Chapter 700 – Lonely Watch
Chapter 700 The Lonely Watch
Hearing the mausoleum guard’s answer, Duncan didn’t speak for a long time – the answer was so startling, yet somehow it was as if he had somehow …… anticipated it.
“The ‘creator’ you keep referring to …… is the King of Creeps? Or the …… Holy Lord of the Profound?”
“We usually call him ‘Pilot One’,” the Tomb Guard slowly lowered his head, “or Cluster Controller – but we also know that the King of Worms King of the Creeps and the Phantom Holy Lord are two names that were brought up in the intelligence returned by the Final Survey Team from some point in time.”
The tall Gravekeeper was silent for a few seconds as he spoke, before speaking softly as if to himself, “We haven’t heard from the Creator in a long time either.”
Duncan, however, did not respond as tumultuous thoughts filled his mind, and after a brief moment of reflection, he gazed up at the body on the throne, “That is to say, the ‘Pilot One’ collected some of the remnants of the King of Dreams during the Third Long Night, and then relied on his special ‘copying’ authority, and then relying on his special ‘copying’ authority, he designed the Cretan race as his assistant using the King of Dreamland as a prototype …… The entire Cretan race was ‘manufactured’ in this way? Including those Terminal Survey teams as well?”
“Of course,” the Gravekeeper said in a calm tone, “the world was still in chaos then, and the Creator briefly released some mortals into unformed sanctuaries, only to find that they were not yet able to survive, much less be of much use, and so he had to seek help from beings as powerful as himself — Sasloca, who had died during the previous Genesis, was the perfect choice.”
Duncan quietly listened to the tomb keeper’s narration, but the expression on his face couldn’t help but become more and more subtle, he suddenly realized that if he followed this fact …… then doesn’t it mean that all of the final preachers can actually be counted as Sasloca’s “heirs”? “He suddenly realized that if we go by this fact
This strange and shocking thought flashed through his mind, and Duncan suddenly staggered for a moment, followed by an uncontrollable reminder of something else–
Those crazy “preachers” were so excited when they saw the Lost Country that they called it the “Ark of Promise”…… The main reason behind this was, of course, that the Lost Country had gone into subspace and returned in one piece! The main reason behind this is, of course, that the Lost Country had entered subspace and returned in one piece, but could …… it also have something to do with the fact that the Lost Country is actually built on the “spine of the ancient gods” in Sasloka?
Could the madness and fanaticism of the preachers be the stress reaction of some kind of “heir” to the proximity of the “Ancient Gods”?
Duncan’s thoughts stretched far and wide, and it was only after a while that his attention finally drew back to the throne and the headless body in front of him.
He recalled something the tomb keeper had said to him before entering the tomb.
“When you said that he didn’t have much time left …… you were referring to the fact that this body’s time is running out?”
“He has watched over this place for a long time, but the maintenance systems here cannot run indefinitely,” the tomb keeper’s voice was low, “the ancient systems left behind by the creator are all failing one after another, they have overstayed their welcome for too many years… …This Throne served as the starting point for twelve hundred Observatories that sustained all of Crete’s ‘existence’, but now that it has become the last Observatory, the Throne’s operation is coming to an end.”
Duncan suddenly frowned, “…… What happens when the Throne stops running?”
The Gravekeeper was silent for a moment and spoke slowly, “It means that the first pillar system left behind by the Creator collapses completely – and after that, the Fourth Long Night begins.”
The Fourth Long Night!
Duncan’s eyes slightly changed – after so many messy and trivial clues, he finally got such precise information for the first time, and for the first time, he was sure what the iconic node was when the “Fourth Night” occurred!
Moreover, what the Gravekeeper just said was that “all” of the ancient systems left behind by the Creator were in trouble, and the collapse of the Throne was obviously just one of them, while Vision 001-Sun was undoubtedly another system on the verge of breaking down……. This is consistent with what is known so far! This is consistent with what is currently known!
Duncan s brow had furrowed tightly, and thoughts tumbled in his mind –
Common sense dictates that when the first “breakdown” occurs in a series of interconnected and complex systems, a chain reaction must follow. In other words, when the Throne here stops functioning, the Sun’s malfunction and complete shutdown will accelerate as well. ……
Each opening of the Long Night begins with the collapse of the previous Long Night, and the Third Long Night is no exception. The Throne collapses, the Tomb of the Unknown King ceases to function as the last Cretan Observatory, and the Sun accelerates its collapse in a series of failures until it is permanently extinguished, and the entire world is plunged into the Night! ……
The Gravekeeper obviously knows a lot of things, some of which are beyond his time, beyond the time stream so far, and this information …… may come from the “Final Survey Team” that set out a long time ago to monitor the entire Asylum in the time stream. “……
Thinking of the “Gravekeeper” who brought him here, Duncan’s thoughts couldn’t help but spread:
This “Gravekeeper”, and the mausoleum he is guarding, has survived in the crevice of this chaos for ten thousand years, but from what Vanna has revealed, it seems that the “Mausoleum of the Unknown King” has never had any rational, positive communication with the outside world, as it does today. In the eyes of the world, this mausoleum is a chaotic and dangerous “Vision 004”, but now, it seems that this tomb keeper and everything in the tomb is clearly “normal”… …
Duncan’s thoughts suddenly stopped, and he turned his head thoughtfully to look at the tall gravedigger standing beside him.
…… Is it really normal?
Will it be the same as the “unnameable” that he had been exposed to before, where only he could hear and see what was going on in front of him? And for the other “listeners” who were guided into the tomb, this tomb guard and the ruins of the old square at the end of the tunnel, is it a completely different picture?
Duncan recalled the Cognitive Shift Model that Lune had presented at the rally not long ago, and after a moment’s thought, he couldn’t help but ask, “Will the others who enter the tomb see the same thing that I see?”
“…… I’ll try to blind them as much as I can, and clear their memories of the harmful parts before they leave – mortals shouldn’t see too much, it’s bad for them. ”
Duncan nodded slowly. The Gravekeeper’s answer wasn’t really exactly what he had expected, but it had side-stepped his suspicions.
The world he saw was not the same as what ordinary people saw, and the more in the realm of “anomalies” and “visions”, the more significant this “offset effect” would be.
Duncan gently breathed out, put these complicated issues aside for the time being, after a short silence, he suddenly asked: “How much longer?”
The tomb guard turned his head, “Huh?”
Duncan lifted his head and pointed to the tall, dark throne, “I mean, how long will this throne last?”
“There is no way to know for sure, I am only a caretaker and the scholars who know about this complex system were gone a long time ago. The only answer I can give you is …… soon.”
“What happens to this body after the Throne stops functioning?”
The mausoleum guard answered nothing this time, just shook his head in silence.
Duncan did not pursue the question further, he and the tomb guard just stood together in silence, standing in the ruins which were illuminated by the light of the dusk sky, after an unknown period of time, Duncan suddenly asked, “I heard the bells …… is because this place is on the verge of its limit? It was you who called to me of your own accord?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Duncan turned his head, looking puzzled and grave, “What do you expect me to do?”
To his surprise, the Gravekeeper shook his head, “I do not know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I’m just a caretaker, the ones who knew everything, who knew everything, were gone a long time ago,” the Gravekeeper gazed into Duncan’s eyes and spoke slowly, “but I remember one thing …… only one thing .”
He turned and gazed out over the open ruins in the distance, to the phantoms that occasionally emerged from the edges of the plaza, hurrying through the many gates and flashing through the timeline, and spoke softly:
“Just as they were setting out, a message came from the farthest, most unlikely borders of time, arriving here almost instantly, a word from a Final Surveyor who claimed to have trekked to the end of the line-
“He says that twilight has fallen, and that the usurper has set the world ablaze.”
Duncan was silent, as he heard these accounts from the Gravekeeper, he hid all his emotions in a deep, watery gaze, and no one knew what he was thinking at the moment.
But the Gravekeeper obviously didn’t care either, he just calmly continued, “I don’t know what you will think after seeing everything here, or what you will do at some point in the future, and I don’t know how what I’m telling you on this day will affect one of your actions, or one of your decisions in the future.
“My duty is simply to watch over this station and activate it from time to time in accordance with ancient protocols that allow for limited data interactions with the outside world …… We are a carefully designed and created race, each of us, lured here by you for the sole purpose of accomplishing a limited and necessary job. Not strictly my responsibility.
“But those responsible for assigning the work are gone, and the creator hasn’t been heard from in a long time, and I feel that I should at least …… do something about it.”
“…… I see,” Duncan breathed out softly, the expression on his face had relaxed at some point, then he looked to the Gravekeeper and nodded slowly and seriously, “Thank you for telling me so much, it’s good to know that these things that once happened is a great reward for me.”
“That’s good.”
(End of chapter)