Chapter 1 Sink It

"Sink it."

Agatha stared intently at the ship approaching on the sea, her voice as cold and hard as ice.

A junior officer next to her looked astonished, as if he couldn't believe what he had heard. "What did you say?"

"Sink it," Agatha didn't respond to the junior officer, but turned to Colonel Lister and repeated, "That is the 'Attacker,' a huge source of pollution—I don't know what it is, but it's definitely not the Sea Swallow."

She paused, the knuckles of her hand gripping her cane turning slightly white. "I'll take responsibility for this decision."

Lister said nothing. The muscles in his face were tense, and he stood in the cold wind for a long time like a solidified statue, until the sound of a steam whistle rang out again in the distance, clearer and louder than before, as if with an unsettling urgency. He suddenly broke the silence. "Madam, are you sure of your source?"

"…I trust my own judgment, Colonel," Agatha took a light breath, her voice carrying a hint of husky magnetism, "and I'll take responsibility for this judgment."

"You can't take responsibility. You are a Gatekeeper, but not a direct supervisor of the port system." Lister said calmly, then turned and looked towards the distant sea.

"Sink that ship, I take responsibility for this decision."

"Woo—"

On the distant sea, the suddenly appearing "Sea Swallow" was still sailing at full speed, its towering prow cleaving the waves, its fluttering flags dancing in the air. The chimneys in the middle of the ship spewed out large clouds of black smoke, and in the smoke, countless hidden roars seemed to rise and fall, clamoring noisily. At the stern of the Sea Swallow, broken waves overlapped, and in the depths of the surging waves, a black viscous substance spread with the waves like blood flowing from the body of a giant beast, in strands, rising and falling.

From what he could see now, he could determine that this ship was definitely not the "Sea Swallow" he was familiar with.

The Sea Swallow seemed to sense something—after the sirens sounded on Frostveil Island, it began to accelerate.

Soon, others also noticed the situation on the sea, and a sense of tension began to spread.

The ship did not slow down.

The steam whistle sounded again, and the top of the steel warship spewed out even more large patches of black smoke, the high-pressure steam tearing through the sky like a scream from the deep sea.

Figures swayed in the distance on the bulwarks of the Sea Swallow. They walked back and forth, busily moving, wearing the uniforms of the Frostveil Navy, doing what sailors on a ship should do. They stepped across the uneven gullies on the deck, over the viscous, wriggling substances, and the hyperplastic nodules that crisscrossed like thick blood vessels.

Melted black mud kept falling from these sailors, and sailors kept suddenly falling down, merging with the surrounding ship structure—and at the same time, new sailors kept separating from the deck or bulwarks, wriggling, crawling, and staggering, to scrub the deck, to control the flags,

To turn on the lights…

Seeing this distorted black silhouette constantly disintegrating, on the chaotic sea, the chaotic lines of light and shadow were rapidly peeling away from this silhouette.

"Sir," Agatha shook her head before he could finish speaking, "the attack is effective, it's decaying."

As he spoke, he gazed at the distant sea, and in the eyes of this young Gatekeeper, a pale glimmer was lightly flickering.

What she saw in her eyes was not reality, but the spirit world.

Agatha blinked, and the brief image of the spirit world faded from her vision, and a clear real world appeared in her eyes again.

Cannonballs fell into the water, and waterspouts rose everywhere. Large and small waterspouts were distributed around the Sea Swallow, forming a spreading mist on the distant sea. Several cannonballs grazed the Sea Swallow, but the latter's speed was not affected at all.

However, in the direction of the distant port, the coastal defense batteries began to operate. The gates covering the cliffs, seawalls, and reinforced concrete walls of the port opened one after another. Black gun barrels poked out, and the heavy turrets slowly rotated under the drive of a series of gears and connecting rods.

The elevators deep underground creaked, sending shells from the underground ammunition depot to the upper-level giant guns. At the same time, bursts of urgent bells and steam whistles rang out inside and outside the port, urging all ships still in the port to quickly avoid them, and urging all facilities in the port to enter a state of combat readiness.

At that moment, the Frostveil Island's coastal defense guns opened fire.

"The initial hit rate is low—that ship is too fast, exceeding the recorded values!"

But it was still sailing at full speed.

Lister's face was as heavy as water. In the continuous roar of artillery fire, he stared intently at the waterspouts and smoke rising from the distant sea, at this "Sea Swallow" that was still accelerating towards Frostveil, with no hesitation in his expression.

Faced with the artillery fire from Frostveil Island, this ship did not slow down, did not send out the prescribed flags and lights, but instead continued to accelerate, even accelerating far beyond its design limits... This was not a warship of Frostveil, this was a monster.

All the coastal defense guns began to roar. In the roar of artillery fire, armor-piercing incendiary bombs streaked across the sky in countless dim fire lines, like interwoven rain, splashing onto the sea area where the Sea Swallow was located. Huge waterspouts rose one after another, and in the middle of countless waterspouts, this ship, constantly making sharp screams and roars, continued to charge straight ahead like an enraged beast.

As the distance closed and the barrage was constantly calibrated, cannonballs finally began to land on the Sea Swallow.

After the coastal defense guns tore apart its stern deck, knocked off its chimneys and bridge buildings, and even destroyed the sections where it theoretically stored ammunition and housed the steam core, it still did not slow down.

"Keep firing—until it disappears on the sea," Lister said through gritted teeth, then suddenly turned to Agatha beside him, "Madam, please notify the Cathedral as soon as possible. If the port can't stop it, we may need…" "Yes, sir!"

The roar of the warship's main guns firing finally became the last straw on the "Sea Swallow". When more armor-piercing incendiary bombs fell on this unrecognizable ship, it finally began to collapse.

Its steam whistle finally stopped, and that strange screaming sound gradually ceased.

In the telescope, the people in the observation deck could still vaguely see what strange shape was appearing under the Sea Swallow's shattered deck, and some couldn't help but let out a loud exclamation.

"…By the God of Death!

What the hell is that?!"

It was a monster disguised as a thing of the mortal world.

Like thunder exploding, the powerful coastal defense guns roared and spewed out huge flames and explosions. The conventional armor-piercing shells first fired a volley, and the cone-shaped shells made a harsh whistling sound in the air, streaking across the sky like fire lines, and landing on the distant sea after a period of flight.

First, the decks and outer hulls peeled off in patches, revealing the distorted, dark, and bizarre structure inside. Then, the entire ship violently wriggled and tore from head to toe, as if to tear itself into pieces. This thing, which once looked like the Sea Swallow, rapidly broke apart while splashing countless dark mud outwards.

Steam gushed out, the steam whistle screamed continuously, and the entire ship was roaring from the inside out. The sailors on the deck ran around, and threads of black and red appeared in the black mist floating above the chimneys—the ship was accelerating. It was already a steam clipper, and its speed was further increased to the limit, like a giant beast wrapped in thunder galloping on the vast sea. The roar of splitting waves gradually resounded through the sea like a chaotic roar!

Even if it didn't sink, it should have stopped.

Although the coastal defense guns' shelling didn't directly "kill" the counterfeit, it was effectively pushing it to a critical point. It was about to self-destruct.

The huge explosion tore apart its armor, broke its masts, and peeled off patches of deck from the ship, and black mud-like viscous substances spewed out from under the disguised shell like blood, falling on the sea like a torrential rain.

It began to slow down, dissolving and collapsing on the sea while spreading large patches of dark impurities outwards.

The coastal defense guns continued to fire, and soon, additional gunshots rang out not far away.

This was the fleet staying in the port—they had finally completed their preparations and began to participate in the interception.

The coastal defense guns roared, and round after round of deadly shelling continued to fall. A staggering number of turrets concentrated on "taking care" of an unflinching "enemy ship", pouring countless shells onto the Sea Swallow in a very short time. No matter what ship it was on, this would be a fatal injury.

The huge vibration of the coastal defense guns firing even slightly shook the platform under Agatha's feet. She seemed to feel the entire observation deck trembling slightly in response to this round of shelling. At the same time, she heard someone reporting next to her.

However, Lister just watched this scene with a solemn expression, the muscles on his face still tense.

"Free fire, switch to armor-piercing incendiary bombs, continue firing until the target sinks," Lister said expressionlessly, "The resident fleet is on standby. If this ship cannot be stopped on the nearshore security line, let the fleet sortie—even if it means ramming it at the end, we must stop this ship outside of Frostveil!"

This terrifying, bizarre attacker—attempting to launch an assault on the civilized world—finally stopped only a few nautical miles from Frostveil Island.