Dog staggered unsteadily for a few steps before finally coming to a stop. Waves of pitch-black smoke rose from the gaps in his bones, and his entire body seemed to tremble spasmodically while those blood-red eye sockets flickered intermittently.
Seeing such an obvious and abnormal reaction, Shirley was naturally startled. She immediately stopped and anxiously called out Dog’s name while shaking his massive head. After calling out numerous times, Dog finally regained his senses and spoke up with a hoarse, low voice, “Why do I suddenly feel… unable to move?”
“Are you okay?” Duncan approached at that moment, frowning at the clearly unwell dark hound, concern evident in his voice, “Is something wrong with you?”
“I… don’t feel unwell,” Dog’s head wobbled as if it might fall asleep any moment, “I just feel weak, and… I really don’t want to get close to that pile of stuff.”
“Really don’t want to get close?” Duncan turned to look at the strange, slow-moving pile that resembled mud under the firelight.
Could this odd “mud” be affecting Dog? Was it some kind of instinctive suppression?
Dog’s unusual reaction captured everyone’s attention and set Duncan’s mind racing. His first thought was whether Dog’s exceptional perception, which far exceeded that of humans, had detected something invisible.
However, Dog’s reaction indicated that it hadn’t “seen” anything out of the ordinary.
“Dark hounds are among the more powerful shadow demons, and they rarely become like this just because they face a more powerful individual’s pressure,” Vanna crouched down and stroked the bone fragments on Dog’s body without any hesitation. She then turned back and said, “Besides, that thing doesn’t emit any intimidating aura…”
“You can remove the ‘more’ part,” Shirley mumbled beside her, “Dog is truly powerful…”
“Not powerful, I’m not powerful at all,” Dog quickly shook its head, “This place is a bit too creepy. Should we come back next time?”
“Coming back next time is impossible, as this ghost ship might not stay here obediently waiting for us to explore it repeatedly,” Duncan shook his head, “But your current condition is indeed not suitable for continuing.”
Dog was being affected by some inexplicable force, and allowing it to get closer to that pile of stuff might lead to unforeseen consequences. The best course of action now was to have Dog and Shirley temporarily return to the Vanished.
Duncan gestured to the side, and Ai immediately flew over, circling in the air while shouting, “Who’s calling the ship… This is a trap! Abandon ship and escape!”
“You take Shirley and Dog back to the Vanished first,” Duncan ignored the bird’s outcry, pointed to Dog lying on the ground and Shirley with a concerned expression beside him, then thought for a moment and pointed to Nina, “Take Nina back, too.”
“Huh?” Nina didn’t react right away, “Why do I have to go back too? I’m in great shape now!”
“Earlier, that thing attempted to replicate you. Although you ‘hit’ it and interrupted the process, we don’t know if those larger entities at the end will have any other reactions when you get closer,” Duncan explained succinctly, “it’s better to be cautious in such a situation.”
After listening carefully, Nina nodded obediently: “Ah, alright, I’ll go back.”
Duncan had prepared some persuasive words, expecting that Nina, being a curious girl, would be eager for such adventures. However, he was surprised that she agreed so readily, and soon he just shook his head with a smile.
She was still so sensible.
The undead bird’s flames whisked Shirley, Dog, and Nina out of the Obsidian.
But the space didn’t descend into darkness with Ai’s departure – the bonfires Duncan lit using the dry and stagnant mud as fuel still illuminated the gloomy and eerie place.
The strange substance coiled at the end of the cabin continued to wriggle quietly as if half-asleep or dormant in its dreams.
But when Duncan’s gaze fell on the pile of material again, a distinct “thump” sound emanated from within.
“The kids have left,” Duncan breathed a sigh of relief and took a step towards the dark matter, “Now it’s time for the adults to deal with this problem.”
His steps were unhesitant, and as he approached, the previously seemingly asleep wriggling matter immediately responded – the wriggling at its edges became more pronounced, its surface expansion and contraction more frequent, and the pulsating sounds from within grew faster and louder.
It had completely turned into a clear rhythmic heartbeat when he was within the last ten meters.
Thump, thump, thump – the distinct and powerful heartbeat resounded clearly in the spacious and dim cabin!
But besides the continuous heartbeat and the increasingly intense surface wriggling, the pile of material showed no other reactions.
Until Duncan stood before it, it merely maintained this “vibrant” state.
“By the goddess… what on earth is this blasphemous thing…”
Vanna frowned deeply, unable to conceal her disgust.
Only after getting close enough did she see the material more clearly. It had no outline of a biological entity; its surface flowed like mud, yet from time to time, suspicious indentations emerged in the mud, appearing like half-melted organs, suddenly swollen blood vessels or nerve bundles. While constantly emitting a heartbeat, it also displayed characteristics as if reacting to external stimuli – these characteristics eventually returned to aimless, blind wriggling.
From the day she became an inquisitor, Vanna had seen countless heretical evils, but the blasphemy and strangeness of the thing before her still shocked her.
Even Alice next to her seemed dazed. The doll-like girl stared at the material for a long time before saying, “It doesn’t look like it can be cooked…”
Vanna immediately stared at Alice with wide eyes – she was shocked once again.
On the other hand, Morris displayed the meticulousness and curiosity that a scholar should have. He seemed to ignore the psychological discomfort and aversion, and after getting close to the material, he studied it carefully for a while. Then, he suddenly noticed something during its expansion and contraction process: “It seems there’s something wrapped inside!”
“Just now?” Duncan hesitated for a moment before noticing the clue Morris had discovered: at the edge of the pile of mud, there seemed to be a small piece of something resembling a fragment of clothing.
Was this constantly wriggling mud just a layer of covering?
Upon realizing this, Duncan immediately extended his hand and pointed at the wriggling object.
Numerous bonfires burning around the cabin instantly emitted lines of fire, and the ghost flames converged almost in the blink of an eye on the pile of “living mud.”
The fire was brilliant yet precisely controlled. Duncan commanded the fire to burn away only the black sludge, careful not to harm the other materials inside. Under his deliberate catalysis and control, the revolting wriggling object was reduced to ashes in just a few seconds.
What was previously hidden deep within the pile of material finally revealed itself to everyone.
“This is…” Morris gazed at the scene before him with some astonishment.
A human, a middle-aged man, leaned against a pile of wreckage lying in the ashes left by the ghost flames. He had wide, angry eyes as if he had been fighting a fierce enemy to the dying moments before his end, yet one hand tightly covered his mouth as if suppressing great terror.
His body was in a horrifying state, with a large part of the body dissolved by something and turned into a chilling, decomposed structure. Now, only a heart, exposed in the open chest cavity, continued to beat slowly and powerfully.
Thump… thump… thump…
The heartbeat echoed throughout the cabin as if containing a strong will.
It turned out that the heartbeat Duncan had heard as he approached came from this heart.
But this human had clearly been dead for a long time, and his heartbeat did not signify any signs of life.
“A human?” Vanna immediately furrowed her brow and looked cautiously at the middle-aged man who had died in the depths of the Obsidian, “Is this also a copy created by the Obsidian?”
“The body structure is distorted and mutated, which is consistent with the characteristics of a copy, but something seems off…” Morris murmured, carefully prodding the remaining limb structure of the corpse with the wand he carried. He examined the fragments of torn clothes, trying to determine their original appearance, “These clothes… look like a uniform.”
“It is indeed a uniform,” Duncan suddenly said, seemingly having discovered something. At this moment, he bent down, ignored the horrifying wreckage, and searched near the beating heart, retrieving something from a piece of broken cloth.
It was a small chest badge with an identity and name written on it.
“He is the captain of the Obsidian, Cristo Babelli,” Duncan said softly, glancing at the chest badge.
