Chapter 740

Chapter 740: The Long Sunset

The grand wall of mist, like a giant barrier reaching to the sky, showed faint ripples on its surface. The cloud streams pouring down from the top of the mist wall were briefly lit by a burst of fire from within—then a gush of pale green flame erupted out, and the towering bow of the Vanished broke through the wall of fog, dragging thin shreds of mist as it sailed toward the “normal sea” ahead.

Right behind the Vanished, the Radiant Star, the Tide, the Rest, and the other warships and escort vessels of all sizes also pushed out of the thick fog.

As the wall of mist slowly drew away behind the stern, the dim, muddled glow in the sky faded. In its place came normal sunlight. The setting sun was slowly sinking toward the distant horizon, and the double rune rings at the edge of Vision 001 were already touching the sea. Golden-red light flooded across the world, vast and magnificent, yet carrying a faint sense of wrongness.

The seafarers who had returned safely from the fog all let out a breath. Strictly speaking, the fleet was still in the border sea, but just seeing sunlight again and the rolling blue ocean was enough to make them feel at ease, and feel the warmth that belonged to the “orderly world.”

“We have already made contact with the Cathedral ark in Lightwind Harbor,” Vanna came to the bow and found the captain, who was standing on the deck and looking into the distance. “I gave a brief report on what happened on Sanctuary Island. Your Eminence Helena is looking forward to seeing you again.”

“Mm.” Duncan answered simply, but he seemed a little distracted. After a moment, he pulled his gaze back from the distant sea and looked at Vanna. “Is there something else?”

“We are a bit worried,” Vanna said. She hesitated for a second, then spoke in a serious tone. “You have seemed even more preoccupied since you left the captain’s cabin. Did something happen?”

“I just discussed some troubling things with Goathead,” Duncan let out a slow breath. “It has to do with the two suspicious phantoms you and Morris saw.”

Vanna blinked: “The two phantoms we saw?”

“Yes, they…” Duncan nodded. He was just about to explain it to Vanna when a sudden sound cut him off.

It was a low, deep hum, like a giant reed plate being struck hard somewhere deep in the clouds. The hum was distant and long, as if it echoed through the whole sky.

Vanna clearly heard it too. She jumped in surprise and lifted her head toward the source of the sound, staring at the distant clouds. Almost at the same time, Morris and Lucretia ran out from a nearby cabin, looking up at the sky in shock.

Many other sailors in the fleet also heard the strange hum. On the three main Church warships, priests and guardian warriors, alarmed by the noise, rushed onto the decks and looked up in confusion at the sky where the echo still lingered. Some of them pointed toward the distant clouds, as if they had noticed something wrong hidden in their depths.

Duncan narrowed his eyes. His sight was drawn by a faint glow behind the clouds, and he could not help looking toward that direction. In the next second, that glow brightened in his vision.

It traced a clear path as it moved behind the clouds, slow on the surface yet truly fast.

Not far away, Lucretia’s eyes suddenly widened.

With a series of low rumbles that grew clearer and stronger, the moving glow behind the clouds swelled quickly. Brilliant golden light flashed through gaps in the cloud layer. Moments later, the glowing mass broke through the northwestern clouds—a splendid glowing orb, falling along an arc toward the northern sea.

Like a small Sun Wheel dropping from the heavens, the huge shining body grew smaller and smaller, finally sinking into the far-off waters.

After a brief moment of shock, Duncan reacted at once. He whipped his head around to look at Lucretia, and saw that Lucretia was also looking up at him.

Duncan did not speak, but the Sea Witch already knew what Father wanted to ask. She nodded slightly, her face grave.

The second glowing orb had fallen.

On the nearby Tide, sailors cried out in alarm. Some who reacted quickly looked up at the Sun, and among those with sharp eyes… someone had already noticed the new second gap that had appeared in the rune rings.

Lucretia walked over quickly. Before Duncan could ask, she spoke first: “By eye, it fell toward the north. It should be near Frost Sea—I don’t know if my brother noticed it…”

“I did see a flash of gold from the cemetery over there, but the buildings in the city blocked my view,” Duncan said at once. Then he focused his mind and called to the distant northern mark: “Tyrian.”

A wave of clear confusion rushed back along the mark. Then Duncan heard the answer from the “Steel Vice Admiral” in his mind: “I’m here, Father.”

Along with his reply came a jumble of background noise. It sounded a little chaotic around Tyrian.

“Did you see a huge glowing fallen relic?” Duncan asked right away, while he also noticed the confusion on that side. “What is going on over there? Why is it such a mess?”

Tyrian’s voice came through in broken pieces: “Things are a bit… complicated here… I did see the glowing fallen relic you mentioned…”

“Where did it roughly fall?” Lucretia cut in directly. “How far from the city-state? Is it inside the civilized world’s borders?”

Tyrian went quiet for a few seconds. Then his answer came in a hollow tone: “…It hit me on the head.”

Duncan and Lucretia: “…?”

“Strictly speaking, it hit the Frostholm coast,” Tyrian added at once. “But the glowing orb of this thing is huge. Part of its glowing structure stretches right into the city. My office is inside the coverage area… it’s a bit chaotic here right now… this thing is really bright, and it came so suddenly, my eyes are having trouble adapting…”

Duncan and Lucretia again: “…”

To be honest, Duncan had not seen that coming at all…

The awkward silence lasted a moment. At last, Duncan coughed twice: “Has anyone been hurt?”

“We can’t be sure yet. There shouldn’t be any direct injuries, because the glowing part of that thing is non?material. When it fell, it did not even stir a speck of dust. Its physical part landed off the coast, and there were no ships sailing there,” Tyrian said. The chaos on his side seemed to ease a little as he spoke and issued orders in the background. “But the fall of the glowing orb was so sudden that it has already caused panic in the city. I am sending people to calm the affected districts and check for any damage…”

Tyrian paused for a moment. Then he spoke again: “Lucy, this thing should be…”

“It should be the same kind of thing as the glowing geometric body here at Lightwind Harbor. The rune rings on the edge of the Sun now have a second gap that you can see with the naked eye, and it’s even bigger than last time,” Lucretia said, her tone heavy. “The Sun’s disintegration may be speeding up.”

“…Damn.”

“I will send you all my research data on the glowing geometric body as soon as I can,” Lucretia said. “You need to set up a matching research facility. At the very least, move that fallen relic to a safe sea area near the city-state. There should be a solid core at its center… Once things settle down on your side, send someone to find that core and tell me what state it is in.”

“I understand.”

After they exchanged a few more details, Duncan ended the contact with Tyrian.

The deck fell quiet for a time. Bathed in the golden-red glow of the sunset, Duncan and Lucretia stood side by side, both silent.

An invisible weight pressed down on Lucretia’s chest, like some unseen countdown timer. It made her feel short of breath.

She lifted her head and looked at Father. She moved her lips: “Dad…”

Another strange hum came from the sky and cut off what she had been about to say.

The golden-red evening glow vanished at once. Murky darkness washed over everything in sight in a single instant.

The Sun went out again.

From Pland to Frostholm, from Lightwind Harbor to the fleet in the border sea—before the eyes of countless people, the Sun once more fell into darkness. With it came that odd, low hum. The sphere at the center of Vision 001 turned into a terrifying black hollow, leaving only the golden double rune rings fixed on the sea’s horizon, barely lighting the dim, muddled sky.

The two gaps in the rune rings now looked even more obvious, even more shocking.

“The Observer Effect stabilizing anchor has shut down again…”

Alice walked out from the cabin, staring in a daze at the distant, darkened Sun.

“How long will it stay off this time?” Nina came up beside her and muttered uneasily.

“I don’t know,” Alice shook her head. “The system is still showing errors. It’s trying to reboot.”

Dog and Shirley came out as well. Dog squatted on the deck in silence, staring at the horizon. Shirley cast a careful glance at the captain not far away, then muttered under her breath: “…the Sun will light up again, right? It’s not going to stay dark this time, is it…”

“It can’t be that bad, can it?” Nina was startled by Shirley’s words. Then she thought for a moment and sounded less sure. “If it really stayed dark… should I think about hanging up in the sky all the time and lighting the city-state myself… But I wouldn’t be able to light up much on my own, and I wouldn’t get any weekends off, would I?”

Shirley had been half worried and half sighing over the situation, but when she heard her friend mumbling, her expression turned odd. She glanced sideways at Nina: “…Don’t you think that idea is a bit much?”

“Things are already pretty ‘a bit much’ right now…”

Shirley and Nina bickered back and forth, each line taking them farther off topic. It seemed they were trying to ease their nervousness by chatting. While they talked, that low, weird humming sound suddenly echoed in the sky once again.

Almost without giving anyone time to react, the world that had been dark for only a few minutes lit up under sunlight again—the Sun restarted, and the golden-red sunset shone over the sea as if it had never gone out.

Shirley and Nina stared at each other.

This time, the Sun’s “reboot” was clearly faster than the last two times.

“It’s bright again!” After a short daze, Shirley finally reacted and shouted in delight: “It only went out for a few minutes this time!”

“That scared me. I thought it was going to be like before and stay dark for more than ten hours…” Nina also let out a breath. “Looks like things aren’t that bad.”

Not far away, Morris also seemed to relax. A faint smile appeared on his face.

Compared to the last two times, the Sun had stayed out for a much shorter period this time. Whatever the reason it could restart so quickly… the return of sunlight was, in the end, a good thing.

On the Vanished, on the Tide, and on the other Church warships, people also relaxed in the renewed sunlight. The light eased the nerves that had just tensed up.

But an hour later, something felt wrong.

The Sun was still in the same place.

Two hours later, the long dusk still had not ended.