Chapter 720

Chapter 720: Open the Door

“Begin your prayer—to your Lord.”

The brain inside the skeletal crown suddenly convulsed. From that sentence alone, the Saint abruptly sensed enormous danger and terror—it did not know what this fear truly was, yet the warning sent by Dark Fate pressed on its subconscious like a great mountain.

It began to struggle violently. Its powerful will even broke through, for a brief moment, the layers of restraints the Witch had placed inside its body. The bone spurs at the edge of the skeletal cage started to rattle and clack. As the bindings loosened for that instant, its senses slowly returned. It finally noticed its surroundings—it sensed the familiar aura of Sacred Island.

It realized where it had been brought. In that moment, heavy despair wrapped its already crazed and warped mind layer by layer, like the veil of night.

“Holy Land!” The terrible brain swelled and shrank as it writhed. The air around it trembled as it roared in wild, overlapping voices: “Holy Land! You have defiled the Holy Land! You heretic cultists… the Lord will punish you, none of you will escape!”

Duncan and Lucretia only watched the raging Saint with expressionless faces. After a moment, Duncan finally raised his right hand. A flame burned in his palm, its edge flickering as thin streams of fire dripped to the ground. One stream spread toward the dark stone door, while another flowed in silence to the Saint’s feet and began to burn.

Only when the flame started spreading did Duncan break the silence: “Two things. First, your ‘Holy Land’ doesn’t need anyone else to defile it. Your foolish kin dug through the surface and woke the flesh of the Elder Gods. They have already ‘returned to the holy Lord’ just as they wished, in every sense of the phrase.”

“Second, I don’t care what your Lord thinks about all this. But I do have some things I want to discuss with your Lord. So, begin your prayer. This is probably the only time in your life you can truly help share the Abyssal Lord’s burden. And from a personal point of view… this will make what comes next a little easier on you.”

The fire spread. The pale green spirit form flame slowly climbed the huge dark stone door. The streams of fire seeped into the grooves on the door like water and burned across its surface, making the whole door seem to come alive, shivering and shaking as if it might move. Another branch of the flame ignited the Saint’s skeletal limbs and began to crawl across its whole body.

A fear that burned the soul along with the flesh swept through the monster’s mind. It struggled with all its strength, but the Witch’s restraints crushed all resistance in an instant. It could only watch the fire spread. Yet compared to the pain in its twisted body, another, darker “sensation” was what filled it with utter despair—

It felt itself forming a link with that dark stone door, a connection deeper and harder to understand than any physical touch. It felt itself slowly becoming part of that door, becoming part of the world behind it. Its consciousness, its memories, all of its reason and everything it could use to hold on to its “self” were turning into the door’s… data…

In a daze, a hollow voice echoed. It was a strange, low hum. On the crumbling edge of its consciousness, the Saint felt his personality stand up again from that twisted, deformed body. He once more felt his hands and feet, the texture of breathing, the vibration of sound against his eardrums—those parts he had once willingly cast off, the parts that belonged to humans, seemed to return to the world in this illusion.

“Offer your prayer to your Lord…”

A voice boomed through his mind, making him raise his head in confusion and daze. But his subconscious still struggled. He clenched his teeth and tried to shake off the voice’s influence—yet it kept coming, trembling on all sides, trembling even inside his own subconscious—

“Offer your prayer to your Lord…”

He lifted his eyes in the darkness and saw a grand black gate standing before him, like the beginning and end of all things. The surface of the gate rippled and writhed like a pool of water. Between those shimmering ripples, he saw countless blurred and broken scenes—

He had once studied in the city-state. He had once hurried through streets and alleys, busy like an ordinary person. He had longed for many things, only to be swallowed by a greater emptiness the moment he got them. In wild indulgence he noticed how false the body’s shell was. In the baptism of blood he gained a brief “enlightenment”—he saw his first sacrifice, a small body lying quietly in a blood-draining trough, spasming one last time. He saw his final sacrifice, a ruined heap that no longer looked human, with only a pair of eyes left, filled with fear and despair. In those eyes was reflected a powerful body that had already surpassed mortal flesh…

And all of it was being swallowed by the black gate—everything about him as a human, everything inhuman, everything he had experienced, everything he had tried to escape… it was all being uploaded to the Source…

“Offer your prayer to your Lord.”

Beside the black gate, a giant filled with starlight looked down. The giant had no face. Many brilliant star-rivers flowed through its body. Dazzling star clusters and dim cloud belts outlined its unspeakable features. It bent down slightly. A river of stars stretched out like a tentacle and flowed to hover before the Saint’s eyes. The tip of that starry tendril opened in silence. Countless eyes blinked in the starlight, watching the Saint’s soul.

Beside the starlit giant, the black gate slowly opened. An existence with a towering main body like a high tower, wrapped in countless massive tentacles, cast a single glance toward the mortal world.

Why refuse your prayer? The Lord was right there… It cast down thousands upon thousands of merciful gazes.

Overwhelming emotion pried open the Saint’s heart. He finally forgot where he had come from. He forgot what he was supposed to do. Before that towering being, he bent his waist, then dropped to the ground and lay prostrate. He whispered softly: “My Lord…”

The ghostly green flame flared up. The dark stone door turned, in an instant, into a gently rippling, pitch-black mirror. Within the waves on that surface, one could faintly see a vast world deep inside.

Duncan turned his head and saw the shriveled black remains quietly burning on the open ground in front of the black gate. Its life had already faded, but the remains that were left… looked as if they could burn for a very long time.

“The Saint really is more fireproof than most.”

He sighed casually, then turned his gaze to the “black gate” that now rippled like a mirror. On the other side of the door, the auras of Shirley and Dog were still active, and growing clearer.

He stepped forward and touched the black mirror with his fingertips. The surface rippled, but he felt no sensation at his fingers.

It was like touching a phantom.

“Is this the door leading to the Abyssal Deep, to the Deep Sea?” Morris could not help but step closer. He studied the black gate with a frown as he spoke: “It looks… somewhat like the ‘rifts’ opened by Abyssal demons, but clearly much more stable…”

“In essence, it is a rift opened by Abyssal demons. That Saint had already become a Abyssal demon. Of course it had the ability to open a passage to the Abyssal Deep, to the Deep Sea,” Duncan said lightly. “All I did was force the rift to stabilize after it opened, and use the ‘connection point’ in this cave to anchor the door as close as possible to Shirley and Dog. Right now I can feel that the two of them are somewhere on the other side.”

As he spoke, he glanced at Alice beside him, then at Morris and Lucretia across from him. He already had a plan.

“Alice, you’re coming through the door with me. Morris and Lucy, you’ll stay outside.”

“You don’t need me to go in with you?” Lucretia asked at once, a bit worried.

“No.” Duncan shook his head. “I’m not going there to fight. I’m only going to find people and have a talk with the Abyssal Lord. Taking one more person or one less person won’t make much difference—but this side of the door needs a warden.”

He paused, thinking, then added: “This rift will stay open for quite a long time. Before we return, Abyssal demons will definitely notice this passage. At that point, things will come out through the door—so you and Morris have to guard this place. And it’s not just this door. The whole Sacred Island could change because of this rift. So you also need to inform Vanna and the people of the Deep Sea and the Church of Death. From now until the door is closed, there may be a lot of ‘guests’ showing up around here.”

Listening to Father’s plan, Lucretia’s expression slowly grew serious. She nodded lightly: “I understand—Mr. Morris and I will guard this place.”

Duncan nodded and said nothing more. He only turned and beckoned to Alice.

“Hold on to me. Don’t let go halfway,” he said quietly to the doll who had followed him over.

Alice nodded at once and grabbed Duncan’s arm tightly. A smile appeared on her face. There was no trace of tension in that smile. In fact, she looked very happy, as if… she was not about to go to a place that would terrify any ordinary person, but was simply going on an outing with the captain.

“Not afraid?” Standing before the rippling black mirror, Duncan noticed the smile on Alice’s face and could not help asking softly.

Alice laughed with real joy: “I’m not afraid!”

“Good.”

Duncan nodded and, without any hesitation, led the doll straight through the black gate.

A strange sensation rushed over them.

It was as if they had passed through a layer of unreal fog. There was no resistance, no discomfort, only a faint, cool breath that rose and then faded in an instant. In that brief moment, it felt as though they had crossed an infinitely long tunnel in the blink of an eye—

Alice’s eyes widened in wonder. Clutching the captain’s arm, she saw many streams of light flashing past. But more surprising than those strange lights was that she seemed to “hear” something.

As they passed through the “tunnel,” on their way to the other side, a voice entered her mind directly—

“Verifying identity, ?#@?&%&… pass.

“Verifying identity, LH-03, Navigator Three, pass.”