Ashes Of Deep Sea-Chapter 302 - 306: Remains in the Depths

Chapter 302 -306: Remains in the Depths

A-Gou staggered a few steps, his movements light and unsteady, until he finally came to a stop. Plumes of pitch-black smoke rose from the crevices in his skeleton, and his bones trembled continuously as if seized by spasms. In the bloody sockets of his eyes, the light flickered, waning and waxing.

Sherry was startled by such a blatant and abnormal reaction, promptly halting in her tracks. She shook A-Gou’s massive head, calling out his name in agitation—after repeating it seven or eight times, A-Gou finally snapped out of it and looked up dully, a hoarse, deep voice emerging from his throat, “Why do I suddenly feel a little… unable to move…”

“Are you okay?” Duncan approached, his brow furrowed as he regarded the clearly out-of-sorts Abyssal Hound with a hint of concern, “Is something making you uncomfortable?”

“I… don’t feel uncomfortable,” A-Gou’s head wobbled as if he was on the brink of falling asleep, “just drained of strength, and… I really don’t want to get anywhere near that stuff.”

“Really don’t want to get close?” Duncan looked back at the slow, writhing mass, glowing eerily in the light of the fire and resembling a muddy hill.

Was this strange “mud” affecting A-Gou? Some kind of innate suppressive force?

A-Gou’s aberrant behavior drew everyone’s attention and sent Duncan into deep thought. His first instinct was to consider whether A-Gou’s extraordinary “perception,” far surpassing human ability, had detected some invisible force.

But judging by A-Gou’s reaction, it didn’t seem that he had “seen” anything out of the ordinary.

“Abyssal Hounds are a rather powerful breed among Profound Demons, rarely becoming like this under the pressure of another strong entity,” Fenna crouched down, unhesitatingly touching the bone fragments on A-Gou, then turned back for another glance, “Moreover, that thing isn’t even emitting any oppressive aura…”

“You can leave out the ‘rather’,” Sherry muttered from the side, “A-Gou is awesome just as he is…”

“I’m not awesome, not at all,” A-Gou hurriedly shook his head, “Is this place a bit too sinister? Maybe we should come back another time?”

“It’s impossible to come back some other time. This Ghost Ship may not stay put and wait for us to explore it time and time again,” Duncan shook his head, “But you really aren’t in any condition to move forward now.”

A-Gou was under the influence of some mysterious force, and letting him get closer to that mass could likely have unpredictable consequences—the best course of action was for him and Sherry to temporarily retreat to Homeloss.

Duncan waved his hand to the side, and Ai Yi immediately flew over, circling in the air while shouting, “Who’s calling the ship… It’s a trap! Abandon ship and escape!”

“You take Sherry and A-Gou back to Homeloss,” Duncan ignored the bird’s squawks, pointing first at A-Gou sprawled on the ground and then at Sherry, who looked worried. After a moment’s thought, he pointed at Nina, “Take Nina back too.”

“Eh?” Nina was taken aback, “Why do I have to go back? I’m feeling great right now!”

“That thing tried to replicate you earlier, though you ‘interrupted’ it, but we don’t know if the big fellows at the end will have a different reaction when you get close,” said Duncan curtly, “It doesn’t hurt to be cautious under these circumstances.”

Nina listened intently, then obediently nodded her head, “Oh, okay, I’ll go back.”

Duncan had prepared a series of persuasive arguments—the girl was curious and had been looking forward to the adventure, but to his surprise, she agreed so readily. He was momentarily taken aback but soon smiled and shook his head.

She was still so sensible.

The Spectral Flame of the undead bird whistled through the cabin, carrying Sherry, A-Gou, and Nina out of Obsidian.

But the space didn’t lapse into darkness with Ai Yi’s departure—the fires that Duncan had lit using the dry cloying mud as kindling continued to illuminate the eerie and peculiar place.

The bizarre substance that lay at the end of the cabin continued to move quietly as if half-asleep, as if hibernating in a dream.

However, when Duncan’s gaze fell on the mass once more, a distinct “thud” came from within it.

“The children have left,” Duncan exhaled softly and stepped towards the dark material, “Now, it’s time for adults to take care of this trouble.”

His stride was unwavering, and as he drew nearer, the previously dormant substance quickly reacted—the peripheral movements became more apparent, the surface contortions increasingly violent, and the pulsing sounds from within grew faster and louder.

By the last ten meters, it had turned into a clear rhythm of heartbeats—

Thud, thud, thud—distinct and powerful heartbeats continued to resonate clearly in the dim and expansive cabin!

But apart from the steady heartbeat and the increasingly violent surface movements, there was no other reaction from the heap.

Until Duncan approached, it merely maintained this semblance of “vibrant life.”

“Goddess… What on earth is this abomination…”

Fenna frowned deeply, her voice laced with unmistakable disgust.

Only after getting close enough did she clearly see the form of this mass of substance—it didn’t have any biological shape whatsoever; its surface looked like flowing mud, yet, from time to time, dubious protuberances emerged from the sludge, resembling half-melted viscera or suddenly engorged blood vessels and nerve bundles. All the while, it pulsed with a heartbeat, exhibiting traits that seemed to react to external stimuli—traits that eventually devolved into constant, aimless squirming.

Since becoming a Judge, Fenna had witnessed countless heretical evils, yet the level of defilement present in this mass still shocked her profoundly.

Even Alice seemed a bit stupefied; the doll-like Miss peered at the pile for a long while before blurting out, “It doesn’t seem suitable for cooking…”

Fenna instantly glared at Alice—shocked once again.

Maurice, playing well the part of a scholar’s meticulous curiosity, seemed to ignore his psychological discomfort and aversion. After drawing near the mass, he studied it carefully, then suddenly discerned something amidst the expanding and contracting motion of the matter: “There seems to be something wrapped inside!”

“Inside?” Duncan looked surprised, then promptly spotted the clue Maurice had discovered: on the edge of the mass of mud, there appeared to be a fragment resembling a piece of clothing.

Could this constantly writhing mud actually be just a covering layer?

Realizing this, Duncan immediately reached out his hand, pointing towards the twitching mass.

Countless bonfires burning around the cabin instantly spread numerous lines of fire, and streams of Spectral Flame converged upon the “living mud” in the blink of an eye.

The Spectral Flame burst into fierce combustion!

The flames were grand, yet precisely controlled. Duncan commanded the fire to only consume the black mud and not harm any other materials inside—with his conscious catalysis and manipulation, it took merely a few seconds for the disgusting squirming matter to be burnt clean.

The contents originally buried deep within this heap were finally exposed to everyone’s eyes.

“This is…”

Maurice looked somewhat astounded at the scene in front of him.

A human, a middle-aged male, was leaning against a heap of debris in the ashes left after the Spectral Flame’s purge, his eyes wide open with rage, as if he had been locked in combat with some fierce enemy at the moment of his death, yet with one hand desperately clutching his mouth as if suppressing immense horror. His body, however, showed a shocking appearance—

The majority of his body had been dissolved by something, transforming into a horrifying decomposed structure.

Only a heart, exposed outside the open chest cavity, was slowly and powerfully pulsing.

Thump… thump… thump…

The heartbeat, as though containing a strong will, echoed throughout the entire cabin.

It turned out to be this very heart from which the heartbeat Duncan heard on his way here originated.

But this human was clearly long dead, his heartbeat signaling no sign of life.

“A human?” Fenna immediately furrowed her brow again, cautiously examining the middle-aged man who lay in the depths of the Obsidian, “Is he another Replication created by the Obsidian?”

“The body’s structure is twisted and mutated, consistent with a Replication’s Trait, but there seems to be something off…” Maurice murmured softly, poking carefully at the remnants of the corpse’s limbs with his cane. He observed the fragments of torn clothing and tried to determine their original appearance. “This clothing… looks like a uniform.”

“It’s indeed a uniform,” Duncan suddenly spoke up, apparently having discovered something. He bent down as he spoke, disregarding the grisly remains, and fumbled near the pulsating heart, retrieving something from a piece of torn fabric.

It was a small badge.

It bore an identity and a name.

“He is the captain of the Obsidian, Cristo Babeli,” Duncan said after glancing at the badge, speaking softly.

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