Chapter 204: Chapter 208: A Conversation After 100 Years
On the vast Endless Sea, two cursed warships headed straight toward each other, the ocean around them stirred by an invisible force into restlessness, even affecting the nearby sky.
The cold fog around Sea Mist spread, and large patches of ice began to appear on the ocean surface. These areas of ice shifted continuously like whirlpools, covering several nautical miles. Though the sea had been calm, now the waves surged, each stronger than the last, mixed with chaotic gusts of cold wind, while Homeloss was enveloped in layers of eerie green flames, pushing through all the extreme weather conditions straight towards the steel warship at the center of the ice.
Sea Mist also accelerated, all its engines roaring like dying beasts, the rudder adjusting itself without human control. The shipborne church’s whistle sounded incessantly, the sacred sound now resembling a death knell—the undead sailors stood on deck, at the guns, behind each porthole, watching helplessly as their warship sped toward the burning Ghost Ship. On the bridge, Tyrion could even faintly see the figure at the high stern of Homeloss.
He saw a tall man gripping the steering wheel, standing firm like a rock amidst the storm, with an indifferent gaze fixed on him.
So similar to someone he remembered.
And then, unsurprisingly, the two ships “collided.”
The anticipated destructive impact and disintegration did not occur.
In the next minute, the crew of Sea Mist had the fortune to experience a bizarre and eerie “spectacle” similar to the original encounter with the White Oak—a burning Ghost Ship loomed like a mountain, crushing over them, and amidst the flaming spirits, everything’s boundaries blurred. Sea Mist turned into a Spiritual Body, and its sailors turned into Spiritual Bodies, the scene resembling one phantom crashing into another.
First mate Aiden stared in horror, seeing Homeloss’s bow and masts rushing headlong towards him, then, without any harm, passing right by. He momentarily entered a cabin in Homeloss, ancient columns and flaming lanterns nearly brushing his ears as they whizzed past—finally, he saw the tall figure behind the wheel on the soaring deck of Homeloss.
Tyrion instinctively stepped back, but the next second, he straightened up, as if heeding advice from his childhood once whispered by his father—
“Never retreat, never bow to the storm!”
Thus he held up his head, facing the storm before him—his father, taken by Subspace and returned to the earthly realm.
Then, they were face to face, Homeloss’s structure at the stern directly entering the bridge, Duncan’s position merely a few steps away from the captain’s seat on Sea Mist.
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At that moment, it felt as if the entire world fell silent.
A solemn, deep voice reached everyone’s ears, “I’m very busy.”
Tyrion was stunned, his eyes widening as he suddenly looked toward the source of the voice.
However, this brief encounter had already ended. The two swiftly sailing phantoms overlapped only for an extremely brief instance. Homeloss, as ghostly as a gust of wind, swept past Sea Mist. By the time Tyrion could react, he found that he and his crew had returned to their corporeal states.
He hastily ran to another observation window and saw Homeloss speeding towards Plunder’s direction—leaving Sea Mist far behind.
The steel warship slowly came to a stop on the ocean, the invisible force that had been driving it subsiding. Now it was once again under the control of the helmsman. The severely damaged engine system was shut down with great effort by the sailors, and restarting it seemed no easy task.
“…What just happened?” Aiden scratched his smooth head, the sturdy first mate looking puzzled, “That ship… just left? Weren’t we supposed to fight to the death?”
The boatswain spoke hesitantly, “…It seemed like it didn’t intend to fight us to the death from the beginning, it didn’t even slow down, just rolled over us…”
“It was terrifying, I even felt my heart start beating again…”
The crew’s murmurs reached Tyrion’s ears, but he had no interest in listening. His mind was echoing with that brief phrase—
“I’m very busy.”
That was his father talking—unemotional, not at all like a family reunion greeting, almost cold like it was addressed to a stranger, but it was definitely a coherent, intelligible human phrase.
Not a mad scream unique to Subspace.
“Captain,” First mate Aiden approached, looking uneasy at the silent Tyrion, “What do we do next?”
Tyrion snapped out of his thoughts, looking up, “Can the ship still move?”
“Not really, the engine is off for now; repairs will take some time. Plus, many got hurt in the recent clash… serious injuries, the kind that take a while to clear up,” Aiden shook his head, his shiny forehead gleaming, “But the most unbelievable thing is that those who took a direct hit from Homeloss’s cannons are actually unharmed. Cannons one and three completely disappeared, but the people in the turret fell into the holes unscathed…”
“The ones shaken by the shockwaves were badly injured, but those directly hit survived?” Tyrion confirmed in surprise, then furrowed his brow, “How could that be…”
“Perhaps… your father didn’t strike to kill?” Aiden glanced at his captain and cautiously said, “From the bombardment of the Homeloss, it just seemed to want to stop the Sea Mist…”
“That’s not…” Tieryan said reflexively, then shut his mouth and, after a few seconds of silence, he gently shook his head. “Hurry and restore power to the ship while sending a message to Plunder, saying that we’ve done everything to intercept, but the Homeloss is still heading towards the City-State… Let the massive Navy of the City-State figure out the rest. We’ve done our part.”
Aiden immediately left to carry out the orders, but soon came rushing back in a hurry. “Captain! We can’t make contact with Plunder!”
“Can’t make contact?” Tieryan frowned. “Is it because the signal was disrupted by the recent battle?”
“No, we can still receive signals from the patrol points in the deep sea, but not from Plunder—not any signals,” Aiden swiftly said with a puzzled expression. “It’s like Plunder has disappeared from the radio… At this distance, that’s simply impossible. And it’s not just the telegraph; even the spiritual energy calls to the church aren’t getting any responses!”
“No response from the spiritual energy calls either?!” This time, Tieryan’s expression visibly shifted, and he thought again of the Homeloss’s determined rush towards Plunder, an intense unease finally stirring in his heart. “When did the communication stop? Is someone monitoring the telegraph station?”
“The last call was yesterday when we were doing our routine reporting with the Port Authority of Plunder, and communications were still normal,” Aiden recalled, speaking rapidly. “Captain, what should we do? Should we return?”
He paused then, his expression somewhat hesitant. “This situation… It’s already gone beyond the original plan.”
Tieryan’s face remained taut, and for several seconds, he didn’t speak, finally letting out a deep sigh.
“We’re heading to Plunder—set sail as soon as the Sea Mist is restored.”
Aiden looked startled, but after a brief moment of surprise, the loyal first mate braced himself. “Yes, Captain!”
…
The turbulent sea around them gradually returned to calm, leaving only the sound of waves reaching their ears.
The deafening roar of the cannons seemed still to echo in Duncan’s mind, causing him to reflexively scratch his ear—clearly still unaccustomed to the sudden encounter.
The voice of the goat’s head reached his ears: “You sped straight towards the Sea Mist just now; I thought you wanted to speak to Tieryan, especially since… this counts as a particularly meaningful ‘reunion.’”
“I did think so initially,” Duncan responded nonchalantly, “but then I suddenly changed my mind.”
“Why?”
“… After meeting, I suddenly realized I didn’t know what to say,” Duncan said frankly. Having come clean in a way with the figure of the goat’s head, he was no longer as cautious as before, “After all, we’re not close.”
“…Okay, you decide,” the goat’s head seemed indifferent, “But you better still think about how you’re going to get along with that pair of ‘children.’ Everyone is quite hardy; sooner or later you’ll have to meet them, and good family relationships are crucial to one’s fate. Remember, there was once a…
“Shut up,” Duncan smoothly interrupted the other’s drifting topic and then seemed to suddenly remember something, his expression turning peculiar, “Speaking of which, we’re missing a person this time; it’s quite regrettable.”
“A missing person? You mean…”
“Alice wasn’t there; she was helping out at a store in the City-State,” Duncan’s tone was leisurely, even cheerful. “I just remembered, Tieryan once served under the Frost Queen, and Alice wears the Frost Queen’s face—imagine if Alice had been on the ship just now, how interesting that would have been. I bet Tieryan would have been pondering it for days…”
The goat’s head: “…”
“Why aren’t you saying anything? You usually talk a lot.”
“It’s not appropriate for me to comment on your family affairs…” the goat’s head replied, “But now that you mention it, I also think that would’ve been quite a scene to witness… What if we make another trip, this time bringing Miss Alice…”
Of course, Duncan dismissed the fanciful suggestion. He fell silent for two seconds before suddenly saying, “I didn’t realize you were such a reveler.”
“What’s a ‘reveler’?”
Duncan didn’t answer, suddenly raising his head to gaze in a specific direction across the distant sea.
Just in that moment, aboard the Homeloss, Duncan distinctly sensed his own body located within the Plunder City-State, even sensing flames spreading throughout the city.
As he had previously anticipated, once the Homeloss was close enough, the connection between the ship and Plunder…intensified!