Chapter 1 The Crisis

The shouts from the street outside startled Lucrezia and Talan Eile, and their eyes immediately turned to the window. Warm, bright "sunlight" still streamed in, so much so that Lucrezia and Talan Eile didn't notice anything unusual about the environment for the first few seconds!

But they soon noticed that the "sunlight" streaming in from the window seemed somewhat discordant compared to before, and the overall brightness of the sky outside had decreased. Lucrezia's eyes narrowed, and in the next second, with a "bang," she transformed into countless colorful paper scraps, spiraling and dancing as they rushed out the window. These dancing paper scraps flew like a whirlwind onto the roof.

Reassembling into the Sea Witch's figure on a platform, Lucrezia raised her head to look at the sun's direction. A huge, dark sphere was silently suspended in the sky.

Two rune rings at the edge of the sphere emitted dazzling golden light. Between the two rings, the light frequently flickered with dim breakpoints, as if they were about to go out completely!

Because the luminous body had fallen into darkness, the entire sun's brightness was now only the two rune rings. Theoretically, the entire city-state should already be plunged into near-nighttime darkness, but sunlight still shone on Light Breeze Port!

This light came from the sea not far away. The mountain-like glowing geometric structure still floated silently on the sea, and the faint golden "sunlight" emanating from that direction prevented the city from falling into darkness. This was the source of the sunlight that Lucrezia and Talan Eile had seen in the room earlier!

The sound of clothes rubbing against the building and panting reached her ears. Lucrezia lowered her head and saw a middle-aged elf with messy golden short hair struggling to climb up the drainpipe. Master Talan Eile climbed to the platform with a hundred years of shoulder periarthritis and cervical spondylosis. The talent of the elves is awe-inspiring!

"Huff...huff...Ms. Lucrezia, you were right...huff...I might need a little bit of physical exercise. Just paying attention to diet and nutrition doesn't...huff...ensure strength..."

"I don't think you pay attention to diet and nutrition--the purpose of the life-sustaining meal is just to maintain your vital signs."

Lucrezia said expressionlessly, her gaze still fixed on the dark sphere hanging in the sky in the distance.

"As for now, let's take a look at the sky first. This problem is bigger."

Talan Eile caught his breath and looked up in that direction.

Under the faint golden light slanting and spreading from the sea, the dark sphere suspended in the sky appeared even more bizarre. The 001-Sun, an anomaly that had sheltered this world for ten thousand years, was terrifying in its extinguished state. It was like a terrifying hole leading to the end of all things, or a rotten, dying eyeball quietly overlooking the entire world in the sky.

"Oh, looks like big trouble." Talan Eile finally uttered a few words from his throat. His bloodshot eyes, caused by long nights of work, slowly narrowed, as if trying to focus and see more details on the surface of the dark sphere.

"The worst thing..."

"The City-State Guard has already begun to maintain order. It seems that the mechanized training is still useful."

Lucrezia lowered her head and looked at the street below. Steam-powered walkers and tactical squads bearing the City-State Guard and the Academy of Truth insignia had already appeared at the intersection. Panicked citizens were being guided to gradually regain their composure. However, even so, the overall chaos in the district continued!

And no one knew how it would develop. Everyone in this world was always preparing for "anomalous disasters," but in any case, the impact of the "sun extinguishing" on ordinary people was obviously beyond all training and contingency plans.

"I'm going back to the Brilliant Star to confirm the situation!" Lucrezia suddenly withdrew her gaze from the street and quickly said to Talan Eile.

"That ship is near the 'falling light body' and may be able to collect useful data."

Talan Eile opened his mouth when he heard this, but before he could say anything, the "Sea Witch" in front of him had once again transformed into countless colorful paper scraps!

In the blink of an eye, they swirled and flew off the rooftop platform, flying towards the distant port. The Elven scholar was left on the roof. He was stunned for a moment, then looked down at the direction he had just climbed up from. "At least send me down..."

He muttered gloomily, slowly got up, and prepared to return to the balcony on the second floor along the drainpipe. But at this moment, the corner of his eye suddenly noticed another place, a nearby building, the "Cloudflow Tower" of the City-State University. It was the property of the Academy of Truth, and most elves simply called it "the High Tower."

The top of the tower was equipped with various observation devices for monitoring the weather and observing the sky. Its special filters and telescope groups could also be used to observe the sun and other distant objects.

"Observing the sun at this time is not a wise move..."

The Elven scholar muttered, then casually took out the amulet symbolizing Rahm, the God of Wisdom, from his pocket, and placed it on his forehead for a brief prayer, asking for the blessing of foolishness.

"Alright, now I'm a fool."

Talan Eile said, put away the amulet, and took a deep breath. Then, he briefly judged the distance and relative positions of several nearby roofs, accelerated towards one that he thought he could manage, and leaped!

In the two seconds that he briefly broke free from gravity, feeling the wind blowing across his cheeks and his body crossing the roof, a valuable question suddenly appeared in the mind of this Elven scholar--

"Why don't I call my students to help?"

...

The whole world fell into dimness, a strange twilight that seemed like dusk but was even more gloomy, enveloping the boundless sea.

The extinguished giant sphere hung in the sky like a terrifying hole, and had not moved since it was extinguished. The two rune structures around the sphere emitted the only remaining "afterglow."

Under the condition that the sun was extinguished, the two rings of light even seemed a little dazzling!

However, the "dazzling" light projected onto the mortal world could only barely dispel the darkness of the entire world.

Duncan came to the deck, his face particularly solemn, and looked up at the black sphere without saying a word. Everyone ran out of the room!

Gathered on the deck, looking at the strange and inexplicable sky, Vanna was praying in a low voice, Morris frowned, Shirley hugged A Gou tightly and hid behind Duncan; Nina hugged Duncan's arm, her face full of nervousness and panic.

Faint golden lights were already faintly fluctuating in the latter's eyes. Only Alice showed incredible "calm" at this moment--she simply supported her head with one hand and looked up, curiously looking at the extinguished sun, as if she had suddenly seen something new and strange, without any fear.

Lacking common sense, she did not seem to fully understand what was happening at the moment.

A swaying shadow suddenly appeared in the air near Duncan. The shadow quickly swelled and contracted, forming Agatha's outline.

"The spirit world is normal, Captain?" she said quickly to Duncan.

"Everything else on the ship is fine."

Duncan nodded slightly.

As a mirror image, Agatha can travel through the mirror world and check every cabin on the Cindered Shadows in an instant. At the same time, she has "eyes" that can see through the spirit world and can confirm the state of the "deep world" around the Cindered Shadows at any time.

In many cases, the information she "observes" is even more comprehensive than the information Duncan "perceives."

"Captain." Shirley hugged A Gou's head and looked up at Duncan's usually giggling face, which was now full of fear and panic.

"What's going on...is this the thing you warned about before?"

Duncan did not answer Shirley for a while, but frowned and carefully observed the sky. After a long time, he opened his mouth in a low voice as if talking to himself, "The Worldscar has not appeared?"

"Worldscar?"

Morris on the side was stunned when he heard this!

Then he reacted and looked up at the sky. "Indeed, the Worldscar is still in a hidden state, which means..."

"The sun is still in effect," Duncan nodded lightly.

"It's just that the 'lighting' function is turned off for some reason? But its suppression effect on the Worldscar is still there."

"Will the sun light up again?" Alice suddenly turned her head and asked curiously.

Duncan had no answer, but he nodded slightly. "It should--this huge anomaly has been running stably for ten thousand years. Even if something goes wrong, it won't suddenly collapse completely, at least...not today."

Alice was relieved and smiled happily, "Oh, that's good, my quilt hasn't been晒呢!" (Translator's note: I couldn't find a proper translation to the phrase 晒呢, so I kept the original sentence.)

Listening to the words of this heartless doll, Duncan couldn't help but smile slightly. Then he lowered his head and rubbed Nina's hair.

Nina raised her head, and pale golden flames burned in her pupils. The light of a star was brewing in the flames. She nodded lightly, then released her hands holding Duncan's arm.

After a moment!

Dazzling light suddenly rose from the deck--Nina instantly transformed into an arc of blazing flames. This miniature sun orbited Duncan twice, then lightly jumped onto the mast, flew into the sky, and finally hung high on the highest mast of the Cindered Shadows--hovering stably dozens of meters above the mast. The arc of flames swirled there, and the firelight condensed into a small, fierce sun. "Sunlight" once again illuminated the Cindered Shadows and a small area of the surrounding sea. In the distant sky, anomaly 001 still maintained its extinguished state!

But at least within the range illuminated by the "sun fragment," reassuring warmth and light once again enveloped everyone.

Duncan breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that in this situation, light could best stabilize people's hearts. "Alright, now I should go confirm the situation in other places."