A Solitary Vigil

Hearing the tomb guard's answer, Duncan said nothing for a long time—the answer was astonishing, yet for some reason, he felt as though he had already... anticipated it.

"...The 'creator' you keep mentioning was the Crawling King? Or rather... the Abyssal Lord?"

"We usually called him Navigator One," the tomb guard said, slowly lowering his head. "Or the Cluster Controller—but we also knew the names Crawling King and Abyssal Lord. The Final Survey Team mentioned them in intelligence transmitted back from a certain point in time."

The towering tomb keeper fell silent for several seconds before speaking softly, almost to himself. "We have not received any news from the creator for a very long time either."

Duncan did not respond. Chaotic thoughts filled his mind. After a brief moment of consideration, he raised his head and looked at the body upon the throne. "So Navigator One collected part of the King of Dreams' remains during the Third Long Night, then used his unique authority of 'replication' to design the Crete race in the King of Dreams' image as his assistants... The entire Crete race was 'manufactured' this way? Including the Final Survey Teams?"

"Of course," the tomb keeper replied evenly. "The world was still in chaos then. The creator briefly released some mortals into the unfinished shelters, only to discover that they could not yet survive, much less be of any use. So he could only seek assistance from beings as powerful as himself—the Sasloca who had died during the previous Genesis process were the most suitable choice."

Duncan quietly listened to the tomb keeper's account, but his expression could not help growing increasingly strange. He suddenly realized that, if this fact was followed to its logical conclusion... did that not mean all Endtime Evangelists could be considered Sasloca's "offspring"?!