Ashes Of Deep Sea-Chapter 299 - 303: The Captain of Obsidian

Chapter 299 -303: The Captain of Obsidian

Duncan was shouldering Ai Yi, being the first to pass through the large hole and step into the upside-down corridor, with the others following him in succession. Fenna walked at the back of the line this time to guard against any sudden assailants.

The team cautiously moved through the corridor, everyone constantly alert to the surroundings while closely observing every structure within the corridor.

Upon entering the corridor, they indeed discovered some details that they hadn’t noticed at the entrance.

This corridor was not simply upside-down—it was twisted and bizarre everywhere.

Doors of obviously inconsistent sizes were haphazardly embedded in the walls on both sides, some right-side-up, some upside-down. Round portholes occasionally appeared on the walls, but opposite these windows were either another wall or another door or window. Strange geometric protrusions appeared erratically on the walls or the floor, looking as though they were part of another room’s structure mistakenly merged into the corridor.

The interior of the “Obsidian” was akin to the viscera of a giant beast altered by some horrific doctor, with all its organs twisted and stacked haphazardly, rooms interlaced, doors skewed, exits and entrances randomly connected in this corridor that seemed like a main thoroughfare, and at the end of this corridor… something unknown was lurking in the dimness.

Inside the Ghost Ship, it was very quiet, only the sound of footsteps knocking against what should have been the “ceiling” echoing within the hull, as if mingling with something else.

Nina and Sherry seemed somewhat tense, while Alice’s condition was quite good—not because she was brave, but because she severely lacked common sense. All her experience sailing came from the equally sinister and peculiar Homeloss, so she didn’t find anything aboard this Ghost Ship particularly frightening.

They walked forward for an indeterminate amount of time, the long corridor seemingly stretching endlessly into the darkness, the area ahead growing even dimmer, when Duncan nudged the pigeon on his shoulder, “Lights.”

Ai Yi immediately screamed sharply, “Take up this solar-axe! Embrace the glory of battle!”

With the pigeon’s clamor, a bright green flame rose from it, and the blazing flames instantly dispelled the dimness in the corridor.

Fenna looked at this scene in astonishment, whispering to Morris ahead of her, “This pigeon… can actually be used like this?”

Morris’s tone was particularly indifferent, “The captain often does this—sometimes, when the pigeon is not around, he uses himself for lighting.”

Fenna, “…?”

But this time, before she could marvel once more at the huge disparity between the legendary Captain Duncan and the real one, a sudden noise halted everyone’s motion.

“Thump, thump, thump…”

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

It sounded like dull knocking—from behind a nearby door!

Everyone instantly stopped, all gazes simultaneously focused in the direction of the sound.

It was a blue door labeled “Captain’s Quarters.”

From the normal structure of a ship, the captain’s quarters certainly wouldn’t be in this position. However, aboard this Ghost Ship where the layout was completely chaotic and various cabin entrances were randomly stacked, any door might appear anywhere.

“Thump, thump, thump…”

The knocking sounded again, louder and more urgent than before.

It was as if a survivor from a shipwreck was hiding behind the door, trying desperately to get attention by knocking on the door upon hearing the noise in the corridor.

Fenna quietly reached for the massive sword behind her, Sherry slightly raised the black chain in her hand, Nina ducked behind Alice, and Alice raised her hands to hold her head.

Duncan approached the door with an emotionless face.

The thumping continued incessantly.

But Duncan showed no intention of opening the door. Instead, he simply curled his finger and tapped twice on the door.

The knocking inside suddenly stopped, as if the person making the noise was taken aback. After a few seconds of silence, a hoarse and low voice suddenly broke the silence from behind the blue door, “Is there anyone out there?”

“Yes,” Duncan said softly.

“Ah, wonderful! I’m the captain of the Obsidian, and I don’t know what happened on the ship, but I’m trapped,” the raspy, deep voice immediately said, “Kind sir outside the door, what is your name? Can you help me open the door?”

“Just call me Duncan,” Duncan said, pressing his hand backward to signal the others to stay calm, “Before opening the door, I want to confirm—Are you really the captain of the Obsidian?”

“Of course! My name is Cristo Babeli. You can check my name and ID number with the Port Authority. My ID is in the room,” the voice immediately replied, “But… now this damned door won’t budge for some reason, and I really have no way to come out and prove my identity to you…”

“Next question,” Duncan ignored the constant chatter from behind the door and continued, “What year is it?”

“This year?” The voice inside the door hesitated slightly, probably finding the question a bit odd, but still answered, “Of course, it’s 1894. Is there a problem with that?”

Duncan looked back at Maurice, who nodded slightly.

1894, that was the year the disaster struck the Obsidian.

Thinking about that disaster, Maurice suddenly stepped forward and asked, “Excuse me, captain, do you have a passenger named ‘Brown Scott’ on board?”

“Passenger?” The voice behind the blue door hesitated, “I can’t remember every passenger’s name… but Brown Scott? Ah, I remember now, he was that folklorist? A respected figure, I had several talks with him. I recall he was a very thin gentleman, always meticulous about his hair and beard. He was knowledgeable about the funeral customs of different city-states and was also interested in the frozen seas farther north than Frost…”

Listening to the voice behind the blue door, Maurice nodded subtly, whispering to Duncan, “No discrepancies.”

“Clearheaded, complete memory, able to state their own name correctly,” Fenna, who had been silent, suddenly broke the silence, “but we can’t rule out the possibility of an evil creature that feeds on human memories and emotions setting a trap; such beings are not uncommon on Ghost Ship.”

“Oh, that wouldn’t really matter, as long as it actually possesses the memories of that captain,” Duncan said nonchalantly, “A monster can also try to reason— if reason doesn’t work, then physical force will, there’s always a way to get through.”

Fenna paused, “…That makes sense.”

Duncan placed his hand on the handle of the blue wooden door.

“I’m going to open the door now, Mr. Babeli,” he said to whoever was inside.

Then, he turned the handle—a stark contrast to the completely rusted hatches they had seen earlier; this door showed no signs of damage, and as he turned the handle, a slight clicking sound of the lock turning immediately followed.

The door opened.

Under the slightly tense gaze of everyone, Duncan pushed open the door.

A completely jumbled room appeared in front of them.

All the walls were twisted at odd angles, the ceiling seemed about to collapse, and the room’s original furnishings were haphazardly fused into the nearby walls and floor, as if buried by wood and metal. Only bits of a table and chair parts were visible, while directly across from the door, there was a huge hole with a pitch-dark void beyond, leading to an unknown destination.

And the jumbled room was empty.

Duncan glanced at the empty room, but the next second, he heard “Cristo Babeli,” the captain’s voice, coming from behind the blue door again: “Ah, have you opened the door? I felt a shake, but the door still isn’t moving in my hands… Is there a perception or cognition problem? Can you help? I may have been stuck at sea for too long, already showing some unfavorable symptoms. If there is a priest willing to lend a hand, that would be even better…”

Duncan furrowed his brows.

He stepped into the chaotic room, slowly turning the door around to look behind it.

There he saw “Cristo Babeli.”

A mass… resembling a malformed, melting wax figure was stuck to the door, with a deformed, collapsed structure one could barely make out an arm plastered against the door panel and several fiber strands connected to the hand, and a large mass that was indistinguishable as a “body”.

This monstrous, distorted thing was thus fused with the door, and when Duncan looked at it, it was still slightly pulsating and moving. A hoarse, deep voice emanated from somewhere within its structure—

“Ah, I can’t see you, have you come in? The room may be a bit messy, there was a big shake earlier, and then I never cleaned up… My vision seems to have issues, but it is not a big problem, now the most troubling thing is that I can’t move my body, I seem to have forgotten how to control my limbs—by the way, did you bring a doctor?”