Deep Sea Embers

The White Oak stopped on the surface of the sea, and the "Black Oak" that was shrouded in thick fog like a shadow also stopped with it. In the shadowy shadow of the latter, there seemed to be an invitation hidden.

Lawrence looked at the ship, looking hesitant.

"Should we... want to send someone up to take a look?" The voice of the first mate Gus came from the side, waking Lawrence out of his contemplation.

Lawrence turned his head and looked at the first mate beside him who had been with him for twenty or thirty years: "...you recognized it too, didn't you?"

"...the last time we saw it was near Frost," the first officer looked at the sea not far away, and his tone seemed rather complicated. Like Lawrence, he was still surrounded by burning green flames at this moment, his body Presenting an illusory posture like a ghost, "For so many years, several of our old subordinates have known about your situation, but no one dared to mention this matter..."

Lawrence was silent for a moment, and suddenly said softly: "Do you remember not long ago, you saw a figure standing on the deck talking to me?"

The first mate was slightly taken aback, and immediately realized: "That was..."

"It's Martha—the 'Martha' that only I can see in the past so many years," Lawrence said in a low voice, but what he said made the first officer's eyes gradually widen. I saw her more than once on the boat, and I heard her voice when I was exploring on that 'Dagger Island'... I always thought it was because this strange sea area was amplifying the illusion in my mind, but now it seems that the situation It's not that simple."

The first mate slowly turned his head and looked at the Black Oak shrouded in fog, which remained silent and dead. It took a long time to break the silence: "This is not an illusion, it is here."

Lawrence pursed his lips, as if lost in thought, before speaking suddenly after a few seconds: "Send the signal and see how it reacts."

The first officer nodded immediately: "Yes, captain."

A moment later, a set of lights on the side of the White Oak came on.

The crew, still in ghostly form, turned the baffle in front of the searchlight and fired a series of regular flashes at the black "ghost ship" that was close at hand.

Lawrence stood on the bridge, staring in the direction of the black ghost ship, waiting for some kind of response from the ship—but seemed afraid of seeing any response from it.

"Martha... are you there..."

The tension made him subconsciously grab the armrest beside him, and at the same time, he muttered softly as if talking to himself.

The next second, in the thick black mist, a swaying light spot appeared on the deck of the Black Oak. The light spot turned off after being on for a few seconds, and then turned on again, repeating three times.

"...It responded." The first officer turned his head and looked at his captain with a complicated expression. "You can wait here first, and I will send some sailors up to check the situation first."

"No, I'll go in person." Lawrence waved his hand, and with a gradually calming expression, he had obviously made a decision, "If this is really some kind of phenomenon caused by my gradually losing control of my mind, let other sailors go rashly. That ship must be very dangerous... This matter needs to be faced by me, and only I can solve it myself."

The first mate obviously wanted to say something, but in front of the captain who had already made up his mind, he could only swallow back all the persuasive words: "I understand."

Lawrence nodded lightly: "Go and help me prepare, lanterns, ropes, weapons, ammunition, and more..."

He stopped suddenly and looked at the bridge not far away.

A shriveled mummy wearing an old-time sailor's smock is carefully moving sideways bit by bit. It uses the shadow of the bridge as a cover to try to avoid attracting the attention of others. It is already moving quickly We're at the noose.

Lawrence thought for a while: "I'll take it with me—I can't leave an out-of-control abnormality on the White Oak, and its state is too wrong."

Anomaly 077 stopped instantly.

...

At the same time, in the sewage treatment center near Cemetery No. 4 in Frost City, black-clothed guards were still vigilantly guarding the intersections, and two other soldiers were dedicated to guarding the hapless administrator—the latter was paralyzed. Beside a pipe next to the sewage sedimentation tank, his face was pale and his body was still trembling, but he still tried his best to answer every question of the guards.

"I don't know, I really don't know... How can I tell the difference..." The only ordinary person left on the scene, the only living "human" in the entire sewage treatment center, the middle-aged manager who was bald and kept wiping the cold sweat from his forehead , with fear mixed with nervousness on his face, "This place has always been fine, I have known those people for more than a day, and they never seem to have anything wrong..."

"Relax, you're just an ordinary person, it's normal to be blinded by extraordinary power," the black-clothed guard in charge of the question had to comfort the frightened administrator, while looking up at the sedimentation tank from time to time "The Gatekeeper will take care of those freaks—Lady Agatha will be back soon."

The administrator subconsciously looked up at the open space, and then, the terrible scene not long ago seemed to invade his mind again—the three "church pastors" suddenly turned into unfamiliar faces, and the terrifying ghostly demon emerged from the air. In the middle of the day, more than a dozen employees of the processing center turned into twisted humanoid monsters, and a fierce battle broke out with the black-clothed guards...

The unlucky manager suddenly trembled all over, and quickly closed his eyes, but the darkness caused by closing his eyes caused new fear. He opened his eyes, and the lingering fear on his face was still there.

The guard in black at the side noticed this scene, but could only cast a sympathetic look.

After spending such a long time in the sewage treatment center that has been turned into a lair of freaks, surrounded by lurking murderous cultists and fake freaks that have been replaced by elements-when the truth is suddenly revealed, he does not Being frightened into a lunatic is already an excellent psychological quality.

Those employees who turned into fakes were likely to be replaced one by one, and now the manager is obviously the last one left. If the guards did not break through here suddenly, the manager's fate would probably be replaced by the next one. A "fake" - he obviously thought of this himself, the horror is indescribable.

After the incident here is over, the manager may never be able to return to work at the sewage treatment center—not to mention work, he may need a long period of psychological treatment to return to a normal life, but this is not the guardians Something to consider now.

The guards are more worried about the situation of their boss at the moment—the gatekeeper Agatha is undeniably powerful, and the three ordinary annihilation priests plus a dozen fake freaks who can only be counted as cannon fodder cannot be the one Lady's opponent, but now...she hasn't returned.

After a while, even the manager, who was in a state of panic and uneasiness, noticed the tense and dignified atmosphere on the scene. He raised his head and glanced at the guards in black who were on alert around him. After hesitating for a moment, he couldn't help but speak. Said: "Excuse me...is the gatekeeper all right?"

"Ms. Agatha is in the spirit world, and she is worried that the battle between superhumans will affect you, an ordinary person—and destroy the sewage treatment equipment here," a female guard in black said in a deep voice, her steady voice carried With reassuring power, "Don't worry, no heretic can defeat Bartok's gatekeeper in the spirit world. She should be continuing to investigate clues, so she was delayed when she returned."

The administrator nodded quickly: "Okay...okay..."

And in the next second, a gust of cold wind suddenly blew across the factory area, and several black-clothed guards guarding the intersection looked at the open space near the sedimentation tank in unison.

The female guard who spoke just now breathed a sigh of relief, with a smile on her face: "Ah, it seems that Ms. Agatha has solved the trouble."

As the guardian's voice fell, phantoms suddenly appeared one after another in the open space beside the sedimentation tank—as if another space was reconnecting with the real dimension, hazy and illusory shadows appeared in the air one after another, and In just a few breaths, those shadows quickly solidified again and fell on the dirty ground.

It was a dozen fake freaks that had been turned into humanoid mud, and the cold and mutilated corpses of three Annihilation Cultists.

The corpse of the fake freak quickly "melted" after landing, turning into dry mud that would never wriggle again, while the body of the Annihilation Cultist began to burn the moment he returned to the real world, and was turned into a black flame within a few seconds. There were piles of coke, and the deep demons that lived with them dissipated into the air before recovering their entities.

The manager of the sewage treatment center stared at this surreal scene dumbfounded, and even forgot the fear in his heart for a moment. Then, he saw a whirlwind of gray and white appearing in the middle of the open space. As if there was a dense fog of smoke and dust, in the blink of an eye, a figure wearing a black coat and holding a cane condensed out of the gray wind and stepped forward.

Agatha, who was wrapped in a bandage, raised her head and looked at the familiar dimension of reality in front of her, as well as the subordinates who seemed a little nervous around her.

"The problem is solved." She nodded slightly to her subordinates, her voice was low and reassuringly magnetic, as always.