Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 562 - Chapter 562 Chapter 561 The Man Who Walks in the Wilderness

Chapter 562: Chapter 561: The Man Who Walks in the Wilderness Chapter 562: Chapter 561: The Man Who Walks in the Wilderness Because of the delay in the afternoon, by the time Sherry and Nina returned to 99 Crown Street, it was already nearing dusk, time for dinner.

In this “City of Elves,” there really wasn’t much that could be called normal food, but luckily, normal ingredients were always available. Lucresia’s “servants” prepared a sumptuous dinner for the guests, and Nina and Sherry finally managed to eat “the food that humans should eat.”

But they didn’t feel quite at ease while eating.

The things they had seen and heard in that underground shelter still made them dizzy–there were too many things they didn’t understand, too many things that were beyond their comprehension, about the Grand Annihilation, about the “Black Wall” at the historical beginning, about those apocalyptic days, about those destroyed old worlds, and about this “new world” born in the Deep Sea Era…

For the two girls who could still only be considered “big children” in the strictest sense, these matters were a bit too complex and advanced.

Hurriedly finishing dinner, Sherry returned to her own room. She sat at the desk and spaced out for a while, then heard the light sound of chains moving beside her, as A Dog emerged from the shadows.

Sherry looked down at her “friend” who had almost eaten her but ended up raising her from a child. She asked seriously, “Did you understand what the captain said today? All that stuff about pieces of several worlds piled together, then the Deep Sea Era and whatever…”

“I understood some of it,” A Dog lay down, its huge head gently rubbing against Sherry’s knees, “but those parts that were too far beyond common sense, I didn’t understand either.”

“I hardly understood any of it,” Sherry admitted honestly, “Of course, I understand the sentences, but if you ask me to imagine how those things actually happened, my brain struggles–after all, why should we care how this world came into being?”

She spoke confusedly, knowing that she was showing a very superficial side of herself, but in front of A Dog, she never had anything to hide.

“Knowing nothing, we can still live, can’t we?” she continued, “Anyway, we two have been living like this for the past decade or more…”

Suddenly, A Dog lifted its head. Its hollow eye sockets filled with blood-red light stared straight into Sherry’s eyes, and a deep, hoarse voice came from its skeletal body, “Not knowing anything, one can live, but we also need to know, existence is not something to be taken for granted–for ordinary people this is true, and for the world itself, it is the same.”

A Dog’s sudden seriousness startled Sherry. She hesitated for a moment and then seemed to understand something, a thoughtful look spreading across her face.

“The world will not ‘survive’ forever,” A Dog observed Sherry’s reaction and laid its head back down, speaking in a muffled voice, “The Grand Annihilation could destroy those ‘old worlds,’ so today’s Deep Sea Era could likewise be ended by another force. Ordinary people may remain ignorant until the day of termination arrives, welcoming the end amidst a long-lasting illusion of peace, like the people in the kingdom waiting for heroes’ triumphal return in that ‘warrior’s’ homeland. ‘Ignorance’ is their greatest blessing… For them, not knowing anything, they can live because they do not know how far away death is.

“But Sherry, we are not those who stayed in the kingdom–we are aboard the Homeloss.

“You have seen those omens, the Black Sun descending on Prand, the creator’s blueprint losing control deep in Frost, the Endless Sea when Illusion 001 extinguished, and those babbling Heretics… If you were a ‘person living in the kingdom,’ you wouldn’t have encountered them.”

A Dog rattled on, shaking its head, and cautiously retracted its sharp fangs, nuzzling Sherry’s knees with its nose.

“Sherry, indeed, not knowing anything you can live, but you have come to know now–the captain is worried about those ominous premonitions, and in fact, so are you, only you haven’t noticed it.”

Sherry quieted down, sitting silently in the chair for a long time, before she reached out to touch A Dog’s skull, her voice tinged with unease: “A Dog, are we those wandering the wilderness… just like that ‘warrior,’ are we also trekking towards doom?”

“We are moving towards doom, and doom is moving towards us, ‘cognition’ is bidirectional–when we become aware of its existence, there’s no distinguishing between the two. The only question is… how it will catch up with us, and when. I think that’s what the captain is worried about too.”

“…A Dog, why do you understand so well? Understand… this feeling?”

The bloodlight in A Dog’s eyes slowly darkened and brightened, “Because I’ve felt something similar–when you were still very very small.”

It lifted its head, looking into Sherry’s eyes.

Its voice was gentle, just like many years ago, when it tried to soothe the frightened little girl to sleep on a stormy night–

“At the beginning, you were a tiny creature I couldn’t understand at all… You were so small and frail, your arms like thin sticks that could easily break, even with Demon Symbiosis, you were so fragile that you seemed like you could die at any moment…

“Every day, every second, I was worried about the arrival of this ‘death.’ I didn’t understand your breathing, your heartbeat, I didn’t know how humans survived, I didn’t even know after you had gone several days without food that you needed to find something to eat–as a Profound Demon, at that time, I wasn’t used to ‘thinking’ about these matters, and you… didn’t communicate much with me either.

“So I always felt you could die at any time from something I couldn’t yet comprehend. Your breathing, heartbeat, and the flow of your blood were all delicate ‘temporary equilibriums’ in my eyes, the end of any one aspect could take you away from me. That’s why when you were small and woke up, you always found me beside you, probing and observing, because I needed to check your breathing and heartbeat, to see if you were already dead.

“This worry, it’s a lot like what the captain is worried about now.”

A Dog paused, lifting its head to glance at the second floor but soon redirected its gaze.

“I can’t compare myself to the captain, nor should I casually speculate about his thoughts, but today, in his gaze, I felt that familiar…concern. To him, this seemingly vast Endless Sea is probably like what you were to my eyes many years ago–a small, weak ‘creature,’ it’s a mystery how it survives, just knowing it could die at any moment.”

A-Dog prattled on for quite a while, and now it finally fell silent, but Sherry still stared at it dully, not making a sound for a long time.

“Why aren’t you speaking?” A-Dog asked, puzzled.

“You…you never told me these things before,” Sherry said, a bit dazedly, “when I was little…”

“It’s all in the past,” A-Dog said softly, “You survived, so all the past worries and difficulties are just ‘the past.'”

Sherry pursed her lips, then suddenly looked up with some concern and gazed in the direction of the second floor, “A-Dog, do you think…we could be like the warriors and their companions in the stories?”

“If I could choose, I wouldn’t want to be like them,” A-Dog shook its head, “Warriors can’t stop the end of the world simply with a steel sword. Their journey towards the apocalypse is tough and destined to be in vain–but since it’s the captain leading us, we clearly have more than just a steel sword, so I choose to be a bit optimistic.”

“The captain…” Sherry mused, “I wonder what he’s doing right now…he didn’t come down for dinner.”

“Will you go up later to bring him food and check on him?”

“Uh, better not–Alice will surely go.”

“That’s true.”

…

Looking at the magical sky where the daylight faded and the Sky Light dimmed, yet the gaps between high-rise buildings were still permeated with a faint golden “sunlight,” Duncan exhaled lightly and turned on the room’s electric light.

Although the “sunlight” spreading through the streets brought eternal “illumination” to Light Breeze Harbor, after the incident of Aberration 001, the sunlight that journeyed from the nearby sea’s surface and was blocked by layers of buildings would never be able to light the whole City-State. In the deeper parts of the City-State, where the “sunlight” was blocked by the buildings, the night remained visible, and here, people still needed the comfort of the light.

The bright light dispelled the growing dimness around and seemed to add a bit of warmth to the room.

Outside the window, with the fading power of Aberration 001, the pale rift of the Creation of the World gradually became visible in the starless, moonless sky.

The cold and pale glow spread through the night, yet was fragmented by the “sunlight” diffusing between high rises, creating a bizarre scene of the Creation of the World and sunlight occurring simultaneously and intertwining in a way not visible in other City-States.

As Duncan gazed at that sky-splitting “wound,” he was still recalling the “Memory Illusions” he had seen that day.

He thought of the “deep red” that spanned across the sky, like a vast scar.

What exactly was that “red light,” which seemed to spread across the cosmos with a pattern no longer conforming to physical norms?

Whether in the illusions seen when the New Hope crashed or in the oil paintings at Alice’s Mansion, or even in the warrior’s hometown on the brink of destruction, that red light was present.

Without a doubt, that red light was what the scholars were desperately seeking, the “culprit” behind the “Great Obliteration” event, or at least the “first symbol” of the obliteration’s occurrence.

Staring at the equally sky-spanning Creation of the World, Duncan couldn’t help but produce a series of unfounded “connections.”

With every “old world’s” destruction, that giant red light appeared, and in the new “Deep Sea Era,” the pale Creation of the World hung high in the sky… Could there be any connection between the two?

The Creation of the World, illuminating the night sky over the Endless Sea, could it be an echo from the old world’s doomsday, or a remnant of the destructive force from the Great Obliteration?

Duncan even had an unsettling conjecture–

Could it be that the destructive force had never truly dissipated and that it was simply in a form of slumber, night after night overhead, and the so-called Creation of the World… was just the “red light’s” form during its sleeping state?

Might the effect of Aberration 001 be periodic “hypnosis” of that “apocalyptic deep red”?

With this series of speculations, Duncan’s gaze grew more somber; and another question he hadn’t considered before suddenly emerged in his heart.

In his own hometown, at least in his memory of it… he had never seen that “red light.”