Lei·Nora's tone was calm and composed, as if many years ago, she had already planned out the final scene of her destiny – whether it was being forever trapped in a nightmare or suffering eternal exile, it was just a necessary part of those planned futures.

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

But this attitude of resignation made Duncan feel strange.

"Are you really willing to give everything for Frost? Even more than life itself?" He turned his head, curiously looking into Lei·Nora's eyes. "You lived in the underground cages of the church for more than ten years, and you weren't treated as human until you were twelve. You were monitored, shackled, and tested. Your every thought, every word you said in your sleep, was repeatedly analyzed as a potential betrayal of humanity. You did everything you could, but in the end, you were still crowned the 'Mad Queen' and sent to 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 high gauze curtains, as if her thoughts had spread far, far away. After who knows how long, she suddenly smiled and shook her head: "Yes... Why am I doing this..."

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

"You know, they could have burned me to death – very, very early on, the day I first woke up from a nightmare, before I learned to say 'Papa' and 'Mama', before I realized I was human... Captain, perhaps my statement has misled you. You think I should resent that cold city, but in fact... that city did everything it could to keep me alive.

"And on a broader scale, it is our delicate and fragile 'civilized world' that is doing everything it can to keep everyone alive – including natural psychics like me, even if they have to use chains, use iron cages, and keep me in a dungeon for ten years. They never expected me to die in that cold place... They expected me to come back as a human being.

"I don't resent anyone, Captain. They didn't treat me cruelly – because this world treats everyone cruelly, and everyone is just doing their best."

The former Frost Queen sighed softly, then finally slowly got up and walked down from her cage-like bed – the only difference between this bed and the ten years she spent in the cathedral cellar was perhaps the lack of a circle of bars.

She strolled to the end of the room, came to Duncan, and looked out at the chaotic, dark Deep Sea.

"My parents and the people in the church did their best to keep me alive. I and my supporters did our best to keep the city-state safe. Governor Winston and his predecessors did their best to complete the work I failed to do – but in many cases, doing your best doesn't necessarily mean success. Failure naturally has its price."

She slowly raised her arm and pointed to the huge tentacles in the darkness.

"Even the Ancient Gods, aren't they facing failure?"

"...If your theory is correct, then new flawed replicas will inevitably appear, awakening from the creations of the mortal world," Duncan pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "Destroying the flawed replicas here will not solve the root of the problem for the whole world."

"There will be others 'doing their best'," Lei·Nora said calmly, turning to look at Duncan. "What about you? Will you take action?"

Duncan was silent. After a moment, he softly broke the silence: "Do my best."

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

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

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

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

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

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 through the door: "It's you?!"

Duncan stopped. After a brief moment of confusion, he finally realized why the Frost Queen would react this way.

"I don't think this counts as contaminating history," he said, keeping the posture of stepping into the door, tilting his head slightly. "What do you say?"

"So that's how it is... so that's how it is..." Lei·Nora murmured to herself, her face changing rapidly several times, as if many things that had troubled her for years had suddenly become clear. Then, as if a faint light gradually appeared in her eyes, she showed a truly heartfelt bright expression for the first time, and looked up at Duncan, waving her hand as if saying goodbye to an old friend many years ago. "Go ahead, do it with confidence. I think... we are making the right judgment."

Duncan took one last deep look at the Frost Queen, said nothing more, and stepped into the rotating door of flames.

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

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

She slowly withdrew her gaze, turned around, stood at the shattered end of the room, looking at the Ancient God's tentacles in a state of suspended animation, looking at her nightmare of the past half-century, and all the fate and responsibility.

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

A slight tremor appeared underfoot, and quickly grew stronger over time.

The mansion was shaking, the power supporting the dream was fading, the "connecting point" between the Drifting Land and the outside world was rapidly disintegrating and disappearing. The darkness outside the room seemed to surge suddenly, with countless layers of ripples and light and shadow frantically expanding and then retreating into the darkness. And the "Ancient God's Tentacle" began to change in the sudden, unbalanced light and shadow – it seemed to be bending, and a hazy structure extended and grew from its top, and crossed the uncertain boundaries of reality, drooping towards this shattered room and approaching.

Lei·Nora just stood quietly in front of this terrifying scene, watching the illusory, newborn, tiny tentacle constantly bending and extending towards herself, watching it finally come to the invisible boundary, the black "flesh" fitting against the surface of the invisible barrier, opening.

Lei·Nora slowly stretched out her hand and placed her palm on the surface of the spreading and fluctuating flesh, feeling everything it conveyed through the barrier of the dream – confusion, tension, unease, and a little regret.

"Yes... I know, you don't want to appear in this world... It will be over soon. Treat it as a dream. You will return to where you should be...

"I will leave too, soon. When the anchor breaks, it will be time to leave... I may go to a very far place, or I may never have another destination. Even if my calculations are correct, this will probably be a journey that is long beyond imagination... So if there is scenery to see, I will enjoy it."

The silent communication continued in the dream. In the last moment before the dream ended, Lei·Nora suddenly became a little sentimental.

"We've been together for so long, but I've never asked your name," she said, staring at the tentacle outside the boundary of the dream, feeling the chaotic and fragmented information it conveyed – most of which could not even be called complete "thoughts," but more like fragments of inspiration that occasionally erupted from a broken soul in difficult thought. But in half a century of being together, she had long been used to "talking" to this broken will. "Of course, I know the title of the Lord of the Deep, and I know you have other names... but that's not your name...

"Do you have a name? Whether it's yours, or that of your 'main body'... It's nothing, I'm just suddenly a little curious."

In a large area of chaotic noise and murmurs, a particularly clear thought suddenly came over.

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

A smile slowly appeared on her lips: "Lh-01... Ah, what a strange name... Navigator One? Is that your original name?

"Okay, I remember, nice to meet you, Navigator One, then... farewell, good morning."

A tsunami-like raging flame spread from the depths of the darkness to here, swallowing the tentacle that was touching the "Drifting Land" in the blink of an eye. In the burning flames, the Ancient God's flawed replica returned to dust, and the earth returned to earth.

The raging flames even briefly burned through the barrier of the dream, and at Lei·Nora's feet, in the air around her, on the edge of this room, bizarre yet brilliant fireworks bloomed.

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

The warm fire dissipated at her fingertips.

In the dark and cold Deep Sea, the suddenly rising ghostly flames illuminated the entire sea area almost like a coronal mass ejection, illuminating the dark floating island floating in the Deep Sea, illuminating those humanoid shells floating in the dark water, like a swarm of bees.

Duncan quietly floated on the edge of the dark floating island, watching the spiritual flames he had ignited burn fiercely, and its momentum even made him, the "arsonist," feel a deep shock.

(End of this chapter)