Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 483 - Chapter 483 Chapter 484 Heirs

Chapter 483: Chapter 484 “Heirs Chapter 483: Chapter 484 “Heirs The Frost Queen fell silent for several seconds. In those gemlike, serene purple eyes, one couldn’t discern the slightest hint of her mood at the moment, not until this stillness almost solidified into suffocation did she softly nod and say, “Oh.”

She then paused for thought and asked, “How is Frost faring now?”

Duncan looked into her eyes and began with a calm tone, “…Tirian is the new Governor, and the Mist Fleet is taking full control of the City-State. The remaining Frost Navy will be reorganized and reconstituted.”

Lei Nora revealed a slight smile, “Ah, Tirian, one of the possibilities… Destiny is indeed an enigmatic thing. This outcome isn’t too bad, don’t you think?”

Duncan did not respond but simply continued, “There is another matter; the current figurehead of the Church in the City-State follows my command.”

Lei Nora finally showed a slightly surprised expression, tilting her head, “Hmm? It sounds like… you are now the actual ruler of Frost?”

“I have no interest in ruling a City-State–but if you wish to think of it that way.”

“Now I’m even more curious about what exactly happened to cause Frost’s situation to turn out this way,” Lei Nora’s expression became serious, “I have arranged many things, but your arrival was not part of any plan. You mentioned a disaster, but in my projections, even if He became somewhat uncontrollable, the situation should not have deteriorated to the extent you described…”

“The army of Replicas in the Frost Deep Sea invaded Frost, and a mirror City-State almost surfaced into the real world,” said Duncan gravely, “While you were trying to appease that tentacle in the deep sea, a group of Heretics sensed the power He was leaking–and the City-State’s continuous mining of the boiling gold mine actually ‘assisted’ those nonbelievers to some extent.”

Then Duncan did not withhold any information, recounting to this former queen the full series of events in Frost, including the changes his own intervention brought about.

Lei Nora didn’t interrupt from start to finish. She listened quietly until Duncan finished speaking, then took a deep breath, her face showing a complex smile, “Compared with ancient gods from the deep sea, it seems that crazed humans are slightly more terrifying.”

She paused, then sighed with a sense of relief, “However, it’s a relief that in the worst of paths, we’ve arrived at an ending that’s not too terrible–most people have survived.”

“Even if the City-State has become the possession of someone like me, a ‘Subspace Shadow’?” Duncan intentionally asked.

Lei Nora just smiled and then looked seriously into Duncan’s eyes, “Then you will surely become the strongest Guardian Frost has ever seen.”

“Your attitude towards me does differ from others,” Duncan remarked with some emotion, “Since regaining my humanity, I’ve met many people. Most of them show shock or alarm, few can maintain their composure upon first meeting me, let alone adopt an attitude as optimistic as yours.”

Lei Nora shook her head, “This isn’t optimism, it’s fact. Since you’ve regained your humanity and helped Frost, naturally you are the most powerful Guardian of this City-State. I know most people instinctively feel fear towards this, but I’ve embraced fear for too long and have become accustomed to seeing the true face of things through fear.”

“…Now it’s my turn to ask,” said Duncan after being silent for a few seconds, then he composed his language and began, “The Replica of The Saint… when exactly did it invade the real world? And will similar ‘invasions’ occur again?”

“Sorry, I can’t give a very clear answer to the first question,” Lei Nora said with a hint of regret on her face, “By the time I became aware of His presence, He was already in the deep sea, and in the initial few contacts, I only heard a voice… He said He was a flawed Replica, He said He needed to stop running.”

“‘Contact’?” Duncan instantly noticed the word, “How did you ‘contact’ Him initially? And it seems from your words… the Replica conveyed information to you and even sought your help?”

Lei Nora nodded slightly, “Have you heard that I’m a natural-born Psychic?”

“…I have indeed heard such rumors; they say you can even know all things past and present.”

“Rumors often exaggerate, I can neither predict the future nor see through everything. Yet one thing is for sure, natural-born Psychics… can really ‘hear’ voices unreachable to ordinary people,” Lei Nora seemed to fall into a reminiscence, slowly speaking as she thought, “When I was very little, I would often hear these inexplicable whispers or see strange and bizarre scenes in my sleep, much like most innate Psychics. These frightening ‘symptoms’ were quite dangerous and even threatened those who took care of me on several occasions–

“Can you imagine? You are taking care of a two or three-year-old child, and then merely from dreaming, fatal screeches and swelling, undulating shadows suddenly appear in the room… Once they realized that the terrible anomalies appearing frequently in the house originated from the smallest child, my parents had no choice but to send me into the Church, just like the other natural Psychics. I was entrusted to the care of… ‘professionals.’

“I spent my time growing up in the deepest cellars of the cathedral, armed silent monks and ascetics as my nurses, and specially crafted shackles and neck collars as my toys, a blessed iron cage as my bed. The gatekeeper would check on me three times a week, making sure my mind was still on the human side–until my twelfth birthday, when my spirit and willpower had matured, and my awareness had cleared. The Archbishop then believed I had stabilized on the ‘human side,’ thus he blessed me, baptized me, and publicly declared me human.

“After that, I underwent rigorous training to adapt and control my talent, learning to coexist peacefully with my ‘nightmares.’ Over four years, I gradually realized that my ‘Dreamscape’ is essentially a resonance with the world, and the whispers and light within the Dreamscape come from entities that float at the margins of reality, attempting to establish contact with the real world. After confirming my mind could bear the burden, my mentors taught me special methods to listen to those voices and maintain my selfhood throughout the process…

“And it was during this process that my ‘perception’ began to be frequently drawn toward the deep sea, I started to become aware of… Its presence.

“Or rather, It began to become aware of mine.

“Every born spiritual energy user has their own resonance inclination. Some are inclined to hear the voices from history, and they mostly become outstanding archaeologists and scholars of secrecy. Others lean towards hearing the voices of the Four Divinities, and as long as they live to adulthood, they are almost destined to become ‘The Saint.’ Unfortunately, some resonate with Subspace–ninety-nine percent of these individuals do not leave the church cellars alive. The few who survive become the extremely rare ‘Keeper of Secrets’ or ‘Secret Saint,’ retained by the church.

“And I, I established a resonance with an awakening ancient god from the deep sea.”

Lei Nora paused, her gaze moving to the end of the room, towards the fragmented darkness, and as she watched, the darkness surged, the chaos of Subspace’s light faded, and the floating islands of the endless deep sea and that silent “pillar” appeared within the depths.

It was her resonance, her nightmare, her fear and responsibility, beginning and end.

“In fact, most of the time, I could hardly hear what ‘It’ was saying–initially, I thought it was due to my lack of power, insufficient control over spiritual energy resonance. But as time passed, I realized the reason actually lies with this ‘ancient god.’

“It is incomplete, It is but a flawed ‘Replication’, mistakenly copied from a far larger individual, awakened in the dark depths of the sea, with a chaotic and fragmented mind filled only with one thought–error, terminate immediately.

“It repeated this thought in my mind thousands, tens of thousands of times.”

Duncan finally spoke in a soft voice, “So, you initiated the Abyssal Project?”

“No, I first became the Frost Queen,” Lei Nora said indifferently, “It took a bit of effort, but only by gaining control of the entire City-State could I have more ways to investigate and confirm the contents of what I ‘heard.’ During this process, I discovered the anomalies deep within the gold mines and the connections between all of this and the ‘Deep Sea’–the Abyssal Project was the final outcome, and to reach this ultimate result, I did a lot of preparatory work.”

Duncan said nothing for a moment, only slowly rising from his chair and coming to the end of the room, thoughtfully looking at the deep-sea “scenery” emerging from the darkness and the tentacle that pierced through the “blueprint” of Frost like an enormous pillar reaching the sky.

After a long while, he glanced back slightly, “So It bears no malice?”

“No malice, no benevolence,” Lei Nora said, “In fact, It doesn’t possess what might be called ‘wisdom’–just a small segment of disorderly, broken thoughts, repeating a simple judgment. It can’t even understand its own existence, let alone have any ‘attitude’ towards those delicate, fragile creatures above the sea…

“It merely exists, existing in pain and confusion, in this cold darkness, but such simple ‘existence’ is enough to overturn our delicate, fragile so-called ‘civilization.'”

Duncan murmured softly, “Existence itself is a threat…”

Lei Nora’s voice came after a moment from behind him: “Now I can answer your second question.

“Whether similar ‘invasions’ might happen again–I believe… it’s possible, even certain to happen.”

Duncan turned his head quickly, “Why?”

“Because this is not an ‘invasion.’ The Saint from the abysmal realms did not ‘enter’ our reality from Its own realm–It doesn’t need to do that.

“Its ‘component’ naturally resides in the real world, in every part of the deep sea, every City-State, even within every human body. What happened in the Frost Deep Sea was not an ‘invasion,’ but an… ‘Awakening.'”

Lei Nora slowly spread her hands, an unusual calmness on her face, as she looked into Duncan’s eyes and disclosed the greatest truth she had realized in half a century of nightmare-ridden slumber–

“Captain Duncan, in a sense, all of us, even the City-State beneath our feet, are offspring of an ancient god.”