To be fair, Vanna has never been afraid of anything in her life, but Captain Duncan Abnormalmar... always seems to bring her all kinds of "unexpected situations".

In a room blocked by dreams, there is the endless dark sea outside the window, a strange light body hangs high in the sky, and under the silent night, someone knocks on the door.

Vanna almost subconsciously wanted to condense her giant sword in her dream and jump and chop towards the door - fortunately, she controlled the impulse at the last second.

"Boom boom boom."

The knock on the door continued to come slowly, with full patience and politeness.

Fanna took several deep breaths, not knowing what expression to show at this moment, so she could only keep a straight face and try to make her tone sound normal: "Come in."

With a slight click, the handle turned, and the dark wooden door was pushed open from the outside. An extremely tall and majestic figure appeared in front of Vanna and walked into the room.

Behind this figure was pure darkness, just like the edge of a dream - beyond the edge, there was a "nothingness" without any entity.

Duncan walked into the room and gave Vanna a friendly smile: "Good afternoon, Vanna - I knocked on the door this time."

Vanna looked at the ghost captain who was walking into the room without saying a word. She watched him walk to the wine cabinet next to her and take out a bottle of wine and two wine glasses. She then watched him walk slowly to the table and sit down in the armchair.

"Why don't you come and sit down?" Duncan raised his eyebrows and glanced at the young judge who was still standing near the window, pointing to the empty seat across the table. "You don't look very good."

Vanna hesitated for a moment, and finally came to the opposite side of Duncan with a strange look. She carefully sat on the chair and watched him pour the wine. After a long time, she sighed: "Don't you think this is more frightening?"

"Is that so?" Duncan looked at Vanna in surprise, then looked at the dreamland he had spent a long time to create, the warm and everyday furnishings and the friendly wine glass in his hand, and frowned uncertainly, "Then I'll try a brighter color next time..."

"I don't think it's a question of tone..." Vanna felt her eyebrows twitching, but then she didn't know what she thought of, and sighed with a smile, "Well, at least I think I do feel your 'kindness'... This kindness is a little scary, but I can more or less confirm its authenticity."

Duncan pushed a glass of wine over: "It seems to be a good thing."

"Thank you," Vanna took the wine glass and looked hesitantly at the clear, slightly golden-red liquid inside. After hesitating for a long time, she put it aside for the time being. Then she raised her eyes and looked at the captain opposite her. "This is another dream - is it a room on the Lost Homeland?"

"There is some reference, but not completely. I arranged it according to my personal preferences," Duncan said slowly. "In fact, I am not very good at weaving dreams. I prefer to enter a ready-made dream directly. But you sleep very uneasily, and your dreams are fragmented and messy, so I prepared a place for you to rest well."

Vanna didn't pay attention to Duncan's last words. She just turned her head and looked out the window, asking her biggest question: "What is that glowing thing in the sky outside? Is it also your 'personal preference'?"

Duncan was silent for a moment. He looked out the window. He was silent for a long time in the moonlight before he sighed and shook his head. "I guess so - I don't really like the overly pale and cold light of the Creation of the World. It's not soft enough and makes people feel full of malice. As for the one you see now... you can call it the 'moon'."

"'Moon'..." Vanna repeated this strange word that seemed to be a direct transliteration of an unknown language in a strange way, "What a difficult name to pronounce."

"Are you interested in it?" Duncan looked at Vanna with a smile, "Then I can tell you the story behind this name..."

As a result, before he finished speaking, Vanna shuddered and said, "No! Thank you!"

"...Well, it's always like this," Duncan shrugged and said nonchalantly, "In fact, they are just some ordinary things, and have nothing to do with the warp."

"I'm sorry, I believe you're friendly, but... just think of me as a coward," Vanna said awkwardly. After so many contacts and a series of events, her vigilance and alertness towards the ghost captain had actually changed a lot. But no matter what, even from a logical and rational point of view, she didn't dare to listen to the "knowledge" from the mouth of this returnee from the warp. "Let's talk about something else. Why did you come to me?"

"Two things," Duncan looked into Vanna's eyes, "First, thank you for taking care of Tyrian these past two days. He seems to be having a good time in Plunder."

"Captain Tirian?" Vanna's heart moved, and she suddenly realized something, "Could it be that you have been paying attention to..."

"Yes, I have been following this matter," Duncan said with emotion, "He has been wandering in the north for many years and has picked up pirate habits. He usually only has a group of undead sailors as companions. His social habits are extremely unhealthy. Add to that the old incident with Frost, and one cannot help but worry about his mental state. In order to avoid becoming a lonely, eccentric, and cynical weirdo, he needs some healthy and orderly interpersonal relationships..."

Duncan was basically just making up stories to further consolidate his image of "regaining humanity and rationality" so as to facilitate his dealings with Vanna and the "order and civilization" behind her. However, Vanna did not take this as nonsense. The judge was stunned to hear this ghost captain talking to her like an old father. After a long while, she managed to utter: "You...are quite concerned about him..."

Duncan said seriously: "Caring for each other among family members is the first step to maintaining family harmony."

"…but you almost blew the Sea Mist into a pile of scrap metal." Vanna reminded carefully.

Duncan remained serious: "Proper education and guidance is the second step."

Vanna: “…”

Weird, discordant, and weird at every turn, Vanna increasingly felt that the communication process between her and Captain Duncan was filled with indescribable weirdness, but for some reason, in this weird and discordant conversation, she actually felt that... this ghost captain had become "flesh and blood".

She had to shake her head and put aside this sudden thought for the time being: "What about the second thing you mentioned?"

"The second thing," Duncan immediately straightened his expression and became a little serious, "is about the sun - have you noticed its changes?"

The sound of the waves outside the window gradually became slower and slower, like a distant whisper, and the breeze blowing into the room also became faint.

When Fanna heard the other party mention "the sun", her eyes changed slightly: "Are you referring to the sunrise that was delayed by fifteen minutes, or..."

"There's a gap in its outer rune ring," Duncan said, "Judging from your expression, you should have noticed it as well."

Fanna was silent for two or three seconds before she nodded gently: "It's hard not to notice it - although it's just a gap that is difficult to detect with the naked eye, for thousands of years, there have always been vigilant eyes paying attention to the operation of Vision 001, and the church noticed this disturbing situation at the first time."

"The Guardians never let up... I have a better impression of you," Duncan said, and suddenly asked, "What do you think about this?"

"...That depends on the feedback from the Cathedral of the Storm," Vanna said in a serious tone. "Prande can only report what he observes. We are not a research facility, and we can't think of any way to interfere with the operation of Anomaly 001."

She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head uncertainly, "Perhaps even the Cathedral of Storms won't give a clear response. Vision 001... its operation affects the entire world, and its abnormality alarms more than just the Deep Sea Church."

As Vanna spoke, she seemed to suddenly realize something and looked up at Duncan: "You suddenly came to me to talk about this. Do you know something? Do you know what happened to Vision 001?"

Duncan did not answer immediately.

His mind involuntarily recalled the brief strange dream he had once had.

In the dream, huge bodies of light fell like a meteor shower, and the whole world gradually fell into darkness. In the end, only terrifying darkness remained in the sky, like a hole or a dying eyeball.

At that time, he did not understand anything from this dream, but now, he seemed to have glimpsed a hint of omen from this dream.

"Even I'm not sure, Vanna," he finally broke the silence and looked into Vanna's eyes calmly, "but I think this should be just the beginning."

A chill slowly spread across her back, and Vanna felt that she had read some extremely disturbing information from the other person's eyes: "Just the beginning?"

"I don't have enough evidence yet, but I guess that Anomaly 001 actually has a 'service life'," Duncan said seriously, "What the ancient Kingdom of Crete left to future generations is not an eternal shelter, but only a temporary peace. The sun above our heads... is probably about to go out.

"As for when this evidence will arrive..."

Duncan paused for a moment and said slowly:

"Maybe there will be huge chunks falling from the sky, and that's the ticking of the countdown.

"It is more likely that the first fragments have already fallen now, but have fallen beyond the sight of the civilized world."

Chill and uneasiness spread in her heart. Vanna lowered her eyes slightly, concealing all the changes in her eyes, and her hand slowly picked up the wine glass beside her, and subconsciously put it to her mouth, as if she wanted to use alcohol to calm her mood.

She took a sip, frowned slightly, and looked up at Duncan: "It has no taste..."

"Of course it doesn't taste good," Duncan laughed, raising his glass slightly to Vanna, "Because you're about to wake up."

Vanna suddenly opened her eyes.

She was still sitting in the moving steam carriage, and the tall towers and main building of the cathedral appeared in her sight.

She panted slightly and heard the voice of her subordinates coming from the front: "Ah, you are awake, just in time, the cathedral is almost there."