Ashes Of Deep Sea

Chapter 380: Chapter 384 Transformation Chapter 380: Chapter 384 Transformation Anomalous Entity 077, ranked among the top hundred, had once caused the demise of a double-digit number of ships and thousands of sailors in storms, possessing the consciousness and traits of “living creatures.” It was a dangerous anomaly that any City-State’s church would cautiously contend with—and in front of Lawrence, it chose to close its eyes, feign death, and refuse to exert its own power.

Lawrence had envisioned countless possibilities after activating Anomaly 077 and had thought of several plans to reseal “the Sailor,” but he hadn’t expected this situation!

The old captain raised his head, locking eyes with his first mate, both sensing that the situation with the dried-up corpse in front of them didn’t seem quite the same as the records suggested. They were simultaneously pondering where the problem lay—but soon, the roaring columns of water nearby and the sound of the White Oak’s self-defense cannons firing interrupted their astonishment.

Now was not the time to be stunned: the “Sea Swallow” was closing in fast!

Outmatched in combat and unable to escape, the “Sailor” with its ship-transporting ability was White Oak’s only hope of escaping this predicament.

Lawrence lowered his head, staring intensely at the corpse-like figure that continued to feign death with eyes tightly shut—he had to figure out some way to make it cooperate amidst this loss of control!

“Wake up!” Lawrence reached out, grabbed the collar of Anomaly 077, and shook it vigorously—it was certainly repellent to have such close contact with what seemed like a corpse, but he couldn’t afford to think about that now, “I know you’ve broken free from your seal, listen, you are at the helm of this ship now—’Sailor’, don’t you have the instinct to control ships? Don’t you have an active tendency to lose control? Get to it! Take over this ship and get us out of here!”

The corpse on the ground creaked at the joints from being shaken, yet its eyes remained shut. However, the noticeable rise and fall of its chest could not escape anyone’s gaze, and at the same time, the continual sound of explosions around the White Oak heightened Lawrence’s irritation. He finally couldn’t resist and slapped the dried-up corpse: “I know you’re awake!”

The corpse on the ground finally could not feign death any longer; amidst the shaking, it opened its eyes. However, its first reaction was to dodge to the side, trying to avoid Lawrence’s gaze while yelling, “Stop it! Stop it! I’ll go back to sleep, can’t I just go back to sleep?! You can’t make jokes like this! You can’t touch this ship, don’t touch it!”

Lawrence couldn’t care less about its protests. Seeing the corpse open its eyes, he immediately pulled it up and, dragging and hauling, moved it toward the helm. A few of the sailors by his side also snapped to their senses, the braver ones coming forward to help, and they nearly forced the Sailor’s withered body onto the steering console, with the first mate shouting beside them, “Press it against the wheel! That’s the fastest way for its ability to take effect!”

Yet Anomaly 077 kept screaming pitifully, struggling incredibly hard, “Let me go! Please, let me go!

“You can’t do this! Help, help!

“What kind of people are you… please, please have mercy!”

“Just touch the wheel!” Lawrence shouted while pushing the dried corpse against the ship’s helm with all his might, “It’ll be over soon!”

“I won’t! Help me!” Anomaly 077’s resistance was formidable, so much so that several robust White Oak sailors could barely hold down its arms. It struggled wildly while trying to turn its head toward where it had been lying, “Let me go back! Please have mercy—just loop that rope around my neck, just one loop, and I’ll definitely go back to sleep, I won’t get up again! Or give me the rope, I’ll hang myself… Don’t make me touch this!”

The bridge was in chaos; the scene was bizarre to the extreme—the notorious Anomaly 077 among the captains and sailors of the Endless Sea pleaded like a victim tied aboard a ship, while it was the desperate White Oak sailors who ruthlessly pressed the “anomaly’s” arms toward the ship’s helm. A spectacle not even the completely mad lunatics in a mental institution could conjure up in their wildest illusions was unfolding in reality aboard the White Oak.

However, Lawrence had no time to reflect on just how strange the current events were. He knew that the Sea Swallow was getting closer, its cannons increasing in accuracy rapidly, and the White Oak had been hit several times on its flank, with a major fire erupting at its stern. If the next cannonball hit the engine room or the ammunition depot, or even struck the bridge, it would be the end!

Just as he thought this, a harsh whistling sound suddenly entered his ears, and as he listened to the direction of the whistling’s descent, a blank flashed through Lawrence’s mind.

Trouble.

The next second, a thunderous explosion swept the upper deck; a huge fireball rose and burst close to the bridge, the Sea Swallow’s shot had hit the side of the White Oak’s bridge—a fatal blow.

The blast wave arrived suddenly, metal and glass were ripped apart by the force of the shell, the flying wall fragments turned to lethal shrapnel, and a blinding light flared in Lawrence’s vision. Then, he saw his first mate fly up, his body instantly devoured by the incoming wave of fire, followed by the other sailors on the bridge, and then himself.

The flames consumed everything. Lawrence saw the fireball expand, engulfing the entire bridge, he watched his own body slowly burn away in the flames; time seemed to slow as he clearly witnessed everything happening. He even saw the flames inch by inch spread in the air and bit by bit become tinged with an eerie green—eerie green?

A bemusement struck Lawrence’s mind; he barely had time to realize what had happened before the crimson fireball that surged into the bridge instantly turned into an emerald inferno of Spectral Flames. The Sea of Spectral Flames licked everything in sight, metal, wood, glass, leather…

Everything burned by the flames seemed as though transformed into a Spiritual Body, taking on a translucent form, and the sailors swallowed by the fireball one by one fell to the ground, wrapped in Spectral Flames. Their flesh and bones became as clear as crystal jade, then they got up as if nothing had happened, looking at each other in utter astonishment.

This scene… was exactly like the first encounter with Homeloss.

It was as if the terrifying spectacle that had taken place on the White Oak had reprised.

A sensation of steadiness on his feet came over him, and Lawrence snapped out of his daze to find that he was already standing at the helm, his body enshrouded in the raging Spectral Flame – instinctively, he reached forward and grabbed the wheel.

In an instant, he felt –
He felt everything about the White Oak, from every screw to every window to every rope, as if they were parts of his own body, clearly reflected in his mind.

He had lived with this ship for so many years, and never before had he felt such an intimate connection with it as he did today.

And along with this sensation flooding into his mind came a particularly intense thought, as if a voice filled with endless authority was proclaiming his fate –
Now, you are a member of the Exiled Fleet. Serve Captain Duncan loyally.

Lawrence held the wheel in a daze, feeling the White Oak cleverly turning in his thoughts and slowly aligning its bow with the “enemy ship” that was rapidly approaching in the distance.

Anomaly 077 was still there, curled up almost into a ball beside the helm, shivering as he watched the Spectral Flames rise around him and wailing incessantly, “I said I wouldn’t touch it, but you made me, how could I dare to touch it? Mutiny by a sailor means being tied to a cannonball and thrown into the sea! I understand the rules onboard! I am a sailor!”

Lawrence slowly looked down at the “sailor”, still deeply perplexed, not understanding what was happening, but his gaze made Anomaly 077 fall instantly silent.

The mummified sailor closed his mouth and carefully stood up, glancing around – the bridge that had been torn by artillery fire was rapidly being restored in the burn of the Spectral Flame, all the crewmembers standing at their posts, now looking like ghosts, yet instinct and the remnants of rationality still drove them to return to their posts immediately, waiting for the captain’s next order.

“Captain…” Anomaly 077 turned his head, looking into Lawrence’s eyes, “What do you plan to do next…”

Lawrence felt bewildered again, then as if he sensed something, he slowly lowered his head.

“The Exiled Fleet has been attacked… Return fire.”

“Return fire!” Anomaly 077 immediately shouted out loud, “Return fire!”

“Return fire!” The voice of the first mate, Gus, also rang out from the side, his body emanating fierce flames, his voice crackling with the pop and burst of fire, “The captain orders, return fire!”

“Return fire!”

On the bridge, the crewmembers bellowed a chorus, and in every corner of the White Oak, every crewmember transformed into a ghost “heard” the command from the captain, and the ship, transformed in the flames, immediately sprang into action – its steam core roared, all its guns began to turn, and amidst a resounding roar mixed with hissing, the steam whistle sounded across the sea!

The ship beneath them began to accelerate towards the Sea Swallow, and almost at the same time, Lawrence saw another shadow beside the White Oak – it was another ship, a vessel with almost only a dark silhouette, shrouded in thick fog and smoke.

Its outline was vaguely similar to the White Oak’s, clearly a sister ship of the same type.

The shadowy ship, along with the White Oak, accelerated side by side, launching an attack toward the Sea Swallow.

Through the ever-rising Spectral Flame, Lawrence stared in astonishment at the phantom-like warship that had suddenly appeared on the adjacent waters. It was not until much later that he seemed to murmur its name in a dreamscape –
“Black Oak… Martha?”