In the first few minutes, Heidi did not get up from the hospital bed rashly, but carefully observed the situation around her, listened to the movement outside the room, and then raised her wrist to check the number and color arrangement of the colored stones on the bracelet.
After doing this, she subconsciously reached out and touched the "Amethyst" pendant on her chest - a slightly cold touch came from her fingertips, conveying reassuring power.
Thinking of the true origin of this pendant and the source of this protective power, the psychiatrist's face looked a little strange, but soon she suppressed the strange feeling, leaving only a helpless sigh - —
"Fate is really incredible..." She couldn't help but murmur softly.
"Yes, in your eyes, fate is really incredible."
A strange and deep voice suddenly came from the side, causing Heidi to wake up instantly, and the muscles all over her body suddenly tensed.
She suddenly turned her head to look in the direction of the sound, only to see a figure wearing a dark brown old robe sitting there near the window of the ward. The old robe covered almost all of the other person's body parts. The outline details, and the thick and wide hood shrouded all his facial features in shadow. It can only be judged from the rickety figure, deep voice, and a few wrinkles on the edge of the shadow of the hood that this seems to be an old man.
The sun was pouring into the room at an angle, and some dust slowly floated and moved in the brilliance of the setting sun. The light left mottled and intermittent projections on the folds of this mysterious man's robe. In a trance, the figure actually looked like a phantom. Translucent texture.
Who is this? When did it appear here? Was he there just now?
A series of horrifying questions instantly appeared in Heidi's mind, and at the same time, her hand subconsciously reached for the suitcase next to the bed.
However, before her hand touched the suitcase, the low and hoarse voice came from the window again: "There is no need to be so hostile, Miss Heidi, I am not your enemy today - and your golden awl and pistol You can’t kill a temporary traveler, just sit down, I’m just here to chat with you and treat it as a way to relieve your boredom.”
However, Heidi still took out the pistol from the hidden compartment of the suitcase with an expressionless face. She quietly pointed the gun at the other party and said in a deep voice: "...Who are you?"
The figure in the robe did not answer Heidi, but slowly raised his arms and looked at his hands carefully in the sunlight coming in from the window. As if he suddenly discovered some interesting phenomenon, he put his He put his arm in the sun and observed it repeatedly.
The sleeves of the old robe slipped down, and the arms were as dry as branches and wrinkled as cracks.
Heidi looked at the other party's strange behavior with vigilance, and suddenly noticed the strange state of the arm in the sun - it really became transparent from time to time, and for a few moments, she could even see it The sunlight penetrates the arm and shines directly on this side.
"It's incredible...I have almost forgotten what the sun looks like..."
The man in the robe marveled, with an unexplainable emotion in his tone. Then, he suddenly turned his head, as if talking to Heidi, and muttered to himself: "...on the fourth Before the second long night begins, things will change. The sunshine will become gentler, and the once distinct 'boundaries' established by the sunshine will also become blurred. What was once exiled, what was forgotten, what was once erased , what has been changed will be briefly allowed to return to this world - we bathe in this dusk together, waiting for the moment when the sun sets..."
The voice of this uninvited guest was low and slow. Rather than speaking to anyone, it seemed more like he was facing an already written chapter and slowly reciting the ancient words on it.
Like a preacher, announcing his destiny to the world.
Heidi listened to the other party's chanting that seemed to have mysterious bewitching power, and suddenly she vaguely thought of something, and her eyes instantly became sharp: "Preacher of the End?!"
The figure in the robe finally raised his head. In the hazy shadow cast by the hood, a pair of strange golden eyes stared calmly here: "Miss Heidi, you have established a connection with the promised ark, Do you see the end of that journey?”
"I'm not interested in the bewitchment of cultists." Heidi's voice was cold and hard, her finger pressed slightly on the trigger, but her other hand subconsciously grabbed the amethyst pendant on her chest, and a sense of tension gradually spread in her heart. .
She had no idea - although she had dealt with mental patients and their mental illnesses, as well as monsters and shadows that appeared in nightmares, she had never dealt with "rare enemies" like the Evangelists. There are very few records of space madmen, and there is no targeted training for these cultists in the self-protection courses of the martial arts school affiliated with the Academy of Truth. She does not know how effective the gun in her hand can be, nor does she know whether the extraordinary power she possesses is efficient.
However, the uninvited guest had no reaction when he saw Heidi's obviously hostile behavior.
He seemed very different from the final preacher Heidi had learned about in the textbook.
"We smelled something unusual, Miss Heidi, just after the promised ark came," he said calmly, even politely, "a huge, boundless void, which appeared after the end, where There is nothing... We are looking for ways to avoid the doomsday, but now it seems that beyond the doomsday is a huge void that is more terrifying than the doomsday... You have contacted Him, and now you have become a part of this void. We are very curious...what happened?"
The words of this uninvited guest sounded mysterious and incomprehensible, sounding like riddles one after another. It was as if although they were rational, they had lost the ability to communicate with ordinary people in a long and chaotic time. However, even though In this way, Heidi still captured some specious information from the other party's words, and couldn't help but feel moved.
She frowned slightly.
"You're talking about...Duncan Abnomar? You mean, he brought some sort of 'hole'?"
The old preacher slowly stood up from the chair. Under the sun, his figure was much taller than Heidi had imagined. Even though he was stooped, he was still like a giant: "I don't know, we only know The hole has been created and is expanding. Perhaps one day, it will cover the entire night sky during this fourth long night..."
Heidi became nervous because of the other party's sudden move, and raised the muzzle of the gun in her hand slightly: "Heretic, what do you want from me?"
"...We are eager to know the nature of this void." The other party actually answered her question seriously. However, he soon shook his head, "Unfortunately, it seems that I came at the wrong time."
Heidi was stunned when she heard this, and subconsciously asked: "What does this mean?"
The other party did not answer, but slowly turned around and looked at the sunshine outside the window.
"What do you mean by the fourth long night?" Heidi asked again.
The uninvited guest just waved his hand.
"During this window period, we can only have limited communication - it's time to leave," Evangelist Zhongyan said softly, and stepped towards the sunshine, "We may meet in the next window period, or we may not, It depends on how fast the hole expands...but whether or not the next window comes, sooner or later we will see each other again...dusk is near."
His figure finally became completely transparent and melted into the sunlight in an instant.
Heidi was stunned.
If the memory in her mind were not clear and stable, if the touch of the pistol and the amethyst pendant were not so clear, she would almost think that she had just had another dream.
And then, as the aura of the final preacher completely disappeared, she suddenly felt a subtle change in the "atmosphere" in the room.
It was as if some blocking force had receded from the room.
Slightly hasty footsteps came from the corridor outside the ward.
…
In the captain's cabin of the Lost Home, Duncan sat quietly at the navigation table, still recalling the information he had seen and sensed in the strange dream.
After an unknown amount of time, Morris's voice suddenly sounded from the side, interrupting his thinking: "I thought you would consider letting Heidi join this ship."
Duncan raised his head and glanced at the old gentleman with a smile: "Didn't you say before that you didn't want her to get too close to the Homeless Ship?"
"At that time... I was still a little nervous about the ship," Morris smiled awkwardly, then shook his head, "And Heidi didn't know anything about us at that time, but now that she knows, No need to shy away from anything more.”
Duncan thought for a while and said seriously: "Indeed, but after thinking about it carefully, it seems that there is no need for a psychiatrist on this ship."
Then he turned his head, glanced out the window, and said casually: "Who here needs psychological counseling? You don't need it, Agatha doesn't need it, and I don't need it. Vanna's will is so strong that even I am shocked, Shirley The reason is bound to Agou, Agou is a deep demon, Nina is a fragment of the sun, Alice...Alice has no heart at all, is there anything else? A goat head? "
The goat head on the navigation table immediately turned his neck when he heard his name: "Ah, great captain, your first mate is always tough and reliable, and will not be defeated by so-called psychological problems. Moreover, I have studied many psychology courses by myself. , completely able to do it myself..."
"Shut up."
"oh."
"So, you see," Duncan turned to Morris and spread his hands, "If Heidi comes, then the person most likely to need a psychiatrist on this ship is herself."
Morris thought for a moment, silently grabbed the pipe, and muttered before putting it in his mouth: "It seems to be the same..."
(End of chapter)
