Deep Sea Embers

With a loud bang, the ugly and shriveled "mummy" soared from the deck and hit a pile of debris not far away like a cannonball.

The sailors on the deck were startled by the huge movement. Lawrence, who was watching the situation not far away, immediately jumped down from the platform and led a group of people to quickly run towards the direction where the "Sailor" hit - in the direction where the "Sailor" fell. Among a large pile of messy debris, the shriveled corpse wearing a sailor's blouse was struggling hard. He finally pulled his head out of a broken box. He was dizzy after seeing the sailors gathered around him. Shaking his head: "I...I saw..."

First Mate Gus pulled the mummy out and said, "What did you see?"

"I saw that I was too titty..."

The first mate kicked the mummy back again: "You're such an anomaly, where did you get your breasts from?!"

Lawrence instantly confirmed that there was nothing wrong with Anomaly 077, so he turned and walked aside, coming to the "man who fell into the sea" who had just been fished out.

An elf in southern-style clothing was half-lying on the deck in a daze, leaning on the winch used to tow cargo. His expression looked a little dazed - he was soaked and in a state of embarrassment, but there did not appear to be any obvious trauma on his body.

But when Lawrence came closer, the elf's reaction was obviously abnormal - he just turned his head slowly and slightly, as if he was still not fully awake, his dull eyes glanced around, and then slowly turned back.

Ted Leal was still in a state of confusion, not knowing where he was.

After instinctively blowing away the ugly shriveled corpse, he has been in this state - his head seems to have been stuffed with a large ball of sticky and chaotic paste, weird noises are constantly echoing in the depths of his mind, and shadows appear in his field of vision. The edges were shaking constantly, interfering with his judgment and thinking.

He knew that he had left the subspace, and the sea breeze and sound of waves coming around him were undoubtedly the real world, but that terrible "dark journey" still left a long-lasting burn mark on his sanity. The burn marks were slowly spreading, becoming a horrific aftereffect of witnessing the warp and continuing to paralyze his nerves.

He is already extremely lucky - almost no one can survive after witnessing the subspace, let alone return to the real dimension with human sanity after a terrible "travel", but he has not yet had time to lament that there is no chance of surviving the disaster. Fortunately - the remaining reason is urging him to regain consciousness as soon as possible and fix his mind in the real dimension as soon as possible, because the fatal pollution and shadow have not completely subsided, they are coming from the cracks that humans cannot detect and understand. Launch an attack, trying to drag him back to that chaotic and dark place...

A buzzing and rumbling sound came from the side, sounding like thunder through a thick curtain. A man walked over. He was a strong old man with gray hair. He seemed to be talking, opening and closing his mouth, making sounds that humans could not understand. the sound of.

"Wake up, wake up," Lawrence reached out and slapped the strange elf on the face, trying to wake up the unlucky guy who was drifting on the sea for some reason. "What's your name?"

A hazy shadow appeared beside him, and Martha reminded him in the shadow: "Be careful, Lawrence, this man appears suspiciously - he drifted over from the sea after the sun went out, and there's no telling what he's going to do." What is it..."

"Don't worry, Martha, anyway, even a thing floating out of subspace is not much more evil than us," Lawrence said casually, but he was still a little more cautious, putting one hand on the pistol at his waist, and Wisps of weak green flames danced in the bomb nest, "Did you see clearly when this man appeared from the edge of darkness just now? How did he appear?"

"There is no warning," Martha's shadow carefully observed the suspicious elf who had his eyes open, but did not look like he had woken up at all, and replied in a low voice, "I have been paying attention to the spirit world from the moment the sun went out. He appeared suddenly due to the surrounding situation... Such a guy appeared out of thin air in the darkness."

"This is the first time I have encountered this situation..."

Lawrence muttered, and subconsciously looked up outside the side of the ship, looking at the undulating waves around the White Oak - a small piece of seawater was illuminated by the light emitted by the White Oak, as if it still maintained the sea before the sun went out. It looks normal, but outside the limited sea area, there is an invisible border. The boundless sea beyond the border is dark and strange, as if there is only nothingness left in the whole world.

And this suspicious elf suddenly appeared from that invisible boundary.

At this moment, the "Drifter" who was leaning next to the winch suddenly moved his eyes.

Lawrence turned around suddenly and stared at the other person.

The elf opened his mouth, but what reached Lawrence's ears was a series of hoarse noises that humans could not understand or even utter: "@##￥%...?"

Lawrence: "...?!"

The moment he heard this series of noises, the warning signs suddenly rose. The experience accumulated from floating on the boundless sea for most of his life instantly made the old captain take two steps back, and at the same time, he drew his revolver at a speed that was almost invisible to the naked eye. , and almost at the same time, the surrounding sailors on guard also reacted immediately, all kinds of weapons pointed at the "drifter", and even the "sailor" who finally climbed out of the debris again He didn't know where he drew a machete and waved it beside him.

The "Drifter" on the deck opened his eyes wide and seemed a little confused for a moment. He opened his hand to indicate that he had no weapons, and spoke again to make that hoarse, harsh noise that seemed to break the minds of ordinary people: "%\u0026 **%￥!!”

Then he stopped suddenly.

Ted Leal finally realized that what he was uttering was not "human" speech—it wasn't even speech.

It was a tremor that even he couldn't understand, a meaningless sound.

It was the echo of the warp.

He reacted in an instant, and the next second, he noticed that the world in front of him was distorting - the people who gathered around him, who looked like ordinary innocent sailors, suddenly had rising and shrinking shadows. Countless malicious eyeballs appeared behind the gray-haired old captain. The nearby deck was gradually softening, taking on a mud-like texture. An invisible curtain was slowly opening, and the erosion of subspace was instantaneous...

However, just when Ted Leal was about to sacrifice himself to stop the opening of the subspace rift, a green flame suddenly appeared in his eyes.

Gloomy spiritual flames appeared on Lawrence's body, and then, the flames that looked like living creatures jumped and spread, rising and burning on every sailor nearby, turning them into ghost-like forms, and then burned towards them. The surrounding decks, burning cables, bridges, chimneys...

The mummy that was waving a machete and joining in the fun screamed as the spiritual fire rose, and jumped to the side as if it had been burned, but soon came back pretending to be nonchalant, and used The scimitar carefully touched the flames on the nearby deck, lit a little tinder on the tip of the blade, held it above his head, and pretended that he was one of the burning flames.

The door to subspace was completely banished before it could be opened. Ted Leal felt that all the noises and shadows in his body were burned and dispersed by the invisible flames - the flames isolated the last entanglement of subspace on him. The touch of the real world seems to have never been so clear and stable as now.

He raised his head in astonishment and looked at the old captain whose body was burning with green flames, feeling a little confused.

Why does this fire look so familiar?

"What was that thing just now?" Lawrence was also a little confused. He muttered while continuing to look at the "elf" opposite him with caution, although it was suspicious, but it didn't look like a cultist or a filthy demon. He was a little confused about what to do next. Yes, "Is it some kind of spell?"

"...Who are you?" Ted Leal suddenly spoke. This time, he made a voice that humans can understand, "What is this place?"

"You can speak?!" Lawrence was shocked for a moment, but he couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the elf speaking human language. Although he didn't know what was going on, the sense of crisis in his heart did subside a little, "... …This is the White Oak, and I’m its captain.”

"White Oak?" Ted Leal frowned slightly, seeming to vaguely remember when he had heard this name - but the continuous mental trauma and severe fatigue made his mind still a little confused, and he thought for a moment Unable to find any specific information about this ship, "What is your relationship with the Lost Home? What is your relationship with Captain Duncan?"

"Captain Duncan?" Lawrence was stunned when he heard this. This was the first time he heard someone mention this name so frankly outside, but he soon realized it and nodded, "That's my boss."

Ted Leal: "...?"

…

"Ted Leal is missing?!"

In the "Witch Mansion" in Breeze Port, Duncan, who had just returned to the city, was surprised when he heard the news brought by Lucretia.

"Yes, this is the news that just came from the academy," Lucretia nodded. She just went outside a few minutes ago. "Ted Leal left the 'Glowing Geometry' fifteen minutes ago. The nearby research station left through the portal, but he did not appear at the planned location of Qingfeng Port after that."

"Only fifteen minutes?" Shirley on the side looked over and said, "It doesn't seem to be too long, let's look for it..."

"Use the portal to move - if no one arrives the moment the door opens, something has already happened," Lucretia glanced at Shirley, "I'm afraid this is a spell out of control caused by the sun extinguishing."