Chapter 638

Chapter 638.

Another continent hung upside down in the sky, slowly falling. The two worlds were being destroyed by a “slow collision” beyond understanding. It was some kind of impact beyond the Mortal Realm, not just a simple physical touch. After she saw the twisting, chaos, and madness spreading through the forest, Lucretia faintly realized this truth.

If this had been another time, she would gladly have thrown herself into a long and difficult study. She would have gone to speak with Scholars from the city-states, gathered their sharp minds together, and tried to figure out every secret behind this collision.

But now was clearly not the time.

The Origami Skiff shook wildly in a violent shock, like a little skiff caught in a storm. The shockwave spread out from the collapsing Atlantis, raging over the whole world, then seemed to bounce off the “edge” of the world and return, echoing again and again between heaven and earth.

In this violent impact and tearing far beyond human strength, the little paper boat let out unsettling ripping sounds. Even the mighty Sea Witch felt her control over the vessel racing toward its limit.

Shirley saw the grave look on Lucretia’s face at a glance. She hugged Dog’s head and let out a shrill scream: “Are we about to fall?!”

Lucretia frowned hard. She did not answer Shirley’s shout. Her gaze swept quickly over this already shattered world that was rushing toward destruction. Then she suddenly raised her hand and pointed at the distant ground: “We will land over there.”

“Isn’t that just asking to die!” Shirley yelled. “Do you see any place left down there we can even stand on?!”

“corruption has stopped. Right now it is only fire burning everything. It is only fire. It is much friendlier than those strange, twisted Shadows.” Lucretia glanced at Shirley, did not care what Shirley thought, and had already begun forcing the tottering paper boat to dive toward a part of the forest where the flames were a little weaker.

The Origami Skiff, accompanied by Shirley’s broken screams, tore through the smoke in the forest and flew between two worlds that had become a living hell. The canopy of Atlantis collapsed above their heads. Burning giant trunks and leaves fell past the little boat like a crashing nightmare. Overhead, the upside-down land still kept sinking. By now Shirley could almost see the ravines in its ground and the rolling lines of its dunes.

Its fall was so slow it felt as if the process could last forever. Yet that fall was just as unstoppable, going on and on like a slowly grinding Doomsday that crushed everything in the mortal world inch by inch.

Lucretia steered the little boat with all her strength. Her gaze swept the forest again and again, trying to find a landing spot that was even a little “safer” in that inferno.

A blurred flash of light suddenly caught her eye.

In the next second the little boat sped toward that direction. It moved so fast Shirley almost thought they had gone into a runaway state and were simply falling. The boat shot through a Rain of Fire pouring down from the sky and through drifting sand that had somehow begun to fill the air, rolling like ghosts between heaven and earth. It rushed straight toward the flash deep in the forest.

The flash slowly became clear.

It was a sheltering barrier of light, roughly cone-shaped, held up by a shimmering curtain.

Shirley saw the light as well. She leaned over the edge of the paper boat in surprise and stared down for a long time. At last she made out two familiar figures inside the barrier. “Ah! It’s Nina, and the old man!”

With Shirley’s delighted shout, the paper boat that carried her and Lucretia screamed through the last stretch of air. It finally reached its limit in the instant before it touched the ground. It broke apart in the impact and, in the blink of an eye, turned into fine dust.

Hugging Dog, Shirley jumped out at the last moment in a clumsy tumble. Girl and dog clutched each other as they rolled across the ground more than ten times before finally stopping in front of that cone of pale light.

She looked up and saw Nina standing inside the barrier, and beside her Morris, the old Mister, with a stunned look on his face.

A pile of spinning, colorful scraps of paper landed gently next to Shirley. Lucretia’s figure gathered out of the paper.

Nina waved to them from inside the barrier.

Shirley and Lucretia exchanged a glance, then stepped without hesitation into the layer of light that looked thin and fragile yet truly held back the tide of destruction raging through the forest.

In an instant, it felt as if the whole world went quiet.

The terrifying roar that had howled through the forest became barely audible. The scorching storm that had swept the land stayed outside the light curtain. The choking smoke and the poisonous vapors boiling in the flames were also shut out. Shirley even felt a breath of fresh air rush toward her. She looked down and saw a few blades of grass under her feet and a small clump of shrubs beside them.

“Amazing…” She looked up in shock at Nina and Morris. “How did you make this? Lucretia and I could only run into the sky…”

“It wasn’t us.” Nina only shook her head gently. Then she turned a little to the side and raised her hand, pointing at a spot behind her and Morris.

Shirley looked over in surprise. The next second her eyes opened a little wider.

A small tree stood quietly there, rooted in this land that was breaking apart.

Its trunk was slender and weak. Its long branches climbed toward the sky, then drooped at the edge of the crown and swayed lightly in the breeze.

With this little tree at its center, the cone-shaped light curtain built the last safe Sanctuary World.

For a moment Shirley felt as if she heard a voice—

“Come with me. I will take you to the Wall of Silence…”

Then the voice faded into the wind.

“We are at the Wall of Silence now,” Nina said, turning her head to look into Shirley’s eyes. “The last, the true Wall of Silence.”

Shirley froze for a while, then slowly walked to the little tree. The drooping twigs at the edge of the crown brushed her shoulder and made her itch a bit.

She turned back and looked out beyond the thin curtain of light.

The world was falling apart. The mighty canopy of Atlantis bent, broke, and crashed under the “weight” of the other world. The forest burned. Far away, the ground was lifted by an invisible force and slowly rolled upward toward the upside-down desert in the sky. The flames seemed to spread onto that desert as well. In the hazy distance, a faint layer of smoke appeared on the surface of “that world.”

Yet all those sounds seemed far away, as if they came from another world, like the soft waves outside a shut window at dusk.

“Yeah… it really is quiet.”

Even Shirley knew this silence probably would not last long.

But at least for this one second, that crumbling world was no longer chasing her, even if all that held it back was… a single pretty bubble.

What would happen next?

In the wind, Vanna narrowed her eyes a little.

She saw the upside-down world had already begun to touch the desert under her feet. The first thing to meet was the giant World Tree. Its crown now brushed the ground. That was where the giants had last vanished. Now it became the first “point of contact” between the two worlds. Then the distant mountains made contact. The mountains and rivers in the forest touched the range at the edge of the desert. There, flashing light burst without end, as if a world?tearing storm was brewing.

A sea of fire spread and flowed over her head. She saw the lush world above breaking apart in the flames. The desert under her feet was doing the same.

But the “collision” of the two worlds grew slower and slower, as if some power was forcing its progress to slow down and was interfering in this Doomsday.

Vanna lowered her head and looked at the brilliant sphere in her hand. Tiny flames flowed over the surface of the Sun. The light that burst from that fire had once shone on a glorious, radiant civilization before the age of the Deep Sea.

To this day, that sunlight still remained.

She raised her head again and looked at a place not far from her.

The huge Gatekeeper’s cane still stood planted in the dune. The sea of fire hanging from the sky lit up its rough shaft and head, which looked like trunk and stone. Firelight flowed over its rock?like surface. In that play of light and shadow she saw the countless words the giants had carved onto it.

For a moment Vanna felt as if she could read them. Line by line she ran her eyes over the dense words and symbols, as if she could still hear the giants’ deep, gentle voices speaking at her ear.

“Here, they learned to use fire.

“Here, they discovered the secret of farming.

“Here, there was a flood. The water covered the land, bringing death and fear, and later left rich soil behind…

“They learned to build ships…

“They learned to harness the power of thunder…”

Vanna slowly walked up to the Gatekeeper’s cane and looked up at the last blank patch near its end.

It was no longer blank.

At some unknown time, the giants had already carved the final line there. The God of Recorded History Ming had finished his last entry on the Chronicle Pillar:

“Tarrigan and the Traveler completed their final journey.”

Strange auras and unsettling rustling sounds came from far away. An unusual heat flowed through the air, gathering unseen.

Vanna turned and looked toward the direction she sensed.

She saw streams of light gathering. In the raging fire and twisted light cast by the two colliding worlds, chaotic flows of light slipped through some kind of “crack” and entered this place. Those streams grew hotter and hotter and gathered in the sky not far away, forming a fireball that grew larger and larger.

The fireball began to take on the shape of the Sun. Its edge trembled and sent out jets of flame. It began to float between the two worlds like the Sun, freely releasing disturbing pressure and waves of heat. Then it slowly lowered into the desert and slowly turned its true side toward Vanna.

Hidden inside the Sun’s shining shell were countless twisted tentacles piled together. Between the tentacles, eyes that were not human stared coldly at the Inquisitor standing by the dune.

“Kneel.”

This Sunspawn spoke.