The sudden sound from the black wood sculpture startled Duncan for a moment. He had not expected that on the Lost Homeland, which seemed like a mysterious illusion, this strange goat head would suddenly "come alive". He subconsciously stared at the slowly moving "wood sculpture" and became alert. Then, he realized something:
The other party seems unable to "see" himself.
Because at this moment he was just using the connection established by the spiritual flame to "peek" into the depths of the giant vine, and only his own thoughts were transmitted here. He did not really project his power here, and naturally did not condense a form here.
So the "goat head" on the table should have just sensed the breath - and now, it began to look for the location of this breath.
The disturbing black wooden sculpture slowly turned, and a slight creaking sound came from the wooden base. In the dead silence of the Lost Homeland, in the dead silence of the captain's room, the creaking sound seemed even more eerie. The pair of black eyes carved from obsidian swept across the direction where Duncan was looking several times. After a long time, it finally stopped and uttered a puzzled voice: "Who... is..."
Its voice is slow and low, like a dream talk.
Duncan immediately noticed something was wrong from the other party's reaction - this "goat head" seemed to have sensed something, but it didn't recognize that it was the breath of the "captain"? !
After a moment of solemnity and thought, Duncan made a plan.
The connection established by the flame was instantly strengthened, and the power was transmitted here through the flame. Duncan began to "lean" his will toward this strange space filled with darkness and fog, and quickly condensed his own form here.
He wanted to figure out what was going on with this ship, the Lost Homeland, sailing in the fog, and this strange "goat head" in front of him.
On the Lost Homeland, which was sailing in darkness and thick fog, wisps of dark green flames appeared all over the deck. In the dimly lit captain's room, a spiritual fire suddenly appeared in the air, crackling and expanding rapidly, and then quickly outlined a tall figure.
Almost in an instant, Duncan's connection with this strange dark space strengthened, but in the same instant, he felt that this fog-filled space and the "Lost Homeland" under his feet seemed to be stimulated by some kind of... stimulation. Everything around him suddenly became unreal and blurred, and a belated sense of rejection surged from all directions, as if the dark fog was resisting his flames, or... this strange place itself was rapidly disintegrating.
This sudden feeling of rejection caught Duncan off guard - this was the first time he felt this kind of active rejection when using spiritual fire to explore unfamiliar things!
He had used spiritual fire to explore many things in the past, including Alice's coffin, the brass clockwork key, and various supernatural objects seized from cultists, but those things had never shown this kind of reaction.
Could it be that this strange space and the huge "vine" that appeared in the city-state are still alive, and there is a powerful "consciousness" behind them?
Shocking speculations surged rapidly in his mind, but now was obviously not the time to dig into the matter. Duncan didn't know how long he could remain "connected" with this place, so he could only try to maintain his stability while walking towards the goat head next to the navigation table.
The black wooden sculpture also seemed to be awakened from a dream. It suddenly raised its head and looked at Duncan. In its eyes, the dark green flames and the tall figure appeared suddenly, just like a strong light suddenly breaking into a peaceful and dark dream. In the dream that was awakened, it looked at the uninvited guest in front of it in astonishment and uttered a confused voice: "Who are you?"
"It seems you don't know me." Duncan was not surprised at this moment because he had noticed some clues just now. He just tried his best to maintain his connection with this place while quickly sensing the information of the "Lost Homeland" and the situation of the "Goat Head" in front of him. "I am Duncan Abnomer - what's your name?"
"Duncan...ah, I feel a little familiar..." The goat-headed man didn't seem to be fully awake. His voice was like he was in a dream from time to time, and he didn't directly answer Duncan's question, "But I don't remember...why are you here...why are we here..."
Duncan frowned.
He could already feel that this dark space filled with fog was gradually showing signs of falling apart. A strong sense of rejection was trying to expel his flame from here, and the "goat head" in front of him seemed to be in a half-asleep state all the time and could not answer his questions at all.
After a little thought, he took another step forward and pointed to the nautical chart next to the goat's head.
"Where is the Lost Homeland sailing?"
After a second or two, the goat head slowly reacted. It slowly turned its neck and looked at the "nautical" map showing the forest scenery. After a long time, it uttered an indistinct voice: "...Oh, great, they are still there..."
"They?" Duncan asked immediately, "They are..."
However, a sudden violent shaking and a low whistling sound that seemed to suddenly sweep across the entire space interrupted the second half of his sentence.
The rejection of him here reached its peak. Every inch of time and space seemed to be resisting the spread of the spiritual fire. There were slight crackling sounds in the air. The flames seemed to be burning an invisible barrier. All the perceptions transmitted through the flames suddenly became blurred and slow.
Duncan lowered his head and saw that the projection of his avatar was becoming increasingly blurry, and it seemed that his connection with this place was about to be cut off.
He knew that he could forcibly gather even more powerful forces and use the spiritual fire to forcibly maintain this connection - but after realizing that the giant vine was most likely "alive" and even had consciousness, he didn't know whether he should do so.
At this moment, the goat head on the navigation table seemed to finally notice something strange about Duncan.
Its eyes fell on the flickering lights, and after a moment's delay it uttered an inarticulate mutter: "Ah, you frightened her..."
Duncan was stunned when he heard this, and immediately looked up: "Who are you scaring?"
“Silantis…” The goat-head seemed to be falling into a dream-like state again, and its voice became slower and slower. “Silantis doesn’t know you. Your presence…scares her.”
Silantis... the "World Tree" in the ancient legend of the elves? !
Duncan instantly came up with the corresponding information and a lot of conjectures in his mind. However, just when he wanted to ask more questions, he was interrupted by a trance-like feeling that his perception was quickly stripped away and the whole world was quickly fading away. Then, everything in front of him quickly turned dark. The captain's room, the navigation table, and the nautical chart all disappeared in the darkness. Only the vague voice of the goat head, like talking to himself, could be heard faintly in the darkness:
"Ah, time's up—she's waking up."
The next second, the feeling of being back on solid ground suddenly woke Duncan up. He subconsciously took a breath and then opened his eyes.
Alice's face was only ten centimeters away from him.
Duncan was frightened by the silly puppet and stepped back quickly. Alice immediately showed a bright smile and came up to him while shouting, "Captain! Captain! It's almost dawn! Everything seems to be back to normal outside!"
Duncan was about to say something to Alice, but he was stunned after hearing her words. Then he noticed the changes around him.
The dense forests that filled entire blocks are gone, the huge flora that once blended with the surrounding high-rise buildings has now disappeared without a trace, and the street facilities that were once distorted and mutated to become part of the forest have truly returned to their original appearance.
On both sides of the road, the soft light from the gas street lamps was illuminating the surroundings. Above the block, the "sunlight" that diffused from the distant coast passed over the city-state like a curtain. In the gaps in the sunlight, the outline of the Creation of the World had gradually become dim, and at the end of the sky, a little morning glow before the rise of Vision 001 seemed to be spreading in the clouds.
Duncan blinked and subconsciously looked towards the ramp deeper in the block.
He remembered that there had been a huge vine spreading over the slope, and that his own flames had penetrated deep into that vine.
There's nothing there.
Just like the state of the entire block - everything has returned to normal.
As the sun gradually rose, as the night ended and the day began, the huge and strange phenomenon... dissipated in the morning light like a waking dream.
Duncan felt as if he was standing on the border of a bizarre dream. The misplaced reality and the remaining memories in his mind made everything in front of him seem unreal.
But this trance only lasted for a moment, he soon woke up and immediately looked back in the direction of Crown Street.
His perception spread toward that direction, and those familiar "marks" appeared in his "vision".
Nina, Shirley, Maurice...
Their breath returned to the real world.
The puppet head in Alice's arms suddenly moved, and the maid puppet's mouth opened and closed, making Lucrecia's voice: "Dad, we seem to..."
"I know you're all back and the neighborhood is back to normal."
Duncan spoke quickly, and in the corner of his eye, he could already see sparse figures appearing on the street - they were local residents who went out after daybreak.
They were sweeping the streets, chatting outside their doors, rushing to work, and talking about yesterday's news and today's weather.
No one seemed to know what had happened last night—even though just a few hours earlier, all the people moving around the block had literally disappeared into the night.
Now, they are back too.
The street scene before my eyes, which was gradually reviving and becoming lively, seemed to be gradually shrouded in an indescribable sense of weirdness.