Chapter 559

Chapter 559: The Lost Ones

All along, the scholars of this world had made many guesses about the origin of the current Deep Sea era and the world before the Great Annihilation. They had also tried to explain the broken histories, gaps in relics, and contradictions in lineages among the city-states of the Boundless Sea—just as any people who form a civilization will do when they face their history.

Where there is history, there will be people who study history. Where there are people who study history, there will be people who try to explain its contradictions. There is never a shortage of guesses. Anything an outsider could think of, professional scholars have most likely already considered and may even have built into a complete theoretical model.

In fact, scholars had many different models that could explain how the Deep Sea era came to be—including the one Duncan had just guessed. Every one of them made sense.

The only problem was that none of those models had any solid “evidence” to stand on. The Great Annihilation was like a towering wall blocking off everything before that time node. No information or relics could pass down from before that node.

Now, Duncan believed he had found a key piece of “physical proof” and had extracted from it enough vital information to support one of those guesses:

Fragments left after a distant, unfamiliar world was destroyed—and a “memory” that accurately described the scene of Doomsday.

Of course, in front of a truly rigorous scholar, this lone piece of proof might still not be enough. It might not yet fully and beyond all doubt explain the state of the Deep Sea era.

“World Aggregation Theory…” Ted Riel murmured to himself. “I know. My mentor has always been a supporter of that theory. He believes that the present Deep Sea era was formed by layers and rearrangements of many worlds that were originally separate from one another. What caused that stacking and rearranging might have been a great disaster that fell on several worlds at the same time. In that view, the so-called ‘Great Annihilation’ was not one disaster, but a series of disasters that happened all at once. That is why the records of history kept by the races of the Boundless Sea contradict each other so much, and why some ancient legends are torn apart…

“This theory also explains why we can’t find the ‘original form of the world’ from before the Great Annihilation, and can’t find ancient relics that clearly support any single record of history—because those original forms have already been reshaped. From the point of view of the timeline, the ‘world’ we live in now simply did not exist before the Great Annihilation.”

He stopped and let out a slow breath, then went on talking.

“The entire Boundless Sea was born in the moment of the Great Annihilation. Before that moment, there was no ‘Old World’ that could be fully and accurately described and understood. There were only countless fragments of old worlds piled up at the time node of the Great Annihilation as raw material. World Aggregation Theory, among all the origin theories, has the strongest power to explain what we face. It almost explains every problem.

“But at the same time, it is seen as the most fanciful and hardest to prove, because it basically denies that ‘history can be traced back’ at all and throws everything into the box of ‘it has already vanished anyway’. So even though the theory is good, it has very few supporters. My mentor… is one of the few.”

After Ted Riel finished, speaking with a sigh, Duncan finally broke the silence: “Now, we have evidence.”

Ted Riel’s gaze fell on the long sword. After thinking it over with a grave expression for a long time, he still shook his head: “One piece of proof alone is not enough. This evidence does seem very likely to support World Aggregation Theory, but a single piece of proof always has flaws. Unless we can find a second clear ‘world fragment’, and one that comes from a different world than the one your ‘physical proof’ belongs to…”

As he spoke, the Truth Keeper’s tone grew tangled and strained. From an emotional point of view, he wanted more than anyone for a long-standing guess to be confirmed and for them to finally find that “answer”. But as a scholar, he had to be strict. Even when he saw the first “evidence”, he had to act with seemingly cold “harshness”.

When he finished speaking, Duncan only gave a calm one-word reply: “We do.”

For a moment, Ted Riel did not react. Even Lucretia did not react. A heartbeat later, they spoke in unison: “You have other evidence?!”

Duncan was silent for two or three seconds. Then he turned and looked into Lucretia’s eyes with a deep gaze: “The Moon.”

“That ‘stone sphere’…” Lucretia understood at once. “You mean, it is…”

“It is another fragment,” Duncan said with a slight nod. “It comes from another world—a world completely different from the homeland of this sword. I don’t know what happened to it to make it what it is now, but I am certain it is…”

He suddenly stopped. It was as if some force was holding him back, not letting him speak that conclusion aloud. That blocking force surged through his mind like a roaring storm, a strong emotion pitted against his rational side.

Instinctively, he rejected that conclusion.

Lucretia sensed something. She looked at her Father with worry and confusion.

At last, Duncan spoke and finished the second half of the sentence: “…it is what remains of that world.”

In the end, reason beat emotion.

When he voiced that conclusion, he even felt a strange sense of “relief”.

In fact, when he first saw “the Moon” and later returned to the Vanished and spoke with Alice, he had already had this guess.

Since “the Moon” had appeared in this world, it was very likely that this world was his “homeland” after it had been twisted and warped beyond recognition.

But his homeland had no elves or Senkin. In the elves’ own legends, there were no humans. In the records of the city-states of the Boundless Sea, there was not even a word like “Earth”. The “torn history” that troubled so many scholars stood out all the more clearly in Duncan’s eyes.

So… how did this Boundless Sea really form?

The most likely answer was this: this place did contain his homeland, but only part of it.

To prove that guess, he only needed to find a second fragment from another world, something like “the Moon”.

He had not expected the second piece of evidence to appear so quickly and so directly.

Ted Riel and Lucretia exchanged a long look. After a brief hesitation, they understood that Duncan had no reason to deceive them in this matter.

So there had already been two pieces of evidence. No wonder this once greatest explorer could speak with such certainty and without doubt when he declared that the world today was a heap of ruins.

Lucretia did not ask where Duncan’s knowledge about “the Moon” came from.

Because she knew all the answers to such questions would in the end point toward Subspace. In one form or another, her Father had remade and transformed himself in that “deepest and darkest place”. Every piece of knowledge and every power he now held that she could not understand was part of those brands.

She should not keep tearing them open.

Ted Riel had been silent and deep in thought this whole time. Suddenly, he jerked his head up, as if he had sensed something.

The Truth Keeper quickly opened the heavy book in his hands and summoned the “stethoscope” from its pages. In one stride, he rushed to the side of the “living metal” on the central platform.

He pressed the stethoscope to the surface of the “living metal”. His face suddenly grew very grave.

A very weak, very slow heartbeat sounded in the room. With each beat, the sound became slower and fainter than before.

“They are dying.”

Ted Riel looked up, his gaze full of mixed feelings, as he spoke.

For the first time in his life, this Truth Keeper—whose duty was to protect the city-states—felt such complex emotions when facing an “alien thing” that had invaded the Mortal Realm.

Because he suddenly realized that this nameless lump, this “terrifying thing” that had frightened so many people in the market… was very likely a being just like humans, elves, and Senkin—a homeless one who had reached the Deep Sea era from the Great Annihilation.

And sadly, their world had been destroyed even more completely. That tiny fragment… was far from enough to keep them and their kind alive.

The Deep Sea era had left no place for homeless ones like them. Under some still-unknown mechanism, they had become what they were now, and they were about to die.

Nina and Shirley grabbed each other’s hands without thinking, not knowing what they could do. Lucretia could only watch with a complex gaze, because she knew this was already beyond what human power could change.

As the heartbeat grew slower and weaker, Duncan finally walked forward. He looked at the “living metal”, which no longer showed any hint of a human form, and another scene rose in his mind—

The stubborn warrior. The silent mage. The hunter and ranger who were always full of energy. The knights brimming with confidence. The pessimistic spirit medium. And that confident, proud, red-haired Groska woman…

They had set out on a bright, sunny afternoon, carrying the best swords and armor their kingdom had forged, the finest scrolls and sigils, and the king’s blessing and trust. Together they had gone toward the distant wilds—just like in the ancient songs, where a band of heroes goes to save their world.

Duncan reached out and gently pressed his hand against the cold, hard “steel”.

“We are all the Lost Ones… Now, you are home.”

The deep, slow “thump” finally faded away. After one last, especially weak and sluggish beat, there was no more heartbeat in the room.

The final heartbeat sounded like a sigh.

Ted Riel turned around, as if announcing to the entire Deep Sea era:

“They are dead.”