Embers of the Deep
Chapter 39 The Captain Sets Foot on Land
The pigeon’s words, as usual, were comically jarring, harmoniously discordant, and downright silly.
Yet now, it was an undead bird engulfed in ghostly flames, its semi-transparent flesh enveloping bones and tendons streaming with fire. Its cries were interspersed with crackling booms, like the wails of wronged spirits seeping out when the gates of the underworld swung open.
As it turned out, there often wasn’t much distance between the bizarre and the bemusing.
The spectral flames continued to burn around Duncan, and he watched three heretics vanish before his eyes, not daring to ascertain the principles behind the process.
He only knew that this was "Ai Yi’s" ability.
Several seconds later, after confirming that the three heretics were truly unable to return, he slightly tilted his head to inquire of the pigeon on his shoulder, "... Where did you send them?"
Ai Yi fluttered its wings and preened its now semi-transparent feathers with its beak, taking a while to respond before suddenly blurting out, "Retreat into the shadows!"
Duncan frowned, he had recently begun to learn how to discern the true meanings behind Ai Yi’s utterances, "... Do you mean you’ve exiled them into some kind of... parallel space? Or made them into some state that can’t be touched?"
The pigeon lifted its head, its eyes flitting indecisively as it looked at Duncan, "Coo!"
It was pretending to be a real pigeon again.
But Duncan believed he had grasped the truth. He patted Ai Yi on the head with his finger, then looked around the dimly lit "Shelter" once more.
In the flickering light of the oil lamp, everything in the small room was clear at a glance. The believers of the Sun God who had once hidden here were completely gone from this world. Now, all that stood here was a ghostly captain utilizing the bodies of the heretics as his vessel, along with his pigeon.
Yet deep down, Duncan felt a sensation—as if he could sense those three heretics were still here, right beside him, trapped in the room, caught in the crevices of a dimension impermeable and unreachable by any means.
He even "felt" the futile shouts and struggles of the heretics, sensed their desperation to reconnect with the real world, yet blocked by an invisible barrier, forever shut out from reality.
This sensation diffused stealthily until, at a certain moment, Duncan saw proof: during one flicker of the oil lamp, amidst a perfectly timed interplay of light and shadow, he suddenly spotted a mark on a nearby wall, which seemed like the notch from a shortsword’s vigorous slash—but when he looked again, the lamp’s flame flickered once more, and the mark on the wall vanished without a trace.
That was the last contact the three Sun followers had with the real world.
Duncan breathed out softly and turned, leaving the room with the pigeon.
Outside the abandoned resting room, there was a corridor much narrower than the sewer walkways he had seen before. The long, winding corridor stretched in both directions, one end leading to a junction while the other connected to an incline that sloped upward.
Even in the abandoned areas, the urban maintainers evidently upheld the most basic upkeep of these underground facilities—at least, the gas lamps along the walls were still lit.
Duncan quickly assessed the direction of the corridor, then sorted through the fragments of memory in his mind for the route to the surface. Soon, he stepped towards the inclining ramp.
He quickened his pace.
A fresh current of air emerged, a cool breeze stirring Duncan’s hair as he faced it. He heard some vague and distant sounds, seemingly the rumbling of some factory equipment operating throughout the night, and even further away was the sound of ocean waves—the noise of the evening tide crashing against the coastal rocks.
Duncan broke into a jog.
The pigeon Ai Yi, having shed its spectral flames and returned to normal, flapped its wings on his shoulder, emitting joyful cries, "The era is calling! The era is calling!"
Duncan suddenly stopped, fixing his gaze on the dove’s eyes, "Don’t talk carelessly outside—normal doves do not speak."
Ai Yi thought for a moment, then flapped his wings vigorously, "Aye, captain!"
Duncan was immediately surprised because the dove had actually responded correctly to him for once. He didn’t know if it was a coincidence or what—but soon he stopped pondering over it.
He needed to prepare for facing this world.
The black robe he was wearing certainly could not be worn outside. From the ’devoured’ memories, such suspicious robes were only used at the secret ritual gatherings of Sun God’s believers. On the city streets above ground, wearing this garment meant being tied to a tree and beaten by seven or eight law enforcement officers.
The Plunder City-State enforced a rather strict curfew, and wandering about at night seemed to be a quite dangerous affair; ordinary people wanting to leave their homes at night needed to hold a pass and report in advance. The heretic he had merged with, obviously, did not have these legal documents, so to move around the city, he had to dodge those patrolling at night.
Those responsible for maintaining order in the city at night were known as "Guardians." They seemed to be the armed forces attached to the Deep Sea Church. In the devoured memories, the original host of this body harbored a deep fear and hostility towards those armed priests...
Duncan quickly sorted through the memory fragments in his mind. Since they were inherited from a corpse, these fragments were mostly chaotic and vague. He couldn’t piece together a complete trajectory of a "modern civilized society member," nor could he compile comprehensive information on the Plunder City-State. But even the most basic parts were enough to give him a rough idea for his next moves.
First, he took off the black robe before the ramp that led to the surface—the clothes underneath were normal and wouldn’t arouse suspicion.
He considered whether he should burn the black robe but realized that fire and smoke might instead attract the attention of the night patrollers. So, in the end, he simply rolled the robe up and hid it in a corner near the ramp.
The Sun Amulet was also a potentially troublesome object, but at the same time, it might contain valuable information. After much hesitation, Duncan decided to take it with him—he could use the amulet for another test when he returned to the Homeloss, to see if Ai Yi could also bring it back.
He could study the object safely on the Homeloss.
After dealing with the traces of hiding the black robe, he then made some rough adjustments to his appearance, trying to look like an ordinary citizen rather than a heretic skulking miserably in the sewers. Only after doing all this did he step onto the ramp.
The rest of the way wasn’t too far.
Duncan hastened up the ramp, increasingly fresh air filling his lungs. He could clearly hear the sounds of factories and waves in the distance, and after a few minutes, he even saw a cold light shining on the steps not far ahead.
He walked forward a few steps, and the cold light finally engulfed him completely.
He had reached the surface.
Solid, stable, bathed in the pale glow, the ground.
Duncan opened his eyes wide. He saw a city, a city perched atop the Endless Sea, representing the civilization of mortals—a colossal scar across the sky stretched over the city, illuminating the neatly arranged rooftops, towers, and buildings further away. Not far in front of him was the slightly dilapidated edge of the city district, and on the high ground in the distance, one could see many distant and magnificent buildings, the "Upper City District" where the grand cathedrals and city hall were located.
Duncan suddenly smiled, soundlessly and breathlessly.
But moments later, he forcibly stopped his laughter, took a deep breath in the chilly night wind, and then strode in the direction he remembered.
Even heretics had their "normal lives." Apart from a few who made a living purely by harming the living as "priests," the Sun Church, like most other heretical cults, relied on a vast number of common people to sustain themselves. These deluded lower-rank believers were mostly the city’s poor citizens, neglected elderly, naive youths, or like the body Duncan now occupied...
An unnoticed, terminally ill, ordinary man struggling with life and taxes in the Lower City District, running a deceitful antique shop.
The wretched life of the antique shop owner known as "Ron" had ended; his debt to some malevolent deity cleared with his last breath, but he still left a place in this world... a place that Duncan was quite fond of.