In the terrible darkness, the conscious Shad vaguely heard the singing accompanied by the waves.
When he woke up again, everything around him seemed to be shaking. The raindrops falling from the sky hit his back, and the biting wind made him shiver.
"Oh~"
The headache had not yet subsided, and the simple action of opening his eyes made him feel a throbbing pain in his temples.
He turned over and sat up, took off his mask and breathed deeply. Looking around, he was now on the dirty deck of an old ship, and everything around him was extremely dilapidated.
Looking up, he saw the terrifying and breathtaking black vortex hanging upside down in the sky high above his head. The primitive fear at that moment almost made Xia De scream out.
Looking around, there was still the sea. The ship floated on the turbulent sea, and the sea in thunderstorms was everywhere. The deep darkness seemed to be swallowed from afar, and the sound of huge waves made people's hearts tremble. Because there was no light, the sea surface appeared thick and black, and under this black sea surface, it seemed that there was an even larger and darker terrifying thing swimming. Shade only took a look and immediately withdrew his sight.
If a timid person saw this scene, he would probably faint. Even though the stranger had seen a lot of things in this world, he still couldn't completely control his panic at this moment. This was the most primitive fear of the deep sea and darkness, not to mention the whispering elements in the space, which were trying to corrode the soul all the time.
"are you still there?"
I am always with you.
The familiar voice sounded, and Shade felt relieved. However, Miss Princess and everyone else were nowhere to be seen on the dim and dilapidated deck.
"But how come I encountered something like this just after I went out?"
Simply put, the power on this ship is very similar to the curse on the girl who had red hair but dyed it blonde.
"Is this ship attracted here by the Mermaid Song curse on Miss Princess?"
Thinking of this, Shade frowned in the rain and looked around. The shaking and dilapidated ship seemed to be lost in the dark and terrifying sea, and Shade was the only living person on the ship.
No, she wasn't that important. The curse was just resonating with the pirate ship of the same origin, which made her feel something.
"So, the mermaid statue and the pirate ship are really different steps of the same ritual, and we just happened to run into this ship... How could there be such a coincidence..."
Shad barely maintained his balance, recalling Miss Princess's last words, and looked towards the entrance of the cabin through the rain.
He reached out to check the things he had with him to make sure nothing was lost, then he stumbled and nearly fell again because of the violent shaking of the deck.
"Come to think of it, how did I see the deck clearly if there was no light source around?"
Thinking of this, he looked down at his wrinkled hands. Just like when the Dark Box lost control, it was Shad himself who was glowing. The light of the silver moon radiated from the surface of his body. It was not bright, but at least it prevented him from being completely swallowed by the darkness.
He reached out and wiped the rain off his face, not daring to look at the terrifying sea above his head or around the ship:
"Besides the Whispering Elements, are there any other abnormal things nearby?"
Not yet, but this ship is trying to assimilate you, to keep you here permanently.
"I don't feel it."
The dense raindrops hit his skin and he couldn't stay in the rain for too long.
Trying to assimilate any creature that possesses divinity is the stupidest thing to do, and you don't feel it because it doesn't work.
"clear."
He clenched his fists. Because of the hypothermia, his condition was not very good. Miss Princess said that he could not leave the ship, and Shade did not have the courage to jump into the sea in such a strange sea, so he should find a place to shelter from the rain first.
The rocking ship made a creaking sound, as if it would fall apart in the next moment. Sniffing the smell of the ocean, Shade stumbled towards the entrance of the cabin on the deck. He didn't intend to create too much light in this strange environment, so he just used the slight light from his fingertips to illuminate the surroundings.
The worn deck was being hit by dense raindrops, and wooden boxes and some goods were piled in the corner. Occasionally, black stains that could not be washed away by rain could be seen, and the echo of blood told Shade that most of them were bloodstains.
There were no living people on the ship, but there were many corpses. Those corpses had long since turned into bones, sliding on the deck due to the tilt of the ship. Xia De was very worried that the skeletons would suddenly stand up, but until he touched the rusty iron door leading to the cabin, he was still the only one moving on the ship.
The iron door seemed to have been hit hard from the inside in the distant past. The deformed door was stuck in the door frame and could not be pushed no matter how hard he tried. Shade could only summon the silver sword and chopped it a few times to break the iron door.
The sound of metal falling to the ground was drowned out by the violent rain and thunder. It was as if a black entrance that could suck souls was opened, and a strong stench gushed out from the cabin.
But at least the ship was not leaking, and the interior of the cabin was relatively dry. The ship probably belonged to the Fifth Age, and there was no steam power system, so it was impossible to rely on the pipes on the wall to find those important rooms.
He stepped on the creaking floorboards and entered the cabin. Then, he temporarily let the sword in his hand disappear. He bent down and used his fingers to illuminate the sunken door panel that fell on the moldy ground. The side of the door panel that originally faced inward not only had traces of being hit by a huge force, but also had dozens of sharp scratches. The observation of the Blood Echo showed that there were traces of blood in the scratches, indicating that these were most likely traces of being grabbed by hand.
"What on earth happened here..."
He was startled and looked up suddenly. The silver light illuminated the floor in front of him. On the worn-out floor covered with disgusting moss and dust, ashes suddenly rose up, and then a rotten human figure made of ashes rushed straight towards him.
"It's not an illusion, it's the undead?"
The moonlight in his hand slashed forward, splitting the undead made of ash, and flew straight along the cabin to a farther place. It was also through this light that Shade saw that except for the area near the exit, the entire corridor of the cabin seemed to be covered with black blood.
Human bones and remains were scattered everywhere, and the doors leading to the rooms around the cabin were blocked by broken furniture and bones. The scene before us seemed to indicate that a horrific massacre had occurred inside the cabin in the distant past.
The headache became more and more intense. The ship itself was affecting the spirit of those entering. This was also one of the characteristics of high-risk relics.
He wanted to move forward and search for more clues inside the ship. But at this moment, he heard a slight noise. Xia De immediately looked to the left. With the faint light from his fingers, he could vaguely see a photo frame behind the thick wall fungus blanket, and the sound came from the photo frame.
He frowned and used the pen he carried with him to carefully peel off the disgusting outer layer of fungal carpet, revealing the photo frame that contained dozens of black and white photos of various sizes.
"It turns out that photography technology also appeared in the Fifth Epoch..."
Most of the photos in the frame were faded, and only vaguely recognizable scenes of life on the ship. But the single portrait in the center seemed to have not been washed away by time. A man with an eye mask, short hair, and a high nose bridge looked at Shade in the photo.
The calm expression that had been frozen in time slowly changed as Xia De observed. The corners of his mouth on his slightly faded face raised a little bit until it reached an angle that a normal person could never do. His eyes, which had been motionless, suddenly moved at this moment. The look of an intelligent creature in his dull eyes began to return. His eyes truly looked at Xia De:
"Intruder!"
Amid a creepy roar, the face was enveloped in thick black mist and transformed into a creepy skeleton, rushing out of the photo.
"Silver Moon."
The extreme light burst out from his fingers for a moment, and the light even shook the ship itself. When the light went out in the next second, Shade's fist shattered the glass of the photo frame, and regardless of the puncture on his palm, he grabbed the haunted old photo.
When he pulled his hand back, the old photo actually flew out of his hand. It slid upward along the yellow-green mold on the wall, as if trying to find a seam in the wall to leave. But when the photo flew to the height of Shade's chest, the glowing tip of the holy silver sword pierced through the fragile photo and directly pierced the photo and nailed it to the wall.
The moonlight sword illuminated the wall, and the green fungus quickly retreated from the range illuminated by the sword like a living thing, and thick black smoke continued to emerge from the place where the sword blade touched the photo, as if it was on fire. A sharp cry came from the photo, and the distorted sound made Xia De, who was already having a headache, even more upset, but he ignored it.
"I surrender!"
Finally, a voice was heard from inside the photo, and just like the "intruder" just now, it was using contemporary language.
Xia De waited for a few seconds before grabbing the photo with his left hand and pulling out the sword with his right hand. At this time, a black hole like a burnt hole appeared in the center of the photo, and the man with the eye patch in the photo squeezed to one side of the photo so that he could appear in the photo in full. He raised his hands high in the photo.
"If you dare to run, you won't have a chance next time."
Xia De said, squeezing the photo with his left hand. He was worried that the other party wouldn't understand what he said, but fortunately the person in the photo understood:
"How is it possible? How is it possible that you can still stay conscious here?"
The voice was hoarse and strange, and the image in the photo kept flashing. Most of the time it was the image of a man, but at certain moments, the image in the photo was clearly a monster with mixed features of a fish face and a human face.