Deep Sea Embers

Duncan had been quietly listening to the diverse voices echoing within his mind—calm and reliable reports from Vanna and Morris, hesitant complaints from Lucretia, and occasionally, the passionate rants from Shirley and the kind advice from Nina. These voices, bridging time and space, wrapped around him like chains of warmth, anchoring him to reason and humanity, even as his two avatars within the city-state were slowly becoming ineffective.

After a while, Duncan paused his communication with Vanna and the others and walked slowly across the deck. He navigated through the stern stairs and ramps until he reached the towering stern helm.

The doll was still positioned quietly at the helm, her hands clenched tightly around the dark, heavy steering wheel. Her eyes, unfocused, stared straight ahead. Countless invisible threads stretched from her body, connecting her to the Vanished below her feet and the illusory projection of the New Hope in the sky.

Suddenly, a thin mist began to emerge from all around the deck, swirling and converging together.

Duncan noticed the eerie appearance of the mist and instinctively furrowed his brow. He then realized that the gray-white backdrop in the distance seemed to be slowly “cracking”—at the end of the uniformly textured “channel,” large patches of fog formed, and deep within this fog, there was an unmistakable sense of void.

Almost at that moment, he heard a fragmented, muffled voice say, “Jump complete…”

The Vanished experienced a subtle shake, less abrupt than its previous encounters at the border node when it had entered a kind of “medium,” causing a noticeable vibration. The channel silently shattered, and the endless, thin mist instantly filled the surroundings. The next second, Alice, who was at the helm, blinked, and the doll’s consciousness suddenly snapped back into her shell.

“Captain!” The doll turned to Duncan, her face lighting up with a joyful and proud smile. “We’ve arrived!”

Duncan nodded but was about to speak when he suddenly paused—he noticed that the edge of the Vanished was rapidly becoming “blurry”!

Not just the edge, but the entire ship was quickly blurring. Under the cover of the mist, everything within his sight seemed to suddenly lose its clear “boundaries.” The details on the deck blurred, the masts gradually faded into the fog, and even Alice in front of him seemed to merge with the mist, transforming into an ethereal form.

And the ghostly green flames enveloping the Vanished also dissipated during this process!

Alice seemed to notice something; she stood astonished in place, then slowly looked down at her hands, which were rapidly losing detail and becoming “blurry.”

“Eh?” she uttered in confusion.

But the next second, Duncan suddenly reacted.

The ghostly green flames that had enveloped the Vanished shimmered with a layer of hazy stardust. Duncan’s eyes sparkled as if filled with billions of stars, and the Vanished, teetering on the brink of information collapse, rapidly reassembled and regained clarity in his vision. Under the stardust-infused flames, the deck and masts almost instantly reverted to their original state, and Alice’s figure also stabilized in front of him.

The doll barely had time to comprehend what had just occurred; she only noticed the flames on the ship suddenly “changing color,” and then the same colorful flames engulfed her as well. After a brief moment of astonishment, she raised her hand, examined it, and let out an exclamation: “Wow!”

Still feeling a residual fear, Duncan took a deep breath. For the first time, he felt a slight touch of reality about the ashen edge that Ray Nora had discovered.

This was indeed the true boundary of order, the periphery of nothingness, the “Sea of Origin” where information units remained unassigned. Here, the information had not yet been defined, and nothing from the shelter, even the Vanished emerging from subspace, could maintain a stable “data structure”—simply because there were no data structures here.

Only those who had survived the Great Annihilation and had achieved “self-stability” on the informational level could maintain themselves relatively “safe and stable” in this void.

Like the “Reverse Singularity,” like the wreckage of New Hope.

Taking a deep breath to calm his emotions, Duncan reached out and gently touched Alice’s hair, then looked around. Speaking of the wreckage of New Hope, where was Ray Nora?

He and his ship had already reached the location indicated by the escape pod’s signal, but as he scanned the towering stern deck, he saw no physical entity amid the chaotic and empty “fog.”

“Can you feel the signal from the escape pod?” Duncan asked Alice, his brow furrowed slightly, “We should have arrived at the location, right?”

“Yes, theoretically, it should be right here,” Alice replied, her attention returning from the enchanting stardust around her. She hurriedly sensed the direction of the escape pod, then scratched her head, a bit puzzled, “The signal is nearby… I sensed it just now, why can’t I see it…”

Duncan’s mouth twitched suddenly: “Could it be that we’ve bumped her away again…”

Startled by his remark, Alice keenly caught the implication: “Again?”

Duncan replied with a dismissive tone, “…You don’t need to worry about that. Let’s find Ray Nora first.”

As he spoke, Duncan slowly extended his own perception, cautiously controlling the portion of his power that belonged to the “Reverse Singularity,” all the while trying to detect any unusual aura surrounding the Vanished.

At that moment, he was preoccupied with two concerns—first, he hoped that the unfortunate Frost Queen had not been accidentally displaced by the Vanished, and second, he hoped she hadn’t been crushed beneath the massive ship.

His intention was to meet with the queen, not to inadvertently cause her harm, which would certainly make for an awkward explanation during their face-to-face meeting.

Meanwhile, Alice had come to a realization. After thinking hard for a while, the doll slapped her hand and exclaimed, “Yes… The Vanished came directly according to the escape pod’s signal, so when it landed, didn’t it directly land on the escape pod…”

Duncan sighed deeply—realizing this now did little to help the situation.

Had he known, he wouldn’t have allowed Alice to jump directly to the escape pod’s beacon; he would have set a “certain distance from the jump marker” as a safety buffer. How could he have anticipated that the positioning of the New Hope would be so precise? Previously, when the Vanished went to the Four Gods node, it hadn’t directly collided with their foreheads…

And just as he was lamenting internally, Duncan suddenly sensed something truly unexpected.

He “scanned” an entity that did not belong to the Vanished.

But the location of that entity… was on the Vanished itself.

Duncan looked up, puzzled, in the direction of his perception. After confirming what he sensed, his expression gradually turned thoughtful.

Alice noticed his focus and asked, “Ah, Captain, have you found it?”

“Let’s go over and see what’s happening,” Duncan murmured as he led Alice away from the helm. They walked through the platform and connecting stairs, following the guidance of their senses, and finally arrived at the door of the… captain’s cabin.

Alice looked up at the familiar place, her hands on her head, “This is the captain’s cabin, I don’t see anything else.”

However, Duncan continued to stare intently at the captain’s cabin door, also known as the Door of the Lost, sensing the changes here, and even… gradually understanding the changes that had occurred.

After frowning and pondering for a long time, he finally stepped forward and placed his hand on the side of the door hinge.

The twisted misalignment of the space-time structure emerged in his mind, turning into a tangible map that he could understand. He found the node of this space-time misalignment and gently pushed.

The door swung open—from the position of the door hinge.

Alice watched the unfolding scene in bewilderment. After a long pause, she finally blurted out, “Can it open from there?!”

Duncan responded, “…Shh, I’m thinking.”

Behind the door, a layer of hazy glow seemed to encompass a “room space” that did not belong to the Vanished, enveloped in a layer of constantly trembling visual phenomena.

Unlike the typical scenario where opening the Door of the Lost would transport directly to a “bachelor apartment,” this time, what appeared before Duncan seemed to be a genuine “entrance,” one that could potentially allow entities other than himself to enter.

He first cautiously reached into the glow to test it, then turned his head to look at Alice, asking, “Do you want to come?”

Alice nodded without hesitation, “Yes!”

Duncan extended his hand toward the doll, instructing, “Follow me—hold onto my arm, and don’t let go until it’s safe.”

Alice obediently clasped Duncan’s arm, following the captain into the layer of hazy glow.

They seemed to pass through a layer of icy curtain, and after a brief moment of dizziness and sensory dislocation, the scene before them stabilized rapidly.

A lavish and spacious room materialized before Duncan and Alice, both real and tangible.

Ray Nora was sitting somewhat blankly on the large bed in the center of the room, staring bewilderedly at Duncan and Alice who had just pushed through the “door” and walked in. The Frost Queen appeared to have been greatly shocked and was a bit dazed until Duncan approached her. She suddenly snapped to attention and raised her hands, gesturing in the air.

“…Just rolled right over!” Ray Nora’s expression became increasingly frantic as she exclaimed, “Such a big ship! It just rolled right over me! Half the room was suddenly hit by a mess of stuff and shattered into pieces. It took a good while to recover, and then you pushed open the wall and walked in! Such a big hole! Can’t you use the door?”

Pushing open the wall?

Duncan was momentarily stunned, then looked back at the direction from which they had come.

He saw Ray Nora’s room door, which was properly embedded in the wall, still tightly closed, but next to the door was a large hole—that was where he and Alice had entered.

Space-time misalignment.jpg.

Alice quietly poked Duncan’s arm, “Captain, why aren’t you speaking?”

“…Shhh, I’m thinking again.”