Chapter 604: “The Test”
Chapter 604: “Test”
Lucrecia approved of Duncan’s idea of “catching the big fish with a long line” – rather, she was not very supportive of the simple and crude method that her father and Vanna had come up with from the very beginning.
It’s not that she has any prejudice against sports students – it’s mainly because she thinks that with the sensitivity and fear of “spirit fire” shown by Dog and the suicidal speed of the Profound Demon, she’s afraid that she won’t be able to catch a single one of them if she really uses such a simple and brutal method to go there! ……
“The cultists will hold a gathering before nightfall, I’ll ask Rabbi to get some information,” Lucrecia said while thinking, “The most troublesome thing now is that there is a so-called ‘saint’ on board that ship. ‘ – which means that the Rabbi can’t do anything but ‘observe’, and any proactive action could be detected by that Saint.”
“Saint?” Duncan was a bit curious, “I do know about the Saints of the Four Gods, and I recognize Vanna’s combat prowess, but what’s the word on the Saints of the Church of Annihilation?”
His doubt is well justified – the saints of the four gods are those who are favored by the gods, and their greatest characteristic is actually not their strong combat power (although most of the saints are indeed very capable of fighting), but their ability to communicate with the gods, while an ordinary cleric needs to go through extremely complicated rituals and a certain price in order to hear some murmurings from the gods, the saints need almost no any preparation, sometimes they can communicate with their gods just by praying in their hearts, and in more extreme cases, if the saints are in danger, their gods will even find a way to reach out and make warnings and reminders.
In short, pampered as if they were their own.
However, the “saints” of the Annihilationists will definitely not be like this – Duncan is aware of the state of the Profound Holy Lord, and his attitude towards his own group of so-called “followers” is even more distinctive, based on “capturing a few saints”. Based on the words “try catching a few Annihilationists”, Duncan was sure that if there was really a saint who could communicate with “God’s Will” among those cultists, he was afraid that he would be summoned by the Lord on the day of his promotion… and then called by the Lord on the day of his promotion. -Then they would be dragged by their “Lord” into the deep sea and beaten repeatedly.
“The Annihilationists regard the Demons of the Profound as the purest creatures that are closest to the ‘original blueprint’, so they will continue to utilize the power of the Demons to transform themselves in order to bring themselves as close as possible to this ‘original blueprint’, and in this process, they will gain even more power and strength. “I’ve heard Vanna mention that she once saw a high-level Annihilation Magus in Frost who had almost merged with a Profound Demon to become symbiotic, and the so-called ‘Saints’ …… would be further than that.
“They don’t have many human traits left in them, they are more like demons than humans, they move like Profound Demons and are able to draw power directly from the Profound Sea, and apart from still retaining the ability to think like a human, they are basically already a ‘Profound Creature’ –These Annihilation ‘Saints’ have even been able to enter the Profound Deep Sea, the so-called ‘Eternal Paradise’, almost as freely as the demons, perhaps with only a little human component left in them. little human component that still binds them to the reality dimension.
“The Annihilationists have no true divine favor, but by contracting with demons they are able to gain great power as usual, and the same is true of their ‘saints’-those freaks are powerful, tough-minded, and know countless contaminating forbidden knowledge, and in a head-on confrontation …… Rabbi is no match for those saints.”
Duncan listened with interest to these “cold trivia” recounted by Lucrecia, and suddenly asked, “And how do they compare to Vanna?”
Lucrecia was stunned for a moment and pondered with a subtle expression.
After half a day, she finally spoke, “…… Miss Vanna’s combat power is relatively …… ‘special’ even among the Saints, I think it’s hard to compare.”
Duncan nodded in understanding, “Alright, I understand.”
Lucrecia, on the other hand, spoke again after a moment’s thought, “In addition there are a few more circumstances.”
Duncan’s voice came through the mirror, “Speak.”
Lucrecia organized her words, “Word has come from Tirian that three cases of ‘sleeping sickness’ have appeared in the Frost City State, the patients are elves and the symptoms are close to ……”
Just as she was in the middle of her sentence, the voice from the mirror interrupted her, “The symptoms of lethargy are close to the elf girl named ‘Fluttershy’ in Prand before, as well as the case of Taran-El in the beginning, right? But this time, the psychiatrist’s hypnosis and dream-entry treatment were ineffective, and it was as if their dream world had turned into a void, while their consciousness was lost in the void.”
Lucrecia looked at the mirror in surprise, “How …… did you get the news from Prand?!”
A sudden reaction came from behind her.
“Just before contacting you,” Duncan in the mirror nodded, “Heidi reported four such cases of sick people, again elves, again asleep – and if the situation is as I expect, I’m afraid that the problem is with not only these two city-states, but perhaps tomorrow, perhaps today, news will reach Lightwind Harbor from other city-states.”
Lucrecia frowned as she listened, blinking longingly as she recalled the old legends Taran El had once spoken of, and spoke softly as if to herself, “All elves …… are the fruits and seeds of Silantis… …”
“Legends are projections of reality, and certain descriptions are true – the power of Silantis holds the elves as a race together, allowing them to form swarm-like relationships, and on a spiritual level, perhaps all elves are one and the same,” Duncan said, slowly. “This trait has been latent for a long time, but now it seems …… that the Dream of the Nameless One has awakened the bond between them.”
“The swarm …… the spiritual plane of the whole ……” Lucrecia subconsciously repeated those words and phrases used in Duncan’s description, descriptions that caused her to frown slightly, and she could find no more than their A more precise expression, “The Dream of the Nameless One is spreading amongst the elves, and is Lightwind Harbor but the first to burst forth ……”
“I call it the ‘point of the original explosion’, the initial eruption point,” Duncan said faintly, “And the question now is – why is this place the the point of the original eruption? And what caused the Dream of the Nameless to erupt?” Why?
Lucrecia was stunned, and as she froze, Duncan’s voice continued through the mirror again:
“Before the Dream of the Nameless One erupted, two things happened, the first, was the extinguishing of the sun, the entire Boundless Sea was thus plunged into darkness, and time disappeared for twelve hours in all city-states except Prand, Frost, and Lightwind Harbor, and the second …… was the Lost Country’s crossing of the ‘Vanishing Seas’ and came near Lightwind Harbor.”
Lucrecia instantly understood what her father meant.
She subconsciously spoke, “So, the sun going out caused the Dream of the Nameless One hidden in the elven community to ‘activate’, and the proximity of the Lost Country Ship …… caused Lightwind Harbor to become the ‘original explosion point ‘ ……”
“The first point was a suspicion I had from the start,” Duncan nodded, “and the second is a possibility that has only now occurred to me.”
Lucrecia thought about it for a moment, and a guess popped up, “So if the Lost Country were to move away from Lightwind Harbor now, would it temporarily contain the Dream of the Nameless?”
“The Lost Country ship is already moving away.”
Inside the captain’s quarters of the Lost Country, Duncan turned his head and glanced out the window.
Chaotic, dark clouds covered the sky, the dark sea rose and fell noiselessly in the distance, and a mist shrouded everything, leaving the entire world in black and white, while countless twisted and grotesque, seemingly real shadows appeared and disappeared in that mist, keeping their distance in the distance.
“The Lost Country is currently sailing at full speed in the depths of the Spirit World, heading north away from Lightwind Harbor, and I will be doing a series of tests next, including moving the Lost Country’s position, sinking it further in the Spirit World, spiritualizing the entire ship, and so on, to see how these changes affect the Dream of the Nameless One.”
As he spoke, Duncan withdrew his eyes from the window and looked into the mirror next to him.
“But I suspect that these actions will not stop the Dream of the Nameless One from continuing to grow – from the news that has come in from the various city-states so far, this ‘dream’ will ignore spatial barriers and act directly on every elf, and neither the The extinguishing of the sun or the activities of the Lost Country are only an initial ‘trigger’, not the ‘driving force’ that maintains the dream, it is the elves themselves that truly maintain the dream.
“But I will still try something on the ‘Goathead’ to see if the influence exerted on it can be applied to the Dream of the Nameless One, after all, there are many clues pointing to this possibility nowadays – I now have this ‘First Mate’, is that ancient creator deity of elven lore.”
Lucrecia in the mirror was a bit surprised, “But didn’t you say that the goat-head located on the Reflection Lost Country told you that Sasloca was …… a long time ago?”
“Is the ‘life’ and ‘death’ of a god really that simple?” Duncan shook his head gently, “Without even considering the gods, there is no shortage of ‘people who have died’ in my neck of the woods, right here on the Lost Country.”
Lucrecia opened her mouth, but realized that she wasn’t in a good position to judge her father’s followers either, and could only change the subject somewhat stiffly, “So this side of Lightwind Harbor ……”
“My homeworld will be away from the city-state with the Lost Country for the time being,” Duncan said, “It’s also to fulfill some of my subsequent ‘testing’ plans, but Vanna and Maurice are staying in the city, and they’ll continue to observe the Nameless One Dreams – and while I won’t be able to return for a while, my power can still be transmitted to the city through the mirrors, so if you run into trouble, you can just call out to me at any time.”
Lucrecia nodded, then she was silent for a few seconds before speaking again with some hesitation, “In the case of a longer distance, you would have to establish a beacon with your own ‘incarnation’ in order to allow Ai to ‘teleport’, wouldn’t you ?”
Duncan glanced at Lucrecia in the mirror and nodded, “…… That’s correct, any questions?”
“This …… seems a bit inconvenient,” Lucrecia weighed her words, “It was fine when the Lost Country was near Lightwind Harbor, you and your followers could go back and forth between the city-state and the ship at any time, but now that you’re going to be temporarily away from the City-State, you’ll have to transfer power through mirrors, have you considered …… arranging an ‘avatar’ in Lightwind Harbor?”
Duncan was silent for two or three seconds, and shook his head with a serious expression, “Not for the time being – you should know what ‘raw materials’ I need for my incarnation, and I don’t intend to add new incarnations unless I happen to come across a suitable situation. ”
Despite the rejection of the suggestion, Lucrecia in the mirror seemed relieved, “Okay, Dad.”
(End of chapter)