Chapter 610

Chapter 610: Asleep in Twilight

Although they were both heretical cults, the Sun cult and the Cult of Annihilation had very different traits. That meant Duncan had to take their particular natures into account whenever he dealt with these cultists.

The cultists of annihilation were, in essence, humans who gained power and reshaped themselves through contracts with demons. These dark cultists clearly worshiped the Abyssal Lord, but their deity did not actually respond to that faith. So, aside from their blasphemous extraordinary power, the cultists of annihilation were still, as a whole, a mortal group. Their actions and limits still rested on their identity as humans. No matter how loudly they shouted the Lord’s name, these madmen did not truly have much to do with the Elder Gods.

If you divided their cult into a kind of tower hierarchy, then from the powerless congregation at the bottom, to the priestly rank who could summon demons, and up to the so?called “saints” at the top who no longer even looked human, every level was trying to climb toward the “truth” that supposedly waited higher up. Yet the Abyssal Lord at the top of the tower had no wish to pay them any attention.

The Sun cult was different. Its structure and power passed from the top downward.

At the very top lay the dying Black Sun. This ailing Elder God, in its near?death sleep, had spawned powerful offspring called Spawn. These Spawn watched over and sheltered the humanoid monsters known as the Remnant Folk, who were actually fragments left behind by the Sun. Below them came the countless half?mad believers of the Sun. These mortal believers had not chosen to worship the Black Sun on their own. Instead, the Black Sun’s power had leaked into the Mortal Realm and warped the minds of certain humans, turning them into believers out of nothing.

So, in a sense, the entire Sun cult could be seen as an extra growth on an Elder God, a branching structure of the Black Sun’s power and flesh.

When facing the Cult of Annihilation, one had to think of them as humans. When facing the Sun cult, one should first treat “it” as a chaotic Elder God. Every Spawn, every remnant, was one of that Elder God’s unconscious, twitching, spasming tendrils in its sleep.

Those tendrils slipped into the Nameless One’s dream. Some instinct from a higher layer drove them to steal the “Sun” that existed within the Nameless One’s dream. Considering what lay above them, the way these things entered the Nameless One’s dream was likely simpler and more brutal than the methods of the Annihilators—and more dangerous.

Duncan let out a soft breath and set those tangled thoughts aside for now.

“After this dream of the Nameless One ends, have Rabby confirm where that ship actually is as soon as possible,” he said to Lucretia in his heart. “The sooner the better—so long as you are careful not to disturb that ‘saint’.”

Lucretia’s voice came after a few seconds of hesitation: “Are you… worried about those elves who were used as sacrificial victims?”

“From the dreamwalking ritual, their lives should not be in danger for the moment. But those cultists may carry out other rituals, and there may be more than just those two elves on that ship,” Duncan said, his tone serious. “That is one reason. The other is that I am very concerned about the ‘Goathead’ in their hands. Goathead’s nature might really be a ‘fragment of an Elder God’. If that is true, then this fragment must not stay with a bunch of cultists. Who knows what new suicidal stunt they will try next?”

He was not sure if it was just his imagination, but as soon as he finished speaking he felt a faint… emotional shift from Lucretia’s mark. The witch seemed to be in a better mood for some reason.

“Understood. I will plan this carefully with Rabby,” Lucretia’s voice sounded again. “I will find that ship within a few days.”

“Mm.”

Duncan answered silently, then breathed out and turned his head toward the enchanted sea chart table.

The pitch?black wooden carving of Goathead was calmly staring this way. It looked completely still at the moment, but it had turned itself once just now.

It had awakened, but had not spoken.

Duncan walked over to the enchanted sea chart table and let his gaze sweep across the surface.

The lush, mysterious forest was now projected on the enchanted sea chart. It had replaced the previous ocean markings and route. The phantom of the ship that represented the Vanished was drifting slowly over the sea of trees.

On the edge of the table, Goathead’s gaze moved slowly, following Duncan’s steps.

After an unknown length of time, the usually taciturn Goathead—honestly, Duncan felt that word sounded a bit strange when used for Goathead—finally broke the silence: “You are here again, friend… You seem to have changed a little.”

“Changed?” Duncan raised his eyebrows. “What kind of change?”

“I cannot say it clearly, but the current you seems to make me feel… safer than before,” Goathead said slowly. “Before, when you appeared here, you made me confused and nervous. I could not understand your existence. But now, although I still do not know who you are, that confusion and nervousness are gone.”

Duncan quietly stared into Goathead’s eyes.

He knew that his method had worked this time.

Before nine o’clock that night, he had entered the Vanished’s reflection through the mirror, just as Agatha had done. After nine, when the transformation happened, he had become part of this “dream ship” along with the changing reflection.

In other words, he had gone from an “intruder” to one of this dream’s “own people”.

After many attempts, he had finally found the real way to enter this place. Now he could act here with his hands free. Whether he explored the ship, took the helm, or steered it into the dark fog, he would no longer wake Atlantis—or Goathead.

“Maybe it’s because we have finally grown familiar with each other,” Duncan said with a smile. Of course he could not tell a mind sleeping inside a dream that the dream existed, so he gave another explanation instead. “That is a good thing.”

“Familiar?” Goathead tilted its head a little, as if Duncan’s words made it think for a short moment. Compared to their last meeting, its hazy, half?asleep state seemed a bit lighter, though it still reacted slowly. “Ah, that does sound like a good thing… We are better friends now.”

Duncan thought for a moment and gave up the idea of going to the bridge to take the helm right away. Instead, he sat down in the high?backed chair behind the enchanted sea chart table.

He looked at Goathead, who stared at him in silence, and then carefully asked a question: “Where is Atlantis now?”

Goathead turned its head, as if surprised by Duncan’s question. It hesitated—something it rarely did. After that almost human reaction, it slowly spoke: “Atlantis is right here. In every place.”

“Right here? In every place? Can you explain that more clearly?” Duncan frowned, then added, “I mean no harm. I just want… to talk to her. I don’t know if you can understand this, but she is in danger. There is a group of people with bad intentions who want to hurt Atlantis. I want to find her before they do.”

Duncan did not know whether that last part of his explanation had any effect, but after a short silence Goathead did speak again.

“…This place is Atlantis,” it said, staring into Duncan’s eyes. “You are already inside Atlantis. You are in her thoughts. You are in her memories. This is both the border and the heartland. But… you cannot meet her.”

From the first half of Goathead’s words, Duncan understood at once, but the last sentence still stunned him: “Why?”

“Because Atlantis has not yet remembered herself,” Goathead said. “Before she recalls everything, she is not a clear, defined existence… and right now, she does not want to wake up.”

“You mean Atlantis now exists as some kind of spiritual form, spread through this dark, dense fog, and because she cannot form a complete sense of self, she is formless at this moment?” Duncan quickly grasped its meaning and then could not help pressing, “Is there any other way for me to see her? Or at least to communicate with her?”

He remembered his past experience when he had taken the helm on this dream ship. He remembered the streaks of light in the darkness and the voices within them. He was sure those were Atlantis’s thoughts. Yet those “thoughts” seemed to exist in another dimension and did not answer his calls at all.

This time, Goathead stayed silent even longer than before.

After an unknown length of time, it finally spoke—

“Let her sleep a bit longer, just a little while… It will not take long. Let her settle them down…”

…

A wild, disordered wind suddenly blew past, and drifting sand covered the view in an instant.

But before Vanna could raise her hand on instinct to block the sand, the wind and dust stopped in front of her. A voice came out of the wind: “Traveler, we meet again.”

Vanna looked at once toward the source of the voice.

In the slowly calming sand, the figure of the giant came into focus.

He sat among a pile of collapsed, black boulders. Beside him lay the huge, almost exaggerated Gatekeeper’s cane. The bonfire that had burned for who knew how long had already gone out. At the giant’s feet there was only a heap of ash, still giving off a faint warmth and a few glowing embers.

Vanna lifted her gaze and looked around.

It was the same place where she had said goodbye to the giant before, the same sheltered spot out of the wind, the same bonfire. She had come back to this “place” with perfect accuracy, and the giant looked as if he had been waiting for her the whole time.

“I told you we would meet again soon,” the giant said with a gentle smile, wrinkles crowding his face. “See? The fire is still warm.”

“You’ve been here waiting for me all this time?” Vanna asked, a little surprised. “I thought…”

“It was only a little waiting,” the giant said calmly. “There is nothing left here but waste and desolation, and I have nothing else I need to do. Waiting gives things a bit of meaning.”

He paused, then lifted his head and looked into the distance.

“Since you are here, traveler… if you also have no goal at the moment, I want to take you somewhere.”