Road Through the Fog

The Four Churches had assembled a massive fleet at the borders of the civilized world—and they had been doing so for some time.

The reduction of regular patrol fleets and the large-scale concentration of ships, personnel, and supplies near the Eternal Veil were movements too vast to hide from the border city-states. Even before today, Lucretia had learned of the Churches' unusual actions from Sala Mel, but neither she nor Duncan had been able to understand their purpose—until now.

The truth that the gods were dead, the Pilgrimage Ark's true purpose, and the fact that the gods had entered the "corruption phase" ahead of time finally allowed Duncan to guess what those fleets were for.

"...We are looking for 'them,'" Helena finally said after a brief silence. "That is one of our objectives, and our original objective."

"You mean the gods are in that 'dense fog' within the Eternal Veil?!" Lucretia shot to her feet, staring at the four popes across from her in disbelief. "Right outside the 'border'?!"

"We are not sure," Banster replied, slowly shaking his head. "But we are certain that the earliest traces of 'decay' seeped in from the Eternal Veil at the border. So our current plan is only to locate the source of those traces. As for what we might see at that source... no one knows."

Rune took over. "It may be the gods' 'divine realm,' or merely some kind of 'connection point' through which they connect to the mortal world, or perhaps..."

He stopped there and did not continue.

After a moment of silence, Duncan suddenly asked, "You said that was only one objective. What are the others? Besides searching for 'them,' what else do you intend to do?"

"Another objective is to figure out exactly what has happened to this world,"