The empty, cold, and stagnant projections of the stars passed rapidly at the edge of the field of vision. The navigation host, Alice, was calculating the return route. Shirley, who had returned to human form, and Agou were staring at the floating lights and shadows outside the flames in a trance, and they were silent for a long time.

After a long time, Duncan's voice suddenly reached her ears: "What are you thinking about?"

Shirley was startled, then she blinked her eyes that were filled with blood-red light, representing the Deep Devil, and muttered softly, "It just suddenly occurred to me... I always thought that the Deep Lord was a terrible evil god... out of control and crazy, very bad..."

Duncan looked at Shirley for a few seconds, then looked away: "If you were to face him alone today, the situation would be just as you said. Your mind would not be able to understand and process his voice, and you would see his out-of-control and crazy side - the same is true for other 'gods'. In the final analysis, the Deep Lord you 'observed' today was actually from my perspective."

"Yes, I know - Agou explained this to me before, after your meeting with the Four Gods Pope. Cognitive shift... right."

Duncan nodded and didn't speak for a while. After more than ten seconds, he suddenly said, "Do you think I should accept the invitation from the Lord of the Deep?"

Shirley was stunned for a moment, seemingly unable to react: "...Ah?"

Duncan just looked at her gently. "If I accept, then what you expect can be realized almost immediately - there will be no more demons running out to hurt people, no one disappearing in the corner, the sun can rise and set every day, and the thick fog will not eat people. The world you expect can allow more people to live more safely, as long as I take over the shelter.

"Perhaps it will be a thousand years, or ten thousand years, or even longer. After I take over this world, every city-state will be as safe as Plande and Frost are now. Even the nights will be peaceful. As long as my flames are still burning, this vast sea will be able to maintain this peaceful appearance until all resources are exhausted and the shelter reaches the lifespan limit originally designed... That is the true lifespan limit that the Lord of the Deep once planned but failed to achieve."

Shirley was silent for a moment, then whispered, "And then... everyone will still die, right?"

Duncan looked at her calmly: "But that will be a long time later. Even if you can live forever like an ordinary deep demon, you should have no regrets by then."

Shirley was quiet for longer this time, as if she was thinking hard and seriously, while Agou stayed quietly beside her, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

"Actually..." After a long while, Shirley finally broke the silence, "Actually, I really don't understand. I think the plan of the Lord of the Deep is already very good. A safe shelter, even if it is not eternal, but at least it is safe. I... don't have such high aspirations, but being able to live peacefully and steadily in this way for the last time, isn't it enough? After all... there is nowhere else to go."

"Yes, there is nowhere else to go," Duncan said softly, "because this world will always have only this vast ocean, these cities floating on the ocean, and this small piece of living land in the fog... But Shirley, the real 'world' shouldn't be like this. It's just... a narrow paper box."

Shirley seemed to understand what was going on, and with the slight shaking of the chain, Agou suddenly broke the silence: "Like you said, this small box is not enough to hold more 'possibilities', right?"

"It's too narrow. The boundless sea blocked by fog is very narrow, and the 'service life' of thousands or tens of thousands of years is also very narrow. For the countless civilizations destroyed in the Great Annihilation, this small box is only enough to stuff a small part of their replicas inside, and the limited service life of the shelter is not even enough for them to repair their lost history...

"This is not a 'new home', do you understand? If the 'world' before the Great Annihilation was a myriad of lush forests, then today's Infinite Ocean is just a small potted plant. The result of the first three long nights is just to plant a few surviving flowers and plants in it, and then pretend that the forest still exists - but the fact is that no matter how much water and fertilizer are given, it will never become a forest, and it will never become a forest. And it only takes a small mistake, and even this flowerpot will no longer exist."

"So, you rejected His plan because you saw that it had no future," Agou said slowly, "You actually already know another solution, right?"

Duncan didn't say anything, just lowered his head and looked at his hands quietly.

He blinked, and in the instant his eyelids closed, in the first 0.002 seconds before darkness fell, he saw stars twinkling, magnificent galaxies shining in the deep space, and huge nebulae like a gorgeous curtain, stretching between the stars.

Even though he had left the cave, he could still see those "different scenery" within the first 0.002 seconds of each blink.

Duncan knew that he was undergoing some kind of change, and the appearance of those things that were originally hidden in his vision was only a part of this change. As for when exactly this change began... he was not sure.

But he knew that as long as he continued to seek the truth and try to uncover the secrets of himself, this change would continue to occur, continue to develop, and continue to accelerate...

He didn't know if he was ready or not, but he knew that there was no time to prepare himself. Just like Navigator No. 1 said, there was no time left for either him or the world.

The phantom of distant starlight reaches the end...

A field of blooming flowers bloomed violently in the illusion. The short baton in Lucrecia's hand fell gently, and a few crisp notes burst out from the flowers. Several fear demons covered by the sea of ​​flowers turned into drifting ashes silently.

There was a hissing sound of pressurized pipes and a loud noise of metal colliding beside him. Morris punched away the Deep Hound that pounced on him and shook his head helplessly: "These demons have no respect for knowledge and wisdom... Fortunately, I still know a little bit of fighting."

"The number of demons is increasing," Lucrecia said solemnly, looking at the black door that was still expanding and shrinking. A rare trace of fatigue appeared on her face. "This rift is expanding. More and more demons are paying attention to this place. The whole island is sinking into the deep sea."

"The captain should be back soon," Morris muttered, and the unique metallic resonance of the reed vibrating in his throat could be heard. "From the noise above, if the captain doesn't come back, Vanna will probably smash the whole valley through."

Lucrecia frowned, listened attentively to the low, muffled sound coming from the dome of the cave, and shook her head slightly: "This is unlikely to be the noise made by Miss Vanna. It is more like the sound made by this holy island itself... It is about to be 'woken up' again."

Morris opened his mouth when he heard this, but before he could say anything, a dazzling green flame suddenly rose from the expanding and shrinking black door!

In the blink of an eye, flames burst out from the gate and formed a rotating flaming door in the open space of the cave. Then several figures stepped out of the gate, accompanied by the captain's familiar and majestic voice: "Yes, this place is about to wake up again - notify everyone to evacuate the Holy Island, our work is done."

Lucrecia was surprised at first, but then she reacted and nodded without even bothering to greet him: "Okay, Dad!"

Before she finished speaking, she had already begun to quickly gather her toy soldiers. After greeting the captain, Morris immediately saw Shirley and Agou standing next to the captain. He saw Shirley's blood-red eyes that were the same as those of the deep devil, and immediately widened his eyes slightly: "Shirley, what is this..."

Shirley's eyes were even wider than Morris's. She stared blankly at the great scholar in front of her who was in the "casting" state. After a long while, she uttered, "Grandpa, why did you turn into copper?"

Duncan also looked at Morris with some surprise, and nodded subtly: "... a very unique shape."

Morris then realized that he was still in the casting form. He quickly concentrated his mind, silently chanted Lahem's prayer, and cast a divine spell to reverse his state. The texture of the copper shell quickly faded from his body, and his flesh and blood replaced the gears, bearings, pumps and copper pipes in an incredible way. A pair of ruby ​​focusers faded from his eye sockets, and human eyeballs grew out of his eye sockets. He blinked and took out the delicate and complex brass mechanism from his body. Then he smiled and nodded: "...the power of knowledge."

Shirley looked confused: "...When you and the captain taught me, you didn't tell me that the power of knowledge meant this, right?"

In such a short period of time, the girl finally completely re-understood the two concepts of "knowledge changes destiny" and "the power of knowledge" - she will probably never forget them in her life.

At this moment, another strange whistling and muttering sound suddenly appeared in the cave.

The black door that kept rising and falling and wriggling became restless again, and new demons began to enter the real world through this crack. Hideous and bony skeletons and countless hands, feet, and tentacles squeezed out from the wriggling surface and crawled towards the cave!

Lucrecia subconsciously raised the short baton in her hand, but before she could do anything, Duncan waved at the door: "Go back."

The hideous and bony skeletons and countless limbs, feet, and tentacles began to rush back into the gate in a hurry and chaos.

"Close the door by the way." Duncan added.

The expanding, contracting, and squirming "black gate" gradually began to calm down.

Lucrecia: “…”

Duncan turned around and waved to the "Sea Witch" to bring her back to her senses: "Let's go, we still have a lot of things to do."