Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 688 - Chapter 688 Chapter 685 Dark Shuttle

Chapter 688: Chapter 685: Dark Shuttle Chapter 688: Chapter 685: Dark Shuttle In that instant when the boundless darkness and chaos enveloped him, Ted Riel realized something was wrong.

However, when he tried to immediately terminate the transmission and return through the “door,” he found that his powers did not respond–and the ephemeral gate that was beside him a second ago had disappeared into the boundless darkness and chaos.

Calm down.

The Truth Confidant slowly took a breath, quickly regaining his composure, and restrained the instinctive urge to start observing and sensing his surroundings right away–in the darkness, he stood quietly in place, not attempting to hear or see anything, while gradually withdrawing his perception, controlling his thoughts, using the “Mind Control Technique” he had mastered through long training to suppress his innate human curiosity, desire to explore, and associative thinking as much as possible.

This helped to withstand the potentially malicious forces in the environment around him, or to avoid rashly coming into contact with “knowledge” that should not be touched in an unprepared state.

Rahm taught the world that a myriad of truths are hidden in darkness–in the dark, anything is possible, but very few of them are harmless to mortals.

A sense of numbness in his mind gradually spread and slowly turned into a barrier protecting his mind, the blessing of foolishness bestowed by Rahm came, and Ted Riel took a gentle breath, feeling slightly relieved. It was only then that he began to cautiously restore and rebuild his perception, turning his gaze toward the seemingly infinite chaos.

Dim, nightmarish shadows filled his vision, as if there was a boundless wasteland in the darkness, or as if there were countless, enormous and indescribable silhouettes towering up, some huge structure was pulsating at the edge of his field of vision, seemingly floating over this wasteland, blindly and slowly drifting–a sudden, intense headache struck!

Ted Riel almost couldn’t stand, the protective measures and cautious attitude he’d built up were shattered in a second, numerous sharp, tiny, dizzying noises emanated from the depths of his mind the moment he saw those massive shadows, then like countless vicious sawteeth began to tear apart his sanity, erasing his personality, and started devouring all humanity, logic, and memory!

Dark and murky streams of light flashed between those floating titanic shapes, and with that fleeting light, a thought spontaneously emerged in his heart that could make even the most steadfast saints feel an instant despair… Subspace!

“Damn…”

Ted Riel managed to squeeze out a single word from his mind before feeling the loss of control over his own body. He felt like limbs that were not his own were growing from his back, a viscous and cold fluid flowed in his veins. His vision split in the darkness, countless uncontrollable perspectives wildly scanning the surrounding dark, the overwhelming noise almost crushed his sanity–

However, in the next second, his strong personal will surged from the depths of his heart, swiftly locking away those alien perceptions, tearing apart the intrusive voices in his mind, branding his self-recognition as an “Elf” over and over again at the bottom of his heart, in the forced clarity, he suddenly felt a power, a hallucination appearing before him.

He saw a shimmering red light, floating in the darkness like an ever-detached, rational Cyclops, and many tiny lights flickering around that red “Cyclops,” a massive, tombstone-like silhouette appeared among those lights, silently standing in the mist that emerged from nowhere.

Ted Riel’s entire rationality was attracted by those flickering lights, he subconsciously raised his head, fixating on the glimmers, his thoughts were thus combed, Reshaped, and drawn toward that dominion of wisdom–

“Boom–”

A phantom roar woke him from the hallucination, the lights before Ted Riel’s eyes vanished, and he was back in that dark, chaotic place.

He realized what had happened.

The protection of the God of Wisdom had descended–in a brief moment, Rahm had glanced at him.

His mind was protected–but only temporarily.

The indistinct noise emerged again from the depths of his heart, and Ted Riel realized his vision was once again filled with fluttering, warped shadows. He knew he had no time to waste, so he quickly took out the “Book of Miracles,” filled with vast knowledge and secrets, and began to attempt to construct a gateway back to the real world.

But just then, an invisible force from nowhere seized him, he felt his body suddenly leave the barren wilderness of darkness and be swiftly pulled through the dark.

In the darkness, he saw the chaotic wilderness rapidly receding from his view.

He saw the silent titanic shapes hurtle towards him, then pass through his line of sight, morphing and contracting in indescribable ways, disappearing into the ends of space.

He saw the massive structure suspended upside-down in the sky seem to come crashing down like a crush, the next second disappearing quietly like an illusion.

He felt himself stop somewhere for a moment.

In a daze, he lifted his head to see a colossal, inverted structure looming close by–it resembled a grand yet eerie mansion, with Northern-style spires and eaves, a dried fountain, and withered garden barely visible–part of its structure fractured as if devoured, torn apart by some invisible force.

However, in the next second, the elegant mansion turned into a fragmented giant ship… different from any “ship” he knew, it resembled more of a… twisted pile of steel forming a cylindrical object, obviously incomplete, as if torn from an even larger structure…

Ted Riel had no time to scrutinize the astonishing sight. The next second, he felt himself hurtling through this void again, the increasingly chaotic and shattered light and shadow flooding towards him like a tsunami, filling his vision!

A flood of knowledge accompanied the shimmering lights into his mind–knowledge he had never encountered before and yet suddenly grasped with startling clarity.

He saw the torn structures of spacetime, distorted and warped celestial bodies transforming into slender rings under the immense pressure of space, becoming an eternal flash in the instant of annihilation, chaotically flowing in the depths of space;

He saw the collapse of mathematical laws at the end of time and uncontrollable ancient stars tearing apart into countless burning fragments of debris;

He saw a ship aimlessly navigating the darkness, tattered and nearly shattered, drifting through the void as though on an eternal exploration mission, or perhaps just a reflection from some far-flung era–the ship looked vaguely familiar;

Later, he beheld a massive object, silent and stationary at the very heart of the boundless void.

It was a colossal throne, seemingly carved from gray-white boulders, its base already fragmented and broken, where a body without a head sat in eternal silence, amidst the darkness.

This “journey” was nearing its end–

For some reason, Ted Riel’s heart suddenly flashed with that thought–as if he had traversed the laws of time and prematurely seen the place where he would come to a stop.

Then, he came to a halt in a place.

It appeared to be a fragment of ground, and there seemed to be a person… or something else, shrouded in shadows.

There was a small pile of molten, unrecognizable debris, beside which stood a figure that seemed human yet bore a grotesque half-formed structure, leaning against the debris like a soldier who had died in battle eons ago, his hand faintly raised, pointing in some direction.

Ted Riel’s mind uncontrollably gravitated toward this figure–compared to the countless massive entities in this chaotic space, the figure seemed extraordinarily ordinary, harmless.

But just as he was about to step forward, an overwhelming premonition of danger exploded in his heart, abruptly halting him.

And then, he saw a faint, illusory gate appear beside him.

It was the teleportation portal he had summoned earlier but had somehow “lost” at some point.

Ted Riel instantly cast aside all hesitation, abandoning the urge to look toward that figure and explore this unknown land, turned, and rushed toward the illusory gate.

Passing through the gate seemed to take just an instant, yet felt like enduring a century of chaotic drift, and in his barely holding rationality, Ted Riel heard a human voice faintly coming from beside his ear.

“I’ve got him! Captain, I’ve got him!”

A hoarse voice was shouting, sounding excited and triumphant.

A dragging force came from his arm, and in a haze, Ted Riel felt himself being grabbed by someone and pulled vigorously somewhere. He heard the sound of the waves, felt the icy seawater soaking his limbs, and with brute force was hauled from the water onto a ship and thrown roughly onto the hard deck.

“I’ve caught it! This thing floating around the edge of darkness… yes, it’s a person! This thing’s a person, eh!”

Who was shouting? So rough and disrespectful… it didn’t sound like someone from the City-State, very unfamiliar…

“He seems to be still out… Artificial respiration? Damn, suddenly getting nervous… No wait, captain, I can’t breathe… My usual breathing is just to set the atmosphere… Should we try it?”

Who exactly was it?

Ted Riel thought laboriously, beginning to “Reboot” his senses and every nerve in his body. He struggled to wake himself and tried to open his eyes as wide as he could.

In the dark, blurred outlines finally started to become clear.

He saw the one who was shouting–he saw a face, horribly close to his own.

It was the face of a hideous corpse, a terrifyingly grotesque face that seemed about to rot away into pieces.

The corpse was leaning down…

In an instant, Ted Riel felt he would rather have returned to Subspace.