Chapter 66: The Guillotine

Chapter 66 The Guillotine

The captain’s cabin of the White Oak was temporarily set up as a sanctuary.

The smell of incense wafted through the room, talismans depicting storm runes were hung on all the doors and windows, the priests set bronze boundary markers at the corners of the room and tied cloths soaked in holy oil to the tops of the markers, and finally, a copy of the “Storm Canon” from the cathedral was brought into the room to serve as the “pillar” of the entire sanctuary.

Only after all this was done did Captain Lawrence enter the captain’s cabin with Inquisitor Vanna.

“I hope you won’t mind the ‘modifications’ we’ve made to this place,” Vanna said lightly, maintaining the reserve and proper politeness expected of a high-ranking acolyte, “all for the sake of safety.”

“Of course, all for safety – that’s what I’m missing right now,” Captain Lawrence nodded with immediate and great understanding, looking around the room at the sacred things and breathing a small sigh of relief, “With these things in, the unusual twisted and polluted things are afraid to come in and take a look at them and die ……”

“You can feel free to talk to me about the Lost Country here,” Vanna nodded, “Let’s start at the very beginning, where and in what way did you see the ship?”

Captain Lawrence settled down and began to relate the most horrific day he could remember, “It was like this ……”

Captain Lawrence went into great detail, and in front of the professional inquisitor, he even told exactly what he had eaten for breakfast that day, and what time the sailors on the ship had started their meals – those who really couldn’t remember, went through the captain’s logs and the sailors’ journals from that day.

Experienced captains know this: many anomalies before the occurrence of the phenomenon, there are often seemingly unusual signs appear, it may be difficult for people at the time to realize the connection between these things, but after the review of the professional can be summed up from those daily traces of experience, and as a warning to future generations.

Every captain on the Boundless Sea kept a logbook – and reading one’s own logbook was the only safe way to “read” on the Boundless Sea, apart from the Church classics.

Vanna’s handsome brow furrowed a little as she listened to the shocking encounter.

The situation was more serious than expected, more bizarre than imagined.

She had thought that Captain Lawrence’s so-called “encounter” had been a mere glance, or at most a brush with the phantom ship, so that the dreadful captain had merely taken the ship’s cargo without harming anyone – but she hadn’t realized that it had been a head-on collision. It was a head-on collision.

The entire White Oak had crashed into the Lost Country’s hold, and the ship had been swept from top to bottom by the green phantom flames.

According to Captain Lawrence, the White Oak had even begun to shift toward the Lost Country from top to bottom at that time! He could even clearly see his own body turning into a spiritual state!
The ship’s holy emblem markers were off, the ballast relics didn’t respond, the protective materials added to the ship’s hull materials were useless, the chaplain was only able to defend himself, and the entire ship was in the depths of the spirit world, unable to call for help from the outside world – it could be said that at that time, the White Oak had already been a prey for that captain, and there wasn’t any such thing as a There was no possibility of a “lucky escape”.

Captain Lawrence can still stand here today, because the Lost Country ship did not hesitate to give up this trophy.

“Your Honor,” after finally finishing his own experience, Captain Lawrence finally couldn’t help but say when he saw that Vanna didn’t respond for a long time, “What did you say the Lost Country ship was trying to do at that time? Was it really just trying to take away Anomaly 099?”

Vanna glanced at him, “Isn’t that what you’ve always thought?”

“I …… have always thought so, but I’m not sure now,” Lawrence sighed, “Especially since you just said that that Ghost Captain had recently extended his power to the city-state of Prande …… I just always thought it couldn’t be that simple.”

“No one can guess what that Ghost Captain is thinking,” Vanna shook her head, “Right now all we can do is make the most thorough inspection of the White Oak to prevent the ship from carrying any ‘intruders’. You and your crew are also going to have to suffer some aggravation these days, and until the investigation is complete, you are not to have contact with anyone other than the Church’s clergy …… including family visits.”

Captain Lawrence lowered his head, “I can understand that.”

He then paused for a moment and then asked, “Then …… about the theft of Anomaly 099 ……” Vanna knew what this captain was worried about.

The strange and terrifying maritime anomalies were a threat hanging over civilization’s head, but before considering these long and vast threats, this captain was first and foremost an ordinary man who needed to provide for his family – he had lost Anomaly 099, and the responsibility was too much to place on the head of an ordinary man.

“Don’t worry, this matter will be explained by the Church to the city-state authorities as well as the Explorer’s Association,” she said in a quiet voice, “The appearance of the Lost Country is a force majeure, and the loss of Abnormality 099 is not your responsibility- Even if it was a church ship that was responsible for the escort at the time, I’m afraid the outcome would have been the same.”

The expression on Captain Lawrence’s face visibly relaxed a little.

However, Vanna still had one more thing to say in her heart: in the end, this kind of “abnormality” itself was always on the verge of being sealed and out of control, every year there were new abnormalities that went out of control, and there were always residents of the city and state who lost their lives under the influence of strange and bizarre things, and the church had been fighting against these out-of-control abnormalities for thousands of years, in the face of this long-lasting and huge dynamic balance, a single abnormality would not be responsible for the loss of 099, even if it was responsible for escorting a church ship. In the face of this long and vast dynamic equilibrium, the loss of an anomaly is not really inconceivable – even if that anomaly is numbered within a hundred digits.

But she, the Judge, could not say such words.

“In addition ……” Just then, Captain Lawrence suddenly broke the silence again hesitantly, “I would like to inquire, what kind of special features does anomaly 099 have?”

Speaking of this, he paused and quickly added, “Of course, I was given a piece of information when I undertook the escort mission, but it mainly involved the sealing method of Abnormality 099 and the emergency disposal method after the initial loss of control, and did not involve the background of this Abnormality’s origins and the situation after the complete loss of control… …You know, that is after all an anomaly within the hundredth percentile, and the more ordinary people around it know about it, the more likely it is to go out of control, and that’s a rule I still understand.

“But now that Anomaly 099 has been taken captive by the Lost Country, it should count as completely out of control by the rules, so ……”

“It’s fine to tell you,” Vanna nodded without waiting for Captain Lawrence to finish, “Anomaly 099 is already out of the control of civilized society, and in itself, according to the rules, its relevant information will be released to the Adventurer’s Association as well as the Transcendentals’ teams in the various city-states with a view to capturing it and resealing it at a later date, and you’re the a member of the Adventurer’s Association and the last contact of Anomaly 099, you should be aware of this information.”

Speaking of this she stopped and pondered for a moment before slowly saying while organizing the information she knew: “Anomaly 099, the Doll Hearse, has the appearance of a gorgeous wooden box like a hearse, inside of which there is a doll in a sleeping state, the doll has silver hair and a purple dress, and its size is similar to that of an ordinary human;
“The anomaly was originally discovered in the Cold Cold Sea to the north, and the human figure within it is extremely close in appearance to Rae Nora, the Frost Queen who was executed by rebel beheading half a century ago, but there is no evidence of any tangible connection between the two;
“The anomaly does not possess a tendency to think and has no sanity, but is most likely driven by instinct to actively perceive the outside world and exert influence on it;
“The method of sealing Anomaly 099 should be clear to you, so I won’t repeat it, as for its dangers ……

“First of all, the Doll Hearse will have a tendency to ‘settle’, once it stays in a certain area for a long period of time, it will regard that area as its own territory, after which it will be difficult to relocate it, while it will gradually expand its influence in the place where it settles, at the same time, the strength of its seal will drastically diminish, and become more and more prone to Out of control – this is a common trait of a significant number of anomalies, so anomaly 099 needs to shift its sealing location frequently to prevent it from overgrowing.

“Secondly, in the event that the Mannequin Hearse goes out of control, all humanoid units within a certain range around it, including humans, elves, Sanguinians, and Giplos, will be targeted for checking. This range can be as little as a hundred meters, or as much as nearly a thousand meters, and will grow as the Anomaly 099 ‘settles’ over time. The exact criteria are unclear, except that selected targets will immediately lose their freedom of movement as if they were being manipulated by puppet strings, and unconsciously kneel and bow their heads in the direction of the casket, just as the citizens of the city-state worship the queen, and once this action is completed …… the victim will be beheaded instantly.

“The decapitation is unavoidable, unprotectable, unimmunable, and it is pointless to apply any blessings or wear armor on the victim, the only condition for it to take effect is to be ‘chosen by the mannequin’, and the victim will turn into the state of being decapitated directly after the action is completed, and after the decapitation is completed, the mannequin will be temporarily After the decapitation is complete, the figure will be temporarily silent for four to six hours, and then begin searching for its next target until no one within range survives, or the casket is resealed.

“When out of control, the mannequin casket is mobile, fast, powerful, and can break free from capture in a variety of unimaginable ways, which, coupled with the casket’s extreme strength, makes it even more hazardous when out of control.

“In the several incidents of the Doll Hearse’s loss of control, only one saint survived, but that saint happened to have the bloodline of the Northern Frost City State, so it is impossible to determine whether it was the saint’s power that resisted the curse or whether it was because his bloodline happened to fulfill the conditions of the Doll Hearse’s ‘pardon’. ”

Listening to this calm and bland narration from the young Inquisitor, Captain Lawrence felt his sweat hairs stand up a little.

His first thought was: the money of the city-state authorities is really not easy to earn!
No wonder the reward for transporting Abnormal 099 was almost five times as much as transporting an ordinary Abnormal – this kind of lethal damage that completely ignored protection, ignored dodging, and would be unleashed with the condition of “the doll is on to you”, when placed on an ocean-going ship that had no way of escaping, was simply On an ocean-going ship with no way to escape, it was a horrible thing that would doom the entire crew to death if it got out of control!
Only a group of captains from the Explorer’s Association who specialize in “extreme survival” would take on this kind of job.

At the same time, he heard Inquisitor Vanna’s voice continue to come: “…… For such a bizarre and terrifying ability of the Doll Hearse, the Church specifically gave its ability a name when it archived Abnormality 099, which was named after the torture instrument that was used by the rebel army to execute the Queen of the Frost half a century ago: the Frost Hearse. The torture instrument was named:

“The Alice Guillotine.”

(End of chapter)