Chapter 378 The Desolate Predators (1/2)
”Have you foreseen this?”
Hill turned around to look at the warrior who was observing the behavior of the sea since they were on the deck together. Then he asked Joshua, ”I noticed that you have been observing the sea, but why didn't you tell me that this is going to happen?”
”Having foreseen an attack doesn't mean that I had foreseen what is going to attack us.” Joshua turned around and looked at Hill. Then he explained it to the young elf and the two dragons, ”A bizarre ocean current and a black shroud… The most I can do is to be more vigilant. I have no way of telling what will happen next.”
The warrior did not say anything wrong. Such attacks were unpredictable.
Right next to the ark was a fading light of magic energy gleaming in the middle of the pitch-black waves. The white ark lost its momentum to sail forward. Even though it remained under the protection of the holy light runes, it could only stay on its spot as the storms and the waves continued to ravage it. There was no way the ark could move forward anymore.
”Let's get back inside for now,” Joshua decided for everyone. He brought Black into the cabin first. After Hill glanced the strange black sea water, he also went into the cabin with Funa.
Inside the cabin, Robzek, Saya, Roland, and the others were discussing what they should do next.
”The Enchanted Core in the engine room remains operational for now.” The silver-haired holy knight did not panic after everything that had just happened. He pointed at the light screen in the midair as he summarized everything that had happened. ”However, we have no way of transferring the magic energy into all of our engines.”
There was a blueprint of a structure of a gigantic wheel in the middle of the light screen. Every single detail about the Epoch was clearly stated on the blueprint. Aside from the engine room and a few cabins labeled with the color of green to indicate that those places were 'Operational', most of the parts across the ark had been labeled red—'Not Operational'.
The black powder in the seawater was actually a kind of strange substance… I have seen that thing before in the Mycroft Continent. However, is it just me or does this thing look more like crystals here?”
Saya held onto a test tube filled with the contaminated sea water. The seawater was filled with black dust that looked like sand. Those dust seemed to be moving on their own despite the lack of external momentum as though alive.
The great nun looked at the test tube she held in her hand as she pondered. ”I have traveled to the volcano area and observed the magic energy in the Crystalline Mine nearby. The magic energy of the crystal dust seems similar to this dust here.”
However, the magic crystals were loaded with magic energy while these crystal dust in the black sea water seemed to be absorbing magic energy instead. The two were different in such regard.
Meanwhile, Roland remained silent. He frowned as he stared at the test tube in Saya's hand. The blond-haired holy knight was familiar with the current situation. However, he could not determine the source of it.
The ark had lost the magic energy that propelled it forward. The crystal dust… they possessed the ability to absorb magic energy.
After guessing, Roland took the test tube from Saya's hand and attempted to pour some of his combat aura into it.
The active black dust suddenly behaved like sharks that smelled the scent of fresh blood. They immediately absorbed every single drop of the combat aura that the holy knight poured. With that, Roland could confirm one thing—those crystal dust was similar to the Aragami that possessed an external layer of shell. The information about the Aragami could be found in the old records of the Radcliffe family. They had extremely high resistance against magic energy and combat aura.
Looking at Robzek and Saya, the blond holy knight was doubtful. He hesitated on whether he should tell both of them about his assumption or not–even he felt the idea a little absurd. After all, their current goal of the expedition was to get to the Abyssal rift. They ended up encountering the spawns of the Evil God of Famine. It felt truly extraordinary in a certain way.
The great nun and the captain of the Order were still discussing the matter. However, they did not bother to find out what exactly those crystal dust was. The two of them were focused on what should they do next and how they should complete their main goal.
”The ark is just a day away from the Great Central Whirlpool.” Robzek pointed at the light screen. The light screen then showed the map of the region of the sea in Anos Abyss. There was one red dot and one white dot on the dark map. ”The red dot represents the Great Central Whirlpool. Because there is an ocean current flowing from the distant sea that keeps pushing everything in its way towards the northwest direction. And the white spot over there is our current location. If we had maintained our speed of sailing towards the destination, we would have arrived at the border of the Great Central Whirlpool at approximately 11 p.m. But now the question is, when are going to arrive at our destination?”
He made some calculations then continued to speak, ”If we continued moving towards the Great Central Whirlpool, we should arrive at its border at about 4 a.m… However, the possibility of success is extremely small. The ocean current would surely change its pace from time to time.”
”Can we switch our power source to the backup power? Can we use the Nuclear Star to fuel the ark so that we can sail on?” Saya wondered. Then she came up with a suggestion, ”This black crystal dust seems to be afraid of holy light. It did not seem to be unable to penetrate the protective barrier around the Nuclear Star. Just think about it. Even though the ark has stopped for a while now, it still has not been knocked over by powerful waves. That's a solid proof to prove that my suggestion might work.”
After the silver-haired holy knight heard the suggestion, he thought about it and nodded as well. ”We can try… but without the energy from the Nuclear Star, who can support and maintain the protective barrier around the ark then? That barrier needs a substantial amount of energy to maintain its function. We do not even know the true identity of our enemies. That will definitely weaken our power level. We might become vulnerable and fall into the traps of our enemies.”
”No matter who our enemies are, they definitely planned to hold us here.”
The moment after the captain said that, a voice came from the door of the cabin. It was Joshua. He pushed the door opened and Black followed right behind him. Hill and Funa followed after. Even though the warrior's voice was not that loud, it was loud enough to be heard by everyone who was already in the cabin. ”Since we are just about a day from our destination, the enemies will definitely want to take us out here to prevent us from getting near the Abyssal rift.”
”Joshua.” Robzek nodded his head slightly upon seeing the warrior. Then he asked, ”So what do you have in mind?”
As one of the only two Supreme-tier champions on board of the Epoch, Joshua's insight was extremely important. Hearing the question raised by the holy knight, Joshua did not intend to play nice. Instead, he decided to speak his mind.
Having the similar assumption that Roland came up with, Joshua revealed the true form of the black crystal dust–they originated from the shattered crystals that belonged to the Evil God of Famine. It could consume the magic energy on the ark due to one reason—because the word 'Famine' represented its desolating power. Currently, magic energy was ineffective in the entire region of the sea. The moment any sort of magic appeared, it would swiftly be absorbed.
Their current situation was almost identical to the situation back in the desolated Karlis World. It was also similar to the doomsday that appeared after the Evil God of Calamity appeared in the Illgner World that he and Roland went together before.
”Our enemies should be the Abyssal demons. Or perhaps something like the sea monsters, that Marine Abyssal Dragon… So how could it have anything to do with the Evil God of Famine then?”
Robzek furrowed his brow after he heard what the warrior said as he recalled the bizarre crystal creatures they encountered during their previous expedition. Those monsters were oddly powerful. ”Alright, if you were right, if the enemies were truly the spawns of the Evil God, then how do you think we should deal with them?” He sincerely asked.
Joshua smiled and said, ”Wait.”