The sound of hurried footsteps broke the tranquility inside the church. A middle-aged priest wearing a dark blue robe with gold patterns walked through the long corridor like a gust of wind. Under the silent gaze of many sages on the murals on both sides, he came to the door of the prayer room. But before he knocked on the door, a gentle female voice came from inside the door: "Come in."

The middle-aged priest pushed open the door and saw a figure standing in front of the statue of the Goddess of Storms. Helena was wearing a simple priest's dress and robes, with aquamarine beads wrapped around her wrists. She seemed to be praying devoutly until the last second. She did not turn around when she heard the door being pushed open behind her, but continued to stare at the statue of the Goddess of Storms with a veil on her face, and whispered, "What's the situation outside now?"

"Dusk is still going on. The sun is still in its original position, maintaining its 'normal' brightness and shape," the middle-aged priest immediately reported, "Order in the city-state is still good. Since the current situation is unclear, most citizens have returned home to await further instructions. There are no abnormalities anywhere on the Ark. Four teams of technical priests are on standby near the steam boilers."

Helena nodded slightly, as if she was thinking about something quietly. After a moment, she suddenly asked, "What about the other arks?"

"We just made contact a few minutes ago. Everything is normal on the Ark. The Academy Ark said that their observation equipment received a series of repeated signals from the direction of the sun. The content of the signals was different from the previous ones. After being converted into sound, it was a sharp and short noise..."

Helena hummed, and then stopped talking. She just continued to stare at the statue of the goddess quietly. For a moment, she seemed to have forgotten the middle-aged priest who was still waiting for instructions. It was not until a few minutes later that she spoke softly to herself: "The long dusk..."

Taran El frowned as he looked at the information that his apprentice had just handed to him. On the long paper tape automatically recorded by the machine were a large number of curves and seemingly irregular holes that would dazzle ordinary people. These data that looked like a heavenly book showed the current state of "Vision 001 - Sun" that had been shining and protecting the world for a long time.

After a long time, the elf scholar finally put down the paper tape in his hand, rubbed his temple tiredly, and did not speak for a long time.

A calm voice came from the side: "Tell me about the current situation, Taran."

Taran El looked up and saw Ted Riel standing next to the bookshelf. This keeper of the truth was wearing an academic robe, but underneath the robe one could see close-fitting soft armor and weapon buckles. He seemed to be standing there calmly, but his eyes were as sharp as a soldier about to go to the battlefield.

"...The sun is flickering. Although the naked eye cannot tell, it is indeed flickering. And it is not a regular 'signal', but more like a...poorly functioning electric light." Taran El pursed his dry lips and pushed the information in front of him aside. "In addition, the latest tracking records show that it is not completely still on the horizon, but is still moving, but...very, very slowly, so slowly that it cannot be detected by the naked eye."

Ted Lear was silent for two or three seconds: "...How slow?"

"If the current speed remains unchanged, it will fall below the horizon in about seventy-two hours," Taran El said, reaching for the water cup beside him but almost knocking it over. He hastily grabbed the cup and took two gulps of the already cold tea. His expression improved a little. "But the worst thing is not the dusk that will last for the next seventy-two hours, but what will happen after dusk, Ted, you know what I mean."

"...The night is longer than dusk," Ted Lill's expression suddenly became serious. He certainly understood what his friend meant. "If it continues at this speed, how long will the next night last?"

Taran El did not answer. He just put down his teacup and stared at the papers in front of him, as if he wanted to see the future of the world from those papers, or to dig out the secret of an enemy from the papers. After a long time, he finally smiled bitterly and opened his hands to Ted.

"...I will arrange for the knowledge guards to be prepared," Ted Riel looked at his friend in front of him quietly for a moment, and nodded gently, "We have a plan for continuous missions after accidentally falling into long-term darkness. The 'luminous falling object' next to Breeze Harbor will also provide basic shelter in the night, so the situation will not be too bad."

"Yes, the situation in Breeze Harbor will not be too bad - other city-states may not be." After a moment of silence, Taran El sighed softly, "Unlike the previous situation when the sun went out, the city-states directly 'skipped time'. This time we are facing the sun slowing down. All city-states are experiencing this world-class phenomenon... I don't know how they will face the long night ahead."

"Every city-state has a survival plan for extreme situations, but how well they can do it is another matter... We can only hope that the Four Gods will protect them."

Ted said in a low voice, then shook his head and picked up the thick book that recorded many miracles in his hand, as if he was going to open a passage to leave here, but he suddenly hesitated, put the book away again, sighed, and turned to the door.

Taran quietly watched the back of the keeper of the truth, as if he was watching a soldier about to go to the battlefield. He did not retract his gaze until the other's figure disappeared in front of the gate. He then swept his eyes over the information that he had just pushed aside.

At the end of one of the pages, a line of records left by the observer was written with a slightly trembling hand:

〖…According to the current calculation…it will be 72 hours until sunset…〗

Outside the floor-to-ceiling window, the golden sunset still permeates and covers the roofs of the city-state, magnificent and glorious.

Then, he heard the illusory sound of a bell.

The bells sounded quickly and regularly, as if calling everyone who heard them, calling people to come and listen to the announcement before nightfall.

Deep inside Plande Cathedral, Archbishop Valentine, who was discussing with Archon Dante Wayne how to deal with the solar anomaly, suddenly stopped and listened attentively to the sudden sound of the bell.

Archon Dent, who was sitting opposite Valentine, immediately raised his head and said, "Your Excellency the Bishop? What happened?"

Valentine waved his hand gently, and after a slight hesitation, he replied, "It's Xun Zhong."

"Swift Bell?" Dante's expression changed slightly. Although he was not a clergyman of the church, he knew a lot about the church because of Vanna. Naturally, he knew what the "Swift Bell" was. "Then..."

However, Valentine shook his head: "No, let's continue, Mr. Archon."

"...Are you not going to respond to the call of the Swift Bell?"

"Don't respond," Valentine said slowly, as if he recalled many things in an instant, but finally shook his head, "This is an order."

Do not answer the bell, do not answer the tomb of the nameless king, do not answer the call of the gravekeeper -

The bells still kept repeating. In every city-state, every church, every ship, and in the minds of every priest who believed in the Four Gods, the rapid and repetitive bells rang again and again.

The priests all stopped what they were doing the moment the bell rang, but after a brief pause, everyone returned to their busy work - continuing to receive and comfort believers who came to seek help, continuing to maintain the holy vessels, maintaining the church, and continuing to prepare blessings for the soldiers in preparation for the potentially very long night that was to come.

The sound of the bell was like the wind in one's ear and the waves in the distance, echoing in a distant place, but no priest responded to its call...

And in that distant other dimension, in the ancient assembly ground shrouded in darkness and chaos, the last group of ascetics stationed there were quietly gazing at the center of the square.

Huge and towering stone pillars surrounded the assembly hall. Chaotic streams of light flashed in the gloomy sky. An ancient and pale pyramid mausoleum rose from the center of the square. In the center of the desolate and deserted assembly hall, the gravekeeper, whose body was wrapped in bandages and seemed to be forever between life and death, walked out and stood in the empty and deserted assembly hall.

However, unlike thousands of years in the past, there are no saints standing here anymore. The gravekeepers hold paper and pen in their hands, but no one comes to listen to the news from the tomb.

The ascetics stood at a safe distance away from the center of the square. Their bodies were covered with rune tattoos symbolizing the blessings of the four gods. Their eyes and ears were sealed by spells. They sensed the situation in the tomb through miracles bestowed by God to avoid directly seeing the figure of the gravekeeper and hearing his voice.

The gravekeeper in front of the mausoleum took a few steps outward. A huge shadow grew from behind him. Unspeakable limbs and twisted things spread outward along his footsteps like undulating mud. He came to the ascetics and handed them parchment. Trembling eyeballs kept emerging on the parchment. He opened his rotten and deformed mouth and called out to the ascetic vigilants.

His voice sounded like ten thousand blasphemous and polluted curses, and every tremor carried the power to pierce people's hearts and destroy reason.

The ascetic sentinels just stood quietly outside the mausoleum, like sculptures, silently "watching" the guards of the mausoleum.

I can't make any response or communicate, but I can't leave this post either.

The invisible and strange wriggling shadows slowly calmed down. After a long confrontation, the gravekeeper lowered his head, staring at the parchment in his hand with cloudy eyes. He was silent for a long time, and finally turned around slowly and walked towards the direction of the mausoleum.

Layered low whispers came out from the mausoleum; the gravekeeper's whispers and the sounds coming from the mausoleum gradually overlapped.

He was mumbling softly, repeating over and over again—

"It is dusk..."