In the power area at the deepest part of the machinery compartment, all the crew members and believers who had been on duty here were dead, but the huge steam core unit continued to run without anyone controlling it.
The reactor was vibrating heavily, and the pipes and valves surrounding it made slight hissing sounds from time to time under the control of the automatic balancing system. The warning light used to detect the status of the boiling gold catalyst was flashing steadily, indicating that the pressure in the steam core was running at a high level.
At the end of a steel platform about ten meters away from the steam core, a huge copper column stands between the roof and the floor. Part of the outer shell of the copper column is hollowed out, and you can see a complex gear and connecting rod structure constantly running inside it. The clicking sound made by the rapid operation of the precision machinery is continuous like waves, and strips of paper are sucked into the opening at the edge of the copper column, and spit out from another opening, and are transmitted to other transfer devices or punching analyzers.
This expensive and sophisticated differential engine is automatically calculating some parameters related to the subsequent navigation plan and providing these data to the machinery compartment. Some of its input and output data come directly from the navigation station on the upper level - all of this must not fall into the hands of the subspace shadow.
The huge haze of fate is gathering, and an omen more terrible than death is coming—the ghost captain has reacted, and his wrath is descending here.
The huge skeleton spider no longer hesitated. It waved its long limbs and quickly crawled to the copper pillar. Then, without hesitation, it inserted a bone spur into the core power shaft of the differential machine.
The black surface of the bone spur was filled with a corrosive force field. The power shaft shield, which was tightly protected by a thick copper shell and steel armor, was easily pierced like thin paper. The steel bearing inside that was constantly rotating instantly emitted a series of piercing noises. Then, a series of gears and connecting rods connected to the main shaft collapsed catastrophically, and the subsequent punching machine and the transferred paper tape were all involved.
The power for the differential engine and the subsequent perforation analyzer comes from the same main shaft. A power failure is enough to destroy the entire system. This is a deliberate "safety flaw" whose purpose is to destroy the ship's recent navigation records and completely destroy its control center in the shortest time possible in the event of an emergency.
But this is not enough, destroying the differential engine alone will not stop the ghost captain.
As long as the ship could still sail, it might still carry the captain to the Holy Land.
What the "Saint" needs to do is to remove the safety restrictions of the steam core.
The steam core in a reacting state is indestructible. The thick protective outer shell will isolate its boiling gold catalyst and reaction medium from the outside world. Even nitroglycerin explosives may not be able to blow up that layer of the sphere - the steam core must be shut down urgently first.
Now, the halt condition is met.
Along with the roar from the collapse of the differential power shaft and a series of harsh noises from the gear set, all the mechanical devices connected by gears, belts and connecting rods began to collapse in a chain reaction. The airflow output by the steam core broke through the critical point of the safety valve almost in the blink of an eye. The lethal high-temperature and high-pressure steam began to overflow in the machinery compartment, and the over-pressure airflow broke through the safety pin of the steam core. Amidst the creaking noise, the spherical shell of the reactor began to descend.
The boiling gold catalyst had already separated from the furnace core as the outer shell descended, but the scorching "fireball" was still burning fiercely deep in the reactor. The terrifying heat rushed towards the control platform along with the airflow - it was a heat wave that was enough to steam a living person in an instant.
But it was just a breeze for the "Saints".
He raised his skeleton limbs against the "breeze", quickly picked up several barrels of nitroglycerin explosives piled nearby, and rushed towards the reactor vessel that was emitting deadly heat and had flames rising inside without hesitation.
The time for martyrdom has come, the time for martyrdom has come... Blow up everything here, the Lord's cause cannot be disturbed by the evil spirit that returns from the warp...
Flames rose in the reactor, and the out-of-control flames were teetering on the verge of a critical state. A barrel of nitroglycerin was enough to "give a push" to this critical point, blowing the entire ship into pieces.
The Saint held the explosives aloft.
Almost at the same time, the flame in the reactor was suddenly dyed with a layer of dark green.
A terrifying face appeared in the reactor. In the firestorm that was rapidly getting out of control, Duncan's upper body gradually emerged from the flames of the steam core. He leaned down and stared at the skeleton spider holding up the nitroglycerin barrel at a very close distance. His voice was like thunder: "Do you think this will work?"
"Die! Ghost!"
The skeleton spider let out a roar, and then suddenly threw the nitroglycerin explosives towards the reactor.
A violent explosion occurred - in the blink of an eye, the entire reaction vessel was caught in an uncontrolled and extremely terrifying explosion. Duncan's fire incarnation, which had not yet had time to fully condense, flashed in the explosion, and then the surrounding flames that had not yet been eroded by the spiritual fire turned into shock waves in the explosion, engulfing everything in the entire compartment.
The steam core exploded, and the boiling gold catalyst triggered a chain reaction at critical pressure. Amidst the horrific roar and the boiling heat wave, the entire ship began to tear apart with the machinery compartment as the core.
The pitch-black skeleton spider stretched out its limbs in the impact storm, using every bone spur to try to grab anything nearby. His bone fragments were ignited in the heat wave, and the surface of his expanding and shrinking brain was glowing with a faint haze. His nervous system was gradually burned, and the blood was boiling in the brain tissue - he was dying, but a strange excitement was stirring his mind.
He successfully detonated the steam core before the ghost captain took complete control of the place.
No one on the ship could survive, including himself - but at least the "holy land" was saved.
The hull of the lower layer of the engine room began to tear apart, the surging sea water boiled in the flames, and quickly poured into the cabin, making a deafening roar.
The "Saint" retracted his severely burned eye stalks and began to quietly wait for death to come.
But death did not come.
I don't know when the surroundings became quiet.
After a moment of hesitation and confusion, the dying skeleton spider raised the eyestalks around its brain again. In his vision blurred by the burns, he saw a strange scene.
All the flames in the engine room were instantly dyed with a layer of dark green. The faint spiritual flames froze in mid-air as if time had stopped. The shattered cabin also froze, including the surging sea water, all stayed where they were.
And in the midst of all this stagnation was the steam core that had just exploded—its fragments were still floating in the air, and droplets of molten steel bloomed like a gorgeous and strange flower.
A tall figure descended from the explosion of the steam core. In the mechanical cabin where everything was stagnant, Duncan walked out of the fire and came to the skeleton spider.
He pushed aside the molten metal suspended beside him, ordered the stagnant flames that blocked his view to step aside, and stared at the "Saint" calmly.
This "Priest of Annihilation" who no longer has any human form is still alive. After facing the huge explosion of the steam core at a very close distance, this monster was only severely burned in this terrifying high-temperature impact that can evaporate steel.
Moreover, in the brief encounter before, this guy was able to quickly judge the situation and chose the "ship bombing" plan with a higher success rate without hesitation - the sensitivity and speed of this judgment was even close to a kind of "precognition".
Very powerful, very smart, and has extremely strange powers.
But for Duncan, there is another thing that is more important.
As the rabbi said, this Annihilation Priest has "eaten" his symbiotic demon, which eliminates one of his greatest weaknesses as an Annihilation Cultist: he cannot die from the death or loss of control of the symbiotic demon.
This makes it seem more "durable".
But it was obvious that in order to put this Annihilation Cultist to use, he had to heal his wounds first - in this weak state he could not withstand the pressure of establishing communication with the Saint of the Deep.
As for now, Duncan is more concerned about something else.
"I heard that this ship has a supply port. You call it the 'holy land.'" He lowered his head and stared into the many eyes of the skeleton spider. "Where is it?"
The weak skeleton spider shook slightly, and part of its limbs struggled to rise, but soon fell down again. A hoarse and ambiguous voice sounded from the depths of the weird and disgusting biological tissue: "Give up... You will never find it... I have destroyed all navigation records and control devices, and other than that, the location of the holy land is only in my brain - just now, I have destroyed this part of my memory. Even if the four gods come in person, you can't find that route..."
However, to the surprise of the "Saint", the ghost captain in front of him did not show any displeasure at all because of this answer.
Duncan just shook his head with some regret.
"It's okay. It won't take much effort."
In the vague perception, the saint suddenly realized something. He struggled hard with his skeleton limbs, and his severely damaged eyestalks turned to the figure standing in the flames: "You... What are you going to do?!"
Duncan ignored it. He just turned his head and looked at the still flames in the air, the shattered cabin in the distance, and the surging sea water outside the shattered hull.
The ship was torn so badly that through the shattered upper decks, even a glimpse of the sky could be seen between the stagnant flames.
"It's a pity that this ship was great."
He sighed softly, then turned and walked to the steam core that had been completely blown into pieces, stretched out his hand and gently touched the ball of flame that was stagnant in mid-air.
This flame was once the heart of the ship.
Now, it needs to be re-beaten.
The dark green flames gradually began to form waves, and a low and strange roar began to be heard from every inch of the ship. As the shaking became increasingly intense, the huge ship, which had lost all power and was in pieces, seemed to be gradually "coming alive" and struggling to slowly accelerate.
Duncan moved closer to the fire and gave the command to the animated ship—
"Go home."
So the ship changed course and set out on the journey home.
(End of this chapter)