On the deck of the Vanishing, Vanna hurried to Duncan. "The Tidecaller sends word that a large number of 'humanoid objects' are drifting towards them as well, impacting the ship's hull. After the impacts, the 'humanoid objects' hover and drift near them, as if drawn by an invisible current..."

"Commander Orlando of the Ship of Eternal Rest also sends word," Agatha's figure emerged from the shadows beside Duncan. "Their ship is surrounded by floating humanoid objects... And something is gathering underwater, striking the ship's bottom hull. The impacts can be heard almost throughout the entire ship..."

She paused, as if hearing a distant sound, and then added, "Commander Poliakova of the Ship of Eternal Rest said that she heard whispers near the engine room, possibly from underwater—a voice that spoke in her mind:

"'You will become them, just like us.'"

Listening to the intelligence from the other main ships of the allied fleet, Duncan frowned slightly. He paid particular attention to the message from the Ship of Eternal Rest: "Mental contamination?"

"Not yet certain. Bishop Poliakova is undergoing mind calibration in the chapel. As it stands, she may have truly heard some kind of 'echo' lingering in these waters."

"Are there any reports of ship damage?" Duncan pondered briefly, then asked.

"Not currently," Vanna shook her head and said, "All the impacts are just the result of those 'humanoid objects' drifting into the ships, posing no physical threat to the ironclads... However, some ships have reported that their steam engines and difference engines are making abnormal noises, seemingly due to mild contamination. But overall, the level of contamination is still low, and they have all recovered after performing calming rituals."

Duncan nodded seriously, not speaking for a moment, just looking at the distant sea.

Those black humanoid shapes, like driftwood in the sea, were still drifting from the misty "six-nautical-mile boundary line," entering the allied fleet's range like countless drowned corpses. Seemingly lifeless, they were driven by an invisible force, drifting towards every ship here, continuously impacting the hulls and knocking on the bottoms.

These unsettling sounds were creating mental stress on every ship.

But for the church elites who had undergone rigorous training, this level of mental stress should not be a problem—so Duncan wasn't too worried.

After a brief moment of thought, he ordered the entire fleet to move slowly forward again.

"We are very close to the six-nautical-mile boundary," Lucrezia couldn't help but remind her father. "Are we still going forward? In the border waters, conventional navigation methods are not so precise. We need to leave some safety margin... Otherwise, we might accidentally cross the line."

"We won't 'cross the line'," Duncan glanced at Lucrezia, while focusing some of his attention on sensing the entire ship. "Don't worry, Lucy. I have the most accurate 'sea chart' in the world. It can mark the Vanishing's position and sailing distance on the boundless sea in real-time. If I still can't see the 'holy land' at the six-nautical-mile mark, I'll stop."

Lucrezia opened her mouth, seeming to want to say something, but after noticing Duncan's confident and gentle smile, she swallowed the words she wanted to say.

Duncan then focused some of his "gaze" on the captain's cabin.

He could clearly "see" that the "sea chart" on the table in the captain's cabin was "running" as usual, and slowly changing as the Vanishing sailed.

The mist on the sea chart was slowly dissipating, and the Vanishing's sailing trajectory was clearly reflected on the edge of the sea chart—the ship was sailing very slowly, and what was presented on the sea chart was a tiny displacement that was difficult to detect with the naked eye, but for Duncan, who could precisely control the state of the entire ship, even the changes on the sea chart that were imperceptible to the naked eye could not escape his perception.

And on the sea around the Vanishing, more and more humanoid objects were constantly drifting from the distance, and their number seemed to be even greater.

Suddenly, Duncan noticed something seemed to appear on the edge of the sea chart.

In the mist, an unrecorded "navigation mark" appeared on the parchment scroll.

The moment he sensed the change on the sea chart, he raised his head and looked in the direction the Vanishing's bow was pointing.

In the depths of the mist, a vague silhouette of land was gradually emerging.

Right on the six-nautical-mile boundary line!

"It's land!" Nina ran to the high platform at the stern of the ship, her eyes wide as she looked at the shadow that was constantly becoming clearer in the mist, and shouted happily, "Land has appeared!"

Yes, land had appeared, and the land that appeared in this direction was undoubtedly the allied fleet's target—the nest that the Annihilation cultists called the "holy land."

Soon, the church warships following behind the Vanishing also observed the outline of the land. After realizing that the "holy land" was located on the six-nautical-mile critical point, everyone instantly tensed up.

On the stern of every church warship, large swaths of white steam were released above the shipboard chapels. Holy oil was injected into the sacred fire basins, and the sailors ran to the gun positions while silently reciting the names of their respective gods. The priests in robes came to the deck, began to sprinkle holy water on the cannons, lit incense, and blessed the shells with prayers.

At the same time, black humanoid objects were still constantly drifting from the sea in the direction of the "holy land." Floating objects still occasionally collided with the ships. The unsettling "thump, thump" sound never stopped, knocking on the bottom of every ship, as if knocking on everyone's hearts.

Accompanied by a flurry of colorful paper scraps, Lucrezia came to the lookout on the top of the mast. She observed the "island" that appeared in the distance through the extremely poor visibility of the fog, and after a while, she returned to the deck and returned to Duncan's side.

"Some lights can be seen on the island, but there are no signs of activity—a deathly atmosphere surrounds this area. I feel like something is wrong."

Listening to Lucrezia's report, Duncan just nodded slightly, then waved to the side.

The plump white pigeon immediately flew down from the nearby yardarm, almost slamming onto Duncan's shoulder with a "thud."

Duncan turned his head with a subtle expression and glanced at the pigeon on his shoulder: "...You should consider losing weight."

Eye twitched its head and immediately emphasized its position loudly: "v me 50! v me 50!" (meaning: transfer me $50)

"...Never mind I said anything." Duncan sighed, ignored the pigeon's chatter, and directly gave it an order in his heart.

The next second, Eye's body suddenly burst into flames, turning into a skeletal pigeon with protruding bones, and flew straight into the sky.

The bone pigeon wrapped in flames streaked across the mist like a shooting star flying backwards, approaching the shadowy black island from a high altitude.

Duncan, who stayed on the deck of the Vanishing, squinted slightly.

Using the vision shared by the flames, a somewhat abstract and distorted, but vaguely distinguishable overhead view began to emerge in his mind.

Eye was rapidly approaching the coast of the island—from the returned view, Duncan saw the jagged edges of the latter, as if torn apart by something, and also saw a narrow and hidden secret harbor that would be difficult to discover if not observed from the air. In the direction closer to the island's interior, he could vaguely recognize roads and some tall and short buildings, and there were many strange and sharp objects like stalagmites distributed on the island. The scale seemed to be large, but he couldn't tell what they were specifically.

Just like Lucrezia reported, there were no signs of activity on the island.

A huge allied fleet, a flaming lighthouse burning in the thick fog, a huge, strange bird wrapped in flames that swept over the harbor at close range—if all of this combined couldn't elicit a reaction from the Annihilation cultists entrenched on the island, then there was only one possibility.

"There seems to be no one on the island—at least no living people were seen."

Duncan turned to Lucrezia beside him while maintaining visual sharing with Eye.

The people on the deck looked at each other.

"No living people on the island..." Vanna's eyes widened slightly, and she turned her head to look in the direction of the island. "Did they all run away? Or are they dead? Or..."

She suddenly stopped, her gaze sweeping across the deck with a strange look, and finally landed on the "humanoid roughcast" that was still lying quietly on the deck, guarded by the doll Luni.

"...Notify the Deep Sea and Death churches, we need to approach that island. Everyone follow—don't get separated in the mist."

Under Duncan's order, the entire fleet began to slowly approach the jagged and strange black island that exuded an unsettling aura.

The island in the distance was gradually becoming clearer, and as the distance shortened, it revealed more and more incongruous details.

"Its edges look like a piece torn from a huge whole," Duncan described the scene he saw from Eye's perspective to the others. "We are approaching the western coast of it. There are clustered rock structures everywhere here, but between the cliffs, there is a hidden waterway that leads to an inner harbor—it looks flat there."

"Can a ship as big as the Vanishing get in?" Nina asked curiously from the side.

"It should be possible, but I don't plan to just sail in like that—same goes for the other ships," Duncan said while thinking. "It's not clear what's on the island yet. My idea is to have the fleet stop in front of that 'gorge,' and then organize a group of people to land on the island by small boats. After roughly figuring out the situation at the landing point, send more people ashore."

The others nodded.

Just then, Duncan seemed to sense something and suddenly looked up ahead.

He saw the large ship that had been used as a "spirit fire torch" all the way, seized from the cultists, was slowly accelerating.

Its speed was getting faster and faster, as if it had suddenly broken free from its reins, rushing straight towards the "holy island" without being ordered by Duncan.

It seemed to have lost weight, as light as a breeze.

Almost in the blink of an eye, it had crossed the misty sea surface and came to the cliff at the edge of the island, where countless giant rocks stood jaggedly.

Then, it crashed into it without hesitation.

(End of chapter)