Deep Sea Ember

Chapter 65 Guillotine

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

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

After all this arrangement was completed, Captain Lawrence entered the captain's room with Inquisitor Vanna.

"I hope you don't mind our 'transformation' of this place," Vanna said lightly, maintaining the reserved and decent courtesy that a high-ranking priest should have, "Everything is for safety."

"Of course, everything is for safety - what I lack most now is a sense of security," Captain Lawrence immediately nodded very understandingly, he looked around at the sacred things in the room, and breathed a sigh of relief, "With these things, ordinary distorted and polluted things are afraid that they will die if they come in and take a look."......"

"You can rest assured to talk to me about the Lost Homeland here," Vanna nodded, "Let's start with the beginning, where are you, and how did you see the ship?"

Captain

Lawrence calmed down and began to tell the story of the most terrible day in his memory: "That's how it is...... Captain Lawrence spoke in detail,

and in front of the professional inquisitors, he even accurately said what he had eaten for breakfast that day, and what time the sailors on board had eaten—those things that I really can't remember. Then he flipped through the captain's log and the sailors' diaries for that day.

Experienced captains know this: many abnormal phenomena often appear before they occur, and it may be difficult for people at the time to realize the connection between these things, but professionals who review afterwards can summarize their experiences from those daily clues and warn future generations.

Every captain on the boundless sea has the habit of keeping a logbook - at the same time, reading his own logbook is the only safe "way to read" on the boundless sea other than reading the church scriptures.

After hearing about the thrilling encounter, Vanna's heroic brows furrowed little by little.

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

She thought that Captain Lawrence's so-called "encounter" was just a face-to-face, or at most a passing by the ghost ship, so the terrible captain only took the cargo on board without hurting anyone—but she 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 through the green ghostly flames from top to bottom.

According to Captain Lawrence, at that time, the White Oak had even begun to transform into the Lost Homeland from top to bottom! He could clearly see his body transforming into a spiritual form!

The sacred emblem on the ship was in a state of shutdown at the time, the ballast relic did not respond, the protective materials added to the hull material had no effect, the priest could only protect himself, the entire ship was deep in the spiritual world, unable to ask for help from the outside world - so to speak, the White Oak was already the captain's prey at that time, and there was no possibility of "lucky escape" at all.

Captain Lawrence is still standing here now, entirely because the Lost Home did not hesitate to give up this spoils.

"Your Excellency, Inquisitor," after finally telling his experience, Captain Lawrence saw that Vanna had not reacted for a long time, and finally couldn't help but say, "You say, what did the Lost Homeland want to do at that time?" Do you really just want to take away the abnormal 099?

Vanna glanced at him: "Isn't this what you have always thought?

"I...... I've always thought so, but now I'm not sure," Lawrence sighed, "especially since you just said that the ghost captain had recently extended his power to the city-state of Prade...... I always feel that things will not be that simple.

"No one can guess what the ghost captain is thinking," Vanna shook her head, "all we can do now is to do the most thorough inspection of the White Oak to prevent any 'invasions' from carrying this ship." You and your crew will also be wronged these days, and you must not have contact with anyone other than the priests of the Church until the investigation is over...... Including family visits.

Captain

Lawrence lowered his head: "I can understand."

Then he paused, and then asked, "What ...... Regarding the theft of anomaly 099......"

Vanna knew what the captain was worried about.

The eerie and terrifying vision of the sea was a threat hanging over civilization, but before considering these long-term and vast threats, the captain was first and foremost an ordinary man who needed to provide for his family—he lost the anomaly 099, and this responsibility was too heavy for an ordinary person.

"Don't worry, the church will explain this matter to the city-state authorities and the Explorers Association," she said in a quiet voice, "The appearance of the Lost Homeland is force majeure, and the loss of Abnormal 099 is not your responsibility - even if it was a church ship that was escorted at that time, the result would probably be the same.

The expression on Captain

Lawrence's face was obviously a little relaxed.

There is still one sentence in Vanna's heart that has not been said: In the final analysis, the "anomaly" itself is on the verge of sealing and out of control, every year there are new anomalies out of control, there are always city-state residents who lose their lives under the influence of strange things, and the church has been fighting against these out-of-control anomalies for thousands of years. Even if the abnormal number is within a hundred.

But she, the judge, couldn't say this kind of thing.

"In addition......" At this moment, Captain Lawrence suddenly hesitated again to break the silence, "I want to inquire, what is so special about Abnormal 099?

Speaking of this, he paused, and quickly added: "Of course, I got a piece of information when I undertook the escort mission, but it mainly involved the sealing method of anomaly 099 and the emergency disposal method after the initial loss of control, and did not involve the origin and background of this anomaly and the situation after it was completely out of 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 is to get out of control, I still understand this rule.

"But now that the anomaly 099 has been kidnapped by the Lost Home, according to the regulations, it should be counted as completely out of control, so ......."

"It's okay to tell you," Vanna 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 announced to the Adventurer Association and the transcendent teams of each city-state, in order to capture and reseal it in the future, and you are a member of the Adventurer Association, and you are the last contact of Abnormal 099, you should know this information."

Speaking of this, she stopped and thought for a moment, and then said slowly while sorting out the information she knew: "Abnormal 099, the puppet's coffin, the appearance is a gorgeous wooden box like a coffin, and inside there is a doll in a sleeping state, the doll is a silver-haired purple dress, and the body shape is similar to that of ordinary humans;

"The anomaly was first discovered in the cold sea of the north, and its internal puppet looks very close to the Frost Queen Lei Nora, who was beheaded and executed by the rebels half a century ago, but there is no evidence of a real connection between the two;

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

"You should know very well how to seal Abnormal 099, I won't repeat it, as for its dangers......

"First of all, the puppet coffin will have a tendency to 'settle', once it stays in a certain area for a long time, it will regard that area as its own territory, and then it will be difficult to transfer it, and it will gradually expand its influence in its own settlement, and its sealing strength will also weaken sharply, becoming more and more easy to get out of control - this is also a common feature of a considerable number of anomalies, so Anomaly 099 needs to frequently move the sealing location, to prevent it from overgrowing.

"Secondly, in the case of the puppet's coffin out of control, all humanoid units within a certain range around it, including humans, elves, senkin people, and gyplos, will be used as checks. This range ranges from as little as 100 meters to as many as nearly a kilometer, and will grow with the 'settlement' time of anomaly 099. The specific criteria for the test are not clear, only that the chosen target will immediately lose their freedom of movement as if controlled by the puppet line, and unconsciously kneel and bow in the direction of the puppet's coffin, just like the people of the city-state worship the queen, and once this action is completed...... The victim is immediately beheaded.

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

"The puppet coffin has the characteristics of movement in an out-of-control state, extremely fast, extremely powerful, and will break free and capture in various unbelievable ways, plus the coffin itself is extremely strong, so its harm after losing control will be further increased.

"In the several out-of-control events of the puppet coffin, only one saint survived, but that saint happened to have the bloodline 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 his bloodline happened to meet the 'forgiveness' conditions of the puppet coffin."

Listening to the young inquisitor's calm and indifferent narration, Captain Lawrence felt his hair stand on end little by little.

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

No wonder the reward for escorting anomalies 099 is almost five times that of escorting ordinary anomalies - this kind of fatal damage that completely ignores protection and dodges, and only requires "the doll is eyeing you" to be activated, is placed on an ocean-going ship that cannot be escaped, it is simply a terrifying thing that is destined to kill everyone as long as it gets out of control!

That's why the Explorers Association, a group of captains who specialize in dealing with "extreme survival", will take on this kind of work.

At the same time, he heard Inquisitor Vanna's voice continue: "...... For such a strange and terrifying ability of the puppet coffin, the Church gave Anomaly 099 a name when it was filed, named after the torture instrument used by the rebels to execute the Frost Queen half a century ago:

"Alice Guillotine."