Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 685

Chapter 685: Chapter 682: Starlight Overflows Chapter 685: Chapter 682: Starlight Overflows Clearly, the news that Duncan suddenly revealed was somewhat shocking to the several pontiffs–their worldviews were stunned for quite a while, and, in the end, they still hadn't fully recovered.

After omitting any information related to Alice's Mansion, Duncan briefly told Rune and the others about his exchange with the Black Sun and the Mysterious Saint.

He wasn't worried that this information would “contaminate” those currently present. On one hand, his followers had already been baptized with his “Spiritual Fire,” which, as proven, provided them with a high resistance to psychic contamination. On the other hand, the pontiffs present dealt almost daily with psychic contamination and appeared to be highly resistant; they certainly wouldn't go insane from hearing a few words about ancient gods–if the bishopric had still been present, he certainly wouldn't have mentioned these matters.

Helena and the others looked at each other, and after a moment of thought and hesitation, three gazes fell on Rune.

The short, plump elven elder's expression became a little awkward: “…Why are all of you looking at me?”

“You're the most knowledgeable among us,” Helena said with a sincere face.

Banster followed with a nod: “You often have unique insights and premonitory sharpness in the profound domain of mystical studies.”

Frem didn't say a word, continuing to stare at Rune without blinking.

Rune's expression subtly fell silent for a few seconds before, after a moment of thought, he seemed to suddenly think of something and turned to look at Duncan, who stood nearby, with the demeanor of a spectator: “You are certain that you heard the clear and rational voices of the Mysterious Saint and the Black Sun, right?”

“Of course I'm certain,” Duncan spread his hands, “as rational as the conversation we're having now.”

“Then the second question,” Rune pondered slightly, his expression becoming very serious, “…Since returning from the Subspace to the real world, have you encountered any 'chaotic creations' that were completely impossible to communicate with, impossible to understand, and utterly indescribable from your perspective?”

Duncan was slightly taken aback upon hearing this and then faintly understood the old pontiff's point. After a moment of pondering, he spoke: “…I have encountered many 'chaotic, disordered, uncommunicative freaks' by mortal standards, but almost every time… I've heard useful information amidst their noise-like roar… Sometimes, I even feel that they are intentionally talking to me.”

He paused there, but there was still half a sentence he didn't say out loud–he had always thought this was normal!

Rune, upon hearing Duncan's reply, showed a noticeable change of expression. His brow furrowed instantly, and Helena also reacted: “Wait, so you're saying…”
“…In the 'captain's' eyes, there are no ancient gods that are madly out of control,” Rune looked into Duncan's eyes, speaking slowly with a serious expression, “You can understand those voices that have completely deviated from the 'benchmark of rationality' under any circumstances, even those entities that would make mortals crumble into madness upon one glance, to you, they're probably understandable and communicable.”

The hall became quiet for a time, aside from Eli, who didn't think enough, and Sherry, who didn't think at all; everyone began to subconsciously ponder what this meant and the “cause” behind this unbelievable “phenomenon.”

In the contemplation, Morris broke the silence in a low voice: “If we follow the 'cognitive deviation' hypothesis you just proposed, teacher, it means that the captain…”
“No matter how much everything deviates, it's still within his range of cognition,” Rune slowly nodded, “It's a bit like… Wait, wait, I need paper and pen!”

Morris quickly reacted: “Here it is.”

A piece of paper was rapidly spread out on the table, and Rune took a pencil. With the curious gaze of others upon him, he bent down and began to quickly sketch diagrams on the paper–yet to Duncan's surprise, they weren't any complex mystical sigils nor profound mathematical formulas; what Rune drew were simply seemingly loose, random rings.

He drew many such circular patterns–they were randomly distributed on the paper, some overlapping each other, some barely intersecting at the edges, and some completely independent.

“Remember the Great Obliteration, and the conjecture about the formation of the new world after it…” Rune spoke rapidly while drawing, “Many worlds collided, and their debris accumulated to form the foundation of the new world. I call these accumulated debris 'Original Ashes', and these ashes carried the 'rules' of their respective worlds when they first emerged. We consider the ashes that have the same set of rules as one of these rings…
“Yes, the concept of sets. Each world's remaining 'Original Ashes' is a subset. You see these intersecting rings? Those intersections are the 'compatible' parts among the Original Ashes…
“During the Third Long Night, the compatible Original Ashes were recombined to form our current Deep Sea Era… The 'intersection' of sets, right, right here…”
Rune stopped, pointing to the center of the paper with his pencil.

Several large and small rings converged there, with an area the size of a fingernail cap where the rings intersected.

“This is our Deep Sea Era… The Original Ashes from the debris of various worlds that could 'compatibly' just manage to 'exist' under the same set of rules, they together constructed this Endless Sea and the many City-States upon the Endless Sea…
“And outside of this 'intersection', in the other non-intersecting parts of these rings, that is their 'difference set', lie the things we can come into contact with, yet are unable to understand, unable to control–these things drift on the edge of our real world, perhaps manifesting as anomalies, perhaps as exceptions, or maybe other eldritch phenomena, contamination carriers…”
Rune considered for a moment, then pointed to the rings that were isolated from all others, having no contact with any other figures.

“Here then, is the realm of the profane archetypes, the place of the Black Sun, other lost ancient gods, and the exiled clans. We have completely failed to comprehend their existence; they no longer fit within our reality. Some of them have utterly vanished into the darkness while others… still drift as Original Ashes in… some kind of spatial-temporal existence we cannot comprehend.”

Morris, looking at the simple and clear figures his teacher sketched out on the paper, quickly understood: “We are located within the 'intersection' range, hence we can only 'understand' the information within the intersection range, and anything beyond that is indescribable noise and shadows to us…”
Rune nodded, “Yes, that is the 'truth' that this model reveals.”

Morris continued, “But for the captain, whether it's the 'bizarre shadows' outside the intersection, or those lost ancient gods that exist completely outside the set system, they are all understandable–In his eyes, there is no world 'outside the intersection'…”

“As you say…”

Duncan stood by, listening silently to these discussions.

They were discussing him, trying to use a set of logic to explain him, trying to comprehend, to understand, to touch his “true mystery”.

But he did not care.

He just listened quietly, thoughtfully while he listened.

He watched the patterns that Rune sketched out, watched the intersecting, overlapping, independent circles, watched those “primitive ashes” drifting and scattered among these ruins, watched that paper.

Somehow, he recalled the experience in Subspace not too long ago, recalled the overflowing starlight he had seen in the eyes of the pale giants…

Fenna also approached the paper, looked at the patterns on it, and couldn't help but ask softly, “So where is the captain positioned…”

Rune answered gravely, “Only under one condition can a 'universal set' contain all the subsets that have appeared here, as well as those that have not yet appeared.”

Fenna thought for a moment, stretched out her hand and made a gesture on the paper, “A bigger circle that encompasses them all?”

“No.”

Morris shook his head.

Then, the old scholar stepped forward half a step, placing his hand gently on the paper.

“It's this paper.”

As his words fell, he looked up around him.

Endless starlight filled his vision, his memories, his cognition.

Filled the eyes of everyone in the hall.

Helena's eyes widened amidst the starlight, in the towering waves of truth that arose, she felt her sanity faltering; she saw in the starlight a shifting shadow, a silhouette, approaching her with a roar–
“Is it not incredible?”

Rune stood stiffly in the starlight, noise and tremor squeezing out from his rationale, “Truth… sublime beauty…”

Then, all the starlight suddenly vanished–The vast, undulating shadow contracted and collapsed into the reality of the hall in a fraction of a second that humans could not perceive.

Fenna barely freed herself from the horrifying afterimage caused by the starlight, and amid intense dizziness, she saw the captain walk towards the table and slowly roll up the paper.

“I have some advice for you,” Duncan turned his head and looked into Rune's eyes, “Next time you discuss me, take more precautions.”

The terrifying afterimage left by the starlight finally completely receded–the paper had been fully rolled up by Duncan and casually stuffed into his clothes.

As “truth” was temporarily masked, sanity abruptly returned to everyone's minds.

Banster took in a deep breath, he instinctively stepped back, then glared at Rune, “I should have kept my distance from 'scholars' like you from the start!”

“It was you who asked me to analyze!” Rune took a couple of deep breaths, first glanced at Duncan with lingering fear, then turned to the party of three including Banster, “Tell me if it worked or not!”

“Captain…” Morris, however, turned to look at Duncan with a somewhat embarrassed expression, “I'm sorry…”

“It's okay, curiosity is human instinct,” Duncan, however, smiled, his face conveyed the usual gentle and forgiving demeanor, “Fortunately, everyone survived.”

Chapter end

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