Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Walking the Spirit Realm.

The door closed behind him, shutting out Goathead’s hollow gaze.

Yet Duncan could still clearly sense the Vanished and every small change on this ghost ship. In that shared perception that felt like an extra limb, he “saw” a series of sails on the Vanished finely adjusting their angles to the sea breeze, while the black wheel on the steering platform at the stern turned slightly, making the Vanished even steadier on the waves.

As he had expected, Goathead had temporarily taken over the helm and was carefully carrying out his duties as First Mate. But Duncan could still seize control of the ship himself at any time.

Compared with when he steered it directly, the Vanished was now a little slower and less nimble. But Duncan’s main goal right now was to disperse more of the fog on the enchanted sea chart. He had no clear destination or route anyway, so he did not care about this small loss.

After he confirmed that Goathead showed no unusual movement and that the special Doll made by that Brother under the deck was also staying quietly in its room, Duncan let out a small breath and looked around the not very large cabin.

This was his private captain’s cabin and also the most comfortable and refined room on the Vanished. Besides a soft bed, there was a classical wardrobe by the wall opposite the door and a shelf holding many strange monstrous curios. Across from the bed stood a dark brown desk, but there were no books on it, only a few ornaments and tools for writing and drawing.

Beside the desk there was a window that looked straight out over the distant sea. On the wall next to the window hung several hooks. The pirate sword and flintlock pistol Duncan now carried had originally hung from those hooks.

Duncan walked to the desk, set the sword and pistol within easy reach, then opened a drawer and checked the powder and lead bullets stored in a wooden box.

A small brass spirit compass lay beside the bullets and powder bag. Duncan picked it up and saw that the needle under the glass cover still spun wildly, as if it was always dragged by an invisible field of chaos. A line of tiny words was engraved on the base of the spirit compass.

“We are all The Lost Ones.”

Duncan turned the spirit compass idly in his hand, watching the needle spin around like a drunk.

He had checked everything here many times. He had found this room during his first explorations, and the things inside, including that one line of words, were most likely left behind by the original Captain Duncan.

After he went over all the information he had in his mind, Duncan let out a breath, set the spirit compass back on the desk, and lifted his right hand to rub his fingertips together.

A tiny green flame lit at his fingertips. In its glow, half of Duncan’s hand turned transparent and unreal, almost like a spirit form. But under his conscious control, the flame did not spread everywhere as it had before. It stayed in place above his finger like the flame of a candle.

When the flame steadied, Duncan brought his other hand close to feel it. Then he took a quill from the side and touched the flame with the end of the pen.

He felt no heat. The quill did not catch fire. Only a faint green color spread along the shaft, making the pen glow with a ghostly light.

Duncan did not “feel” any feedback from the quill at all. That was completely different from when he had touched the enchanted sea chart and the helm with the flame.

Duncan quietly noted this new experience in his mind. This spirit form fire had no temperature and did not ignite things. It most likely only reacted to Anomaly objects on the Vanished and gave no feedback at all when it touched ordinary things.

Then what if it touched an Anomaly that came from outside the Vanished? Would the flame react?

Duncan thought about it. For a moment, the image of a certain Brother’s special Doll flashed in his mind. Alice seemed to be an Anomaly that came from outside the Vanished.

Would she be affected by this spirit form fire?

But he only thought about it for a moment, then pushed this wild idea aside.

Because even though Alice was not human and carried the curse as Anomaly 099, she was also an independent being who could walk and talk and had her own thoughts. Now she was also a crew member of the Vanished. Duncan had already started to treat her as a “person” without thinking about it.

He could not accept using a living person to test his flame. After all, he still was not sure what lasting effects it would have on an affected Anomaly, or whether it would be harmful.

After that, Duncan ran a few more tests. He studied the nature of the flame while also checking whether any of the items in the cabin had any hidden supernatural traits.

In the end, his gaze fell again on the small brass spirit compass with the message on it.

The brass spirit compass lay quietly on the desk, its needle spinning madly under the glass. Duncan kept the flame burning as he fixed a rather unfriendly stare on the needle, and for a moment he thought he saw it freeze.

Then it went right back to spinning in place as if nothing had happened.

Duncan: “…”

This thing had definitely reacted to his gaze just now!

He had been wary of this spirit compass from the beginning. It still bore the handwriting of the original Captain Duncan, and he worried that the dead ghost captain might have left some power or “trap” on this personal item to guard against thieves. Because of that, he had never tested the spirit compass with his flame. But after seeing it react, he suddenly made up his mind.

Duncan reached out and picked up the spirit compass. The cold touch flowed into his fingertips. After one glance at the still-spinning needle, he set the thing in his right hand, the one that held the spirit form fire, and slowly closed his fingers around it.

The pale green flame flowed at once like burning oil, seeping between his fingers. A layer of ghostly fire spread over the surface of the spirit compass. Countless phantoms rose and faded in the light. In the next instant, the wildly spinning needle jerked to a stop and pointed straight toward some place in the vast sea.

Duncan’s heart stirred. For one brief moment, he clearly felt the “feedback” coming from the spirit compass and confirmed that it was indeed an Anomaly that his spirit form fire could control. But before he could study the details of that feedback, a sudden “pull” slammed into him.

Duncan only felt his body sway. In the next second, his vision blurred. The furnishings of the captain’s cabin vanished without a trace. The walls and ceiling broke apart and dissolved like falling snow. In the drifting fragments of light and shadow, endless darkness filled his sight.

Stunned, Duncan stood at the center of the gloom, every alarm in his mind ringing. His first reaction was to reach for the pistol and sword that should have been at his side, but a moment later he found that only the brass spirit compass remained. He was still gripping it in his hand.

Duncan blinked. In his sight, countless fine threads of light suddenly spread out around the brass spirit compass.

These lines of light spread through the darkness, weaving together and stretching outward like a growing net. In the gaps where the light crossed, countless points of starlight appeared. Some floated alone. Some gathered into streams like rivers. Against the web of shining threads, they formed a brilliant starry river.

Duncan watched these visions in front of him in confusion. He was on guard and a little uneasy, but for some reason he did not feel any real sense of danger. In fact…

Among the dim web of light and scattered stars, he instead felt a long-lost sense of peace and comfort.

A moment later, a strange feeling came over him. Duncan’s eyes were drawn against his will to one cluster of starlight in the net. When he looked at it, he felt that the light was shaking and about to fall, as if it would sink into the dark at any second.

He reached out toward that starlight without thinking.

At that moment, a huge force pulled at him. Duncan felt as if his very soul flew up. He rushed toward the starlight that was about to fall into the dark. The dense web woven by the spirit compass rushed backward in his vision, and the starry river around him suddenly began to twist and spin.

As he hurtled forward, he glanced down at his right hand that had been gripping the spirit compass, only to see that the compass had vanished at some point. At the same time, just before he touched the dim star of light, he caught a shadow forming in the darkness out of the corner of his eye.

The shadow appeared as naturally as if it had always been at his side and fell with him toward the dim point of light.

Duncan only vaguely saw that the shadow seemed to be a bird with its wings spread. Before he could make out any details, his vision went black.

Heavy sensations from the Mortal Realm world rushed into his limbs. With them came the stench of rotting flesh and the harsh sound of heavy chains scraping along the ground.