Lucretia came to Duncan with the scary and weird rabbit doll. She sat down on the sofa next to Duncan, while Rabbi carefully walked to the side of the sofa and sat down on the ground with a plop.

“I have sent the ‘saint’ to the containment room of the Brilliant Star, where there are sealing facilities specifically designed to deal with various border and spirit world pollutants. He will slowly recover there until he can meet your ‘ritual’ needs.

"The surviving 'sacrifices' have now been placed in the city-state's rescue center. I have said hello to Sarah Meier. Breeze Harbor will take good care of those people and send them back home as much as possible... Some of them have lost their sanity and memory and can't tell where their home is. Psychiatrists will step in to provide help later.

"According to your instructions, I left the 'artificial beacon' on that ship. You should be able to sense the status of the ship through the beacon now...

"In addition, I counted the supplies that can still be used on the ship. There are a lot of them. If there is a chance, we can transport them back later - it will be a rich booty. Anyway, a ghost ship that sails on its own will definitely not need any fuel and mechanical spare parts..."

Lucrecia reported the situation to Duncan one by one, in a clear and well-organized manner.

Obviously, she is very familiar with these "aftermath" work.

"Well," Duncan nodded with satisfaction, not sparing his praise, "Well done."

Lucrecia opened her mouth and suddenly seemed hesitant.

Duncan noticed this: "Anything else?"

"...I told my brother what happened here, and he asked if we need a fleet," Lucrecia said. "Considering that the Annihilation Cult's 'nest' may be a sea fortress that has been operating for centuries or even longer, and is located in the border fog, a real 'attack' may be needed next. He said that if necessary, he could send the Sea Mist Fleet."

"That's not necessary," Duncan thought about it seriously and shook his head, "At least not now. We don't know what the nest looks like yet. If we rashly expand the scale of the operation, it might not be worth the effort... Let's first find out the situation in the fog."

"Okay." Lucrecia nodded.

Just then, a presence suddenly appearing outside the house interrupted the conversation in the living room.

Lucrecia frowned and looked towards the entrance, and almost in the next second, the doorbell rang from that direction.

Luni, who was standing in the corner of the living room waiting, immediately stood up and walked towards the door. Lucrecia quickly ordered: "Don't subscribe to newspapers, don't buy insurance, don't take lottery tickets, and don't fill out community surveys. If anyone claims to be a community fundraiser, just drive them away. There was an announcement last month that they are a bunch of scammers. I really don't understand why anyone dares to come here until now..."

"Madam," Luni returned to the living room before Lucrecia finished speaking, "It's the Keeper of Truth."

Lucrecia: “…Uh?”

While she was stunned, a helpless voice came from the front door: "I know Miss Witch doesn't like people visiting her, but this time the situation is indeed special - there is an invitation from the Four Gods Church to convey to your father."

Along with this somewhat tired and helpless voice, Ted Lear had already stepped into the living room. The complexion of this "Truth Keeper" was the same as always, and there was an aura around him that was as if he had been working overtime for a month without a break.

"Normally, others would not dare to approach your 'Witch House'. Taran El had a lumbar problem today and couldn't get up, so I had to come here in person."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ted Riel noticed Duncan sitting on the sofa, and a smile appeared on his face: "Good day, Captain."

"Taran El can finally lie down for a few days," Lucrecia said casually after hearing the news brought by Ted, "I even think this is a good thing."

"Not to me, I lost three solas for it," Ted Riel said with regret. "I made a bet with several colleagues in the academy on which part of Taran's body would get sick next, and I lost badly... By the way, I bet on hemorrhoids."

Lucrecia's expression was a little subtle: "You guys are so boring..."

Ted Lear shrugged. "But I've been right a few times before."

Morris, who was sitting on the sofa, stood up and greeted the "Truth Keeper": "Ted, are you recovered?"

"It's just a little stomach upset - the impact on me is not as great as the thesis that those kids rushed out overnight," Ted Riel waved his hand, and then his eyes involuntarily stayed on Morris. He looked at the latter in confusion and astonishment for several seconds before finally speaking with a subtle expression, "We met in a hurry and didn't have time to observe. Morris, your..."

He suddenly stopped, hesitated for a moment, seemed to understand something, and let out a light breath.

"Nothing, I look pretty energetic."

"Really? I also think I'm in a good state now - my daughter is a psychiatrist, and she also thinks my mentality is very healthy." Morris smiled, his eyes behind the monocle as bright as ever, and his smile was gentle and elegant.

Only saints and scholars with extremely high spiritual talents can sense from his smile, eyes and voice the extremely subtle madness and noise that has long deviated from human reason.

Ted Lill's eyes left Morris and fell on Duncan.

Many, many years ago, he had been friends with the greatest explorer in history.

For an elf, establishing friendship with humans is something that requires great caution and sufficient psychological preparation.

But Ted Lear could never have imagined at that time that his psychological preparation was completely going in the wrong direction - what he should worry about was not saying goodbye to short-lived humans, but reuniting with an immortal warp shadow.

Fortunately, the light of humanity still shines in this shadow - although that light is filled with many truths that he dare not peek into, and echoes many noises that he dare not listen to.

"I was just discussing the Four Gods Church with Morris," Duncan took the initiative to speak, "I knew there would be a gathering, but I didn't expect the official news to come so soon."

Ted Riel was silent for a moment, then he took out a letter sealed with an exquisite wax seal from his arms, placed it on the coffee table, and pushed it towards Duncan.

"I'm not sure if you care about the 'invitation letter', but the Academy Ark asked me to give it to you," he said. "It already has the signature of the Four Gods Pope. You can regard this as the first official and formal gesture of goodwill from the Four Gods Church to the Lost Home Fleet."

Duncan's eyes fell on the beautifully sealed letter. He reached out to open it and took out the special "invitation letter" from it.

On the hard cardboard, it was written in beautiful handwriting that the Four Gods Church would hold a "special closed-door meeting" and an invitation to the "Lord of the Lost Fleet" and "Great Explorer Captain Duncan." The content itself was nothing special, but the four shining signatures at the end of the invitation letter strongly attracted Duncan's attention.

They are as dazzling as arcs burning in the darkness -

Rahm Tarek

Gemona Bartok

Duncan looked at these names calmly and was not surprised at all.

"It says here that the meeting will be held tomorrow—so soon?" he remarked casually as he put away the invitation.

"Yes, at least judging from His Majesty Rune's attitude, the sooner this rally is held, the better," Ted Lill nodded. "Before noon tomorrow, the fleets of the Four Gods Church will arrive near Breeze Harbor one after another, and all the pilgrimage arks will appear - it will be a grand event."

Duncan was stunned when he heard this, while Morris next to him exclaimed subconsciously: "Ah? You mean, the rally will be held in the real world, and the four popes will gather here?"

"Yes, I also thought at first that this would be a 'meeting' held through psychic resonance, just like the gatherings held by the Pope and the saints in the past. But I didn't expect the meeting to be held in the real world, and I didn't expect it... to be held tomorrow."

"For such an important 'closed-door meeting', this is almost equivalent to no preparation process, and the voyage of the pilgrimage ark itself also takes time..." Duncan was thoughtful, as if he had thought of something, "So, the most reasonable answer is that the four pilgrimage arks had been moved to the vicinity of the southern border long before today - even before the Breeze Harbor incident, the Four Gods Church may have already had a gathering plan, and the Breeze Harbor situation was just an unexpected opportunity, allowing them to arrange the gathering here, tomorrow?"

"It seems to be so."

"…Has something happened recently? Is it related to the church's frequent activities in the border waters in recent times, and the fleets that have been assembled near the 'Eternal Curtain'?"

"I know what you said, but I don't know the details."

Duncan was a little surprised: "Even you, the keeper of the truth, don't know these things?"

"I really don't know," Ted Riel shook his head. "The Truth Keepers are like the Inquisitors, Gatekeepers, and Fire Keepers. Although they are the highest church representatives of the city-state, we only know the affairs of the city-state. The four pilgrimage arks are actually operating independently of the entire church system. The four popes directly command those arks. All 'secrets' will be sealed inside the ark fleet and will not interact with the city-state or the church operations between city-states, especially... those more dangerous secrets."

He raised his head and looked Duncan seriously in the eyes.

“It’s a necessary safety measure.”