Ashes Of Deep Sea - Chapter 40

Chapter 40 Landing

Fanna jolted awake from a strange and chaotic dream to realize that the sky outside her window was still dark. The cold, pale light from the Wound of the World shone on the window sill carved with the runes of the deep sea. It appeared peaceful and serene.

However, the scenes from that strange dream were still fresh and vivid in her mind.

A ship. A large ship burning with green spirit flames. It sailed over from somewhere far out in the horizons, where the sky and the ocean met. It rolled onto the entire Pland City like a mountain. Within the spirit flames, she could hear countless screams and bleak songs booming in unison, as though it was attempting to overthrow the entire world with its noise.

Just as the huge ship arrived, a burning sun rose from deep within the City-state of Pland. It was not the sun that everyone knew. It was not the sun that was bound by ancient runes. It was the “Ancient Sun” that the believers of the cult of Sun had described. It was a celestial body that burned intensely. It rose from deep within the city. Its flames melted the ground, everyone in the city melted like wax sculptures, and their liquified remains flowed on the streets.

The great church of the Deep Sea association stood quietly in the middle of this living, burning hell of earth. She prayed to the church in her dream, hoping to receive guidance from the Wind Goddess. However, all she heard from the church were noisy and meaningless rings from the bell. She received no revelation…

Fanna sat up from her bed, then walked to the window in her pajamas. She looked at the peaceful city and the “Wound of the World” in the sky, but her heart grew more and more agitated.

A few moments later, the young judge retracted her gaze toward the city. She went to the dresser near her bed and pulled out the drawers.

There was a dagger lying in the drawer of the dresser. It was a curvy dagger used for rituals. The runes symbolizing the Deep Sea Association gleamed slightly at the base of the blade. It seemed to be “resonating” due to stimulation from some unknown force.

Fanna’s eyes were fixated on the gleaming runes for several seconds. Then, she used the blade to cut the center of her palm. As blood seeped out from the wound, she placed her hand on her chest and softly chanted the name of the Wind Goddess, attempting to ask for guidance from the deity.

Yet, for some reason, all she could hear were faint, possibly illusory sounds of oceanic waves. She usually entered the “Spirit Detection” state very easily, yet today, nothing was happening. It was as though an invisible screen had suddenly shrouded her, cutting off her connection to the Wind Goddess, Gemora.

Fanna’s brows started to furrow.

It was extremely rare for a follower’s connection with her god to be disrupted. Still, it wasn’t unimaginable — the projection and relation between the Subspace and the real world are very complicated. It was impossible to understand for an ordinary human being. Even a god’s power can sometimes be affected by the Subspace, the Silent Deep Sea, and the Spirit World, causing it to be weakened or amplified. Furthermore, there was also eternal conflict and turmoil between the gods and the ancient deities. In some extremely rare cases, some followers might suddenly become unable to hear the voices of their gods.

But Wind Goddess Gemora… it shouldn’t happen to her.

The boundless sea surrounded the civilization of ordinary humans. The Wind Goddess’s power penetrates through all dimensions and affects the entire reality. Any god can lose connection to the real world, even the god of death might leave loopholes like “revivers,” but the Wind Goddess… it was impossible.

That was also why the Deep Sea Association could become the most powerful religious organization in the entire Boundless Sea.

Was it her problem?

Naturally, Fanna started to doubt her own condition. But when she looked at her palm, she saw the wound she had just cut starting to heal quickly.

The Wind Goddess’s blessing is still valid, and there was no delay in its effects.

Fanna started thinking about the chaotic dream she had just now and the ill omens she had seen in the past few days.

All these things must be connected somehow.

The ghost ship was burning with green flames… ghost ship…

Fanna started thinking as quickly as she could. Her expression suddenly became serious as she referenced the occult knowledge she had accumulated.

She wasn’t an expert in ships or sailing and rarely encountered those seemingly ridiculous, superstitious rumors. But even in the orthodox church books, one particular ghost ship held a special status.

It is a ship of misfortune that returned from Subspace. Its captain was a horrifying figure that caused the 13 Islands of Villecelin to be swallowed by the collapse of the border a century ago, Duncan.

Fanna immediately stood up behind the dresser. Then she remembered that it was the middle of the night right now. The document archive of the great church is closed, just like any other library in the city.

For safety reasons, she shouldn’t talk about the “prophetic dream” with anyone else within a few hours after it happened. If this dream was really pointed toward “Captain Duncan,” there was a great possibility that he would establish a connection in reverse through the dream and detect her talking about him with someone else.

After all, that was a “ghost” that managed to return from the Subspace.

The safest thing to do right now was to wait patiently, wait for the sun to, once again, take the dominant position in the world, and wait for the connection established by the dream to dissipate gradually. Then, she can go to the archives and read the relevant documents or discuss these omens with the bishop at the church.

Regardless, these prophetic dreams might really be pointing at “Captain Duncan” and reminding her that the Lost Home from the myths and legends had its eyes on Pland. If that were the case, as the guardian of the city, she had to stop the ghost captain of terror from docking at their coast at all costs…

A tall and slim figure quickly walked across the streets of the lower city area. His slender silhouette cast a thin shadow beneath the gaslight on the street.

This was a completely unfamiliar city, with entirely unfamiliar buildings, and the only thing guiding him was completely unfamiliar memories in his mind. The streets appeared exceptionally desolate and eerie during the curfew hours.

Yet, Duncan’s mood was exceptionally good while walking in an environment like that.

SU

He had succeeded. Not only did he successfully Spirit World Walk a second time, he even managed to control a body to come to the surface. He managed to come to the surface of the City-state of Pland.

He was coming into contact with the civilization of this world. He was seeing the buildings of this era and the technologies of this era with his own eyes.

On top of that, he was using a complete body, a body that doesn’t have his chest cavity exposed or an “open mind.” This normal-looking body allowed him to move freely and conveniently to do whatever he wanted.

To be honest, the health condition of this body wasn’t very good either. Even if he could ignore most of the ailments on this body while possessing it via Spirit World Walking, Duncan could still clearly feel that it wasn’t healthy. But he had no complaints. He even felt that this was very normal.

Based on the experience from the past two attempts, Spirit World Walking allows him to occupy bodies that have been dead for less than a certain amount of time. If a body was completely healthy and energetic, it couldn’t possibly be dead!

Duncan heard a dog barking in the distance near the end of the street, prompting him to slow down his footsteps. He turned and hid in the shadow between two buildings.

He wasn’t sure if it was a guard dog belonging to the church guards on night patrol, but there was nothing wrong with being cautious.

Above the buildings, large pipes stretched across and between the low-rise buildings. The light from the pale “Wound of the World” spilled through the gaps between those pipes and cast patchy rays on the ground beneath. Occasionally, steam would leak out from the valves on the pipes, forming blurry mists in the night sky.

The barks faded into the distance.

Duncan came out from his hiding spot. He looked around the street, then calmed the pigeon that was moving around on his shoulder uneasily before walking toward the street opposite him, following the directions from his memories.

There was an aged door between a row of small buildings that were maybe two or three stories tall. A dirty sign hung above the door. Dusty windows desperately needed cleaning on the walls beside the door. This was a shop. It looked quite big, but clearly lacked care as well as customers.

This was the place that the memory fragments guided Duncan to.

He came before the door of the old door and raised his head to look at the sign. The words on it were barely readable in the dark.

“Ron’s Antique Shop,” Duncan mumbled softly, “That’s a straightforward name…”

After that, he started looking around the door. Because the memories in his mind weren’t very clear, it took him quite a while to find the backup key from a hidden hook below one of the windows.

The original owner of this body didn’t bring the key with him and didn’t bring any item that could be used to identify him or find this antique shop. It seemed to be the habitual cautiousness of an experienced cultist. However, in front of a ghost captain that could plunder his memories, these efforts were all in vain.

Duncan opened the main entrance of Ron’s Antique Ship, then immediately closed the door after entering.

The wooden door closed with a bang, but the sound didn’t propagate very far into the night. The sign hung above the door tilted slightly due to the shudder caused by the door closing. The letters on the sign started to twist and wiggle under the pale light from the sky. In a blink of an eye, new words appeared on the wooden board…

“Duncan’s Antique Shop.”