Deep Sea Embers

The captain's cabin of the White Oak was temporarily arranged as a sanctuary.

The smell of incense wafted through the room, and amulets depicting storm runes were hung on all the doors and windows. The priests set up bronze boundary markers at the four corners of the room, and tied cloth strips soaked in holy oil on the top of the boundary markers. Finally, a copy of the Codex of the Storm from the cathedral was sent into the room to serve as a "pillar" for the entire sanctuary.

After completing all the arrangements, Captain Lawrence and Judge Fanna entered the captain's room together.

"I hope you don't mind our 'renovation' here," Fan Na said lightly, maintaining the modesty and politeness that a high-ranking clergyman should have. "Everything is for safety."

"Of course, everything is for safety—what I lack the most is a sense of security," Captain Lawrence immediately nodded understandingly. He looked around at the sacred things in the room and heaved a sigh of relief. "There are these things, the ordinary I am afraid that the twisted and polluted things will die if they come in and take a look..."

"You can rest assured to talk about the Lost Home with me here," Fan Na nodded, "Let's start with the very beginning. Where and how did you meet the ship?"

Captain Lawrence collected himself, and began to recount the most terrifying day in his memory: "It's like this..."

Captain Lawrence spoke in great detail. In front of a professional judge, he even said exactly what he had for breakfast that day and what time the sailors on board had their meals. The captain's log and sailor's diary for the day.

Experienced captains know this: Before many abnormal phenomena occur, there are often seemingly ordinary symptoms. It may be difficult for people at that time to realize the connection between these things, but professionals who review the case after the event can learn from it. The experience is summed up from those daily clues and used as a warning to future generations.

Every captain on the boundless sea has the habit of keeping a logbook—at the same time, reading the diary written by himself is the only safe "reading method" in the boundless sea besides reading church classics.

Fan Na frowned little by little after hearing the thrilling experience.

The situation is more serious than imagined, and even more bizarre than imagined.

She had thought that Captain Lawrence's so-called "encounter" was just a face-to-face meeting, or at most a brush with the ghost ship, so the terrible captain only took the cargo on board and did not hurt anyone. A person—but he didn't expect it to be a head-on collision.

The entire White Oak crashed into the cabin of the Lost Home, and the whole ship was swept by the green ghost flame from top to bottom.

According to Captain Lawrence, at that time, the White Oak had even begun to transform into the Lost Country from top to bottom! He can clearly see that his body has transformed into a spirit state!

The Holy Emblem Beacon on the ship was shut down at the time, the ballast sacred objects did not respond, the protective materials added to the hull materials had no effect, the priest could only protect himself, the entire ship was in the depths of the spirit world, and could not seek help from the outside world— —It can be said that the White Oak at that time was already hunted by the captain, and there was no possibility of "escape by chance".

Captain Lawrence is still standing here now, entirely because the Lost Country gave up the spoil without hesitation.

"Your Excellency," after finally telling his own story, Captain Lawrence couldn't help but said after seeing that Fanna hadn't responded for a long time, "You tell me, what was the Lost Homeland trying to do? It really just wanted to take it away. Abnormal 099?"

Fan Na glanced at him: "Isn't this what you always think?"

"I... I always thought so, but I'm not sure now," Lawrence sighed, "Especially when you said that the ghost captain had recently extended his power to the city-state of Purdue... I always feel that Things won't be that simple."

"No one can guess what that ghost captain is thinking," Fanna shook her head, "Now all we can do is to conduct the most thorough inspection of the White Oak to prevent this ship from carrying any 'invasion'. You and Your crew members have to suffer some grievances these days, until the investigation is over, you are not allowed to contact anyone other than the priests of the church... including visits from family members."

Captain Lawrence lowered his head: "I can understand."

Then he paused, and then asked again: "Then... About the theft of Anomaly 099..."

Fan Na knew what the captain was worried about.

The weird and terrifying sea visions are threats hanging over civilization, but before considering these long-term and vast threats, this captain is first of all an ordinary person who needs to support his family—he lost anomaly 099, and this responsibility rests with a It is too heavy for ordinary people's heads.

"Don't worry, the church will come forward and explain this matter to the city-state authorities and the Explorers' Association," she said in a calm voice, "The appearance of the Lost Country is force majeure, and the loss of Anomaly 099 is not your responsibility—even if you were in charge of escorting it at the time." It was a cathedral ship, and I'm afraid the result will be the same."

The expression on Captain Lawrence's face visibly relaxed a little.

However, there was still a word in Fan Na's mind: In the end, things like "abnormality" are always on the verge of being sealed and out of control. The church has struggled with these out-of-control anomalies for thousands of years. In the face of this long-term and huge dynamic balance, the loss of an anomaly is not inconceivable—even if the anomaly The number is within hundreds.

But she, the judge, can't say such words.

"Also..." At this moment, Captain Lawrence suddenly hesitantly broke the silence, "I want to ask, what is so special about Anomaly 099?"

Speaking of this, he paused, and quickly added: "Of course, I got a piece of information when I took on the escort mission, but it mainly involved the sealing method of anomaly 099 and the emergency treatment method after the initial loss of control, and did not involve The origin and background of this anomaly and the situation after it completely lost control... You know, after all, it is an anomaly within a hundred, and the more ordinary people around it know about it, the more likely it will get out of control. I still understand.

"However, now that Anomaly 099 has been abducted by the Lost Homelander, according to regulations, it should be considered completely out of control, so..."

"It's okay to tell you," Fanna nodded without waiting for Captain Lawrence to finish, "Anomaly 099 has been out of the control of civilized society, and according to the regulations, its relevant information will be submitted to the Adventurers Association and the teams of extraordinary people in various city-states." Announce it, in order to capture and reseal it in the future, and you are a member of the Adventurers Association and the last contact with anomaly 099, so you should know this information."

Speaking of this, she stopped to think for a while, and then slowly said while sorting out the information she knew: "Anomaly 099, the doll's coffin, looks like a gorgeous wooden box like a coffin, and there is a sleeping person inside. The doll is a silver-haired and purple-dressed doll, whose body shape is similar to that of ordinary humans;

"This anomaly was first discovered in the cold sea in the north. The puppet inside it looks very similar to the Frost Queen Ley Nora who was beheaded and executed by the rebels half a century ago, but there is no evidence to prove that there is a real connection between the two ;

"This abnormality does not have a tendency to think and has no mind, but it is very likely that it will actively perceive the outside world driven by instinct and exert influence on the outside world;

"You should be very clear about the sealing method of Anomaly 099, so I won't repeat it. As for its danger...

"First of all, the puppet coffin has a tendency to 'settle down'. Once it stays in a certain area for a long time, it will regard the area as its own territory, and it will be difficult to transfer it later, and it will settle in its own territory. The land will gradually expand its influence, and at the same time, its seal strength will weaken sharply, and it will become more and more easy to get out of control-this is also a common feature of quite a few anomalous objects, so anomaly 099 needs to frequently transfer the location of the seal to prevent it from growing excessively.

"Secondly, when the puppet coffin is out of control, all humanoid units within a certain range around it, including humans, elves, Senjin, and jipulos, will be used as the target of the test. The range is at least a hundred meters. Up to nearly a kilometer, it will grow with the "settlement" time of anomaly 099. The specific test standard is not yet clear, only that the selected target will immediately lose the freedom of movement as if controlled by a puppet string, and unconsciously move towards The direction of the coffin of the puppet bows down, just like the people of the city-state worship the queen, and once this action is completed... the victim will be beheaded immediately.

"The decapitation cannot be evaded, cannot be protected, cannot be exempted, and it is meaningless to apply any blessings or wear armor on the victim. The only effective condition is 'being selected by the puppet', and the victim will become decapitated directly after the action is completed. After the beheading is completed, the puppet will be temporarily quiet for four to six hours, and then start looking for the next target until no one survives within the range, or the coffin is resealed.

"The puppet coffin has the characteristics of movement when it is out of control. It is extremely fast and powerful, and it will break free from capture in various unimaginable ways. In addition, the coffin itself is extremely strong, so the danger after it is out of control will be further increased. big.

"Among the several out-of-control incidents of the puppet's coffin, only one saint survived, but that saint happened to have the blood of the northern frost city-state, so it is impossible to determine whether it was the saint's power that resisted the curse, or because of his The bloodline just meets the conditions of 'pardon' for the puppet coffin."

Listening to the young judge's calm and indifferent narration, Captain Lawrence felt his hairs stand on end.

His first thought was: the money of the city-state authorities is really not easy to earn!

No wonder the reward for escorting abnormality 099 is almost five times that of escorting ordinary abnormal objects - this kind of completely ignores defense and ignores dodge, and the effective condition only requires "the puppet is eyeing you" to trigger the lethal damage, and it is placed in the inescapable On an ocean-going ship, it is simply a terrifying thing that is destined to kill everyone if it loses control!

That is to say, a group of captains from the Explorers' Association who specialize in dealing with "extreme survival" will take over this kind of work.

At the same time, he heard the voice of Judge Fanna continue: "... Regarding the strange and terrifying ability of the puppet coffin, the church specially set a special mark on its ability when it archived anomaly 099." Name, named after the instrument of torture used by the rebels to execute the Frost Queen half a century ago:

"Alice Guillotine."