Deep Sea Embers

Agatha took a step forward and said in a serious tone, "Where did that 'unreachable ship' come from?"

"The port of departure, Purland, was replenished once in Lensa, and then Cold Harbor," the soldier who came to report the situation immediately said, "Frost is its last stop—until the replenishment at Cold Harbor , the condition of that ship is all normal."

"Damn..." Colonel Liszt pressed his forehead hard, obviously in a very bad mood, "We are all in trouble now... There is also a ship that disappeared when it was about to reach Frost... Where is it now? Have the energy to manage things outside the city-state..."

Agatha stared at the defense commander in front of her with a particularly dignified tone: "But as you said, Mr. Colonel, it disappeared when it was about to reach Frost—so it cannot be ruled out that it was also affected by some kind of supernatural force." The effect of vision."

Liszt raised his head: "You mean..."

"Frost is in a state of being infested by some kind of extraordinary power. There are frequent abnormal cases in the city-state. The Haiyan incident proves that this 'abnormality' is not limited to this island. Now there is another White Oak missing on the edge of the sea. We There is reason to suspect that a 'vision' on a scale far beyond our imagination is covering the entire Frost Region—not only the land under our feet, but also a large area of ​​the surrounding sea."

Liszt propped his hands on the table, and suddenly raised his head after a few seconds: "Expand the scope of the blockade and issue a warning to all neighboring city-states—the pollution of the frost is spilling out, and the physical blockade is likely to be ineffective."

Speaking of this, he suddenly stopped, gritted his teeth, and seemed to be very hesitant. Of course Agatha noticed this scene: "What worries do you have, Mr. Colonel?"

"...I'm afraid we have to talk to that big pirate," Liszt said with a gloomy expression, "although I personally don't want to do it very, very much."

"You mean... Tirian Abnomare?" Agatha's tone also changed slightly—even though she is the "gatekeeper" of the city-state, she is still a native of Frost, and she also listened to her since she was a child. I grew up with horror stories about the sea fog fleet, "If you don't sleep again, Captain Tirian will take you away when the fog rises" is the most impressive childhood memory of every Frostman under the age of 50. Agatha was no exception, "Do you think he will accept our negotiation?"

"It doesn't have to be a negotiation, but at least one conversation is needed," Liszt raised his eyelids and stared at the gatekeeper in front of him, "He came here at the most sensitive time, but he hasn't made any further progress until now. move, I once suspected that he had something to do with the 'fakes' that appeared in and around the city, but now it looks more like he is simply sealing off the area - just like we are doing. We have to send people and Talk to him and at least figure out what he wants to do."

"... According to legend, he is a cold and crazy cursed person, whose breath is as cold as the wind on the cold sea, and whose gaze can freeze the sea," Agatha said softly, "Who can act as this 'messenger' ?”

"Those legends are exaggerated, and anyone with a little knowledge can actually find out that the Sea Fog Fleet has relatively normal communication channels with many forces on the Lenglie Sea. The so-called 'Sea Fog Venture Capital Company' even set up a An 'office' - that big pirate is just extraordinarily ruthless to Frost," Liszt sighed softly, "The envoy's problem will be resolved, there is never a lack of brave men among the soldiers of the city-state, and..."

He stopped suddenly, raised his head thoughtfully, and looked in a certain direction outside the window.

"Ms. Agatha, did you hear any strange noises just now?"

"Strange sound?" Agatha frowned, and also looked up to the window, and almost at the same time, she also heard some distant and low-pitched strange sound.

It sounded like a constant hum, but it wasn't any sound she knew to occur in nature.

That's the direction of Dagger Island.

In the Frost Offshore area, a steel warship with a white hull, three main guns, and the Queen's flag is slowly cruising. A short and stout captain is standing at the bow, watching the situation in the distance with binoculars—— He was wearing the uniform of the Queen's Guard from half a century ago, but there was a horrifying hole in his abdomen that could be directly seen opposite. The fragments of clothing at the damaged place floated slowly in the air as if soaked in sea water, and occasionally emerged out of thin air. Make a series of bubbles.

He is a member of the Sea Fog Fleet and the captain of the powerful battleship "Sea Crow", Nixon.

He looked at the small island with its winding coast in the distance.

And on the sea surface in that direction, you can still see some little black shadows lingering.

Those are the naval ships of Frost City-they are carrying out the blockade mission on Dagger Island in another direction, and at the same time, they are carefully observing every move of the Sea Crow and other nearby sea fog ships.

"Those ships are really annoying," a sailor strolled over and said next to the stocky captain Nixon, "Can you shoot them a few times to say hello?"

"No, unless you want to be stuffed into the mechanical cabin by General Tirian and stirred for twenty-four hours," Nixon said without looking back, "We didn't come to fight the Frostmen—in the words of the general, we are now Be on their side for now."

"Okay," the sailor shrugged, "They're blocking the other side of Dagger Island, and we're blocking this side. It's not bad to 'cooperate', but if those guys get dizzy and really want to come closer, they can't do it." Don't blame our artillery for going off?"

"If you accidentally fire, you will be the first to be launched." Nixon looked back at his subordinates, and then turned his gaze to the small island in the distance, "Dagger Island... Tsk, I still remember when I was there They have stood guard above."

"At that time it still had boiling gold to mine, and there was even a town on the island," sighed the sailor. "Oh, the good old days are gone."

Nixon frowned, as if he wanted to say something, but suddenly, he seemed to hear something, and his expression suddenly became serious.

A strange buzzing sound... came to his ears.

"What kind of movement is that?" The sailor next to him also reacted immediately, with a nervous expression on his face, "Did those Frost people make it?"

"I don't know, but Frost's ships didn't act suspiciously..." Nixon immediately raised his binoculars, "They don't seem to know... Wait, Dagger Island is shaking!"

He suddenly took away the binoculars and stared at the distant sea in astonishment.

A hazy mist was rising from the direction of Dagger Island, and a low humming sound came from there, stirring his mind as if it wanted to penetrate into a person's mind. He saw that the island seemed to be alive, Dim tentacles are spreading out from its edge. The tentacles are rising and wriggling in the mist, stirring the surrounding sea and fog over and over again, while the island itself is sinking little by little. The countless huge shadows on its surface are like giants standing up. Appears in the fog.

Nixon was taken aback for a moment, then quickly picked up the binoculars, wanting to take a closer look at the situation on the island.

However, just when he was about to do this, a loud noise like thunder suddenly came from the sea area of ​​rising mist, followed by countless explosions that sounded densely - the smoke rose up on the island, and The surrounding sea fog merged into one, and the flashes and flames soaring into the sky could be seen clearly even without binoculars!

Dagger Island was detonated—all facilities on the island were exploding, and all "ultimate security measures" pointed to the same answer: Procedure 22, nitroglycerin explosives.

Nixon stared at this scene dumbfounded, and it took a moment to realize what happened, but then, the scene in front of him once again exceeded his imagination.

Dagger Island was sinking, like a battleship that had been blown through its hull, sinking rapidly in a series of explosions.

"The island is sinking?" The astonished voice of the subordinate came from the side. The sailor who had served on the ship for more than half a century had never seen such a spectacle, "The Frostmen... blew up Dagger Island!? They Can sink an island?!"

"Nonsense! There is no such explosive in the world—how could the island be bombed and sunk?!" Nixon immediately shouted instinctively, but what he saw made him swallow the words behind:

Dagger Island really sank, and the sinking speed became faster and faster, and finally reached an unimaginable level. One minute ago, he could still see that two-thirds of the island remained on the sea. , the entire island was left with only a small hill, and a few seconds later... the island had completely disappeared on the sea.

The mist dissipated, and there was no trace of Dagger Island in the cold sea.

"Not even a vortex appeared..."

Captain Nixon swallowed hard, muttering in disbelief.

The sea in the distance is still calm, and the sinking of an island will theoretically trigger a terrifying vortex, the size of which will be enough to swallow the world's largest ship, but in fact... there is no vortex at all.

It's as if... the island didn't sink, but melted into the sea water.