Chapter 542.
Chapter 542 – The Divide
Duncan knew that his idea was bold and bizarre, to the extent that even in this bizarre and unpredictable era of the deep sea seems to be too outrageous – the transformation of a real celestial body into this ten-meter-diameter “stone ball”, and make it float on the surface of the sea! This can no longer be described as delusional.
But once this idea surfaced, it was hard for him to expel it completely from his mind, and no matter how much he felt that this was unthinkable, he couldn’t help associating it with it.
Because …… is really too much like, not only appearance like, but also a strong …… “intuition”, and even a kind of as if across the time, across the world dimension of the “Affinity”, is surging in his mind.
Duncan looked at the sphere in front of him, which presented a pale texture, and for a moment, he even felt that he had returned to that familiar world, gazing at the …… moon of his hometown.
He just stared fixedly at the moon that was floating right next to the side of the Radiant Star, his expression maintaining a stagnant one for a long time, until there were footsteps coming from beside him, until Lucrecia’s voice came into his ears, “Father, this is it.”
Duncan turned his head, a moment when he himself didn’t realize how strange his face looked, “Ah …… yes, that’s it ……”
Lucrecia, of course, noticed the strangeness in Duncan’s look and tone, and she seemed vaguely nervous for a moment, followed by concern in her tone, “Are you alright? Your face doesn’t look very good …… Is there something wrong with this stone ball?”
“It …… is fine, thank you for your concern, Lucy,” Duncan waved his hand and tried to adjust his expression, then turned his head again and pointed at the stone ball, “It… …”
He paused.
He had no idea how to explain this to Lucrecia, how to describe the concept of the Moon, how to explain the other world, and how he was reacting to it, as he had done in front of Tirion – he didn’t even know how to explain what “planet” meant. He didn’t even know how to explain what “planet” meant.
So all he could do was open his mouth, and then stiffly change the subject: “Has it changed since it fell? Was it like this in the beginning?”
“Yes, it started out like this,” Lucrecia immediately nodded, and followed up by recounting the general process of how she had discovered the fallen object, adding a few more details about the process of transferring it to Lightwind Harbor, “… . it floats in the air at a certain height from the surface by an unknown mechanism, it stays exactly where it is in the absence of interference but can be towed by a ship with external force, it’s interior is solid and dense, a few discreet samples have proved that its internal texture is similar to that of a stone, but so far we’ve only been able to collect a relatively shallow component – -The deeper we go the harder it gets, and a drill won’t cut it at all ……”
Duncan listened quietly and asked again, “Besides that? What else have you found?”
“We also tried to unravel the mystery of all this ‘light’ around us,” Lucrecia continued, “The huge geometric Luminous body that wraps around the ‘Stone Sphere’ constantly releases ‘sunlight’ outward on a scale capable of illuminating the entire city-state, yet this light does not emanate from the ‘Stone Sphere,’ or at least it does not ‘glow’ in the way that we understand the term ‘ – the light is ‘generated’ directly in the nearby space and then dispersed outward in an even manner.
“To verify this, we had constructed a very large light-shading shed that completely shrouded the stone sphere, which proved to have no effect whatsoever on the glowing geometry or on the ‘sunlight’ on the nearby waters ……
“In addition, we have confirmed that the surface of the stone sphere is covered with a very, very fine layer of ‘dust’ that is ‘attached’ to the sphere by an unknown force, and although it can be scraped off for sampling, without an external influence they do not won’t ‘fall’ from the sphere, even the dust at the bottom of the sphere is the same, it’s as if there’s some invisible force ‘adhering’ to them …… “
Lucrecia did her best to explain to Duncan the various tests that the scholars have done on the “stone sphere”, explaining the information that she knows so far.
During this process, she had been paying attention to the changes in Duncan’s expression, trying to guess what kind of mood was hidden underneath her father’s overly serious and grave expression at the moment.
However, she couldn’t see through it. All of her father’s thoughts seemed to be covered by a thick layer of clouds, shrouded in the depths of that familiar yet unfamiliar majestic face, the only thing she could be sure of was that her father really cared about this “stone ball” – more so than she and Tyrian thought. than she and Tirion had ever imagined.
After a long silence, Duncan finally spoke, “You’ve done a lot of sampling?”
“Yes, scraped samples of the surface of the stone sphere in various parts of it, and that sampling continues now,” Lucrecia nodded, “The depths of the stone sphere are very hard and difficult to sample, but its surface is relatively ‘loose’ somewhat, and was able to scrape off grayish-white debris that exhibits properties not dissimilar to stone dust ……”
Saying this, she paused for a moment, looked at Duncan with some hesitation, and raised her hand to point at the floating platform not far away that was used to study the stone ball: “Would you like to go over there with me to take a look?”
“…… Good.”
Duncan and Lucrecia arrived at the “research station” built by the elves, and through the connecting bridge on the upper level of the research station, they arrived at a platform that was directly connected to the surface of the stone ball.
Ten meters in diameter is insignificant for a celestial body, but as a near-by object, it is still considered a huge object, even if we don’t count the height it floats on the surface of the sea, only the diameter of the sphere itself is more than the height of a three-story building.
The elves had fixed a platform at the “waist” of the behemoth and secured it with a ring around the orb and a series of anchor bolts and diagonal braces; the platform was small, only a few square meters, but it was large enough to land on.
Duncan stood on this platform, reaching forward, gently touching the …… moon.
A rough, cool touch came from his fingertips, like stroking a stone.
He withdrew his hand, looked at the small amount of grayish-white dust that had stained his fingertips, rubbed his fingers, and let the gray dust drift slowly down.
Some of the dust slowly drifted towards the sphere, landing back on its surface. “This phenomenon also puzzles us,” Lucrecia’s voice came from the side, “The dust scraped off the sphere seems to be attracted to the sphere itself, and when close enough, the debris will return to the surface of the sphere of its own accord, yet this ‘attraction ‘ only exists between the substance of the stone sphere itself, we’ve done tests with other light powders ……”
Duncan hmmmed, but didn’t say much.
“I heard from my brother that you called this odd stone sphere the ‘moon’,” Lucrecia said while cautiously watching Duncan’s reaction, “and you seemed excited at the sight of it …… Do you know anything about this stone ball?”
“It ……” Duncan hesitated for a moment, then finally spoke slowly, “It doesn’t look like what I know it to look like anymore, it should be big, far bigger than what it is now… …”
“Big?” Lucrecia blinked, “Bigger than the Lost Country?”
“Much bigger than that.”
“Bigger than the Church of the Four Gods’ Touring Ark? Or bigger than the Citadel?”
Duncan shook his head, “Bigger, in a way you can’t imagine.”
“…… Could it be bigger than the Infinite Sea?”
“I have not measured the Boundless Sea, but …… perhaps,” Duncan said softly as if talking to himself, “perhaps it is even bigger than the Boundless Sea, for this sea, named the ‘Boundless ‘ sea is also essentially nothing more than a prison surrounded by mists.”
Lucrecia’s eyes widened.
For some reason, at this moment, she suddenly thought of the time when she was small, and the few lines of question and answer just now seemed to suddenly rewind a century’s time, triggering those memories that had long since slumbered in the deepest recesses of her mind – she vaguely remembered that many, many years ago, she herself had also asked her father a similar question.
She had asked her father at that time how big this boundless sea really was.
Her father had told her that this sea was very large, larger than the Lost Country, larger than the City State – it was as vast and boundless as its name suggested, and could hold one’s lifelong curiosity and urge to explore.
She took it to heart, and followed in her father’s footsteps as an explorer, a “border scholar”, and as a member of the Lost Country fleet, she followed him to many places, including the faraway and strange “border”, and felt that her childhood father had not lied to her – the sea, the sea, the sea, the sea, the sea, the sea, the sea. She felt that her childhood father had not lied to her – the sea was really big.
But now her father tells her that the Boundless Sea is just a cage surrounded by mist.
The “stone ball” in front of her, which was only ten meters in diameter, should have been even bigger than the Boundless Sea.
Lucrecia narrowed her eyes, raised her head to look up at the “moon” in front of her, and tried to imagine what it would look like if it was bigger than the Boundless Sea, but for the first time, she felt that her imagination was so limited – not only was she unable to comprehend her father’s words, she couldn’t even imagine them! She couldn’t even imagine it.
“How huge a ‘moon’ …… would have to be to accommodate such a large ‘moon’?” She couldn’t help but ask, “Like you said, it’s even bigger than this world ……”
The Infinite Sea was not the entire world.
The words came instinctively to Duncan’s mind, yet he controlled his urge to take them out of his mouth.
For he had not measured the world, much less crossed the mist known as the Border.
He didn’t dare to determine whether this boundless sea was really the entirety of this world.
And Lucrecia was also destined to be unable to understand what a universe large enough to contain billions of stars would look like.
Even if she owned a ship, and the name of that ship was “Bright Star”.
“…… I’m sorry, Lucy,” Duncan finally sighed softly, turning his head and looking the Witch of the Sea in the eye, “I don’t have a way to explain this to you.” you to explain this matter.”
(End of chapter)