Ashes Of Deep Sea-Chapter 303 - 307: Flesh Mass
Chapter 303 -307: Flesh Mass
The small metal badge, stamped with “Cristo Babeli” and the title of captain of the Obsidian, rendered the atmosphere of the scene suddenly quiet and eerie—within the silent, spacious cabin, only the heartbeats thumping could be heard.
“His name was Cristo?” After a long while, Alice was the first to break the silence. She scratched her head, seemingly puzzled, “But the ‘person’ we saw behind that blue door… he also said his name was Cristo, right?”
“If this ship comes from the Frost Deep Sea, then everything on board might just be twisted Replications. Each pile of these twisted things could be Cristo or anyone from the Obsidian at that time,” Duncan spoke calmly, his gaze landing on the middle-aged man who lay on the ground with eyes wide open, hand over mouth, “The key is this… this corpse, which is clearly special.”
“You suspect he is the original?” Fenna quickly caught on, looking at Duncan in amazement, “But… if the whole ship is an obvious twisted replication, how could the original possibly be here?”
“…Our entire understanding of the Frost Deep Sea is based on the limited memories of Teryan, and even what Teryan knew was just a part of the information from the early stages of the entire abyss project—The project has never truly uncovered the secrets of the sea bed below one thousand meters,” Duncan shook his head, “We know very little about the situation at the bottom of the Frost Sea, so our generalizations about the laws governing these ‘Replications’ could very well be wrong. Perhaps within the guise of a fake lies the original or perhaps each fake is an expression after the original has been split. It’s even possible that in the depths of the sea, there’s no distinction between fakes and originals.”
As Fenna listened to Duncan, she couldn’t help but glance at Alice next to her.
Alice, however, wasn’t thinking nearly as much. She just curiously looked at the “Cristo Babeli” on the ground and after pondering for a while, suddenly blurted out, “Why is he covering his mouth?”
“It’s a common reaction in fear,” Maurice casually remarked, “Nothing strange.”
But hardly had his words fallen when Duncan’s voice suddenly rose, “No, it’s strange… He’s not doing it out of fear.”
Maurice looked at Duncan in surprise, only to see the latter squatting beside the corpse with its eerily twisted expression, even leaning in close, observing something attentively.
Thump, thump, thump.
The heart of Cristo Babeli continued to beat, as if with Duncan’s approach, it started to beat even more urgently and powerfully than before.
Duncan noticed the change in the heart’s rhythm, but his attention was mostly on the face of Captain Cristo. After carefully observing, he suddenly discovered something.
“There’s something in his mouth.”
“Something in his mouth?” Maurice was startled, and then he saw Duncan reach out, trying to pry the corpse’s hand away from its mouth.
The resistance felt in his hand surprised Duncan.
The corpse was tightly covering its own mouth, as if even after years of death it was still willfully resisting something!
Duncan didn’t apply much force at first, and to his surprise, he failed to pry the hand away—he knew that if he truly exerted more force, he could easily overcome the stubbornness of the deceased, but before continuing, he seemed to suddenly think of something and stopped.
“Mr. Babeli, if you’re keeping a secret, you can let go now,” Duncan looked into those angrily widened eyes, his voice stable and calm, “Leave the rest to me, with confidence.”
The hand let go.
Below it was a tightly clenched mouth— but the next second, the mouth also relaxed.
Fenna and Maurice exchanged astonished glances, and then they saw Duncan reach in, searching for something in Cristo’s slightly opened mouth.
A soft and slightly nauseating texture came through, Duncan frowned, enduring the awkwardness in his heart as he pulled out a clump of something from the dead man’s mouth.
It was a thumb-sized lump with a dark color and faint blue fibrous lines, very soft to the touch… it felt like some kind of flesh.
Flesh bitten off from some larger entity.
“What is this?” Alice was the first to come over curiously, peeking at the motionless piece of black-blue flesh in Duncan’s hand, then showing a repelled expression, “Ugh… I don’t like this thing…”
Duncan looked at Alice in surprise, this often cheerful puppet lady seldom expressed such quick and clear distaste for something.
And after Alice’s remark, Fenna quickly frowned as well, “I sense a very unsettling aura from this thing—it reminds me of some kind of pollution that’s surfaced from the deep layers of the world into reality.”
“My intuition tells me it’s best not to keep staring at this thing,” Morris followed up, “It’s likely a warning from the god of wisdom. Don’t you feel anything holding it?”
“Feel? No,” Duncan pinched the piece of flesh in his hand, “It’s a bit disgusting to touch, but I don’t feel the kind of exaggerated reaction you’re talking about.”
“Oh, that’s quite normal, after all, your status is different from ours,” Morris said without surprise, then continued, “But one thing’s for sure, what you’re holding is definitely not something that should exist in the real world. It must be the most important clue within the Ghost Ship…”
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His words were cut off halfway through.
Because everyone heard the pulsing sound of the heart beating in the air was quickly weakening.
Duncan looked down at Cristo’s chest that was twisted and opened by decay, seeing the heart that was previously beating strongly now coated in a layer of grey-white, the thumping sound faded to near silence within seconds, and then, under his gaze, the heart suddenly burst into flames and turned to ash in the blink of an eye.
At the same time, a low, hoarse voice that sounded somewhat familiar suddenly entered everyone’s ears. The origin of the voice was indistinguishable, as if the whole ship let out a sigh, “Ah, I see now…”
Fenna was the first to react, “It’s the voice from behind the blue door!”
Duncan looked at the corpse on the floor, seeing “Captain Cristo’s” remains melting like wax, the remains that should have been eroded away by the sea six years ago seemed to be making up for those six lost years, almost instantaneously turning into jagged bone fragments.
He made a decision immediately, turning around to head back the way they came: “Back the way we came.”
Their pace on the return was much faster than when they were exploring.
The group quickly passed through the eerily silent, open ship cabins and the chaotic, twisted inclines, and it was not long before they were back in the “Captain’s Quarters” with the blue door.
The door was ajar, and behind it, the biological tissue that called itself “Cristo Babeli” still silently adhered to the wooden boards.
Fenna took a step forward, and almost immediately, the lump of tissue, as if sensing the movement around it, began to writhe on its surface, emitting a hoarse, low voice, “Ah, you’ve returned.”
“…Captain Cristo,” Fenna steadied herself, trying to make her tone calmer, “There are some things…”
But before she could finish, “Cristo” interrupted her, “I already know, miss—I’ve recalled it.”
Despite the guesses in her mind, Fenna couldn’t help but ask, “You… recalled?”
“If you’re referring to my own death, then I have remembered, though only partially,” Cristo spoke in a deep voice, “I’m dead, aren’t I? Definitely dead… The Obsidian sank, we encountered a Storm and iceberg, we sank down, all the way to the endless darkness—I couldn’t possibly have survived.”
Duncan was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly stepped forward, “Do you know what happened in the depths of this ship?”
“The depths?” Cristo’s voice seemed perplexed.
“Do you remember the details of your own death?” Duncan asked again, “Did you struggle with something? After sinking to the depths of the sea, did anything else happen on the ship?”
Cristo fell silent, as if pondering, and then a slightly regretful voice came from the lump of tissue, “I’m sorry, I don’t remember those details, I only remember… the ship was sinking, it kept sinking, a very, very long process, everyone died, and I was supposed to die, but I just kept drifting in the darkness, it was cold around me, and the visibility was dark, as if I were looking for something in the darkness, this confused state lasted for who knows how long—when I had memories again, it was when I was knocking on this door.”
Duncan exchanged glances with the others.
“Captain Cristo” had no reason to lie.
The captain was only aware of the fact that he had died, but he did not remember anything that had happened in the depths of the Obsidian, nor the fact that “another self” had died in the eerie space at the bottom of the vessel, and he was unaware of the origin of that mysterious piece of flesh.
It seemed the clue was lost.
But Duncan glanced down at his palm—the dark piece of flesh still lay quietly in his hand.
He had made an important discovery.
(Book recommendation time~ “Civilization’s Return Journey,” the protagonist, a trainee officer, accidentally sleeps for 2000 years in a hibernation pod, only to find Earth has exploded and the rest of humanity is missing. After understanding the current situation, the protagonist decides to take the AI with a girl’s appearance by his side, mainly using the settings of Warhammer 40K and Stellaris, it’s a space opera-style story. )
