Chapter 253: Silence of the Deep

Chapter 253 – Silence of the Deep
The city-state floated rootlessly in the infinite sea, under the eight hundred and fifty meter “thick” base was a seemingly endless dark depth, the deeper you dived, the more you heard incomprehensible noises and saw incomprehensible lights and shadows, while the first explorer to cross the thousand meter depth fell into madness after rushing up to the surface of the sea, leaving the world with the only words. The only words left for the world were–

“We all die there.”

This is what happened to the Frost City State’s “Subterranean Abyss Project” from its inception to its gradual deterioration.

Duncan fell into a short thought, he suddenly realized that even if he did not go deep into the Spirit World and the Profound, just in the “reality dimension” of this world, the dangers hidden in the Infinite Sea were quite a lot, and after a short thought, he suddenly asked:
“What happened to that explorer?”

“Died very quickly – the rapid upwelling and decompression killed him, and he died of a vascular embolism after screaming wildly for a while, at least on a realistic level.”

“Only one occupant in a submersible?” Duncan asked again.

“There’s only room for one person, which, of course, amplifies the mental stress the explorer is under, but it’s a hopeless situation, partly because of the limited technology of the day, and partly because this kind of exploration is not meant to be traveled with more than one person – down in the depths, it’s hard to know for sure what’s going to happen to the companion beside you the next second they’re replacing them, and it’s hard to be sure that the sounds you’re hearing aren’t really ringing, so it’s better to simply dive alone so that at least you don’t have to suspect that there’s someone else in the submersible.”

“The deep sea, the darkness, the solitude, facing straight into the light and uncharted waters after being so far from the civilized world, all of these could have contributed to that explorer’s insanity,” Duncan shook his head slowly, “but it doesn’t matter, the important thing is that… . it’s still not enough to explain why the Subterranean Abyss program later became an extremely taboo subject.”

He gazed into Tirian’s eyes and continued, “So far, what you’ve recounted is nothing more than an expedition that went awry, and similar expeditions happen every year, the Truth Academy even takes it upon itself to invest in, and encourage, scholars and explorers to do just that, it doesn’t matter that it’s taboo, much less that it should have anything to do with the Lost Country. ”

“…… Yeah, if the program had stopped at a thousand meters, none of that would have happened later,” Tirian shook his head, lamenting at the memory, “After the accident with the third submersible, Rae -Her Majesty Nora had ordered a temporary halt to exploration for a while, but something happened a few days later that made the situation …… progressively weirder.”

Duncan frowned, “An incident?”

“At the edge of the temporarily blocked off test sea, Submersible Three rushed to the surface.”

Duncan was stunned for a moment before responding, “A second Submarine Three?!”

“Yes, the second one,” Tirian nodded, “It rushed up in front of the Navy soldiers and started signaling with a steady stream of lights that it needed assistance to open the hatch, and the trained soldiers, though confused for a moment, quickly towed the submersible to the work platform, following standard protocols. and aimed twenty-seven rifles, two rapid-fire guns, and a flamethrower at its hatch, after which a brave chaplain stepped forward and unlocked the door after pouring holy water on it.”

Tirian paused and spoke slowly, “The hatch opened and a …… human much like a Seeker stepped out of it.”

Duncan’s face sank, “Much like?”

“Close in profile, but with differences in height and weight, wearing the uniform of the Frost Navy, but with a lot of questionable clothing details, and more importantly …… the man who stepped out of the submersible was only active on land for a short time before he died, not even having the time to leave a word behind, and after the soldiers had unraveled ‘his’ clothing it was discovered that his flesh and blood and that clothing seemed to have ‘grown’ together, with large and incomprehensible wounds on its body.

“After that, a combination of doctors and Church scholars examined the body, and the Queen of Frost seems to have gone to view the autopsy site herself, but the conclusions of the examination were not made public – or, rather, before they had time to make anything public, a third ‘submarine number three’ ‘ showed up.”

At this point even Alice, who hadn’t said anything next to her and had just been listening mesmerized, couldn’t help but speak, “There’s a third one?!”

Tirian subconsciously glanced at Alice, and there seemed to be a strange expression on his face, as if he was very uncomfortable with someone who looked exactly like the Frost Queen standing here yelling in a fuss, but he soon adjusted his expression and nodded gently, “The third one, and there are more than three – after that After that, every twenty-four or forty-eight hours, a ‘submarine number three’ emerges from there ……”

Alice listened to this strange and bizarre “story” with amazement, and after a moment’s thought, she suddenly blurted out, “So, all you have to do is wait there, and you’ll have a steady stream of divers? Isn’t that thing called a ‘submersible’ worth a lot of money too? Is it worth more than the cultists?”

Tirion was still immersed in the memories of the past a second ago, but at this moment, she let the doll lady cut off her thoughts at once, and froze with her mouth open for half a day, unable to mobilize her emotions back, “This …… We didn’t think about it at all at that time… …” “You do not pay attention to her, her thought process is different from normal people,” Duncan looked at Alice and said to Tirian with a serious expression, “You continue to say, what happened afterward?”

Tirian then came back to his senses, and after organizing his thoughts, he continued to speak, “The third submersible came up and also signaled a light requesting the opening of the hatch, this time the soldiers had some experience, they dragged the submersible to a more heavily guarded area and had the priests set up a large number of transcendent realm guards in advance before they opened the hatch, and this time …… What came out from inside was a humanoid monster with a swollen and deformed body that could no longer be seen as a ‘Seeker’ at all.

“That monster likewise didn’t survive more than three minutes in the air.

“What crawled out of the fourth submersible was a constantly writhing mass of flesh, and this time not even a human outline could be discerned.

“When the hatch of the fifth submersible was opened, nothing came out of it – the soldiers on the scene went up to check and saw that the only thing in the cockpit was a suspicious puddle of dark-red mud, which carried a faint reaction of life.

“The sixth submersible had only a small amount of black, fibrous, dry material inside, which looked like a neural structure that had failed to take shape, or a dried blood vessel specimen ……”

As Tirion continued to narrate, the expression on Duncan’s face became more and more serious, and even Alice next to him seemed to notice the change in atmosphere and became seated.

And right in the middle of this increasingly serious and deep atmosphere, Tirian slowly said-

“The seventh submersible, and as far as I know the last one, is empty inside.”

“Empty?” Duncan raised his eyebrows slightly, followed by a shake of his head, “Then this is rather more disturbing.”

“Yes, empty, so it’s even more disturbing, this thing is completely out of control and something has to be done to end it,” Tirian said quietly, “but it’s a good thing that ‘Submersible Four’ has finally been completed –It was originally the successor to Submarine Three, and after the ‘One Thousand Meters’ incident, plans were suspended and its construction was put on hold, but as one ‘Submarine Three’ after the other surfaced, it became clear that it was not going to be built. ‘ surfacing, the Queen ordered the assembly of ‘Submarine Four’ to be completed as quickly as possible, and decided to use it to figure out what was going on underwater at a thousand meters deep.”

Tirian paused, as if something was missing from his recollection, he organized his words for a moment before continuing to speak slowly, “I can’t remember the specifics of Submersible Four, it was completed in a hurry and the Frost Navy was only responsible for a portion of it, all I know is that it’s bigger than Three, and that it can hold three people inside, and that there is also a sample bin –The scholars had planned to use it to collect a bit of specimens from the deep sea, if there were specimens to be collected.

“The day after the seventh ‘Submarine Three’ appeared, Submarine Four, built by the Frost City-States, was thrown into the sea, and in it sat a scholar, an officer, and a powerful cleric – by this time We could no longer think about the pitfalls of ‘multi-person exploration’, and doing everything possible to avoid the appearance of the eighth ‘submarine number three’ was the top priority.

“Submersible number four went all the way down, and soon reached a depth of one thousand meters, the priests in the submersible relied on psychic power to keep in contact with the surface, presumably due to the stronger performance of the new submersible, they had a smooth journey all the way down, and they also confirmed the sights of the city-state’s ‘base’, which had been observed by previous explorers Soon, however, the contact began to become sporadic, and after reaching a depth of a thousand meters, the chapel on the surface platform could barely hear the sounds coming from the deep sea.

“But after the contact had been broken for fifteen minutes, the priest on duty in the chapel suddenly heard sounds from the deep again, and they first heard a scream, which came from the priest, who was screaming in a very frightened tone to warn the others, and he said, ‘Don’t look! Don’t think!’ , followed by the officer’s voice, which was a roar, and then a deafening roar.”

Tirion looked up and gazed into Duncan’s eyes.

“The fourth submersible detonated the explosives,” the big pirate said slowly, “They had stuffed the sample compartment with high explosives for ‘the ultimate dangerous situation’.

“Then it was all over; Submarine Four never surfaced again, and there were no more ‘Submarine Three’s’ in plain sight.”

(End of chapter)