Chapter 710

Chapter 710: “Not Right” Is Normal Here.

Under everyone’s gaze, that large ship, wrapped in Ghost flames and blazing like the Sacred beacon Torch, sailed straight into the jagged cliff. Yet the explosion and thunderous impact everyone expected never came.

At the moment of impact, the ship seemed to melt. Its solid deck, hull, and keel turned into something like mud, flowed down, and slapped silently against the cliff. It looked less like a collision and more like a lump of sludge thrown against the rock face. Then the whole ship seemed to be absorbed by the island itself, fading away between those clustered, jagged stone spires.

The spirit form flames that had been burning on that ship a moment ago now burst against the island cliffs in a huge ring of fire. The green flame sea rippled along the shoreline, then spilled out after a brief delay, splashing into the water. It lit the mist-covered surface of the sea and slowly spread out in front of the joint fleet.

It all happened so suddenly that the Church fleet seemed not to have reacted yet to what had happened. But on the Vanished, Nina already stared wide-eyed and cried out: “That ship just killed itself?!”

Lucretia sounded stunned: “Dad, that ship… did it just break free of your command?”

Duncan did not answer. He only frowned, going over the vague sense that the ship had suddenly sent him just before it hit the cliff. After a long moment, he finally broke the silence and said thoughtfully: “No… it wasn’t in a runaway state.”

“It wasn’t in a runaway state?” Lucretia looked puzzled. “Then why did it suddenly crash into the cliff…”

“The order I gave it was ‘go home’—so it obeyed,” Duncan said slowly. “I just thought a ship’s ‘home’ meant the harbor where it usually docked and was serviced. But for that ship… its ‘home’ must have been this island itself.”

Lucretia still seemed to be thinking about his words, but Vanna and Morris, who had gone through the Frostholm incident before, were already starting to understand. Morris suddenly frowned and asked: “You mean that ship was…”

“Built from the island’s ‘material’,” Duncan said, his expression serious. “At least a large part of it was.”

The loss of the Guide Vessel was an accident, but it did not have much impact on the joint fleet. They had already found the location of the Holy Land Island, and the route was now marked on the enchanted sea chart. The ghostly green spirit form flames were burning quietly on the sea, keeping the surrounding mists suppressed. A short while later, the Radiant Star found the entrance to the “fjord” that AI had seen from the air.

For the priests of the Deep Sea and the Church of Death, the investigation of “Holy Land Island” still had to go ahead as planned, despite the accident.

Two small landing boats, one launched from the Tide and the other from the Rest, soon came alongside the Vanished. Each carried eleven marines and one armed priest, all waiting for Duncan’s orders.

On the Vanished, Duncan was deciding who would go ashore with him.

“Vanna, Morris, Alice, you’re coming ashore with me.” Duncan looked over the followers on the deck and quickly picked his people. Then his gaze fell on Shirley, who was trying hard to make herself invisible. “Shirley, you’re coming too.”

“I’m not good at exploring, and I’m nowhere near as well-read as Old Gentleman…”

“I know, but we need Dog’s abilities,” Duncan cut off her muttering. “It’s a Abyssal demon, and it’s good at sensing and tracking. On this ‘Holy Land Island’ that will be very useful.”

Shirley’s expression turned a bit strange as she listened. It took her a moment to realize… her main role here was basically to be Dog’s leash…

But Duncan did not pay attention to the odd look on her face. After deciding who would go ashore, he waved to the others and said: “The rest of you stay on the ship. This place is strange. If anything feels off on board or on the sea nearby, let me know at once.”

“You don’t need me to go with you?” Lucretia stepped forward. “I’m familiar with the border, and I have a lot of experience exploring strange islands…”

“I do, just not right now,” Duncan shook his head. He clearly already had a plan. “Go back to the Radiant Star and keep an eye on that ‘Saint’. It will be very useful later. I’ll scout the island first. If I find a suitable ‘place’, I’ll send AI to pick you up.”

Lucretia thought for a moment, then nodded: “I understand.”

Duncan nodded slightly and led the people he had chosen toward the edge of the deck.

Just then, a loud clattering noise suddenly came from not far away.

Duncan looked up toward the sound and saw a small boat, fixed to the mid-deck and covered with a tarp, banging and rocking on its supports.

It was the landing skiff carried by the Vanished.

In everyone’s memory, that little boat’s main uses were to have two ropes tied along the side so Alice could hang up laundry, or to let Shirley sneak into it for a nap when she did not want to do homework.

Duncan silently watched the rocking boat for two or three seconds before he said: “AI will take us to the island.”

The small boat went still for a moment, then began to shake even harder, thumping its bow against the wooden frame that held it in place.

Duncan: “…”

“Captain,” Alice finally came over and tugged on Duncan’s sleeve, whispering by his ear: “Maybe we should take it with us… I feel like it’s about to cry…”

Duncan gave Alice a strange look, then glanced at the landing skiff on the deck, which really did not look very happy. He felt the whole thing was absurd, but in the end he still sighed helplessly: “Fine. We’ll go ashore in the small boat too…”

As soon as he finished speaking, the little boat on the deck snapped free of the ropes and hooks holding it. The crane on the side of the deck creaked to life, lifted the skiff from its wooden supports, and lowered it into the recess along the middle deck.

The whole movement flowed smoothly, as if it was afraid the captain might change his mind.

Duncan: “…”

In any case, with the landing skiff launched from the Vanished, there were now three small boats leaving the joint fleet. They followed the giant rocky cliffs along the edge of “Holy Land Island”, found the hidden entrance that led toward the island’s interior, and began to move inside.

After they passed through the “fjord gate” that looked like the open jaws of some huge beast, they saw tall, twisted clusters of stone pillars on both sides, a wide, calm dark-blue waterway, and mist still hanging in every direction.

The three small boats moved forward carefully through the fog. In the hazy mist, they could just make out vague shapes of harbor facilities on the shore ahead. A few lights, almost like illusions, glowed quietly in the fog, like cold, murky eyes floating in the air.

The boat carrying Duncan and the others did not need a helmsman and could sail on its own, while the landing boats from the Tide and the Rest were driven by small steam cores. The sound of the steam cores at work broke the stillness of the fjord. The splashing of the three boats cutting through the water echoed off the cliffs on both sides and blended into a single, blurry noise.

Vanna suddenly frowned.

She turned to look at the captain, only to see that he was also frowning, staring toward some point in the fog. Behind and to the side of the landing skiff, the two steam launches from the Tide and the Rest seemed to have sensed something as well and were starting to slow down.

The mingled echoes in the fjord slowly grew weaker.

Vanna tilted her head, listening carefully, and asked quietly: “Do you hear it?”

Shirley had not noticed any anomaly, but she could feel the change in the air around them. She twisted her head nervously and asked: “H-hear what?”

The faint scrape of chain came from the shadows as Dog slowly raised its head: “There’s the sound of a fourth boat… in the fog, moving forward with us.”

Shirley’s face changed a little. She lowered her voice: “What the heck?”

Duncan said nothing. He only lifted his hand, signaling them to keep going.

The sound of the propellers driven by machines rose again, and the blurred noise returned to the fjord. In that humming, rumbling, and splashing, even Shirley heard the “fourth boat”.

This time the sound was even clearer than before. Shirley could even pick out a rumble in it that was like a steam engine, only deeper, along with the splash of a bow cutting through the waves.

She stared wide-eyed, trying to find where the sound was coming from, but all the noise blended with the echoes in the fjord. It rumbled all around them, impossible to place.

She could only be sure that there really was a fourth boat, hidden in the fog around them, very close. At times… it even felt as if it was right beside them.

It seemed that Morris had suddenly picked something out. He stared hard at the misty water, then took a strange device from inside his coat, something shaped like a lens, and looked in that direction through it.

A hazy shadow appeared in the lens, like an abstract, unreal boat.

But in the next second, the phantom in the fog was washed over by a layer of eerie green. Imaginary spirit form flames swallowed it in an instant and then vanished just as fast.

The sound of the fourth boat disappeared.

Alice stared in confusion at the brief flash of fire in the fog, then looked up at Duncan: “Captain, what was that?”

“I don’t know,” Duncan shook his head. “Maybe something in the fog was trying to ‘imitate’ us, or maybe it was just an illusion born from the special environment here… Either way, it’s not a big problem. Being ‘not right’ is just part of daily life on the border.”

Alice gave a little “oh” as if she half understood, then turned her head to look at the water in front of the boat.

“Ah, we’re here.”

As the doll spoke, the harbor that had been hazy in the mist suddenly came into clear view.

The three boats came to the dock.