Deep Sea Embers

A shadow shrouded in darkness, a battleship that seems to be made up of smoke, thick fog, and various wreckages, is traveling with the White Oak, charging towards the approaching Haiyan in the distance—the thick fog From the silhouette of the shrouded ship, it can still be vaguely seen that it has the same origin as the White Oak.

It is not the same as the memory, but Lawrence still recognized it at the first time - even though it looks broken, distorted, and weird now, it still touches his memory like meeting each other in a dream .

That was the Black Oak, and there she was, sailing with the White Oak as she remembered the last time they sailed together.

A burst of loud whistle sounded suddenly, interrupting the old captain's astonishment and wild thoughts at the moment. The whistle sound came from the phantom ship, as if to remind Lawrence that this is not the time to be in a daze.

The howling shells fell from the sky, and the shelling from the Petrel was non-stop. Lawrence suddenly turned his head and saw a ball of fire hitting the bow of the White Oak.

The flames soared into the sky, and were assimilated and absorbed by the raging green flames on the ship in an instant. A part of the bow was torn into pieces, and the hot metal scattered and cracked—but the next second, those broken structures were like Back in time generally begins to recover, and returns to normal in Rise of the Green Flame.

Lawrence felt that something was "losing", as if physical strength and life were being cut from his "perception", but the lost part was quickly replenished from the raging spiritual body flames burning in all directions, and then , the self-defense artillery on the bow and sides of the White Oak roared, and the shells, like raging wraiths, let out a chilling scream when they rushed out of the barrel, and streaked through the air. light flow.

Almost at the same moment, the "Black Oak" next to it also started to attack—accompanied by the roar of the artillery, flashes of light burst out one after another in the rising black fog, and illusory shells rushed out of the dense fog , falling in the direction of the distant enemy ship.

Lawrence held the steering wheel tightly with both hands, feeling the powerful tremors of the ship under his feet amidst the roar of artillery. He felt that his perception was spreading further, even following the flying shells and the surrounding seawater, It permeated the entire sea area, and at the edge of his perception, the "Petrel" was like a bonfire in the night, exuding a strong and somewhat dazzling... sense of existence.

Not so long ago, it was a hopeless opponent for the White Oak, but at this moment, Lawrence only felt that the prey was so delicious...delicious.

A moment later, the return fire from the White Oak finally landed on the Haiyan for the first time. Accompanied by huge explosions and flames, that strange warship seemed to be bitten by some invisible giant mouth A piece was "gouged out" out of thin air, and in the huge scar that was swallowed up, the strange and twisted structure inside the ship could be seen impressively.

The attack worked, but it wasn't enough.

"Full speed," Lawrence gripped the steering wheel, his eyes fixed on the enemy ship that was still approaching. He already knew what he should do—or, what the White Oak needed at the moment, "We need to add."

First Officer Gus's voice sounded on the bridge: "Yes, full speed!"

The steam core roared further, and the White Oak, which was already sailing at high speed, further increased its speed to the limit, and began to pounce on the distant Petrel like a swift falcon—the Black Oak was still accompanying it like a reflection, always Maintain the same speed, same heading.

And the Haiyan in the distance showed no sign of changing course or slowing down to evade. The ship that launched a blind onslaught from the moment it appeared was like an irrational and out-of-control beast. After the disadvantage, it has been faithfully executing its original goal: attacking the enemy.

Two ships, one was shrouded in green flames, the other was covered with twisted and dark strange structures, and launched a full-speed charge towards each other at the same time - the piercing and frightening whistle almost tore the sky, and the two ships became more and more dense The roar of artillery fire shook the entire ocean, and the distance between them was getting closer and closer. Almost all the shells bombarded each other fell on the hull of the other side. The big explosion tore the hull apart, and the hot burning fragments splashed towards the sea and the sky. !

On the bridge of the White Oak, Lawrence just stared at the front, and everyone stared in the same direction as him. The minds of all the sailors seemed to be tightly grasped by something. There was suddenly no fear, no hesitation in the living beings, only the feverish anticipation of the imminent, doomed collision—and then the two ships finally touched together.

Like a group of loose snowballs being pressed against the outer wall of a blazing furnace, the bow of the Petrel sank straight into the raging spirit flames around the White Oak, accompanied by harsh noises and shouts of thousands of people in unison. With a loud noise, the seemingly solid steel hull melted inch by inch in the green flames. With the continuation of the "impact", the Haiyan began to disappear from the beginning to the end in the depths of the wall of fire. This scene looked... as if the entire Devoured the general.

And until the last turret at the stern of the Haiyan was swallowed up by the flames of the spirit body, the fierce confrontation between the two ships never stopped for a moment.

Then, it was finally over.

The self-defense cannons on the White Oak finally stopped roaring. After the enemy disappeared, the roar of the steam core gradually became subdued, and the rising spiritual body flames on the ship also slowly gathered, and the aggressive attitude from the beginning became gentle. It began to burn quietly against the hull.

Lawrence was a little dazed for a moment, his hands had left the steering wheel at some point, he raised his head, and looked around the scene on the bridge.

The sailors turned their heads and stared at him one by one, each of them showed a ghost-like posture surrounded by spirit bodies, and their empty eyes seemed to have lost the reason and humanity that belonged to human beings.

Lawrence blinked, but just a second before the muddle in his mind was about to swallow him completely, a figure suddenly appeared in the corner of his eyes.

It was a young man, he appeared out of thin air, and stepped across the rising spiritual body flames around him. He was wearing the dark blue robe of the priest of the Deep Sea Church, and the holy emblem on his chest was emitting a blazing fire. He walked over step by step, grabbed the burning holy emblem on his chest with one hand, and pressed it firmly against Lawrence's chest.

A scorching heat spread from his chest, and Lawrence felt his faltering mind suddenly stabilized, and humanity and reason returned to his soul at the same time.

And with the captain's waking up, the sailors on the ship also woke up one by one. People looked at each other in blank dismay, as if they hadn't recalled the end of the battle just now, recalled the last battle between the White Oak and the Haiyan and "collided" In that scene, some people exclaimed in fear, some subconsciously checked their bodies, and some raised their heads and set their eyes on the young priest who suddenly appeared on the bridge.

Lawrence frowned, and after looking at the young man in front of him for a long time, he finally hesitated to speak: "Priest...Jason?"

"It's me, thank God, you can finally see me," the young priest on board panted heavily, as if he had just climbed out of the sea, his robes were soaked, and he still had a little time to speak when he spoke. Streams of water flowed down his hair and neck, "Thank you Stormlord for your protection - I've been yelling at you for days."

Lawrence still felt as though his mind was a little clouded, and it took him a few seconds to gradually recall another inconsistency from the past few days——

There should be a priest on board the ship, just like there should be a sun in the sky, but in the past period of time, he has never seen this young priest.

Pastor Jason disappeared from everyone's sight, and even from everyone's memory-so much so that people even forgot the common sense that "there should be a ship's priest on board".

Lawrence noticed the disappearance of the sun, but it was only now that he realized that Pastor Jason was also missing.

"……what happened?"

The old captain who woke up from a dream slowly turned his head and asked in a low voice.

"I don't know, in the past few days, I seem to have been separated into two dimensions with you," the wet young pastor shook his head with a wry smile, "I can see you, but no one can see you." Me, it's like I'm an 'outsider' on the ship, until just now... the whole ship 'changed' in the flames, and I felt this barrier loosen, and at the same time I sensed your spirit The state is not right, so I want to use the holy emblem to stabilize your sanity—fortunately, this last step has finally caught up..."

Listening to the pastor's narration, Lawrence had messy thoughts and conjectures one after another, and when he heard the other party mention the words "wrong mental state", a belated fear finally appeared in his heart.

He recalled the strange state of himself and the other crew members in the last few minutes of the battle with the Haiyan just now, and a cold sweat seemed to be leaking from his back.

Yet he wasn't in a cold sweat—he was still enveloped in astral flames, and the ghostly body showed no sign of recovery at all.

Lawrence lowered his head, looked at his arm that was still in an illusory spirit state, and already had a lot of guesses in his mind.

"The 'blessing' from the Lost Home..." The old captain shook his head bitterly, not knowing whether to call it a blessing or a curse for a while, "It seems that Duncan Abu Normar's gaze Sure enough, it was not an easy matter, but at least we survived... If this is really the state of a living person..."

As he spoke, he slowly raised his head again, looking through the porthole not far away, looking at the sea next to him.

The ship, shrouded in fog and shadow, remained as still as the shadow of the White Oak.