Deep Sea Embers

The Sea Mist had its chilling effect, creating large and small ice floats around the water that spanned several nautical miles. Even the original calm sea had started to churn into a whirlpool, wrapping and competing with the Vanished’s volcanic explosive green flames. It’s a magnificent display of ice and fire, assuming one ignores both vessels’ ghostly and corruptive nature.

Unfortunately, the Sea Mist only looked strong from the surface at this point. Its engines were grinding with dying roars, and of course, the church’s blessing still worked.

Under this helpless state, the undead sailors watched as the battleship under their feet rushed towards the burning ghost ship, towards the bowels of the most terrifying existence in the open sea. For Tyrian, though, this wasn’t some entry into the devil’s mouth but the long-awaited reunion with his father, whom he could vaguely see by now on the towering stern of the Vanished.

He recognized the towering man standing on the ship like a reef in a storm, steering the creaking wheel with both hands and making an indifferent yet commanding face like all those years ago.

Then, without accident, the two ships “collided”.

The expected devastating impact and disintegration did not come; instead, the crew of the Sea Mist was fortunate enough to experience the same terrifying and strange “spectacle” as the original White Oak – the burning ghost ship rolled over like a colossal mountain. The boundaries of all things became blurred within the flame, turning the Sea Mist and its crew into ethereal ghosts themselves. This scene appeared to the outsider as if a phantom had crashed into another phantom.

First Mate Aiden’s eyes widened in horror. First, he saw the bow and mast of the Vanished rushing towards him, and then he staggered and directly went through the wooden planks before entering one of the cabins on the other ship. After a brief stint of meeting the quaint pillars inside the vessel, and the burning green lanterns, he was back outside, where he’s confronted by the open deck of the flaming ghost ship.

Tyrian subconsciously took half a step back as well over the spectacle, but in the next second, he straightened his chest again as if a certain teaching of his father was still in his ears.

“Don’t back down or bow to the wind and waves!”

So he held his head high and confronted the wind and waves before him.

Then, at a very close distance on the bridge, they faced each other, Duncan being only a few steps from the son’s spot.

It’s here at this moment that the whole world has quieted down.

“I’m busy,” a majestic and deep voice reached everyone’s ears.

Tyrian’s eyes widened in amazement when he jerked to face the direction of that voice.

However, this temporary rendezvous was over in mere seconds as the two phantoms sped past each other at full speed, leaving the dazed undead crew in the rear.

The steel battleship eventually came to a halt little by little though as the invisible force agitating the ship subsided, and now it returned to the hands of the helmsman again. Thanks to the sailors’ efforts, the severely damaged engine had shut down with an unlikely chance of it operating for a while.

“…… What just happened? Aiden scratched his bald head dazedly, “That ship… just left like that? Isn’t it going to fight us to the death?”

The boatswain spoke with lingering fear: “…it seems that it didn’t intend to fight us to the death from the very beginning. It didn’t slow down much, and it just came and ran over us…”

“It’s so terrifying. For just a second there, I felt like my heart was beating again…”

The commotion of the crew had reached Tyrian’s ears, but he was not in the mood to listen to their squabble because only two words were echoing in his head – I’m busy.

It was what his father said – there were no emotions, and it was not at all a “hello” to a family member, borderline estranged. Yet, it was indeed a sentence that humans could understand. Clear and reasonable.

“Captain,” First Mate Aiden came over from the side, looking at Tyrian, who had fallen silent with unease, “what should we do next?”

Tyrian promptly woke up from his thoughts and raised his head: “Can the ship still move?”

“Not quite. The engine is stalled now. It will take a while to repair, and many of our men were injured in the battle just now… It’s quite a serious injury, the kind that we will need to use the shovel for a whole day to clean up,” Aiden shook his glowing bald head. “But the most incredible thing is that those who suffered a direct hit from the Vanished were all fine. Main guns No. 1 and No. 3 are completely gone, but those manning it are still in good health when they fell through the hole with the ball…”

“So you mean, the ones hit by the aftershock were seriously injured, while the men directly hit by the cannon fire came out unscathed?” Tyrian surprisedly confirmed it, then frowned again, “How could this be… …”

“Perhaps… Your father didn’t intend to kill us?” Aiden glanced at his captain and said cautiously, “Judging from the shelling of the Vanished, it seems that it just wanted the Sea Mist to stop…”

“This…” Tyrian said subconsciously but then closed his mouth at what this implied. After a few seconds of silence, he shook his head lightly, “Hurry up, get the ship back up and running. At the same time, send a report to Pland, saying that we have tried our best to intercept it and failed. The Vanished is still heading towards them… The rest is up to the naval forces protecting that island. We have done our part.”

Aiden immediately took the order and left, but he hurried back again after a while: “Captain! We can’t get in touch with Pland’s side!”

“Can’t get in touch?” Tyrian’s frown deepened, “Were the signals disturbed by the battle just now?”

“No, we can still receive signals from the sea patrol hub, but we can’t receive Pland’s or any signal from that island!” Aiden said quickly with a puzzled expression on his face. “The whole city-state seems to have disappeared from the radio… At this distance, this is simply impossible. Even the psionic call from the church side did not respond!”

“Psionic calls didn’t respond either?!” This time, the expression on Tyrian’s face had turned grim and dreaded. The fact that the Vanished was heading straight for that city-state, plus the lack of communication, it doesn’t take much for the man to connect the dots and know something has happened. “When was the communication interrupted? Did anyone monitor the telegraph stations?”

“The last call was yesterday when we had a routine briefing with the port authority. Everything was working properly back then,” Aiden recalled, sputtering as he went. “Do you want to head back instead?”

Speaking of this, the bald sailor paused, and his expression was a little hesitant: “This matter… This is a bit beyond the original plan.”

Tyrian’s face tensed, and he didn’t speak for several seconds before finally exhaling deeply.

“Let’s go to Pland – we will leave after the Sea Mist is restored.”

Aiden was slightly surprised, but after a brief stint, the loyal first mate immediately straightened his chest and saluted: “Yes, Captain!”

……

The turbulent sea around gradually returned to calm, and only the sound of waves could be heard in the ears. Nevertheless, Duncan still scratched his ear as the loud echoes of artillery fire lingered in his mind – he was obviously not comfortable with the sudden encounter just now.

“I thought you wanted to speak with Tyrian just now when you accelerated straight towards the Sea Mist. After all, this is a meaningful reunion,” Goathead’s voice rings within the captain’s head.

“That was my initial intention,” Duncan replied casually, “but I changed my mind at the last second.”

“Why?”

“…… I didn’t know what to say after I greeted him,” Duncan said frankly. After the partial coming clean “showdown” with Goathead, he no longer felt threatened or in danger of being exposed by the wooden sculpture, “We’re not that familiar in the end.”

“…… Well, you do have the final say,” the Goathead has no opinion, “but you’d better think about how to get along with your ‘children’ in the future. Everyone is quite alive, so you must meet them sooner or later. Good family relationships are very important to one’s destiny. I think there was one back then…

“Shut up,” Duncan interrupted the other party’s divergent topic. Then as if he suddenly thought of something else, a strange and mischievous grin appeared on his face, “Speaking of which, it’s a pity that there are fewer people on board right now.”

The Goathead hesitated a little: “Fewer people? You mean…”

“Alice isn’t here. She’s helping to watch the shop over in the city side,” Duncan said in a leisurely and even cheerful tone. “I just suddenly remembered that Tyrian had been working under the Frost Queen back then, and Alice is wearing the face of the Frost Queen. Imagine her being aboard the ship when Tyrian passed us. I wonder what sort of ideas he would have in the coming days…”

Goathead: “…”

“Why are you so quiet? Aren’t you usually very talkative?”

“I don’t have a good comment regarding your family affairs,” Goathead replied, “but after listening to what you said, I think that scene would be worth looking forward to… If not, why don’t we make a round trip? This time with Miss Alice aboard?”

Of course, Duncan ignored this whimsical offer: “I didn’t know you were such a humorous person.”

“What is a humorous person?”

Duncan didn’t answer the other party again, only raising his head and staring off into a certain direction.

Just now, he clearly sensed his other body in Pland and even the flames spreading everywhere on the other side of the curtain.

As he had expected, after getting close enough, the connection between the two sides are strengthening!