Chapter 608

Chapter 608: Walking with the Reflection

“What did you say? They pushed out a wooden Goathead carving?!”

Duncan’s voice came from the mirror on the dressing table, and he could not hide his shock.

“Yes, a black wooden Goathead,” Lucretia said quickly. She turned her head to glance at the scrying crystal on the table beside her, trying to make out the faint image inside it. The scene came straight from the cultists’ gathering, sent by Rabby. “It looks a lot like the ‘First Mate’ on the Vanished… No, not just similar. It’s exactly the same!”

“What else? After they pushed that Goathead out, what did it do?” In the mirror in front of Lucretia, Duncan’s figure leaned forward slightly. “Is it communicating with those cultists?”

“…No.” Lucretia shook her head as she stared at the blurred image in the scrying crystal. “This Goathead seems ‘dead’… It hasn’t moved at all since they pushed it out. It really looks like just a wooden carving… The cultists are performing a ritual around it. They’re lighting candles and burning incense, and that Goathead they call ‘Dream-Skull’ still isn’t reacting.”

In the mirror, Duncan frowned deeply.

He knew that with Rabby hiding in the cultists’ stronghold, it would bring back a lot of useful information. But he had not expected that rabbit’s report to be this valuable. From the start of the cultists’ gathering until now, he and Lucretia had watched Rabby’s constant messages, and none of them had been as shocking as this scene.

Those Annihilators… actually had a Goathead that was exactly the same as the “First Mate” on the Vanished?!

And from the look of things, that was the reason they could freely enter and leave the Nameless One’s dream?

In the mirror world dimension linked through the mirrors, Duncan stood in the dimness, deep in thought. After a long time, he finally raised his head and let his gaze sweep around him.

This was the world inside the mirror. But according to Agatha, the more accurate description was “the Vanished’s reflection on the border between the Spirit Realm and the Mortal Realm.”

Everywhere he looked, he saw the familiar Vanished. Yet the whole ship was wrapped in a strange, off?kilter air. His gaze passed through the nearby window, and he saw the deck outside shrouded in gloom. The distant sky and sea had a texture close to that of the Spirit Realm. A hazy glow shimmered along the hull. Its outline was disturbed by some unknown force, rising and rippling like a reflection in water.

Behind him was the familiar sight of the captain’s cabin: the enchanted sea chart table, the shelves, the expensive tapestry on the wall, and… Goathead, sitting silently on the edge of the enchanted sea chart table.

All of it lay under a strange darkness. Even with an oil lamp hanging on the wall beside them, even with light shining in every corner of the room, the gloom lingered, branded into the space itself. It refused to fade and constantly reminded anyone who came here that this was not the Mortal Realm.

Only one thing in the room gave off a soft, comforting glow: the Oval Scrying Mirror in front of Duncan. In it, he could see the scene inside Lucretia’s room. It reflected the “warmth” of the Mortal Realm.

Duncan turned around and slowly walked to the enchanted sea chart table. He looked at the wooden Goathead lying quietly on the table. It did not react at all to his approach. It was just like… the “Dream-Skull” the cultists were using for their ritual in the hall.

He stared quietly at the dark carving for a moment. Then he reached out and patted Goathead on the head.

If this had been on the other side of the mirror, in the Mortal Realm, that move would have brought a storm of chatter. Goathead would never have let such a chance to talk slip by.

But here, in this “reflection” of the Vanished, Goathead still sat quietly, as if… it had not yet awakened.

Footsteps came from the side. Duncan turned his head and saw Agatha walk up beside him.

“Captain, there are thirty minutes until the Nameless One’s dream ‘comes alive’,” said the lady who “lived” in the mirror world. “From my last experience, when that time comes, the Vanished’s reflection will transform into the ship that sails through the dark mist, and this ‘wood carving’ in front of you will ‘come to life’ as well.”

“…Yes, it will come to life, but it still won’t be quite the same as the ‘First Mate’ I know. That one is another Goathead—and in the hands of those Annihilators, there’s yet another,” Duncan said slowly, his face thoughtful. “They actually used some Goathead they found from who knows where to enter the Nameless One’s dream. It… makes sense, but it was beyond what I expected.”

Agatha hesitated, then could not help asking: “Are there many ‘Goatheads’?”

“…I used to think there was only one,” Duncan replied, shaking his head. “It thought so too.”

“I remember you said that the ‘First Mate’ was something you brought out of Subspace. If it came from Subspace… then anything might be possible. Maybe ‘Goathead’ is even a whole race from there…”

Agatha trailed off. Clearly, even she felt that guess was a bit far?fetched.

Duncan did not answer. He just stared at the silent Goathead on the table, which looked like a real wood carving. After thinking for a long time, he murmured under his breath: “Shattered into pieces, huh…”

Agatha heard the captain’s mutter, but was completely confused: “Huh?”

Duncan did not answer her question. He just shook his head slightly: “It looks like we have one more reason to capture those Annihilators alive… This time we not only have to find a way to seize them, we also have to figure out how to take their ship.”

“As long as we know where that ship is, no ordinary vessel can escape the Vanished’s hunt,” Agatha said at once.

Duncan gave the former Gatekeeper a slightly surprised look: “You’re quite confident—you haven’t actually seen the Vanished in battle with your own eyes, have you?”

“But the scriptures of the Death Church are full of terrifying descriptions of the Vanished,” Agatha said, spreading her hands. “They say you once erased a battleship that Pope Banster—His Eminence—had just built, in a single instant… and you did it right in front of a Pilgrimage Ark, in front of an entire fleet. No matter how I think about it, there is no way those cultists built something stronger than a Pilgrimage Ark.”

Duncan’s expression froze for a moment. After two or three seconds of awkward silence, he twitched the corner of his mouth: “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Agatha seemed to realize how awkward the topic was too. She quickly forced a clumsy change of subject: “Captain, what do you think those cultists are after?”

“Their goal? Do you mean their interest in Shirley and Dog, or their purpose in working with those ‘Suntists’?”

“Both,” Agatha said, nodding.

“Their interest in Shirley and Dog was expected. No Annihilator with a normal mind could see Dog and not be shaken. And judging from that saint’s reaction, the fact that a Abyssal demon can stay sane seems to have some special meaning to them,” Duncan said, recalling the information Rabby had sent. “That saint mentioned ‘the last piece of the puzzle on the Path of Ascension’… That line bothered me.

“As for their ‘cooperation’ with those Suntists…”

Duncan stopped there. He stayed silent for a while, thinking, before he spoke again: “The Annihilators’ goal is the ‘tree’. That is easy enough to understand. It should mean the World Tree Atlantis. And those Suntists are aiming for ‘the Sun’…”

He frowned and lifted his head, as if he were trying to pierce through layers of space and time with his gaze to look at some ‘star’ that hung high above the Nameless One’s dream, existing only in some ancient memory.

“…How are they going to obtain ‘the Sun’?”

The captain’s cabin fell silent. Agatha had no idea how to answer that question. After who knew how long, Lucretia’s voice suddenly came from a nearby mirror and broke the silence:

“Dad, Rabby says those cultists are about to start the last step of the ritual.”

Duncan immediately raised his head and looked at the mechanical clock on the opposite wall.

On its dial, where left and right had swapped like a mirror world, the hands were turning counterclockwise, slowly pointing toward nine o’clock.

The Nameless One’s dream was about to become active.

He withdrew his gaze and glanced again at the enchanted sea chart on the table beside him.

Even in this “reflection” world, the enchanted sea chart here still showed the Vanished’s normal course through the Boundless Sea. Right now, the Vanished was about a thousand nautical miles north of Lightwind Harbor, and it was still sailing north, farther and farther from the city?state.

The “test” was about to reach its conclusion. But Duncan already had a vague feeling that even if the Vanished sailed far from Lightwind Harbor, even if Goathead was taken this far away, the Nameless One’s dream would still appear. Lightwind Harbor would still be wrapped in the dream, and the Vanished’s reflection would still change just as it had before.

Because dusk was drawing near.

Because the Sun was growing gentle, and all that had once been banished would return to the Mortal Realm—just like that “Warrior” who suddenly fell into the Mortal Realm and finally turned into an unspeakable thing. The so?called Nameless One’s dream was only a realm returning to the Mortal Realm from oblivion and exile.

When dusk arrived, all these changes would happen in a way that could not be undone. The Vanished reaching Lightwind Harbor had only sped up the awakening of the Nameless One’s dream.

Just as that “saint” had declared, this so?called “Deep Sea era” was rushing toward its “last second.”

“Lucy, report Rabby’s latest observations,” Duncan said suddenly.

Lucretia’s voice came from the mirror at once: “Yes. The chosen cultists have already gathered around the ‘Dream-Skull’. They’re waiting for the final sacrificial rite…

“That saint is ordering them to bring the ‘blood food’ into the hall.

“…It’s two badly wounded elves.”