Gun of Ashes

The rainstorm covered the Morning Glow Advance, and the distant storm brought waves, the entire ship was pushed and shaken haphazardly, as if the whole world was descending upon it with malice.

”The details of the action were discussed by Lancelot and the Lord, I don’t know the specifics. We rested for a few days at Lord Willgardson’s territory, then set sail with them, not only with the Horned Whale this time, but also the Lord’s longships.”

Bola continued to recall that dark past, it was so dreadful that he hadn’t thought about it since he made the report, recalling it now seemed like looking into another person’s memories.

”The Lord said that many sleeping Undead lay beneath the Silent Sea, not a mysterious legend, but actual Undead that truly exist, once disturbed, they would wake and attack passing ships, and our Iron Armor ship was too noisy, so we couldn’t sail into it.”

”You abandoned the Horned Whale?” Lorenzo asked.

”No, we initially didn’t care about these strange legends, after all, we had an Iron Armor ship, different from those frail longships, we had armor and heavy artillery, and the fiercely burning steam engine, even solid ice could be easily broken through, let alone any Undead.

Conflict arose between us, to some extent, Lancelot still didn’t fully trust these Vikings, according to them, we had to advance completely silently, using the most primitive longships, rowing slowly across the Silent Sea, which inevitably required leaving the Horned Whale at the edge of the Silent Sea, and the Horned Whale was our greatest reliance across Viking nations, losing it would greatly downgrade our safety.

Know that our enemy at the time was not just the mysterious legend, but also these cunning Vikings, perhaps the moment we abandoned the Horned Whale, they would kill us all and seize this Iron Armor ship.”

”What happened then?”

”We made mutual concessions.

Above the Silent Sea were countless glaciers, some sea surfaces frozen completely, many times the Vikings needed to haul the longships onto the ice to advance, then affected by environmental and material restrictions, actually these Vikings hadn’t conducted many successful explorations of the Silent Sea, always lingering on its edge, unable to go deep.

Interestingly, Lord Willgardson had an extremely intense interest in the Silent Sea, after several discussions, we reached cooperation, he was willing to risk helping us, in his plan the Horned Whale would be filled with supplies and longships, and we would head to the Silent Sea together, once entering the Silent Sea, the Horned Whale would travel at low power, minimizing noise.

The Horned Whale would break through bothersome ice layers, after advancing a distance, deciding based on the situation whether to lower the longships, whether to continue in this safe manner.”

”And then, as per the plan, you began the operation?” Lorenzo said.

”Yes, one major reason why Lord Willgardson was willing to take such risks was that he trusted our Horned Whale, he thought perhaps this Iron Armor and heavy artillery could withstand attacks from the Undead.”

Bola continued narrating, the storm outside the portholes gradually intensified, the world became bleak shades of gray, devoid of light.

”Indeed it was like that, we followed the plan, successfully entering the Silent Sea after a few days, it was the strangest sea domain I’ve ever seen, I’ll never forget it.

The sky covered by lead-gray clouds, not a trace of light could penetrate down, as if thunderstorm was accumulating between the clouds, and the sea surface was without waves, as smooth as a mirror, the water was transparent, devoid of any impurities, looking over, no life could be seen below, except for the splashed dust and sand, nothing was in the water.

It was truly the Realm of the Dead, everything seemed dead, the dead sky, the dead sea, the dead world...”

Memory reached the frontier of darkness, Bola’s expression turned grim, he couldn’t help clenching his fists.

”Even worse was the detection from the Horned Whale, our Geiger Counter showed reactions, floating above the Silent Sea was erosion, intensifying with deeper travel into the Silent Sea, it seemed there was a colossal pollution source somewhere in the depths of the Silent Sea, its spread erosion affected the entire Silent Sea.

The Lord also mentioned this, one of the reasons why the Silent Sea induced fear was this invisible pressure, as one delves deeper into the Silent Sea, crewmen would go mad, they attributed this to mythology and curses, but we were clear it was related to Demons.”

”A... colossal pollution source?”

Lorenzo fell into thought.

”In retrospect, this pollution source might be the World’s End we were looking for, but what exactly the World’s End is nobody knows, requiring us to uncover it ourselves.”

Bola sighed deeply, maybe due to the rainstorm, he felt tight in his chest, as if unable to breathe.

”After realizing this, we specially sailed around the edge of the Silent Sea for several days, confirmed the erosion range was indeed so vast... this somewhat shook our soldiers’ morale, many were scared, no one ever encountered such vast erosion, it was terrifying.”

Lancelot stood up in time, stabilized the troops, and then gave me a mission.”

”What mission?”

”A mission where I had to survive; I was appointed as a record keeper. I had to document all the details of the operation and bring them back. I was removed from the front lines, and there were many other record keepers like me. Because of this, we came across information we were never meant to know.”

”Did Lancelot think he would die here?” Lorenzo asked.

”Pretty much. Lorenzo, you can’t imagine the fear we felt back then. Such a massive scope of erosion, who knows what we would encounter in there...” Bola’s expression twisted slightly, as he re-entered the nightmare. ”Then the action commenced, the ship Horned Whale quietly advanced, breaking through the ice layers all the way forward.

But as we delved deeper into the Silent Sea, more issues emerged. The erosion affected us, many crew members started having nightmares, followed by a series of equipment failures. Then you’d find the compass spinning wildly like a top, and the sextants became useless because we simply couldn’t see the distorted scales clearly... most people began having hallucinations. Worst of all, in that place, you couldn’t see the sun nor the night sky, only gray clouds accumulating malice. There wasn’t any light to guide our way.”

The rocking cabin, the descending storm, the damp sea breeze... these were like giant hands pulling Bola back to the start of that nightmare. Even Bola himself didn’t notice that as he was speaking, his hand had unconsciously reached toward his waist-gun pouch, caressing the silver Revolver, as if it was the lifeline keeping him alive.

The always silent Blue Jade could no longer maintain her indifferent demeanor, her pupils hid a stirred emotion, while on the other side, Lorenzo kept a close watch on Bola, observing his every reaction.

”It happened on the seventh night. I was in bed trying to sleep, but I couldn’t. As time passed and we delved deeper into the Silent Sea, I heard whispers like everyone else. The entire sea was so calm, but as I lay in bed, the whispers intensified, roaring at me.”

Bola gripped the Funeral Bell tightly, his eyes bloodshot.

”After struggling for a long time, I decided to get up and organize documents. As a record keeper, I knew everything happening on the Horned Whale. Every day, endless files were sent my way. I’d process them and store them in waterproof file bags.

Ever since we entered the Silent Sea, the crew started experiencing hallucinations more frequently. In the following days, there were even disappearances and suicides, but Lancelot managed to keep control over this information. He knew our mission had failed. We had ironclad ships and heavy cannons to defeat pirates, but we couldn’t defend against the torments from within.

Lancelot considered turning back, but the erosion had affected all observational means. We had completely lost our way in this sea, and the Vikings were no use either. They had no idea how to navigate. No matter how we asked, they just said, ’Wait for the channel to appear.’

We felt cheated, thinking we’d all die here. But Lancelot still trusted them, more accurately, he trusted the Victoria family. As one who had returned from the World’s End, the only guidance he left us was on how to find the World’s End, and that instruction was ’follow the light trail.’”

”But there’s no light in that forsaken place.”

Bola said viciously, but then his expression suddenly relaxed, the contrast so stark like a patient reaching a turning point in a nightmare, and suddenly his memories were filled with light.

Bola repeated what he said before.

”It happened on the seventh night. I got up from bed, hearing the commotion outside the cabin. I went out and saw the ’channel,’ saw the ’light trail.’”

”The Vikings didn’t deceive me, nor did the Victoria family.

That was the largest aurora I’ve ever seen, a magnificent array of lights swept over our heads, like skirts fluttering in the wind, the skirt of a dancing goddess, the surrounding glows like a cascading torrent, from one end to the other, spanning heaven and earth.

I stood on the deck, enveloped by this light, and for a moment, I felt the Vikings’ so-called Heroic Spirit Hall must be like this. The Valkyries were descending; she would emerge from the light and take me to that supreme hall...

By then, I could no longer tell if it was truly so grand or just a hallucination. In any case, amidst this prolonged silence, with everyone about to be consumed by despair, hope appeared.

The brilliant aurora seemed like a track imprinted across the sky, pointing us the direction. Without even thinking, at the end of this light trail was what we were seeking, and that was the World’s End.”

Bola’s obsessed expression trembled, his voice lowered.

”And this was also the start of the nightmare. The hope came so suddenly, it drove many to madness. The Horned Whale suddenly sped forward towards the end of the light trail. By the time we realized the problem and awoke from our joy, it was too late.

The Silent Sea, boiled.”