The figure with short black hair and a white robe passed by him, and the momentary glance when they crossed each other seemed to be just an illusion created by Duncan himself - he saw the other person walking towards the depths of Vision 004, and after passing through a wall, he disappeared silently from his sight.
Doomsday Observers... Doomsday Survey Team...
Duncan couldn't help but be curious about this name, which inevitably evoked all kinds of associations. He turned to look at the tall leader beside him and asked, "What is the mission of these people?"
"Enter the time stream and confirm within a known time frame whether the shelter is operating according to the creator's original blueprint, and confirm the timestamp of the system crash."
The mausoleum guard said calmly, taking a step forward and continuing to lead Duncan deeper into the "Tomb of the Unknown King".
The answer from this "gravekeeper" has already caused some waves in Duncan's heart.
Observers traveling through time, survey teams tracking the end of the world...are they really them?!
Duncan raised his head suddenly, his eyes sweeping across the quaint walls and pillars in the surrounding corridors, and soon thought of another thing: "Where on earth is this place?"
He felt a little strange when he asked this question, because it sounded like he knew the answer but for some reason, he felt that the gravekeeper in front of him should understand his intention.
The gravekeeper's footsteps paused for a moment imperceptibly.
"This is the first Crete Observation Station - and it will also be the last one," a low and calm voice came into Duncan's ears. "A long time ago, there were 1,200 doomsday observation stations of this kind, and we directly control ten of them."
Duncan was stunned for a moment, and suddenly, he recalled a passage he had read before -
"…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 would no longer be countries in the mortal world. The countries were transformed into 1,200 cities. He also let the clan take charge of the first ten cities and named them 'Crete'…"
The stylistic features of Vision 004 were explained - it was indeed a relic left by the ancient Kingdom of Crete, which had been operating for 10,000 years, and was still functioning even until it became a "vision"!
At the same time, what was recorded in the blasphemous book was once again confirmed. The "one thousand two hundred cities" mentioned in the book did exist, but they did not refer to one thousand two hundred city-states, but to one thousand two hundred "Doomsday Observation Stations"!
The personnel called "End Survey Team" set out from here, entered the time stream to monitor the operation of the "Shelter", and determined the "time boundary" when the shelter was running to the limit...
Suddenly, a wide view appeared in the corner of his eye. Duncan was suddenly awakened from his thoughts and looked up at the front with some surprise.
He didn't know when, under the guidance of the "gravekeeper", he had walked through the seemingly endless corridor. After passing through a towering gate, the scene in front of him suddenly opened up - more than open, it was simply not like being inside a "building"!
He saw a square, a square shrouded in a dim sky, which seemed large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people.
The gate of the corridor where Duncan was located was at a high place. There was a sloping stone ramp leading to the edge of the square. The square was covered with huge and flat gray-white stone slabs, and there was a wide walkway crossing it. He also saw some solemn pillars with a slightly metallic luster standing on both sides of the road. There seemed to be more complex structures on the top of the pillars, but they had been weathered and collapsed in the erosion of the long years. All around the square could be seen various collapsed and dilapidated huge structures, as if they had been many gates and pillars. The only intact thing in sight was the huge throne in the square.
The pitch-black throne stood in the center of the square, with its backrest high, as if overlooking everything around it. A chaotic light, as if at dusk, enveloped the sky above the square. Under this dim light, the dilapidated ruins before one's eyes seemed to be shrouded in an almost eternal... loneliness.
For some reason, Duncan felt a sense of desolation in his heart, as if the collapsed and dusty ruins before him brought a heavy atmosphere that touched his heart.
The mausoleum guard in white robes had already passed Duncan. He walked up the downward slope and walked silently towards the ruined square.
Duncan hesitated for a moment, then followed in silence.
They walked down the slope and came to the broad walkway that ran through the entire square. They walked slowly forward between two rows of tall and majestic stone pillars. Duncan's eyes swept around from time to time, looking at the ruins that had once been glorious and majestic but were now collapsed and dilapidated.
Occasionally, visions of the past would appear before his eyes - he would see people in white robes or gray robes appearing outside the stone pillars. They walked hurriedly through the square, or walked towards the abandoned gates on the edge, or gathered in certain places to talk, as if discussing something.
He seemed to be able to imagine what a busy and important place this place had once been - in the days of Genesis, when the "King of Creeping" was still adjusting the blueprint of the new world, and the ancient Kingdom of Crete was still acting as the "assistant" of the Creator to build this world, they gathered here, busy working on the establishment of the shelter and making plans for the development of civilization in the next ten thousand years.
At that time, the Great Annihilation had just ended, and the ruins caused by the world collision were still floating in the world, and the order of all things was born and destroyed every night; at that time, the kings' meetings were held again and again, and the two long nights had failed, but the third long night was beginning to show the dawn; at that time, the troops called "the end survey team" passed through the curtain of time and served as the vanguard to check the boundaries of the shelter - the boundaries in the time dimension; at that time, the endless sea may have just taken shape, and the city-state had not yet been established, and the "sun" had not risen. The first "human beings" were still sleeping in the database of the Creeper King. In the long night, only the lights of the ancient Kingdom of Crete briefly illuminated this chaotic world...
At that time, this place had not yet become Anomaly 004—there were still 1,199 observation stations like it scattered among the ashes of the Great Annihilation, waiting for the moment when the new world would begin.
Now, everything is gone with the wind.
Only this desolate and dilapidated ruin remains, floating in the cracks outside the real world, stirring Duncan's thoughts and endless speculations.
The tall mausoleum guardian walked slowly in front of Duncan, as if strolling in the corridor of time. When another team of end-of-life survey team passed through the stone pillars, he suddenly broke the silence: "They haven't sent any news back for a long time."
"...They're crazy." Duncan said softly.
"oh."
The mausoleum guard nodded and continued to walk slowly forward.
After a while, he spoke as if talking to himself: "In the beginning, they sent back a lot of information - in the first communication cycle after departure, they sent back news about the city-state era, and then the rise and fall of the Far Sea Alliance in the darkness.
"They mentioned the disappearance of the Kingdom of Crete and the appearance of the 'Sun' with joy. The intelligence they sent back contained many bizarre things that did not seem to be designed according to the blueprint. However, in the subsequent calculations of the creators, the appearance of those things seemed inevitable..."
The gravekeeper stopped, looked up at the huge and dark throne in the center of the square, and was silent for a long time before he gently shook his head.
"After that, there was less and less news about them, and sometimes... there were some things that we couldn't understand. They seemed to have dived very deep into the time stream, or walked very far, which was beyond our initial plan...
"Many times, the messages they sent back were inconsistent and out of order, and this became more and more frequent in the later stages. The creators determined that this was normal because the shelter was a limited model - it was centered here, just like a light illuminating the wilderness, and time was the distance the light extended. The farther away, the more the undefined darkness controlled everything... At the boundary of time, if they couldn't find another light, it meant that there was really nothing to report..."
The gravekeeper fell silent for an unknown amount of time before he spoke softly, as if talking to himself, "They haven't sent any news back for a long time..."
Duncan said nothing.
He had already arrived in front of the black throne that seemed to be made for giants. He slowly raised his eyes and looked at the figure on the throne.
A headless body was sitting quietly on the throne, and countless huge cables and pipes were intertwined like blood vessels and nerves extending from the body, connecting the entire body and the countless interfaces and slots on the throne. Some of those interfaces were still flashing faint lights, and some kind of active light was flowing in some pipes, constantly flowing into the body and flowing out of the body.
The moment he saw the headless body on the throne, Duncan's eyes changed slightly. He suddenly recalled the scene that Ted Riel had described to him in the subspace. But what surprised him more and even made him feel a little helpless was a certain... familiarity coming from the body.
He raised his head in astonishment and stared at the body on the throne. After nearly a minute, he could not help but speak: "In the subspace, there is a headless body sitting on a dark throne..."
"That is his shadow," the mausoleum guard said softly, "The creator took away his body, but could only take a part of it - he was torn into pieces, but it was not just his body that was torn apart. His memories, soul, shadow, thoughts, past and future... were all shattered in the second long night. The creator brought this body here, and the shadow remained where he first died."
Duncan turned his head suddenly and looked into the eyes of the mausoleum guard. He felt that the body on the throne was becoming more and more familiar to him, which made him unable to help but ask: "Who is on the throne?"
"Sasloka - the creator used him as a prototype and created the original 'Crete' (create)."