Temporary Communication

The atmosphere around them seemed to have changed without a sound—something, some immensely vast "structure," was taking shape near the Lost Homeland.

Duncan stood at the edge of the stern helm, keeping watch over Alice, but suddenly seemed to sense something. He and Vana raised their heads in unison and looked up at the sky.

A vast, indistinct "phantom" was slowly emerging amid the dim daylight and thin mist.

The phantom seemed to be loosely assembled from many fragmented massive chunks, yet possessed an overall spindle-like outline. It looked as though it had been torn from an even larger entity, and broken connecting structures could faintly be made out at its center!

Its scale was astonishing. Through the distant mist, Duncan and Vana could not even judge its actual size, nor how high above the Lost Homeland it floated. Yet the mere pressure emanating from a phantom was already enough to make them feel unable to breathe.

Vana stood petrified on the deck, staring blankly up at the immense phantom hidden among the clouds and daylight. After an unknown amount of time, she finally murmured in stunned disbelief, "What... is that?!"

Duncan abruptly turned his gaze toward the doll clutching the helm—Alice was still standing quietly there, but at some point her eyes had drooped. They were half-open as though she were about to fall asleep, and her soul seemed no longer to be inside that shell.

Countless faint "threads" extended from her body.

Perhaps because he had shared her "vision" several times, Duncan vaguely saw those nearly transparent strands—they hung down from the sky in dense profusion, like an enormous tree of astonishing structure, or a converging inverted cone. One end was clearly connected to the vast phantom in the sky, while the other all gathered behind the doll...