On the deck of the Lost Homeland, Vanna walked quickly to Duncan and said, "The Tide has sent a call, and a large number of 'humanoids' have drifted to their side and collided with the ship. After the collision, the 'humanoids' floated around them, as if being pulled by an invisible current..."
"Orlando, the commander of the Restless, has also contacted us," Agatha emerged from the shadows beside Duncan, "Their ship is surrounded by floating humanoids... There are also things gathering underwater, hitting the hull at the bottom of the ship, and the sound of the collision can be heard throughout the entire cabin..."
She paused, as if she heard a voice from afar, and then added: "Commander Poleginni of the Rest said that she heard whispers near the engine room, which might have come from underwater - a voice spoke in her mind:
"'You will become them, just as we are.'"
Listening to the intelligence from the other battleships of the combined fleet, Duncan frowned slightly. He especially noticed the news from the Rest: "Is it mental pollution?"
"It's not certain yet. Bishop Polkini is currently undergoing a mental calibration in the church. As it stands, she may have really heard some kind of 'echo' lingering in this sea."
"Are there any reports of damage to ships?" Duncan thought for a moment and then asked.
"Not at the moment," Vanna shook her head and said, "All collisions were caused by those 'humanoids' drifting with the waves and crashing into the ship's hull. They pose no physical threat to the ironclad ship... However, some ships reported that their steam engines and differential engines were making abnormal noises, as if they were slightly contaminated. But overall, the degree of contamination is still low, and it has recovered after the pacification ceremony was performed."
Duncan nodded seriously, without saying anything for a while, just looking at the sea in the distance.
Those dark human figures like dead trees in the sea are still drifting from the direction of the misty "six-mile boundary line", entering the range of the joint fleet like countless drowned corpses. They seem to be lifeless, but seem to be driven by an invisible force and drifting towards every ship here, continuously hitting the hull and knocking on the bottom of the ship.
These disturbing sounds are creating mental stress on every ship.
But for the church's elite who have undergone rigorous training, this level of mental stress should not be a problem - so Duncan was not too worried.
After a brief thought, he ordered the entire fleet to move forward slowly again.
"We are very close to the six-mile border," Lucrecia couldn't help but remind her father, "Do we still want to go forward? In the border waters, conventional navigation methods are not so accurate. We need to leave some safety margin... Otherwise, we will accidentally cross the border."
"We won't 'cross the line,'" Duncan glanced at Lucrecia, while part of his attention was focused on sensing the entire ship. "Don't worry, Lucy, I have the most accurate 'sea chart' in the world, which can mark the position and sailing distance of the Lost Homeland in the vast ocean in real time. If we still can't see the 'holy land' at six nautical miles, I will stop."
Lucrecia opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but after noticing Duncan's confident and gentle smile, she swallowed her words back.
Duncan focused part of his attention on the captain's cabin.
He could clearly "see" that the "sea chart" on the table in the captain's room was "running" as usual, and was slowly changing as the Lost Homeland sailed.
The fog on the nautical chart was slowly dissipating, and the path of the Lost Homeland was clearly reflected on the edge of the chart. The ship was sailing very slowly, and what appeared on the chart were tiny displacements that were imperceptible to the naked eye. However, for Duncan, who was able to accurately control the status of the entire ship, even changes on the chart that were imperceptible to the naked eye could not escape his perception.
And on the sea around the Lost Hometown, more and more humanoid creatures continued to float in from afar, and the number seemed to be a little larger.
Suddenly, Duncan noticed that something seemed to appear on the edge of the chart.
In the fog, an unrecorded "beacon" appeared on the parchment scroll.
The moment he sensed the changes on the nautical chart, he raised his head and looked in the direction of the bow of the Lost Homeland.
Deep in the fog, a vague silhouette of land is gradually emerging.
Right on the six-nautical-mile border!
"It's land!" Nina ran to the high platform at the stern, staring at the shadow that was getting clearer in the fog with wide eyes and shouting happily, "Land has appeared!"
Yes, land appeared, and the land that appeared in this direction was undoubtedly the target of the combined fleet this time—the nest called "holy land" by the annihilation cultists.
Soon, several church warships following behind the Lost Homeland also observed the outline of the land. After realizing that the "holy land" was located at the critical point of six nautical miles, everyone instantly tensed up.
At the stern of each church warship, large clouds of white steam were released above the shipboard church, and sacred oil was poured into the holy fire basin. The sailors ran to the gun positions while silently chanting the names of their respective gods. Priests in robes came to the deck and began to pour holy water on the cannons, light incense, and bless the shells with prayers.
At the same time, dark humanoid figures continued to float from the sea in the direction of the "holy land", and floating objects continued to hit the hulls from time to time. The disturbing "bang bang" sound never stopped, knocking on the bottom of every ship, as if knocking on everyone's heart.
Accompanied by a whirlwind of colorful papers, Lucrecia came to the observation deck on top of the mast. She observed the "island" that appeared in the distance through the fog with extremely poor visibility. After a while, she returned to the deck and to Duncan's side.
"There were some lights on the island, but no signs of activity - there was a dead air hanging over the area, and I felt something was wrong."
Listening to Lucrecia's report, Duncan just nodded slightly and then waved to the side.
A fat white dove immediately flew down from a nearby crossmast and hit Duncan's shoulder with almost a thump.
Duncan turned his head with a subtle expression and glanced at the pigeon on his shoulder: "... You should consider losing weight."
Ai tilted his head and immediately emphasized his position loudly: "V me 50! V me 50!"
“… Just pretend I didn’t say anything.” Duncan sighed and ignored the pigeon’s chattering. He gave it an order in his heart.
The next second, flames suddenly burned on Ai Yi's body, and he turned into a skeletal pigeon, flying straight into the sky.
The bone pigeon wrapped in flames flew through the fog like a falling star, approaching the shadowy black island from a high altitude.
Duncan, who remained on the deck of the Lost Homeland, narrowed his eyes slightly.
Through the vision shared by the flames, a bird's-eye view began to emerge in his mind, a scene that was somewhat abstract and distorted, but with vaguely discernible details.
Ai was rapidly approaching the coast of the island. From the vision transmitted back, Duncan saw the latter's hideous and rugged edge as if torn by something, and a narrow and hidden secret port that was difficult to find without observing from the air. In the direction closer to the inland of the island, roads and some tall and short buildings could be vaguely identified. There were also many strange and sharp things like stalagmites scattered on the island. The scale seemed to be very large, but it was impossible to tell what they were specifically.
Just as Lucrecia had reported, there was no sign of activity on the island.
A huge combined fleet, a flaming beacon burning in the thick fog, a huge strange bird wrapped in flames flying over the port at close range - if all these combined cannot make the Annihilation Cultists entrenched on the island react, then there is only one possibility.
"There seems to be no one on the island—at least no living people."
While maintaining visual connection with Ai, Duncan turned around and spoke to Lucrecia beside him.
The people on the deck looked at each other.
"There are no living people on the island..." Vanna opened her eyes slightly and turned her head to look in the direction of the island, "Did they all run away? Or dead? Or..."
She suddenly stopped, and her eyes swept across the deck with some strangeness, finally landing on the "rough human figure" that was still lying quietly on the deck and being guarded by the doll Luni.
“… notify the people of the Deep Sea and the Church of Death that we need to get closer to the island, and follow together - don’t get left behind in the fog.”
Under Duncan's command, the entire fleet began to slowly approach the strangely rugged black island that exuded an unsettling atmosphere.
The island in the distance is gradually becoming clearer, and as the distance gets shorter, it is showing more and more incongruous details.
"Its edge looks like a fragment torn off from some larger whole," Duncan described the scene from Ai's perspective to the others. "We are approaching the western coast, which is full of clusters of rock structures, but between the cliffs there is a hidden waterway that leads to an inner harbor - where the terrain seems to be flat."
"Can a ship as big as the Lost Homeland fit in?" Nina asked curiously.
"It should be possible, but I don't plan to just go in - the same goes for other ships," Duncan said as he pondered. "We don't know the details of the island yet. My idea is to have the fleet stop in front of the 'nose' and then organize a group of people to land on the island in small boats. After we have a general understanding of the landing point, we can send more people ashore."
The others nodded.
At this moment, Duncan seemed to sense something and suddenly raised his head and looked forward.
He saw that the large ship that had been used as a "spiritual fire torch" along the way and was seized from the cultists was slowly accelerating.
It was speeding up, as if it had suddenly broken free from its reins, and was rushing straight towards the "Holy Island" without any orders from Duncan.
It seemed to have lost its weight and was as light as a breeze.
Almost in the blink of an eye, it had crossed the foggy sea and arrived at the edge of the island, in front of the cliff with countless huge rocks standing out.
Then he bumped into it without hesitation.
(End of this chapter)