Chapter 45 The End of the Journey

The journey to the node of death seemed to be coming to an end. Against the extremely uniform grayish-white background outside the ship's rail, faint black lines had begun to appear, barely perceptible. Solid structures were appearing in the distance, slowly expanding in front of the Vanishing Sail and the Brilliant Star.

But for some reason, this scene, which Duncan had witnessed more than once, gave him an unusually…lonely and long feeling.

He stood quietly at the bow of the Vanishing Sail, waiting for the moment the transition ceased. Footsteps came from behind him. Without turning around, he knew who was approaching.

"Lucille," Duncan said softly, "We're almost there."

"I know," Lucretia came to Duncan's side, gazing with her father at the slowly changing landscape in the distance. "The last node, right? And then the return to the Storm Goddess's resting place…Every journey must come to an end."

"I'm sorry I have to leave alone again," Duncan sighed softly. Although he knew he was only occupying an 'avatar', he couldn't help but feel a lot of complicated emotions in his heart when facing Lucretia, and he couldn't tell how much of those emotions came from 'Duncan Abnomar'. "I promised you before…"

Before he could finish, Lucretia suddenly interrupted him: "You have already fulfilled your promise by bringing me to the end of the world."

As the Sea Witch spoke, she turned her head to look at Duncan with eyes as calm as a pool of water, her expression particularly serious. But after two or three seconds, she suddenly smiled, "What did you think would happen? That I would cry and fuss like a spoiled little girl, grabbing you and not letting you do important things? Or would I throw a tantrum at this time, scolding you so you embark on such an important journey with regret and frustration? And finally bury the hope of the whole world in my moment of bad mood?"

Looking at the 'witch' smiling in front of him, Duncan suddenly felt he didn't know what to say, and could only shrug helplessly with a smile.

"I'm not a child anymore, Father," Lucretia took a slow breath, a sweet smile on her face, looking very seriously into Duncan's eyes, "No matter what I do, I can't stop your next decision, and I can't find a better, feasible alternative to solve the problem for you, then the most appropriate choice is to keep smiling at this moment…That's what you taught me."

"…I don't remember," Duncan said very honestly.

"Always smile when saying goodbye," Lucretia said softly, accompanied by memories, "This way, if we can never see each other again, then at least when we remember each other, the last scene in our minds will be a bright smile."

Duncan didn't speak. He didn't want to be so tactless at this moment as to ask what the scene was like a century ago when the Vanishing Sail decided to sail towards the Eternal Curtain, when Lucretia and Tyrian said goodbye to the captain of the Vanishing Sail for the last time.

After a moment of silence, Lucretia suddenly raised her hand, staring at Duncan.

"What?" Duncan looked at her, puzzled.

"High-five," Lucretia said.

Duncan frowned subconsciously, "High-five?"

"Promise me, you will come back, and then high-five."

The Sea Witch said calmly. She looked up at the tall figure standing on the bow of the ship. The slowly shifting black lines gradually expanded in the background color in the distance. The figure of her father seemed to be gradually melting into the changing light and shadow. In a trance, she seemed to see again that afternoon when even the sunlight had faded, at the pier, her father stood in front of the gangplank leading to the Vanishing Sail, watching himself like a statue that would not speak.

"High-five, promise me and brother, you will come back safely." That's what she said at the time.

She was very young at that time. She was not yet the "Sea Witch" at that time. She couldn't remember whether she had a smile on her face at the time—most likely not, because at that time, she was far from being as mature and…hard as she is today.

In the yellowed memory, the tall figure finally turned and left in silence.

And a warm touch and a "smack" sound awakened Lucretia from that faded memory—she saw her father smiling, covering her palm with his wide palm.

Just like what her father did every time when he and her brother were young when he went out.

Then, the floating black light and shadow in the distance suddenly expanded, occupying the entire field of vision outside the Vanishing Sail and the Brilliant Star. The grayish-white background channel collapsed silently, and a distorted sound entered everyone's minds, "...transition…stop."

A vast wilderness without color, composed entirely of different gradients of black, white, and gray, came into Lucretia and Duncan's eyes—no coastline, no sea, only a desolate wilderness. Black and white weeds grew wildly on the wilderness, rising and falling in the wind, but without making a sound, like silent waves.

The Vanishing Sail and the Brilliant Star sailed on the undulating grass waves, silently sliding across this desolate wilderness shrouded in eternal night.

…

The night seems to have become eternal, and the sun will really never rise again.

Freem stood by the great bonfire of the Fire-Passing Ark, looking back again in the direction the Ark fleet came from, looking back at the borders of the civilized world, but he could still only see the endless darkness, seeing the clear and pale radiance of the Worldscar shining on the mirror-like sea, as if from the infinitely distant past to the infinitely distant future, the whole world has always been like this.

He withdrew his gaze and continued to pray in the firelight of the great bonfire.

The cold wind from the northern sea howled in his ears, accompanied by the low noise from the giant steam engines running deep in the Ark. Occasionally, he could hear distant crashing sounds or thunder-like continuous rumbles—that was the terrifying sound of the ice being crushed by the giant icebreaking mechanism in front of the Ark.

The Fire-Passing Ark was sailing further north. It had already crossed a series of "far northern city-states" including Frost, and now it had officially entered the permafrost sea area that had previously been regarded as the "end of civilization."

Here, endless ice replaced the sea, seeming to extend to the end of the world in the darkness. The hazy and undulating fog hovered deep in the ice field, rising and connecting to the sky. And in the sky light洒下 by the Worldscar, all of this was gleaming with a strange and uniform silver glow, even…seeming quite "bright."

After an unknown amount of time, Freem finally opened his eyes from prayer. He frowned slightly, sensing something, and a vague phantom split out from the shadows beside him and got up to walk towards the magnificent great bonfire in front.

As the historical doppelganger disappeared into the flames, he nodded lightly, raised his hand to summon a fire-guard attendant who had been waiting aside, and whispered something.

The attendant took the order and left. After a while, a low mechanical rumble came from deep in the Fire-Passing Ark. This extremely large engineering creation slowly and carefully adjusted its course, while resetting the operation mode of the icebreaking mechanism in front, and continued to sail deeper into the ice field.

Mixed in with the sound of ice cracking in the distance were some disturbing sharp noises.

A priestess wearing a black robe and skirt and covering her face with a veil appeared by the great bonfire and quickly came behind Freem, "Your Holiness, the icebreaking mechanism has a drive shaft broken."

"…Can it still be used?"

"The power is reduced by 30%, but it can still be used," the priestess said quickly. "However, the mechanicus priest warns that the fracture of the first drive shaft will cause a chain reaction in the near future. Other drive shafts may have problems in the next five to seven days, and then the icebreaking mechanism will be scrapped."

"It doesn't matter, it's good if it can still be used for the time being. It was originally a temporary addition to the Ark…After all, this 'ship' was not designed to sail in the ice sea from the beginning," Freem said, shaking his head slowly, "Don't worry, we're almost there."

The priestess turned her head and looked at the great bonfire burning in front of the Pope.

"Is the 'direction' indicated by the Lord ahead?"

"Yes," Freem nodded lightly. "The Lord told me in the illusion of fire that this is the focus of the timeline in the real dimension. The most important documents and archives must be sent here. This is the key to leaving a 'trace'. Unfortunately, the Lord's voice is very vague, and I cannot fully understand what He means by 'trace', but one thing is certain…This is very important."

The priestess didn't ask any more questions, but lowered her head and prayed devoutly in front of the great bonfire—she didn't expect to hear any response from the flames, because since a long time ago, only the Pope could hear the Lord's vague and muddled whispers, but "prayer" had become a part of the lifestyle of ordinary priests like her. Even without a response, she was used to doing so.

The wind on the ice sea was bitterly cold. The chill that could almost freeze the blood could no longer be covered by thick clothes or divine magic, but unknowingly, the priests on this Ark had begun to adapt to the cold here. The priests and sailors who had temporarily fallen ill due to the low temperature had also recovered one after another recently, which was somewhat a good thing.

The prayer was over. The priestess opened her eyes. The cold wind poured into her flesh, freezing her blood flow and heartbeat, but she still gained a trace of comfort from the prayer.

"I will notify the mechanics on the ship and ask them to extend the remaining life of the icebreaking mechanism as much as possible, and strive to keep those hydraulic hammers running until they reach the 'focus', but if the icebreaking mechanism can't hold on…we can only use explosives. We have stored a lot of explosives."

"Yes." Freem nodded lightly.

The priestess bowed slightly and stepped back, preparing to leave, but before leaving, she still looked up at the great bonfire again and couldn't help but mutter in a low voice—

"This fire is so cold."

(End of this chapter)