The mirror image turned to ashes, the darkness began to fade, the phantom of the Queen's Guard disappeared, and the blasphemous creations that invaded the city-state also collapsed and turned into quickly drying black mud. The sound of gunfire in various parts of the city-state also fell silent - instead, it was replaced by an unspeakable fear and silence that enveloped the entire city.

Everyone can see that huge existence, the one standing in the boundless ocean, overlooking the city-state from the clouds.

Just a few minutes ago, Mirror Frost turned into ashes in the hands of the "giant", and no one could guess what would happen next.

Only the dark green flames that spread throughout the city and covered the sea were still burning fiercely - but these flames did not hurt anyone. They just passed through the real world like phantoms. When touched, all that could be felt was a harmless warmth.

Agatha lowered her head and casually helped up the high-ranking deacon who looked terrible. The flames burning on her arms made the latter a little nervous, but compared to the atmosphere that enveloped the entire city at the moment, this little bit of nervousness seemed insignificant.

"Next..." The high-ranking deacon's face was a little pale. He looked at Agatha, and saw the dark green spiritual fire burning on her body, which was the same flame that was now filling the entire city. His voice was a little trembling, "What will happen next?"

Agatha thought about it and shook her head: "I don't know."

The senior deacon's eyes widened: "You don't know?!"

"...I didn't ask," Agatha said frankly, "The situation was urgent and I had no other choice."

The high-ranking deacon was stunned. He had many questions to ask - the origin of the "giant" on the sea, the nature of the flames in the city, and the reason why Agatha looked like this at the moment. However, he could not ask any of them at the moment.

Agatha paid no attention to the high-ranking deacon's reaction. She just turned her head slightly and watched the last bit of delicate pale ashes slowly fall on her shoulders.

The ashes flying in the city-state had stopped at some point, and the one that fell on her shoulder seemed to be the last one - in a trance, she felt as if someone patted her shoulder.

"I have to leave," she heard someone speaking in her ear, "My earthly journey is over, and there is still a longer road waiting for me to go."

"Bon voyage, Bishop Ivan."

A wind blew from afar, blowing through the gate of the silent cathedral, blowing through the square in front of the gate, and rolled up the light ashes, letting them dissipate quietly in the wind.

※※※

On top of the bell tower behind the church, Shirley, in a black dress, looked at the street below. She sat on a wall extending from the edge of the eaves, with her legs hanging outside. She wandered around in boredom, muttering to herself, "It's quiet now..."

"Everyone seems to be scared..." Nina stood on the small platform behind Shirley and looked up at the sky while speaking, "I was scared too..."

"Who wouldn't be scared when seeing this?" Shirley shrank her neck and looked cautiously at the huge and hazy figure on the sea in the distance. "I never thought that Mr. Duncan would solve this trouble in this way - it was even bigger than the last time in Plender."

"Uncle Duncan said that the root cause of the Frost Crisis is the mirror image, so to solve the problem, we must completely eliminate the mirror image. Sealing or stopping the cultists' rituals can only provide temporary safety. The permanent solution is to uproot the mirror image and burn it in the real world," Nina said seriously. "But the mirror image is too large, so he needs a big enough 'fire scene'..."

"Okay, okay, I get it. You're really good at setting fires, right? I'll definitely talk to Mr. Duncan about this matter later," Shirley waved her hands repeatedly, and then raised her head in confusion, "But then again...what is Mr. Duncan doing now? Isn't the matter resolved? When will he come back?"

Nina raised her head after hearing this and looked at the huge figure on the sea outside the city. After thinking for a while, she said, "Then I'll go up and ask?"

"Go ahead," Shirley waved her hand quickly, "When you go up, don't forget to tell Mr. Duncan that our homework was eaten by the Deep Hound..."

Before she finished her words, Nina had already transformed into a bright arc of flame in mid-air, and then rushed straight into the shadow that covered the sky outside the city.

※※※

At a height overlooking the entire Frost Sea, Duncan's eyes penetrated the gaps between the clouds and quietly observed the sea and the city below.

The sea surface is boundless and stretches to the far distance. The city-state is like a disk floating on the sea, bathing in the skylight alone. At the end of the sea and the sky, a magnificent fog can be vaguely seen. The fog is like a wall, presenting a vaguely visible arc, surrounding the entire civilized border.

This was an unprecedented perspective - he had never observed the world from this position, and presumably no one in the world had ever done anything similar.

He could feel that the "flame" that supported his current posture was gradually extinguishing on the sea and in the city-state. This state of standing in the sky could not be maintained for long, but he still wanted to take one more look before the accumulated energy was exhausted.

At this moment, a cluster of small flames emerging from the clouds suddenly came into Duncan's sight.

The small flame was jumping among the clouds like a light swallow, and when the flame was close to him, he heard Nina's voice: "Uncle Duncan! What are you doing?"

"I am observing this world," Duncan smiled and whispered to the "flame". He raised his finger and let the flame dance on his fingertips. "How did you get up here?"

"Shirley asked me to come up here. She was curious about what you were doing," Nina said cheerfully, the flames swaying on Duncan's fingertips. Even though her figure had expanded into a cluster of flames larger than a bell tower, it was still very small in Duncan's eyes. "You said you were observing the world? What's so interesting?"

Duncan smiled and raised his chin: "Look, down there."

The flame flickered to the side.

"……Wow."

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Duncan said softly. "No one has ever looked down at the boundless sea and the city-states on the sea from this height. And the fog in the distance is so huge that even from my perspective at this moment, I feel suffocated when I see it."

Nina thought about it seriously: "...But if it is really a normal-sized human, I won't feel anything when I'm at the border of the Eternal Curtain, because I can't see the whole thing."

Duncan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

"Yes, you are right. When ordinary people really come to the fog wall, they will not realize the oppressive and suffocating feeling because they cannot see it all... We are at a high place and see too much."

"Uncle Duncan, why do I feel that... your words seem to have a deeper meaning?"

Duncan did not respond to Nina's question. He just looked into the distance quietly. After a while, he suddenly said, "Are you curious about what is on the other side of the fog?"

"...The book says that the fog is endless, there is no other side, there is only fog outside."

Duncan looked at his fingertips: "This is what the book says, what do you think?"

"...I think what's in the book is just the speculation of scholars. Mr. Morris said that everything outside the civilized world is just the speculation of scholars. So-called research is the process of verifying the speculation," Nina said her thoughts happily. "Maybe there is another world on the other side of the fog!"

Then she paused, as if she suddenly realized something: "Ah! Uncle Duncan, are you planning to walk through the thick fog? Do you really want to try? This place is very close to the northern border, and you are so high now, maybe you really..."

"Unfortunately, it's not feasible," Duncan shook his head gently, interrupting Nina's excitement, "I can't maintain this state for long, let alone leave this sea area in this state - the ritual has its limits, and all we can do now is watch from here."

Nina seemed a little frustrated for a moment. After a while, she tentatively said, "Then... can I go over and take a look? I can fly in the sky now~"

"But you can only fly for a short while. You know your limits very well." Duncan shook his head again. "And I don't recommend you do this. We know too little about the thick fog. There is a difference between adventurous spirit and reckless behavior."

Nina was silent for a while, then stretched out her voice: "Oh - then we can only watch here."

"The first step of the journey is to look into the distance," Duncan's mouth curled up. He felt the flames that supported him begin to fade rapidly. This huge consumption had reached a critical point, but before dispersing his own projection, he still smiled. "And we have to look not only at the distance, Nina, have you noticed the shape of the city-state? Such a regular disk, so neat that it doesn't seem like a natural product, and the sea below, deep and vast, we still don't know what is on the bottom of the sea...

"The cultists firmly believe that this world will eventually be destroyed, and they can create a new world. The Church firmly believes that following the guidance of the Four Gods is the only way to maintain the eternity of the world, but there are too many unknown things in this world... Whether it is the cultists, the Orthodox Church, or the scholars of various city-states, all their views on the Infinite Sea are one-sided."

Between the sea and the sky, the giant's huge body was quietly disappearing, and the mirror-like sea was gradually returning to its waves.

A flame fell from the clouds towards the city-state.

Duncan and Nina's conversation continued:

"Okay, Nina, let's go back. We still have a lot to do."

"Oh... Oh, right! Uncle Duncan! I forgot to tell you that Shirley and I's homework was eaten by the Deep Hound!"

"…It's okay. Morris and I will prepare new ones for you."