Conquest Sea, aboard the Shimmering Pearl.
In the dead of night, the massive cruise ship cuts through the waves, leaving a long wake behind it as it sails forward.
Inside a cabin near the ship’s railing, Dorothy sits on her sofa, frowning as she analyzes the crucial intelligence she has just eavesdropped on.
“Haimohois… a legendary sea monster said to possess the bloodline of the Abyssal Serpent… one of the objects of worship for the Abyssal Church… Based on the current information, it seems that the ship’s captain, Costa, along with a significant portion of the crew, and that jewelry collector, Massimo, are likely members of the Abyssal Church.”
“Heh… do I have some kind of fate with cults? I can’t even go on a trip without running into a new one. And it’s another one related to the Afterbirth Cult. How many is this now?”
Dorothy can’t help but complain in her mind. Starting from the Crimson Eucharist in Igwynt, to the Wolf Blood Society in Tivian, and now the Abyssal Church on the Conquest Sea, Dorothy has encountered three sects related to the Afterbirth Cult during her journey. Out of the three main branches of the Afterbirth Cult, she’s already run into two. Only the Filthy Coven remains unseen.
“Although I did think about the possibility of running into other secret societies before setting off on this trip, I expected it to happen after arriving at the destination. I didn’t think I’d encounter one while still on the way.”
“Speaking of which… the first time I took a train to Tivian, I also ran into some trouble caused by the Eight-Spired Nest. But back then, it was just one guy killing someone and stealing something. It wasn’t as extreme as this time. These guys actually want to sacrifice the entire ship!”
Dorothy feels a bit anxious as she thinks this. Based on the conversation between Costa and Massimo, combined with what she read in ’Chart of the Lost Sea’, it’s clear that these Abyssal followers are planning a sacrificial ritual to offer the entire ship, including herself and the thousands of passengers, to Haimohois!
“No wonder the ship has been quietly deviating from its original course. It’s heading toward the sea monster’s lair. If what’s written in ’Chart of the Lost Sea’ is true, and the sea monster truly has the bloodline of the Abyssal Serpent, then it’s related to a true god and likely possesses some form of divinity. That’s not something I, as a White Ash-rank Beyonder, can handle.” “So… no matter what, I have to stop this ritual before it’s completed. If that sea monster is summoned, there’s no escaping.”
Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy thinks seriously. She’s extremely grateful that she chose Thunder Summoner as her second simulated branch. If it weren’t for the Thunder Summoner’s unique ability to sense the planet’s magnetic field and determine the ship’s course, she wouldn’t have noticed the deviation and would have been oblivious until the cultists sailed the ship into the sea monster’s lair.
After realizing the danger she and everyone on the ship are in, Dorothy begins to seriously consider her options. Her primary goal is to stop this sacrificial ritual, no matter what it takes.
“Should I confront them directly? No… based on the anti-surveillance measures outside the captain’s cabin, that captain is undoubtedly a White Ash-rank Beyonder of the Wave path. And that jewelry collector, Massimo, spoke to the captain as an equal, without any hint of deference, suggesting he’s also a White Ash-rank Beyonder.”
“If that’s the case, this ship has two White Ash-rank Tide Path Beyonders, along with several Black Earth and Apprentice-rank members. On their home turf at sea, with me being just one White Ash-rank and Nephthys being a Black Earth, it would be extremely difficult to fight them. The key issue is that there’s no official Beyonder force on this isolated ship to rely on. The ‘reporting’ tactic won’t work here.”
Dorothy analyzes the situation. In the past, when facing powerful enemies, she often relied on the strength of official Beyonder organizations like the Serenity Bureau or the Radiance Church. But in this environment, she has no way to report the situation. The only other force she can rely on is Nephthys, making this confrontation with the Abyssal Church particularly challenging.
“Directly fighting them isn’t realistic. Aside from the home turf advantage and the power disparity, engaging in a battle against White Ash-rank Beyonders in such a confined space would likely cause massive collateral damage.”
“Even if I didn’t care about innocent lives, even if I could defeat those two and their lackeys, what if they’re pushed to the brink and decide to sink the ship? If the ship is damaged or sunk, those Tide Path cultists would be fine—they could swim back using their abilities. But the rest of us passengers would be doomed… So, unless absolutely necessary, I can’t engage in direct combat with these cultists.”
“Therefore… I need to think of another way to stop this ritual.”
After deciding against direct confrontation, Dorothy begins to brainstorm other methods to stop the ritual. She continues to control the small corpse marionettes scattered throughout the ship, carefully observing the ship’s movements, especially those of Costa and Massimo, hoping to find more clues to break the deadlock.
After the secret meeting, Massimo left the captain’s cabin and returned to his own cabin, which was also protected by moisture barriers and located not far away. After observing the layout of their rooms, Dorothy abandons any plans of assassination.
“Their cabins are too close. If I attack one, the other will be alerted immediately. Each of their doors is guarded by Beyonder sailors, and both are White Ash-rank Chalice Beyonders with ridiculously strong vitality. It’s almost impossible to silently assassinate both of them without triggering any resistance, not to mention the possibility of them having life-saving mystical methods…”
After observing the situation, Dorothy gives up on the idea of assassinating Costa and Massimo. Unless she can kill both of them in one silent strike, the situation will escalate into open combat. And killing two White Ash-rank Chalice Beyonders in one go is far more difficult than killing an elephant.
Currently, Dorothy’s theoretical methods of killing a White Ash-rank Beyonder in one strike rely on connecting them with spiritual threads—either by transferring fatal damage through a corpse marionette or by using the threads to immobilize them before unleashing a fully charged lightning strike. But these two aren’t going to get drunk and lie around waiting for Dorothy to draw marionette marks on them.
With assassination off the table, Dorothy begins to consider other possibilities. Soon, her attention turns to the jewel mentioned by Costa and Massimo—the Deep Blue Heart.
“This Deep Blue Heart… seems to be the key to this sacrificial ritual. According to those two, the Deep Blue Heart must be installed on the ship’s bow to attract Haimohois, lurking in the abyss. That’s why the display platform for the Deep Blue Heart has to be on the bow… Since this blue gem is the key to the ritual, if I can find a way to get my hands on it, maybe I can stop the ritual.”
Sitting on the sofa in her cabin, Dorothy thinks this to herself. She then continues to mobilize the small corpse marionettes on the ship, searching for the location of the Deep Blue Heart. Soon, she finds it.
Using the corpse marionettes, Dorothy sees that the angel statue on the bow of the Shimmering Pearl is now covered with a large white cloth. The cloth is secured to the railings, completely concealing the statue. From the outside, only a vague outline can be seen.
Seeing the statue covered in white cloth, Dorothy recalls Massimo’s words. He said the Deep Blue Heart would be installed in advance, meaning it might already be in place. It’s now in the hands of the angel statue.
Realizing this, Dorothy sends her small corpse marionettes to the foredeck, quietly approaching the Deep Blue Heart. She notices that, despite it being nighttime, the foredeck is crowded with sailors patrolling back and forth. Some of them occasionally glance toward the shrouded angel statue at the bow, clearly guarding it.
Seeing this scene, Dorothy controls her small corpse marionettes to stealthily approach the bow. After bypassing the patrolling sailors, several of her marionettes successfully climb onto the angel statue under the white cloth. They make their way up the statue, and through the marionettes’ vision, Dorothy finally sees the blue gem placed in the angel’s hands.
In the darkness beneath the white cloth, the angel’s cupped hands emit a deep blue glow. Upon closer inspection, a large blue gem rests peacefully in the angel’s clasped hands. The radiant light emanating from the gem is soft yet mesmerizing, but it’s blocked by the white cloth, unable to shine outward.
“What a beautiful gem… and it’s self-luminous. This kind of extraordinary item is clearly a mystical artifact. Even ordinary people would recognize its uniqueness, let alone Beyonders. No wonder they couldn’t display it at the port and had to use the jewelry exhibition as an excuse to show it at sea.”
Looking at the large blue gem in the angel’s hands, Dorothy thinks to herself. The Deep Blue Heart emits a deep spiritual light, clearly a mystical artifact, and most likely a Chalice artifact.
After discovering the Deep Blue Heart in the angel’s hands, Dorothy immediately starts figuring out how to remove it. She has her small corpse marionettes repeatedly attempt to take the gem under the cover of the white cloth, but they fail every time. Dorothy then conducts a thorough inspection of the angel statue and the Deep Blue Heart, only to find that ordinary methods won’t work.
Through her inspection, Dorothy discovers that the angel’s hands are specially designed to hold the Deep Blue Heart. Once the gem is placed, a series of complex mechanisms lock it firmly in place, almost becoming one with the statue. The angel statue itself is made of solid steel, with only the wings being detachable components. The base of the statue is seamlessly integrated with the ship’s bow.
As Massimo himself boasted, removing the Deep Blue Heart from the statue or destroying the statue itself would be extremely difficult.
In Dorothy’s estimation, even if she were to use a sledgehammer to smash the gem or explosives to blow it up, the gem would likely remain in the twisted hands of the deformed angel statue. And the explosives she has on hand aren’t enough to destroy the bow.
“This is troublesome. Given the current situation, even using violent means to remove the Deep Blue Heart would be extremely difficult. Moreover, violent methods usually come with a lot of noise. Even if I somehow manage to retrieve the gem, it would definitely alert those two, leading to an inevitable confrontation.”
After inspecting the scene, Dorothy feels a bit frustrated. The way the Deep Blue Heart is secured makes it nearly impossible to remove. Even if she could somehow retrieve it through extreme violence, the two White Ash-rank Beyonders would immediately come after her. Even if she threw the gem into the sea… for White Ash-rank Tide Path Beyonders, retrieving something from the ocean would be trivial.
Faced with this situation, Dorothy strokes her chin and begins to think. For her, the primary issue now is how to remove the Deep Blue Heart from the angel statue. And as Massimo himself said, only he can safely remove the gem.
After pondering the issue of the Deep Blue Heart for a long time, Dorothy finally comes up with an idea.
“It seems I’ll need Nephthys’s help this time.”
Dorothy murmurs to herself, then takes out her ’Literary Sea Logbook’, flipping to Nephthys’s communication page. She writes a message asking Nephthys to come to her cabin. After sending the message, Dorothy sits in her room and waits quietly. A few minutes later, there’s a knock on her cabin door.
Hearing the knock, Dorothy immediately stands up and opens the door. She sees Nephthys standing there, wearing pajamas with a cat pattern, looking a bit sleepy. The buttons on her chest aren’t fully fastened, leaving some of her skin exposed.
“Yawn… Miss Dorothy, what’s the matter calling me so late?”
Rubbing her eyes, the college student asks Dorothy, who waves her hand and says.
“Come in, close the door, and button up…”
“Huh… Oh, right!”
Hearing Dorothy’s words, Nephthys quickly buttons up her pajamas, her face slightly red as she wonders if anyone saw her on the way here. She closes the cabin door and enters Dorothy’s room. Dorothy, already seated on the sofa, speaks.
“Sit down… I’ve just discovered an urgent situation on the ship, so I called you over to discuss it.”
“An urgent situation… Um, Miss Dorothy, this isn’t related to the mysticism world, is it?”
Sitting on the bed, Nephthys frowns uneasily. In her mind, anything Dorothy considers urgent must be related to the mysticism world.
“Unfortunately… yes… and it’s a matter of life and death for everyone on the ship.”
Dorothy replies, and Nephthys’s unease visibly deepens.
“Life and death for everyone on the ship… Is it really that serious?”
“Of course it is. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have called you over so urgently to discuss it…”
Dorothy says, then shifts her gaze to Nephthys and continues.
“Senior Nephthys… If I remember correctly, your ancestors were thieves, right?”
“Huh?”
Facing Dorothy’s words, Nephthys is momentarily stunned.
…
Time passes quickly, and soon, the night is over.
In the misty morning sea, the Shimmering Pearl continues to sail forward. On the third floor of the ship’s superstructure, the door to a special cabin slowly opens. A well-dressed gentleman with a small mustache steps out.
“Today… is the critical moment…”
After finishing his morning routine, Massimo murmurs to himself as he steps out of his cabin. Just as he’s about to head to breakfast, a voice calls out from down the corridor.
“Mr. Massimo!”
Hearing the voice, Massimo stops and turns toward the source. He sees a young sailor in uniform hurrying toward him. Massimo recognizes him as one of the Abyssal Church members hidden among the crew, essentially one of his subordinates.
“What is it?”
Seeing the young sailor, Massimo asks sternly. The sailor, upon reaching him, hands over an envelope and says gravely.
“Please take a look at this. This morning, these started appearing in the dining hall, the casino, the ballroom, the bridge… everywhere…”
Hearing the sailor’s words, Massimo frowns slightly. He takes the envelope and, after using his auxiliary Lantern spirituality to check for any anomalies, opens it and pulls out a sheet of paper.
On the paper is a message typed in Ivengardian.
Attention!
When the deepest blue light shines upon the sea, I shall visit the angel of the Holy Mother and take the Deep Blue Heart.
— Thief K
“A notice… from a thief…”
Reading the message, Massimo’s eyes flicker with a mix of emotions.