Passing the black "islands" clustered in the surrounding waters, the Lost Homeland and the Brilliant Star gradually approached the "central main island" made of black boulders, which looked like some kind of man-made giant structure.

Around the two ships, a thin mist flowed slowly like some kind of living thing, floating on the nearby sea. The breeze blowing through the mist swept across the deck, carrying faint whispers and layers of mumbling.

Vanna stood on the edge of the deck, looking at the "Black Stone Island" that was gradually enlarging in her field of vision. She unconsciously clenched her hands slowly. The gentle sound of the waves echoed in her mind at some point. In a trance, she seemed to have returned to many years ago, to the time when she first heard the sound of the waves - in the prayer room of the cathedral, in front of the statue of the goddess, she had just completed her baptism, and that gentle voice blew into her heart like a sea breeze:

[“Ah… my little fish… you’re here…”]

Fanna suddenly woke up from her trance. She realized that it was not an illusion. There was really a voice ringing in her heart. Almost at the same time, she saw changes on the dark island - the magnificent "palace" seemed to shake slightly, and countless huge limbs stretched out from every door and window of the palace. The tentacles reached into the air and then hung down into the sea, stirring the sea water and weaving clouds.

Then, the tentacles suddenly disappeared, as if they had retracted into the palace. However, many large and small hazy shadows appeared near the island. They seemed to be gathering ships. Countless swaying figures came ashore from the edge of the island, holding torches and flags, and stepped onto the black boulders like pilgrims, and walked into the temple through two side doors...

Vanna seemed to hear music, the sound of some kind of festive flute and percussion instruments playing together, and scenes of illusions kept appearing and disappearing before her eyes -

She saw the crowds of pilgrims, and then the scene changed to the scene of the craftsmen building the palace. She saw the giant beasts in the sea and the humans on land gathered together to tour the vast coastline. She also saw people in gorgeous clothes lighting lamps on the high platform, and the sky in the distance was gradually swallowed by red light. She saw war, peace, heroes, travelers, and young warriors protecting the crowds to reach the temple, and then falling asleep in the second morning...

She tried to open her eyes wide in the illusion, staring at the huge shadow in the depths of all illusions. She saw the palace built of black and dark green stones open its door to her, and an entity that changed into countless images walked out of it and transformed into the "Quiet Sea Girl" with open arms in front of her: "We have been waiting for a long time..."

A low vibration suddenly came from the depths of the Ark, and Helena opened her eyes from meditation.

There was no main light on in the prayer room. Only a dim oil lamp was burning quietly in front of the holy image. The flickering flame made the surroundings dim, as if many whispering figures were hidden in the light and shadow.

Helena's eyes swept around, and the whispering voices in the darkness gradually disappeared. Then she came to the statue of the goddess and looked at a dark red "pillar" extending from the floor - it was a nerve cord that extended from the bottom of the Ark to here.

“I seemed to hear His voice just now,” she said softly.

"They arrived safely," an old and slow voice came into Helena's ears, "My compatriots... they are jubilant, even the queen is happy."

Helena was a little confused: "Didn't the Sea Song also arrive there?"

"This is different, little girl," the old voice seemed to be smiling, "The Queen has been waiting for this visitor for many years."

"Many years?"

"Yes, since the day the 'sun' rose..."

The Homeless circled the black island for a quarter of a circle and finally found a suitable location for docking and landing in a gap in a huge rock. The sailor carefully controlled the rudder and made the behemoth stop near the coastline. Then, a small boat was lowered from the Homeless, carrying Duncan and others to the island.

"Let's go to the island and take a look. You stay here and don't move." Duncan turned his head and said to the small boat that carried him ashore.

The boat was docked in a small "bay" built of several rectangular black stones. After hearing the captain's order, it immediately shook the bow up and down, making a clattering sound.

Then there was another gust of wind approaching from the sky, and a whirlwind carrying countless colorful pieces of paper flew over from the direction of the Brilliant Star, and circled and landed about ten meters away from Duncan, condensing into the figure of Lucrecia.

Now, everyone has gathered on the island.

There was a solid touch under his feet. The feeling of stepping on land somewhat eliminated the uneasiness that everyone had felt after arriving at the end of the world. Duncan came to a rectangular black stone protruding from the ground and observed the road leading to the palace. Vanna's voice came from the side -

"This is a place of pilgrimage. I saw many people coming here by boat from distant lands, lighting huge bonfires in all directions of the island and decorating the road in front of the temple with flags..."

Recalling what she had seen in the vision, she came to another boulder next to Duncan, raised her hand and pointed to a wide trail made up of continuous stones in front of her.

"This road leads directly to the temple. Pilgrims arrive on the island in the morning. The procession in full dress stretches from the coast to the gate of the palace. This island itself was built by humans. They used a technique that I couldn't understand. They melted and refining stones from the deep sea into this huge stone. They also controlled some summoned giant beasts to build the heavy stones into an island..."

Duncan listened silently to Vanna's description, imagining what this place looked like in those forgotten ancient times. He jumped down from the rectangular black stone and led the team slowly forward - along the "pilgrimage road" that Vanna saw in the vision, towards the temple.

"What else did you see?" Shirley walked beside Vanna and asked curiously, looking up.

"Humans on land coexist with giant beasts in the sea. They regard those huge sea beasts called 'Leviathan' as gods and messengers of gods. However, that is not a pure religious belief, but a... more intimate relationship," Vanna said slowly while sorting out the knowledge that was suddenly "stuffed" into her mind. "They also coexist with many other giant beasts, those in the sky, those underground, those that control mountains and glaciers...

"They signed contracts with all the ancient beings and gained power from those giant beasts. That power was enough to transform rivers, lakes, seas, mountains and land, and to build many incredible miracles... But I don't know how to describe those things in detail. I only saw many trivial fragments and some unfounded knowledge. I couldn't imagine what the scene was like. Those... seemed to be just 'Him's' memories. 'Him' showed those memories to me..."

Vanna suddenly fell silent when she spoke here, and looked towards the palace with a gloomy expression.

“…His condition was very bad. He only showed me that and then stopped talking.”

Duncan stopped on the side of the road.

He noticed something on the side of the road - a shrunken black mass, like dried seaweed, and looked ordinary.

But he still frowned, staring at the wrinkled "seaweed ball", as if he sensed something, and his expression was thoughtful.

"What's wrong with this thing?" Nina noticed it. She walked over to the "thing" and seemed to want to pick it up to have a look, but she was cautious and didn't reach out. She looked at Duncan in confusion, "Did you see anything?"

Duncan frowned for a long time, and finally bent down and reached out to the wrinkled black substance - something that surprised everyone happened.

The crumpled black substance suddenly began to change, accompanied by some dizzying visual distortion, it began to stretch and reorganize, and when the captain touched it, it had turned into a rough cylinder, and when the captain picked it up, many intricate patterns began to emerge on its surface, as well as structures like buttons and indicator lights.

Duncan looked thoughtfully at the delicate cylindrical device in his hand, and then pressed the most obvious button on its top.

From the inside of the cylinder came lively music—drums, bells, and bagpipes.

Duncan looked at the cylinder quietly for a long time, then said nothing, just took it in his hand and continued walking forward.

Vanna was in a trance for a moment, and those "memories" that permeated the island suddenly overlapped in her vision again. She seemed to see the former owner of the small device - a child, staggering behind the adults who were taking refuge. The child raised one hand and was led forward by the adults, and the exquisite little device in his hand was ringing, emitting a cheerful melody.

The illusion disappeared again, and she found that the captain had gone far away, so she quickly took steps to catch up with him.

They finally arrived at the door of the solemn black temple, and an extremely wide circular square appeared in their sight - a figure stood quietly in the center of the square.

Lucrecia reacted instantly and raised the short baton in her hand immediately - but before she could make any follow-up moves, the figure standing in the center of the square, as if guarding this temple from the last era until the last moment, collapsed silently.

He turned into a pile of ashes that drifted with the wind, swirling and disappearing in the air. Lucrecia didn't even have time to see what the last guardian looked like, whether he was a man or a woman.

"...That's the deputy commander of the Guards." Vanna said suddenly.

"Guards?" Morris asked subconsciously.

Vanna frowned, and shook her head after a few seconds: "...I don't know, I just suddenly thought of this sentence in my mind..."

A distorted voice interrupted her words.

The music coming from the small cylinder in Duncan's hand suddenly began to distort and become harsh, and then its surface began to lose color, quickly shrinking and distorting. In just two or three seconds, the music disappeared, and it turned back into a pile of black substance that shrunk like dried seaweed.