After bringing the new luggage to the living room, Heidi came to the dining table and looked at Morris, who was sitting across from her, in a daze.

She hadn't seen her father for a long time - although they could still contact each other occasionally, even such intermittent contact seemed like the last time was a long time ago.

Her father came home so suddenly that it seemed a bit unreal to her, like a dream.

Morris sat at the dining table, slowly eating the freshly fried sausages and bread, chewing each bite carefully for a long time. After a while, he looked up and looked at his wife sitting next to him and his daughter across the table, with a smile on his face: "I haven't eaten home food for a long time."

"There's still some food, but we have to go out after this meal," the wife next to him said with a smile, just like the days long ago when the couple discussed going for a walk in the park after lunch. "We have to report to the nearest shelter - the neighborhood is becoming less and less peaceful, and those muddleheaded people...are becoming less and less like human beings."

"They have lost their sense of self, and the world is gradually forgetting what 'human' looks like, and the result is that," Morris said calmly, "The foundation and anchors laid by the gods are rapidly failing, and those who don't wake up will deviate further from 'normal' over time...but in their own 'feelings', nothing has changed."

There was a trace of sadness on Heidi's face: "...Is there no hope?"

"Don't worry about them, Heidi." The father across the table just smiled and shook his head. "It's all temporary. Everything will be fine. The captain is trying to find a way. My early return to the city-state is also part of his grand plan."

"...It seems like you've been through a lot out there," Heidi hesitated, and couldn't help but ask, "Have the others returned? Is Vanna back too?"

"Yes, Vanna is back too. Except for the captain, Alice, and the pigeon, the rest of the crew have returned," Morris nodded slowly. "Vanna has gone to the cathedral, and then she will go to the city hall. After she arranges things there, she will contact you. Nina and Shirley have also returned home. We have agreed on the time and method of contact. The sailors and Agatha... also have their own arrangements and tasks."

Heidi had a hint of curiosity on her face: "...Can you tell me about your journey?"

"Of course - the world is running out of time, but there's still enough time for a dramatic story."

In the mist that filled the entire city, the two girls ran through the streets of the downtown area.

They passed through intersections piled with suspicious dark red lumps, walked through buildings that blinked countless eyes like living things and had undulating and wriggling walls, and avoided the blind and unaware shadows wandering on the streets. Low, chaotic whispers and occasional noisy noises came from the fog, circling around them as if chasing uninvited guests.

"This is worse than what the Pope said!" Shirley felt the atmosphere around her was creepy. To give herself courage, she transformed herself into a terrifying demon form. At this moment, she was stepping carefully over the constantly jumping piles on the ground with twelve long skeleton limbs. "She only said that the city is full of people who have lost themselves...but she didn't say it was this kind of 'loss of self'!"

"The situation is changing gradually. We've been drifting on the sea for so long since we left the lighthouse. The situation in the city must be getting worse," Nina followed Shirley. As she spoke, she couldn't help but look up at her friend who was in a terrifying state at the moment. "... Then again, are you really that scared? You're much scarier than that shadow just now."

"What's scary? I'm handsome, not scary!" Shirley retorted immediately, then stood up again, looked around, and sighed, "But then again, this situation does have an advantage - I can run around the city in this look openly, and they'll act as if they didn't see me. Even if someone 'awake' sees me, they'll just think it's a part of the distortion, and no one will rush up and shoot me..."

"You'd better be careful. What if there's another priest who acts like Miss Vanna patrolling the city and sees a deep demon like you and strikes him with a sword?"

"Then you should give him a sunny face," Shirley raised a skeleton limb and tapped Nina's shoulder carelessly, "Let him know why there are still two sunny and beautiful girls in the city even though the world is ending..."

Nina didn't want to bother with her friend whose way of thinking was different from that of ordinary people.

The sound of "Ding-ling-ling" came from the fog, interrupting the conversation between the two girls. They looked up at the same time in the direction where the sound came from, and saw a steam bus with a bright yellow shell appearing on the street. Under the heavy body of the bus grew more than a dozen pairs of messy hands and feet. The bus crawled on the misty street using its hands and feet, spewing out bursts of white mist from the rear of the bus. It stopped at a nearby platform, and the middle section of the car was torn open, revealing countless sharp teeth.

"Want a ride? Want a ride? Going to the museum!" the steam bus called out to Shirley and Nina. "It's reopened between curfews, and there's a dazzling exhibition of paintings and textiles!"

Nina looked at the scene in a daze, while Shirley beside her waved her hands at the swaying bus after a pause: "No! I have too many legs to get on the bus!"

"Okay, okay, bye, bye, I'm going to the next stop!"

The steam bus with a bright yellow shell shouted happily, and the "door" with countless sharp teeth in the middle of the car closed again. Then it spewed out a burst of steam, raised a dozen pairs of hands and feet under the car, and crawled quickly and disappeared at the end of the road.

Shirley and Nina looked at each other.

Agou emerged from the shadows between the two of them and spoke in a muffled voice: "...The Deep Sea may be a little more normal now than here."

Nina didn't say anything else, but took another step towards the home in her memory.

She and Shirley ignored all the strange shadows and sounds along the way. After a while, the extremely familiar small shop in the downtown area finally appeared in the sight of the two girls.

Among the surrounding buildings that have been covered by all kinds of strange shadows and accumulations, and have almost been transformed into some kind of "living things", the small antique shop still maintains its appearance long ago, like a reassuring safe house, with warm and bright light still shining in the glass window.

Nina walked quickly forward and pushed open the unlocked door - the bell at the door rang crisply, and everything was the same as she remembered.

"Uncle Duncan! Shirley and I are home!" she shouted into the quiet antique shop.

But there was no response from the store.

"Uncle Duncan, we're home!" Nina shouted again.

This time, she finally heard a response—but she couldn't tell whether the voice came from her heart or from somewhere in the store: "I'm behind the counter."

Nina was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously looked up at the counter next to the stairs.

She saw a thin and hunched figure, as if blending into the surrounding shadows, sitting quietly behind the old and mottled wooden counter.

Shirley returned to her human form and walked into the store with Nina. They walked through the shelves that seemed to have not been cleaned for many days and came to the counter.

"Uncle Duncan..." Nina stepped forward cautiously. She saw that "Uncle Duncan" behind the counter rolled his eyes slightly, but there was no other movement. This made her a little worried. "Are you okay?"

"I have cut off most of the connection with this incarnation," Duncan's voice rang in Nina's heart, "but I have retained the last vision for now. I am sitting here to watch you and Shirley get home safely - nothing happened on the way?"

Nina stood there in a daze, with a complicated look in her eyes, but gradually, a warm smile reappeared on her face.

"No," she said with a smile, standing in front of the counter so that "Uncle Duncan" who was still at the end of the world could see her more clearly. "A lot of changes have happened in the city, but there is no danger - Teacher Morris has returned home safely, and everyone else is fine. Shirley and I just came from the shopping mall pedestrian street, and many people there have already taken shelter."

"That's good. The range I can see now is very small, and I've always been curious about what's going on outside the door."

"How's the situation over there?" Shirley came over and couldn't help asking, "Did you and Alice find what you were looking for?"

"We have found it. Now we are preparing to leave here and head to the last stop."

"The last stop?" Nina and Shirley asked in unison.

"Yes," Duncan said slowly, "Soon, you will be able to see the Lost Homeland again - at that time, it will become the most eye-catching light in the sky."

The uniform gray-white background closed in on the side of the ship, and there was a slight vibration from the hull of the Lost Homeland, and then everything returned to calm - in the seemingly extreme "stillness", the ship embarked on its final voyage.

Duncan stood on the control platform at the stern, and Alice stood beside him. The latter was holding the steering wheel tightly, controlling the direction of the jump.

"We will first return to the border, but will not enter the Infinite Ocean. The Lost Homeland will 'take off' from the Eternal Curtain. We will cross the entire world from a very high place until we reach the World's Creation..."

Duncan raised his head and looked into the distance, as if looking at the end of time and everything through the gray-white jump channel.

"Then, that 'blink' moment came."

"Take off? The creation of the world?!" Nina's astonished voice rang out in his heart, "Is this... possible?"

Then Shirley exclaimed, "The Lost Homeland can still fly?"

Duncan smiled, with the corners of his mouth curled up.

"Yes, it is possible - the sea of ​​clouds is also a sea."