Chapter 1354 - 1353: The Depths of the Ocean

Chapter 1354: Chapter 1353: The Depths of the Ocean

After attempting to communicate with her fellow sea demons on the same continent using the unique "Spirit Song" and "Psychic Resonance," Miss Tiel, the deep-sea salty fish, fell into a state of shock.

Her song received no response, and the Psychic Echo that originally belonged to Cassandra only conveyed hollow noise—this indicated the target existed, but had become so distant that the Spirit Song could no longer reach.

She raised her eyes and met Gawain’s unusually serious gaze. He frowned, "How far can your ’song’ communicate with your own kind?"

"On a continent without interference and coastal areas, no matter the distance, it can communicate until the target goes deep into the Endless Sea," Tiel’s tail tip was drawing circles on the ground, which seemed to indicate she was slightly tense. "I can sense Cassandra still exists, but can’t hear her echo; perhaps she’s already thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers away from the Loren Continent’s coastline... When did they lose connection?"

"Not very long—not enough for them to have traveled so far; they couldn’t have flown there either," Gawain shook his head, "Do you have any other ways to locate your fellows?"

"...Then I can only use the old method, find a sentinel tower and hang myself on it," Tiel thought for a moment and said, seemingly lacking confidence, "But the Loren Continent and nearby regions are now shrouded in interference. The same method can no longer connect to Antawen. If Cassandra and the others are adrift to equally distant places, this method probably won’t be effective either..."

"Anyway, give it a try," Gawain quickly made a decision, "We must figure out where that fleet went—I’ve granted you the use of Cecil’s Supreme Hub Tower. For the next period, I need you to call Cassandra and other accompanying navigator sea demons as much as possible."

This is a crucial matter, and even Tiel would exhibit some motivation. She immediately nodded, "Okay, I’ll go hang on the tower..."

"...You better not fall off again," Gawain looked at this fish, his eye twitching slightly, "If it doesn’t work, you can operate from the rest cabin at the tower top. It’s still winter, and you’ve already died three times this year from freezing and falling while sleeping high up."

"Don’t worry, I’ll bring a heater up this time—the rest cabin can’t directly contact the Crystal Array, so the signal amplification effect will be weakened." Tiel didn’t seem to care about Gawain’s reminder, possibly because she was used to dying. She waved as she wriggled towards the door, murmuring as she wriggled, "I’m going now, wait for my news..."

After Tiel left, Gawain lightly sighed with a mix of some helplessness and concern, while Amber, slumped at the side, suddenly revived like a soul returning, her amber eyes staring unblinkingly at Gawain, "What do you think... Could this be related to the changes happening in the Wasteland? Looking at the timing, Byron’s fleet lost contact shortly after the anomalous weather events were observed all over Loren Continent..."

"We can’t rule out that possibility," Gawain said, frowning, "In any case, I suspect any unforeseen events are linked to those evil cult followers in the Wasteland. After all, they are the ones most capable of causing trouble on this planet..."

"I understand, after all, it’s The Scapegoat Society," Amber waved her hand and then spoke with a bit of worry, "You think... could they have developed some kind of weapon? A weapon that can attack the sea from across the entire continent? The anomalous weather patterns we observed might just be the interference released when this weapon is activated, considering they have The Deep Blue Webway as support, if they have enough energy, even with limited technology, they can develop something terrifying..."

"Speculating now is meaningless," Gawain shook his head, "Only one thing is certain, a fleet that size can’t just disappear into thin air. Tiel also confirmed Cassandra still ’exists,’ the navigator sea demon hasn’t died back to Loren or Antawen, so I’m more inclined to believe Byron’s fleet is still navigating somewhere in the ocean, but somehow in a very short time... they’ve moved a lot farther, possibly to a place Tiel’s song can’t reach..."

...

A gentle breeze stirred the wide, calm sea, carrying a fresh yet slightly salty scent in its wake. Gentle waves softly lapped against the alloy armor of the warship’s side, and the towering bow cast a large shadow on the ocean surface, greeted by the brilliant sunlight cascading from the sky—the sea was so calm at this moment, as if the previous storms and chaotic magic were mere illusions.

The magical interference lingering in the sea had not entirely dissipated, and the ship’s communication systems and various sensing devices continued to capture hard-to-decipher magical signals. These residual traces were the only irrefutable evidence that storm had actually occurred. Byron stood on the captain’s platform, his brows furrowed, staring at the interference noise projected on the communication device, then turned to his technical adjutant beside him: "Is communication still not restored?"

"All channels are unresponsive, we’ve been completely cut off from the mainland—only internal fleet communication systems are still functioning," the technical adjutant reported nervously, "Additionally, the ocean readings are very strange, this sea area is completely unfamiliar."

"...Keep calling," Byron ordered before stepping away from the captain’s platform. Passing through a busy control center and the connection bridge on the side of the bridge, he pushed open the heavy sealed hatch to the observation deck on the upper deck. Warm sea winds blew from afar, tousling his messy hair and complicated mood. He gazed into the distance, seeing only the clouds yet to completely dissipate from the horizon after the storm and nothing else but the vast sea between them.

No land, no islands, no theoretical visible object in the current sea area, the Winter was floating in the center of an Endless Sea, an entirely unfamiliar sea area, not on any known navigation routes, and clearly exceeding the transmission limit of the circular continental route communication link.

Footsteps sounded from nearby, Byron turned toward the sound, seeing the red-haired Dragonmarked Witch Asha Leyna approaching. He nodded slightly to her, "Looks like we’ve been ’cast adrift’ by the storm into an unknown sea area, the route deviation is more exaggerated than imagined."

"...Storms can’t ’throw’ a fleet of this scale as we have, it seems we’ve drifted well away from Loren’s coastal waters," Asha Leyna shrugged, "Have you noticed the warm sea breeze here and the angle of sunlight in the sky?"

"Of course I’ve noticed," Byron said solemnly, "We’ve drifted south, probably crossed an entire climate zone, this place feels as hot as the equator, but no matter how much power the Winter exerts, it would have been impossible in the past few hours to travel from Ordo Estuary to equatorial seas, especially since we had already anchored and activated the Wavecontrol Magic Symbol... Do the technical experts have any suggestions?"

"The ship itself hasn’t suffered significant damage, the ’North Mountain’ is collecting marine specimens for analysis, nothing conclusive yet. The Sea Demon and Naga Navigators have entered the water, but they... seem to need some time to determine where exactly the fleet has drifted to," Asha Leyna spread her hands, "I’m about to take off, might get a better view from the air."

"...The situation reminds me of years past," Byron said to his former adventurous companion, feeling compelled to speak up, "That time when we got lost in the southern borders forest, even the local guides we hired lost their way."

"Back then, we shouldn’t have trusted Watson’s nonsense and drank that ’Mixed Mushroom Soup’—I truly didn’t expect the red mushrooms in the southern borders forest could even take down Dragonborn," Asha Leyna sneered, "But I think losing direction here in the Endless Sea is far worse—though the sea demons and naga in the fleet still seem in good spirits."

Byron immediately widened his eyes upon hearing this: "Nonsense, they’re deep-sea creatures, even if our fleet is truly forever trapped in this blasted place, they can catch fish in the water every day and live happily, can our salt content compare with theirs?"

Asharena laughed and then waved her hand: "Let’s not talk about this, I want to ’go up’ and check the situation, the clouds in the distance are fading, maybe we can see the coastline or something else from the air."

"... Be careful," Byron looked at Asharena for a few seconds and finally couldn’t help but remind her, "Pay attention to the communication device, once you encounter magic power interference or something like that, return immediately, try to keep the Winter in your line of sight — I just feel that the ’phenomena’ we encountered this time are really strange, even the sea demons haven’t seen this kind of ’natural phenomenon’ appear on the sea."

"Got it, got it, ’leader’ sir — you weren’t this nagging back in the day." Asharena laughed, although she talked impatiently, she seemed to be in a good mood. Then she walked briskly towards the back of the upper deck where a wide area was specially reserved for Asharena to take off and land with the Winter. Byron watched the red-haired Dragonborn lady step onto the platform, and then in a light screen that appeared out of thin air, the slim humanoid body transformed into a dragon, cloaked in alloy armor and the mighty steel wings lifted off the deck, flying towards the distance.

Byron watched as Asharena ascended into the air until she gradually turned into a tiny black dot among the clouds before he turned and returned to the bridge.

In the sky, layers of clouds came rushing forward, the overly bright sunlight reflecting on them casting a brilliance that made even the dragon squint. Asharena felt the joy of the gale passing through the gaps in her scales and armor as she continued to increase altitude while monitoring the situation ahead.

She noticed a circle of fog looming ahead, slowly dissipating under the sunlight but still seriously obstructing vision. Other than in that direction, there was only a vast sea visible around without any trace of islands or land.

"This is Asharena, the clouds ahead are a bit unusual, I intend to get closer for a look," the red dragon flying in the sky activated the communication device and called the Winter on the sea, "Keep tracking my signal."

"Winter received, be careful," Byron’s voice came through the communicator. The usually unserious ’mercenary leader’ sounded unexpectedly reliable with his serious talk on the communicator, "Maintain communication, don’t go too deep."

"Understood, I’ll just go for a quick look." Asharena responded while accelerating and lowering her altitude towards the thinner cloud direction, the high-altitude airflow swiftly passing the edge of her steel wings, the magic power released from the operation of the Wings of Steel device stimulating the air, leaving a beautiful pale blue arc against the sky background. She entered the clouds, quickly piercing through the layer of ’disturbance’, which was not very thick and was gradually dissipating, when a large-scale object finally gradually appeared in her view.

The Dragonborn lady slowly widened her eyes, almost forgetting to flap her wings, and amidst the glorious sunlight in this unfamiliar place and the endless ocean, the flying dragon connected with the mothership’s communication, calling her former leader with a extremely controlled and ladylike voice: "... WDNMD what is this!! What the heck is this thing?!"

"Asharena? Asharena, what did you see?" Byron, on the other side of the communicator, was obviously startled, "Are you okay?"

"I’m fine, but it seems we’ve encountered a big deal!" Asharena forcefully flapped her enormous wings, adjusting herself to a hovering position while activating the image-capturing device on her Dragonborn armor, "I’m sending the image back, take a look, and decide whether the fleet should come over — I think we need to approach for some reconnaissance..."

The images were quickly transmitted back, and the communicator went silent for a few seconds, then Byron’s voice echoed through the channel: "WDNMD what is this!! What the heck is this thing?!"

"See, I told you..."

Byron stood at the captain’s seat, eyes wide open, staring at the image Asharena had sent back.

It was a majestic huge tower, standing proudly on a massive island seemingly forged from steel. The giant tower, made of an unknown alloy, glimmered dazzlingly in the sunlight, with its upper sections having many unknown protrusions, platforms, pipelines, and other structures visible in the forwarded images from the front. The tower not only pointed straight towards the sky but was so tall that its top could not be seen from afar — it seemed almost mythically like a pillar that reaches from earth to heaven, extending infinitely upwards, even passing through the clouds, until disappearing into the azure vault.

Byron had seen similar buildings in his lifetime.

Next to the Talronde Continent, on that cold sea, there was also a similarly styled tall tower. It was a relic left by the ancient civilization known as the ’Voyager’ on this planet, now contaminated by the Inversion Tide, completely losing its former function.

But that tower... its top could be seen.

"... General," an adjutant’s voice came from beside, interrupting Byron’s thoughts, "what should we do now..."

Byron took a light breath, connecting with Asharena’s communication and giving the order: "Scout lady return first, the fleet will approach the target, let’s go over and see what’s going on."

"Alright, I’ll head back..." Asharena’s voice came through the communicator but then quickly rose with pitch, "Wait, what’s ’scout lady’?!"

"Ah..." Byron awkwardly rubbed his nose, "I recently read a few pages of the ’Holy Words Record’, learned some new terms."

"... Can you Cecil Clan folks promote something a bit more normal?"