A... weak but wonderful force was resisting the orders that it was giving to this body.

Even trying to expel myself from the body.

This force seemed to have existed from the beginning, but when he had the idea of ​​going to Frost, this resistance became more and more obvious.

Duncan stopped in surprise. Although the resistance was still there, he slowly moved to the edge of the wreckage and looked down at the calm sea.

He said softly, "I thought you were gone - usually, after the heart stops beating, the soul will leave quickly."

Then he calmed down, feeling the weak but stubborn power. After a moment of silence, the body's lips moved twice: "Leave..."

Duncan closed his eyes slightly.

On the oily sea, the reflection of the body was suddenly enveloped by a layer of dark green flames. The face in the reflection, which had been disfigured beyond recognition by the fire and explosion, trembled in the flames and turned into the majestic and gloomy face of Duncan Abnomer.

"Hello," Duncan, reflected in the sea, looked at the body standing at the edge of the wreckage of the Petrel and greeted calmly, "I think this will make it easier for us to talk."

The unrecognizable body stood upright. The remaining consciousness of Belazov stared at the face reflected in the sea and the dark green flames. His lips moved twice and he uttered a monotonous and persistent voice again: "... leave."

In the reflection of the sea, Duncan thought: "...You don't want me to leave your body, you want me to stay away from the frost?"

Belazov's body was silent. This body, which was theoretically completely dead, still stood there upright, refusing the order to return to Frost.

"...You are the first one to resist - at least, the first one whose resistance is strong enough for me to notice," Duncan said calmly, "But you should be able to realize that this weak resistance is meaningless. You are just quickly consuming your soul, and it only delays me for a few seconds at most."

Berazov still stood there silently, as if he was dead - but there was still a little residual light in his half-open eyes.

"...I take back what I said just now. Your resistance is meaningful." After a moment of silence, Duncan sighed, "Leave in peace. I am not the enemy of Frost. I came here to help your city-state and compatriots."

He was silent for a few seconds, staring at the quietly standing body. After a brief thought, he spoke softly: "Reinforcements are coming."

Belazov's body shook slightly twice. Perhaps Duncan's words really worked, or perhaps the remaining stubborn soul finally dissipated. The burly body looked up at the lights of the city in the distance for the last time, and then fell straight on his back.

Duncan sat up, straightened the burnt strips of cloth on his body, and then looked at his hands.

That weak resistance has disappeared.

A swirling, spreading fire suddenly appeared beside him. A sound of flapping wings came from the vortex formed by the flames. A huge skeleton bird rushed out of the vortex and circled over the nearby sea.

At almost the same time, the voice of the goat head also came into Duncan's mind: "Actually, you don't need to 'negotiate' with him - he is just a weak mortal soul."

"Weak, but worthy of respect," Duncan said as he stretched out his hand. Ai immediately flew to his side. The blazing green flames turned into a door and rose up beside him. "I'm going to Frost and will focus my main energy there. You will be at the helm of the Lost Homeland. By the way, tell Alice to prepare some bandages and a coat and wait for my orders at any time."

The spiritual flame spread violently, Duncan's body merged with the flame, and in the next second it turned into a rising flame beside Ai. Then a meteor-like flame rose from the sea and flew straight towards the direction of Frost in the night sky.

※※※

At the same time, in the warm southern waters, there is a technological city-state called "Breeze Harbor" ruled by the elves.

It was still late at night, and most areas of the city were still shrouded in endless darkness. However, in the eastern edge blocks of Breeze Harbor, a hazy and warm light still illuminated all the buildings and streets - those elegant elven-style pointed towers and high-roofed houses seemed to be bathed in the sunset, and the vines hanging between the houses and the trees growing between the narrow plots also looked lush in the light.

This scene of reality and fantasy interweaving can even make people think of the ancient times recorded in the ancient books of the elves, those landscapes intertwined between forest dreams and fantasy stories.

This abnormal scene was certainly not a natural sight in this city-state—the warm glow hanging over the eastern blocks came from the sea near Breeze Harbor.

A geometric structure that looks like a hill and emits endless golden light is floating quietly near the elven city-state. Although its maximum boundary is still more than ten nautical miles away from the city, the wonderful light it releases is still enough to affect half of the city-state.

At the edge of this huge geometric body is a temporary research facility built by the city-state authorities - a huge raft-type port floats on the calm sea. The power device on the edge of the raft facility spews steam and smoke into the sky. The complex mechanical working tower is loading and unloading cargo ships docked in the port. Small speedboats are constantly traveling between the raft base and the glowing geometric body, busy all the time.

Those small speedboats would go deep into the luminous geometric body to deliver supplies and personnel to the scientific research ships located near the "core stone ball", or exchange important information.

All these complex, busy and efficient processes are calculated and coordinated by the giant steam-powered difference engine in the center of the raft base.

At this moment, a "magic warship" with a style completely different from the local ships was docked next to the raft base built by the elves.

That was the ship of the "Sea Witch" Lucrecia, the Brilliant Star.

The clockwork doll Luni walked briskly to the upper deck of the Brilliant Star. Her mistress was standing on the deck, gazing at the beautiful and sophisticated tower building in the center of the offshore base.

"Madam," Luni came behind Lucrecia and bowed slightly in greeting, "The research team led by scholar Taran El has returned from the vicinity of the 'core stone ball' and is currently repairing in the base. When are you going to meet him?"

"In the afternoon," Lucrecia said without looking back, "let the elf scholar have some rest. I haven't seen him rest much since I towed this luminous object to Breeze Harbor. I'm really worried that he will die suddenly on my ship."

The doll Luni thought for a moment and said, "We can meet him at the sea base and not let him get on board."

Lucrecia: "...Luni."

"exist."

“The sense of humor has improved.”

"Thank you for the compliment."

The corner of Lucrecia's mouth twitched, and then she glanced at the tall tower in the center of the base - the pressure relief pipes on both sides of the top of the tower were spewing out bursts of water mist at this moment. It was the power device of the differential engine that was automatically balancing the overall load. It seemed that Master "Taran El" had indeed brought back a lot of useful information this time.

"The elves are indeed a race with outstanding mathematical and mechanical talents. It seems right to drag that thing to Breeze Harbor," Lucrecia couldn't help but sigh softly. "Only here can we organize a research team of this size at any time, and provide supporting facilities of this level."

"Moko is actually OK," Luni said, "After all, that is the headquarters of the Academy of Truth. The number of scholars there and the research conditions there are even better than here."

"It's too far away, and too close to the central sea. I don't intend to let the Brilliant Star drag a huge 'alien object' through the main route. It will irritate those inner city-states that have not experienced much wind and waves." Lucrecia shook her head. "Not to mention that the Four Gods Church is still speculating that it is a fragment that fell off from Anomaly 001. Things of this level... are better left for research at the border of civilization."

Luni thought about it and bent down slightly: "Your judgment is well thought out."

Lucrecia didn't react to the puppet maid's compliment, but just quietly thought about other things, but suddenly, she seemed to sense something and her expression changed slightly.

"I'm going to leave for a while, my brother is looking for me."

With these words, the "sea witch" transformed into a flying piece of colored paper, swept across the deck like a whirlwind, swirled into an open window in the distance, and returned to the captain's room.

On the table in the center of the captain's room, the complex structure of lenses and crystal balls had lit up slightly and was constantly making slight vibration sounds.

Lucrecia's figure condensed into shape from the colorful shredded paper. She walked to the crystal device and raised her hand to activate the image in the crystal ball.

The face of "Iron Admiral" Tirian appeared in the crystal ball, and the background behind him... did not seem to be the usual familiar room.

"Brother?" Lucrecia frowned. She didn't notice the scene behind him at first. "Why did you suddenly come to me?"

Tirian smiled mysteriously: "Guess where I am?"