Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 681 - Chapter 681 Chapter 678 The Road in the Fog

Chapter 681: Chapter 678: The Road in the Fog Chapter 681: Chapter 678: The Road in the Fog The four major churches had assembled a huge fleet at the border of the civilized world–and they had been doing so for some time now.

The reduction of regular patrol fleets and the massive accumulation of ships, personnel, and supplies near the Eternal Veil had reached a scale that could not be concealed from the City-States on the border, and Lukrecia had learned about these unusual actions of the church from Sala Mel well before today; however, Duncan and she could not comprehend the purpose of such–until now.

The truth of the dead gods, the real purpose of the Pilgrimage Ark, and the current state of the gods entering “the corruption phase” prematurely allowed Duncan to finally guess the purpose of those fleets.

“…We are ‘searching for Them’,” Helena finally spoke after a moment of silence, “That was one of the purposes, the initial one.”

“Are you saying the gods are in that ‘dense fog’ within the Eternal Veil!?” Lukrecia stood up instantaneously, looking at the four pontiffs opposite her with a disbelieving gaze, “Right beyond the ‘border’?”

“We’re not sure,” Banster, the old man in a black robe, slowly shook his head in response, “But we are certain that the initial ‘rotting scent’ seeped through from the Eternal Veil at the border–that’s why our current plan is just to find the source of those scents, but no one knows what exactly we’ll see at that source.”

Rune took over the conversation, “It might be the ‘Kingdom of Gods,’ or perhaps just some kind of ‘connection point’ that they established with the mortal world, or maybe it is…”

He stopped here, not continuing the remainder of his statement.

Duncan, after a brief silence, suddenly asked again, “You just said that was only one of the purposes, what about the others? Apart from searching for ‘Them’, what else do you intend to do?”

“The other purpose is to understand what exactly has happened to this world,” Helena replied, taking the opportunity to unveil all secrets at this frank “assembly,” “Reports about the collapse of borders are increasing, and accompanied by the malfunctioning of the ‘sun’ and various anomalies related to the Eternal Veil becoming more frequent–an obvious fact is that the dense fog may conceal secrets intricately linked to our world’s ‘current state’ and ‘foundations.'”

“…Understand exactly what has happened to the world, and then what?” Duncan couldn’t help but press on as he instinctively felt that Helena wasn’t finished speaking.

“…If possible, try to find a ‘new passage’ that can completely penetrate the veil and take as many people out as possible before the worst happens,” Helena said, “If the ‘collapse’ within the Veil is inevitable, then our only way out is to ‘leave’. There might be other worlds beyond the Veil–a much vast world.

“Perhaps it’s not so habitable, or maybe even more dangerous than the Endless Sea, but as long as we can sustain life, no matter how adverse the environment, it can become a new cradle for civilization… As long as we survive, life will find a way, even if it requires a lengthy and painful process of adaptation… even mutation.”

At Helena’s words, the hall fell quiet for a time, and Duncan could feel Fenna and Morris beside him holding their breath instinctively. After several seconds, he heard Fenna breaking the silence, “Is the situation already this dire?”

“The worst part is, we don’t even know how bad it could get–if it weren’t for Homeloss’s ‘warning’, we wouldn’t even know that the sun had been completely extinguished for twelve hours last time,” Rune shook his head, “During those twelve hours, the four Arks, along with other City-States, disappeared from this world. This made us further believe… we must face the worst possible outcomes that could happen next.”

“But the ‘world beyond the Veil’ is just speculation, baseless speculation,” Duncan suddenly spoke up, his voice quiet but seemingly cold as ice in everyone’s heart, “It’s likely just your wishful ‘effort.'”

“Better than doing nothing,” Helena’s expression did not change. She simply faced Duncan’s gaze with calm and candor, “We don’t take action because we’re certain something will succeed, but rather because we have no other choice–we might find nothing beyond the Eternal Veil, it might not even have an end, and we might never find the so-called new passage, but we must do something…”

She paused, and then Frem, who had been silent since the beginning, broke the silence with a low voice, “Under the worst assumptions, we are even considering how to survive within the Eternal Veil.”

“Live within the Eternal Veil!?” Nina exclaimed in shock–she had been quiet, sitting beside Uncle Duncan all this time, feeling that this wasn’t her place to chime in, but this time, she couldn’t help it, “Is that place even livable? Can humans propagate and thrive in that dense fog?”

“Not now,” Frem shook his head calmly, “At least not with humanity’s current form of life and our current understanding of the Veil’s regulations–‘human society’ here includes Elves and the Senkin People as well.”

Nina opened her mouth, “Then…”

“That’s what I just mentioned,” Helena spoke softly, “We may need a lengthy and painful process of adaptation or even mutation–we might need to become no longer ‘ourselves’ in order to live in the world that follows. Perhaps we’ll become like those mysterious shadows in the fog or may resemble the whispers in the wind…”

“If this still isn’t enough?” Duncan asked again, “The chaos of the Eternal Veil may be fundamentally impossible to ‘adapt’ to. If both the new routes plan and the adaption plan fail…”

“Then we go to the Spirit Realm, and if the Spirit Realm still doesn’t work, we’ll launch an all-out assault on the Mysterious Deep Sea,” Banster said calmly. “Since there are people in this world who can summon demons to the reality dimension, then we can also go to the worlds of those demons. If they can survive in the Mysterious Deep Sea, so can we–if that still doesn’t work, we still have Subspace.”

This time, even Sherry couldn’t help but speak up: “Sub… Subspace?”

Banster nodded gently: “No one has survived Subspace, all mortals who have witnessed it dissolve into eternal madness and distortion. But if we truly reach the last moment, Subspace might also be an option–any choice, even the worst one, is better than walking sedately and submissively to that end.”

Sherry and Nina both fell silent, expressions akin to being struck with awe appearing on their faces.

Duncan showed a contemplative expression. He gazed at the four figures across the table for a long time before softly speaking, “Is this the ‘revelation’ you’ve received?”

“This isn’t a revelation, it’s just the ‘advice’ we received from the weak and chaotic exchanges, time after time,” Helena said slowly as she raised her hand and traced the insignias of storms and deep seas on her chest. “They want us to survive at all costs, to live on by any means necessary.”

Duncan did not respond immediately.

He was lost in thought, somewhat shaken.

He admitted that these people, who always seemed belated and somewhat sluggish in every ‘event’, were doing more than he had imagined.

Compared to the ancient gods and Homeloss, they indeed had not much power–but they were trying to do things neither Homeloss nor the ancient gods could do.

After an unknown stretch of silence, he finally broke the quiet: “I would like to know the progress you’ve made so far.”

Helena hesitated a few seconds before sighing softly, “…Unfortunately, our progress is still limited–we’ve established several forward bases at the critical point within six nautical miles of the Eternal Veil, barely able to hold our ground there, but that’s about it… No one has yet to break the ‘record’ left by Homeloss.”

“Something happened to Homeloss after it returned from beyond six nautical miles of the Veil,” Duncan shook his head, his attitude quite candid, “Strictly speaking, that was not a successful ‘expeditionary record.'”

The faces of the four pontiffs all turned slightly odd, obviously not comfortable in continuing this topic.

Duncan did not mind; he simply adjusted his sitting posture and, after quickly organizing his thoughts, changed the subject: “Since you are already facing barriers in this area, I happen to have some ‘information’ that might be of use to you, which you might find interesting.”

Helena instinctively asked, “Information?”

“A couple of days ago, my daughter and I ‘captured’ a ship,” Duncan nodded, speaking at an unhurried pace, “It was a large boat built by the Heretics, the base they used for the invasion of the Dreamscape during the incident at Light Breeze Harbor, covered in traces of bloody rites and profane creations… But that’s not the point.

“The point is, such a ship obviously couldn’t dock and resupply at a normal City-State–guess where its home port is?”

Helena and Rune and the others looked at each other, but they almost immediately came to a realization–Rune was the first to speak up: “Wait, could it be… the frontier?!”

“Yes, they’re hiding in that thick fog,” Duncan didn’t keep them in suspense, but nodded solemnly, “That’s a nest of the heretics, possibly even their biggest nest and ‘headquarters’, which they call a ‘holy land.’ I can’t yet be sure of the exact state of this so-called ‘holy land’, nor can I confirm whether it’s on the ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ of the six nautical mile limit, but even if it’s on the comparatively stable inside, a ‘Veil Colony’ hidden in the Eternal Veil for a long time, even capable of operating stably as a large supply harbor, must surely be of great research value to us.”

(Some family matters to attend to, I’ll only be able to update once for the coming period… Will resume as soon as things are handled. Facepalm.)