Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 743 - Chapter 743 Chapter 740 The Long Sunset

Chapter 743: Chapter 740: The Long Sunset Chapter 743: Chapter 740: The Long Sunset Like a colossal wall reaching to the heavens, the grand mist wall started to stir with subtle waves, briefly illuminated by a light from within–the cloudy streams at the top of the mist wall then burst forth with a faint green flame. The Homeloss, with its towering bow, sailed through the wall of fog, dragging wisps of lingering mist as it headed toward the “normal sea surface.”

Following in the wake of the Homeloss, the Brilliant Starship, the Tidal, the Rest, and the Restless, along with an escort of various-sized ships, also passed through the dense fog.

As the fog wall gradually receded behind the stern, the dim and chaotic Sky Light faded away, supplanted by normal sunlight. At this time, the setting sun was inching closer to the distant horizon, and the double Rune Circle at the edge of anomaly 001 had already touched the sea surface. A golden-red brilliance spread far and wide, displaying awe-inspiring beauty.

The seafarers returning safely from the mist let out sighs of relief. Although strictly speaking, the fleet was still positioned in the bordering waters, the mere sight of the sun and the rolling azure ocean was enough to give them a sense of reassurance, as well as the warmth unique to the “ordered world.”

“Contact has been made with the Church Ark at Light Breeze Harbor,” Fenna approached the bow, finding the captain gazing into the distance on the deck. “I’ve given a brief report on what happened on Holy Land Island. Helena Her Grace looks forward to meeting with you again.”

“Hmm,” Duncan replied simply, his attention seemingly elsewhere. After a while, he withdrew his gaze from the distant sea and looked at Fenna. “Is there anything else?”

“We’re a bit worried,” Fenna hesitated before speaking earnestly. “Since coming out of the captain’s quarters, you seem even more preoccupied. Has something happened?”

“It’s just some unsettling matters I discussed with Goat Head,” Duncan exhaled lightly, “related to the two suspicious apparitions you and Morris saw.”

Fenna blinked. “The two apparitions we saw?”

“Yes, they…” Duncan nodded, and as he was about to explain to Fenna, he was interrupted by a sudden sound that reached his ears.

It was a deep humming, sounding like a gigantic spring being struck violently within the depths of the clouds. The hum was distant and prolonged, as if echoing across the entire sky!

Fenna clearly heard the sound too, and with a startled look, she raised her head in the direction of the echo, gazing at the distant clouds. Almost simultaneously, Morris and Lucricia also emerged from a nearby cabin, looking up at the sky with surprise.

Many sailors within the fleet, also startled by the peculiar humming, along with the alarmed clergymen and guardian warriors on the three main church battleships, rushed onto the deck. They watched the still-echoing sky with uncertainty, some pointing toward the clouds, seemingly spotting something amiss deep within.

Duncan squinted his eyes, drawn by a faint glow behind the clouds, and couldn’t help but look in that direction. Following that, the glow brightened in his field of vision.

It traced a clear path, moving behind the clouds with an apparently slow, but actually swift, speed.

Lucricia suddenly widened her eyes.

Amidst a gradually intensifying, clear succession of deep roars, the glow moving behind the clouds swelled rapidly. Glimpses of brilliant golden light flickered through the gaps in the clouds, and moments later, the swath of radiance passed through the clouds to the northwest and, assuming the posture of a luminous body, plummeted along an arc toward the northern sea.

Like a miniature sun descending, the enormous luminous body gradually vanished on the far-off sea horizon.

Duncan, after a brief moment of shock, reacted instantly. He turned sharply toward Lucricia, but saw that she too was looking up at him.

Duncan didn’t speak, but “Sea Witch” Lucricia already knew what her father wanted to ask. With a grave expression, she nodded lightly.

The second luminous body had fallen.

On the nearby Tidal, some sailors exclaimed in shock, and those with quicker reactions cast their gaze toward the sun. Among them, the more observant… had already noticed the second gap that had newly appeared on the Rune Circle.

Lucricia hurried over, preempting Duncan’s question, “The falling direction appears to be toward the north, likely near the Chill Sea– I wonder if my elder brother has noticed…”

“I saw a streak of golden light from the cemetery, but my view was obscured by the city’s buildings,” Duncan replied immediately, then focused his attention and called out mentally to the distant North, “Tirian.”

A clear sense of panic transmitted back through the mark, followed by the “Ironclad Admiral’s” response in Duncan’s mind, “I’m here, Father.”

With his response came some noisy sounds. It seemed there was some chaos around Tirian.

“Did you observe a giant luminous falling object?” Duncan asked at once, noticing the noises of unrest, “What’s happening on your end? Why does it sound so chaotic?”

Tirian’s voice came through intermittently, “There’s a bit of a situation here… I saw the luminous falling object you mentioned…”

“Where did it fall approximately?” Lucricia’s voice interjected, “How far from the City-State? Is it within the civilized world’s boundaries?”

There was a sudden silence from Tirian for a few seconds, then a distant reply came, “…It hit me right on the head.”

Duncan & Lucricia: “…?”

“To be precise, it landed on the Frost Coast–but part of its luminescent structure is so massive that it extends directly into the city. My office is within the coverage area… Things are a bit chaotic here… It’s really bright, so sudden; my eyes are having trouble adjusting…”

Duncan and Lucricia continued: “…”

To be honest, Duncan really didn’t expect this situation…

There was an awkward silence for a moment, and finally, Duncan coughed twice, “Is anyone injured?”

“We can’t be certain yet, there should be no direct harm, as that object’s luminous part is non-physical, not a speck of dust was disturbed when it fell, and its physical part landed beyond the coast, where, fortunately, no ships were sailing,” the chaos at Tirian seemed to have calmed down slightly, as he was arranging matters while replying, “But the fall of the luminous body was sudden, and it has already caused chaos within the city. I am organizing people to comfort the affected districts and at the same time confirm if there’s any damage…”

Tirian fell silent for a moment, taking a while before continuing, “Lucy, this thing is probably…”

“It’s likely the same kind of luminous geometric body as we have here at Light Breeze Harbor–the second eye-visible gap has appeared on the Rune Circle at the edge of the sun, and it’s even bigger than the last one,” Lucracia spoke with a weighty tone, “…. the sun’s disintegration process might be accelerating.”

“… Damn.”

“I will send you the research data on the luminous geometric body from my side as soon as possible. You need to establish a corresponding research facility, at least first move that ‘fallen object’ to a safe sea area near City-State. There should be a physical core at its center… Once things stabilize over there, first send someone to find that physical core and then tell me its status.”

“I understand.”

After a few more exchanges, Duncan ended his contact with Tirian.

The deck went silent for a moment, with Duncan and Lucracia standing wordlessly under the gold-and-red sunset.

A heavy pressure, as if some invisible countdown was pressing on her chest, made Lucracia struggle to breathe.

She lifted her head to look at her father and opened her mouth, “Dad…”

Another strange hum came from the sky, interrupting what she wanted to say.

The golden-red afterglow disappeared suddenly–the murky darkness covered everything in sight in an instant.

The sun had extinguished again.

From the Prandea to Frost, the fleet from Light Breeze Harbor to the border waters, under the watchful eyes, had once again plunged into darkness–accompanied by a strange, low buzzing sound, the sphere at the center of anomaly 001 turned into a grotesque black void, leaving only the golden double Rune Circle hovering above the sea line, barely illuminating the muddled sky.

The two gaps in the Rune Circle became even more apparent and glaring at this moment.

“The Observer Effect Stabilization Anchor has gone offline again…”

Alice walked out of the cabin, looking somewhat dazed at the now extinguished sun in the distance.

“How long will it stop this time?” Nina crowded in from the side, muttering uneasily.

“I don’t know either,” Alice shook her head, “the system is still reporting errors and trying to restart.”

A-Dog and Sherry came out, one silently squatting on the deck looking toward the horizon, the other cautiously glancing at the direction of the captain nearby, Sherry muttered softly, “… it’s really going to light up again, right? It’s not going to stay dark this time…”

“It shouldn’t be that bad, right?” Nina was startled by Sherry’s mutter and then spoke with some uncertainty after thinking, “If that were the case… should I consider hanging up in the sky regularly to illuminate City-State or something… But I can’t illuminate much by myself and would there be no weekends off?”

Hearing her friend’s ramblings, Sherry’s expression suddenly became a bit complicated as she turned to look at Nina, “… Aren’t your thoughts a bit far-fetched?

“The situation is pretty far-fetched to begin with…”

Sherry and Nina got further and further off-topic with each sentence as if to soothe their somewhat tense moods, but while they were chatting like this, that deep, strange buzzing sound suddenly rang out in the sky once again.

Almost without giving anyone time to react, the world, which had only fallen dark a few minutes ago, was once again illuminated by sunlight–the sun had reignited, and the golden-red sunset shone on the sea as if it had never disappeared.

Sherry and Nina looked at each other.

This time the sun’s “restart” was clearly much faster than the previous two times.

“It’s lit up again!” After a brief moment of shock, Sherry finally reacted, exclaiming with joy, “It only went out for a few minutes this time!”

“That scared me, I thought it would stay dark for hours like before…” Nina also breathed a sigh of relief, “Seems the situation isn’t that bad.”

Maurice nearby seemed to have relaxed as well, a slight smile appearing on his face.

Compared to the previous two times, the sun had gone out for a very short time, and whatever the reason for its quick restart… the return of sunlight was always good news.

On the Homeloss, on the Tide and other church warships, people breathed a sigh of relief under the reignited sunlight, a sense of comfort easing the nerves that had just tensed up.

But an hour later, something didn’t seem quite right.

The sun remained in that position.

Two hours later, the long dusk had not yet ended.