All known history of this world began with the "Great Annihilation" in ancient times.

If the "Great Annihilation" is regarded as a barrier, then this invisible barrier is obviously not a simple "event node", but in fact "cuts" the entire historical time flow.

Everything before the Great Extinction is unknown. Archaeologists have exhausted all their wisdom and efforts, but are unable to restore any information before that time point. There are not even any historical relics in the world that can point to the time before the Great Extinction - not even a piece of stone with words engraved on it.

This "Black Wall" of despair has stood in the eyes of scholars for ten thousand years, and now Captain Duncan, who has returned from the Warp, has given this wall an apt name.

As the leader of the Academy of Truth and the Pope of the God of Wisdom, Rune understood more deeply than anyone the existence of the black wall and the subtlety of the term "visual limit".

"Our world seems to have been 'created out of thin air' at a certain moment after the Great Oblivion. The fragmented and contradictory history is just an ironclad proof of the existence of the 'horizon limit'," Rune said with emotion in front of his three old friends. "Since the rise of the city-state, or even since the Dark Ages, countless scholars have tried to trace back to the past, trying to find the 'source' before the Great Oblivion. They are like drilling deep into the dark earth, but in the end they are all blocked by the invisible barrier.

"One second, even the one second before the Great Annihilation, is blank and unverifiable. Even the 'three long nights' mentioned in the 'blasphemous book' that Captain Duncan got from the Annihilation Cult only describes the period from the Great Annihilation to the establishment of the ancient Kingdom of Crete. There is still no information before the 'limit of the event horizon'."

"It is very dangerous to use the heresies of cultists as reference material." Death Pope Banster couldn't help but remind him.

Rune shook his head slightly. "The danger of heresy lies in its deception and motivation to lead people to do evil. Apart from these influences, the Three Long Nights itself is still a topic worth studying. We have made many achievements in the dark ages after the collapse of the ancient Kingdom of Crete, which are based on the research on the Sun Cult and the Annihilation Cult."

"...In short, what you mean is that you can't explain the 'Leviathan' under the city-state, and the Leviathan beasts carrying the church ark can't give us an answer either," Frame broke the silence, "because this event happened before the Great Annihilation, and all the information pointing to it is unknowable, unmeasurable, and unprovable."

Rune said nothing, which was considered as his agreement with Frame's words.

Helena thought for a moment and suddenly said, "But you can at least tell us where the Academy of Truth found the four Leviathans. At least the beasts carrying the four church arks were indeed discovered and 'resurrected' by you, right?"

"...They came from the border, after a large-scale 'border collapse'," Rune finally had a clear answer this time, "The specific location... is near the Eternal Curtain in the eastern sea."

"Eastern Waters?" Banster frowned subconsciously.

"Yes, it is near the former site of the Thirteen Islands of Veselan," Rune nodded. "Since the terrible warp disaster a century ago, the Eastern Eternal Curtain has always been a vulnerable node. The thick fog there often collapses inwards, or temporary anomalies appear in the sea. You should also know this."

Helena and Frame nodded silently, and Banster looked thoughtful, but they did not interrupt Rune, but motioned for him to continue.

"When the Academy of Truth was responsible for patrolling the border, one of our ships encountered an unusual situation there," Rune continued as he sorted out his memories. "The specific circumstances are no longer verifiable, because the crew of that ship suffered from severe cognitive confusion and memory loss during the incident, and were unable to accurately describe their experiences during the incident afterwards. However, there was a hastily written log on the ship that recorded part of the situation at the time -

"The sea suddenly sank inward, like a strange bowl. The edge of the 'bowl' was smooth and calm, and the water seemed to have solidified. However, the ship did not fall with the sunken sea, but floated above the sunken sea area... The ship lost power and could not move forward or backward. It was suspended in the air hundreds of meters above the sea in a terrifying way... A huge creature emerged from the sunken sea area, like some kind of creature...

"The above is a record hastily written by a crew member on that ship before his cognitive confusion and memory loss.

"Later, another fleet of ours found the missing patrol boat. It was drifting slowly out of a mist, with no power, a cold steam core, and everyone on board sleeping. Behind the boat, in the depths of the gradually dissipating mist, four huge monsters appeared in the sight of the search and rescue personnel.

“That’s the Leviathan we found at sea—the behemoth recorded in the Storm Codex that has long disappeared in the long river of history, the apostle of the Storm Goddess.

"You all know what happened next. The Academy of Truth found a way to 'resurrect' those legendary beasts and built huge church arks on them, which were then handed over to the Church of the Four Gods for use."

Rune finished his story. Frame and Banster were still thinking, but Helena gradually frowned: "Those Leviathans are actually one of the border relics... No wonder you have been avoiding talking about these details before. It turns out that it is related to the collapse of the border."

"The knowledge of border collapse will increase the probability of border collapse occurring within the civilized world. The closer the time, the higher the probability. This is a law summarized by Captain Duncan Abnomer when he was still a great explorer a century ago." Rune nodded. "But now it has been several decades since the border collapse incident when the Academy of Truth discovered Leviathan. It is not so dangerous to mention these things again."

"...I'm a little confused," Frame suddenly said, "Although the church ark is large, it is obviously not on the same level as the city-state. If the biological structure at the bottom of the city-state is really a Leviathan, then their volume is several times the size of the church ark Leviathan... Are they really the same species?"

"Who knows?" Rune spread his hands. "Perhaps the four Leviathans we found at the border are just some kind of 'small individuals'? Or 'juveniles'?"

"...Theoretically, this shouldn't be the case," Helena shook her head. "I often communicate with the Leviathan in the Cathedral Ark. Although it doesn't know what happened before the Great Annihilation and the truth at the bottom of the city-state, it once clearly stated that it is an adult Leviathan."

"The problem lies with the biological tissues at the bottom of the city-states. Perhaps they are 'mutated individuals' of an exceptionally large scale, or perhaps... they are related to the influence of the 'blueprints' in the deep sea," Rune speculated. "After all, if the information from the Lost Hometown is true, then all the city-states on the vast sea can actually be regarded as the 'creations' of the ancient gods. Even the biological structures at the bottom of the city-states may be the result of 'secondary processing' by the Lord of the Deep..."

Having said this, Rune suddenly stopped, then shook his head in self-mockery, and brushed his hands across his eyes, making a gesture of praying to the god of wisdom, Lahem: "May God forgive me, it feels so strange to talk about these heretical remarks."

"May God forgive me."

Helena and Frame also made prayer gestures and confessed to the Storm Goddess and the Eternal Flame behind them.

As the leaders of the church, they can look at these topics that are on the verge of taboos or even heresy from a higher perspective, and can analyze the information from heretics with a calmer attitude and a more practical angle. However, as the spokespersons of the Four Gods, they also abide by the teachings of their respective sects and are bound by their beliefs. When discussing certain dangerous topics, the disharmony and resistance in their hearts are inevitable.

Only Banster, the representative of the God of Death, who was tall, thin and old, remained silent, as if he had been lost in thought since just now.

"Banster," Rune focused his attention on the silent spokesperson for the god of death, "You seem absent-minded from the beginning."

"I'm thinking about a question, Rune," Banster finally raised his head, his sunken eye sockets as deep as the night, "The Thirteen Islands of Veselan - the place where those Leviathans were found was near the sea area of ​​the Veselan Thirteen Islands incident. Don't you think this is worthy of attention?"

Rune nodded calmly, obviously having expected Banster's attention to fall on this detail.

"I know what you want to say - the Lost Homeland," the old elf said slowly, "A hundred years ago, the Lost Homeland opened a gate to the subspace on the Thirteen Islands of Veselan, dragging all the islands and residents into the depths of a terrifying world. This incident also caused the space-time structure of the entire sea area to become extremely fragile, and strange phenomena occurred frequently... From this point of view, the incident that the patrol ship of the Academy of Truth encountered decades ago is causally related to the Veselan Thirteen Islands incident."

At this point he paused, raised his head and looked at Banster seriously, and continued, "But we can't simply conclude that it was the Lost Homeland that sent the Leviathan into the real world. There is a lack of evidence and sufficient theoretical support."

"But it is possible that the four Leviathans entered our real world due to some kind of follow-up effect of the Veselan Thirteen Islands incident. Rune, this matter was actually risky from the beginning."

"...You don't want the church ark anymore?"

"want."