Life in the Hourglass

To be honest, for a brief few seconds, Duncan even had an absurd and unsettling thought—had he arrived too late?

Had the Goddess of Storms, whose death had been "delayed" for ten thousand years, failed to wait for him to enter simply because he had set out a little late or been delayed along the way? Had she truly and completely died here? Had her will already dissipated?

But that somewhat absurd thought quickly vanished from Duncan's mind—he had confirmed that until the Lost Homeland docked beside this island, Vana had still "read" Goddess of Storms Gemona's thoughts. That meant that, at least at that time, she had remained in some sort of "active" state...

It couldn't really be such a coincidence, could it?

Duncan glanced up at Vana with a strange expression, only to see that she had turned to look at him as well. Their gazes met briefly before both of them awkwardly looked away.

"...Let's not think too much about it yet. We'll go down and see what's going on." After pondering for two or three seconds, Duncan took the lead and walked forward, the others following close behind.

They entered the circular "hall," so vast that it seemed to defy the laws of architecture, and stepped onto the spiraling staircase that descended level by level. It was as though they were walking into a whirlpool, heading toward the pool at the foot of the stairs. The enormous, pallid tentacles of the Queen Leviathan sprawled nearby, their smaller branches extending like roots and merging with the black "stones" that made up the structure before withering away between the steps.

Duncan suddenly had the feeling that this immense palace, and even the black island carrying it, resembled a gigantic artificial "shell." The ancient sea beast granted "divinity" was