Chapter 658.

Chapter 658 – Boarding the Ship
The cotton was ignited, and in a split second it turned into a grand flame, and together with those spores that escaped in all directions, it turned into ashes, and then the flames were quickly extinguished, and it was only until then that the congregants gathered in the hall finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The strange and frightening scene just now as well as those spores that clearly seemed to be spreading outwards and infecting made every sensible person feel a great danger.

However, while the general congregation relaxed slightly, the gloomy pressure from the high platform did not abate in the slightest – the saint gently clicked his skeleton “crown”, and one eye stalk was still uneasily scanning the hall and beyond, knowing that the gloom that enveloped the ship was still there. He knew that the haze that had enveloped the ship was still there, and what he had destroyed was only a shadow of the haze that had seeped in many days ago, and now the shadow’s body had long since completed the invasion …… itself had been slow to move.

“Don’t relax too soon, unwanted guests have arrived on the ship,” his voice reached the bottom of every man’s heart, “from now on, the whole ship is in a state of infidel invasion …… Lentim, take the men and search the whole ship to find the intruder –If anyone refuses to be searched or behaves suspiciously, shoot on sight.

“Gemoro, take men to the machinery bay and take over the steam core and pivot valves, the intruders may try to take over the entire ship’s core …… You take nitroglycerin with you.

“Persea, you take your followers to the armory and arm all the ordinary congregations …… Let the mortal sailors take weapons as well.

“Basmerton take the men to control the deck guns, the enemy may also attack from the sea.”

The series of orders given by the saints all of a sudden made the Annihilationists in the hall who had just relaxed for less than a few seconds instantly come to their senses, and all of them realized the seriousness of the matter, and the clerics who had received the orders quickly brought along their own men and left the hall in droves.

The number of people in the hall instantly decreased by half, but there were still many Magi who stayed within the assembly grounds, arching over the high platform where the Saints were located.

After quickly thinking for a while, the saint once again raised his own eye stalks and looked at a high-ranking magus closest to him, “Eric, you lead the men to execute all the sacrifices in the cages.”

The high-ranking Magus named Eric froze at his words, “Now?”

“I need blood to enhance my power – the invaders are extraordinary, it’s not the time to count on maximizing value,” the Saint said lightly, the execution order seemed as natural to him as breathing, “The sacrifices turn back New ones can be captured, for now execute the ones on the ship – drain their blood and soak the deepest slabs of the cage, I want to build up my strength in preparation for a showdown.”

“Aye, Lord Saint.”

The high-ranking Magus named Eric immediately lowered his head, and after receiving the order, he brought along a few of his followers and left the assembly hall with quick steps.

With hurried footsteps, he stepped onto the corridor that led deeper into this ship, darting past the flickering, tightly closed doors of the rooms and walking through a connecting staircase towards the deeper, quieter cabins of the ship.

Thin, slightly cool smoke had seeped into the cabin from somewhere at some point, making the corridor look a little blurry after all.

“Grand Magister,” one of the followers suddenly broke the silence a little uneasily, “these fumes aren’t quite right ……”

“Indeed it is not right, how can there be so much smoke on the ship under normal circumstances,” Eric said with a frown, behind him in the air floated indistinct phantoms, dark chains extended from his spine, and a dark creature that resembled an indeterminate lump of flesh floated at the end of that chain, and from the surface of the lump of flesh opened up many only eyes, as if it was cautiously observing the movements around it, “…… It’s too quiet.”

It was too quiet, the entire corridor was silent, and there was no sound in the nearby rooms, only the vague sounds coming from certain machines in the distance could be heard – distant and indistinct, as if in another world.

Where were the men who had been sent out on various missions earlier? Wasn’t there a big search going on all over the ship?
Thin smoke drifted in from ahead, and Eric suddenly shrugged his nose – in the smoke, he smelled a familiar odor, gunpowder.

Some small sounds suddenly came from a certain direction, followed by someone giving orders from deep within the smoke-

“Take up your positions! Form up, load, aim-“

It sounded like an army commander, giving orders to his soldiers.

Eric turned his head in dismay to the direction of the voice, and with the aid of his symbiotic Flesh and Blood demon, he spotted the source of the voice at first glance – a group of comical toy soldiers carved out of wood were forming up on the floor at the end of the corridor. A group of toy soldiers carved out of wood were lining up on the floor at the end of the corridor.

Soldiers the size of palms, covered in garish paint and dressed in what looked like the musketeer and artillery uniforms of a bygone era, were running around on the floor, while other soldiers ran through the ranks waving tiny flags or blowing horns from high up on the ground, and a commander stood atop a block he dragged from nowhere, holding his sword high in the air as he barked out orders.

Musketeers were loading “rifles” like matchsticks.

The other Annihilation Magi also noticed the toy soldiers gathered on the floor in the form of an “attack”, a scene so bizarre that they did not react at first, and even thought it looked funny.

But this ridiculous feeling only lasted for less than a second, the next moment, everyone’s heart suddenly woke up – in this infinite sea full of strange and bizarre, anything that does not look right means danger, even if they look like a group of comical toy soldiers!
Eric, on the other hand, suddenly thought of something, he recalled the legend related to these toy soldiers, and immediately lunged forward, “Lie down!”

His warning was a step too late, however, and from the end of the smoke came the commanding officer’s order, “Release!”

“Bang, bang, bang, bang!”

Continuous gunshots rang out in the corridor, fire tore through the smoke while bullets whizzed by, and one by one, the Annihilationists could not even summon their respective Symbiotic Demons before they were sieved in the chaotic gunfire, falling to the ground one after another.

It is said that once upon a time, an unsuspecting city-state tried to provoke the Witch of the Sea in order to “kill the curse that spreads across the infinite sea”.

An arrogant commander led his battle-hardened marines to surround the witch’s makeshift home and attacked in the night.

Fog fell in the night, and the attacking soldiers disappeared into it one after another – and when the sun rose again, the witch had turned them into one hundred and sixty-six toy soldiers. To this day, this regiment of toy soldiers remains imprisoned in the witch’s shadow, and when the witch needs them, they will be briefly liberated and brought to bear with army-like force ……

Blood was draining from his body, the sharp pain was gradually turning into numbness from the cold, and Eric collapsed to the floor, his mind uncontrollably recalling all these stories he had heard sometime in the past, while out of the corner of his eye he finally saw something different beside the corridor, something he should have noticed, but had somehow overlooked.

On both sides of the dimly lit corridor, there were many, many oil paintings hanging.

Previously, these oil paintings all depicted the many incarnations of the Profound Holy Lord, as well as images of demons and many scenes in the Profound Deep Sea.

But now the content of the paintings had changed.

Many familiar faces gazed sadly and painfully at the smoke filled corridor in the oil paintings, and some of them …… seemed to have been blinking their eyes slowly until a minute ago.

No response came from those sent out.

The gloom that had coiled over the ship was growing thicker and thicker, with no tendency to dissipate.

On the platform in the center of the assembly hall, the saint pondered for a long time – anger and despair were slowly brewing in the calm.

He realized that he might have made a series of wrong decisions.

The previous arrangements had not prevented the shadows from spreading, but on the contrary, now he had lost “sense” of more and more parts of the ship.

Tension was spreading in the halls.

The ordinary clerics who stayed here also began to notice the difference in the situation.

The people who left the hall did not return, nor did they have any news to report, the intercom phones were not working one after another, and the “compatriots” in other areas could not be contacted by using the Profound Demon’s senses, first the cargo and water warehouses lost contact, followed by the cabins where the crews were living, and then the corridors in the vicinity. ……

It was as if the various compartments were gradually disappearing into a spreading darkness, and with the exception of this hall, the entire ship was being consumed by something unseen.

Something invisible was attacking the place.

Then, something even more dangerous touched the ship – a great sense of fear gripped everyone’s mind for no reason.

There seemed to be something moving in the corridor.

One of the cultists closest to the door heard a, slight crackling sound coming from the corridor outside, he looked to his left and right, hesitated for a moment, and boldly poked his head towards the door.

Someone nearby noticed his move and immediately came over and grabbed the reckless man by the arm, trying to stop him from this bold move.

But it was a step too late.

The cultist who had probed out suddenly stiffened, then shook slightly in place for a couple of moments, and then he “walked” backward in a stiff, mannequin-like posture, and after a moment’s stillness, fell backward on his back.

His limbs crumbled like fragile ceramics, his body had somehow become lifeless and inorganic, and his head fell off his neck joints in the fall and rolled with a grunt to the feet of the other cultists.

It was a crude mannequin head.

There was an instantaneous cry of alarm, followed by the sounds of swords being sheathed and weapons being loaded, and a large number of Spectral Demons being summoned, as the cultists in the hall made preparations to meet the enemy in momentary fear and panic – while footsteps rang out from the corridors, and came closer and closer to the doors.

A silver-haired lady in a gorgeous deep purple court dress walked in first – with her flawless doll-like features and graceful, lithe posture, she just walked into the assembly hall with such grace that the Annihilationists, the Spectral Demons, and all those swords and guns that had gathered around her were as if they were nothing to her, and she just looked around curiously, and the pair of dark purple eyes that were on her face were just as if she was a woman. She just looked around curiously, her deep purple eyes were clear and bright, their depths seemed to reflect many wisps of invisible lines.

Then in walked another extraordinarily tall figure.

This figure was seared into everyone’s eyes like a nightmare seeping into reality-as soon as he walked in, he had already begun to sear the sanity and nerves of more than half of the Annihilationists in the hall.

Duncan lifted his head and gazed at the “saint” on the raised platform in the growing green flames.

“You and your ship, it works for me.”

(End of chapter)