The Skeleton Spider emitted a series of chaotic and piercing noises—that was a call mixed with intense spiritual contamination, the roar of a monster teetering on the brink of losing control over its ntal balance, with anger almost materializing into substance. Yet this tangible anger could by no ans affect the ship, which had just co to life, from setting off on its journey ho.
Even though it was severely damaged, even though its perception was already chaotic, the "Saint" could feel the ship beneath its feet accelerating toward a certain direction, could sense the abnormal tremors emanating from the hull—the steam core had been completely destroyed, yet the ship’s propellers were gradually speeding up, the navigation and interlocking systems had vanished, but the ship knew the way ho on its own.
The torn hull still floated nearby, and amidst the shattered frawork, the pale green flas burnt quietly like curtains, isolating the icy seawater and all hope as well.
The steel behemoth, which he had blown to pieces with his own hands, was now heading toward the holy land in the guise of broken remains.
Behind the Skeleton Spider, from that swollen, horrifying giant brain ca a "thump thump thump" of eerie pulsations. Its blood vessels rapidly swelled and writhed as if sothing luminous were brewing inside, and a crazy, destructive aura suddenly began to surge.
But just as the Annihilating Priest was about to use himself as "material" to create a groundbreaking self-explosion, he suddenly found himself losing control over his body.
An eerie rigidity abruptly washed over him; he felt as though each of his limbs and ocular peduncles had instantly turned into sothing as hard as stone or porcelain. Then, as if so irresistible force had descended upon those rigid limbs, it began to pull and secure them outward.
Panic spread from the depths of his mind—the "Saint" exerted all his strength to twist the only functioning ocular peduncle, turning his eyeball in another direction.
There stood a stunning doll with silver hair, dressed in a deep purple court dress, standing quietly amidst the flas, slightly lifting her hand as if manipulating invisible threads—through the sliver of reality refracted by fate, the Saint saw the transparent, almost imperceptible lines entwined around her fingers.
"Anomaly...099..." his angry and frightened voice emanated from within.
"You need to calm down," Alice tilted her head slightly, looking seriously at the ugly Skeleton Spider, "Your threads are tangled, I’m helping you straighten them."
The Skeleton Spider’s body shuddered, and then it finally lost consciousness—yet, in the very last second before its body completely transford into a ’doll,’ Alice released the invisible threads from her hands.
She rembered, the captain needed this "live mouth."
Duncan looked at Alice sowhat surprised and then at the Skeleton Spider, which had lost consciousness entirely, and curiously asked, "It has threads, too?"
"Yes," Alice nodded, "They’re just ssier than those of normal people, but they can still be sorted out..."
Duncan’s forehead creased slightly, a contemplative expression on his face.
At that mont, a gust of wind blew into the engine room, carrying with it splendidly colored confetti—the confetti gathered at a platform so ten ters away from Duncan, coalescing into the figure of Lucresia.
At first glance, Lucresia saw the unmoving Skeleton Spider on the platform, then she noticed the completely destroyed steam core and the differential engine support columns nearby, as well as the countless flas and broken tal frozen in ti, floating in the air.
Duncan stood at the center of it all and nodded to Lucresia, "Everything’s been taken care of here."
"...I heard a huge explosion from the lower decks and saw massive flas and torn tal scattering from the stern..." Lucresia looked a bit dazed, staring at the fantastical sight in the engine room for a long while before continuing, "...You restored its power?"
"It will return to its ho port on its own, although that may take so ti," Duncan gestured dismissively, looking regrettably at the chaos, "It’s a pity, I was quite interested in the differential engine, but now it’s been blown to bits..."
As he spoke, he shook his head and pointed to the "Saint" on the platform.
"Take it with you. This guy is gravely injured, and I need him to recover as quickly as possible—not completely, but just to stabilize his ntal state and vital signs. I need him to open the gate to the Mysterious Deep Sea."
"...Oh, all right, Dad." Lucresia snapped out of her daze, hurriedly stepping forward, lifting her "baton" in her hand, and with a look of disgust, she lightly touched one of the Skeleton Spider’s limbs with the tip of her baton.
A shadow suddenly burst forth from the front of the baton—it seed like sothing sealed within the stick, with Duncan catching only a vague and ferocious outline of it passing through the air. Then he saw the shadow expand and solidify into an abstract, sketch-like monstrous maw that swallowed the Skeleton Spider whole and with a difficult gulp, quickly retracted back into the baton.
Lucresia put away her baton with a disgusted expression.
"...Your spells are all quite useful," Duncan looked at Lucresia’s actions with a subtle expression, speaking with a touch of sentint, "The ’thod’ you used to ’summon’ this ti... it was also pretty good."
"I hope you are satisfied," Lucresia’s face imdiately brightened with a smile, "After hearing you talk about the ’avatars’ you use and the rules of transferring ’beacons’ between avatars before, I’ve been pondering over it. I’m glad it could be of use."
Duncan nodded slightly.
He had co to this ship in his actual form—though he had considered at first only projecting a part of his powers here, upon learning of the situation aboard the ship, it was clear that having his powerful entity teleported directly was a more prudent solution.
But such "teleportation" required the establishnt of a beacon, a beacon to guide Ai Yi— the usual mirror rituals were obviously not enough, and the temporarily possessed bodies of the Annihilating Priests couldn’t withstand it; there were other "things" on the ship that could serve as beacons—but that would only leave the innocent "sacrifice victims" detained by the Heretics in cages.
After all, outside of the Holoss, the so-called "beacons" were possessed bodies.
Using the ship’s innocent sacrifice victims as beacons was clearly against Duncan’s principles.
Fortunately, Lucratia solved this problem with her cleverness—she made an "artificial beacon" that could accommodate the arrival of Duncan’s powers in advance.
She brought the beacon, relying on Rabi to control the summoning ritual perford by the Heretics to teleport onto the ship first, and then used the power of the artificial beacon to summon Duncan’s actual form here—so far, the "chain summoning" process had been very effective.
Duncan looked down at his hands.
His current body was "attached" to the artificial beacon created by Lucratia—that beacon was now inside him, running exceptionally well.
"The beacon test went smoothly," Duncan lifted his head and said to Lucratia, "If it can operate stably for a long period, then carry one on you from now on, so that if you encounter any danger, I can imdiately co to your side— it’s more useful than the mirror ritual."
Lucratia was slightly taken aback, seemingly surprised, but slowly, a smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"Then I’ll also send one to my older brother later..."
"There’s already one of my avatars at Frost’s," Duncan glanced at her, "He even visited my grave this morning, he doesn’t need your ’artificial beacon.’"
Lucratia suddenly looked a bit disappointed, "...Oh."
"...Don’t always think about troubling your brother."
"Oh."
Duncan shook his head helplessly.
"How are the ’sacrifice victims’ on the ship?"
"I and Rabi have found them," Lucratia quickly adjusted her expression when the conversation turned serious, "The good news is that the place where the sacrifice victims are detained is located at the front half of the ship, at the bottom deck. The explosion in the engine room has not reached there since you suppressed it, so no one died from the explosions or fire. The bad news... their condition is very bad, extrely bad. So had already died in their cells before we arrived— the voyage at sea is dull, and those Heretics tortured the sacrifice victims for entertainnt, even killing those who lost their ’blood-food’ value for fun..."
She paused, carefully observing Duncan’s extrely gloomy face.
"...But rest assured, I will do my best to save those who survived, even those on the brink of death—I can save them. However, their ntal state is another matter, and that would require more professional psychological counseling."
"Mhm," Duncan nodded gently, his gloomy expression easing a bit. He took a breath, pondered for a mont, and then asked, "Have you found the ’Skull of Dreams’ yet?"
"Still looking," Lucratia answered, "It’s a valuable yet dangerous ’sealed item’, likely to be hidden in the most heavily guarded and most concealed place on the ship. I have dispatched my toy soldiers and shadow servants to search every cabin from top to bottom, so it should not take long to find it."
Alice, who had been standing by and listening curiously for a while, finally seed to catch up with the conversation and suddenly interjected with so concern, "It hasn’t been destroyed in the blast, has it..."
"It shouldn’t be," Lucratia shook her head, "The Skull of Dreams is a sealed item with animating, contaminating tendencies, and it can’t be placed too close to the steam core; otherwise, it could possess the machinery— even those Heretics should have that much common sense."
"Mmm..." Listening to Lucratia’s analysis, Duncan nodded slightly, his tone subtly conveying, "Though honestly, figuring out how to deal with it after finding it will be a problem... I’m not sure if it would adapt to be placed next to the goat head."
Lucratia thought for a mont, "...The first mate is very accommodating, I think it’ll be fine."
"Let’s leave that until after we find it," Duncan waved his hand dismissively, "First, take to see the condition of these ’sacrifice victims’."
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