Chapter 65: The Guillotine
The captain's room of the White Oak was temporarily arranged into a sanctuary.
The breath of incense floated in the room, and the amulets depicting the storm runes were hung on all the doors and windows. The priests set up bronze boundary monuments at the four corners of the room, and tied strips of cloth soaked in holy oil on the top of the boundary monuments. Finally, a book of "The Original Storm" from the Cathedral was sent into the room to serve as the "pillar" of the entire sanctuary.
After completing all this arrangement, Captain Lawrence and Inquisitor Vanna entered the captain's room.
"I hope you won't mind our 'transformation' here," Vanna said lightly, maintaining the reserve and decent politeness that he should have as a high-level priest, "It's all for safety."
"Of course, everything is for safety - what I lack the most now is a sense of security," Captain Lawrence nodded immediately with great understanding. He looked around the sacred things in the room and breathed a sigh of relief. "With these things, the ordinary twisted and polluted things are afraid that they will die if they come in and take a look..."
"You can feel at ease talking to me about the Lost Country here," Vanna nodded, "Let's start with the beginning, where are you and how did you see the ship?"
Captain Lawrence calmed down and began to tell the most terrifying day in his memory: "It's like this..."
Captain Lawrence spoke in detail. In front of the professional judge, he even said exactly what he had had for breakfast that day and what time the sailors on the boat started their meals - those who really couldn't remember clearly, so he read the captain's log and the sailors' diaries of that day.
Experienced captains all know this: before many abnormal phenomena occur, there are often seemingly ordinary signs. People at that time may find it difficult to realize the connection between these things, but professionals who review the situation afterwards can summarize experience from those daily clues and use it to warn future generations.
Every captain on the Endless Sea has the habit of recording navigation logs - at the same time, reading the logs he wrote is also the only safe "reading method" on the Endless Sea except for reading the church classics.
After hearing the thrilling experience, Fanna frowned little by little.
The situation is more serious than imagined and more bizarre than imagined.
She originally thought that Captain Lawrence’s so-called “experience” was just a meeting, or at most it was a passing ghost ship, so the terrifying captain only took away the cargo on the ship without hurting anyone - but she didn’t expect it to be a head-on collision.
The entire White Oak crashed into the cabin of the Lost Country, and the entire ship was swept across the green ghost flames from top to bottom.
According to Captain Lawrence, the White Oak had even begun to transform from top to bottom to the Lost Country! He could clearly see his body turning into a spiritual state!
The holy emblem on the ship was closed at the time, and the holy relics on the basin did not respond. The protective materials added to the hull materials were useless. The priest could only protect himself. The entire ship was in the depth of the spiritual world and could not ask for help from the outside world. It can be said that the White Oak at that time was already the captain's hunting, and there was no possibility of "escape by chance".
Captain Lawrence is still able to stand here now because the Lost Country gave up the spoil without hesitation.
"Judge," Captain Lawrence finally told his experience, seeing that Vanna had not responded for a long time, he couldn't help but say, "You said, what exactly did the Lost Country want to do at that time? Do you really just want to take away the abnormal 099?"
Fanna glanced at him: "Isn't this what you always think?"
"I...I always thought so, but now I'm not sure," Lawrence sighed, "especially because you said that Captain Ghost had recently extended his power to the city-state of Plander...I always think things won't be that simple."
"No one can guess what the ghost captain thought," Vanna shook her head. "Now all we can do is to do the most thorough inspection of the White Oak to prevent the ship from carrying any 'invasion'. You and your crew will also suffer some grievances these days. Before the investigation is over, you cannot contact anyone except the church priests... including visits from your family."
Captain Lawrence lowered his head: "I can understand."
Then he paused for a moment and then asked, "That...about theft of Abnormal 099..."
Vanna knew what the captain was worried about.
The strange and terrifying sea vision is a threat hanging above the head of civilization, but before considering these long-term and vast threats, the captain was first an ordinary person who needed to support his family - he lost abnormal 099, and the responsibility was too heavy on the head of an ordinary person.
"Don't worry, the church will come out to explain this matter to the city-state authorities and the Explorer Association," she said quietly, "The appearance of the Lost Land is force majeure, and the loss of the abnormal 099 is not your responsibility - even if the escort was a church ship at that time, the result would probably be the same."
The expression on Captain Lawrence's face was obviously relaxed a little.
Fanna didn't say anything in her mind: After all, "abnormal" is itself wandering on the edge of seals and out of control. Every year, new abnormalities are lost. There are always city-state residents who lose their lives under the influence of strange things. The church has been fighting against these out of control for thousands of years. In the face of this long and huge dynamic balance, the loss of an abnormal thing is actually not unimaginable - even if the abnormal number is within a hundred digits.
But she, the judge, cannot say such words.
"Also..." At this moment, Captain Lawrence suddenly hesitated and broke the silence, "I want to ask, what is the special thing about Abnormal 099?"
Speaking of this, he paused and quickly added: "Of course, I got a piece of information when taking over the escort task, but it mainly involves the sealing method of abnormality 099 and the emergency response method after initial out of control. It does not involve the origin and background of this abnormal object and the situation after completely out of control... You know, it is an abnormality within a hundred people after all. The more ordinary people around it know about it, the more likely it is to lose control. I still understand this rule.
"But now Abnormal 099 has been abducted by the Lost Country. According to regulations, it should be considered completely out of control, so..."
"It's OK to tell you," Vanna nodded without waiting for Captain Lawrence to finish his words, "Abnormal 099 has been out of control of civilized society. According to regulations, its relevant information will be announced to the Adventurers Association and the extraordinary teams of various city-states, in order to capture and reseal in the future. You are a member of the Adventurers Association and the last contact of Abnormal 099, and you should know this information."
Speaking of this, she stopped and thought for a while before sorting out the information she knew, and slowly said: "Abnormal 099, the doll coffin has a gorgeous wooden box like a coffin. There is a doll in the inside, and the doll is a silver-haired and purple skirt, with a body similar to that of an ordinary human;
“The anomaly was first discovered in the Cold Sea in the North, and the figure inside it was extremely close to the Frost Queen Lei Nora who was beheaded and executed by the rebels half a century ago, but there is no evidence to prove that there is a tangible relationship between the two;
“This abnormality has no tendency to think and has no consciousness, but is very likely to actively perceive the outside world and exert influence on the outside world under instinct;
"You should be very clear about the sealing method of exception 099, so I won't repeat it. As for its danger...
"First of all, the doll coffin has a tendency to 'settle down'. Once it stays in a certain area for a long time, it will regard the area as its own territory, and it will be difficult to transfer it again. It will gradually expand its influence in its own settlement, and its seal strength will decrease sharply and become more and more likely to get out of control - this is also a common feature of a considerable number of anomalies, so anomalies need to frequently transfer seal locations to prevent excessive growth.
"Secondly, when the doll coffin is out of control, all humanoid units, including humans, elves, sequins and gippuls, will be used as calibration targets within a certain range. This range is as little as a hundred meters and as much as nearly a thousand meters, and will grow with the time of the abnormal 099's "settlement". The specific calibration standards are not clear. I only know that the selected target will immediately lose its freedom of movement as if it is controlled by a puppet line, and unconsciously bow to the direction of the doll coffin, just like the people of the city-state worship the queen, and once this action is completed... the victim will be beheaded immediately.
"The beheading cannot be avoided, cannot be protected, cannot be exempted. It is meaningless to impose any blessings on the victim or wear armor. The only condition of action is to be ‘selected by the doll’. The victim will directly become a beheaded state after the action is completed. After the beheading is completed, the doll will be temporarily quiet for four to six hours, and then start to look for the next target until no one survives within the range, or the coffin is re-sealed.
"The doll coffin has the characteristics of moving when out of control, it is extremely fast and powerful, and it will break free from capture in various incredible ways. In addition, the coffin itself is extremely strong, so the harm it will be further increased after it is out of control.
"Only one saint survived several out-of-control events in the doll coffin, but that saint happened to have the blood of the frost city-state in the north, so it is impossible to determine whether it was the power of the saint who resisted the curse or because his blood just met the 'pardon's conditions for the doll coffin."
Listening to the calm and indifferent story of the young judge, Captain Lawrence felt his hair stand up little by little.
His first thought was: the city-state authorities are indeed not easy to make money!
No wonder the reward for escort 099 is almost five times that of escort escorts - this kind of death injury that will be launched by completely ignoring protection and dodging, and the effective conditions only require "the doll is staring at you". Put it on an ocean-going ship that cannot escape, it is a terrifying thing that is destined to die as long as it loses control!
Only the Explorer Association's captains who specialize in dealing with "Extreme Survival" will take on this kind of work.
At the same time, he heard the voice of the judge Vanna continue to come: "...For the strange and terrifying ability of the doll coffin, the church specially named its ability when it was filed with the Abnormal 099. This name was named after the torture instrument used by the rebels to execute Queen Frost a century ago:
"Alice Guillotine."
Chapter completed!