Chapter 434

Chapter 434: .

mirror world turned to ash. The darkness began to fade. The phantom of the Queen Guard Corps vanished. The Profane Constructs that had invaded the city-state broke apart one after another, turning into black sludge that dried up at once. The gunfire and cannon blasts all over the city-state fell silent with them – what took their place was an unspeakable fear and stillness that covered the whole city.

Everyone could see that vast presence, the one standing out in the Boundless Sea, looking down at the city-state from within the clouds.

Just a few minutes ago, mirror world Frostholm had turned to ash in the hand of that giant, and no one could guess what would happen next.

Only the eerie green flame that spread across the whole city and the surface of the sea still burned fiercely. Yet these flames did not hurt anyone. They only brushed over the Mortal Realm like phantoms. When they touched you, all you felt was a harmless warmth.

Agatha lowered her head and casually helped the pale High Deacon to his feet. The flames burning on Agatha’s arm made the High Deacon a little nervous, but compared with the mood hanging over the city, that small fear did not matter.

“The next part…” The High Deacon looked even paler. He looked at Agatha, at the eerie green spirit flame burning on her body, the same flame that filled the whole city. His voice still shook as he asked: “What will happen next?”

Agatha thought for a moment and shook her head: “I do not know.”

The High Deacon stared: “You do not know?!”

“…I did not ask,” Agatha said calmly. “The situation was urgent. I had no other choice.”

The High Deacon was dumbfounded. He had many questions. He wanted to ask where that giant above the sea had come from, what these flames in the city really were, and why Agatha looked like this now. But for the moment, he could not ask even one of them.

Agatha no longer cared about the High Deacon’s reaction. She only tilted her head a little and watched the last fine pale ashes drift down onto her shoulder.

At some point, the ash drifting over the city-state had stopped. What landed on her shoulder seemed to be the very last piece. In a daze, Agatha felt as if someone had patted her on the shoulder.

“I have to go,” she heard someone speak beside her ear. “My journey in this world is over. A longer road is still waiting for me.”

“Safe travels, Bishop Ivan.”

A wind blew in from far away. It passed through the silent main doors of the great cathedral, swept across the square before the doors, and caught that light ash, letting it quietly scatter in the wind.

…

On top of the clock tower behind the Cathedral, Shirley, in a black dress, looked down at the streets. She sat on a section of wall that stuck out from the eaves, her legs dangling outside as she swung them back and forth in boredom and muttered: “It got quiet…”

“Everyone looks scared…” Nina stood on the small platform behind Shirley. As she spoke, she looked up at the sky. “I was scared too…”

“Who would not be scared after seeing that?” Shirley shrank her neck and carefully stared at the huge, hazy figure over the distant sea. “I never thought Mr. Duncan would solve this trouble in this way in the end – it made even more noise than last time in Pland.”

“Uncle Duncan said the root of Frostholm’s crisis was that mirror world, so to solve the problem you had to get rid of mirror world completely. Sealing it or stopping the cultists’ ritual would only keep people safe for a while. The only way to settle it once and for all was to pull mirror world up by the roots, drag it into the Mortal Realm, and burn it,” Nina said very seriously. “But mirror world was too big, so he needed a big enough ‘fire ground’…”

“Alright, alright, I get it. You are very good at setting fires, right? I will be sure to mention this to Mr. Duncan later,” Shirley said as she waved her hands again and again. Then she looked up with some doubt. “But, back to the point… what is Mr. Duncan doing now? Is the matter not already settled? When will he come back?”

When she heard this, Nina looked up at the huge figure above the sea outside the city, thought for a moment, and said: “Then I will go up and ask?”

“Go, go,” Shirley said quickly, waving her hand. “When you get up there, do not forget to tell Mr. Duncan that our homework got eaten by Abyssal Hounds…”

Before she even finished speaking, Nina had already turned into a bright arc of flame in midair, then shot straight toward the shadow that covered the sky outside the city.

…

From a height where he could look over the entire sea around Frostholm, Duncan let his gaze pass through gaps in the clouds and quietly watched the sea and the city below.

The sea had no end and stretched into the far distance. The city-state was like a round disc floating on the water, alone in the daylight. At the place where sea and sky met, he could faintly see a grand wall of mist. The mist stood like a wall, forming a dim arc that ringed the whole border of civilization.

It was a view he had never had before. He had never looked at this world from this place, and he guessed that no one else in this world had ever done anything like it either.

He could feel that the “flame” that held up his current form was slowly going out over the sea and the city. He could not stay standing in the sky like this for long, but before the stored power ran dry, he still wanted to look a little more.

Just then, a little tongue of flame shot out from the clouds and came into Duncan’s sight.

That small flame hopped between the clouds like a light swallow. As it drew near, Duncan heard Nina’s voice in his ear: “Uncle Duncan! What are you doing?”

“I am watching this world,” Duncan said softly with a smile to the little flame. He raised a finger and let her dance on his fingertip. “How did you get up here?”

“Shirley told me to come up. She was curious about what you were doing,” Nina said happily as the flame wavered on Duncan’s fingertip. Even though her current form had swelled into a blaze larger than the clock tower, in Duncan’s eyes she was still very small. “You said you are watching the world? What is so interesting about it?”

Duncan smiled and lifted his chin: “Look, down there.”

The little flame swayed to the side.

“…Wow.”

“It is amazing, is it not?” Duncan said softly. “No one has ever looked down on the Boundless Sea and the cities on it from this height, or seen that distant mist. It is so huge that even with my view right now, I feel short of breath when I look at it.”

Nina thought very hard: “…But if it was a normal-sized human standing at the edge of the Eternal Veil, they would not feel anything. They could not see the whole thing.”

Duncan paused for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

“Yes, you are right. When an ordinary person really stands before that wall of mist, they will not even notice this feeling of pressure and suffocation, because they cannot see all of it. We are up high, and we see too much.”

“Uncle Duncan, why do I feel like… there is some other meaning in what you are saying?”

Duncan did not answer Nina’s question. He just stared into the distance. After a while, he suddenly spoke: “Are you not curious? About what is on the other side of that mist?”

“…The books say the mist has no end. There is no other side. Outside, there is only mist.”

Duncan looked at his fingertip: “That is what the books say. What do you think?”

“…I think the books are just the scholars’ guesses. Mr. Morris said that everything about things outside the civilized world is only scholars’ guesses. Research means following a guess and testing it,” Nina said happily as she shared her thoughts. “The other side of that mist might even be another world!”

Then she stopped, as if she had just realized something: “Ah! Uncle Duncan, are you planning to walk through that thick mist? Are you really going to try it? We are very close to the northern border here, and you are so high up now, so maybe you really could…”

“Sadly, it is not possible,” Duncan said, gently shaking his head and cutting off the excited Nina. “I cannot keep this state for long, and I cannot leave this sea like this at all. A ritual has limits. Right now all we can do is watch from here.”

Nina seemed a little down for a moment. After a while, she spoke again in a careful tone: “Then can I… go over and take a look? I can fly in the sky now~”

“But you can only fly for a short time. You know your own limits very well,” Duncan said, shaking his head again. “And I do not advise you to do it. We know too little about that thick mist. Having a brave spirit is not the same as acting rashly.”

Nina stayed quiet for a moment, then drew out her voice: “Oh – so we really can only stand here and look.”

“The first step of a journey is to look into the distance,” Duncan said, the corners of his mouth curling up. He could feel the flame that held him up begin to fade quickly. This draining form had reached its limit, but before his projected body scattered, he still smiled. “And we should not only look far away, Nina. Did you notice the shape of the city-state? Such a neat circle, so tidy that it does not look natural. And the sea below, deep and wide. Even now we do not know what is down at the bottom…

“The cultists are sure this world will end and that they can build a New World. The Holy See is sure that following the guidance of the Four Gods is the only way to keep the world forever. But there are too many things in this world that we do not know. Whether it is the cultists, the Church of the True Gods, or the scholars in each city-state, everyone’s view of everything on the Boundless Sea is only one side of the truth.”

Between sea and sky, the giant’s huge body quietly faded. The sea, which had been like a mirror, slowly returned to waves.

A streak of fire fell from the clouds back toward the city-state.

But Duncan and Nina kept talking:

“Alright, Nina, go back. We still have a lot to do.”

“Oh… ah, right! Uncle Duncan! I forgot to tell you. Our homework got eaten by Abyssal Hounds, mine and Shirley’s!”

“…It is fine. Mr. Morris and I will prepare new homework for you.”