Chapter 14 Inconceivable Fate

In the first few minutes, Heidi did not rashly get out of bed. Instead, she carefully observed her surroundings, listened to the sounds outside the room, and then raised her wrist, checking the number and color arrangement of the colored stones on her bracelet.

After doing all this, she subconsciously reached out and touched the "amethyst" pendant on her chest—a slightly cool sensation came from her fingertips, conveying a reassuring power.

Thinking of the true origin of this pendant and the source of this protective power, the mental physician's expression was slightly strange, but soon, she suppressed this unusual feeling, leaving only a helpless sigh—

"Fate is truly incredible..." she couldn't help but murmur softly.

"Yes, in your eyes, fate is truly incredible."

A strange and deep voice suddenly came from the side, instantly startling Heidi, her whole body tensing up.

She turned her head sharply towards the direction of the voice, only to see near the window of the ward, a figure wearing a deep brown, old robe sitting there at some unknown time. The old robe concealed almost all the details of the person's figure, and the thick, wide hood completely shrouded their facial features in shadow. Only the hunched posture, the deep voice, and the few wrinkles at the edge of the hood's shadow suggested that this was an old person.

Sunlight was slanting into the room, and tiny dust particles were slowly floating and moving in the glow of the setting sun. The light left mottled and fragmented projections in the folds of the mysterious person's robe. In a daze, the figure looked somewhat like a semi-transparent phantom.

Who is this? When did they appear here? Were they here the whole time?

A series of terrifying questions instantly surfaced in Heidi's mind, and at the same time, her hand subconsciously reached for the suitcase next to the bed.

However, before her hand touched the suitcase, the deep, hoarse voice came again from near the window: "No need to be so hostile, Miss Heidi. I am not your enemy today—and your golden cone and pistol cannot kill a temporary traveler. Sit down, I'm just here to chat with you, consider it helping you relieve boredom."

Heidi still expressionlessly took the pistol from the suitcase's secret compartment, and while calmly pointing the gun at the other person, she said in a deep voice, "...Who are you?"

The figure in the robe did not answer Heidi, but slowly raised his arm, carefully examining his hands in the sunlight streaming in from the window, as if he had suddenly discovered something interesting. He placed his arm in the sunlight and observed it repeatedly.

The sleeves of the old robe slid down, revealing an arm as dry as a branch, wrinkles like cracks.

Heidi watched the other person's bizarre behavior with a wary expression, suddenly noticing the strange state of the arm in the sunlight—it was really becoming transparent from time to time. For a few moments, she could even see the sunlight passing through the arm and shining directly on this side.

"Unbelievable...I've almost forgotten what sunlight looks like..."

The person in the robe exclaimed, with an inexplicable emotion in his tone. Then, he suddenly turned his head, as if speaking to Heidi, yet also muttering to himself: "...Before the start of the Fourth Long Night, things will change, the sunlight will become gentler, and the once clearly defined 'boundaries' established by sunlight will also blur. Those who were once exiled, once forgotten, once erased, once changed, will be briefly allowed to return to this world—we bathe together in this twilight, waiting for the moment when the sun sets..."

The uninvited guest's voice was slow and gentle. Rather than speaking to someone, it was more like he was facing a written chapter, slowly reciting the ancient words on it.

Like a preacher, proclaiming fate to the world.

Listening to the other person's chanting, which seemed to possess a mysterious bewitching power, Heidi suddenly vaguely thought of something, and her eyes instantly sharpened: "Doomsday Preacher?!"

The figure in the robe finally raised his head, and in the hazy shadows cast by the hood, a pair of strangely golden eyes calmly stared at her: "Miss Heidi, you have established a connection with the Promised Ark. Did you see the end of the journey?"

"I'm not interested in the bewitchment of cultists." Heidi's voice was cold, her finger tightened slightly on the trigger, but her other hand subconsciously grabbed the amethyst pendant on her chest. A sense of tension gradually spread in her heart.

She was uncertain—although she had dealt with mental patients and their mental illnesses, and also with the monsters and shadows that appeared in nightmares, she had never dealt with a Doomsday Preacher, this kind of "rare enemy." There was very little information recorded in the mortal world about these subspace lunatics, and there was no targeted training against these cultists in the defensive courses of the Truth Academy's affiliated martial arts school. She didn't know how much effect the gun in her hand could have, nor whether the extraordinary powers she possessed would be effective.

However, the uninvited guest did not react in any way when he saw Heidi's obviously hostile actions.

He seemed very different from the Doomsday Preachers Heidi had learned about in textbooks.

"We smelled an unusual scent, Miss Heidi, after that Promised Ark descended," he said leisurely, even politely, "A huge, boundless void, it appeared after the end, there is nothing there...We are searching for a way to avoid the end, but now it seems that outside the end is a vast nothingness even more terrifying than the end...You have touched Him, and now, you have also become a part of this void, which makes us very curious...What exactly happened?"

The uninvited guest's words sounded insane, obscure and difficult to understand, like one riddle after another. It was as if, although he had reason, he had lost the ability to communicate normally with ordinary people in the long and chaotic years. However, even so, Heidi still captured some vague information from his words, and couldn't help but feel a stir in her heart.

She frowned slightly.

"Are you saying...Duncan Abnomal? Are you saying he brought some kind of 'void'?"

The old preacher slowly stood up from the chair. In the sunlight, his figure was much taller than Heidi had imagined. Even with his hunched posture, he was still like a giant: "I don't know. We only know that the void has been created, and it is expanding. Perhaps one day, it will cover the entire night sky of this Fourth Long Night..."

Heidi became nervous because of the other person's sudden actions, and the muzzle of the gun followed, raising slightly: "Heretic, what do you want from me?"

"...We are eager to know the nature of this void," he actually seriously answered her question, but soon, he shook his head, "Unfortunately, it seems I have come at the wrong time."

Heidi was stunned when she heard this, and subconsciously asked: "What does that mean?"

The other person did not answer, but slowly turned around, looking at the sunlight outside the window.

"What do you mean by the Fourth Long Night you mentioned earlier?" Heidi quickly followed up.

The uninvited guest simply waved his hand.

"During this window period, we can only have limited communication—the time to leave has come," the Doomsday Preacher said softly, and stepped towards the sunlight, "We may meet in the next window period, or we may not, depending on the expansion speed of the void...But whether the next window appears or not, we will meet again sooner or later...Twilight is near."

His figure finally became completely transparent and instantly dissolved in the sunlight.

Heidi was stunned.

If the memories in her mind were not clear and stable, if the sensations from the pistol and the amethyst pendant were not so distinct, she would almost have thought she had just had another dream.

And then, as the Doomsday Preacher's aura completely disappeared, she suddenly felt a subtle change in the "atmosphere" of the room.

It seemed that some kind of sealing power had receded from the room.

Slightly hurried footsteps came from the hallway outside the ward.

...

On the *Deep Sea Embers*, in the captain's room, Duncan sat quietly at the navigation table, still recalling the information he had seen and sensed in that strange dream earlier.

After an unknown amount of time, Maurice's voice suddenly sounded from the side, interrupting his thoughts: "I thought you would consider letting Heidi join this ship."

Duncan raised his head, smiled at the old gentleman, and said, "Didn't you say before that you didn't want her to get too close to the *Deep Sea Embers*?"

"At that time...I was still a little nervous about this ship," Maurice smiled awkwardly, then shook his head, "And Heidi didn't know anything about us at that time. Now that she knows, there's no need to avoid it any further."

Duncan thought for a while and said quite seriously: "Indeed, but after thinking carefully, it seems that this ship doesn't need a psychologist."

Then he turned his head, glanced out the window, and said casually: "Who needs psychological counseling here? You don't need it, Agatha doesn't need it, and I don't need it even more. Vanna's will is so strong that even I am shocked, Shirley's sanity is bound to A Gou, A Gou is an abyssal demon, Nina is a fragment of the sun, Alice...Alice simply has no brains, is there anyone else? Goat Head?"

The goat head on the navigation table immediately turned his neck when he heard his name: "Ah, great captain, your first mate is always tough and reliable, and will not be defeated by so-called psychological problems. Moreover, I have self-studied many psychology courses and am fully capable of self..."

"Shut up."

"Oh."

"So, you see," Duncan turned to Maurice, spread his hands, "If Heidi comes, then the person on this ship who is most likely to need a psychologist would probably be herself."

Maurice pondered for a moment, silently picked up his pipe, and muttered before putting it in his mouth: "Seems like it..."

(End of chapter)