Chapter 385

Chapter 385: The Battle Ended

A shadow wrapped in darkness, a warship that looked as if it had been patched together from smoke, thick fog, and wreckage, sailed side by side with the White Oak. Together, they charged toward the Sea Swallow, which was drawing closer in the distance.

Through the mist that wrapped its hull, one could still faintly see that this ship shared the same origin as the White Oak.

It was not quite the same as in his memory, but Lawrence still recognized it at once. Even though it now looked broken, twisted, and strange, it still tugged at his memories just as it did every time he met it in his dreams.

It was the Black Oak. It was right there, sailing beside the White Oak just like on that last day they left port together in his memory.

A sharp blast of the whistle suddenly sounded and cut off the old captain’s shock and wandering thoughts. The sound came from that phantom ship, as if it was reminding Lawrence that this was no time to daydream.

Shells whistled down from the sky. The Sea Swallow’s bombardment did not let up for a moment.

Lawrence snapped his head back around and saw a fireball slam into the bow of the White Oak.

Flames rose high there, but in the next moment they were swallowed and absorbed by the green blaze that burned all over the ship. A part of the bow was torn into pieces, and burning metal fragments flew in every direction.

Yet in the very next second, the shattered structure began to repair itself, as if time was flowing backward. Under the rising green flames, it returned to how it had been.

Lawrence felt something “drain away”. It was like his strength and life were being shaved off from his “senses”. But that missing part was quickly refilled by the spirit form flames roaring all around.

Right after that, the White Oak’s bow and broadside defensive guns roared. Shell after shell shot out, howling like furious wraiths as they left the barrels. They traced eerie green trails through the air.

Almost at the same time, the Black Oak beside them also began to attack.

As the cannons thundered, flashes burst again and again in the rising black fog. Shells as ghostly as shadows burst from the fog and plunged toward the distant enemy ship.

Lawrence gripped the wheel with both hands and felt the strong tremors that shook the ship with each volley. He felt his senses spreading farther, even flowing along the shells in flight and the seawater churning around the hull, spreading out across the whole sea.

At the edge of his awareness, the Sea Swallow was like a bonfire in the veil of night, shining with a presence so strong it was almost blinding.

Not long ago, that ship had been a hopeless enemy for the White Oak. Yet now Lawrence only felt that this prey looked so fresh… so delicious.

A moment later, the White Oak’s counterattack finally landed squarely on the Sea Swallow for the first time.

With a massive blast and a burst of flame, that strange warship looked as if some invisible giant mouth had taken a bite out of it. A whole chunk was simply “carved away”. In the huge wound that had been eaten out of the hull, the ship’s warped inner structure could be seen clearly.

The attack worked very well, but it was far from enough.

“Full speed,” Lawrence said as he gripped the wheel. His eyes locked on the enemy warship that kept drawing nearer. He already knew what he had to do – or rather, he knew what the White Oak needed right now. “We need to replenish ourselves.”

“Yes, full speed!” First Mate Gus’s voice rang out on the bridge.

The steam core let out an even louder roar. The White Oak, which was already moving at high speed, pushed itself to the limit. It lunged toward the distant Sea Swallow like a swift hunting falcon.

The Black Oak still ran beside them like a reflection, matching their speed and course.

In the distance, the Sea Swallow did not show the slightest sign of changing course or slowing to evade. From the moment it appeared, that ship had launched a blind, wild assault. It was like a runaway state beast without reason.

Even now, after the White Oak had undergone a great change and the situation had turned against it, the Sea Swallow still carried out its first goal with blind loyalty – to attack the enemy.

Two ships rushed toward each other. One was wrapped and shrouded in eerie green flame. The other was covered in twisted, dark, uncanny structures.

They launched a full speed charge at the same time.

The shrill and terrifying howls of their whistles almost tore the sky apart. The growing torrent of cannon fire between the two ships shook the entire sea.

The distance between them shrank fast. Almost every shell they fired slammed into the other ship’s hull. Huge explosions tore open their bodies. Burning fragments of steel sprayed across the sea and the sky.

On the White Oak’s bridge, Lawrence only stared dead ahead. Everyone else stared in the same direction as he did.

It was as if some force clenched the minds of every sailor on board. Every living being on the ship suddenly lost all fear and all hesitation.

All that was left was a wild hunger for the collision that was coming and could not be stopped.

Then the two ships finally touched.

Like a loose snowball being pressed hard against the red hot wall of a furnace, the Sea Swallow’s bow plunged straight into the roaring spirit form flames around the White Oak.

With ear-splitting noise and a roar like ten thousand voices shouting at once, the steel hull that had seemed so solid began to melt away inch by inch in the green flames.

As the “collision” went on, the Sea Swallow vanished into the wall of fire from bow to stern.

It looked as if the whole ship was being swallowed.

Even after the last turret on the Sea Swallow’s tail was eaten clean by the spirit form flames, the furious exchange of fire between the two ships did not stop for even a moment.

Then, at last, everything ended.

The White Oak’s defensive guns finally stopped their howling. With the enemy gone, the roar of the steam core slowly grew quieter. The spirit form flames that had been surging all over the ship began to draw in. Their aggressive posture softened.

They settled down to burn quietly along the hull.

For a moment, Lawrence felt lost. At some point his hands had slipped from the wheel. He raised his head and looked around the bridge.

The sailors turned one by one and stared at him. Wrapped in spirit form flames, each of them now looked like a ghost. In their hollow eyes, it seemed there was no longer human reason or human feeling.

Lawrence blinked. Just before the haze in his head could swallow him completely, a human figure suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision.

It was a young man.

He stepped out of thin air, walking through the rising spirit form flames around him. He wore the dark blue robes of the Deep Sea Church priest who served on the ship.

The Holy Emblem on his chest shone like burning fire. He strode straight toward Lawrence, grabbed the blazing Holy Emblem at his breast, and slammed it hard against Lawrence’s chest.

Heat spread out from Lawrence’s chest. He felt his tottering mind suddenly steady. Humanity and reason returned to his soul at the same time.

As the captain came back to himself, the sailors on board also woke up one by one. They stared at each other, as if only now remembering the end of the battle just now, remembering the final clash and “collision” between the White Oak and the Sea Swallow.

Some cried out in panic as the fear caught up to them. Some checked their own bodies on reflex. Others raised their heads and fixed their eyes on the young priest who had suddenly appeared on the bridge.

Lawrence frowned and looked at the man in front of him for a long time before he finally spoke in a hesitant voice: “priest… Jensen?”

“It is me. Thank the heavens you can finally see me,” the young shipboard priest panted, out of breath. He looked as if he had just crawled out of the sea. His robes were soaked through, and water still ran down his hair and along his neck as he spoke. “Praise the Lord of Storms for his protection. I have been shouting in your ear for several days now.”

Lawrence still felt as if his mind was not quite clear. It took him several seconds to recall another strange detail from the past few days.

There was supposed to be a shipboard priest on the ship, just as there was supposed to be a Sun in the sky. But during this whole period, he had never seen this young priest at all.

priest Jensen had vanished not only from everyone’s sight, but even from everyone’s memory.

People had even forgotten the basic fact that “there should be a shipboard priest on the ship”.

Lawrence had noticed that the Sun was gone, but only now did he realize that priest Jensen had disappeared along with it.

“…What happened?”

The old captain, as if waking from a dream, slowly turned his head and asked in a low voice.

“I do not know. For the past few days, it felt like I was cut off in a different dimension from all of you,” the soaking wet young priest said with a bitter smile and a shake of his head. “I could see you, but none of you could see me. It was as if I had become an ‘outsider’ on this ship.

“Not until just now, when the whole ship ‘changed’ in the fire, did I feel that barrier loosen. At the same time, I sensed something wrong with your mind, so I tried to use the Holy Emblem to steady your reason.

“Luckily, I made it in time for that last step…”

Lawrence listened to the priest’s story as messy thoughts and guesses crowded into his mind. When he heard the words “something wrong with your mind”, a late fear finally rose in his heart.

He remembered the strange state he and the other crew members had been in during those last minutes of the fight with the Sea Swallow.

He felt as if a cold sweat was about to seep down his back.

But he had no sweat. He was still wrapped in spirit form flames. This ghost-like body of his had not shown any sign of turning back.

Lawrence lowered his head and looked at his arm, which still appeared in a hazy spirit form state. Many guesses had already formed in his heart.

“The Vanished’s ‘favor’, is it…” The old captain shook his head with a bitter look. For a moment he did not know whether to call this a blessing or the curse. “It seems bearing Duncan Abnomar’s gaze really is no simple matter. But at least we survived… if this really is the state of the living…”

As he spoke, he slowly raised his head again. His gaze passed through the nearby porthole and fell on the sea beside them.

The ship cloaked in thick fog and shadows still floated there in silence, like the White Oak’s shadow.