Chapter 705

Chapter 705: The Eerie Atmosphere at the Border.

As the Shadows in the Spirit Realm quickly retreated from around the Vanished, the sea that had been pitch?black slowly returned to its usual blue. Daylight from the Mortal Realm and the drifting mist around the ships spread to cover the whole ocean.

Nina ran out from her room onto the deck and quickly spotted the strange, almost shattered great ship not far ahead of the Vanished, wrapped in eerie green flame.

That ship had been destroyed by a massive explosion and was now driven only by spirit form fire. It was slowly slowing down, yet still sailing forward. In the direction its bow pointed lay the “border” that had once appeared in her textbooks, but that she was seeing for the first time today.

A majestic wall of thick fog rose from sea to sky. Cloud?like mist poured down from the top of the giant wall like a waterfall, turning into thin haze that filled the whole sea region. In front of it, all things seemed small. Even though Nina had already seen many unbelievable sights while following the Vanished, she still could not help widening her eyes and letting out a long shout: “Waaah—”

Shirley also ran out at this time. She grabbed the rail at the ship’s side and looked into the distance, shouting together with Nina: “Waaah—”

Her voice had barely fallen when Dog’s voice floated out from the Shadows: “This is why I tell you to read more. If your vocabulary were even a little bigger, you wouldn’t only be able to say ‘waaah’ after seeing a Veil this grand at the border…”

Shirley’s eyes widened: “Didn’t Nina also go ‘waaah’? Why aren’t you talking about her?”

Dog jumped out from the Shadows, shaking his head as he muttered: “Nina says ‘waaah’ because she feels the word fits here. You say ‘waaah’ because it’s the only word you know. The two of you are not the same…”

Hearing Dog’s nagging, Shirley puffed out her cheeks in protest and argued loudly: “I… I have lots of words! I have so many interjections. It’s just that the captain and Morris, Old Gentleman, never let me use them! If I really talked the way I wanted, I…”

But Dog was no longer paying attention to her. This Abyssal Hound with its fierce shape had become even more cautious after reaching the border. He looked around, as if sensing the breaths coming from other dimensions. After a moment, he grumbled: “…This place isn’t like the safe sea zones. There are unstable auras everywhere. We’re clearly in the Mortal Realm, yet I can faintly smell the scent of the Spirit Realm…”

“This is the border, and this is only the smallest part of its countless strange and dangerous traits.” As a swirl of colorful paper scraps spun through the air, Lucretia’s voice came. “Here, the boundary of the ‘Mortal Realm’ becomes blurred. All those ‘things’ that are suppressed in the safe sea zones become active. Machines are much more likely to go mad. Books will draw more, and more dangerous, watchers. Many things on the ship will find it easy to come alive. And at certain times, especially when the ship accidentally overlaps with some invisible ‘field’, these dangers will multiply.”

She strolled to the edge of the deck and looked at the distant wall of thick fog. Lost in thought and memory, she went on softly—

“So almost no sane explorer comes to the border to ‘try their luck’… There is no honor or wealth here. There is only a cold, uncanny environment and a dangerous, terrible fate. The very few madmen who dare to set foot here have worked out certain ‘rules of conduct’ that exist only at the border. For example, do not carry any idol or portrait that has human features on the ship. Do not shout loudly in the fog. Do not stand in front of a mirror for too long, and so on…”

“But these rules and taboos can only lower the risk to a point. Seasoned explorers still vanish in the mists near the border. They forget where they are when the fog rises. They push open doors in the cabins that do not exist. They may even, in a daze, believe they have already finished a dangerous, long exploration of the border and safely returned to the city?state where they started. Their tight nerves relax. They finally breathe out and step onto the solid planks of the pier—only to walk straight into the thick fog of the border, leaving behind an empty ghost ship drifting on the sea.”

As the Sea Witch spoke of these eerie, terrifying things, Shirley’s eyes grew wider and wider until she shivered without thinking: “I… oh crap… that sounds kind of scary…”

“Yes, it is very scary. So under normal conditions, people like you, who have no experience exploring the border, should never come near these waters. But you still don’t need to worry, because this is the Vanished, and you are members of the Vanished Fleet.”

Lucretia smiled faintly, gazing out at the sea as she spoke slowly.

“Father and this ship… are no longer the way I remember them. With the Vanished as it is now, I believe that even if some ‘thing’ really slipped onto the ship and opened your cabin door, it would politely apologize and even close the door on its way out…”

As soon as she finished speaking, a voice suddenly came from the side: “Normally, they don’t get the chance to close the door or apologize.”

Lucretia turned her head and saw that Duncan had come up onto the deck at some point.

“Vanna just received a psychic communication. The Deep Sea Church’s Tide has already reached these waters and will appear soon. Two main ships of the Death Church are also nearby. They’re sending out small scout boats to first check the situation in the surrounding sea.”

Lucretia nodded: “That’s good. We need to understand what’s going on around here. In this area, the Church fleets that patrol the border all year round are a bit more professional than we are.”

Duncan grunted in reply and said nothing more. He only guided the Vanished to slowly draw closer to the “guide” ship ahead. Beside the Vanished, the Radiant Star had also shed its Spirit Realm state and was sailing along at an easy pace.

A dozen minutes later, the Vanished and the Radiant Star reached the area near the broken great ship and kept a slow, steady cruise.

Perhaps because they were closer to the Veil, the mist on the sea grew thicker than before. Layer upon layer of fog drifted in all directions like flowing curtains. Even the eerie green flame spilling from around the Vanished could not fully drive the mist away.

On Duncan’s command, the three ships stopped before the fog could get even thicker.

“We’ll move on after we rendezvous,” Duncan said on the foredeck of the Vanished as he looked at the fog?shrouded sea in the distance. “Light the beacon first.”

As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed at the guide vessel in the very front.

With a snap of his fingers, the eerie green flame burning on that great ship suddenly flared brighter. The roaring spirit flame swelled and rose at once, bursting upward and sending out a radiance bright enough to pierce the fog!

A “lighthouse” made entirely of spirit flame rose up in the fog?covered border sea. The light pouring from the fire shone fiercely over the whole area. Under that glow, on the sea around the three ships, the mist finally showed signs of thinning and their visibility improved a little.

Vanna and Morris came up onto the deck as well. Morris was curiously studying the sea near the rail. He saw that the color of the water seemed a bit deeper than it was beyond the thick fog. The dark blue sea looked fairly calm, only with slight ripples in the breeze. But those ripples looked strange. They were slow and sticky, as if… the whole sea were a layer of thick, smooth oil with no detail on its surface.

Frowning, Vanna fixed her gaze on this stretch of sea that gave off such a strong sense of strangeness and doubt. After hesitating for a moment, she took a small wooden charm amulet from her clothes—a wave?shaped charm amulet carved from Sea-Breath Wood—and threw it into the sea.

The charm amulet, which stood for the Storm Goddess’s faith and blessing, landed on the slow, sticky surface of the sea. It bounced once as if it had fallen on solid ground. No ripple spread out, and it did not sink into the water.

It simply stayed there, resting on that slow, sticky “surface” for several seconds. Then it was suddenly dyed a dark blue by the surrounding water and quietly “melted” into the sea.

Vanna stared in some shock at this scene that did not fit her experience.

But in her ears, the gentle sound of waves still rose as always.

Although the process looked very strange, the power of Goddess Gamona still descended as usual. Even in this abnormal sea region, the Storm Goddess’s blessing could still take effect.

It even seemed… to have taken effect a little faster?

Just then, Vanna seemed to suddenly sense something else. She raised her head and looked toward the distant, mist?shrouded sea.

Almost as soon as she looked up, a long, clear horn blast suddenly broke the calm of the border sea. Right after that, a hazy light appeared deep within the thick fog—and behind that light, the huge shape of a ship slowly emerged.

The gentle sound of waves rose again. Through Psychic Resonance, she confirmed the message coming from her Church comrades. At the same time, the huge ship in the distance began to slow down at a set distance, and several smaller escort ships appeared one after another around its outline.

Through the drifting mist, the ships that had come to rendezvous and the Vanished and the Radiant Star, which had arrived earlier, carefully confirmed each other’s identities. In the border sea, this was a very important step.

And this kind of identity “confirmation” would continue throughout the whole operation. They would have to do it again at set intervals.

After all, in the thick fog of the border, you could not always be sure that the figure beside you this second was still the person you knew a second ago.

“It’s the Deep Sea Church’s Tide and its escort group,” Vanna reported quickly as she came to Duncan’s side. “We’ve confirmed it through Psychic Resonance.”

Duncan nodded: “Good. Allow them to come closer. Let them enter the area lit by the spirit flame.”