Chapter 110 Lingering

Lei Nora's tone was calm and composed, as if she had planned the end of her destiny many years ago—whether being trapped in nightmares forever or suffering eternal exile, it was just an inevitable link in her well-planned future.

Just as Duncan thought, the Frost Queen had never prepared for her "resurrection"—returning to the human world was never part of her plan from the beginning.

But this generous attitude made Duncan feel strange.

"Are you really willing to give everything for Frost? Even more than your life?" He turned his head, curiously looking into Lei Nora's eyes, "You lived in the cage under the church for more than ten years, and you were not treated as a human until you were twelve. You were monitored, shackled, and tested. Every thought, every murmur in your sleep was repeatedly analyzed as a possibility of betraying humanity. You did everything you could, but in the end, you were crowned with the name 'Mad Queen' and pushed onto the guillotine… I don't want to judge anyone from a dark perspective, but at least logically, I am deeply surprised by your decision."

Lei Nora fell silent. She leaned against her bed, looking up at the gauze curtains above, as if her thoughts had spread far, far away. After an unknown amount of time, she suddenly smiled and shook her head, "Right…

…Why am I doing this…"

She turned her head and quietly stared into Duncan's eyes.

"Do you know, they could have burned me to death—very, very early, on the day you first woke up from the nightmare, after you learned to say 'dada' and 'mama', after you realized you were a human… Captain, perhaps your statement has misled you. You think you should resent this ice-cold city, but in fact… this city did everything it could to keep you alive.

"And from a broader perspective, it is your ingenious and strong 'civilized world' that is doing everything possible to keep everyone alive—including innate psychics like you, even if we have to use chains, use iron cages, and lock you in a dungeon for ten years, we never expected you to die in this ice-cold place… We expected you to return as a human.

"You shouldn't resent anyone, Captain, we didn't treat you cruelly—because that world treats everyone cruelly, everyone is just doing their best."

The former Frost Queen sighed softly, then finally slowly got up from her cage-like bed—the only difference between this bed and the one she spent in the church dungeon was perhaps the lack of a circle of railings.

Just like many years ago, the knowledgeable and kind old man disappeared in the morning light.

He walked towards the big door, and at this moment, Lei Nora's expression suddenly changed slightly.

In a large piece of chaotic noise and murmurs, a segment of Gris's thoughts suddenly came over.

The next second, a cluster of dark green flames suddenly appeared beside him. The flames rotated and expanded, gradually transforming into a vortex-like door.

Lei Nora just stood quietly in front of this terrifying scene, watching the illusory, newly born slender tentacles constantly bending and extending towards her, watching it finally come to this invisible boundary, the white "flesh" fitting and opening on the surface of the tangible barrier.

"Okay, I remember, nice to meet you, Navigator No. 1, so… farewell, good morning."

"We've been together for so long, and I haven't asked your name," she stared at the tentacle outside the dream boundary, feeling the chaotic and incomplete information it conveyed—most of these information couldn't even be called fragmented "thoughts", but more like the inspiration fragments that occasionally burst out from a incomplete soul struggling to think, but in the half a century of getting along, she had long been used to "talking" with this Gris's will, "Of course, I know the title of the Abyssal Saint, and I know he has other titles… but that's not his name…"

The cool fire dissipated at her fingertips.

Duncan quietly floated at the edge of the dark floating island, watching the spiritual flame ignited by himself burn fiercely, the momentum of which even shocked him, the "arsonist."

A tsunami-like raging flame spread from the depths of darkness to here, instantly engulfing the tentacle that was touching the "Drifting Land." In the burning flames, the accurate replica of the ancient god returned to dust, to earth.

Lei Nora stood quietly here, watching the figure disappear into the room.

"I will also leave, soon, when the anchor rope is broken, it's time to break free… I may go to a very far place, or I may never have a next destination. Even if my calculations are correct, this will probably be a journey that is long and unimaginable… so if there is scenery to see, I will enjoy it."

Duncan took one last deep look at the Frost Queen, and without saying anything more, he took a step forward and stepped into the rotating fire door.

Lei Nora slowly stretched out her hand, placing her palm on the surface of the flesh that was permeated and swelling and suspended, across the barrier of the dream, feeling everything that Navigator No. 1 conveyed—confusion, Gris, unease, and a touch of regret.

"So that's how it is… so that's how it is…" Lei Nora murmured to herself, the expression on her face changing rapidly several times, as if many years of confusion had gradually emerged in her eyes with a glimmer of light. For the first time, she showed a truly heartfelt bright expression, and looked up at Duncan, waving her hand like saying goodbye to an old friend many years ago, "Go ahead and do it without worry, I think… we are making the right judgment."

She stared blankly at the rising green flames, as if looking at a distant and hazy memory, then suddenly turned her head and looked at Duncan, who was about to step across the big door: "It's you?!"

Strands of dark green firelight emerged from the dark abyss over there, initially like tiny fireflies, but in an instant, they expanded and decayed in a rapid spread, and began to spread and burn towards the entire "pillar."

"Does he have a name? Whether it's his, or his 'main body's…' Never mind, I'm just suddenly a little curious."

In the dark and icy deep sea, the suddenly rising ghostly flames almost illuminated the entire sea area like a solar prominence, illuminating the dark floating island floating in the deep sea, illuminating those humanoid shells floating in the dark water, like a swarm of bees.

The raging flames even briefly eroded the barrier of the dream boundary. At Lei Nora's feet, in the air around her, and at the edge of the room, strange but brilliant fireworks bloomed.

Lei Nora listened quietly, just like when she was a child, between those icy railings and shackles, listening to the vague whispers from the depths of the tide—a name, as if appearing in her mind in a half-dream, half-awake state.

Her tone was urging, as if she couldn't wait.

"Even the ancient gods are facing failure, aren't they?"

Lei Nora curiously looked at the jumping spiritual flames, reaching out to touch their edges.

She walked to the end of the room, came to Duncan, and looked out at the chaotic and dark deep sea outside.

A slight tremor appeared under her feet, and quickly became stronger over time.

Duncan hesitated for a long time, and finally silently nodded.

She slowly withdrew her gaze, turned around, stood at the fragmented end of the room, looking at the stagnant ancient god's tentacle, looking at her nightmare of the past half century, and all the fate and responsibility.

"Yes… I know he doesn't want to appear in this world… It will begin soon, treat it as a dream, he will return to where he should be…"

The silent exchange continued in the dream. At the last moment before waking up, Lei Nora suddenly felt a little sentimental.

"My parents and the people in the church are doing their best to keep me alive. I and my supporters are doing our best to make the city-state safe. Governor Winston and his successive predecessors are doing their best to complete the work I failed to complete—but in many cases, doing your best does not necessarily mean success, and failure naturally has its price."

"That's enough," Lei Nora smiled, "Then let's do it, I've slept for too long, it's time to wake up from this nightmare… It's also time to let 'Him' be free."

Qu Liang stopped, and after a brief confusion, he finally realized why the Frost Queen would have such a performance.

"…If his theory is correct, then new Gris replicas will inevitably appear, awakening from the creations of the mortal world," Duncan pondered for a moment, and slowly opened his mouth to say, "Destroying the accurate replicas here cannot solve the root of the entire world."

I think, that shouldn't count as polluting history,"

Keeping the posture of about to step into the big door, he slightly turned his face, "What do you say?"

"There will be other people 'doing their best'," Lei Nora said softly, turning her head to look at Duncan, "What about you? Will you take action?"

Qu Liang was silent, and after a moment, he broke the silence softly: "Do my best."

A wisp of a smile slowly appeared on her lips: "LH-01… Ah, what a strange name… Navigator No. 1? Is that his original name?"

She slowly raised her arm, pointing to the huge tentacle in the darkness.

The mansion was shaking, the power supporting this dream was fading. The "connection point" between the "Drifting Land" and the outer world was rapidly disintegrating and disappearing. The darkness outside the room seemed to surge suddenly, with countless layers of ripples and light and shadow expanding crazily, and then shrinking in the darkness, and the "Ancient God's Tentacle" began to change in the sudden imbalance of light and shadow—He seemed to bend, and a hazy structure extended and grew from its top, crossing the boundary between reality and illusion, and drooping and approaching towards the fragmented room.