Deep Sea Embers

Underground Nangang, the submersible control hall is brightly lit.

The light from gas lamps and electric lights makes the whole hall bright like daylight. The huge oval diving equipment is being suspended on the top of the slide leading to the sea by steel cables. The undead engineers are busy everywhere, entering the water for the submersible. Doing the final stage of inspection and adjustment.

Next to the steel platform where the submersible was secured, Duncan was sitting in a chair watching all this calmly, waiting for Tirian's men to get everything ready.

Those undead who looked weird and ugly, even bordering on frightening, looked enthusiastic, even faintly carrying a kind of joy and excitement.

A strong bald man with a nervous face came over from not far away, and bent down in front of Duncan uneasily: "Uh...Old Captain, it's nice to meet you..."

Duncan looked up at this strong man wearing a sailor's shirt, with a shiny head and pale complexion like a dead man, compared the information he had learned before in his mind, and nodded slightly: "You are Aiden. Followed Tirian during the Township Fleet."

"It's me," Aiden grinned suddenly, "do you remember me?"

"I don't remember," Duncan shook his head, "Sorry, I don't remember most of the things, the subspace has damaged my memory, I heard about you and the other 'first-stage sailors' of the Sea Fog Fleet from other people of."

"Don't apologize, don't apologize," Aiden said while shaking his head with an even more embarrassed look, "It's good that you... can come back, everyone misses you very much."

"It should be quite scary, right?" Duncan smiled and glanced around the hall, and many eyes unconsciously dodged in fear during his sweeping process, "Fortunately, I am only using an avatar now, if it is the main body Coming here, I am afraid that most sailors will not be able to work with peace of mind."

"More than half of them are from the 'Second Phase'. They are really afraid of you," Aiden grabbed the button of his shirt awkwardly. "After all, their first contact with you..."

"I know, the Frost Encounter half a century ago." Duncan exhaled lightly, and said casually, and when his voice fell, Tirian walked over quickly.

"The submersible is ready, father."

"Oh, it looks like it's time to go."

A smile suddenly appeared on Duncan's face. He got up from his chair and walked towards the platform for fixing the submersible together with Tirian. The diving equipment, which embodies the wisdom and hard work of countless people, is already waiting quietly— —

The circular hatch on its side has been opened, facing the thick water-tight compartment, the light illuminates the structure inside the sphere, the inside does not look spacious, except for many dazzling pipes, valves and control panels, for The space for people's activities seems to be able to accommodate three or four people at most.

Duncan observed the situation of the submersible, then stepped forward.

But in the next second, he stopped suddenly, looking in a certain direction as if sensing something.

A swirling gray wind suddenly swept into the hall, and quickly circled to the submersible platform, condensing and forming in front of Duncan, Tirian and others.

Agatha's figure stepped out of the gray wind—still dressed as a blind nun in a long black dress and loose long hair.

"I want to go with you."

She didn't talk nonsense, and she spoke directly when she came to Duncan.

"You want to dive too?" Duncan looked at Agatha in surprise, "Why?"

"Because I want to 'see' with my own eyes, what is under the frost," Agatha said calmly and firmly, "As the protector of this city, I cannot stay in the safe cathedral and wait for your achievements ,and……"

She stopped suddenly, and after a few seconds of silence, she raised her head and "gazing" into Duncan's eyes through the thick black cloth.

"Moreover, this is the city of the Frostman, the business of the Frostman. In the submersible we built, there must be at least one Frostman, just... let me represent Winston Consul, and the Frostman's Let the successive consuls go down and take a look."

"A reasonable reason, and you should already know the risks of doing so. Since you are aware, I won't persuade you much." Duncan nodded, then turned his head and looked at Tirian.

The latter reacted quickly, and said, "The submersible is designed to accommodate up to four people. Of course, there is no problem for two people to go in, but..."

"It's okay, I don't need to breathe." Agatha said softly, interrupting Tirian's words.

Tirian was taken aback for a moment, then stepped back: "Okay, then there's no problem."

Duncan laughed. He walked to the hatch of the submersible, turned around and extended his hand to Agatha: "Very good, let's go."

He and Agatha got into the submersible, and the heavy round hatch slowly closed.

Two strong undead sailors stepped onto the platform and tightened the locking structure of the hatch from the outside.

Thick steel separated the inside and outside of the submersible, and the narrow passenger compartment became quiet, only the occasional humming from certain machines and pipes could be heard.

There was no place to sit in the crew cabin, so Duncan and Agatha stood in front of the console, holding on to the iron pipes on both sides that served as guardrails, and through the extremely thick and sturdy glass portholes embedded in the bulkhead next to them, they could see Undead sailors around the platform were loosening the cables securing the submersible and releasing the safety pins on either side of the steel frame.

Tirian's voice came from a small device in the corner of the submersible console: "Father, Ms. Agatha, can you hear me?"

Duncan came to the console: "Okay, it's very clear."

"Okay. I won't say much about the control of the submersible. Its function is actually very simple. You shouldn't get it wrong. Now let me talk about what happens after entering the water.

"The power of the submersible is provided by a small steam core and a generator connected to the steam core, which is theoretically enough to run to complete all deep-diving tasks, but if there is a problem with the steam core or the generator, its bilge is still There are two batteries, which can keep the submersible running for about two hours...

"There are three sets of high-power searchlights for the external lighting, but the effect is limited in the deep sea environment, so please be careful to control it. In addition, there is a lot of resistance on the seabed, and the power of the propulsion system can only make the submersible move slowly. This also requires attention...

"The effective distance of the communication device on the submersible is only 300 meters, so after the depth exceeds 300 meters, we can no longer talk like this, but your strength or Ms. Agatha's psychic resonance should not be affected.

"Also...Although I may be worrying too much, even you, please pay attention to the dangers in the deep sea-if you encounter something wrong, please float up immediately. The lever on the upper left corner of the console is for emergency floatation, pull it It will directly throw off the ballast structure at the bottom of the submersible, and spread the buoyancy balls on both sides of the hull... In the worst case, just abandon the submersible and use your power to teleport back directly with Ms. Agatha It is also possible, the machine can be rebuilt..."

Duncan listened carefully to these reminders from Tirian.

To be honest, this "former Lengliehai pirate" is indeed a bit long-winded, and many of his exhortations are unnecessary in Duncan's view.

But Duncan still patiently listened to every word Tirian said, until the other party's voice fell, and he said in a deep voice: "I see, let's start."

Outside the submersible, on the command seat at the end of the hall, Tirian took a deep breath, and then nodded to the subordinates beside him.

"Open the sea valve!"

"The channel is filled with water!"

"Disconnect the submersible's external cable and prepare to release the hook!"

The deep roar penetrated the steel hull of the submersible, echoed weakly in the spherical cabin, and slight vibrations came from under the feet, accompanied by the creaking and rubbing sound of the hull.

The sea valve was opened, and the seawater was rapidly rising in the tunnel leading directly to the sea below the facility, and gradually reached the predetermined water level. The last two steel cables above the submersible began to creak and were released little by little.

Duncan and Agatha felt a shake at first, and then sank down—after a short period of weightlessness, the submersible entered the water, and they began to sink along the inclined corridor, and were guided by a series of slides. A seaport on the outer edge of Nangang moved.

Outside the porthole, the sea water surged up, and then gradually fell into darkness. In the darkness, only occasional flashes of light could be seen. Those lights flashed faster and faster, and the vibration of the submersible became stronger—and finally, all the vibrations returned to calm .

Outside the porthole, there is only an endless dark blue that is gradually fading.

The sun shines through the sea water above, and casts a series of moving, alternating light and dark beams outside the window. In the gradually darkening sea water, there are bubbles floating up from the hull, accompanied by the afterglow of the sun, as if some kind of lingering Sea creatures with psychedelic colors.

Agatha seemed to be attracted by the "scenery" outside the porthole.

She slowly left the bridge, leaned on the handrail and came to the porthole. She leaned over curiously, and through the thick black cloth strips, she stared at the area that was rapidly sinking into the darkness with her eyes that had turned into hollows. dark blue.

"What can you see?"

While familiarizing himself with the uncomplicated levers and buttons on the console, Duncan turned around and asked casually.

"Lights, all kinds of twilight," Agatha said softly, as if talking to herself, and as if she was intoxicated with ecstasy, "they flow like rivers, forming a huge, complex but well-ordered circulation...but it's pretty dark out there now, isn't it?"

"There is still a little sunlight remaining, but it will soon be completely dark," Duncan manipulated the submersible and slowly turned an angle, "What now?"

"An incomparably huge 'light curtain', faint but filled my entire field of vision," Agatha said, with a tone of shock, "What is that?"

"It's frost," Duncan said calmly. Through the porthole, he saw an extremely wide and rough and mottled "cliff" standing quietly in the sea under the increasingly weak sunlight and the high-power searchlight of the submersible. Among them, "is the 'pedestal' of the city-state."