Chapter 587 – The Desert
Chapter 587 The Desert
The clockwork doll, Luni, looked a little worriedly at Duncan, who had suddenly started to wander off, and after a few seconds, she couldn’t help but turn to Alice next to her, “What’s wrong with the old master?”
Alice, however, had a look of “it’s normal” and reassured her new friend, “It’s nothing, just lost in thought, captains are often lost in thought……”
Luni was stunned for a moment, “Is that so?”
The sound of the two figures talking reached Duncan’s ears, and he finally blinked, drifting back to reality from his memories.
After a few moments of silence, Duncan raised his hand and slowly pinched his brow with his fingers, hiding the ups and downs of his mind under his eyes with his lowered eyelids – a tumult of thoughts still hovered in his mind, and he was still reminiscing about the past, even hating to dig up every single day that he could recall, starting from the longest and most distant moments of childhood that he could recall out and spread it out before his eyes.
He finally realized his dreamless past, the corner of his subconscious mind that he had always ignored, but he had to break away from this mass of memories and thoughts, and focus his attention on the “reality” in front of him.
He raised his head and looked at Alice, who was looking straight at him, as well as the clockwork doll, who was still wearing a somewhat nervous expression.
“I’m fine,” Duncan said softly, “just suddenly remembered something ……”
He paused and looked Alice in the eye and asked, “Where were we?”
“We were just talking about how Lunie and I were probably left on the ‘outside’ of the Dream of the Nameless One because ‘dolls don’t dream’,” Alice replied, immediately. “Then we were discussing why you were left on this side as well ……”
“‘Not being able to dream’ may only be one factor, the mechanics of the Dream of the Nameless One would not be so simple and are likely in flux ……”
Duncan said slowly, while at the same time, he recalled the dream that the Taran El scholar had fallen into back in the day –
Undoubtedly, the dream that Taran El had fallen into was also the Dream of the Nameless One, but it should have been the “shallow” part of the whole dream, and the Dream of the Nameless One itself should have been in an early state at that time. At that time, he was able to enter the dream world with relative ease by virtue of the mark he had left on Heidi’s body, and was not blocked from the side of the real world as he is now.
This shows that the “rules” of the Dream of the Nameless One are changing, and as time goes by, its scope of influence and impact is expanding, and at the same time, a set of “filtering” mechanism for entering the dream has been established, like some kind of self-protection.
So what happens next? Will this vast “dream world” continue to grow? Will it expand again? How would its self-protection mechanism change?
In the midst of his thoughts, Alice’s voice suddenly sounded from the side and reached Duncan’s ears: “Captain, how is the situation of the others? Can you feel it on your side?”
Duncan pushed down his chaotic thoughts for the time being, he exhaled softly, and at the same time, he concentrated his mind to sense the “marks” he left on the others-
The leaping flames crossed the border between reality and reality, through the ancient, hidden curtain of dreams, and in another dimension far away, at the crossroads of time and space, which was difficult for reason to accurately describe, Duncan “saw” the dancing flames.
The flame imprint left in advance has worked – even though it only enhances the connection a little, Duncan can now indeed more clearly perceive the state of Vanna and others, and should even be able to establish communication with them.
“They’re not in danger.” Duncan said with a nod to Alice and Lunie.
Alice was instantly relieved, “Ah, that’s good …… So what do we do next?”
Duncan lifted his head and gazed through the window not far from the window to the streets outside that were shrouded in the chaos of the night.
The “spectacle” had reappeared outside the window – with the effects of the Dream of the Nameless One intruding into reality, the city-state was once again covered in lush forest vegetation, the sky covered by a canopy of trees, and the neighborhoods underneath the giant trees were a mixture of shadow and reality.
Silence had fallen in Lightwind Harbor, and the world after the dream had replaced reality, just as Duncan had predicted – the hasty preparations of the city-state authorities and the academy guardsmen had not worked, and now, once again, the only waking people left in the city were he and Alice.
Oh, and this time there was an extra clockwork mannequin.
“Let’s go to where that vine appeared before,” Duncan said tersely, turning toward the mansion gates, “and see if it’s still going to show up in its usual place.”
“Yes!” Alice immediately agreed, followed by reaching out and pulling up Lunie, who was a bit dazed, “Go, go, go, go explore with the Captain!”
“Adventure?” Luni subconsciously followed Alice and Duncan, but obviously her head was still a bit unable to keep up with the rhythm, “What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to look for another Lost Country ship.” Duncan said as he slowed his pace and turned back slightly.
The Dream of the Nameless One had reappeared in the real world, and Duncan was going to have to test many of his visions this time – the “enhanced temporary imprints” on Vanna and Maurice and the others were just one of many, only enhancing the bond between him and his followers. What he cares more about is whether the Lost Country ship sailing in the darkness and fog will appear again.
Regardless of how the Dream of the Nameless One will grow, Duncan must find a way to bypass its “self-protection mechanism” in order to further intervene in this huge dream, and his intuition told him that the strange Lost Country ship sailing in the mist was the most probable way to break through the Dream of the Nameless One’s “self-protection mechanism”, which was the most important part of the “self-protection mechanism”. The intuition told him that the strange lost ship sailing in the mist was the most likely breakthrough in the “self-protection mechanism” of the nameless dream. Because the ship’s “charts” showed that it was most likely sailing over the forest of the Dream of the Nameless One.
“Under the chaotic night sky woven by Sunlight and Worldwake, the streets of the city-state were as eerily silent as they had been last time, as Duncan and the two dolls left the witch’s mansion, which had fallen into silence, and stepped into the night sky, where the city and the forest blended together.
While stepping into the night, Duncan also began to cautiously communicate with the temporary imprints that were already on the “other side” of the dream world, trying to call his followers.
This time, he must be very careful, to learn from the lessons of the last time in the dark misty space, to be careful to use the power of the flame, in order to prevent …… waking up Silentis in the dream world.
……
Dark red eerie fissures covered the sky, twisted hazy clouds filled the edges of the ominous red light, and beneath the light of the sky, there were yellow sands and boulders as far as the eye could see.
Rolling dunes filled the field of vision, hideous and jagged stones as if countless twisted and struggling skeletons of the beasts standing in the sky, the yellow sand buried the foundation of the boulders, the sharp edges of the stones like swords extending upward, in such a vast to despair of the yellow sand, “people” than at any time seems small.
Vanna raised her head, her long silver hair was blown up by the wind, the dry wind mixed with sand and dust rolled over the earth at any given moment, making her squint her eyes slightly.
She was once again in this desert – this sprawling, dead, withered earth.
Gazing out at the hazy silhouettes of boulders in the distance, Vanna exhaled slightly and reached out into the wind – a dense vapor coalesced out of the dry sands in a manner that defied common sense, and condensed in her hand into a huge sword that smoldered with cold.
Feeling the heavy weight coming from the giant sword, Vanna nodded in satisfaction.
The dry, scorching heat of this dreamscape’s infinite desert was not a comfortable environment for a follower of the Storm Goddess, but fortunately, one’s own power as a saint of the Church of the Deep still worked here – the dreamscape’s inability to block divinely-gifted power somewhat made one’s trek here a little easier.
Drawing coolness from her giant sword, Vanna stepped into the wind and sand, traveling in a certain direction.
She certainly wasn’t walking aimlessly – she was aiming for the rugged shadows in the distance, things that looked like jagged, strange rocks, but also looked like the ruins of a city.
As she walked, Vanna suddenly felt a stirring in her heart.
She subconsciously stopped and concentrated on the voice that had suddenly appeared in the depths of her consciousness, and after a few moments, she heard the voice clear up – it was the Captain.
The Captain’s calm, powerful voice echoed in her mind, “Vanna, can you hear me?”
“Yes,” Vanna immediately replied mentally, unknowingly relieved in her mind, “Excellent, it looks like your arrangement worked.”
“Well, as expected,” Duncan’s voice continued, “I must now be careful to contact you without passing too much power around – from what I last grasped, Silantis, who sleeps in the depths of the Dream of the Nameless One does not seem to like my flames very much.”
“I understand,” Vanna replied as she stepped away, continuing to walk forward as she did so, “What is the status of the others?”
“The others are each spread out deeper in that forest, with basically the same mix of people as last time, with Sherry and Dog together, and Nina and Maurice together,” Duncan told Vanna about the current situation with the others, “Also, Lucy managed to find Rabbi Bunny after she entered the dream world — they almost ‘landed’ in the same place.”
“Ms. Lucrecia found the wacky rabbit? They ‘landed’ in the same place? The others ‘combined’ the same as last time?” Vanna’s footsteps paused in thought, “It seems …… that there really is a pattern to our entry into this dream world ……”
“Well, so far it looks like they’re entering the forest in much the same place as last time as well,” Duncan said, inquiring about Vanna’s situation, “How’s it going on your end?”
Vanna stopped and looked up at the endless expanse of sand in front of her.
After a few seconds, the storm saint sighed.
“The sand, the rocks, the dry, hot weather – it doesn’t look like everyone’s ‘location’ for entering the Dream of the Nameless hasn’t changed much, and I’m still in this desert. Honestly, I don’t like this place much ……”
(End of chapter)