Deep Sea Embers

The content on the paper has no beginning or end, as if there are some plausible metaphors hidden, but it only makes people feel weird when you look at it carefully. Even a well-informed university student like Morris read those words over and over again. Several times, but could not see the slightest clue.

What are Lost Kings? What is the Forsaken Clan? What is the man in the ashes and the "asylum" that is mentioned repeatedly in those passages?

Duncan frowned, his eyes swept over the slightly smeared ink stains soaked in water, some of the words recorded on them reminded him vaguely, but it was difficult to form a coherent train of thought, he only vaguely felt that... …This doesn’t seem to be pure lunacy. The passage that seems like a religious record seems to be talking about something related to the current “deep sea age”.

Or, it was something before the deep sea era.

"Is this written by a crow?" Fanna suddenly raised her head and looked at Nemo who was standing beside her.

"It's his handwriting," Nemo knelt down to read it, and nodded with certainty. "He always elongates the last stroke at the end of the sentence. No one else has this problem."

"What does he believe in?" Fanna asked again, "Besides the orthodox belief, has he come into contact with any other spiritual guidance? It doesn't have to be a heretical belief - gray societies such as secret societies and academic monastic societies can also be counted. .”

"He is a devout believer in the God of Death. Since he was a child, I have never seen him go to any other gatherings except Bartok's church," Crow said while thinking, "As for associations and academic monasteries, Such things... that's even more impossible, how could his brain participate in this kind of thing? The guy in the public high school in the lower city has to take three years of tutoring before he can graduate. ah!"

"...a devout orthodox believer who has never been in contact with other spiritual guidance other than the orthodox belief... This is interesting," Fanna looked at the paper in Morris's hand, curling her fingers to her chin thoughtfully , "The narrative method above obviously has the shadow of the classical city-state era or earlier dark ages, and it is a typical 'holy script'. This kind of thing is not something that can be imagined out of thin air by a person who can barely graduate from a public high school— —and the 'crow' still put it next to his body, which shows that he is very concerned about the things on this piece of paper."

Duncan didn't speak, he had been thinking silently, then suddenly realized: "So, he might have copied this from somewhere."

"Copy it?" Nemo was stunned for a moment, and then realized, "You mean, the crow may have strayed somewhere, and the things on this paper... are the 'clues' he copied there. ?”

"Perhaps, he himself doesn't know the meaning of the things he copied, but this is the most suspicious and noteworthy information he saw there," Duncan nodded slowly, "Unfortunately, He may have caused his death when he copied these things."

"I strayed into a certain place..." Fan Na stood up slowly, folded her hands on her chest, and said in thought, "Then this place must be completely unfamiliar to 'Crow', and the environment may be quite strange, So that the person involved could not judge where he was in a short time, but could only hastily record what he saw in front of him as a clue. Explore the surroundings - otherwise he will have the opportunity to record more characteristic information to describe the environment he sees."

As she spoke, she looked down at the drowned body again, frowning slightly.

"Where did he go? How did he get sent back? A wet corpse must leave traces when it is transported..."

Nemo raised his head and looked around.

In the dry sewer corridor, there is no trace of dragging the corpse.

"Perhaps we should follow the crow's usual patrol route and search further. He may have left traces before he strayed into that place," Morris said, looking up into the depths of the corridor ahead, "He usually walks in this direction ?"

"Yes," Nemo nodded, "This corridor leads to the direction of the upper city, but there is a section of road in the middle where the lighting is unstable and occasionally shrouded in darkness. Although there is no big problem with short-term darkness, there are still There may be some... not very good things, so you need to patrol frequently to discover the shadows that have just been born in time."

"Then let's go and have a look. If you go as soon as possible, you may find clues," Duncan nodded. "If something really came out of there, it's time to deal with it together."

No objection.

The group bid farewell to the crow's body for the time being, and were about to explore deeper into the sewer corridor, but before passing the young man's body, Nemo and the old ghost lowered their heads at the same time.

"Wait here for us, we'll come back to pick you up," Nemo said.

The old ghost bent down, took out a triangular amulet from nowhere, and stuffed it in the crow's chest: "Don't run around, kid."

Duncan watched this scene silently, and waited for Nemo to say goodbye to the old ghost before turning around and leading the team forward.

"We will tell Captain Tirian what happened here when we go back," Vanna said suddenly on the way, "The young man will not die without knowing why."

"Thank you," Nemo said in a low voice. He was obviously in a bad mood, and his depression and loss were lingering. "That kid...hasn't actually done anything great in his life, but this time he was picked up by Captain Tirian and Captain Duncan remembers, it is probably a kind of honor."

"Does he have a family?" Morris also broke the silence and asked softly.

"Family? It's long gone. He grew up in an orphanage. When he was a teenager, he came out of the orphanage and became an apprentice with me." Nemo shook his head. "Listen to the director of the orphanage, That kid was picked up from the road, in a trash can on the corner of the street, when he was picked up, he was really only as long as a crow from head to toe..."

"Abandoned babies," the old ghost muttered, his voice seemed to be filled with anger, "when the queen was still here, this kind of thing would not be allowed to happen—abandoned babies would be put in prison! As a result, everyone now He is so depraved that he can throw the child into the trash can... That kid has a big life. He was very thin when he first came to us from the orphanage. He looked like a monkey when he was a teenager. I was always worried about him One winter he would catch a cold and die, but he survived... survived..."

The old man stopped suddenly, as if he was a little stuck, and then shook his head emotionally: "I still didn't survive."

The atmosphere in the team was extremely gloomy, and even Alice, who had always been dull, felt the oppressive atmosphere. She looked up and looked around in confusion, and finally came to the old ghost hesitantly, as if she wanted to comfort the old man: "You...don't Sadly."

The old ghost raised his head, stared blankly at Alice wearing a wig and veil, and then sniffed vigorously: "Queen, you have to take care of this..."

Alice looked at the old man in front of her in bewilderment.

But soon, her embarrassment was broken - the team stopped suddenly.

The corridor ahead was shrouded in dim light. Two faulty gas lamps were embedded on the wall. The barely emitted light could hardly completely disperse the darkness in the depths. Fanna looked up at the ground at the junction of light and darkness, His expression became a little more serious.

"Over there... there is a person falling down."

she said in a low voice.

A thin-looking figure fell beside the gutter at the edge of the corridor, motionless, and the faint gas lamp, which was dim due to poor airflow, shone on the familiar blue thick coat.

A group of people came to the fallen body, but after seeing the other person's face, Duncan was not surprised at all—it was a crow.

However, unlike Duncan and the others who had expected it, Nemo and the old ghost were only shocked when they saw that face, and even a little panic.

"A crow?!" Nemo's voice trembled a little. He stared dumbfounded at the person who fell on the ground, and subconsciously took half a step back, "This...how is this..."

"It's a fake." Duncan calmly interrupted Nemo's exclamation. From the first glance, he confirmed that the body in front of him was a fake made of "elements" - because around this "corpse", A small amount of black viscous substance has begun to appear, apparently its disintegration process has begun.

There seem to be differences among the fakes. Although they are also made of "elements", some fakes can be active in the city-state for ten days and half a month, while others collapse when they are transported to the cemetery. However, the "fake" in front of me...it seems to disintegrate faster.

It's only been a few hours since the crow disappeared.

Duncan was thinking quickly in his mind——

If the crow really strayed into some dangerous and weird place—such as the lair of the Cultists of Oblivion—and transcribed the suspicious "hieroglyphic narrative" there, then the copy against him... should also be started there.

And now, his duplicate body is lying in this area, where he often patrols.

The direction is right.

Perhaps, the source of the clone is near here!