As the submersible's light swept around, all the shapes floating in the dark water came into Duncan's sight - people, countless people, floating in the water.
However, as Duncan observed carefully, he discovered something strange about these human bodies.
They had no facial features, or even clear hands and feet, and no clothes on their bodies - they were just "shapes" with roughly human outlines, with a rough texture and a pitch-black color.
It's like a rough doll made of black mud using clumsy and crude techniques.
Duncan told Agatha the details of what he had seen.
"Only outlines?" Agatha's tone was uncertain, "But in my eyes... they are emitting spiritual radiance like living people in the city-state..."
Duncan didn't say anything, but frowned slightly, carefully controlling the submersible to approach a "human figure" floating not far outside the porthole.
The water flow driven by the submersible disturbed the tranquility of the deep sea. The dark humanoid object slowly rolled at an angle in the sea water. Its flat and smooth spherical "head" first turned towards the porthole, followed by the short and bald arm structure that seemed unfinished.
The robotic arm slowly extended forward, and the grappling hook at the end rested on the human torso, carefully fiddling with it.
It was completely unresponsive and showed no signs of being "alive".
Duncan raised his head again and looked through the porthole at the human-shaped figures floating quietly in the distance, watching them extend into the distance in the light and finally disappear into the darkness of the deep sea.
How many are there? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of millions?
Suddenly, memories came to his mind, and Duncan remembered a detail he had heard when he was discussing the Abyss Plan with Tirian - the No. 3 submersible frantically surfaced during the last deep dive, and the crazy explorer frantically shouted a sentence after returning to the sunlight:
"We all died there!"
Duncan frowned little by little, looking solemnly at the countless human bodies floating quietly outside the porthole - was this the scene that the explorer saw before he went crazy?
Agatha on the side suddenly broke the silence, her tone was serious: "This reminds me of... those 'fakes' that invaded the city-state before."
"I thought of that, too," Duncan nodded gently, "but they don't look like that. Even though those fakes have various inhuman features, they at least have detailed structures such as facial features, hands and feet. They also try their best to imitate humans and wear normal clothes. But the 'human-shaped objects' here only have the most basic outlines. If I have to say... they are more like 'rough drafts' that are even simpler than fakes."
"Some kind of semi-finished product?" Agatha suddenly thought, "Those fakes are made from this kind of 'rough'?"
"It's hard to say," Duncan said with uncertainty in his tone, "These things may have been floating in the deep sea for many, many years. At least they were there when the Abyss Project was launched. In addition, the force that invaded the city-state intervened in reality with the help of the characteristics of the 'mirror', but this is the 'entity' in the deep sea. The two are related, but it should not be a direct 'semi-finished product' and 'finished product' relationship."
Agatha listened thoughtfully. For some reason, she suddenly recalled a sentence the cultist said during their previous confrontation:
[“There have never been any fakes from the beginning, or rather... we are all fakes..."]
At almost the same time, Duncan seemed to have thought of something. He looked past the floating human bodies and towards the unknown deep sea below, then reached for the joystick.
Certain devices deep in the machinery compartment emitted dying roars and sounds, and the hull made creaking noises as if it could not bear the heavy load. The submersible began to continue its descent, accompanied by the sound of water being injected.
Agatha listened to the terrifying noises coming from all around her and couldn't help but look at Duncan: "Captain, can this thing still hold up?"
Duncan's eyes swept across the various instruments on the control panel, and he sensed the faint information conveyed to him by the spiritual fire, without relaxing his hand on the diving control lever.
"We can still hold on," he said in a deep voice, "We should be there soon."
"We're almost there?" Agatha was stunned. "Do you know what's down there?"
Duncan did not answer, but continued to carefully control the submersible to dive downwards, while adjusting the angle of the thrusters very slightly - the hull, which was on the verge of its limit, made creepy noises almost every second, and even the edge where the porthole was connected to the hull began to make terrible creaking sounds, as if the fragile balance would be broken in the next second, and the entire submersible would turn into a ball of wrinkled metal under the heavy pressure of the sea water.
But it keeps diving, on the narrow blade of collapse and balance, continuing to dive into the darkest place.
But the noise coming from the hull and the engine room was not the only terrifying sound. Another sound was even more horrifying—the real banging sound that kept coming from outside the hull:
“Bang” “Bang” “Bang”…
Human-shaped objects that looked like rough pieces of black mud would occasionally hit the hull of the submersible, and the dull sounds were extremely terrifying, like stones hitting a skull.
Even Agatha couldn't help but hold on to the handrail in front of her.
She could feel that the submersible was tilting forward as a whole, and the angle was so high that it was difficult to stand without holding on to the handrails.
Then, she suddenly "saw" something appear outside the porthole.
A continuous, undulating, seemingly endless chaotic outline appeared at the edge of the searchlight beam and near the lower edge of the porthole.
It looked like... a piece of earth's surface.
"The bottom of the sea?" Agatha exclaimed in surprise, "I saw something... Is that the bottom of the sea?"
Duncan stared silently out the porthole, looking at the undulating surface that suddenly appeared in the dark deep sea, its jagged "coast" and the hazy structure that could not be seen in the distance. After a long time, he shook his head gently: "It's not the seabed. We are far from touching the so-called 'seabed' - it is a piece of land floating in the water."
Agatha asked doubtfully: "Land floating in the water?"
"...Another Frost Island," Duncan replied softly. "Although I can only see a small section of the coastline, I am familiar with the terrain. It is Frost Island - the original Frost Island without a city-state, a port, or any buildings."
Agatha's body visibly shook slightly.
Duncan raised his head and looked at the sea water around and above the "Frost Island".
Countless human-shaped objects floated around the "deep-sea floating island" like a swarm of bees surrounding a hive.
And this scene, like amber, is sealed in the depths of the dark and cold sea, as if the years have been paused, quietly freezing at an extremely ancient moment.
Agatha's voice sounded beside him: "Where... is this place..."
"...the original blueprint," Duncan said softly.
In the third long night, the "Creeping King" gave the blueprint to the cluster and began the work of creation. In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the King of Dreams and the King of the Pale Giants, He divided the blueprint so that there were no more countries in the world, and turned the countries into 1,200 cities...
Civilization continued after the Third Long Night, and the Deep Sea Age began. Everything in the Deep Sea Age was built on the blueprint of the "One Thousand Two Hundred Cities" by the Creeping King.
Part of the contents of the "blasphemous book" have been confirmed.
But are there other possibilities?
Duncan's mind was full of thoughts, and he fell silent for a moment. However, Agatha beside him had already reacted. After realizing the meaning of the "original blueprint", she spoke in disbelief: "You mean... today's Frost and Frost people, and even all the city-states and mortals in this world... are all made based on these 'things' in the deep sea..."
"This is a possibility," Duncan shook his head slightly and said in a deep voice, "The heretical theory of the Annihilation Cult records the creation process of the Deep Lord. This is of course a heresy, but it is undeniable that the ancient books in their hands may also reveal some of the truth of history."
Agatha opened her mouth, but no words came out.
From the moment she dived into the deep sea, the world in her perception seemed to be undergoing a radical reshaping. Too much turmoil and too many doubts made it difficult for even the tough-minded gatekeeper to clarify his thoughts for a while.
The primitive island "templates" floating in the deep sea, the countless human-shaped "rough drafts"... If the Annihilation Cult's claim that "the Holy Lord of the Deep created the world" is true, then... aren't all the living beings in the world equivalent to the creations of the Holy Lord of the Deep?
Even after experiencing the Frost Mirror Crisis and re-establishing her faith and strengthening her beliefs in the great test, Agatha still found it difficult to accept this "possibility" that was too challenging to her worldview.
But she did not blindly deny what she saw in this huge contradiction and hesitation.
The moment she decided to go on this deep dive, she was mentally prepared.
In the deep sea, everything is possible.
"Should we... move closer?" She turned her head and spoke to Duncan in the calmest tone possible.
Duncan didn't touch the joystick again.
His eyes swept across the many instruments on the console.
His perception permeated the submersible.
"…We have reached our limit," he said. "The submersible's hull can no longer support us."
"…We are just one step away," Agatha said with great regret, "We are about to touch the floating island in the sea…"
"It's okay, the submersible just can't hold on," Duncan shook his head slightly and looked out the porthole, "There's something here that can hold it up."
Agatha turned her head in confusion.
Duncan still stared quietly out the window, staring at those...human-shaped creatures floating in the lights.
"I remember you said just now that in your eyes, these 'rough' humanoids exude a spiritual glow like living people."
Outside the porthole, a "human-shaped creature" with a rough outline slowly turned its head towards Agatha.