Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 323 Dark Sea Area

In that terrifying darkness, Shard, whose consciousness was fuzzy, faintly heard a singing voice that accompanied the waves.

And when he awoke once more, everything around him seemed to be shaking. The rain falling from the sky pattered against his back, and the bone-chilling wind made him shiver uncontrollably.

"Oh~"

The headache hadn't subsided, and the simple act of opening his eyes made him feel a throbbing pain at his temples.

He sat up, turning over, and took off his mask to breathe deeply. Looking around, he found himself on the filthy deck of a dilapidated old ship, surrounded by utter disrepair.

He looked up and saw a terrifying, soul-sucking black vortex hanging upside down in the sky above him. The primal fear of that instant almost made Shard scream.

Glancing around, there was no doubt this was still the ocean. The ship was adrift on the tumultuous sea, with thunderous oceans on all sides. The profound darkness seemed to swallow everything from afar, and the sound of the enormous waves made one's heart tremble uncontrollably. Due to the absence of light, the sea appeared to be a thick black, and underneath this black sea, it seemed that something even more massive and terrifying lurked. Shard glanced at it only once before quickly averting his eyes.

If it had been someone with less courage, they probably would have fainted upon seeing their surroundings. Even an Outlander who had seen much in this world couldn't completely control the panic. It was the most primitive fear humans have of the deep sea and darkness, not to mention whisper elements in the space were constantly trying to erode the soul.

"Are you still there?"

[I have always been with you.]

The familiar voice arose, and Shard immediately felt much more at ease. It was just that on the dim and old deck, he couldn't see Miss Princess or anyone else.

"But how could I have encountered such a thing just after leaving the house?"

[Simply put, the power on this ship and the curse on that girl with naturally red hair that has been dyed golden are very similar.]

"This ship was attracted here by the Mermaid's Song curse on Miss Princess?"

Thinking this, Shard frowned in the rain, looking around. The rocking derelict ship seemed lost in a dark and terrible sea, with Shard as the only living person onboard.

[No, she's not that important. It's only because the curse resonated with a kindred pirate ship that she felt it.]

"So, the Mermaid Statue and this pirate ship are really different steps of the same ritual, and we just happened to run into this ship... How could such a coincidence happen..."

Shard struggled to maintain his balance, recalling the last words of Miss Princess as he looked past the rain curtain toward the entrance of the ship's cabin.

He checked the items he was carrying to make sure he hadn't lost anything, and then nearly fell again due to the severe shaking of the deck.

"Speaking of which, since there's no source of light around, how can I see the deck clearly?"@@@@

The "Moonlight" in his hand slashed forward, bisecting the ash-formed undead, shooting straight along the cabin toward a distant place. With this flash of light, Shard saw that aside from the area near the exit, the whole cabin's corridor seemed covered in black blood.

Human skeletons and remnants were scattered everywhere, and the doors leading to the surrounding cabins were blocked by old, damaged furniture and skeletons. The sight before him seemed to indicate that a horrifying massacre had occurred within the cabin in the distant past.

The feeling of headache intensified—he was being mentally affected by the ship itself, a characteristic of a High-Risk Relic.

Shard wanted to continue moving forward, to search for more clues inside the ship. However, at that moment, a slight sound came from beside him, prompting him to immediately look to the left. By the faint glimmer of his fingers, he could vaguely make out a picture frame behind the thick layer of fungal carpet, the source of the noise.

He frowned, carefully peeling away the disgusting fungal layer with the fountain pen he carried, revealing the frame itself which contained dozens of black-and-white photos of varying sizes.

"So the Fifth Era also experienced the emergence of photography..."

The photos in the frame were severely faded, and one could only vaguely make out scenes of life aboard the ship. But the central portrait photo of a man with an eye patch, short hair, and a prominent nose seemed unaffected by time, as he stared back at Shard from the picture.

The peaceful countenance frozen in time slowly began to change as Shard watched, the partially faded face's lips curving bit by bit until they stretched into an angle impossible for a normal person to achieve. At the same moment, the previously still eyes started to move, regaining the lifelike expression of a sentient being. Those eyes truly fixed on Shard:

"Intruder!"

In the chilling roar, the face swirled with a dense black fog, transforming into a sinister skeleton that burst forth from the photograph.

"Silvermoon."

Intense light burst from between his fingers for an instant, the brightness shaking the ship itself. When the light extinguished the next second, Shard's fist shattered the glass of the picture frame. Ignoring the punctured palm of his hand, he grabbed the haunted old photograph and pulled it out.

As he retracted his hand, the old photo flew out of his grip. It slid upward against the wall, sticking to the yellow-green mold as if trying to find a seam to escape through. But as the photo reached the height of Shard's chest, the glowing Holy Silver sword tip thrust forward, penetrating the fragile photo and pinning it to the wall.

The Moonlight Greatsword illuminated the wall, and the green fungus carpet retreated rapidly from the area lit by the blade. At the point of contact between the sword and the photo, thick black smoke billowed as if on fire. Piercing shrieks came from within the photo, the distorted and deformed sound aggravating Shard's headache, but he paid it no heed.

"I surrender!"

A voice finally emerged from inside the photo, using the modern language, just like the earlier "intruder."

Shard waited a few seconds before grasping the photo with his left hand and pulling out the greatsword with his right. A hole that looked burned through now marred the center of the photo, and the eye-patched man squeezed to one side of the photo, raising his hands high as if to fully appear in the frame.

"If you try to run, you won't get another chance," Shard said, squeezing the photo in his left hand. Worried that the man in the photo might not understand his words, he was relieved to hear:

"How is that possible? How can you still maintain a clear consciousness here?"

The voice was hoarse and strange while the image in the photo flickered continuously, mostly appearing as the man, but for a few moments, it clearly pictured a creature with the mixed features of a fish and human face.