Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 673 - Chapter 673 Chapter 670 A Bleak Future

Chapter 673: Chapter 670: A Bleak Future Chapter 673: Chapter 670: A Bleak Future Light Breeze Harbor, 99 Crown Street, inside the “Witch’s Residence.”

Sherry was idly leaning on the windowsill, staring at the scenery on the street outside in a daze.

Peace and order had returned to the City-State. Although many people were still troubled by the “aftereffects of the Dreamscape,” the physical damage caused by the Light Breeze Harbor incident was evidently far less than that in Silantis and Frost. At least to the naked eye, most people’s daily lives had returned to their familiar routines.

Children were cheering and running across the unblocked intersections, holding colorful pinwheels, moving down the street in the cheerful sunlight.

It was nearing noon, and Anomaly 001 hung high in the sky. Across the street, many beautiful blue-roofed houses basked in the sunlight. Every now and then, one could see Knowledge Guards in their uniforms standing aloft, vigilantly and seriously watching the situation within the block.

“Yawn…” Sherry stretched languorously, turned her head, and glanced at Nina, “What have you been doing since this morning?”

Nina was sitting behind a small table near the window, her head bowed as she busily scribbled in a large notebook, her other hand holding a glowing “Fireball,” occasionally biting off a small piece. Hearing Sherry’s words, she didn’t look up, “Doing mechanical design, going to take it to the customization workshop later…”

Sherry was puzzled and couldn’t help but lean over to glance at the dazzling gears and linkages drawn in Nina’s notebook, staring quizzically at her studious friend, “Didn’t the old man say he wrote to Silantis to help you drop out? You don’t have to take exams anymore. Why are you still working so hard?”

Nina suddenly looked up, her face serious as she regarded Sherry, “It’s not dropping out, it’s early graduation–I had nothing to do on the ship, so I completed all the high school courses. After discussing with Teacher Morris and Uncle Duncan, they said it’s pointless for me to return to school now, the usual path of development isn’t suitable for me, so they arranged for my early graduation…”

Sherry was dumbfounded, “That’s possible?”

“Not for most people, but Teacher Morris guaranteed–it’s possible for me,” Nina took another bite of the mini sun in her hand, chewing crisper, and murmured unclearly, “And I think it’s pretty good. I didn’t have many friends in school anyway and went on adventures with Uncle Duncan for so long, probably won’t fit in after returning…”

However, Sherry didn’t catch what Nina was saying towards the end. Her attention had already focused mid-conversation on the “small Fireball” Nina was nibbling on, and she finally couldn’t help blurting out, “You’ve been nibbling on that all day… Is it tasty?”

Nina casually passed the mini sun over, “Want to try?”

Sherry instantly jumped back two meters, “I’m not ready to die yet!”

“It’s not hot at all…” Nina collected the mini sun with a resigned expression, muttering, “Too bad, I even wanted to ask Miss Fenna to try it, but she also refused…”

“Any sane person definitely can’t accept this–I’d say the scariest part is that you can actually snack on this,” Sherry maintained a safe distance from Nina, looking oddly at the Fireball in her hand, “You just eat it like that… Is that really okay? Did the captain and the old man really allow you to do this?”

“Yeah, after confirming that it doesn’t affect me, Teacher Morris even encouraged me to continue ‘testing’ and ‘observing’,” Nina nodded, “He said my ‘absorption’ process of this sun might reveal some transformation and compatibility relations between fragments of the old world. It might even help find a solution to the fundamental chaos of everything… it sounds complicated, but he and Uncle Duncan discussed it quite a lot…”

As she spoke, she took another bite of the mini sun: “They’ve been discussing increasingly profound matters, just this morning after Uncle came back from the ship, they discussed for another two hours. I even heard them talking about capturing a Doomsday Preacher to study, discussing where to catch one…”

Halfway through listening, Sherry suddenly wore an intrigued expression and turned her head towards the nearby living room.

Duncan and Morris were sitting on the couch in the living room, in fact, their discussion had been intermittently ongoing and had not yet ended.

Alice was lying next to Duncan at the coffee table, holding a pencil, and was intently scribbling on a piece of white paper her “artwork.”

“…We have never been as close to the ‘truth’ of the Origins of the world as we are today. The ‘collision’ observed in the deepest memories of Silantis is indeed the only event that can explain the Great Destruction so far… Since yesterday, I’ve been in touch with my mentor, and to my knowledge, he has shared this intelligence with the other three pontiffs…”

Maurice spoke with utmost seriousness, unconsciously fiddling with a delicate crystal prism in his hands. Sunlight from the outside window shone upon the prism, continuously refracting various dazzling colors in his palm.

Duncan slowly nodded his head, “The Great Annihilation brought with it fatal chaos and conflict, which still deeply root in the nature of all things… The Third Long Night failed to resolve these fundamental conflicts but merely delayed their outbreak. Now, it seems that this ‘delay’ has reached its limit, and the arrival of ‘Twilight’ is indeed inevitable.”

“Now, the crucial issue is what exactly will happen after ‘Twilight’ descends, and how the so-called ‘Fourth Long Night’ will occur and conclude,” Maurice said with a hint of worry, “An obvious fact is that no matter what, our current ‘Deep Sea Era’ will undergo earth-shattering changes during this process, and the City-States on the Endless Sea… may well cease to exist just like in the previous two Long Nights.”

He suddenly stopped, and after a few seconds of silence, he shook his head: “Even worse.”

Duncan did not speak; upon the topic extending to the impending ‘Twilight,’ his mind involuntarily conjured up a scene he had witnessed in the Subspace.

Ancient kings gathered around a pale giant who had died in Creation, conducting a funeral for an ancient deity in the dim Doomsday.

If each ‘Long Night’ corresponds to a ‘Twilight,’ then the scene he saw reflected in the giant’s solitary eye is indeed the scenery of the Twilight.

He thought of the pervasive starlight and the roaring deep within it.

After an unknown length of silence, he finally spoke softly, “Perhaps, only the ‘Kings’ can answer my questions.”

Maurice looked up in surprise, “What did you say?”

Duncan shook his head, not responding to Maurice’s question but instead shifting the topic after a moment’s thought, “From the intelligence currently at hand, whether it be the Heretics or the Scions of the Sun, they are all preparing for the upcoming ‘Twilight.’ The most frequently mentioned term by those Heretics is ‘new positions’–in the next era after the Deep Sea Era, they plan to secure a position in advance.”

“This may correlate with the concept of ‘Abandoned Groups’ from the Third Long Night,” Maurice immediately nodded, “According to the evidence you recently found, not all ‘groups’ were able to coexist after Creation. Many were excluded from the Shelter during the Third Long Night, and the Black Sun might be just one of them–many more abandoned groups probably didn’t even survive with a shred of information…”

He paused here, seemingly deep in thought, then continued, “Based on the premise that ‘the foundation of all things is conflict and destruction,’ and the condition that ‘gods build the next era atop the world’s ashes,’ perhaps the upcoming Fourth Long Night means building the next era on the ashes of the Deep Sea Era, the most probable outcome is…”

Maurice hesitated, but Duncan had already finished his thought, “The next era, a ‘Shelter’ far more cramped, narrow, and crowded.”

The living room fell into a brief silence, with only the sound of Alice briskly sketching on paper continuing–unconcerned with issues beyond her comprehension, she was merely immersed in her “creation,” still enthusiastic.

After a minute or two, Maurice finally slowly set down the prism in his hand.

“More ‘groups’ will be abandoned, and more civilizational creations will become the ‘profane prototypes’ of the next era, destroyed, exiled, not allowed to remain in the current dimension, or even in historical records. Many things we cherish in this era will become pollution and taboos in the next, much like the abandoned descendants of the sun from the previous era…”

Duncan nodded slightly, “Thus, those Heretics are preparing to secure a habitat for themselves in the next, even more confined ‘world,’ or perhaps just a ‘slot’ that won’t be easily erased. Stealing the powers or remains of ancient deities is their thought method–of course, whether this is effective is debatable.”

“But what then? Will there be a Fifth Long Night, a Sixth Long Night? This cycle might continue indefinitely, possibly accelerating until some final limit is reached; during this process… the ‘Shelter’ will become increasingly narrow, increasingly cramped…”

Maurice’s thoughts drifted, eventually becoming akin to talking to himself as he described the outcome calculated from his grim, pessimistic reasoning.

Embers can be reignited, but reignition has its limits. The ever-dwindling flame can only accommodate fewer warmers than before until the kindling is exhausted, and all remains eternally silent in the cold.

In the next era, there may no longer be an Endless Sea, the last habitat of civilization might only be a city, thereafter perhaps just a town, a neighborhood, a single house, a small piece of stone floating in the void; “civilization’s” last coherent strand of intelligence clinging to the stone, recalling the remnants of past civilizations in bewildered ignorance, and dying in the final murmurs of fading Spiritual Intelligence.

That would be the true end of all things.