Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 487 - Chapter 487 Chapter 488 Return Voyage

Chapter 487: Chapter 488: Return Voyage Chapter 487: Chapter 488: Return Voyage The spread of the fire was faster and more ferocious than Duncan had imagined.

He had merely ignited a small flame at the edge of the huge “pillar” and had prepared for it to spread slowly. He had not expected that tiny fire to instantly grow into a towering inferno, illuminating the deep sea–a spectacle even more curious under the pressures of billions of tons of seawater.

Transcendent objects were the best fuel for Spectral Flames, and the ancient god’s tentacles were naturally “transcendent,” yet even so, the flames burned too fiercely, too quickly.

It was as if some force was catalyzing, enhancing the power of the Spiritual Fire.

Was it caused by the deep sea’s unique environment? Or was the ancient god’s tentacle actively “cooperating”?

Duncan slightly furrowed his brow, feeling the vast messages transmitted by the flames–fragmented information interspersed with a large amount of meaningless twisted noise and shards of light and shadow. Apparently, those were remnants erratically escaping from the “tentacle” as it collapsed.

For ordinary humans, even a whisper among those “things” might be enough to trigger madness, but Duncan found them trivial and disordered–he tried hard to decipher useful information from the chaotic noise, and just before all the noise subsided, he finally “heard” some comprehensible “voices.”

In the sea, he suddenly widened his eyes with a hint of astonishment, staring at the ancient god’s tentacle rapidly collapsing and disintegrating in the Spiritual Fire.

“LH-01? Homeloss?”

In the void, it seemed as if a roar came from the deep sea. The ancient god’s faulty replication finally completely disintegrated, all the noise disappeared, and no sound answered Duncan’s momentary question–in the abrupt silence that arrived, filled with a sense of endless emptiness, only a vague thought floated quietly through his mind like a phantom in the fog–

“Thank you, Usurper of Flame.”

Duncan blinked, his mind rippling with complex thoughts and countless astonishing speculations and associations. After an unknown amount of time, just as he began to contemplate whether to keep exploring this place, whether to dive deeper, a flickering light suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision.

He turned his head sharply and saw Ai Yi, who had been fluttering around him, suddenly flashing intensively, like a malfunctioning projection. The pigeon’s entire body of light was flickering on and off. It began rapidly flapping its wings, emitting sharp and intermittent cries: “Your… signal quality is poor, please check… your hardware connection… remote server… waiting…”

In an instant, Duncan’s eyes narrowed, and with a wave of his hand, he transported Ai Yi back to Homeloss. The next second after Ai Yi returned, he noticed that the “temporary body” he was using was rapidly collapsing.

Cracks large and small covered the entirety of this rough “prototype” body in the blink of an eye, with pale green flames dancing within the fissures rapidly dissipating.

And in the surrounding seawater, those drifting “human shapes” also began to show the same signs of disintegration. Countless humanoid husks quickly crumbled into black fragments and began to sink towards the dark “Frost Floating Island” in the deep sea.

The ancient god’s faulty replication was destroyed by the flames, and the human prototypes around the deep sea floating island crumbled as a result. Except for the floating island itself, which might be the “Primordial Blueprint” showing no changes, everything else in the deep sea was rapidly disintegrating, reverting to… “the design’s initial normal state.”

Duncan quickly understood the cause and effect of these changes in his mind, and the next second, he felt his consciousness being violently “ejected” from the body that could no longer be sustained.

Before his perception was cut off, there was only one thought in his mind–

It’s a pity about this body adapted to the deep sea environment; I thought it would last a long time, but it turned out to be one-time use…

The deep roar of the ballast tanks discharging water echoed within the submarine, accompanied by a slight vibration, the entire machine began to accelerate towards the surface.

In front of the control panel, Duncan sighed regretfully, mourning the “temporary body” he had just lost, while also checking the machine’s status.

The deep sea turbulence caused by the collapse of the giant “pillar” struck the slowly ascending submarine, but fortunately, it caused no damage.

Agatha’s voice, full of horror, came from beside him, “What was… what was that just now?!”

She raised her hand toward the porthole, pointing at the piece of darkness in the deep sea, now quickly reverting to a dim state–yet within the boundless darkness, remnants of green glow occasionally burst forth. The wide-scale pale green luminescence looked as though it was voraciously burning along some enormous wreckage or as if a series of explosions were erupting in that swath of darkness.

Outside the submarine, chaotic currents surrounded it, and the noise of the machinery operating along with occasional strange banging sounds from the hull were disconcerting.

Undoubtedly, something significant had happened below.

“… I have found the source of the Frost Crisis, at the heart of the deep sea floating island which is likely the ‘Genesis Blueprint.’ There was an astonishingly large tentacle of an ancient god, a faulty replication of The Saint–Its existence affected this entire sea area,” Duncan glanced back slightly at Agatha, who was clearly waiting for an explanation, “For the past fifty years, the Frost Queen’s spirit has been calming that faulty replication, enduring for far too long.”

Agatha’s mouth slowly fell open.

She had not expected that Captain Duncan would go down to take a look using “Incarnation” and actually bring back such astonishing information!

Stunned with surprise, she froze for a long time before finally snapping out of it and asking subconsciously, “Then… what happened next? What happened after that?”

“Burned it,” Duncan said succinctly.

Agatha didn’t catch on right away, “…Burned it?”

“Burned it,” Duncan repeated, and pointed out the cabin window, “Didn’t you see? I lit the fire.”

“No, it’s not that I didn’t understand what you said. I get it… no, I don’t get it, I really don’t understand,” Agatha almost babbled, her usually strong intellect failing her. She had never felt this helpless even when she faced over a hundred heretics at that eerie and evil sacrificial site. But in front of Captain Duncan, who seemed to never play by the rules, she always felt a bit out of her depth, “You just… burned it? An ancient god… even if it was just a flawed replication… You just burned it?”

Duncan, of course, knew that Agatha would react this way, but he also really didn’t know how he could explain the numerous intricate details, and after agonizing over it for a while, he could only shrug helplessly, “Honestly, I was just as surprised. It was more flammable than I imagined.”

Agatha: “…”

After a moment of silence, the Gatekeeper Miss’s thoughts finally caught up, “Then… what about the Frost Queen’s soul? Did you ‘burn’ that too?”

“She has been set free, but I do not know where she might go–perhaps we will meet again,” Duncan spoke the truth with every sentence, “I discussed many things with her, including her life before death, secrets of the deep sea, and some… truth about our world. A lot of it was highly disruptive.”

“Highly disruptive?” Agatha seemed still not fully recovered from the shock of the “burned” revelation, her thought process lagging a bit as she spoke subconsciously, “What kind of disruption?”

“The kind where you need to burn incense, pray, and write a will before listening, and need isolation, observation, and a mental assessment after,” Duncan glanced at her, “I’ll tell you, once we are back on safe land and after confirming that you are ready.”

Even as a Gatekeeper who had been through numerous trials and possessed a strong will, Agatha still tensed involuntarily upon hearing Duncan’s words.

This “Captain” who could even sail back from subspace was speaking with such a solemn and serious tone… what kind of secrets had he learned in that cold and vast darkness?

Meanwhile, on the Homeloss, Duncan had returned from that fog-enshrouded “bachelor apartment” to his captain’s quarters.

At the edge of the navigation table, the gloomy goat’s head turned its neck with a creak, and its obsidian-set eyes landed on the Captain.

“Name?” it asked in a formal tone.

“Duncan Ebnomal,” Duncan waved his hand dismissively, sat at the table, and looked up at the goat’s head again, “Have I been away too long?”

“You went too far,” the goat’s head seemed to let out a sigh of relief, its tone immediately recovering, “I could feel a strand of your will going to a place very far away, so far that even Homeloss could hardly capture it, don’t be angry, it’s just that I’m concerned for your safety, after all, the whole ship is relying on a wise captain to lead…”

“That’s enough, I know your loyalty, reliability, diligence, and thoughtfulness,” Duncan reassured, “It was just a distant but brief journey, nothing to worry about–what’s Alice doing?”

“Miss Alice?” The goat’s head paused, then continued, “She was just resting in her cabin… Ah, she seems to be heading this way, and it looks like she’s in a hurry.”

Before the goat’s head could finish talking, a series of hurried footsteps came from the deck outside the door, and Alice’s familiar presence appeared at the door.

Before the knocking could begin, Duncan preemptively spoke, “Come in.”

A second later, two knocks were still heard, followed by the puppet belatedly uttering “Oh” outside before opening the door and entering the room.

“Captain! Captain, captain!” As soon as she entered, Alice hurried to Duncan’s side, and before he could speak, she started spilling out in a rush, “There’s a problem! I just had a dream! I had a dream just now!”

Duncan had many things he wanted to tell Alice, but he didn’t expect her to be even more agitated than himself, causing him to frown, “You had a dream? What did you dream about?”

“I can’t remember the specifics!” Alice declared confidently, “It felt like… in the dream, I was kind of amazing? Like the feeling you described before… like I grew a brain?”

(Recommended book time: “Shepherd’s Secret Continuation,” a Victoria fantasy by Amber Stream. The author previously wrote “Mercury Blood” and “Players Ultra Justice.” A trusted author, definitely worth a read.)