"Maybe he had already figured out who I was at that time... This recognition was mixed with other purposes, but the fact is this - when I was almost abandoned by everyone, the person I least dared to hope for stepped down from the throne and reached out to me..."
"I'm willing to die for him." She sniffed, "Now that he's gone, I'm willing to give everything for his dream."
It turned out to be the case.
Hitzfeld felt that he understood her now.
Compared with this redemption, the two truths I brought were too light.
They stopped talking about it and followed the protagonist of the picture, Mar Bakınsa, as he embarked on a heroic adventure.
His wife, the woman who kissed him in the alley, was called Kus-Nyan. Her eyes were a rare silver-gray color. In the gray fog sea that never saw the sun, only Kus-Nyan could see through the fog to a certain extent.
Compared to others, he was luckier because he had Neon people on his ship to guide him, which allowed him to avoid the most hidden reefs and evade in time when the gray fog wall changed unpredictably.
But at the same time, his mission was the heaviest. If other seafaring heroes were like headless flies, rushing around aimlessly on the sea, then Captain Baginsa had a clear purpose: he knew from the beginning what he was going to find on this trip.
“Evil is everywhere.”
After the lovemaking, he heard his wife in his arms worrying about the future, "We can only protect Sarah if we find the Sun King's legacy... This is also to protect our children."
"Isn't that why we are here?"
The young man has transformed, and now he can be called a man. His face is more mature and profound than before, but the arrogance between his brows remains unchanged, and he still looks like he is not afraid of even the Lord God.
"I personally don't care where I live, whether it's Sarah, Goli, or even just drifting on the sea... Anyway, with you here, I am confident that I can weather any storm."
"But you mentioned children..." His brows fell, "I have to consider the possibility that they don't want to be sailors. Isn't it the only way to fight for our lives?"
"Mal..."
Kuss knew that he was just making excuses. What does it matter? Her man grew up on that land. That was his home and his concern. How could he just give up like that?
The two hugged each other, and their will to sacrifice became even stronger.
Another day, the flagship of the Bakinsa fleet, the Silver Eagle, was the first to emerge from the fog, but a white sail was seen at the end of the channel ahead.
Everyone, including Mal, was excited. They thought they had encountered another fleet of the Voyager Program and wanted to signal their location.
"No!" His hand holding the gun was held down tightly, and he looked up to meet his wife's horrified face: "Don't do this... Turn around! Let's leave quickly!"
Mal had already established trust with his wife, so he didn't ask why and directly ordered the first mate to turn around.
Only after the fleet changed direction and started traveling at high speed did he have time to return to the cabin. He saw Kuss sitting on the bed, trembling, with both hands on her shoulders.
"Can you tell me who they are?" He walked over and sat next to his wife, put his arms around her and gave her courage.
"Undead Fleet." Kuss uttered a name.
"You've always been curious about why the Neon people came to Sara... I can tell you now, it's because of them... these monsters' lackeys! They have been hunting down the survivors of Aisha!"
"Are they evil followers?" Mal was puzzled. The first time he heard of evil followers was when they were drifting on the sea.
"That's even their headquarters..." Kus sneered, "Yes, that's why no matter how hard they try, they can't completely exterminate them... Because they are on the sea, they are always moving, shuttling back and forth between the two worlds in the gray fog... The Undead Fleet is full of lunatics... They are monsters!"
When she got excited, she struggled like she was having an epileptic seizure, and it took a lot of effort for Mal to restrain her.
The expression on his face was also full of shock - traveling through two oceans at the same time... Does this sound real?
"The gray fog is a tunnel leading to evil." Kuss confirmed, "All evil comes with the gray fog. The other side of the fog is their world... that extremely cruel world..."
"That means they have reached a deal with the evil god." Mal narrowed his eyes, "Not only do we have to face the wind and waves and sea monsters, we also have to face traitors from our own race!"
"Captain!" Someone suddenly knocked on the door. "Captain! You'd better come out..."
"what's up?"
"Those things you asked us to avoid before, those white sails... they are catching up with us!!!"
Taking Kus to the upper deck and picking up the telescope, we can clearly see a fleet emerging in the fog.
They don't look like ironclad ships - they don't even have the most basic iron coverings, they are all the oldest wooden structures.
This kind of ship is simply useless in front of the ironclad ship. Logically, they don't need to be afraid, but the crew members all know that the gray fog is dangerous. The Silver Eagle can pass through the gray fog thanks to the mysterious woman beside the captain, but what makes the other party so smart?
They were not simply "traveling through the gray fog"! They were completely submerged in the gray fog, and every once in a while they would suddenly close in like a mirage, looking extremely strange and bizarre!
Some crew members were already praying in low voices, as they thought they had encountered a sea ghost.
"Captain!" The first mate looked at Mal anxiously, "They are too fast! We will be caught up soon!"
"Let everyone prepare for battle..."
"No!"
It was Kus who stopped him again. The woman looked up at him firmly and said, "Give me the chart... I'll drive the boat!"
"What do you want to do?"
A flash of lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating Mal's terrified face.
"I'm going to the 'God-given Vortex'!"
His wife also refused to give in.
"Escape and fight are useless... When facing the Undead Fleet, we must go to the place they fear the most!"
Chapter 74: The Thing That Shook Heaven and Earth 4
It is rare to enjoy sunny days on the foggy sea.
It's not that you can't encounter it, but even if you encounter it, the sky will most likely be covered by gray fog. The scorching light cannot penetrate the fog that isolates time and space, and can only leave some shadows in the fog, giving the people below a little thought.
But for the "Silver Eagle" at that time, even this kind of weather was a luxury.
"Crack!" Crisp thunder exploded overhead, like a shepherd of raindrops, and heavy rain was blown in by the strong wind... The first wave of waves alone caused Mal to lose one-fifth of the ships in the fleet. The sailors saw with their own eyes how their companions were buried in the sea. Everyone's face was filled with fear. They couldn't help but think that perhaps the most dreaded day was today - yes, how could they dare to hope to escape the ghost's pursuit in such a storm?
"Hold the sail steady!" Kuss turned around and shouted to Mal while steering the wheel.
"You heard what she said!" Mal also shouted loudly to convey orders. It was not that he wanted to shout like that, but no one would be able to hear it clearly if he didn't expand his voice to the limit - the storm and thunder were too exaggerated!
The Silver Eagle was also a large ship covered in iron sheets, and could even be called a warship. The wind and waves should have surrendered to it, but it now looked like a small fishing boat, which only made the waves look even more majestic.
“Crazy… Crazy…” Madeline was also mumbling in horror in ghost state: “How is it possible… How can there be such big waves, each wave is more than 70 meters high, how is this possible…”
Hitzfeld was not too nervous because she remembered that the Silver Eagle returned safely to Wayne Harbor, which meant that although the scene looked thrilling, Mal and the others must have found a way to get rid of the Undead Fleet.
"boom!"
Thunderclouds roared, and a ray of white lightning struck the sail in the pouring rain. The main mast of the Silver Eagle was directly broken, and the white sail immediately flew far away under the wind, and even the ropes wrapped around it broke.
"Use the reel sail!" Mal looked extremely ugly and as pale as a dead person. He shouted twice and found that the first mate had no response to his words. He kicked the frightened man over and went below the deck to operate it himself.
Less than a minute later, he unlocked the reel sail, which was a thick reel inserted into the hull, with a movable metal skin on the surface. This thing looked more like a chimney than a sail, but when the wind blew the reel to rotate, the force it generated was enough to propel the boat, and the effect was more stable than an ordinary sail.
The only flaw is the problem of wear and tear. The Silver Eagle cannot find supplies at sea and has to use them sparingly. But now it is obviously time to go all out. If it cannot escape, it will die.
The fleet was looming in the terrifying wind and waves. All the crew members who were still conscious tied themselves to the boat with ropes around their waists. Sometimes, when a wave came down, they felt like they were falling into the abyss, and then the next moment they were swept to the top of the wave, diving straight down from an altitude of more than 70 meters.
Many people died in the process. Some people were thrown out by broken ropes, some people were pierced by flagpoles, and some people pulled the ropes like kites and collided with their companions, and each other was pierced to death by the bones.
But this is not even purgatory. The real purgatory is the silent extinction - the last ship of the Bakinsa fleet never reappeared after falling to the bottom of the valley. The surviving crew members of the Silver Eagle looked on eagerly for a long time and finally realized that they were the only ones on this journey.
No one will come to rescue them.
There will be no God, no Savior.
They have collapsed, prayed, despaired, and witnessed all conceivable tragedies, but in the end they became inexplicably strong, with courage surging from the bottom of their hearts.
It's already so bad anyway, isn't it?
If I can survive like this, then maybe I shouldn't die... At least I lived a few minutes longer than those people! ... Why not give it a try, damn! ?
By this time, Mal was almost in despair. The rain was pouring down from the stairs, and he couldn't open his eyes when he went up to the deck. But after he came up, he was surprised to find that the order on the deck had not collapsed. The survivors were like screwed gears, and they were still nailed to their posts no matter how hard the rain blew. His previous orders were carried out meticulously... It seemed that the Silver Eagle could still be saved!
"Where are the others?" He wiped his face so that his vision could be clearer for a second, and found someone to ask loudly.
"Dead!" the man answered just as loudly.
"I meant the other ships!" Mal yelled.
"They're all dead!" the man roared louder than he did.
Mal was stunned.
For a moment, he couldn't tell whether the water on his face was rain or not. Some familiar faces emerged from his memory. He looked up at the sky and saw the rolling black clouds and gray fog blending together, and the changing smoke... He seemed to see those people struggling inside.
"Give it to me!" Without further ado, he snatched the rope from the sailor's hand, tied the knot with movements several times more skillful than his, and firmly secured the box.
There seemed to be a force in my body, not courage, but revenge.
“Mal—” A scream came from the front, “The chart—the chart was blown away! I can see clearly—but I have no strength!!”
"I'll do it!" Mal grabbed the obstacles and moved into the cabin step by step. He walked towards his wife in the water that covered his ankles and took the roulette wheel from her.
"A little southeast!" Kuss grabbed his shoulder and shouted in his ear.
"Where are we going?" Mal looked back while steering the boat.
There was a big hole in the window at the rear of the cabin, and the strong wind blew the things inside into a mess, but there was still a roof to keep out the rain, so he could vaguely see that the white sail behind him was still chasing him.
"God-given vortex!"
"What is the God-given vortex?"
"I don't know! But every time I see them I go there—"
"And then they didn't dare to chase us, did they?"
"Yes—though I don't know why!"
"What does that place look like?" Mal couldn't help but worry for a long time. He couldn't help but wonder if it was really a whirlpool, wouldn't it suck the Silver Eagle in?
Is that still called escaping? That's suicide!
What nonsense - if you are going to die, the enemy will certainly not go with you!
"It's a vortex! But you won't be sucked in!" Kuss tried to describe the scene to him, "You will be sucked in - but you will be out again soon!"
"Will it be or won't it be——???"
“Yes—but it will be out soon!!!”
Mal was so angry that he laughed. He swore that if he didn't have to hold the roulette wheel with both hands, he would spank the woman hard!
But the next moment, the smile on his face was replaced by astonishment.
It was like penetrating a thick layer of fog; all the lightning, thunder, wind and rain disappeared, replaced by warm sunshine.
The golden sunlight poured through the clouds, coating the sea and everything with a layer of gold. For a moment, Mal thought he had come to heaven, as he had never seen such sunlight on the ocean anywhere else.
Then, things took a sharp turn for the worse.
Although it passed through the fog, the bow of the Silver Eagle immediately pressed down and was swept downward along a current vortex at an exaggerated angle of nearly 90 degrees.
“OHH ...
The couple in the cabin hugged each other and screamed loudly.
They saw it clearly, it was a super-large whirlpool! The scenery above was just because the vortex was rolled up too high! But its bottom was more terrifying than the deepest nightmare abyss! The turbulent water became darker as it went to the bottom, and the center area was completely black... It seemed that even the Lord God could swallow it up! !
"Aaaaaaaaaa!!!"
Hitzfeld saw Mal crying like a child, her expression was so distorted and her crying was so tragic that she couldn't help but remember that she heard similar crying one night in her previous life.
——That time it was because the child downstairs threw bubble gum into the toilet, which caused the pipe to be blocked. A torrent of fecal water gushed out of the south window of that family. The family had no choice but to beat the child, and she was scared just watching from the upstairs nearby.
But she was... after all, she had received professional training. She did not recall these things too much, but carefully observed the Silver Eagle's navigation track, intending to see how they would escape from this desperate situation.
To be honest, she couldn't think of it.
She had never heard of this vortex... It was located roughly northeast of Aisha and southeast of Sarah, at the midpoint of the vast sea area between Icarolin and Ceres. This thing looked much more terrifying than any sea monster or evil god, at least if she thought about it, she couldn't figure out how to escape.
No matter how you look at it, the Silver Eagle is doomed.
Unless a god really comes and uses his great power to pull the ship into the sky, there is no hope of saving it, as it will be swallowed up by the whirlpool.
"Miss Hitzfeld...Miss Hitzfeld!"
In a trance, she felt someone pushing her.
It was Madeline. She shook the girl awake, pointed upward and said to her: "Did you see the abyss just now? That abyss! Did you see it?"
"What abyss...?" Hitzfeld looked confused.
“Silver Eagle!” Madeline glared. “I saw it clearly when they came down just now. The eddies of the sea water from their line to the opposite line are different!”
