Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 323 Dark Sea Area

In that terrifying darkness, Shard, whose consciousness was fuzzy, faintly heard a singing voice that accompanied the waves.

And when he awoke once more, everything around him seemed to be shaking. The rain falling from the sky pattered against his back, and the bone-chilling wind made him shiver uncontrollably.

"Oh~"

The headache hadn't subsided, and the simple act of opening his eyes made him feel a throbbing pain at his temples.

He sat up, turning over, and took off his mask to breathe deeply. Looking around, he found himself on the filthy deck of a dilapidated old ship, surrounded by utter disrepair.

He looked up and saw a terrifying, soul-sucking black vortex hanging upside down in the sky above him. The primal fear of that instant almost made Shard scream.

Glancing around, there was no doubt this was still the ocean. The ship was adrift on the tumultuous sea, with thunderous oceans on all sides. The profound darkness seemed to swallow everything from afar, and the sound of the enormous waves made one's heart tremble uncontrollably. Due to the absence of light, the sea appeared to be a thick black, and underneath this black sea, it seemed that something even more massive and terrifying lurked. Shard glanced at it only once before quickly averting his eyes.

If it had been someone with less courage, they probably would have fainted upon seeing their surroundings. Even an Outlander who had seen much in this world couldn't completely control the panic. It was the most primitive fear humans have of the deep sea and darkness, not to mention whisper elements in the space were constantly trying to erode the soul.

"Are you still there?"

[I have always been with you.]

The familiar voice arose, and Shard immediately felt much more at ease. It was just that on the dim and old deck, he couldn't see Miss Princess or anyone else.

"But how could I have encountered such a thing just after leaving the house?"

[Simply put, the power on this ship and the curse on that girl with naturally red hair that has been dyed golden are very similar.]

"This ship was attracted here by the Mermaid's Song curse on Miss Princess?"

Thinking this, Shard frowned in the rain, looking around. The rocking derelict ship seemed lost in a dark and terrible sea, with Shard as the only living person onboard.

[No, she's not that important. It's only because the curse resonated with a kindred pirate ship that she felt it.]

"So, the Mermaid Statue and this pirate ship are really different steps of the same ritual, and we just happened to run into this ship... How could such a coincidence happen..."

Shard struggled to maintain his balance, recalling the last words of Miss Princess as he looked past the rain curtain toward the entrance of the ship's cabin.

He checked the items he was carrying to make sure he hadn't lost anything, and then nearly fell again due to the severe shaking of the deck.

"Speaking of which, since there's no source of light around, how can I see the deck clearly?"

At that thought, he looked down at his wrinkled hands that were soaked with water, glowing just like when the Box of Darkness had gone out of control—Shard himself was emitting light. The glimmer of Silvermoon radiated from his body's surface, not bright, but enough to prevent him from being completely swallowed by the darkness.

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He wiped the rain off his face with his hand, not daring to observe either the terrifying sea around the ship or the space above :

"Besides whisper elements, are there any other abnormalities nearby?"

[Not for the moment, but this ship is attempting to assimilate you, to keep you here forever.]

"I haven't felt it."

The dense rain pelted his skin; he couldn't stay in the rain for too long.

[Trying to assimilate any being with divinity is the most foolish act. You can't feel it because it has no effect.]

"Understood."

He clenched his fist; his condition wasn't good due to the loss of body heat. Miss Princess had said not to leave the ship, and Shard didn't have the courage to throw himself into the sea under such eerie circumstances, so he should find somewhere to take shelter from the rain first.

The swaying ship creaked as if it would fall apart at any moment. Sniffing the scent of the sea, Shard stumbled his way toward the entrance of the cabin on the deck. He didn't plan to create too much light in this eerie environment, so he used only the faint glimmer at his fingertips to illuminate his surroundings.

The old deck was being hammered by dense droplets of rain, with wooden crates and some cargo piled up in the corner. Occasionally, one could still see black stains that even the rain couldn't wash away, and "Echo of Blood" told Shard that most of those were bloodstains.

There were no living people on the ship, but there were quite a few corpses, which had long since turned to skeletons, sliding on the deck due to the ship's tilt. Shard was worried that the skeletons might suddenly rise, but until he reached the rusted iron door leading to the cabin, he was still the only one moving on the ship.

The iron door seemed to have been forcefully struck from the inside in the distant past. The deformed door was jammed in the frame, beyond the possibility of being pushed open no matter how much force was applied. Shard had no choice but to summon the silver greatsword and chop down fiercely a few times, cleaving the iron door apart.

The sound of metal falling to the ground was drowned out by the furious rain and thunder, as if a black entrance capable of devouring souls had been opened, unleashing a surge of intense foul odor from inside the cabin.

But at least the ship wasn't leaking, and the inside of the cabin was still relatively dry. The ship likely belonged to the Fifth Era, devoid of a steam power system, so he couldn't rely on the pipelines on the walls to find those important rooms.

Stepping on the creaking floorboards and entering the cabin, he let the sword in his hand vanish for a moment. Bending over, Shard used his fingers to illuminate the indented door panels on the moldy ground. On the inside face of the door panel, there were not only traces of being struck by immense force but also dozens of sharp scratch marks. Observations through "Echo of Blood" showed traces of blood within the scratches, suggesting they were likely gouged by hands in desperation.

"What on earth happened here..."

Startled, he abruptly looked up ahead. A silvery radiance illuminated the floor in front of him, where the decrepit floorboards covered with revolting moss and dust suddenly burst into a cloud of ash, and a decaying ash-formed figure charged at him directly.

"This isn't an illusion; is it an undead?"

The "Moonlight" in his hand slashed forward, bisecting the ash-formed undead, shooting straight along the cabin toward a distant place. With this flash of light, Shard saw that aside from the area near the exit, the whole cabin's corridor seemed covered in black blood.

Human skeletons and remnants were scattered everywhere, and the doors leading to the surrounding cabins were blocked by old, damaged furniture and skeletons. The sight before him seemed to indicate that a horrifying massacre had occurred within the cabin in the distant past.

The feeling of headache intensified—he was being mentally affected by the ship itself, a characteristic of a High-Risk Relic.

Shard wanted to continue moving forward, to search for more clues inside the ship. However, at that moment, a slight sound came from beside him, prompting him to immediately look to the left. By the faint glimmer of his fingers, he could vaguely make out a picture frame behind the thick layer of fungal carpet, the source of the noise.

He frowned, carefully peeling away the disgusting fungal layer with the fountain pen he carried, revealing the frame itself which contained dozens of black-and-white photos of varying sizes.

"So the Fifth Era also experienced the emergence of photography..."

The photos in the frame were severely faded, and one could only vaguely make out scenes of life aboard the ship. But the central portrait photo of a man with an eye patch, short hair, and a prominent nose seemed unaffected by time, as he stared back at Shard from the picture.

The peaceful countenance frozen in time slowly began to change as Shard watched, the partially faded face's lips curving bit by bit until they stretched into an angle impossible for a normal person to achieve. At the same moment, the previously still eyes started to move, regaining the lifelike expression of a sentient being. Those eyes truly fixed on Shard:

"Intruder!"

In the chilling roar, the face swirled with a dense black fog, transforming into a sinister skeleton that burst forth from the photograph.

"Silvermoon."

Intense light burst from between his fingers for an instant, the brightness shaking the ship itself. When the light extinguished the next second, Shard's fist shattered the glass of the picture frame. Ignoring the punctured palm of his hand, he grabbed the haunted old photograph and pulled it out.

As he retracted his hand, the old photo flew out of his grip. It slid upward against the wall, sticking to the yellow-green mold as if trying to find a seam to escape through. But as the photo reached the height of Shard's chest, the glowing Holy Silver sword tip thrust forward, penetrating the fragile photo and pinning it to the wall.

The Moonlight Greatsword illuminated the wall, and the green fungus carpet retreated rapidly from the area lit by the blade. At the point of contact between the sword and the photo, thick black smoke billowed as if on fire. Piercing shrieks came from within the photo, the distorted and deformed sound aggravating Shard's headache, but he paid it no heed.

"I surrender!"

A voice finally emerged from inside the photo, using the modern language, just like the earlier "intruder."

Shard waited a few seconds before grasping the photo with his left hand and pulling out the greatsword with his right. A hole that looked burned through now marred the center of the photo, and the eye-patched man squeezed to one side of the photo, raising his hands high as if to fully appear in the frame.

"If you try to run, you won't get another chance," Shard said, squeezing the photo in his left hand. Worried that the man in the photo might not understand his words, he was relieved to hear:

"How is that possible? How can you still maintain a clear consciousness here?"

The voice was hoarse and strange while the image in the photo flickered continuously, mostly appearing as the man, but for a few moments, it clearly pictured a creature with the mixed features of a fish and human face.