Chapter 685 – Lost in the Night

Chapter 685 – Lost in the Night

Once again, the sun went out before the eyes of Duncan and the others.

It was sudden, accompanied by a strange low noise, and the surface of the sun, which was about to descend from the horizon, suddenly lost all of its light and turned into a horrifyingly lurid black hole, while the two runic circles that surrounded the sun seemed to be still illuminated by the sunlight, and turned into two piercingly bright rims around the black hole – The limited light diffused out from the edge of the extinguished sun, leaving a layer of chaotic and obscure shimmering light between the sky and the sea, instead reflecting the sky in a more ghastly and bizarre manner.

With the extinction of the sun, the boundless sea in the distance has been plunged into darkness, only the “luminous geometries” located near the Light Wind Harbor are still emitting the same “sunlight” as before, and maintain the basic illumination within the limited sea area…. -The light that escaped along the surface of the sea in all directions became the only reassuring thing under the strange “night curtain”.

Shirley was dumbfounded, staring into the distance, unable to hold her tongue for half a day, but Nina beside her had already reacted, reaching out and patting her friend on the shoulder: “Don’t panic, it’s definitely not for you to say that it’s going to go out ……”.

“Nonsense! Of course I know!” Shirley almost jumped up, and then immediately then dropped her gaze on Duncan who was not far away, “Captain, what to do?”

“Lightwind Harbor is still there, and so is the Patrol Ark ……” Duncan did not answer Shirley, but first looked in the direction of Lightwind Harbor, and in the shroud of light from the glowing geometry, he carefully discerned the view of the sea in the distance- -From here, the coastline of Lightwind Harbor as well as the outline of the Storm Cathedral docked near the city-state could be clearly seen, while the other three Patrol Arks could not be seen in full due to the perspective, but it was obvious that they all stayed in place as well.

“…… This is ‘The Sun Goes Out’ ……” Lune muttered, and after the initial shock, he finally reacted, “This really happened ……”

Banister, on the other hand, stared deathly into the distance at the ghastly black hole hovering over the sea level, his voice low and gloomy, “The aura of the Spirit World is starting to stir, but the World Creation didn’t appear earlier.”

Duncan looked at several popes, “I remember you guys mentioning that the last time the ‘sun went out’ none of the four patrol arks noticed?”

“Yes,” Lune nodded, “According to you, we were stuck with the entire world for those 12 hours of ‘disappearance’ and in doing so, we directly ‘skipped the ‘ the event of the sun going out – if we hadn’t received reports from Lightwind Harbor, Frost, and Prender afterward, we wouldn’t have even known what had happened.”

Duncan nodded slowly, his gaze still looking at the city in the distance, “But now you see it, and your parade ark is there, for all to see.”

“What is the principle behind this?” Lune thought subconsciously as he looked at the huge glowing geometry on the nearby sea, gradually thinking, “Is it because the four Patrol Arks are now located within the protection of ‘that thing’ as well?”

“It probably does have something to do with that weird glowing geometry – Prand, Frost & Lightwind Harbor, each of the city-states that maintains its ‘presence’ during the sun’s extinction has its own peculiarities, and Lightwind Harbor’s greatest characteristic is that It’s always bathed in this weird ‘sunlight’,” Duncan nodded, “but now is not the time to discuss that, you’d better go and confirm the four arks- -Besides, Lucy, can you reach the city now?”

“There’s a radio on the Radiant Star, and we’ve contacted Lightwind Harbor by now,” Lucrecia nodded immediately, “The city-state side has already sounded an emergency alarm, and the sheriff’s troops and Knowledge Guards are beginning to maintain order, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about for a short while.”

“There’s no need to worry about order, but panic is definitely inevitable–and this time the panic will be different from last time,” Vanna at the side couldn’t help but mutter, “After all, not long after the sun went out last time was the outbreak of the ‘Dream of the Nameless’ ……”

Her remark brought silence to the deck, and a subtle, serious, or uneasy look crossed everyone’s face as they stared at each other in the dim light of day.

The four popes quickly took action, they quickly contacted their respective parade arks and confirmed the situation on the arks, while remotely commanding the magi who stayed on the arks to maintain order, monitor, and gather intelligence, while also ordering their respective arks to send some of their magi into Light Wind Harbor to assist in controlling law and order within the city as well as calming the nervousness of the residents.

At the same time, Duncan and his group went back to the center deck area and found the bishops who were in some confusion.

These bishops who were arranged to leave the meeting early after the meeting had unforgettable memories in the past few minutes – they had hardly adapted to the strange and bizarre environment of the Lost Country ship, and all kinds of harmonic “living creatures” and suspicious “rules”, but the bishops were still in a state of disarray, and the bishops were still in a state of confusion. “rules”, after the meeting was adjourned to the deck to eat snacks and blowing the sea breeze to relax their nerves, but the results just relaxed not a moment – pop, the sun went out.

No one said anything to them.

Thanks to the emergency “training” they received before boarding the ship and the “common sense teaching” they heard after boarding the ship, at least half of the bishops subconsciously thought about whether this was a “natural phenomenon” that could be observed on the Lost Country ship after seeing the sun go out. “Natural phenomena”, when Duncan brought a large group of people to the center deck area there are several bishops are still discussing it – the main topic of discussion is that the Lost Country ship on the darkness of the day is really early.

Fortunately, though, after some hand-wringing over communications from all sides as well as explanations, everyone realized what was in front of them and quickly regained order from the initial chaos and confusion.

Under the darkening sky and the faint “sunlight” that filled the distance, the Lost Country and Bright Star once again accelerated their speed, heading towards the coastline of Light Wind Harbor.

……

At the semi-permanent floating island research station next to the glowing geometries, Ted Reel and several scholars stood together in the observation room on the upper level of the facility, staring intently at a radio unit that relayed the latest news from inside the city-state.

The extinguishing of the sun had caused a short, city-wide panic, after which the sheriff’s forces and the Guardians had quickly brought order under control, and all major urban areas of the city were now under martial law, with major roads blocked off, shelters all open, gas lights on early, and the Academy’s bells wafting over the city. For the time being, no transcendental contamination has been found to have invaded the city, and no reports of people suffering from mental contamination or undergoing mental metamorphosis have been received from anywhere.

The good news is that this is not the first time that Lightwind Harbor has faced the “Sun Out”, and the people are no longer as unprepared as they were last time, which caused a lot of unnecessary losses in the chaos and disorganization.

The bad news is that the last Sun Out was followed by the terrible Dream of the Nameless, and the shadow of that event still lingers in the city, and even though the order of the city has quickly stabilized, panic and fear are growing in people’s hearts – everyone is worried about this Sun Out. -Everyone is worried about what will happen after the sun goes out this time.

Ted Reel knew that this widespread fear was the trickiest thing of all; it couldn’t be controlled, it couldn’t be ignored, and it would grow like a dark tide until the crisis was over, or until it turned into another great trouble.

But there was more than one problem.

Ted Reel frowned, his gaze going to a machine at the end of the room.

A recorder was creaking away, precision gears and connecting rods driving steel needles as they flew from side to side on sliding rails, and a long strip of paper was being continually spit out of that recorder, the black lines on the tape twitching and outlining information that was beyond human comprehension.

The sending cycle was twelve seconds, repeated three times followed by a thirty-second interval, and then reappeared.

And connected to that recorder was the complex optical instrument located in front of the observation window at the end of the room.

“The light signals released by the luminaries are continuing, and there was a marked intensification at the moment the sun went out-now exceeding the highest values in the historical record,” said one of the scholars, beside Ted Riel, “and in addition A backup device set up in an upper level observatory also suddenly received a very weak signal a few moments ago, the content of which is consistent with what we’ve received here – that backup device is pointing to the already extinguished sun.”

“…… It’s obviously a complete system, the sun, and the glowing geometry that fell to earth, and they’re still somehow connected,” another scholar couldn’t help but say, “even though on the surface it looks like they have been separated ……”

“Deciphering is still going nowhere, it would be nice if some new information could emerge from these signals, or at least be used for cross-referencing.”

“Word just came in from the tower in the city that it’s been confirmed that the sun is no longer moving, it’s stagnating near sea level and hasn’t continued to descend at all for the past half hour ……”

“It’s not like someone went up to the high tower to observe the sun again, is it?!”

“No, it’s automatically recorded by the instruments and indirectly read by the personnel – since the last incident, the academy authorities have strictly forbidden anyone from going to observe the sun under such circumstances ……”

Ted Riel listened to these discussions coming from around him, his brows furrowed in silence, and only after a long period of contemplation did he suddenly raise his head, “I have to return to the city-state.”

“…… Indeed, you need to go back to maintain order,” said one of the scholars immediately, “Leave this place to us, no matter what happens, the observatory will continue to operate, and we won’t miss any data. ”

Ted Reel glanced at these scholars, who were highly prestigious and trustworthy in their field of expertise, and nodded silently before opening his Book of Miracles, a record of many spells and knowledge.

He flipped to the section of the book that recorded “doors” and tapped his finger on the page.

An illusory door emerged from the book and quickly took shape in the air in front of him, opening silently.

He took a breath and stepped towards the door.

An infinite darkness and chaos enveloped his perceptions –

He had not reached Lightwind Harbor.

(End of chapter)