Starlight Within

Among the many figures reflected in the King of the Pale Giants' chaotic single eye, there was an empty space—was it a coincidence, or had the Ancient Kings intended it?

Duncan only knew that when he came to the ship's rail and carefully observed that enormous eye, he happened to be standing before that empty space—his figure was reflected there. It was only after he made out the other indescribable figures through the murky sediment-like haze on the giant eye's surface that he noticed it.

Perhaps it really was just a coincidence—he wanted to tell himself that, but in Subspace, before the corpse of an ancient god, he did not believe in such coincidences.

Duncan frowned tightly, then cautiously, little by little, slowly backed away, as if afraid of waking something here.

The dead King of the Pale Giants, and the figures of the kings reflected in that single eye—Duncan always felt that these beings were silently watching him, watching his every move, like distant gazes cast from the river of time.

With cautious, slow movements, he left the front of the single eye.

Yet the very next second, he saw his reflection appear again, once more quietly mirrored in that eye, among the kings.

Duncan's eyes widened slightly in an instant. He felt as though his heart had skipped half a beat, and then an even more unexpected sight appeared before him:

The figure he had left in the giant's single eye was gradually changing.

The tall, imposing, blurry figure clad in a captain's uniform and wearing a gloomy tricorne trembled and shifted, as though some illusion were fading away. It swiftly became another form—a "human" in a white shirt and black trousers, not particularly robust in appearance, with features too blurred to make out.

That was "Zhou Ming."