Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 651 - Chapter 651 Chapter 648 Are the Gods Dead

Chapter 651: Chapter 648: Are the Gods Dead? Chapter 651: Chapter 648: Are the Gods Dead? The captain’s quarters were very quiet, with the faint sound of waves outside the window breaking gently and softly, which only served to accentuate the serene stillness of the room–a good while passed before the goat head finally let out a sigh, “Ah, that sounds nice.”

“I thought you would ask more questions,” Duncan raised his eyebrows as he spoke, “Aren’t you curious about where I actually took Silantis, or curious about my many secrets?”

“Curious,” the goat head stated bluntly, “but reason and intuition tell me that it’s best not to inquire too deeply into things known as ‘secrets,’ especially not about what happened when you leave this ship. You are the captain of the Homeloss, and knowing that is enough for me. It’s better to know less about anything beyond that.”

“…Intuition?” Duncan said thoughtfully, as he looked at the black wooden goat head in front of him and suddenly asked, “Has your intuition told you what would happen if I were no longer the captain of the Homeloss, or if you knew too many of my ‘secrets’?”

The goat head fell silent for a moment, nearly a minute passed before it broke the silence, “All I know is that whenever I entertain thoughts of ‘crossing the line,’ I see an endless expanse of stars–and under the light of myriad stars, the Homeloss no longer exists.”

Duncan slowly furrowed his brows, and after a brief contemplation, he shook his head, putting aside his complex thoughts for the moment, “Silantis… is now in a special state, staying in a safe place; you need not worry about it.”

“That’s good,” the goat head said softly, without asking anything further.

“Now there is another question–how should I address you?” Duncan suddenly asked after a few seconds of silence, “Saslouka? Goat head? Or first mate?”

“…Let’s stick to the old names,” the goat head hesitated, its tone sounding slightly awkward, “First mate or goat head is fine, Saslouka… that name feels quite unfamiliar now, recalling it now, it doesn’t seem like my own.”

Duncan was somewhat surprised, “You were quick to agree when I first called you that.”

The goat head’s tone grew even stranger, “…At that moment, it was inappropriate not to agree…”

“… ”

He looked strangely at the black wood carving on the table for a moment and finally couldn’t help but ask curiously, “I am quite curious about what your current state is, or rather… what is your understanding of yourself? At the moment of the ‘cosmic collision,’ you could feel your transformation, by then you seemed to have fully returned to being the ‘Dreaming King,’ but it only lasted for a short while.”

Noticing the serious expression on the captain’s face, the goat head finally began to seriously ponder, and after a long while, it slowly shook its head somewhat uncertainly, “Actually, I am still somewhat confused to this day. I can feel that the memories belonging to ‘Saslouka’ have awakened in my mind, but I can also clearly feel… He is not entirely me, nor am I entirely Him.”

“But as you said, upon seeing the ‘sapling’… I underwent some changes, perhaps due to the influence of the mythical form, or perhaps because the sapling left too profound a mark in my memory, I… ‘returned’ to a state from my memory, for a fleeting moment, I even thought… time had truly reversed.”

It paused, seemingly quietly reminiscing that moment’s wonderful feeling, recalling something gradually reviving deep within its memory, another “personality” awakening within its consciousness, but eventually, it slowly shook its head.

“But that only lasted a very short time, and as the sun rose and the dream ended, I returned to this state. It seems that my symbiosis with the Homeloss has permanently changed some of my essence–and frankly, I prefer it this way.”

“Is that so?” Duncan said thoughtfully, “That means, you are both Saslouka and not entirely Him, this sounds more like a new entity reconstituted from the fragments of an ancient god… But if you think that’s good, then there’s no problem.”

“There’s nothing bad about it,” the goat head declared nonchalantly, “Some things… once they are past, they are truly hard to return to; we must always look forward, no matter how much is taken away by the Great Annihilation, the fact is that we live in the age of the Mysterious Deep Sea–let Saslouka remain in the legends.”

“…You ultimately have changed, it used to be hard for you to speak such reasonable words so straightforwardly,” Duncan looked somewhat meaningfully at the goat head for a moment, then stroked his chin, “But you reminded me, I actually have a question I want to ask you.”

The goat head, hearing this, immediately became serious again, “Ask away.”

“Saslouka died, a long time ago–he’s already dead. Do you still remember this phrase?”

“…I remember,” the goat head thought for a moment and responded affirmatively, “During the restoration and reconstitution of several parts of my memory, this phrase echoed constantly in my consciousness, it seems like a strong ‘self-recognition.'”

“Correct, Saslouka ‘died’ at the time of the Great Annihilation; it’s a ‘fact’ deeply embedded in your memory, even in the subconscious memory of the elf race,” Duncan nodded, then shifted the conversation, “But according to the records in the Book of Desecration, in the second long night after the Annihilation, the ‘Dreaming King’ attempted Creation again and ‘shattered into pieces’ due to the failure of Creation–the keel of the Homeloss, the ‘Skull of Dreams’ in the hands of the Annihilation cultists, and you yourself, are all evidence of this record.

“And we can basically confirm, the ‘Dreaming King’ mentioned in the records of the Book of Desecration is the Saslouka who died during the Great Annihilation.

“How could an ancient god who had died at the time of the Great Annihilation attempt ‘Creation’ in the second long night?

“Another similar contradictory record is about the ‘Perpetual Ember’ Tarrikin worshiped by the Fire Transmitters.”

Duncan paused at this point, picked up the water cup on the table and took a sip, then adjusted his position on the chair and continued with a more serious expression:

“Tarrikin was another deity who died during the Great Annihilation. He was the guardian god of the Senkin People. According to the report by Fenna and the records on the ‘Chronicle Pillar,’ his death, or ‘fall,’ is also an indisputable fact. But if he truly had died at the time of the Great Annihilation… what then is the ‘Tarrikin’ that the Fire Transmitters on the Endless Sea now worship? And who exactly is one of the four gods, ‘The Ever-Burning Kindling’?”

A faint creaking sound came from between the goat’s head and its base. It shook its head from side to side, and after a long while, it finally remarked with a sense of awe, “This sounds a bit horrifying.”

Duncan silently watched the creature, “Don’t act so detached; you are one of the involved ‘deities.'”

“I don’t remember,” the goat head said quite calmly, “I’ve told you, I only recalled some vague fragments of memory, and they all happened before the Great Annihilation. As for what happened afterward… I truly don’t know.”

Duncan furrowed his brows deeply: “You have no impressions whatsoever about the Second Long Night and your experiences during the Creation?”

The goat head thought hard for a moment, then shook its head helplessly, “If I could remember even a little, I wouldn’t completely forget…”

Duncan ignored the creature’s nonsense and continued to ponder, eyebrows still furrowed. After a long while, he slowly spoke, “If so, I do have some speculations.”

“You have speculations?”

“I think… we shouldn’t apply the simple status of life and death of ‘mortals’ to deities,” Duncan said earnestly after thinking, “Take yourself as an example — do you think you are alive now?”

The goat head was taken aback for a moment and hesitantly said, “I think… probably alive, I am living well, aren’t I?”

“By ‘living well,’ do you mean your spine is soaked in the Subspace, one head is in the hands of the followers of Annihilation, and more of your heads might still be floating in the cracks of the world?”

The goat head’s neck made a “crack” sound, and it immediately cried out, “Don’t say it so frighteningly! This sounds a bit creepy…”

“But this is your current state — not only are you already dead, you could even say… you haven’t died peacefully,” Duncan felt this topic was somewhat eerie, but since he had reached this point, he could only try to maintain a serious demeanor and continued, “And I suspect, the states of other ‘deities’… are probably not much different from yours.”

The goat head fell silent, seemingly in shock.

Duncan slightly organized his language, then continued, “The Crawling King, the Profound Saint, according to the ‘Book of Desecration’, he is the creator of the Third Long Night. His current state is ‘losing his sanity, stuck between the Mysterious Deep Sea and the Subspace, unable to move while constantly creating countless Profound Demons, and devouring them incessantly.’

“In the sacred texts of the Fire Transmitters, Tarrikin is described as a giant guarding the Primal Flame, and this giant himself is also ablaze with an undying flame, eternally roasting his body.

“Black Sun, whom I have seen, is scorched by his own corona, mentally broken, now only seeking to extinguish…

“The Storm Goddess and the God of Wisdom… I’m unclear about their exact states, but I guess the situation is probably similar.

“Stripping all the mythological halos, and just from my personal ‘common sense’ and ‘subjective impression,’ none of these situations seems normal.”

Duncan said this and spread his hands, making the final conclusion.

“The gods are dead — it’s just that their ‘deaths’ might be very prolonged, maybe quite unique. They do not operate on the ‘life and death’ understood by mortals. Their kind of ‘state’ after death, or say ‘remnants,’ can still affect this world, or rather… affect this ‘ashes’ that were burnt to the ground after the Great Annihilation.

“This is the true face of the Deep Sea Era.”

Duncan’s words fell, and the captain’s cabin fell silent.

After who knows how long, the goat head’s voice finally broke the silence, “Your way of describing… is unsettling, I actually feel a bit creeped out this time.”

Duncan thought for a moment and sighed softly, “I probably should indeed find a gentler way of describing it; it does sound a bit eerie when put this way.”

“No, what I mean is, the back of my neck really does feel a bit itchy… Can you scratch it for me?”

Duncan: “…”