The room fell into silence.

This oppressive silence lasted for an unknown amount of time before Duncan suddenly broke it: "All living beings in the world are descendants of the ancient gods. Even the most insane cultists of Annihilation would probably never come up with such a heretical conclusion."

"It's incredible to hear the word 'heretic' from you," Ray Nora looked into Duncan's eyes with a half-smile, "but this is indeed the ultimate truth I learned in this long nightmare - just like what you saw in the deep sea, the 'creation theory' spoken by the Annihilation Cult is not false. Maybe they have a problem with their understanding, but at least one thing is true... Our world was created by the ancient gods based on some grand 'blueprint', and in this creation process... His flesh and blood is the foundation of all things."

Duncan was silent for a few seconds before he spoke slowly as if talking to himself: "The Lord of the Deep used himself as the raw material to shape all things above the sea surface according to the 'blueprint' in the deep sea. His 'flesh and blood' naturally existed inside all things. However, due to some 'error', the 'flesh and blood' that had been shaped into all things in the world became active, and the ancient god awakened from the flesh and blood of mortals and the 'blueprint' of the city-state - is this the truth of the Frost Crisis?"

Lei Nora nodded slowly, her voice soft and gentle: "Copying and creation are the authority of the Lord of the Deep. He can evolve all things with himself, so he took on the work of creation. But obviously, after a long time, the original blueprint has begun to have problems, or it may be that the 'Creator' as the source has a problem, so He began to awaken from His creations - constantly awakening in the form of 'wrong copies'. Frost is the first, but will not be the last..."

Even with Duncan's determination, he found it difficult to control the shock in his heart after hearing these horrifying words - the ancient gods will gradually awaken from all living beings and even all things in the world. If we only look at it from the perspective of weirdness and horror, the horror of this matter is even greater than the black sun hanging high above the city-state of Plande!

"Did you learn all this when you communicated with... 'Him' in your nightmare?" Duncan took great effort to control the wildly surging thoughts in his mind. While maintaining his composure, he turned his head and looked at the dark sea at the end of the room, and at the huge "pillar" standing quietly in the darkness.

"As an incomplete replica, He cannot tell me anything, but I can learn a lot from Him," Lei Nora said. "I know what you want to say - human intelligence is weak. Even if we face the truth, our limited perception and thinking cannot fully and accurately understand what we see. So I am not sure that what I said is 100% 'real'. It is just what I have realized from the fragmented 'thinking' of an ancient god through my own perception and understanding... It is just for your reference."

Duncan did not respond for a while. He fell into a long period of thought. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly turned around and asked, "What exactly is Alice? Is she the body you used to resurrect?"

"Alice?" Lenora frowned after hearing the name, and the confusion in her eyes did not seem fake. "Who is Alice?"

"...It seems that you don't know this name. I thought her knowledge of it came from you." Duncan carefully confirmed the subtle changes in Lenora's expression before retracting his scrutiny. "She is a doll with the same appearance as you. Many years ago, after you were...'executed', the Frost People salvaged a container in the Frigid Sea. Alice was sleeping in that container. She was once called Anomaly 099, but now she is my crew member."

Lenoir listened to Duncan's description quietly, her expression gradually becoming thoughtful. After a long while, she suddenly smiled: "Ah, so that's how it is..."

"So?" Duncan noticed the word instantly. "What does this mean?"

"I have been dreaming, all kinds of dreams, just like floating on a sea covered with thick fog. Most of the time, I am wrapped in coldness and darkness, and fall asleep with the fragmented whispers. It is even difficult to tell whether I am a human soul or a replica of an ancient god in a daze in the deep sea. But sometimes... dry land will appear in my dreams, and there will be some nervous strangers whispering..."

As she spoke, she slowly raised her head and looked at Duncan with a smile.

"In recent times, the frequency of the second type of dream has increased significantly. The strangers whispering in the dream have turned into many... strange but interesting objects. They play and fight with me, and there is a trustworthy gaze that always watches from the edge of the dream... You care a lot about the doll that calls itself 'Alice', right?"

"There aren't many people she can trust in this world, and there aren't many people I trust in this world either," Duncan looked at the Frost Queen in front of him very seriously, and didn't relax at all because of her gentle smile. "This uncontrolled sea has 'copied' a lot of things, including sunken ships and dead sailors, but the 'executed queen' is the most special. It's a puppet with its own self... But judging from your attitude, you don't know about this?"

Lenora didn't seem to notice Duncan's serious, almost stern look. She just frowned slightly, as if she was thinking hard, and then gradually revealed a look as if she had thought of something. Then she closed her eyes again as if she was feeling it carefully, and then she opened her eyes again with a slightly strange look and looked at Duncan: "That doll calls itself 'Alice', right?"

Duncan frowned. "Yes, what's the problem?"

"Then...what if I say that the doll is not actually a 'replica' of me?" Ray Nora said seriously, "Or, in other words, it's not completely a replica of me?"

"…What do you mean by that?"

"Is there a possibility..." Lenora paused, as if trying to be serious, but her expression was still a little awkward, "Alice Guillotine - the point is not Alice, it's the guillotine..."

Duncan: “……?”

"I don't really want to recall these things," said Ray Nora, raising her hand and touching the back of her neck with a strange expression. "Do you know that when the rebels executed me, they used a torture device called the 'Alice Guillotine'..."

Finally, a light flashed in Duncan's mind, and he understood what the "Frost Queen" wanted to say.

But he felt that he might as well not understand.

"You mean, you suspect that 'Alice' was actually copied from the 'Guillotine' by this out-of-control sea, not from you..."

Duncan spoke subconsciously, but stopped halfway through and muttered to himself in confusion: "But that's not right, she looks exactly like you..."

"Wrong copy, Mr. Captain," Lei Nora obviously had the answer. She shook her head and turned to look at the dark deep sea at the end of the room. "A defective and wrong copy of the ancient god caused this out-of-control sea area. Therefore, in this out-of-control sea area, wrong copy is the norm. When a beheaded queen and a guillotine sank into the deep sea at the same time, and because of my advance arrangement, they fell accurately into the 'sensing' area of ​​the ancient god's tentacles, perhaps it triggered some...wonderful changes, mixing and reorganization, copying and completion, plus a little bit of...processing in the mysterious field."

She paused here and looked at the ancient god's tentacles standing in the darkness with complicated eyes.

"Obviously, He couldn't tell..."

The room fell silent again.

But the silence this time was completely different from before.

After this uncomfortable silence lasted for several minutes, Duncan finally broke the silence with a sigh: "So, in a sense, he has a placenta..."

Lenora opened her mouth, and after a few seconds of sluggishness, she uttered: "An unprecedented but apt metaphor, worthy of you..."

Duncan sighed helplessly. What else could he say? In this dark and boundless deep sea, the direction of events had completely exceeded everyone's expectations. The unreasonableness and indescribability of the ancient gods were truly reflected in every aspect. To use a less appropriate metaphor - between saving the adult and saving the child, the ancient gods chose to save the placenta...

But at least he figured out one thing—

Why does that silly doll think her name is "Alice"?

Because she really is Alice Guillotine.

Since coming to this world, Duncan has seen countless weird things, but even among those extremely weird things, this one is definitely the weirdest one.

"Look at it calmly. There is at least one thing you don't have to worry about," Lenoir noticed that Duncan was in a bad mood, and comforted him, "Alice is not the body I use for resurrection. In fact, from the beginning, I never thought about the so-called 'resurrection'."

Listening to the Frost Queen's words, Duncan turned his head and looked at her again. He had to try hard to adjust his mentality, forcibly put aside the lingering sense of disharmony in his heart, and got the topic back on track: "So... what about the key you mentioned at the beginning? What about the keyhole behind Alice? These are not your arrangements?"

"I don't know what the 'keyhole' you're talking about is, but if the key you're talking about is a brass clockwork key, then it's indeed the one I left for the city-state governor, and it's also the necessary item for normal entry into this room that I just mentioned to you," Lenora said calmly, and then changed the subject, "But I'm not the creator of that key, nor am I its first owner."

Duncan was stunned for a moment, his eyes changed slightly: "...You are not the first holder of the key? Then where did you get it from?"

"It was given by a friend," Leigh Nora said frankly, "an old man with profound knowledge and a kind attitude."