Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 529 - Chapter 529 Chapter 530 Uninvited Guest

Chapter 529: Chapter 530 Uninvited Guest Chapter 529: Chapter 530 Uninvited Guest Heidi didn’t rashly get up from the sickbed in the first few minutes, instead, she carefully observed her surroundings and listened to the movement outside her room. Then, she lifted her wrist to check the number and arrangement of the colored stones on her bracelet.

After doing this, she subconsciously reached out to touch the “amethyst” pendant at her chest–the slightly cold touch from her fingertips transmitted a reassuring power.

When her mind associated this pendant with its true origin and the source of this protective power, the expression on the face of the psychiatrist turned a bit odd, but soon, she suppressed this strange feeling, leaving behind only a helpless sigh–

“Fate, it really is incredible…” she couldn’t help muttering softly.

“Yes, in your eyes, fate really is incredible.”

A strange and deep voice suddenly came from beside her, startling Heidi awake, and her muscles instantly tensed.

She turned her head sharply toward the direction of the voice, but saw that by the window of the hospital room, a figure clad in a dark brown, old-fashioned robe was sitting there, appearing without notice. The old robe hid nearly all the details of the figure’s form, and the thick, wide hood enveloped all its facial features in shadow. She could only guess from the stooped posture, the deep voice, and the few wrinkles at the edge of the hood’s shadow that this seemed to be an elderly person.

Sunlight was slanting into the room, with faint dust slowly floating and drifting in the brilliance of the setting sun. The light left spotty and intermittent shadows in the creases of the mysterious person’s robe. For a moment, the figure seemed to have a nearly translucent, phantasmal quality.

Who was this? When had they appeared here? Had they been here just now?

A series of alarming questions flashed through Heidi’s mind, and her hand was already unconsciously reaching for the briefcase beside the bed.

But before her hand could touch the briefcase, the low and hoarse voice came again from beside the window: “No need for such hostility, Miss Heidi. I am not your enemy today–and your dagger and pistol cannot kill a transient traveler. Sit down. I’ve come to chat with you, consider it a way to relieve your boredom.”

Heidi, however, still expressionless, took the pistol from the hidden compartment of the briefcase and pointed the muzzle silently at the figure while speaking in a deep voice, “…Who are you?”

The figure in the robe didn’t answer Heidi, but slowly lifted its arm, meticulously examining its own hands in the sunlight streaming in from the window as if it had suddenly discovered some fascinating phenomenon. It held its arm under the sunlight, observing it over and over again.

The sleeve of the old robe slid down, revealing an arm as thin as a twig, wrinkled as if cracked.

Heidi watched the other’s bizarre action with vigilance and suddenly noticed the eerie state of the arm in the sunlight–it was becoming transparent at times, and there were moments when she could see the sunlight pass right through the arm to this side.

“Fascinating… I’ve almost forgotten what sunlight looks like…”

The figure in the robe marveled, his tone filled with an indistinct nostalgia. Then, he suddenly turned his head as if speaking to Heidi, or perhaps muttering to himself: “…Before the fourth long night begins, things will change, and the sunlight that was once harsh will become mild. The ‘boundaries’ established by sunlight, which once were clear-cut, will become blurred. Those who were exiled, forgotten, erased, and altered will be temporarily allowed back into this world–we all bathe together in this twilight, waiting for the moment when the sun sets…”

The uninvited guest spoke slowly, sounding less like he was addressing someone and more like he was facing a written chapter, reading aloud its ancient script.

Like a preacher, announcing fate to the people.

Listening to this seemingly enchanting recitation, Heidi suddenly thought of something, and her gaze became sharp: “Doomsday Preacher?!”

The figure in the robe finally lifted its head. In the hazy shadow cast by the hood, a pair of eerie golden eyes calmly watched her: “Miss Heidi, you have established a connection with the Ark of Promise. Have you seen the end of that journey?”

“I have no interest in the deceptions of heretics.” Heidi’s voice was cold, her finger applying slight pressure on the trigger. Meanwhile, her other hand instinctively reached for the amethyst pendant at her chest, a tense feeling gradually spreading at the bottom of her heart.

She was uncertain–despite having dealt with psychiatric patients and their mental disorders, as well as the monsters and shadows appearing in nightmares, she had never confronted rare enemies like Doomsday Preachers. The records of these Subspace lunatics in the world were scarce, and the self-defense courses of the Academy of Truth’s affiliated martial school didn’t provide specific training against these heretics. She didn’t know how effective her gun would be, nor if her Transcendent power would work.

However, the uninvited guest showed no reaction to Heidi’s obviously hostile gesture.

He seemed very different from the Doomsday Preachers she had learned about in her textbooks.

“We’ve detected an unusual scent, Miss Heidi, right after the arrival of the Ark of Promise,” he began, leisurely and even politely, “A vast, boundless emptiness. It appears after the end, where there is nothing… We search for ways to avoid the apocalypse, but it seems now that what lies beyond the apocalypse is a vast void far more frightening… You touched It, and now you have become a part of this void too, which fills us with curiosity… What has happened?”

The words of the uninvited guest sounded like nonsensical riddles, so abstruse as to seem like a series of unsolvable enigmas. Although he seemed sane, it was as if he’d lost the ability to communicate normally with regular people amidst the prolonged and chaotic passage of time. Despite this, Heidi still managed to pick up some seemingly plausible information from his fragmented phrases and couldn’t help but be stirred.

She frowned slightly.

“You’re talking about… Duncan Ebnomal? You mean, he brought some kind of ‘hollow’?”

The elderly preacher slowly stood up from the chair, and in the sunlight, his silhouette appeared significantly larger than Heidi had imagined, and although his body was hunched, he still loomed like a giant, “I do not know, we only know that the hollow came into being, and it is expanding. Perhaps one day, it will envelop the entire night sky of this Fourth Night…”

Heidi tensed up at the other party’s sudden movement, and the barrel of the gun in her hand raised slightly, “Heretic, what do you want from me?”

“…We urgently want to understand the nature of this hollow,” the other side actually answered her question seriously. However, he soon shook his head, “It’s just a pity, it seems I’ve come at the wrong time.”

Heidi was taken aback and asked subconsciously, “What do you mean by that?”

The other party did not answer but slowly turned around to look at the sunlight outside the window.

“What did you just mention about the Fourth Night?” Heidi pressed on with her questions.

The uninvited guest simply waved his hand.

“Within this window of opportunity, we can only have limited communication–my time to leave has come,” the Doomsday Preacher said softly, and stepped toward the sunlight, “We might meet in the next window, or perhaps not. That will depend on the expansion rate of the hollow… But whether or not the next window appears, we will unavoidably meet again… Twilight is nearing.”

His silhouette finally became completely transparent and dissolved in the sunlight instantaneously.

Heidi was stunned.

If it were not for the clear and stable memory in her mind, if the feel of the gun and the amethyst pendant were not so distinct, she might have thought she had just had another dream.

And just as the presence of the Doomsday Preacher completely vanished, she suddenly felt a subtle change in the “atmosphere” within the room.

It seemed as though some kind of blocking force had retreated from the room.

Slightly hurried footsteps came from the corridor outside the sickbay.

…

In the captain’s quarters of the Homeloss, Duncan sat quietly at the navigation desk, still reminiscing about the information he had seen and perceived in that bizarre dreamscape.

After an uncertain amount of time passed, Morris’s voice suddenly rang out from beside him, breaking his contemplation, “I thought you might consider having Heidi join this ship.”

Duncan raised his head and looked at the old man with a smile, “Didn’t you say before that you didn’t want her to get too close to the Homeloss?”

“Back then… I was somewhat anxious about this ship,” Morris laughed awkwardly and then shook his head, “And at that time, Heidi was completely unaware of our affairs. Now that she knows, there’s no need to avoid more.”

Duncan thought for a moment and seriously said, “Indeed, but I have carefully considered, and it seems this ship doesn’t need a psychological doctor.”

He then turned to look out the window, saying offhandedly, “Who here needs psychological counseling? You don’t, Agatha doesn’t, I certainly don’t, Fenna’s will is so firm that even I am shocked, Sherry’s sanity is tied to the dog, and the dog is a Profound Demon, Nina is a shard of the sun, Alice… Alice is completely guileless. Is there anyone else? Goat head?”

The goat head on the navigation desk instantly turned its neck upon hearing its name, “Ah, great captain, your first officer is forever steadfast and reliable, and would not be defeated by so-called psychological problems. Moreover, I have self-studied many psychology courses, perfectly capable of self…”

“Shut up.”

“Oh.”

“So, you see,” Duncan turned back to Morris, spreading his hands, “If Heidi comes here, then she is the most likely one aboard this ship who will need a psychological doctor.”

After a pause, Morris picked up his pipe and before placing it in his mouth, muttered, “Seems about right…”