Chapter 651

Chapter 651: The Little Sun and the Little Sun

Even though he had already seen the “shrunken” Moon, Duncan still found all of this hard to believe now that he was truly seeing and holding this tiny Ancient Star with his own hands.

It rested in his hand, giving off warm light. The flames on its surface brushed harmlessly over his fingers, bringing only a very faint sensation, like feathers stroking his skin.

But Duncan knew that in some distant past, this small, radiant sphere had once lit the sky of Senkin and sheltered a whole civilization.

“…The followers of the Black Sun wanted this thing. One of the Spawn even risked itself for it. What do you think they wanted to do with this ‘Sun’?” Goathead asked. The sunlight shining from Duncan’s palm was reflected in its eyes, full of curiosity.

“Whether it was the Sunspawn or the remnants called the ‘Remnant Folk’, they had only one goal: to ‘revive’ their ‘mother’, the Black Sun that is now on the verge of death,” Duncan said. He carefully turned the “miniature star” in his hand without looking up. “This small sphere, which looks so insignificant, carries ‘information’ from before the Great Annihilation. For the Black Sun in its current state… it may be some kind of key material for self?repair.”

He paused for a moment here, then slowly voiced some ideas that had been taking shape in his mind.

“In that golden crystal, I saw the home where they once lived. They had a vast technological construct built around their star, and their whole civilization existed upon that structure. When the Great Annihilation happened, that enormous construct must also have suffered the ‘corruption’ of other worlds and twisted into what it is now…

“I have a bold guess. The so?called ‘Black Sun’ may be a kind of ‘hybrid’—their entire civilization, born around the star, and the star itself ‘collapsed’ together, mutating into its current form. Because of this ‘fusion’… the Black Sun is far more deranged and chaotic than other ancient beings, and has many more ‘missing pieces’.”

He raised his hand slightly and shook the Ancient Star in his palm.

“Those Sunspawn might think that another Ancient Star could help them mend the ‘missing pieces’ of the Black Sun,” he said. “I do not understand the principles behind it, but one thing is certain—if they truly succeeded, it would be a disaster.”

“…Fortunately, they failed,” Goathead said with genuine feeling.

Duncan nodded, then looked thoughtfully at the Ancient Star in his hand.

Just then, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the captain’s cabin, followed by a knock at the door. Nina’s voice came from outside: “Uncle Duncan! Are you in there?”

Duncan raised an eyebrow and answered at once: “Come in.”

The door to the captain’s cabin opened. Nina poked her head in for a look, then slipped inside with a grin: “Dinner is ready! I came to call you to eat!”

Duncan looked at Nina’s radiant smile, and a thought suddenly stirred in his mind.

“You came at just the right time,” he said, beckoning to the young lady. “Come and look at this.”

Nina came over obediently and at once noticed the “little Sun” in Duncan’s hand. She stared wide?eyed at the pretty glowing orb and quickly realized: “Isn’t this the ‘Sun’ Miss Vanna brought back from that desert?”

“Hold it,” Duncan said, casually handing the “little Sun” to Nina. “What do you feel?”

Nina took the small sphere, which was about the size of her fist, still a little puzzled. She held it up before her eyes and looked it over from side to side, then tried to “feel” it carefully. She looked at Duncan in confusion: “I don’t feel anything… It just feels warm.”

“Only that?” Duncan frowned. He instinctively wondered what other tests he should have Nina run. While his thoughts wandered for just that moment, a crisp crack suddenly reached his ears.

He looked up in astonishment and saw Nina staring back at him, just as dazed. A tiny wisp of flame and a spray of glowing crumbs were falling from the corner of her mouth. The surface of the Ancient Star in her hand was missing a small piece, and clear tooth marks showed along the broken edge.

Duncan: “…?!”

“I… I couldn’t help it!” Nina finally realized what she had done. She almost jumped on the spot, waving her hands. “I just thought it looked like a good size and then… then… I just bit it without thinking…”

“Don’t move around,” Duncan said quickly, cutting off Nina’s panicked flailing. He stood up and snatched the little Sun from her hand. He was afraid that the bite she had taken might have damaged the stability of this “star”. He had no idea how powerful a star compressed to this size would be if it entered a runaway state, but it was clearly something extremely dangerous.

But nothing happened.

The “star” with a bite missing neither collapsed nor exploded. It still gave off mild, harmless warmth.

And when Duncan looked over its surface again, he realized that the little notch had vanished at some point.

Nina leaned in curiously, blinking at the “little Sun”, which had once more become a complete sphere. After a long moment she finally said: “It healed?”

Duncan gave the “little Sun” in his hand a strange look, then lifted his eyes to the “little Sun” hanging above the Vanished. He had seen all manner of bizarre anomalies and manifestations, yet now he suddenly felt that his mind might not be enough for this.

After countless absurd and uncanny notions rose in his heart, he handed the miniature “star” back to Nina: “…Take another bite.”

Nina obediently took the “little Sun” and bit into it again. There was another crisp crack, followed by loud crunching.

To be honest, just hearing it made Duncan a little hungry…

The next second, under the gaze of both Duncan and Nina, the “little Sun” returned to its original, flawless state.

Nina looked up at Duncan, then back at the “little Sun” in her hands, utterly puzzled: “…Why?”

Duncan raised a hand and rubbed his forehead hard—how was he supposed to know?!

“I suspect even the finest scholar in this world could not answer your question,” Duncan said as he kneaded his brow. He gave a strange look to the sparks of flame that had burst from the corner of Nina’s mouth, and after holding back for a long time, he finally could not resist asking: “…Is it good?”

“Crispy,” Nina replied honestly. “It feels great, but I can’t tell what it tastes like.”

“…Do you still want more?”

Nina’s eyes lit up at once (they truly lit up; the whole captain’s cabin brightened): “Can I?!”

Duncan: “…”

The captain’s cabin fell silent for a while. Duncan strained all his knowledge and imagination trying to explain how any of this was possible. Nina, meanwhile, held the “little Sun” and turned it over and over, as if she were looking for the next place to bite.

After an unknown time, Duncan decided to give up on understanding it.

“You don’t feel unwell at all, do you?” He shook his head. Suddenly he began to worry whether Nina’s body would have problems after “devouring a star”.

“No, I don’t. When I swallow it, it’s warm and really comfortable,” Nina said, shaking her head. “Uncle Duncan, can I have another bite?”

“…I suggest you at least not try again today,” Duncan said after thinking for a moment. His tone was serious, though his expression was hard to keep straight. “If you still feel fine tomorrow… then do as you like.”

He paused here, then added: “I originally meant to leave it in your care anyway.”

He was not lying. Before Nina came in, he had already been thinking about where to keep this “little Sun”. For reasons that were natural and obvious, giving it to Nina to look after seemed only fitting. First, there was an essential link between the two of them. With Nina keeping the “little Sun”, they might discover more of its secrets. Second, in terms of safety, a girl whose slap reached six thousand degrees had more than enough power to make sure no one could steal this “star”.

But the fact that his dear niece thought the “little Sun” tasted good… that part had not been in the plan at all…

Nina herself did not think much of it. She brightened at Duncan’s arrangement and nodded hard: “Mm!”

She looked just like a little dog that had finally gotten the bone it had been dreaming of.

Looking at Nina’s beaming smile, Duncan could not help but feel another thread of worry rise in his heart—

Was it really all right to give it to her?

For now, the “little Sun” seemed to recover at once after being bitten. But he did not know whether this recovery had a limit. If he handed it to Nina to “look after”… would she someday eat the whole thing?

“Uncle Duncan?”

The call at his side snapped Duncan out of his wandering thoughts. He hurriedly pushed the strange notions from his mind and turned his head to meet Nina’s bright, sunlit face.

“Are we going to eat?” Nina asked with a dazzling smile.

“…”

In the end, Duncan could not bring himself to take the “little Sun” back.

At the same time, the great Academy Ark had already sailed near the coast of Lightwind Harbor.

In a lounge on the upper deck of the ark, Rune sat in a chair with his eyes closed, resting.

From the state of the elves who had stayed on the ark, it was clear that the Nameless One’s dream had entirely faded from the Mortal Realm. Even the elves who had once vanished completely had now returned to the Mortal Realm.

Once the sudden pressure was gone, fatigue quietly rose up. Rune had been resting for a long time since returning to the ark; only now did he feel his strength somewhat restored.

After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes and looked at his own hands, at the wrinkled skin that no longer held much life.

“I really am old now.”

He muttered this with a sigh, then rose from the chair and walked over to the nearby workbench.

“…Time to have a talk with a few old friends.”