Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 513 - Chapter 513 Chapter 514 Ignite

Chapter 513: Chapter 514 Ignite Chapter 513: Chapter 514 Ignite The faint glow that remained after the sun had been extinguished hung high in the sky, the feeble light unable to illuminate the ocean, instead casting the entire world into an even darker and more terrifying abyss.

The white oak ship was sailing in this deep darkness.

The lights on the ship had been lit, with the glow from the oil lamps and electrical lighting intermingling and spreading out, illuminating a small area of the nearby sea. The delicate waves surged in the weak light, appearing to carry a viscous and ominous texture.

Lawrence clutched the helm, responding to the voice in his head, “…The situation aboard the white oak is still good, apart from the crew being a bit tense, there are no issues with the ship. But we’re engulfed in darkness and have lost contact with other vessels on the sea lane; moreover, navigation has failed, and the observatory can now only see pitch black.”

Duncan’s voice echoed directly in his mind, “Can you reach Cold Harbor, the city-state closest to you? You should have just left there not long ago.”

“Can’t,” Lawrence turned to glance at the communications station not far away, seeing all the lights on the machine were red, “Comms are completely down, the priest tried using psychic resonance to reach Cold Harbor’s cathedral, but there was no response–although we can barely maintain psychic resonance with Preland.”

“Preland is fine, Frost is also okay, but the situation is, apart from Frost, Preland, and Light Breeze Harbor, all city-states have lost contact. It feels… as if they all vanished after the sun was extinguished.”

Listening to Captain Duncan’s description, Lawrence’s expression gradually grew tense, and he swallowed hard as if he dared not let his mind wander further.

Then he looked down quickly at the control panel beside the wheel, rapidly checking the parameters.

“We are sailing at full speed towards Preland, which is a very busy route, theoretically, we should soon see a transfer harbor–that is an affiliated island of the Rensa city-state, we will check the situation there and report to you at the first opportunity…”

Lawrence was saying this rapidly in his mind, but before he could finish, a sudden rush of urgent footsteps interrupted what he wanted to say next.

A crew member ran onto the bridge in a panic, “Captain! Captain! You must come and see! That ‘sailor’ has discovered something serious!”

“Anomaly 077?” Lawrence’s expression sharpened in an instant, then he turned his head towards the first mate, “Gus, take the helm, I’m going to check it out!”

First Mate Gus immediately stepped forward, “Yes, Captain!”

Lawrence quickly left the bridge, hurriedly following the crew member through the stairs and corridors to the rear deck of the white oak, and as soon as he arrived here, he saw the gaunt figure busily bustling at the edge of the stern deck.

Anomaly 077, this eerie living mummy was busying itself next to a huge iron barrel, muttering nonstop as it worked, and it was only when Lawrence approached that he could hear clearly what the mummy was incessantly muttering: “It’s all over, we’re done for this time, no one can leave, no one can go back, the whole world is ruined, I might as well just die in my sleep…”

This thing, as always, was overflowing with negative energy.

Lawrence didn’t want to listen to Anomaly 077’s ramblings any longer and immediately took two steps forward, interrupting loudly, “What are you doing?”

The mummy suddenly shuddered as if awoken from delirium, hurriedly bowed and scraped, “Captain! You’re here… oh, good, with the captain here, I feel at ease…”

“Enough, enough,” Lawrence waved his hand and asked again, “What in the world are you doing?”

“You’ve got to see this, look at this…” the mummy said in a panic, then ran over to the iron barrel and stirred inside it with a large pair of iron tongs–the sound of greasy oil could be heard.

It was then that Lawrence realized the barrel was filled with fuel, and Anomaly 077 was using the tongs to stir a torn cloth in that vat of oil. Afterward, the mummy lifted the now oil-soaked cloth, then took out a lighter it must have cadged from a crew member, and ignited the rag.

Under Lawrence’s frowning gaze, Anomaly 077 forcefully threw the burning rag into the sea–the fireball fell onto the surface and swiftly drifted towards the rear of the white oak.

Anomaly 077 prattled on: “This is an old method sailors used to roughly gauge the speed–before all those fancy machines of yours were invented, they all did this. Not very accurate, but very useful…”

“I know, I’ve read about this,” Lawrence cut the other off, “But what exactly do you want me to see?”

The “sailor” gestured emphatically, then pointed into the distance, “Just keep watching, it’s coming soon, watch that drift towards the distance…”

Lawrence frowned and turned to stare at the flame floating on the surface of the water–it was drifting quickly towards the rear of the white oak, which was expected as the white oak was sailing at full speed forwards, so there was nothing strange about this phenomenon.

Until the fireball suddenly stopped in the distance.

Lawrence’s gaze sharpened in an instant.

The fireball, which should have continued to drift away until it was eventually swallowed by the waves or went beyond sight, had come to a halt far away.

Roughly estimating, that position was about several hundred meters from the white oak.

Lawrence stared hard in that direction, watching the flame that had stopped several hundred meters away from the stern of the white oak; it seemed as though the fire was keeping pace with the ship’s own constant velocity. After a long while, the flame finally began to fade and was extinguished at the edge of the dark waters.

The “sailor” again used the tongs to pick up a torn cloth, dipped it in oil, ignited it and threw it into the water.

The second fireball hit the water, quickly drifted back, and then stopped at the same distance.

Anomaly 077 finally dropped the pliers from his hand and turned to look at Lawrence, his gaunt and horrifying face seemingly squeezing out a look of distress, “Captain, what do you make of this… How can we use science to explain it?”

This time, however, Lawrence didn’t respond with his usual joking manner to the “anomaly’s” obsession with a scientific explanation. He just stood silently at the edge of the deck, and after what felt like an eternity, he muttered as if talking to himself, “Do you see it?”

The nearby Anomaly 077 was startled, “Huh? Who are you talking to?”

Lawrence didn’t answer, but in his mind, he heard Duncan’s deep and commanding voice, “I see it clearly, through sharing your vision.”

“What is your opinion on this phenomenon?” Lawrence asked cautiously.

“The laws of physics are becoming alien, very likely due to some ‘chaos’ in the spatial domain, or perhaps an even deeper reason. In any case, since the sun extinguished, the Endless Sea is changing rapidly–yet the White Oak and the small area around it remain normal.”

Lawrence pondered for a moment before speaking hesitantly, “Is this your power at work…”

“Perhaps, but I also need some time to figure out the reasons behind this.”

Listening to the voice in his head and staring at the dark, chaotic expanse of sea beyond, Lawrence fell into deep thought.

Just then, a strange, low rumble that seemed to come from the sky and reverberate throughout the entire world suddenly interrupted his contemplation.

It was a weird, slow buzzing sound, like a giant beast struggling to breathe, or some immense machine slowly starting up. It sounded faint and distant yet seemed to fill the entire world, echoing in everyone’s ears.

Lawrence, taken aback, raised his head to look towards the extinguished sun.

The double Rune Circle around the sun flickered uncertainly, and as the Rune Circle flashed, the dark sphere at the center of anomaly 001 gradually began to reveal streaks of light.

At first, the flickering light was faint and tinged with red, like blood vessels, but it quickly spread across the entire sphere, growing brighter…

…

The huge Luminous Geometric Body floated above the sea, bathing the nearby Light Breeze Harbor and the Brilliant Starship moored at the floating dock in its evenly released “sunlight.”

Atop the highest research platform of the Brilliant Starship, Lucrecia was staring intently at the large circular crystal lens in front of her.

Pale blue light floated around the crystal lens, while its center displayed fluctuating, intermittently bright and dark colors.

The clockwork doll, “Luny,” stood near Lucrecia, busily adjusting the dazzling observation equipment with her precise and dexterous hands while reporting to her mistress, “Ever since a while ago, these strange ‘signals’ have been part of the ‘sunlight’ emitted by the Luminous Geometric Body. They are invisible to the naked eye but can be captured by the observation lens aboard, appearing as these undulating ripples of light and shadow…”

Lucrecia looked up towards the front of the room–though the research platform was enclosed, there was a special window at the room’s end, through which the “sunlight” from the Luminous Geometric Body was directed indoors. It passed through a series of elaborate lens systems for processing, ending up split into a spectral graph and projected onto a specific observation device. She had personally designed and built this entire apparatus.

It was a device built specifically for researching the “Luminous Geometric Body”– and now, it was serving its purpose.

Lucrecia shifted her gaze back to the recording instrument on the table beside her, which was continuously spitting out strips of paper–the lengthy paper tape was recording the captured light spectrum changes, with jumping black lines that showed a clear and definite periodicity.

“These ‘light signals’ have a pattern…” she murmured softly.

“Yes,” the doll Luny nodded, “Each signal has a cycle of twelve seconds, repeated thrice, followed by a thirty-second interval, then the pattern reappears.”

“Are they being sent from that ‘stone sphere’?”

“It’s uncertain–the people from the Academy of Truth are monitoring near the sphere, but they’ve not detected any changes to the body itself. These ‘light signals’ seem to emerge out of nowhere from the illuminated area around the sphere…”

Luny stopped abruptly in the middle of her report.

“Mistress, the light signals have stopped.”

Lucrecia looked bewilderedly at the crystal lens in front of her.

The undulating colors of light and dark had vanished.

After a moment of stunned silence, it was as though she suddenly realized something, and her figure swiftly disintegrated into swirling colorful paper that soared out the window.

The colorful paper danced above the deck, swiftly reassembling itself, and Lucrecia stood on the upper deck of the Brilliant Starship, squinting as she looked up at the sky.

Through the soft golden “sunlight” that lingered on the sea surface, she saw a particularly bright luminary hanging high in the sky.

The sun had been reignited.