“Holy shit!!!” Arthur felt his entire heart almost come out of his mouth at that moment. Seeing the giant ship fall toward them, his survival instincts kicked in.
His eyes looked down and his brain did a quick calculation to find the optimal way to escape this. His reaction was speed was a little faster than everyone else so he was able to have a split second to make a decision. Something the others didn’t have.
The position of the group was a little spread out with the closest person to Arthur being Isla. The others were still near the wooden platform where they came from. At the same time, the falling ship was falling toward Arthur and Isla.
Its massive size was bound to also affect the others if they didn’t move. However, Arthur knew that he and Isla were in the biggest threat. All of that happened in Arthur’s head almost instantly.
He didn’t even realize that he was able to think that fast as the threat completely occupied his mind.
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“Move!!!” He dashed toward Isla as he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up. “Sorry! I have to do this!”
Then, he looked around him and quickly dashed in the opposite direction. At the same time, the others quickly snapped out of their shock as they panicked and tried to move out of the way.
They all tried to get ready for the impact that was bound to happen. At the very last moment, they all ducked down as the falling ship smashed into the deck.
*BOOOOOOOOOM*
The impact was so strong and loud that the entire world seemingly shook around them. Wooden planks and debris flew everywhere at horrifying speeds. Giant cracks spread across the entire ship in every direction.
“Oh no!” Arthur lifted his head up, only to see the ship about to be split in half. It didn’t take a genius to understand the disaster if that happened.
“Isla, can you move?!” He said as he quickly stood up.
The latter shook her head as she stood up too.
“We need to make a run for it! The ship is about to fall on our heads!” He said as he looked up.
Surprisingly, the falling ship didn’t instantly tilt to either side. Instead, it stood there for a few seconds as if it were a nail pinned into Adula. However, the cracks didn’t give them that much leisure.
They were spreading very quickly and the sound of the wood breaking filled the entire world. Arthur and Isla knew that and didn’t waste time as they started running toward the other side.
The cracks chased after them, almost making them stumble and fall.
‘Faster!’ Arthur didn’t dare to look behind him as he only focused on running to safety.
“On my count, we will jump!” Isla said. “We won’t be able to run for long! The cracks are spreading far too quickly.”
“I know! On your count!”
“1… 2… 3… Jump!” Isla exclaimed as she leaped forward. Arthur followed suit.
At the same moment, the ship finally snapped in half and a huge chunk of it started tilting back slowly. In a few seconds, the entire chunk separated from the main ship and started descending into the endless abyss.
“Hah… Hah… Hah…” Arthur heaved up and down as he lay on the deck. His heart was beating so fast that he could feel it against his chest. “That was close.” He muttered.
“Are you ok, Isla?” He asked the girl next to him.
“Tsk, my head.” The girl was holding the back of her head with a pained look before she slowly stood up. “I’m fine.”
“Isla!! Are you ok?!”
“Isla!”
“Are you both good?”
The others quickly rushed toward them in a hurry. The panic in their voices was real as they had witnessed what just occurred.
“We’re fine, more or less,” Arthur replied as he looked up at the unknown ship. The thing was still pinned horizontally as if it had no intention of falling yet. The threat they felt when they assumed that it was about to fall on them was weirdly wrong. “Where the hell did that come from?”
“It appeared out of nowhere,” Herculia said. “This is ridiculous! I have never expected a goddamn ship will fall on our heads from the sky.”
“It looks awfully similar to this ship,” Danny replied. “Are they from the same fleet of ships?”
“It looks like it. Both of them are in horrible conditions too.” Emmy muttered with a pale expression. “I don’t feel good about this. What should we do now?”
“…” Arthur pursed his lips as he kept staring at the ship silently. He also felt something off from this. Apart from the fact that it almost squashed him to death, the looming shadow of the ship made him feel a chill run down his spine.
He didn’t know why he felt that or if it was simply its humungous size, but Arthur wasn’t relaxed at all.
“Is it… going to remain in that position?” Danny asked.
“… It seems so. This is a flying ship we’re talking about. It’s defying gravity.” Isla replied. “However, whatever this memory gate wants us to do, it most definitely has something to do with this ship. We have to figure it out if we want to get out of here.”
The event that just happened wasn’t a coincidence and they knew that very well.
“For now… Let’s wait and see what will happen. This is definitely not the end.” Arthur said as he turned around to walk to the other side. “We can’t move anywhere else, anyway.”
‘I need to check the other side of the ship. I’m not feeling easy at all.’ He frowned deeply as he started walking.
“What should we do, Isla?”
“… For now, let’s inspect the exterior of the ship. We can’t get into it yet when it’s standing like this. But, if things came to it, we will have to find a way inside.”
However, at that moment, the group heard a noise coming from the fallen ship. Immediately, they all turned to look at it at the same time.
There, they saw it. At the very peak of the standing ship, a silhouette appeared out of nowhere. Since it was very far away, they couldn’t really see it clearly. However, the thing they were certain of was that it wasn’t human at all and the reason for that was simple.
‘Is it… burning?’ Arthur blinked in shock. There was no mistaking it, the creature, whatever it was, was burning with a blue flame. A very bright flame that completely engulfed its body.
“What the hell… is that?” Herculia muttered.
At the same time, the creature slowly stepped forward, getting closer and closer to the edge. Then, it fell.
Like a meteor, it descended to the ground quickly, smashing into the wood with a loud bang. Then, it slowly stood up, revealing its full appearance.
The creature was of an average human’s height. It had no skin, nor flesh, just bones. They were charcoal black in color as if they were absorbing all the light around them. Its skull was human-like with no eyes, nose, or lips for that matter.
Just a cursed cadaver of a burning human. Nobody moved as they looked at the monster. After all, what were they supposed to do when such an unexpected thing appeared in front of them?
However, their worst nightmare was yet to come. Before they could even take in what just happened, another silhouette fell from the top of the ship. Then, another one, and another one after that. In quick succession, many silhouettes started falling to the ground one after the other. All look the same as if they were copies of one another.
Before anyone could realize it, dozens and dozens of these creatures filled the deck. An entire army of these skeletons faced the group.
Slowly, it sunk into their minds… A battle had begun before anyone could even expect it.