Chapter 679 – The Road in the Mist

Chapter 679 – The Road in the Mist
The Four Great Churches had amassed a huge fleet at the border of the civilized world – and they had been doing so for quite some time.

The reduction in the regular patrol fleet and the large number of ships, men, and supplies gathering near the Eternal Curtain, a mobilization of this magnitude could not be hidden from the border city-states, and Lucrecia had learned of these unusual moves by the Churches from Sara Meir long before today, but all this time neither Duncan nor she had been able to figure out what the Churches were doing this for – until now. -until now.

The truth of the death of the gods, the real role of the Ark of the Patrol, as well as the current situation of the gods entering the “corruption stage” in advance, let Duncan finally guessed the purpose of the fleet.

“……We are looking for ‘Him’,” after a moment’s silence, Helena finally spoke up, “This is one of the purposes, and the very first purpose.”

“You mean that the Gods are in that ‘fog’ of the Eternal Curtain!?” Lucrecia instantly got up and looked at the four popes across from her with incredulous eyes, “Right outside the ‘border’?!”

“We’re not sure,” the one who answered her was Banister, the black-robed old man slowly shook his head, “but we’re certain that the initial ‘rotting breath’ seeped in from the Eternal Curtain at the border –so our plan at this stage is simply to find the source of those breaths, but exactly what we will see at that source …… no one knows.”

Lune took over the conversation, “That might be the ‘Kingdom of God’ of the Gods, or maybe it’s just some sort of ‘connection point’ for Him to establish a connection with the earthly world, or maybe it’s… …”

He stopped here, not saying any more of the words that followed.

For his part, Duncan suddenly asked again after a few moments of silence, “You just said that this is only one of the purposes, what about the others? What else do you want to do besides searching for ‘Him’?”

“The other purpose is to figure out what is happening in this world,” Helena replied, in this open and honest “gathering”, all the secrets were finally revealed, “The reports about the border collapse are coming in with each passing day. Reports of border collapses are increasing by the day, and along with the recent ‘malfunctions’ of the Sun, anomalies related to the Eternal Curtain are becoming more frequent – an obvious fact. obvious fact is that there may be secrets hidden in that fog that are closely related to the ‘status quo’ and ‘roots’ of our world.”

“…… figure out what’s really going on in the world, then what?” Duncan couldn’t help but press on, instinctively feeling that Helena hadn’t finished her sentence.

“…… Try to find a ‘new way’ that will completely cut through that curtain, if possible, and then get as many people out of there as possible, before the worst happens. “If the ‘collapse’ within the Curtain is a foregone conclusion,” Helena said, “then our only way out is to ‘go out’, and there may be other worlds beyond the Curtain –wider worlds.

“Maybe it’s not so livable, maybe outside the Curtain is even more dangerous than the Infinite Sea, but as long as it can still sustain survival, no matter how harsh the environment can become a new habitat for civilization …… As long as it survives, life will find a way out, even if it requires a long and painful process of adaptation …… or even a mutation process.”

Helena’s words fell, the hall fell into silence for a while, Duncan, on the other hand, was able to feel his side of Vanna and Maurice and others subconsciously held their breath, after several seconds, he heard Vanna break the silence, “The situation has been so bad?”

“The worst part is that we don’t even know how bad it’s going to get – without the Lost Country’s ‘warning’, we wouldn’t even know that the last time the sun ever went completely out for twelve hours, the ” Loon shook his head, “In those twelve hours, the four arks also disappeared from the world, along with the other city-states, which further convinced us that …… had to face what might happen next according to the worst possible preconceptions. ”

“But the ‘world beyond the curtain’ is only a conjecture, an unfounded one,” Duncan said suddenly and faintly, his voice was not loud, but it seemed to fall coldly on every heart, “and it is quite possible that this is only your wishful ‘endeavor’.”

“Better than doing nothing,” Helena’s expression didn’t change at all, she simply met Duncan’s gaze calmly and openly, “We didn’t set out to do something because we were sure it would work, we had to do it because we had no choice- -there may be nothing beyond the Eternal Curtain, and it may well even be that the Eternal Curtain has no end at all, and we will never find the so-called New Voyage, but something has to be done ……”

She paused, while Frem, who hadn’t said much since a moment ago, broke the silence with a low voice, “Under worse scenarios, we’re even thinking about how we’re going to survive the Eternity Curtain.”

“Survive in the Eternal Curtain!?” Nina let out a dumbfounded gasp – she hadn’t said anything all this time, just sat quietly next to Uncle Duncan because she didn’t feel that this was the right place for her to just interject herself on such occasions, but this time she couldn’t help herself, “Could that place be inhabited? Humans could thrive in that fog?”

“Not right now,” Frem shook his head calmly, “At least with the current life forms of mortals and our current understanding of the laws of the Eternal Curtain, human society cannot do anything to thrive in that fog yet – here The ‘human society’ also includes elves and sanguinarians.”

Nina opened her mouth, “That ……”

“That’s what I mentioned earlier,” Helena spoke softly, “We may need a long and painful process of adaptation and even mutation – we may need to become less of ‘ us’ in order to survive in the world after that, perhaps it will be like those eerie shadows that appear in the fog, perhaps it will be like those noises that whisper in the wind ……”

“And if that still isn’t enough?” Duncan asked again, “The chaos of the Eternal Curtain may be simply too much to ‘adapt’ to, if both the New Voyages program and the Adaptation program fail ……” “Then we’ll go to the Spirit World, and if that still doesn’t work, then we’ll launch a general assault on the Profound Deep,” Banister spoke calmly, “Since there’s a group of people in this world who can summon demons into the Reality Dimension, we can go to the worlds of those demons, who can survive in the Profound Deep, and so can we – and if that still doesn’t work, then we have subspace.”

This time finally even Shirley couldn’t help but speak up, “Sub …… subspace?”

Banister nodded gently, “No one can survive subspace, and all mortals who witness it will dissolve into eternal madness and aberration, but if it does come down to it, subspace can be an option – any option, even the worst, is better than a calm and meek march to that doom.”

Both Sherry and Nina stopped speaking, an expression as if they were shocked surfaced on their faces.

Duncan, on the other hand, wore a thoughtful expression as he gazed longingly at the four figures across the table, speaking softly after a long time, “This is the ‘revelation’ you have received?”

“It’s not a revelation, it’s just a ‘ting’ we were given in one confusingly weak exchange,” Helena said slowly, raising her hand and tracing the emblems of the Storm and the Deep on her chest, “He told us to Live, at all costs, by any means necessary.”

Duncan didn’t speak for a moment.

He was lost in thought, and somewhat shaken.

He admitted that these people, who seemed to be late to every “event”, and even a little slow and feeble, had done more than he had ever imagined.

Compared to the Ancient Gods, compared to the Lost Country, they really didn’t have much power – but they were trying to do something that neither the Lost Country nor the Ancient Gods could do.

After such a silence lasted for an unknown amount of time, he finally broke it, “I would like to know the progress you have made so far.”

Helena hesitated for a few seconds and sighed softly, “…… Unfortunately, progress is still limited – we’ve set up a few forward bases at the critical point six nautical miles inside the Eternal Curtain, and have been able to get a foothold in that location, tentatively. But that’s about it. …… So far, no one has still been able to break the ‘record’ left by the Lost Country in the first place.”

“The Lost Country ‘had an accident’ after returning from six nautical miles beyond the Curtain,” Duncan shook his head in a matter-of-fact manner, “It wasn’t strictly speaking a successful ‘expedition record’.”

The faces of the four popes looked more or less odd, and it was clear that none of them were in a good position to pick up on the subject.

Duncan, on the other hand, didn’t care about it, he just adjusted his sitting position, and after briefly organizing his thoughts, he changed the subject, “So since your progress in this area has been hindered, I do have some ‘information’ here that might come in handy, and you’d probably be interested in it. ”

Helena subconsciously spoke, “Intelligence?”

“Two days ago, my daughter and I ‘captured’ a ship,” Duncan nodded, nonchalantly, “It was a large ship built by the Annihilists, a ship they used to invade the Dreamlands during the previous incident in Lightwind Harbor The ‘base’ of the ship is littered with traces of blood rituals and desecration of creations …… But that’s not the point.

“The point is that a ship like that obviously couldn’t have docked and resupplied in a normal city-state – guess where its home port is?”

Helena and Lune and the others looked at each other in disbelief, but they reacted almost immediately – Lune was the first to speak up, “Wait, could it be the …… border?!”

“Yes, they’re hiding in that thick fog,” Duncan didn’t continue to sell his story, but nodded with a serious expression, “It’s a lair of the Annihilationists, maybe even their biggest lair and ‘headquarters’, they call that place the ‘Holy Land’. Right now I’m not sure what the state of this so-called ‘holy land’ is, or whether it’s on the ‘inner’ or ‘outer’ side of the six nautical mile limit, but even if it’s on the relatively stable inner side, a long-lived ‘holy land’ would be a great place to live. stable inner side, a ‘curtain colony’ that has been hidden in the Eternal Curtain for a long time, and can even be used as a large supply port to operate steadily, must be something extremely valuable for us to study.”

(There’s something going on at home, so I’ll only be able to do a single shift for the time being for the last while …… Will resume as soon as I’ve taken care of it. Manually cover your face.)
(End of this chapter)