Chapter 660 – The Ship Going Home

Chapter 660 – The Ship That Goes Home
In the deepest power area of the mechanical section, all the crew and religious who used to man this place are dead, but the huge steam core unit still continues to run uncontrolled.

A low tremor was emanating from the reactor, the pipes and valves surrounding the reactor emitted a slight hiss every now and then under the control of the automatic balancing system, and the warning lights used to detect the status of the boiling gold catalysts were flashing steadily, indicating that the pressure inside the steam core was running at a high level.

At the end of a steel platform more than ten meters away from the steam core, a huge copper column is standing in the middle of the roof and floor, part of the shell of the copper column is hollowed out, and you can see that there are complex gears and connecting rod structure is constantly running inside, the clacking sound from the rapid operation of the precision machinery is continuous into a wave, and a strip of paper is sucked into the opening at the edge of the copper column, and then spit it out of the other opening, and it is transported to the other transfer equipment or punched analyzer. A strip of paper is sucked into the opening at the edge of the copper column and spat out through another opening, to be transferred to other transfer equipment or to a punch analyzer.

The expensive, sophisticated differential machine was automatically calculating parameters relevant to the subsequent voyage plan and providing this data to the mechanical module, which received some of its input and output data directly from the upper navigation station – all of which must not fall into the hands of the Shadow of Naya Space.

A vast gloom of fate was gathering, an omen worse than death was descending – that ghostly captain had reacted, and his wrath was descending here.

Without further hesitation, the massive skeleton spider swung up his long, knobby limbs and darted up to the bronze pillar, then without hesitation, he drove a bone spike into the core power shaft of the differential.

A corrosive force field permeated the surface of the pitch-black bone spur, and the shield of the power shaft, which was tightly protected by the thick copper shell and steel armor, was easily pierced through like a thin sheet of paper, and the steel bearing inside that was rotating instantly emitted a series of ear-piercing noises, and immediately after that, a series of gears and connecting rods connected to the main shaft collapsed catastrophically, and swept up the subsequent perforating machine and the paper tape that had been deposited. —

The differential and subsequent punch analyzers were all powered by the same spindle, and a single power failure would be enough to destroy the entire system, a deliberate “safety flaw” designed to destroy the ship’s recent voyage records and its control center in the shortest possible time in the event of an emergency.

But that wasn’t enough. Just destroying the differentials wouldn’t stop the ghost captain.

As long as the ship can still sail, it is still possible for it to take the captain to the “Holy Land”.

“What the Saints need to do is to deactivate the steam core’s security restrictions.

The steam core in its reactive state is indestructible, and the heavy protective shell will isolate its boiling gold catalyst, the reaction medium and the outside world, so even nitroglycerine explosives may not be able to blow up the layer of the sphere – only if the steam core is shut down in an emergency first.

Now, the shutdown conditions were met.

Accompanied by the roar that came from the collapse of the differential machine’s power shaft and a series of ear-piercing noises from the gear sets, all of the mechanical devices that relied on gears, belts, and connecting rods to connect them together began to chain together and collapse, and the airflow from the steam core’s output breached the safety valve’s threshold in almost the blink of an eye, and lethal high-temperature and high-pressure steam began to overflow and permeate the mechanical compartment in all directions, and the overpressure flow of air broke through the safety pins of the steam core, and amidst the creaking and rattling noise, the spherical shell of the reactor began to fall.

The zeolite catalyst had already detached from the core with the fall of the shell, but the hot “fireball” was still burning in the depths of the reactor, and the horrible heat accompanied by the airflow rushed towards the control platform – the heat wave was enough to instantly vaporize a living person.

But this is just a breeze to the “Saints”.

He met this “breeze” and raised his skeletal limbs, quickly picked up several barrels of nitroglycerine explosives stacked nearby, and without hesitation rushed towards the reaction vessel that was emitting deadly heat and whose internal flames were rising.

The time for martyrdom has arrived, the time for martyrdom has arrived …… Blow up everything here, the cause of the Holy Lord cannot be disturbed by that evil spirit returning from subspace ……

The flames in the reactor vessel are rising, and the out-of-control flames are in a critical state, and a barrel of nitroglycerin is enough to give a push at this critical point, causing the entire ship to explode into pieces.

The Saints raised the explosives high in the air.

Almost at the same time, the flame in the reactor was suddenly colored with a layer of greenish fire.

A horrible face appeared in the reactor, and in the storm of flames that was rapidly spiraling out of control, Duncan’s upper body gradually burrowed out of the stream of flames from the core of the steam, and he leaned down and locked eyes with the skeletal spider that was holding the barrel of nitroglycerine aloft at extremely close range, his voice like a thunderous boom, “You think this is going to work?”

“Go to hell! Spectre!”

The Skeleton Spider let out a roar, then violently hurled the nitroglycerin explosive at the reactor.

A violent explosion occurred – in a flash of lightning, the entire reaction vessel was caught in an out-of-control and terrifyingly large explosion, and Duncan’s flame avatar, which hadn’t yet had time to fully coalesce, flickered for a moment in the explosion, and then the surrounding fiery flames, which hadn’t yet been eroded by the Spirit Flame, were transformed into a shockwave in the explosion, which swept the entire section of the compartment everything caught up in it.

The steam core exploded, and the boiling gold catalyst triggered a chain reaction in the critical pressure, and in a horrible roar and a wave of raging heat, the entire ship began to tear apart with the mechanical compartments at its core.

The blackened skeleton spider stretched out his knuckles in the storm of impact, straining with every bone spine to grab hold of anything nearby, his bone fragments igniting in the heatwave, the surface of his rising, shrinking, writhing brain glowing with a dense shimmering light, his nervous system being gradually burned away, blood boiling through his brain tissue – he was dying, but a strange exuberance was drumming into his mind.

He managed to detonate the steam core, before the spectral captain took full control of the place.

No one on this ship would survive, including himself – but at least the Sanctuary would be saved.

The lower hull of the machinery bay began to tear apart, and the raging waters boiled in flames, quickly pouring back into the hold with a deafening roar.

The “Saints” gathered up the eye stalks, which had already been severely burned, and began to wait quietly for death.

But death did not come.

There was silence all around. After a moment of hesitation and bewilderment, the dying Skeleton Spider once again raised the eye stalks around his brain, and in his vision, blurred and dimmed by the burns, he saw an eerie sight.

All the flames in the mechanical cabin were tinted with a layer of ghostly green in an instant, and the ghostly spirit flames were frozen in mid-air as if time had stood still, and the fragmented cabin was also frozen, including the raging seawater, all of which stayed in place.

And in the middle of this stagnation was the steam core that had just been blown up – its fragments were still floating in mid-air, and the molten steel droplets bloomed like a gorgeous and treacherous flower.

A tall figure descended from the exploding flames of the steam core, and in the midst of the mechanical chamber where everything had stagnated, Duncan stepped out of the fire to the skeletal spider.

He pushed aside the molten metal that hovered around him, ordered the stagnant flames that blocked his view to step aside, and gazed calmly at the Saint.

This “Annihilation Magus”, whose human form was completely unrecognizable, was still alive, and after facing the big explosion of the steam core from a very close distance, this monster was only seriously burned by the horrifyingly high temperatures that were capable of vaporizing steel.

And in the short encounter before, this guy can also quickly judge the situation, and did not hesitate to choose a higher success rate of the “blowing up the ship” program – this kind of judgment of the sensitivity and rapidity is even close to a certain kind of “precognition! This kind of sensitive and quick judgment is even close to some kind of “foreknowledge”.

Very strong, very smart, with extremely bizarre power.

But what was more important to Duncan was something else – the

As the Rabbi said, the Annihilation Magus had “eaten” his symbiotic demon, which eliminated one of his greatest weaknesses as an Annihilationist: he wouldn’t die because his symbiotic demon was dead or out of control.

This makes him a bit more “durable”.

However, it was clear that in order for this Annihilator to be useful, he would need to recuperate from his injuries first – he couldn’t afford the stress of establishing communication with the Holy Lord of the Profound in this weakened state.

As for now, Duncan was more concerned with another matter.

“I’ve heard that the ship has a supply port, which you call the ‘Holy Land’,” he lowered his head and gazed into the many eyes of the skeletal spider, “where is it?”

The frail Skeletal Spider shifted slightly, part of his limb struggling to raise but quickly dropping back down while a hoarse, slurred voice rang out from the depths of the bizarre, disgusting pile of biological tissue, “Give up …… you’ll never find it… …I have destroyed all navigational records and controls, and beyond that, the location of the Holy Land is only in my brain – just a moment ago, I have destroyed that part of my memory, and even if the Four Gods themselves were to arrive, you wouldn’t be able to find that course… …”

However, to the “Saint’s” surprise, the ghost captain in front of him did not show the slightest bit of displeasure because of this answer.

Duncan only shook his head with some regret.

“It’s alright, it won’t take too much extra effort.”

In a vague perception, the Saint suddenly sensed something, and he struggled violently with his skeletal knobby limbs, his badly damaged eye stalks turning one after another toward the figure standing in the flames, “What …… are you going to do?!”

Duncan paid no attention, he simply turned his head to the still flames in the air, the ship’s cabin in pieces in the distance, and the waters surging beyond the fragmented hull.

The ship was torn apart so badly that the sky could even be seen looming between the stagnant flames through the shattered upper decks.

“It’s a great ship, it’s a shame.”

He sighed softly, then turned to the steam core, which had been completely blown to pieces, and reached out to gently touch the stagnant flames in mid-air.

This flame was once the heart of this ship.

Now, it needed to beat again.

Gradually, the green flames rose in waves, and a low, strange roar began to emanate from every inch of the ship, and in the increasingly strong shaking, the ship seemed to be gradually “coming to life” as if it was losing power and falling apart, and struggling to begin to slowly accelerate.

Duncan approached the fire and ordered the revitalized ship –

“Go home.”

The ship reversed course and set off for home.

(End of chapter)