Chapter 242 “Opposite”

Chapter 242 “The Opposite Side”

An entire continent hanging upside down and slowly moving overhead, its ponderous and eerie shadows enough to cover four-fifths of the field of vision, the oppressive force of this scene was staggering – so much so that even Duncan had a suffocating sensation at this moment, and couldn’t even help but want to avert his gaze.

But he forcibly controlled this urge to avert his gaze, and instead forced himself to tilt his head back and further scrutinize the upside-down fragment of the star.

He didn’t know what was going on here, he didn’t know how he got here, and he didn’t know how to get back – but that was precisely why it was all the more important for him to observe all suspicious sights and gather any intelligence that might come in handy.

Was that inverted piece of celestial wreckage …… actual? Or was it merely a terrifying vision? Was it a corpse left behind after some world had fallen apart? Or is it merely a twisted projection of subspace’s dislocated space-time?
The inverted land slowly drifted over in a tilted trajectory, and the distance between the ship and the Lost Country was getting closer and closer, Duncan suddenly became nervous, because he realized that the direction of the ship under his feet seemed to be close to the edge of the “continent”, and there was a possibility that the two might collide!
But just as the continent is getting closer and closer, the stern of the Lost Country ship is about to touch the edge of the continent of a broken mountain, but Duncan suddenly felt a tremor under the feet of the deck.

Immediately afterward, it was as if he heard a disembodied shout coming from nowhere, heard harsh creaks and rattles coming from all parts of the dilapidated and ancient ghost ship, which broke the silence aboard the Lost Country, and the next instant the massive hull beneath him began to steer slightly – at a close and treacherous distance – and the Lost Country’s superstructure brushed against the shattered peak.

Duncan watched the movement of the ship in amazement, and listened again as the disembodied shouts and creaking noises faded to silence, but suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he seemed to catch something, and jerked his head up to look at the shattered peak that lay at the edge of the inverted continent – the

The Lost Country had by now drifted over the centerline of that peak, its worn masts almost grazing the latter’s dark, hazy peak, and now Duncan saw what lay behind it.

He saw a crag, as craggy as if it had been torn apart by brute force, and an immense humanoid creature leaning against it – “he” was almost as tall as the whole mountain, with long, thin, pale limbs, and a misshapen, swollen head, with one great, single eye set in a pitted face. On his pitted face was a huge one-eye, which was half-open and half-closed, from which a foul liquid flowed out and solidified into an amber-like droplet in mid-air.

This one-eyed giant had obviously died for many years, but his body still seemed to emit some kind of pressure and power, and there were no obvious wounds on his body, so he seemed to have died from exhaustion, and until the moment of his death, he had no visible wounds. “His hands were pressed against the cliff behind him, and his fingers were deeply pierced into the rocks of the cliff.

Faded colors of the black continent, and died on the edge of the continent cliff pale Cyclops, in the chaotic darkness of subspace, under the light of a long “lightning”, this black and white absolute scene is extremely deeply imprinted in Duncan’s mind.

Afterwards, the flash of light that had lasted for a long time finally faded away – it crossed from the middle of the continent and began to dissipate from the center, and in Duncan’s field of vision, the inverted land gradually returned to darkness.

But he still looked up, knowing that the continent was not completely far away, that the last bit of its structure was still slowly drifting over the Lost Country, and it was as if he could hear the low rumble of that heavy, massive thing slowly crushing overhead – and even though he knew it was only his own delusion, that rumbling delusion was still reverberating in his mind as if it were the last lament of a dead world remaining in subspace.

Duncan finally withdrew his gaze and slowly looked around, to the vast chaos beyond the ship’s side.

Every now and then a turbulence of light and shadow surfaced, every now and then a bright flash of light cut through the darkness, and in this obscure and chaotic nothingness those flashes of light and turbulence of light and shadow occasionally reflected something, all of them large and small clumps of unnamable shadows.

Duncan drew in a soft breath and looked down at the ship at his feet – the Lost Country, which was very different from the one he knew so well, and which presented a sense of wreckage at every turn.

He closed his eyes slightly, wanting to try and communicate with the ship – as he had communicated with the intact Lost Country in the real world – to get to know this ghost ship floating in subspace.

But in the next second, he snapped his eyes open.

He couldn’t feel the ship-not couldn’t communicate, but couldn’t feel the ship at all!

The moment his senses spread, he “felt” that the ship under his feet had disappeared, there were no decks, masts, or cabins at all, and he even felt that he was floating alone in this vast chaos, and the ensuing sense of emptiness and misalignment of his senses directly interrupted his state of concentration.

Duncan took a dismayed look at the structure of the ship around him, and raised his foot to the deck again, as if he couldn’t believe that the ship that was carrying him right in front of him was actually just a phantom.

Or …… was it actually himself who was the “phantom”?
Duncan’s mind was racing for a moment, then he shook his head and stepped toward the hatch that led to the lower deck.

He decided to continue with his exploration program.

Regardless of what was going on with this ship, regardless of why it appeared to be in a state of “non-existence” in his perception, at least it was indeed carrying him, and did not show any expulsion or hostility towards himself as the “captain”, which gave Duncan the motivation and confidence to continue exploring. This gave Duncan the motivation and confidence to continue exploring.

He went down the steps and entered the empty cabin on the lower deck.

He opened several cabins in a row, all of which were in the same old state of disrepair, with suspicious black stains covering the walls and roof, and all of which were empty – some of which Duncan remembered as being full of storage, but which now only had tattered walls and pillars.

He’d also made a point of finding the cabin where Alice had stayed, and it was of course just as empty – somehow that was rather a relief.

He didn’t want them in this weird and ghastly place any more than he wanted to see someone or something familiar to him here.

After leaving Alice’s room, Duncan made his way directly through the crew and dining areas, heading deeper into the ship’s hold.

As he crossed over to the middle storage area, he hesitated briefly for two minutes in front of the staircase that led deeper.

He had explored those areas on the Lost Country in the Dimension of Reality, and knew that beneath them lay the light and shadow reversal of the ship’s hold, as well as the “shattered bilge” that lay deeper down – but on that quest, he had taken a special lantern with him.

The lamp helped him to expand his senses, and to reveal in advance the dangerous corners of the cabin that were twisted and mutated.

But here, he did not find that lamp. After a moment’s hesitation, though, Duncan decided to move on.

The situation here had changed a long time ago compared to the real dimension, even if he found the lamp, it might not work in the cabin below, and the main ability of the lamp was to expand his perception – but in his perception, this ship didn’t exist at all, so what’s the point of expanding his perception a few times?
Duncan simply raised his sword in his hand and flicked his fingers over the blade, a ghostly green flame then burned across the blade, bringing limited illumination.

Using the sword as a lamp, he picked his way down the stairs and walked slowly.

A dark and open cabin appeared in his vision.

This was the cabin of the “Light and Shadow Reversal” – in the reality dimension, this cabin was filled with oil lamps, but the light from the oil lamps and the darkness in the corners of the cabin appeared to be the state of light and shadow reversal, the more light there was, the darker it was, and the more lightless the corners were, the brighter it was. The more light there is, the darker it is, and the more lightless the corner, the brighter it is.

Duncan looked around.

There was no light and shadow inversion here, there was just a uniform chaotic dimness, and the spirit flames burning from the sword blade didn’t trigger any light and shadow inversion mechanism, but illuminated the surrounding normally.

“…… This place is much more normal.”

Duncan couldn’t help but grunt softly, then cautiously walked through the empty place and continued forward until another staircase came into his view.

This staircase led to the bilge of the Lost Country, the place that was falling apart.

Duncan stood in front of the staircase and inhaled softly, taking a step downward.

A door appeared at the end of the stairs.

Duncan subconsciously looked up at the frame of the door – which, he remembered, had a message written on it indicating that it was the last door in the bilge.

There was nothing on the doorframe.

There was no warning left for posterity, no instructions to guide the way forward, it was just a plain wooden door, slightly open as if welcoming the visitor to step through it.

Duncan was not too surprised, but simply withdrew his gaze in silence, gripping his burning sword tightly in one hand as he slowly pushed the door open with the other.

Across from the door was a similarly dimly lit place, an old and dilapidated cabin.

But it was intact.

The first thing Duncan noticed as he stepped into the place was the intact structure of the bulkheads around it – despite its dilapidated state, there was not even a single gap in the bulkheads here, and naturally, he could not see beyond them.

The bottom of the ship in the real dimension was in tatters, but the bottom of the ship here was so intact?

A strange feeling flooded Duncan’s mind while he continued to walk forward, and within a few steps, he suddenly stopped.

In the depths of the hazy and dim cabin in front of him, there stood an ancient and obsolete door out of thin air.

Duncan felt his heartbeat jump half a beat faster, followed by a quick step forward, while the appearance of the door was clearly reflected in his eyes.

It was exactly the same as the door at the bottom of the Lost Country ship in the reality dimension!
Duncan reached the door, and the first thing he noticed was that the door was slightly open – a crack inward.

And through that crack in the door, he could vaguely see the opposite side.

There was a fragmented cabin with a faintly bright light floating in it.

Duncan jerked his head back and looked at the place he was in.

The ancient, crumbling cabin, dim and dusty, abandoned for who knew how long – just as he had seen in the crack of that door when he had first explored the bilge of the Lost Country with Alice.

Duncan was finally sure of what he had suspected from the start – that

This is on the “opposite side of the door”.

(End of chapter)