Deep Sea Embers

Chapter 257
Tirian, who returned to the room, ordered his subordinates to leave, but his mood did not calm down with the silence of the room.

The long conversation with "Father" still lingers in his mind, and all kinds of memories about the diving plan seem to linger in his heart uncontrollably. From time to time, he flashes those fragments that have been half a century ago-rough diving equipment , the sea cliffs that are always cold and rainy, the silent platform guards, the priests' low prayers in the rainy night, the brightly lit but always gloomy coastal laboratories, and the Queen of Frost that always looks out at the sea. , Buried all the secret eyes.

Tirian shook his head. For some reason, he suddenly thought of the puppet that claimed to be "Alice"—anomaly 099 that had completely escaped the seal and moved freely in the world.

A "controlled" anomaly, a puppet that can think and communicate like a human, and even has its own emotions...

She is so similar to the Queen of Frost, but she is definitely not the Queen herself—although her existence and the process of being in this world are indeed very reminiscent of some kind of "return" of the Queen, but Tirian can feel that the puppet In her body... there is not the slightest will of Ray Nora.

If I had to say it, Tirian felt that "Alice" was more like a "replica" that was perfectly restored on the outside but completely distorted on the inside.

Just like those "No. [-] submersibles" that surfaced one after another at the beginning.

Tirian's eyes suddenly changed slightly, and he felt a little cold because of the associations that emerged in his mind.

He sat in the room, poured himself a glass of strong wine, and relied on the power of alcohol to re-warm his cold mind and calm his restless heart. After a while, he felt a little better, and then he raised his head and saw To the exquisite suitcase placed next to the bed.

After a little hesitation, he took the box to the table, opened the lid, and activated the complicated lenses and the crystal located in the center of the lens group.

The crystal ball lit up, a multitude of flickering points of light emerged from it, and disturbing noises emanated.

It took a while before he saw Lucrezia's figure looming in the middle of those flickering spots, as well as the other party's indistinct voice. After another two or three minutes, the voice and image barely became clear. , My sister's voice came to my ears: "Can you hear it?"

"It's clear now," Tirian nodded, "Why is there more interference on your side than before... What's that around you? Is it sunlight? It looks weird..."

He noticed that in the background behind Lucrezia there seemed to be streaks of pale golden light, which looked like a brilliant sunset shining into the room through the window, but the texture of the light was far warmer and brighter than the sunset, Moreover, the distribution and diffusion of its brilliance also give people a feeling that is paradoxical to the sun, which makes people pay special attention.

Tirian knew that his sister was often active at the border, where strange phenomena often occurred, and it was often dangerous, but Lucrecia could always save the day—but he still couldn't help being a little worried.

"Ah, I picked up some strange things at the border, but I have carefully inspected them, and they are not harmful," Lucrezia replied indifferently, "That thing may have fallen from the sky, and it will project A very wide range of glow... I am using the Bright Star to drag that thing back to study."

Tirian frowned subconsciously: "You always pick up strange things at the border, have you forgotten the last time you were dragged directly into the depths of the spirit world by a cloud of human-shaped smoke?"

"I will be careful, I have always been careful—it's just that there will be some accidents occasionally, adventures, accidents are inevitable," Lucrezia waved her hand, and then she seemed to have suddenly discovered something, staring at Tirian's face, "Brother, what happened to your face and head?"

"...I fell down."

"But it looks like you hit the city wall violently with your head," Lucrezia frowned slightly, "you can't fall like this without a 200-meter run-up acceleration and a resolute head-butt impact—you were attacked .”

Tirian's expression froze for a moment, and he shook his head helplessly after a while: "Sometimes I really don't want you to be so smart."

"Who attacked you?" Lucrezia didn't care about Tirian's interruption, her expression was extremely serious, "You are in the city-state of Pland, where you don't have any enemies, and the city-state authorities won't just sit back and watch 'guests' Being attacked...ah, you didn't admit that you were attacked just now, and you said you fell..."

As Lucrezia spoke, she stopped suddenly. She seemed to have thought of something, the expression on her face changed suddenly, and then she looked around the crystal ball with flickering eyes.

Tirian knew what was going on when he saw her expression, and shook his head before he could speak: "Don't be nervous, he's not here."

"Really...he did it?" Lucrezia's eyes widened in shock, "Wait, didn't you say that he is not in the city-state? And why would he..."

"He is indeed not here, he is one of his subordinates now." Tirian rubbed his forehead a little depressed, "Don't worry, we didn't have a conflict, this injury... just some small accidents, he wants to talk to me about it something, and I was overly vigilant."

"'Subordinate'?!" Lucrezia was taken aback, and instinctively wanted to ask how strong that subordinate was, and what weapon he used to beat the "Steel Lieutenant General" into a pig's head, but then she Then he noticed the second part of Tirian's words, and his eyes changed, "...he talked to you again so soon, what happened?"

"He became interested in some old things about Frost," Tirian said casually, "but you don't have to worry about that, I'm looking for you to inquire about something else—anomaly 099, you should know about it?"

"Of course I know, I also know that the thing was stolen by the Lost Homelander. This matter has been spread in the Explorers' Association, and not long after that, the Church of the Deep Sea issued a notice that the name of the anomaly 099 was changed from 'Doll Coffins' turned into 'dolls'...many people have had uneasy speculation about this."

Tirian raised his eyelids and looked into Lucrecia's eyes solemnly: "Then do you know why its name changed from 'Doll Coffin' to 'Doll'?"

Lucrezia frowned beautifully, and she seemed to have vaguely realized something.

"I saw her," Tirian exhaled, without continuing to pretend, "that 'doll', she calls herself 'Alice', and has awakened from the coffin, and is currently serving her father, just like the rumors, That puppet looks exactly like the Frost Queen, but its personality... is very unexpected."

"This information is also very unexpected," Lucrezia said softly, under the inexplicable golden light, her eyes seemed to be shining slightly, "You mean, father...'released' the abnormality from the coffin 099, let that dangerous anomaly move freely outside, and the latter is willing to follow father? Can she even talk to you?"

"It sounds unbelievable, but it's true," Tirian nodded, "She can talk, she can think, she has emotions like a human, and even... I think the relationship between her and her father is not bad, but I dare not Determine whether this is a 'friendship' that humans can understand, after all, one of them is a returning ghost in the subspace, and the other is an 'abnormal object' whose number is within a hundred."

Lucrezia didn't speak, and after a moment of silence, she raised her head: "Then what do you want to ask?"

"About the situation when Anomaly 099 was first discovered, you were there," Tirian looked at his sister, "I want to know some of the most real situation from you. You know, my fleet and I never Close to Frost, we missed the original scene”

Lucrezia pondered for a few seconds: "That year... I did happen to be in the sea area where the incident happened, but it was not the Brilliant Star that first salvaged the anomaly 099, but a ship named 'Charvin'. Strictly speaking, when I received the distress signal from the Charvin and found the fishing boat drifting out of control, it was already the second scene, so I can't be sure that anomaly 099 was just salvaged What was it like at that time—I can only tell you what it was like on the Charlemagne."

Lucrezia paused, recalling the scenes she had seen.

"When I found the ship, there were almost no living people on board. Eleven of the twelve crew members, including the captain, had been beheaded—only one sailor was frightened and half-mad Described to me the 'cursed wooden box' they salvaged.

"He said they couldn't drop the box because it was alive and moving around on the ship, and they couldn't break it because it was so strong and so strong that sailors with self-defense weapons couldn't handle it...

"About this part, you can basically find it in the public information of the Explorers Association, but there is a detail... It is not recorded in the information, but you may be interested.

"During the first half hour after Anomaly 099 was salvaged, the sailors of the Charlene heard several slight rattling noises coming from the box, which sounded... as if something was going on inside forming."

"A slight clicking sound..." Tirian frowned and muttered softly, and then he seemed to want to ask something, but just as he was about to speak, a sudden, slightly hasty bell sound from outside the window interrupted him what he wanted to say.

He raised his head in surprise, and heard the bell ringing clearly and quickly in the gradually darkening sky. After carefully distinguishing it for a while, he said to himself uncertainly: "It's not the evening bell...it sounds like It's 'Xun Zhong'."

"Xunzhong..." Lucrezia's voice came from the crystal ball, "I heard seven short beeps. If I remember correctly, this is the bell representing the summons from the 'Tomb of the Unknown King'?!"

(End of this chapter)