color and gradually entered the route of the Lost Homeland and the Bright Star.
This scene was like a wanderer suddenly "breaking into" the passage, and the abstract and distorted ship shadow quickly acquired a logical... "form" after entering the "sight" of the Lost Homeland and the Brilliant Star.
Lucrecia was stunned for a moment, then rushed to the porthole like a gust of wind, staring at the ship that suddenly appeared in the passage.
She suddenly recognized the vague markings on the ship.
"It's the Sea Song!"
That was the Anthem of the Sea—the Anthem of the Sea, which was sailing on a long journey, wandering in the broken flow of time.
It drifted in from a broken time stream, and in this brief "convergence window", entered the routes of the Lost Homeland and the Brilliant Star.
The stern deck of the Lost Homeland suddenly became quiet.
Everyone looked up involuntarily, looking at the ship floating in the "air" outside the side of the ship, looking at its gradually clearer flag and the increasingly obvious name on the hull - the Sea Song was sailing in its own time stream. It seemed that it had not noticed the Brilliant Star that was so close, as if the time misalignment of both parties blocked its "sight". It passed by the side of the Brilliant Star at a distance where they would almost collide, and then came to the side of the Lost Homeland.
It adjusted its posture there, and then... it emitted a series of light signals.
Abnormal 077 suddenly gripped the steering wheel tightly in his hand.
He opened his eyes wide, staring at the flashing lights on the side of the Sea Song. He silently counted the intervals between lights and their on and off, just like he was counting his own heartbeats that had long disappeared.
"Short light-dark-short light-dark-long light..."
He did not continue counting. When the light signal of the Sea Song was still flashing, he had already closed his eyes, and then he stretched out his hoarse voice as if he had used up all his strength.
"Captain! The ship ahead is asking about our purpose!"
The sailor's hoarse voice echoed on the Lost Homeland.
Duncan exhaled lightly, his expression full of seriousness and solemnity.
"The lights answer," he whispered, "and salute them."
(End of this chapter)