Chapter 409 – Rumble in the Sea Mist

Chapter 409 – Rumble in the Sea Mist
Low majestic whistle echoed on the sea, the sacred steam from the ship’s core cabin gushed out, vibrating the Sea Mist’s towering chimneys and its internal intricacies of each pipeline, and in this like a war horn whistle whistling, all the sailors acted.

Elevators creaked to life, sending firing charge packages and heavy shells into the combat magazines below the gun decks, steam pipes roared endlessly, sending holy gases into every critical mechanism and blessed area, and sailors traversed decks and corridors, each taking up his own combat position.

As the siren sounded for the second time, the chapel at the stern of the Sea Mist tolled its brass bells, symbolizing the blessing of the Storm Goddess, and bringing the gifts of Gemona to this horrible ship, which the world had deemed a “curse”.

In the other main battleships of the Sea Mist Fleet, similar bells and whistles also sounded – the bells of the onboard churches echoed in the fog, vaguely as if producing a mysterious resonance, and the bells that sounded in unison even began to interfere with reality, causing the fog on the surface of the sea to show signs of diminishing and dissipating a little bit.

At the same time, along with the action of the sea mist fleet, the Frost Navy that was patrolling the nearby patrol area also responded – flags were raised, lights were flashing, and the sound of whistles and the bells of the ship’s churches reverberated in the fog as if they were mirrored!

In this moment, the half-century of entanglement and enmity between the two fleets finally gave way to the vision that had descended upon all of them, and under the blockade of the eerie and dangerous fog, the navy built by the living and the fleet dominated by the undead had become the only forces that could still rely on each other.

No one knew when and in what form the enemy would appear, but everyone knew that every unfamiliar ship that appeared on this sea next was an enemy.

Even every “friendly ship” that refused to respond to communications was an enemy.

The enemy was the sea itself.

Everyone’s nerves were tense, waiting for a change in the fog, waiting for new news from Frost Island, or any other information and instructions that might exist, and this depressing wait lasted for an unknown period of time, when Tirian, who was in command of the Sea Mist, suddenly had a strange feeling.

It was as if he felt a gaze, which did not come from any precise direction – it was as if a gaze spanning time rather than space, cast from the distant past, was falling on him silently.

He raised his head in shock and subconsciously looked around the bridge of the Sea Mist.

First Mate Aiden was communicating with the chief sailor, the communications officer was communicating with the Frost Navy about the coordinates of their respective ships, and the aging black-robed priest had already rushed over from the chapel, and was praying with his eyes closed next to the chief gunnery officer’s seat at this time – with the thick fog obscuring the view of the sea, the priest’s spiritual guidance would be the warship’s greatest asset in engaging the enemy in the fog! The priest’s spiritual guidance would be the greatest defense of the ship against the enemy in the fog.

And a little farther away, a figure was standing silently by the porthole.

In a trance, Tirian recalled a scene from half a century ago – in that already yellowed memory, Her Majesty herself had boarded this battleship, when the Sea Mist had not yet experienced these fifty years of growth, and it was still another, more ancient, more vicissitudinous form, and the Queen stood in that very spot, gazing longingly at the distant surface of the sea.

From that position she gave the order for the Sea Mist fleet to stay away from Frost in three days.

Now, that figure slowly turned her head and gave another order.

“Tirian, defend Frost.”

After half a century, the second order finally arrived.

Tirion awoke with a start, his heart pounding, his eyes burning as if he had been staring directly into something close to the knowledge of “truth”, the noise in his head roaring and shaking, and before he could think about whether what he had just seen was a vision or something else, the sound of the alarm bells suddenly rang across the bridge, interrupting all of his thoughts. All of his thoughts were interrupted.

In the midst of the ringing, out of the corner of his eye, he could already see the scene on the sea in the distance – in the mist, the shadow of a huge ship was emerging from the fog, as if the sea itself was rumbling upwards, shaping a ghost of the past.

The “ghost” of the masts towering, old-fashioned chimney structure as the sea beasts on the back of the coral growth, it is slowly adjusting the direction of the flank of the sea fog fleet.

It was so close that it did not even need the spiritual guidance of a priest.

“Visual units appearing! Silhouette recognition, third party ships!” The spotter shouted.

“Fire,” Tirian stepped back to his captain’s chair, his voice as menacing and cold as an iceberg, “Everything that appears on this sea, except for ships already on the recognition list, is enemy.”

In a flash, the artillery hissed and thunder exploded!
On the Sea Mist, the three main turrets that were at the best firing angle launched their blasts successively, and the heavy armor-breaking shells that had long been waiting to be fired flew out of the guns in the thunder, transforming into a fiery meteor falling from the sky in the thick fog, and smashing fiercely into the shadow of the ship that had appeared in the fog in the distance!
Almost at the same time when the Sea Mist launched its attack, the fog also heard a succession of artillery roars – that sounded like distant thunder, in a series of flashes of fire, a line of fire cut through the fog, towards the sea where the Sea Mist ship was falling sharply.

Tirian sat quietly in the captain’s chair, squinting slightly as he listened to the distant roar and calculated the flight of the shells. It was the old 356-millimeter main guns, four triple …… Which old friend is it?
The Duke of Lune, which had escorted the Queen? Or the Knight, which sank in a stormy battle against the children of the deep? Or the …… Warrior?

Whistling like the mournful cry of the banshee, the thunder falling from the sky shattered the remaining calmness of the sea, and the huge explosion stirred up water columns dozens of stories high, and even the fog lingering on the sea surface was torn to shreds in the shockwave, and transformed into countless pale turbulence.

None of the shells that flew from the opposite side of the fog landed near the Sea Mist, and the same was true of the Sea Mist’s first salvo.

“It’s the ‘Knight’, watch out for its side rapid-fire cannons,” Tirian opened his eyes, his voice was not loud, but it clearly reached every soldier’s ears, “This distance is enough for the rapid-fire cannons to be effective –Steam core pressurized, pull back.”

“Aye! Steam core pressurized! Pull away!”

The “heart” of the Sea Mist’s depths let out a low hiss, and the entire ship began to accelerate and slowly turn, while on the surface of the sea nearby, large swaths of ice floes began to rapidly emerge, spreading in all directions like some kind of living creature, building a battlefield that was favorable to the Sea Mist.

Just as the ship began to maneuver, Tirian suddenly noticed out of the corner of his eye that another fire was lit up outside the porthole on the other side, accompanied by a distant shadow.

Immediately, First Mate Aiden shouted, “Second ship sighted, radio not responding, not on the identification list!”

Before Aiden could say anything, another low rumble came from the distance.

“Third ship! Not on the recognition list!”

“Comms from the Sea Raven, they have engaged the plural enemy!”

“Communication from the Frost Navy, fighting has broken out offshore of the city-state!”

“Prioritize the first and second main cannons to deal with the Knight, the third main cannons and long range secondary cannons to deal with the other enemies that appear within range,” Tirion’s voice didn’t change in the slightest because of the enemies appearing one after another on the surface of the sea, he just remained calmly staring at the ship’s shadow in the depths of the thick fog that was still firing its cannons and approaching this way through the ice floes, “Don’t worry about the enemies that are still here,” he said, “There’s no need to care about them. The silhouette of the ship, “There is no need to care about how many more enemies there are – all the strange things that appear on the sea are enemies, and this is just the beginning.”

First mate Aiden also spoke loudly, “Listen to the captain, hit whatever appears on the sea, even if these old guys come to life, they are no match for the Sea Mist Fleet, keep firing!”

Accompanied by the order from the bridge, all of the Sea Mist’s main and secondary cannons began a round of unison fire, the scorching fire lit up this obscure and chaotic fog again and again.

And amidst the roar of the cannons, more unrecognized ships began to appear on this vast sea surface!

As Tirian had said – this was only the beginning.

The Mirror Frost was coming up, the borders of reality were blurring in the fog, and what had once sunk in this sea was entering reality on a massive scale in the form of replicas!
And all that appeared next on this great sea was the enemy!
“Make a big mess!” Aiden’s loud, raucous voice raved from the bridge, an almost grimace on the bald, burly man’s face, obviously he hadn’t had such a hearty fight in a long time, “Let’s take out all the evil fire of these fifty years, boys, and open the eyes of those sissies in the Navy! Let them see what the Sea Mist Fleet is ……”

Suddenly, the first mate’s raucous voice came to a screeching halt, and as if he had been strangled by an invisible hand, he snapped his eyes wide open and stared dead in a certain direction-and in the next instant, Tirian knew why he had reacted that way.

Another ship’s silhouette appeared out of nowhere in the nearby fog, and then charged straight across the battlefield at almost breakneck speed, unlike any of the enemies that had appeared so far, unlike any of the famous ships that Tirion had ever known– it was a solid black mist.

It was a solid black mist, a tangible shadow, a haze of nothingness in the shape of a ship! It broke through the fog like some kind of weird, reverse reflection in a mirror, and came whistling straight at them, but more than the weird form of the “Shadow Ship”, what instantly silenced the crew of the Sea Mist was the “Shadow” of the ship’s reflection in the sea! The “Shadow” was more than the strange form of the “Shadow Ship”.

That is another ship, a haunting green fire, in the eyes of the Sea Mist fleet is even more bizarre than the phantom of the “ghost ship”!
This “twin ships” that used the sea surface as a mirror suddenly came out, whistling and rushing across the sea, one with rolling black smoke on the surface, and the other with ghostly green fire under the sea surface, it almost grazed the side of the Sea Mist ship and sped past, and in the blink of an eye, it had already arrived at the other end of the battlefield.

Tirian swore to his father that he had never seen a large ship with such a ridiculous speed in his life!

(End of chapter)