Chapter 244: 'A Glimpse of the Truth”

Chapter 244 “A Glimpse of the Truth”

Duncan cautiously approached the door after feeling a sense of unease. He needed to double-check its status.

The “Subspace Door” was indeed shut – he had previously been on its other side, and its near-effortless closure had completely sealed off the door that was almost unbreakable in the physical realm.

Issuing a gentle sigh, he gazed up at the top of the door to find the enigmatic ancient text clearly etched on the doorframe: “This door leads to the Vanished.”

“To the Vanished...” Duncan couldn’t help but reminisce about the situation on the other side of the door, recalling the abandoned and decaying Vanished traversing subspace for many years. He suddenly gained a deeper understanding of the words on the doorframe.

The inscription on the door was true, and the other side truly led to the Vanished – another Vanished, the distorted reflection of the real Vanished in subspace.

Duncan picked up the lantern and turned to leave the lower cabin, quickly navigating through the contrasting light and shadow of the cargo hold and the upper structure, eventually returning to the captain’s quarters.

“Ah, Captain! You’re back!” Goathead was still there, puzzled, and the first thing he did when he saw Duncan was to blurt out, “Why did you suddenly leave? You just said you went to subspace? You can’t joke about that! You...”

“I closed the ‘Subspace Door’ at the bottom of the ship,” Duncan casually mentioned as he set down the lantern, “I went back down just now to inspect it from ‘this side.'”

Goathead’s speech was abruptly cut off, accompanied by another “crack” as his head hit the table.

Duncan couldn’t help but glance at him: “Take it easy, don’t develop the same problem as Alice.”

Goathead didn’t mind the captain’s playful tone, and he didn’t conceal his amazement either: “You closed that door!? You mean, you shut the door from the subspace side?”

“What else?” Duncan retorted, “Isn’t that door impossible to close from ‘this side’? Why else would I bother going there?”

“You... you did it just for that?” Goathead stammered, “You entered subspace and returned to the physical dimension solely to close that door from the other side? That’s... that’s not an ordinary wooden door for a storage room or a junk room. You just... closed it?!”

Duncan’s mood improved somewhat as he delightfully observed Goathead, who usually talked so much it could make people’s brains boil and become inarticulate.

Goathead hesitated for a while and sighed, causing Duncan to be taken aback by the behavior. This chatty creature had nothing to say for the first time in their relationship!

He considered momentarily and then asked earnestly, “...Should I be more concerned?”

“...You are truly deserving of the title ‘Mobile Catastrophe of the Boundless Sea’...” Goat’s voice lacked emotion, merely reciting mechanically like muscle memory.

“Let’s not discuss this matter,” Duncan waved his hand, shifting the topic, “What were those immense shadows I saw in subspace? The shattered lands, debris, and that pale one-eyed colossus... What are they?”

Goathead suddenly became quiet. After nearly half a minute, he spoke slowly, “...As you saw, they were merely debris.”

“Merely debris?” Duncan frowned, “That’s not much of an explanation. Whose debris? Where did it come from? When did the wreckage...?”

“The wreckage of worlds,” Goathead said, “All those that didn’t endure until today have transformed into distorted shadows in the ancient past of subspace.”

Duncan appeared taken aback, then repeated gravely, “The wreckage of worlds?”

Goathead grew silent once more, seemingly hesitating and weighing something. Ultimately, he raised his head slightly, “Do you believe the Boundless Sea is immense? Do you think... our current reality is still expansive?”

Duncan blinked, then suddenly realized, “You mean, everything in the current physical dimension...”

“...Yes, what remains after the fall,” Goathead whispered, “A trivial remnant, with a few tenacious settlements clinging to it.”

Duncan paused, then suddenly thought of something, “Is this the truth of the Great Annihilation?”

“It’s merely an insignificant portion of it,” Goathead said in a low voice, “The entire truth of the Great Annihilation has been buried in the river of time, and reconstructing its full picture is pointless.

“In your words, there lies a ‘cosmic horizon’ where all information exists beyond the unfathomable and undetectable realm. Unless a truly omniscient and omnipotent being could instantly uncover the secrets of all the planes of existence: subspace, deep sea, spirit realm, and the physical dimension, then there’s no way of knowing what transpired ten thousand years ago?”

“I know what you wish to ask, but I regret to say that this is all I know, and I don’t guarantee that it’s entirely accurate. I do know some parts related to subspace, but even the so-called ‘truth’ might not necessarily remain unchanged after being influenced by subspace. Cause and effect, the sequence of time, all are meaningless there, and as for my fragmented knowledge... I can’t even determine how much of it is genuine memory and how much is residual shadows left over from my separation from subspace.”