Deep Sea Embers

This mass of flesh and blood, which has stopped thinking, has embarked on its way home. Whether it could really return to some “body”, or whether it would exhaust its vitality and dissipate halfway there, that’s not coming Duncan could control. Heck, it might even be intercepted and purified by something along the way as well. Nothing was certain in life. All he could do was take precautions to remove the hidden danger within the scope of his ability.

When Shirley fought the weird shadow back there, he had been analyzing the origin of the “assailant” who appeared in the nightmare. It’s the reason he shot the fireball at the other party, a test, and an experiment. The result was that the thing was no more than a splintered-off “Pathfinder”. That’s right, the umbrella man they fought was no more than a scout in his opinion.

Duncan looked thoughtfully at the direction in which the clump of flesh disappeared. Not only was the attacker who suddenly appeared more familiar with this dream than himself and Shirley, but they also had a more convenient means of traveling through the spaces. It’s also the reason the umbrella man managed to close the distance without Duncan noticing beforehand.

In contrast, he and first-time “explorers” like Shirley and Dog are like headless flies in the dreams here. Tracing someone lurking in the shadow would be difficult under these circumstances.

But it didn’t matter. The fire had begun to spread under his will. Through the faint connection looming over his perception, Duncan believes that the flames will eventually return with some gains until he finds the hidden lurker. By that point, Nina and Shirley would be ridden of these nightmares.

“Mr. Duncan…” Shirley looked at Duncan, who had gotten quiet again, with a slightly scared face, “You know what that is just now…?”

She was referring to the attacker with the black umbrella.

“……” Duncan thought for a moment and shook his head. Then he suddenly recalled something after watching the burning streets, “No, but do you remember the person I mentioned standing on the edge of the museum square?”

“The one that only you can see?” Shirley immediately recalled, “Ah, the one that attacked us just now is the one you saw…”

“I’m not sure it’s the same,” Duncan unsurely shook his head, “but it’s certainly the same species. I suspect it’s related to the cultists who believe in the Sun God since both times are related to a fire. That alone is suspicious.”

“It’s related to those cultists…” Shirley blinked and quickly realized, “Could it be the ‘Sun Heir’ mentioned by those cultists?!”

“Although there is no evidence, let’s assume that for now.” Duncan exhaled softly, “But compared to the attacker’s identity, I care more about why it’s inside yours and Nina’s dream…. What is the connection between the museum site and your dreams?”

As he spoke, he swept his gaze over to the tall water tower.

Nina was still not visible at the top, but Duncan was almost certain that it had to be the tall structure in Nina’s dream.

“This is really Nina’s dream?” Shirley also looked around curiously, her face full of disbelief, “How do you know?”

“She mentioned this dream to me before, and in the dream, she was standing on the tallest distillation tower overlooking the burnt city,” Duncan said while pointing to the nearby tower. “This location is about two blocks away from the hut in your nightmare. Although I don’t know the reason, your dreams are obviously connected to each other on a deeper level.”

Shirley was surprised but still wanted to ask something. However, right as she was about to do so, Dog found something and cried out: “Hey Shirley, look over there! The umbrella that guy was holding is still over there!”

Shirley and Duncan snapped their heads over to the pointed location, and sure enough, a large black umbrella was quietly lying on the side of the street!

Their attention was so focused on the attacker that they ignored this fact.

Duncan quickly walked over and examined the item up close. After seeing the inner makings of the umbrella, he couldn’t help but make a gawking sound of a “huh?” with his mouth.

He had imagined what the umbrella might look like after being wielded by the attacker. It could be a supernatural item with grotesque makeup as well, or it could be a cursed object with terrifying abilities, but under no circumstances did he expect something in this direction.

The layout was an extremely complex arrangement of hexagonal lattices. Like a solar panel, it’s a device of extremely fine calibration. Then looking at the center skeletal handle, it’s something he only ever sees in a sci-fi movie. It’s far more complex and high-tech than anything a steam engine could ever compete against. To say it’s space-level technology was no understatement.

Duncan stared at the thing dumbfoundedly.

This…. came from a civilization that is incomprehensible to modern society!

“What is this?” Shirley looked at the inner structure of the umbrella in astonishment and confusion. She couldn’t understand what it was at all, and she lacked Duncan’s cognition from another world. She only felt that this thing was a hundred times more complicated than she imagined and became a little dazzled. She stretched out her hand subconsciously, “It looks like…”

“Don’t touch!” Dog yelped with urgency and interrupted Shirley, “This looks like some kind of blasphemous prototype.”

Shirley looked stunned: “Blasphemy prototype? What the heck is that?”

“Some kind of forbidden historical creation that shouldn’t appear but was forcibly stranded in the real world,” Dog solemnly whispered. “I don’t know how to explain it to you… because I don’t know what the principle behind this is either. Anyway, you only need to remember that some parts of the history in this world are ‘locked’, and the things behind it are all taboos. This item is one of those taboos. Its very existence is harmful to those living in the real world… so don’t touch it!”

Shirley shrunk her hands back with the rigidity of a robot.

“Is this also the inherent knowledge of a shadow demon?” Duncan asks thoughtfully.

“Sort of,” Dog shook his head, “not all shadow demons know this, but I was born closer to the head of the Ether Lord, hence the reason why I have more knowledge in my head.”

Duncan snorted noncommittally, his gaze resting on the strange black umbrella. As if due to the loss of some kind of “support”, the umbrella had began to disintegrate and collapse rapidly before his very eyes.

The delicate lattice structure gradually became transparent, the skeleton and wiring faded and turned into grayish debris under the breeze, and the complex device acting as the core also melted down like heated wax. But before the thing wholly melted away, the corner of Duncan’s eye had noticed a few words printed on a certain part.

It wasn’t the common words used by modern society, nor the other languages he was familiar with—but the meaning of the text still came to mind:

“K-22 spectral filtering nuclei.” In the next second, the entire umbrella had crumbled into dust, blowing off into nothingness.

“Ah! What is… MY HAND!!!” Shirley suddenly exclaims from the side right when the man got back up.

Duncan looked at Shirley’s arm and found that not only the arm but even the entire body was gradually becoming transparent and blurred.

Shirley flew into a panic: “He-Hel-Help…”

“Save your butt!” Dog directly cuts off the screaming girl, “You’re waking up soon! The first time you ever woke up normally from this dream. Hurry and tank Mr. Duncan for that.”

Shirley blinked and quickly got it. Facing the ghost captain, she saw that the other person was also starting to fade from the dream.

Duncan smiled and waved his hand at the girl in front of him: “Good night and good morning. Don’t forget to wake up Nina for breakfast later.”