Chapter 512

Chapter 512.

The shouts coming from the street outside made Lucretia and Taran Ael pause at the same time. A moment later, they both snapped their gazes toward the window.

Warm, bright sunlight was still pouring in from outside, so in the first few seconds neither Lucretia nor Taran Ael noticed anything wrong with the environment. But very soon, they realized that the sunlight spilling through the window felt off compared to before, and the overall brightness of the sky outside had already dimmed.

Lucretia’s eyes narrowed. In the next second she burst apart with a soft bang into countless fluttering scraps of colored paper that whirled out through the window. The paper fragments spun like a whirlwind up to the roof, where they gathered again on a small platform and reshaped into the figure of the sea witch.

Lucretia raised her head and looked toward the place where the Sun should have been hanging high in the sky.

A gigantic Dark Sphere was floating silently up there. Two rune rings ran along its edge, shedding blinding golden radiance. Between those two circles of light, dim gaps kept flickering like a lamp with a loose connection, as if everything might go completely dark at any moment.

With the main luminous body plunged into darkness, the only brightness left from the Sun now came from those two rune rings. In theory, the whole city-state should already have been as dim as late evening.

Yet sunlight still bathed Lightwind Harbor. That light came from the sea not far away. The mountain-like glowing geometric body was still quietly floating on the ocean. Pale golden sunlight drifted out from that direction, keeping the city from falling into darkness. It was this light that Lucretia and Taran Ael had seen earlier in their room.

The sound of fabric scraping against stone and ragged breathing reached Lucretia’s ears. She lowered her head and saw a middle?aged elf with messy short blond hair struggling up along a drainpipe.

Master Taran Ael, dragging a century’s worth of shoulder and neck problems with him, had finally climbed up onto the platform.

The talent of elves was truly awe?inspiring.

“Huff… huff… Lady Lucretia, you were right… huff… I might really need a bit of exercise. Just paying attention to nutrition isn’t… huff… enough to stay strong…”

“I don’t believe you’ve been paying attention to nutrition at all. The Vital-Signs Ration only keeps your vital signs going,” Lucretia said calmly. Her face stayed expressionless, but her eyes were still fixed on the Dark Sphere hanging high in the distant sky. “For now, you should look at the sky first. That problem is bigger.”

Taran Ael finally caught his breath and lifted his head to look in that direction.

Under the slanting pale golden glow spreading from the sea, the Dark Sphere hanging up there looked even more eerie. Visions 001 – the Sun, which had protected this world for ten thousand years, looked terrifying after it went dark.

It was like a dreadful void that led to the End of all things, or like a dying eyeball full of rot, quietly gazing down at the entire world from the sky.

“…Oh. This looks serious…” A few words finally squeezed out of Taran Ael’s throat. His eyes, bloodshot from years of working late into the night, slowly narrowed as if he wanted to focus and see more detail on the surface of the Dark Sphere. “The worst kind of thing…”

“The city-state Guard Corps has already started maintaining order. It seems all that mechanical training day after day was good for something.” Lucretia lowered her head and looked at the streets below. Steam Walkers and tactical squads bearing the emblems of the Guard Corps and Truth Academy had already appeared at the intersections. Panicked citizens were slowly regaining control under mental guidance. Even so, the overall chaos in the district continued, and no one knew how far it would go.

Everyone in this world was always preparing for “eerie disasters”. But no matter what, the extinguishing of the Sun clearly shook ordinary people far beyond anything their drills and plans had imagined.

“I’m going back to the Radiant Star to confirm the situation,” Lucretia suddenly pulled her gaze away from the streets and quickly turned to Taran Ael. “That ship is near the falling glowing orb. It might be able to collect useful data.”

Taran Ael opened his mouth when he heard this, but before he could say anything, the sea witch in front of him had once again burst into a cloud of colorful paper scraps. In the blink of an eye they whirled off the rooftop platform and flew toward the distant harbor.

The elven Grand Scholar was simply left standing on the roof. He stared blankly for a moment, then lowered his head to look back at the direction he had just climbed up from.

“You could at least have carried me back down…”

He grumbled in frustration, slowly straightened up, and prepared to climb back down the drainpipe to the second?floor balcony. But just then, something at the edge of his vision caught his eye.

It was a nearby building: the Tower of Flowing Clouds at the city-state university. It was property of the Truth Academy, and most elves simply called it “the high tower”.

Various observation devices were mounted on top of that tower to monitor the weather and watch the sky. With its special filters and telescopes, it could even observe the Sun and other faraway objects.

“…Observing the Sun at a time like this doesn’t sound very wise…”

The elven Grand Scholar muttered this under his breath. Then he casually took a charm amulet of Rahm, God of Wisdom, from inside his coat. He pressed it to his forehead in a brief benediction, praying for the blessing of foolishness.

“All right, now I’m a fool.”

Taran Ael put the charm amulet away, took a deep breath, then quickly judged the distances and positions of the nearby rooftops. He sprinted toward the one he thought he had the best chance of reaching and leaped.

In the two seconds when he briefly broke free from gravity, felt the wind on his cheeks, and flew over the rooftop, a very valuable question suddenly rose in the mind of this elven Grand Scholar:

[Why didn’t I call my own student to help?]

…

The whole world fell into dimness. A strange daylight like dusk, but heavier and more oppressive than dusk, covered the Boundless Sea.

The extinguished giant sphere hung in the sky like a terrible void. Ever since it went dark, it had not moved again. Two rune structures circled it and shed the last “afterglow”. With the Sun extinguished, those two rings of light were almost harsh to look at.

Yet when that “blinding” light shone down on the mortal world, it could only barely drive back the darkness.

Duncan stepped onto the deck and looked up with a particularly grave expression, turning his gaze on that pitch?black sphere. He said nothing.

Everyone else had rushed out of their cabins and gathered on the deck to stare at the strange sky. Vanna was whispering a prayer. Morris frowned deeply. Shirley clutched Dog tight and hid behind Duncan. Nina held onto Duncan’s arm, her face full of panic and nervousness.

Pale golden light was already faintly rising and falling in Nina’s eyes.

Only Alice showed an unbelievable kind of “calm”. One hand on her head, she tilted her face back and stared curiously at the extinguished Sun, as if she had just discovered something new and strange. She did not look scared at all.

Lacking common sense, she seemed unable to fully understand what was happening.

A trembling mass of shadows suddenly appeared in the air near Duncan. The Shadows rapidly swelled, shrank, and gathered, forming the outline of Agatha.

“The Spirit Realm is normal, Captain,” she said quickly to Duncan. “There’s nothing wrong with the rest of the ship either.”

Duncan gave a slight nod.

As a mirror world, Agatha could move freely through the world of mirrors. She could check every cabin on the Vanished in an instant. She also had “eyes” that could see into the Spirit Realm and could constantly confirm the state of the deep layers around the Vanished. Many times, the information she observed was even more complete than what Duncan could sense.

“Captain…” Shirley hugged Dog’s head and looked up at Duncan. The face that was usually full of silly grins was now filled with fear and panic. “What’s going on… Is this what you warned us about before?”

Duncan did not answer her immediately. Instead, he frowned and studied the sky carefully. After a long while, he finally spoke in a low voice, almost to himself: “The World’s Wound hasn’t appeared.”

“The World’s Wound?” Morris, standing nearby, froze when he heard this. Then he reacted and raised his head to look at the sky. “You’re right. The World’s Wound is still hidden. That means…”

“The Sun is still working,” Duncan said with a slight nod. “Only its ‘light?emitting’ function has shut down for some reason. Its suppression of the World’s Wound is still in place.”

“Then… will the Sun light up again?” Alice suddenly turned her head and asked curiously.

Duncan had no answer.

Even so, he still nodded a little. “It should. This vast Visions system has run steadily for ten thousand years. Even if something went wrong, it shouldn’t suddenly collapse completely. At least… it shouldn’t be today.”

Alice relaxed and smiled happily. “Oh, that’s good. My quilt hasn’t finished drying yet.”

Hearing this thoughtless doll say that, Duncan couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. Then he lowered his head and ruffled Nina’s hair.

Nina looked up. Pale golden flames burned in her pupils, and the radiance of a star brewed within that fire.

She gave a small nod, then let go of Duncan’s arm.

A moment later, dazzling light suddenly surged up from the deck. In an instant, Nina turned into an arcing blaze. This shrunken solar prominence circled Duncan twice, leaping and dancing, then lightly hopped onto the mast, flew into the sky, and finally came to rest above the tallest mast of the Vanished, hovering steadily tens of meters above the top.

The arc of flame coiled there. Its fire gathered into a tiny blazing sun. sunlight once more poured down on the Vanished and on a small stretch of sea around it.

Far away in the sky, Visions 001 remained extinguished. But at least within the range illuminated by this “fragment of the Sun”, comforting warmth and light once again bathed everyone.

Duncan let out a quiet breath. He knew that, in a situation like this, light steadied people’s hearts more than anything.

“All right. Now I should go check what’s happening elsewhere.”