Chapter 417

Chapter 417: Running Through the Fog

In the Pocket Mirror he carried, Martha’s figure appeared out of a cloud of black mist. Her voice reached Lawrence’s ears: “Do you see the lights in the distance?”

“I see them,” Lawrence said with a nod. He looked up at the strange scene ahead. A huge ink-black phantom floated on the sea, faintly shaped like the outline of the city-state, but with no details at all. Under the surface of the water, however, he saw the bright lights of The Harbor’s docks and the buildings around the edge of the city. The White Oak, with no one steering it, was slowly moving closer to this zone where light and shadow were turned upside down. Countless hazy ship phantoms floated on the distant sea, as if locked in a battle. In this chaotic view of light and dark, real and unreal, he even felt as if he himself was becoming unreal. “It is an unbelievable sight… So this is what the world looks like when you watch it from the mirror world side…”

“Light and shadow are inverted in your sight, but in mine it looks normal. Soon all of this will flip again,” Martha said with a small smile. “Go get ready. I will be docking soon. The spot is an abandoned pier at the south corner of the east harbor. I will bring the ship as close as I can to a sewer maintenance hatch. Bring your mirror. I will guide you all the way to the Second Waterway.”

“And then… the other replicas will react, right?” Lawrence still could not help feeling worried. “If you really cannot hold them off, take the White Oak and the Black Oak and pull back first. At our speed, those replicas will never catch you.”

Martha rolled her eyes and said: “Of course. I am not stupid. My job is just to bring you here and buy you some time. I never planned to wipe out the whole mirror world Frostholm fleet with only two twin ghost ships. You cannot kill them all off.”

Lawrence nodded and turned to look behind him.

Anomaly 077 was squatting on the deck, playing with a length of rope he had found from who knew where. Now and then he looked up at the White Oak’s funnel and flagpole, and he seemed quite troubled.

“Do people in this age no longer hang sailors who make mistakes from the mast?” the mummified corpse muttered in puzzlement.

“Still thinking about your noose?” Lawrence raised his eyebrows at once, his tone unfriendly. “Put down the rope. Go to the First Mate and draw a saber and gun with ammo. We are going ashore.”

“In the past, as soon as someone put it around my neck, I would fall asleep. Why does it not work anymore…” Anomaly 077 was still muttering in confusion. Then he suddenly reacted. “Huh? Ashore? You are taking me with you this time?”

“A strange Anomaly to deal with a strange city-state. That suits me fine,” Lawrence said, face serious. “We are going through the Second Waterway into the depths of Frostholm. Do not waste time. Go get your weapons.”

The sailor froze for a second, then caught up and jumped to his feet. “Yes, Captain!”

The White Oak drew closer to that dark zone where real and unreal were inverted, closer to the lights reflected on the sea. Behind Lawrence, a tough, elite landing squad had already formed up.

First Mate Gus was not among them. Lawrence had ordered him to stay on the ship.

The old captain’s face was grave as he laid out his orders: “There will be a hard fight after this. Every replica warship near The Harbor will react and attack the White Oak and the Black Oak. You will stay on board and command the battle. Hold them as long as you can. If you cannot, retreat with Martha.”

“I understand,” Gus said with a nod. But he could not help looking worriedly at the “sailor” behind Lawrence, who was still fiddling with his newly issued weapons. “But… is he really reliable?”

Lawrence glanced back. Anomaly 077, the “sailor”, happened to lift his head at the same time. The mummified corpse had a saber at his waist, but he had tossed the rifle and ammo pouch onto a barrel nearby. He was muttering to himself: “The saber is enough. I do not know how to use this thing.”

“As you like. If you think a single saber is enough to handle the Second Waterway of the mirror world city-state,” Lawrence said casually. “For someone who cannot use a gun, having one only makes things worse.”

The sailor thought for a moment, then still did not touch the rifle. Instead, he walked to the weapons crate at the side and took out another saber, hanging it on his belt as well.

Lawrence said nothing. He only lowered his head and looked at his own hand.

He slowly tightened his fingers into a fist, then opened them. He adjusted his breathing and awkwardly pictured, in his mind, a warship with sails of spirit form, burning with ghost flame. He recalled the feeling of that fire burning his body, and his flesh transforming in the flames.

After a long while, he saw a faint green glow appear in the lines of his palm. Tiny flames slowly flowed along the creases.

The deck under his feet gave a slight tremor as the White Oak began to slow. The hazy darkness beyond the rail was now very close. From the Pocket Mirror at his chest came Martha’s voice.

“Attention. We are about to dock. After that I will use Inversion again and cancel the Twin Projection. Jump to the pier on the left side and go straight. I will guide you.”

“I am ready,” Lawrence said softly. He took a slow breath and walked to the rail.

“I am ready too!” Anomaly 077 followed close behind the captain. His hoarse, dark voice held a strange hint of excitement and expectation. “Ashore! Battle! The pirate is here!”

“We are not pirates,” Lawrence said, giving the mummified corpse a look. “We are honorable seafarers.”

“Docking now,” Martha’s voice came from the mirror almost at the same time. “Three, two, one… Inversion!”

In an instant, light and shadow shifted. Real and unreal swapped places.

Everything around Lawrence seemed to flicker hard. Then the reflection in the sea rose, and the darkness in front of him reversed, as if he had passed through an invisible mirror in a single heartbeat. Frostholm’s docks and piers appeared in front of him. The damp, icy chill that had always clung to him here, as if he were soaked in seawater, vanished at once.

A second later, he saw a patch of black suddenly rise on the sea beside the White Oak. Out of that shadow, the Black Oak’s silhouette rushed into view.

After the Inversion of light and shadow, the Black Oak also broke free from the state of being the White Oak’s reflection. The two ships now appeared side by side on the sea as twin warships, ready to fight together.

In a heartbeat, pillars of light sprang up along the docks. Sirens wailed in the distant streets. The wind howled in The Harbor with a wild, chaotic sound. From far away came the hurried boom of warship guns, like thunder in a storm.

Their response was this fast?!

Lawrence was startled, but his reaction did not slow. He kicked the rope ladder over the side and leapt out first: “Move!”

The landing squad of a dozen hardened sailors rushed onto the pier, following the route Martha gave them toward a distant intersection. Lawrence ran in the lead.

The cold wind howled past his ears. In the distance, the sirens and gunfire sounded broken and distorted. Under the dim, chaotic sky, Lawrence gripped his revolver in one hand and his sword in the other, sprinting through this twisted ghost city of the mirror world. Martha’s voice kept coming.

“At the crossroads ahead, turn left and skirt the guard post… Go straight, then take the alley on the right. The entrance is at the end…”

Behind him were the hurried, messy steps of the sailors. In their hands were weapons they trusted. At his ear was the voice of the woman who matched him perfectly.

Lawrence ran faster and faster. For a moment, he felt as if the age and fatigue piled up over decades were falling away from his body. His heart beat like that of a young man. His blood rushed through his veins as it had in his prime. Those wild, high-spirited years returned to his mind.

They were back. All of them were back.

He strode forward, swinging his arms. Faint green fire appeared like a phantom behind him. At his side and behind him, similar emerald flames began to appear on one sailor after another. Their flesh-and-blood bodies took on a ghostly, unreal shimmer in the fire.

Anomaly 077’s wailing voice rose beside him: “Captain! I am scared!”

“If you are scared, stay close to the squad!” Lawrence grinned, his voice oddly joyful. “This city cannot stop us!”

Anomaly 077 ran beside him, still wailing: “It is you I am scared of!”

“Then get used to it. I am not retiring anymore, and you can forget it too!”

Lawrence shouted with cheerful force. He did not care at all that his loud voice might expose the squad, or that their wild charge down the streets might draw the city’s guards.

From the start, this was never going to be a “stealth” mission. The moment these uninvited guests stepped into the city of the mirror world, this living city had already reacted.

Fog slowly spread along the streets. In the strange, dim mist, shadowy shapes began to appear.

“The street is fogging up!” he shouted. “Martha, is this normal?”

“The fog marks the threshold. In fog, it is hardest to tell mirrors from reality. Keep moving. Do not worry about the fog that is seeping in from the Mortal Realm. The entrance is just ahead.”

“Got it!”

Lawrence answered at the top of his voice and led the sailors into the mist. Inside it, one warped, swaying shape after another rose to its feet. Their bodies were twisted. They had the wrong number of eyes. They snarled and whispered in the fog, staggering toward the squad.

Lawrence raised his gun, but before he or the sailors could fire, a burst of dense gunshots came from the far side of the mist.

A spider-like Steam Walker suddenly appeared in the fog. Fully armed city-state Guard Corps soldiers had built a barricade around the walker. The rifles in the soldiers’ hands and the gun turret on top of the Steam Walker spat fire, tearing the monsters in the mist to pieces in an instant.

Lawrence ran past the edge of the battle zone, staring in shock at the Guard Corps that had appeared out of nowhere. A second later, the soldiers and the Steam Walker vanished back into the thick fog. All that remained where they had stood was a pile of broken rubble.

“We are here. The sewer entrance. At the end of the passage below there is a shaft lift that goes straight to the Second Waterway!”