Chapter 213

Chapter 213: Promised Ark.

“Turn back.”

At the very instant she heard these words, Vanna also heard a huge roar of noise. It was a kind of endless rumbling mixed with sharp, tearing screams inside the burning fire. It did not come from any one direction. It was like the whole city-state, even the whole world, was making that terrible sound.

Amid that skull-splitting roar, she looked toward the figure standing behind the Ender.

It was the “Captain Duncan” she had once seen in a dream. But unlike last time, what stood there now was a “ghost” completely wrapped in blazing fire, his whole body showing a vague spirit form shape.

In an instant, Vanna knew this was not his true body but another projection. Yet this time, the projection had come to the top of the tower using her as a medium. She could feel that power flowing. She felt something in her own soul burning. She felt a voice in her mind that did not belong to her.

She lifted her hands on reflex and saw faint emerald flame clinging to her body. She saw a burning path of fire spreading from under her feet. She understood. She realized that long ago, the ghost captain had already turned her into a kind of Node that could project his power.

This corruption, and the degree of this corruption, had already gone far beyond what she and Bishop Valentine had imagined. And all of it… had been for today.

In the next second, the whole world in her eyes changed at once.

ghostly green flame spread out.

In every sea of fire in Pland, in every pile of ash, in every stream of rising smoke, ghostly green flame had already been hiding for who knew how long. Now it burst out all at once, swallowing the entire city in an instant!

It happened too fast for anyone to react. Or rather, everything had already been set up long before this “Mortal Realm incursion” began. Vanna remembered the scene she had seen earlier on the other side of the Veil and suddenly realized: the great fire the Enders and the Sun heretics had made had, without anyone noticing, already become the carrier of the ghostly flame.

Their act of burning the whole city-state with fire was exactly the last step the ghost captain needed to complete the Flame Usurper!

A shrill scream suddenly rang out, snapping Vanna awake. She looked toward the source of the sound and saw that the thin, stick-like Ender was also wrapped in roaring ghostly flames. He twisted and howled at the edge of the platform like a Sacred beacon Torch.

In his melting eyes, he saw the scene of the city’s flames being seized in an instant, and he shouted curses at the curse:

“Fools! Fools! All ruined! You rejected the gift of Subspace. You will suffer forever in this world of pain… fools!!”

Yet in contrast to his curses, another scene unfolded—

Pland, which the ghostly flames burned through completely, started to recover at an unbelievable speed.

Buildings that had been burned down by fire rebuilt themselves at a rapid pace. Roads that had been melted and torn apart healed as if they were new. The Rain of Fire falling from the sky stopped. The doomsday clouds began to fade like time itself was running backward. At the edge of the city, a corner of normal sky even appeared. And farther away…

The long-silent bells began to ring again.

Just as Captain Duncan had said: turn back.

Vanna stared with wide eyes at the impossible sight. She had never thought that a city that had been completely destroyed could really be restored. Soon, she realized what this “restoration” truly was.

The history corruption brought by the Enders and the Sun heretics was being stripped away. The false history that had fully covered Pland and replaced the Mortal Realm was being rejected and pushed out by a mighty force!

She looked in shock toward the tall figure not far away. Duncan only watched the Ender, who was almost burned into a lump of charcoal, his gaze calm. After a long time, he spoke softly, almost like to himself: “Anything can be corrupted, except Subspace…”

The Ender was still not dead. Though his body had twisted into something no longer human, a hoarse, shocked voice still came from the pile of charcoal: “You… you turned this city-state into a part of the Vanished?!”

“The Vanished is the Promised Ark. I think we can broaden the idea of an ‘ark’ a bit,” Duncan said with a smile. He bent down a little. “If a ship that meets the Vanished at sea is assimilated and absorbed, then… why can’t Pland, under my gaze, be seen as another Vanished?”

A bright peal of harbor bells rang from the distance. Vanna looked up toward the sound on reflex. The next second, she saw something that shocked her.

She saw a ship.

The Vanished appeared, sailing in from the direction of the Boundless Sea, its hull wrapped in towering spirit flame. Its half-transparent spirit form sails billowed like a Veil that covered the sky.

The ship crossed the coastline and the Harbor that was rapidly being restored. Then, as if still sailing on the sea, it moved straight into Pland, which was now full of ghostly flames. It passed grandly between the walls, houses, and towers that were being rebuilt and reset.

Ripples spread out from its sides, each wave unreal, as if it passed through another world. And every time a ripple spread, the city’s restoration jumped forward again.

It looked as if the whole of Pland was being reborn in the wake of the Vanished!

“You… you may save this city-state… but you cannot stop the Sun’s descent…”

A faint voice came from the twisted charcoal heap that had once been the Ender, like the last whisper before a nightmare faded. “Even a few fragments pulled back from history… are enough to destroy again… doom…”

The voice grew weaker and then vanished. The twisted charcoal finally lost its last trace of life. Under the burning of the spirit form flames, it turned into a cloud of dust and blew away on the wind.

At those words, Vanna suddenly came back to herself. She quickly raised her head and looked up at the sky.

The Black Sun still hung high above the city-state. Its edge shone blindingly bright, while its inside stayed black-red like a deep abyss. The pulsing inside the Sun was even clearer and stronger than before!

The flames of the Vanished had torn away the history corruption eating at Pland, but that blasphemous Sun had never been part of Pland to begin with. The Sun was a historical projection summoned by the Ender and the Sun’s spawn together. It existed outside all true and false histories. It stood alone.

“There’s something waking inside that Black Sun!”

In that moment, Vanna even forgot who she and “Captain Duncan” each were. She shouted a warning without thinking: “It will—”

But Duncan only waved a hand at her.

Then Vanna saw the ghost captain turn his body toward the blasphemous Sun Wheel in the sky. He raised his hand, as if calling or welcoming something, and spoke in a gentle voice:

“Come this way… yes, don’t be afraid. You won’t fall. Just come forward.

“Do you still remember how to ride a bike? Just like that… come over. I’ll hold you.”

In the next second, a bright golden arc of fire shot out, stinging Vanna’s eyes. She saw a huge crack open along the edge of the Black Sun. An arc of flame leaped out with a joyful cheer and landed on Captain Duncan.

As that flame left, a shrill scream burst from the cursed Sun Wheel in the sky!

It was like some great beast had just taken a blow straight through the heart. The dark red core of the Sun filled with countless blazing red cracks. The bright, gleaming ring around its edge was quickly tainted and burned away by ghostly green flames. Then those flames surged inward toward the Sun’s dark core.

The pulsing from that dark core stopped completely. The faint life Vanna had sensed inside vanished almost at once. The core split apart. Boiling, burning matter flowed out, but every drop was burned away by ghostly green fire before it could fall into the city.

With a storm of shrieks, roars, and crackling blasts, the twisted, blasphemous Sun finally broke apart and disappeared. Only a few scraps of residue remained, falling into the ripples around the Vanished.

By then, the huge Vanished had sailed to the center of the city. Still in spirit form, it rose higher, drifting through unreal waves and ripples until it drew near the Cathedral’s bell tower. Its towering stern slid past the tower. Its spirit form sails swept across the sky. The light and shadow of masts and ropes brushed past Vanna.

She heard bells ringing. They were the Cathedral’s bells.

The bell tower under her feet also broke free from the grip of corrupted history. The bell-striker mechanism started moving on its own.

Archbishop Valentine’s figure slowly appeared in the air. This archbishop, who had guarded the city until the final moment, had returned to the Mortal Realm. That proved that the history branch leading toward destruction had been erased for good.

But Vanna did not keep her eyes on the archbishop. She still stared at Duncan.

Duncan had turned around. A jumping arc of flame circled at his side. The warmth and light from that flame even softened his usually shadowed, solemn face.

“I thought you were going to open with a leaping strike,” Duncan said with a smile, chatting with Vanna like an old friend. “Just like last time.”

“…I’m not someone who charges in without thinking.”

“Really? I thought you loved leaping strikes. Every seasoned warrior finds it hard to resist starting a fight with a big jumping hit at the enemy.”

Duncan joked lightly. He reached out and soothed the arc of fire at his side, which seemed a bit restless. Then he gave Vanna a small nod and said: “I’m done here. See you next time.”

Vanna froze for a moment and stepped forward on reflex: “Wait! You can’t just—”

But Duncan had already turned away. He waved his hand and stepped off the edge of the bell tower platform into the open air.

The towering stern of the Vanished drifted slowly past the high tower. Beside the ship’s wheel on the deck stood the captain himself, steering with his own hands.

Duncan’s projection, wrapped in spirit form fire, simply stepped aboard and merged into his true body.

He stood at the helm, both hands on the wheel. He smiled and nodded once to Vanna.

The great ghost ship began to speed up. Its phantom hull sailed over Pland, riding on widening ripples of unreal water. It crossed the city to the far side of the coast and headed once more toward the Boundless Sea.