Chapter 435 – Looking Away
Chapter 435 Looking into the distance
The mirror image turned to ash, the darkness began to subside, the phantoms of the Queen’s Guard disappeared, the blasphemous creations that had invaded the city-state disintegrated into rapidly drying black sludge, and the sound of gunfire from all parts of the city-state fell silent – replaced by an unspeakable fear and silence that enveloped the entire city.
Everyone could see that massive presence, the one that stood in the infinite sea, looking down on the city-state from the clouds.
Just a few minutes ago, Mirror Frost had been reduced to ashes in the hands of that “giant”, and no one could guess what was going to happen next.
Only the greenish flames that spread across the city and covered the sea were still burning – but they did not hurt, they were just a phantom that brushed over the real world, and the only thing that could be felt when touched was a harmless warmth.
Agatha lowered her head and casually picked up the pale-faced High Priestess, who was a little nervous about the flames burning on her arm, but compared to the atmosphere that was gripping the whole city at the moment, these tensions were nothing compared to what was going on in the city at the moment.
“Next ……” the high-ranking assistant priest’s face was a little pale, he looked at Agatha, looked at the other party’s body burning, the same as the flames that permeated the whole city at the moment of the green spiritual fire, his voice was still a little trembling, “what’s going to happen next ?”
Agatha thought for a moment and shook her head, “I don’t know.”
The high-ranking assistant priest’s eyes widened, “You don’t know?!”
“…… didn’t ask,” Agatha said matter-of-factly, “It was an emergency situation, and I didn’t have any more options.”
The high-ranking assistant priest was dumbfounded, he had many questions he wanted to ask – the origin of the “giant” on the surface of the sea, the nature of the flames in the city, the reason for Agatha’s current appearance, but he couldn’t ask any of them for a while.
Agatha, on the other hand, didn’t pay any attention to the reaction of the high-ranking assistant priests, she just slightly turned her face sideways and watched the last little bit of delicate pale ashes slowly float down on her shoulder.
The fluttering ashes in the city-state had stopped at some point, and the one that landed on her shoulder seemed to be the last of it – and in a trance, she felt as if someone had tapped her shoulder.
“I must leave,” she heard someone speak in her ear, “the earthly journey is over, and there is a farther road waiting for me to travel.”
“Have a safe journey, Bishop Ivan.”
There was a wind blowing from afar, blowing through the doors of the Great Sanctuary of the Silence, and across the square in front of the main entrance, swirling the light ashes, and letting them dissipate silently in the wind.
……
At the top of the bell tower at the back of the church, Shirley, dressed in a black dress, looked down at the street below, sitting on a section of the wall that extended out from the edge of the eaves, her two legs dangling out, swaying a bit bored as she chanted, “It’s quiet now ah ……”
“Everyone seems to be freaking out ……” Nina said as she stood on the small platform behind Sherry, glancing up at the sky as she spoke, “I was taken aback too… …”
“Who wouldn’t be scared at the sight of it,” Shirley scowled, peering cautiously out at the huge, hazy figure in the sea in the distance, “I really didn’t think that Mr. Duncan would end up settling this mess in such a way – more so than the last time there was a great deal of commotion in Prendergast.”
“Uncle Duncan said that the root cause of the Frost Crisis was that mirror image, so to solve the problem the mirror image had to be dealt with once and for all – sealing it or stopping the cultist’s rituals would only be safe for a while, and the way to do it once and for all would be to uproot the mirror image, pull it out into the real world and burn it, “Nina had a serious look on her face, “but the mirror image is too big, so he’ll need a big enough ‘field of fire’ ……”
“Okay, okay, okay, okay, you’re great at setting fires aren’t you, I’ll be sure to mention this to Mr. Duncan later,” Shirley waved her hand repeatedly, and then looked up a little puzzled immediately after, “But then again… . what is Mr. Duncan doing now? Haven’t things been settled? When will he be back?”
Nina sniffed and looked up at the massive figure on the sea outside the city, and thought for a moment, “I’ll go up and ask then?”
“Go ahead and go,” Sherry waved her hand hurriedly, “and don’t forget to tell Mr. Duncan when you go up there, just tell him that the two of us had our homework eaten by the Phantom Hounds ……”
Before her words had even left her mouth, Nina had already transformed into a bright arc of flame in mid-air, and then rushed straight into the shadows that covered the sky outside the city.
……
At an altitude that overlooked the entire Frost Sea, Duncan’s gaze pierced through the gaps between the clouds and silently observed the sea as well as the city below.
The sea was boundless, stretching into the extreme distance, the city-state was like a disc floating on the sea, alone and bathed in the light of the sky, while at the end of the sea and sky a magnificent mist could be dimly seen, which was like a wall, showing a vaguely visible arc that encircled the entire border of civilization.
It was a perspective like no other – he had never observed the world from this position before, and presumably no one in the world had ever done anything similar.
He could feel the “flame” that supported his current posture dying out in the sea and the city-state, and this state of standing in the sky could not be sustained for long, but he still wanted to look at it one more time before his pent-up energy ran out.
Just then, a small flame from the clouds suddenly entered Duncan’s vision.
The tiny cluster of fire jumped between the clouds like a light swallow, and as the fire approached him, he heard Nina’s voice enter his ears, “Uncle Duncan! What are you doing?” “I’m observing the world,” Duncan smiled and whispered to the fire, lifting his finger and letting it jump at his fingertips, “What brings you up here?”
“Shirley sent me up here, she was curious as to what you were doing,” Nina said cheerfully, the flames swaying at Duncan’s fingertips – even in her current posture, which had swelled into a cluster of flames larger than a bell tower, she was still quite small to Duncan’s eyes. “You said you were observing the world? What’s interesting?”
Duncan grinned, lifting his chin, “Look, down there.”
The cluster of flames swayed to the side.
“…… Wow.”
“Amazing, isn’t it,” Duncan said softly, “no one has ever looked down on the Boundless Sea and the city-states on it from this height – and that mist in the distance, so vast that even with my perspective at the moment, I would feel suffocated at the sight of it of it would feel suffocated.”
Nina thought very seriously, “…… But if it’s really a normal-sized human, you won’t feel it when you’re at the border of the Eternal Curtain instead, because you can’t see it all.”
Duncan was stunned for a moment, followed by a sudden laugh.
“Right, you are right, ordinary people really come to that wall of fog when instead will not realize this oppressive and suffocating feeling, because they can not see it all …… We are in the high place, see too much.”
“Uncle Duncan, how do I feel …… that your words seem to have another deep meaning?”
Duncan, however, did not respond to Nina’s question, he just quietly gazed into the distance, and only after another moment did he suddenly open his mouth, “Have you ever felt curious about what is on the opposite …… side of that mist?”
“The …… book says that the mists are endless, there is no opposite side, there is only fog outside.”
Duncan looked to his fingertips, “That’s what the book says, what about your own thoughts?”
“…… I think the books are just scholarly speculation as well, and Mr. Morris has said that everything that involves the civilized world beyond is scholarly speculation – the so-called research is the process of verifying conjectures along the way. “Nina happily spoke her thoughts, “There might be another world across that fog!”
Immediately afterward she paused as if suddenly reacting, “Ah! Uncle Duncan are you planning to walk through that fog? Do you really want to try? This is very close to the northern border right here, and you’re so tall now, you might actually ……”
“Unfortunately, it’s not feasible,” Duncan interrupted the excited Nina with a gentle shake of his head, “I can’t maintain this state for long, much less leave these waters in this state – there are limits to the ritualistic means, and we now All we can do is watch from here.”
Nina seemed to be a bit frustrated for a moment, and after a while, she tried to speak again, “Then can I …… go over and take a look? I can fly in the sky now~”
“But only for a little while, you know your limits very well yourself,” Duncan shook his head again, “And I wouldn’t advise it, we know too little about that fog, and being adventurous isn’t the same as acting recklessly.”
Nina was silent for a short while, and lengthened her voice, “Oh – well, we’ll really just have to see it from here then.”
“The first step in setting out on a journey is to look into the distance,” the corner of Duncan’s mouth quirked up as he felt the flames that had supported him begin to fade rapidly, the consuming gesture had reached critical mass, but he still smiled before dispersing the projection that was himself, “And we’re going to be looking at more than just the distance , Nina, did you notice how the city-state looks? Such a regular disk, so neat that it doesn’t look like a product of nature, and the sea below, so deep and vast that we still don’t know what’s under that sea ……
“The cultists firmly believe that this world will eventually be destroyed, and they can create a new world, the Church firmly believe that following the guidance of the four gods is the only way to maintain the world’s eternity, but there are too many unknown things in this world …… Whether it’s the cultists, the Church of the Positive God, or the various city states’ scholars, everyone’s view of everything about the Boundless Sea is one-sided.”
Between the sea and the sky, the giant’s huge body was quietly dissipating, and the sea, like a mirror, gradually resumed its undulating waves.
A fiery flame was falling back towards the city-state from the clouds.
Duncan’s conversation with Nina, however, continued:
“Well, Nina, get back, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“Oh …… ah yes! Uncle Duncan! I forgot to tell you that Sherry and I had our homework eaten by the Phantom Hounds!”
“…… That’s okay, Maurice and I will get you new ones.”
(End of chapter)