Chapter 793: Chapter 790 Rotten Future Chapter 793: Chapter 790 Rotten Future In the boundless and empty chaos, the deformed and twisted sun quietly burned, its fleshly accumulations under the false corona forming terrifying “stars,” no longer recognizable in their original form.

Black Sun, the writhing sun-wheel, the True Sun God… with so many names behind it, what was it supposed to be, and what had it once been?

Was it the star once enveloped by the Dyson sphere? The civilization that built that Dyson sphere? Or the “evidence” that all those things had ever existed?

The Black Sun seemed to be the most special “ancient god” that Duncan had encountered in this world; a massive hybrid, a creation of a glorious civilization, a star that sheltered a civilization, combined with the civilization itself, all accumulated and mutated into its current form, which perhaps was also one of the reasons its “rot” progressed faster than other ancient gods.

Its “essence” was disintegrating from the beginning.

Duncan still hadn’t agreed to the ancient god’s plea, because he still had reservations about the aberrant star–he could feel that the Black Sun was still hiding many secrets. This ancient god, seemingly “exiled” beyond the Endless Sea, seemed to know much that even the Four Gods were unaware of, which was very suspicious.

But for now, the other party was clearly not ready to reveal these secrets, and Duncan didn’t plan to inquire further. As the Black Sun itself had said–although the end was near, they still had a little bit of time, to consider, weigh, and establish the necessary understanding and trust.

“I cannot agree to your request right now,” Duncan said, sharing his thoughts with the other party. “I still don’t know enough about you, and more importantly… I’m still not completely confident about the plan to Reshape the world. At least until I am certain of these things, I cannot make any promises to you.”

“Understandable,” came the deep and layered tremor from within the Black Sun. “Then go validate your plan, find your path… You will seek me out eventually, I’m quite confident of that.”

Duncan raised his eyebrows and said nothing else, simply becoming curious, “Will you keep this ‘projection’ here all this time? If I want to find you, I just come here?”

“My power has difficulty entering the inner layers of the Shelter, and even if I forced my way in, it would harm the mortal world–however, here, my movements are unrestricted, and I need not worry,” the Black Sun patiently explained. “I will leave this projection behind, and as long as you are in the ‘border,’ you can call on me anytime… I will listen.”

Duncan nodded slightly, “Okay, I understand.”

In the boundless chaos, the Black Sun emitted a faint tremor and then fell silent. Although Duncan had not granted its request, it seemed to have already achieved the outcome it desired–the tendrils roasted by the corona quietly curled in on themselves, the huge solitary eye drooped slightly, a third of it now slowly wrapped in flesh, seemingly in a posture of “rest.”

“It’s so quiet…” just as Duncan thought the exchange had come to an end, he suddenly heard the deformed sun mutter to itself dreamily, “It feels like it’s been a very long time since I’ve experienced this kind of ‘quiet’… Even the scorching of these flames now seems bearable.”

Duncan paused, quickly grasping what the other meant by “quiet,” and looked at it with a complicated expression, “…Now you can’t hear the voices of those praying and offering sacrifices to you.”

“Yes, I can’t hear them anymore, as if they never existed,” the Black Sun said softly. “This… should be the outcome I’ve always desired.”

Duncan tried to discern emotion from the Black Sun’s tone, wanting to know if it was relaxing or carrying a hint of sorrow while speaking these words, but ultimately, he couldn’t deduce anything from the voice that was too calm.

He simply deepened his understanding of the “rot” of the gods and reflected upon it.

“…What happens when the ‘rot’ reaches its final step? Do you disappear? Or fall into a state where you exist, but can no longer establish a ‘connection’ with anything? Like being forgotten by the world, as you said?”

“I don’t know because no ancient god has ever reached the final step of rot, so no one knows what will happen,” the Black Sun spoke slowly. “However, it is foreseeable that during this process, the world within the Shelter will continuously ‘slide’ downward…

“A long time ago, we shaped the ‘materials’ used to construct the Shelter from the scorching ashes of great annihilations using our cognition and memories, and the Shelter built from these ‘materials’ will also inevitably collapse as the gods ‘rot’–when we gradually forget everything about the old world when we disintegrate completely.

“Someday, the sea will forget what waves look like, life will forget how to die, flames will not remember how to burn, the wind will stop flowing, clouds will fall from the sky to the sea… Even if the ‘sun’ constructed by Pioneer One rises in the sky again, it cannot stop this collapse that stems from the foundation of the world…”

Duncan listened quietly to all that the Black Sun was saying while recalling the palace on the Island of Black Stone, the Leviathan Queen who had quietly died within.

To prevent her own “rot” from spreading to the real dimension, she imprisoned her “death” within the palace’s flow of time… However, even such “confinement” was now reaching its end.

“This sounds like an end as dim as the final flame,” Duncan said with a hint of emotion.

“The end of time is always dim, like the most brilliant stars that eventually cool and extinguish,” the Black Sun whispered softly. “Besides, from the day this Shelter world was born, the ‘rot’ of the gods has always accompanied its entire historical process, things continually peeling away from the real dimension. Who can notice… they have already disappeared.”

Duncan listened silently, then suddenly felt a surge in his heart. He caught the meaning of the Black Sun’s last statement, “…What do you mean by that?”

Black Sun was silent for a few seconds before slowly beginning to speak, “Do you still remember how many intelligent species there are on the Endless Sea?”

Duncan was momentarily startled, and for reasons unknown, he felt a sense of haziness in his mind, but still subconsciously answered, “I remember there are four species…”

He suddenly stopped.

“Which four?” Black Sun asked in a low and calm voice.

Duncan did not answer; he had realized what had happened, a huge shock echoing in the depths of his heart, leaving him momentarily unsure of how to respond.

After a brief silence, the voice of Black Sun remained calm, “You remember that they existed, but you do not know who they were or what they looked like. I, too, remember that they existed, but I also can’t remember what they looked like… because that which was supposed to remember them has been slowly yet irreversibly ‘decaying,’ forgetting them, and ultimately, the world ‘corrected’ this outcome… at the cost of the lifespan of the Shelter.”

“Usurping Flame, this is what has been happening in our world all along, it happened before and it is still happening now. The disappearance of ‘Black Sun’ from the sight of the people is merely an insignificant part of this continually repeating process of breakdown.”

“There is nothing to be sad about, death and oblivion have always been like this.”

…

With the creaking and groaning of hinges, the great door leading outside of Alice’s Mansion gradually closed, the false yet splendid sunlight blocked on the outside, as if it had never existed at all.

On both sides of the hall, the tall and narrow glass windows seemed to be covered with a layer of dark grime, with thorn-like shadows coiling and sealing the windows–through which not a trace of sunlight could be seen–as though that sunlight was merely a “concept” shining on the door, appearing only when the mansion’s great door was opened.

Duncan returned to the dimly lit hall and stood silently in the overly quiet building for a long while before finally letting out a gentle sigh.

Alice stood quietly by his side, the doll-like lady looking at him worriedly and then tensely looking back towards the direction of the great door.

It seemed she had a multitude of questions pent up, yet she didn’t quite know what specifically to ask.

“I didn’t understand what you and that ‘Black Sun’ were talking about,” she scratched her head and admitted honestly, “but you seem… to have been discussing something very serious and heavy.”

Duncan looked back at the doll-like lady, and after a moment, his consistently tense expression relaxed slightly.

“It’s okay if you don’t understand,” he smiled and reached out to pat Alice’s hair, “It’s all something for me to consider.”

“Oh,” Alice nodded, but then immediately had another question, “Are you going to agree to what Black Sun said? About the location of some… new world or something.”

She may not have understood most of the conversation between the captain and Black Sun, but she had caught that Black Sun seemed to be asking the captain for something.

Duncan fell into silence, seriously pondering under the doll-like lady’s clear gaze.

“I don’t know yet, but I’m very interested in the evidence it holds about the ‘new world’,” he finally began, “And there’s another thing I care about…”

Alice tilted her head, “Another thing?”

“Where exactly the real body of Black Sun is hidden,” Duncan reached out gently to straighten the tilting head of Alice, “I’ve become increasingly curious about that.”

Alice listened, not quite understanding, “So… are we going to find its real body?”

“No,” Duncan smiled and shook his head, “That’s for later, we still have unfinished business right now.”

“Unfinished business?”

Duncan’s expression was subtle, “…Analyzing the course, have you forgotten?”

“Uh, forgot!”