There was a shadow, a shadow beyond Silantis, always floating in this vast dark space constructed of Silantis's dreams and memories.

Now, Duncan discovered its existence for the first time.

"By the name of Lahem!" exclaimed Luen, his eyes wide as he stared at the massive structure that finally emerged from the darkness above in the glow of the eerie green fire. "What is that thing?!"

Duncan didn't answer. He simply walked to the window, his expression unusually solemn as he gazed at the dark structure that seemed to be crushing Silantis, yet was frozen in a single moment. After a moment, his eyes finally changed slightly, as if he suddenly understood something—

"The Great Annihilation... So that's how it is..."

…

Corruption and distortion were spreading through the forest, across the land, and throughout the entire world.

Something invisible was "invading" this elven homeland. Where it spread, the earth writhed and heaved like swollen flesh, countless fangs and eyes opened in the shadows, trees grew wildly, then dissolved and ascended like flames... Everything seemed to have lost its existing order, transforming into something else in a frenzy of grotesque, nightmare-like changes.

Sharp, terrifying roars and screams constantly swept through the entire forest, howling through the massive canopy structure of Silantis, echoing肆意through heaven and earth as if to tear apart the soul.

Shelly, still in shock, looked down at the earth, watching as the lush, vibrant land of moments ago had turned into a bizarre purgatory that even nightmares couldn't describe, watching the gaping abyssal mouths and the swelling, contracting flesh and shadows that had opened in the forest, instinctively clutching the raised edges of the "paper boat."

"This thing really won't fall, will it?"

She glanced again at the "little boat" folded from paper beneath her feet, and confirmed with the witch小姐 beside her with great trepidation.

Just moments before, when a terrifying "erosion" phenomenon suddenly erupted throughout the forest, and it seemed there was no way out, Lucrezia produced a piece of paper before her eyes, folded a small boat, and pulled her onto it—Shelly couldn't understand the principle behind this bizarre "witchcraft" at all. All she knew was that the boat was now floating above that terrifying land, and the feel of the paper beneath her feet made her afraid to even breathe.

Even the dog beside her carefully retracted its claws, curled up into a ball, as if afraid of accidentally tearing the bottom of the paper boat.

"Well, I've never fallen," Lucrezia said, already taking out more white paper, skillfully folding more bizarre things without looking up. "If you're too worried, just close your eyes and pretend you're lying on the sofa at home."

"That's impossible!" Shelly exclaimed instinctively, followed by another gasp as the boat swayed in the wind. Then she noticed Lucrezia's movements. "What are you still folding?!"

"Soldiers, the 'winged flying soldiers' that Ginny Heddle described in *Cloud City*," Lucrezia said casually. "We need to know what's happening in other places, and if we really encounter enemies, we need some fighting power to protect this boat."

As she spoke, she casually threw the folded paper figures in her hand into the air outside the paper boat—several exquisite paper figures opened their wings in the air, and their size quickly became like that of real people. They bowed to Lucrezia, and then quickly flew into the distance.

Shelly stared blankly at this scene, but just as she opened her mouth to say something, a voice seemed to drill directly into her mind, interrupting her conversation with Lucrezia: "...In the beginning, there were those 'erosions,' on the border of the world, things began to become bizarre and terrifying..."

Shelly and Lucrezia looked at each other at the same time. They both heard the voice—a somewhat childish voice, like a little girl.

It was the voice of Silantis.

The whistling wind stirred up more dust, but the storm in the desert had disappeared at some point. Only disordered dust and mist rose in the field of vision, blurring the view and distorting the distant scenery.

"When the weather first changed, scholars issued warnings, urging people to prepare—but prepare for what?"

The giant's voice rang out in the sandstorm, thick, steady, like a stone standing in the wind.

Vanna stood in this endless sandstorm, gazing at the "Great Tower" in the distance.

She had returned to this place called the "Archives" with the giant, back to this great pit that symbolized the end of civilization. She didn't know why the giant had brought her back here, but she could feel that some earth-shattering change was taking place—centered on this "Archives," something terrifying was drawing back the curtain.

The sound of something being torn apart suddenly came, the huge noise seeming enough to shatter mountains.

Vanna looked up in astonishment, looking at the huge red crack in the sky, gazing at the red light that represented the end—in the surging scarlet light, she saw undulating shadows. The thing that destroyed this world was finally beginning to reveal a trace of its true face before her eyes—

…

Fire appeared in the forest—without a definite source, as if in an instant, countless trees became blazing torches, and a tidal wave of destruction began to burn the world tree that covered the earth in the blink of an eye.

Shelly watched in horror as the flames spread through her vision, watching everything—the distorted earth, the lush forest, the shadows in the air, the tendrils and flesh spreading and growing between heaven and earth, all engulfed by flames in an instant.

She heard a huge noise, countless creatures screaming in the flames, and she also heard terrifying thunder, but the thunder did not come from the sky, but from the branches of Silantis breaking in the flames and distortion, falling on the earth like continuous giant peaks.

The paper boat swayed back and forth in the howling heat, and the terrible scene of heaven and earth burning at the same time made Shelly instinctively curl up in the small boat. In her curled-up position, she looked up at the sky, saw the edges of Silantis's branches breaking off in the sky, burning with blazing flames and falling around the small boat, and in the rumbling collapse of the canopy, she finally could see the true appearance of the sky.

A suffocating, terrifying shadow filled her vision, and she felt as if her heart had stopped beating at that moment.

She heard Silantis speaking in her heart—or rather, the entire world was telling her about the destruction and demise that occurred in ancient times—

"...Then, the sky fell, an invisible thing struck our world, slowly struck our world... We couldn't see it, couldn't understand it, and couldn't think about it... What about you? You things that sprang up after the darkness, can you see it?"

Vanna's eyes widened, watching as the scarlet crack in the sky gradually bloomed in her vision, the entire sky gradually tearing apart like some kind of broken eggshell, and then凹陷toward the center in a chilling way. Then, a sea of burning fire slowly rolled down from the shattered sky—

"As their 'god,' I felt 'it' coming earlier than them. I felt something invisible approaching our world. I felt the end of history—a crack appeared on the chronological pillar in my hand. Nothing was recorded after that. The flames... extinguished at the end of my vision."

A low, suppressed whistling sound and a strange creaking sound came from the sky and the earth, as if the world itself was making a final groan. Vanna finally understood what she was seeing, finally understood the "answer" that the giant had never understood.

A tall figure walked out from the corner of her eye, coming to the edge of the giant pit.

Vanna saw the giant standing there, raising his head and looking up at the sky.

"Beginning with fire and stone, ending with fire and stone—traveler, I feel it, 'it' is coming again... You see it, right? You see it more clearly than me... Because you come from a different time stream than me, you come from after the darkness, you have a pair of eyes that were born after that, you can understand it..."

…

On the paper boat, in Shelly and Lucrezia's vision, the upside-down land kept lowering, and they could finally see many structures on its surface—

In a certain moment, Shelly felt as if she saw continuous mountains and abundant rivers on that upside-down continent, saw giant stone cities standing on the mountains and plains, saw huge canals and winding roads connecting countless lights, and under the lights, there were countless fertile fields.

But in the next moment, she saw that land suddenly fall into荒芜. After some kind of..."boiling" illusion, that land became a desert and gravel Gobi.

Another world was crushing down.

The land falling from the sky first touched the canopy of Silantis.

Silently, the final collapse of all things spread from that "contact point" to the entire world...

In the increasingly frenzied and disordered sandstorm, in front of Vanna's eyes, the giant tower that symbolized the "last person in the world" seemed to be changing.

It began to shake, began to crack. The surface of its upper layer, which was like charred rock, suddenly cracked, and after collapsing and falling off, it revealed a grayish-white..."skin."

The giant tower began to shrink, as if time was reversing. It was shrinking little by little, little by little turning back into the appearance of a "person."

An upside-down, burning forest had completely replaced the entire sky, and another continent had crushed into this world. In that raging forest, Vanna finally saw some of the terrain that her companions had described and seen when they acted in the Nameless Dream.

The "tower" finally collapsed.

At this moment when the entire world recalled the Doomsday, he also recalled his original appearance in his memory.

He became a person.

A Senkin with skin like stone and metal-like纹路on his body.

His size continued to shrink, and soon, it would shrink to the point where Vanna couldn't even see it from this distance.

He seemed to be calling out in terror—in the last minute before the Great Annihilation, this "person" who had been frozen for countless years finally took a step in the time stream.

"Traveler," the giant's voice came. The old god in his tattered robe bent down toward Vanna. He slammed his huge staff hard on the ground, then reached into his arms with his other hand and placed something in front of Vanna. "Take it."

Vanna stared in astonishment at the thing the giant handed her.

It was a shining sun, quietly burning in the long river of time...

She raised her head, but before she could ask a question, the giant had gently shaken his head: "You can take it now—traveler, I remember now, I remember everything... Our sun is free, take it, it shouldn't continue to sink in this illusion."

Vanna stretched out her hand somewhat blankly—the bright little ball fell into her palm.

Emitting warm heat.

The giant smiled, slowly straightened up, and turned his head.

"What are you going to do?" Vanna asked in astonishment behind him.

"Tell him not to be afraid."

"Wait..."

"It's okay, traveler, the journey will always end, we will always say goodbye to each other one day... Because Talu Jin died, a long, long time ago.

"Also, I'll give you the staff as a souvenir."

The giant didn't turn his head until the end. He just waved his hand, and then took a step toward the deep pit.

With each step, his body became taller.

But with each step, his figure also became more illusory.

The ruins called "Archives" also gradually disappeared in the giant's footsteps.

The god who recorded history finally disappeared in the sandstorm, and the last person recorded by history also disappeared in the slow and unstoppable collision of the two worlds—

In this boundless荒芜and sandstorm, Vanna slowly raised her head.

Burning Silantis hung high above this world.

Now the time is the last second of the Great Annihilation.

The Senkin's world was destroyed in the final collision with Silantis.

(End of chapter)