Deep Sea Embers

Museum… The Oceanographic Museum near the Crossroad… Nina!

Nina was visiting the Museum near Crossroad with her classmates this afternoon, precisely in the direction of the rising smoke.

Duncan was about to rush to the rescue but promptly realized that running from this block to the museum was unfeasible. Even if the smoke was visible to the naked eye, the winding roads would waste a lot of time. On top of that, it was not realistic to take a taxi – not to mention no sane taxi driver would willingly drive towards a fire.

He was very urgent, not stupid. After quickly going over his options, he suddenly found himself coming up with a new idea, a bold one at that.

“Ai!!” He summoned in his heart and quickened his pace to dodge into the shadowy ally of a nearby building.

The green ghost fire sparked into existence, and Ai, who was patrolling nearby, appeared out of thin air. First flapping her wings to show her joy at not having to search for the cultists, she promptly lands on the man’s shoulder.

Can she really “bring” me to the museum?

Duncan stared at the bird a bit, seemingly wondering if he should do this. But then the indecision shifted to firm determination. He had no room to choose otherwise. He had no live cultists to test his idea, and it’s already proven the bird could shuttle items without damaging them. And if worst comes to pass and he loses control of this body in Pland, who’s to say he couldn’t repossess it a second time?

“I want you to do a delivery,” Duncan caressed Ai’s wings, “send me to the museum in the crossroad. It’s near the large white building you flew over this morning.”

Ai tilted her head in a humanistic fashion and glanced at the bellowing smoke in the sky: “A shotgun trip?”

“Just say you can or cannot.”

“Make some…”

“Deal.”

Without saying a word further, the dove flapped her wings vigorously and burst into a puff of green flame that shot out of the street.

Near the Crossroad Maritime Museum, the firefighters who rushed from the fire station have already begun to fight this emergency. Thanks to the relatively good infrastructure of the neighborhood and the special nature of the museum itself as a public establishment, there are not only permanent fire units stationed nearby but also sufficient emergency pumps and evacuation ports. Therefore, it wasn’t too difficult for the firefighters to rescue some of the trapped tourists inside through the side wings.

Unfortunately, the story these folks brought out wasn’t so positive though. They discussed the horror of how the fire started. According to their own words, the flames came out of nowhere, whistling fireballs throughout the depths of the museum. Some even say they saw a strange and distorted figure crawling out of the flame in distress, a clear sign that corruption from fear has begun to take hold.

But professionals are professionals. Some priests and resident guardians of the chapel swiftly charged into the fray to light incenses around the victims. This would calm the most agitated and reduce the risk of further contamination.

Meanwhile, in the shadow of the building dozens of meters away from the Museum Square, a ghostly green flame lit into existence and rose up from the grounds. It swirled and condensed, then merged into the shape of a human until Duncan finally materialized in his form.

As he expected, Ai arrived at the museum by “flying” rather than “instantaneously” as she usually does when going from the Vanished to the shop.

Duncan glanced at Ai, who had landed on his shoulder, noting in his mind the new experience and the feeling of “teleportation”.

This shows that there must be an anchor point for the bird to use if she wanted to teleport. It wouldn’t work otherwise.

As for the feeling of being “carried” by Ai during the flight … It’s quite the wonderful experience.

He did not lose consciousness during this process, but he could not smoothly observe the surroundings either. How to describe it, it’s similar to someone watching the perceptional view through a screen.

Maybe…… this is because Ai’s body structure is very different from that of humans, or it may be because Ai has her own will and cannot be completely taken over.

But these are all minor issues, and Duncan doesn’t care about it now – unlocking Ai’s “new features” in a hurry today was already a huge gain. He could figure out the details at a later date. Right now, the most important thing was confirming Nina’s situation and her safety.

Of course, the flight was not as fast as teleportation, and it took him a few minutes to “fly” over from the nearby street. Though it was already very fast compared to running or taking ordinary transportation, the man still didn’t want to delay it any further.

From where he stood, Duncan saw the large burning building that was divided into three floors. The first and second were burning the most ferocious with billowing smoke gushing out of the windows. If there are any safe spots left, it would have to be the roof.

Thankfully, firefighters knew this as well. They’ve activated several hydrants on the edge of the square, and huge high-pressure water jets are now spraying the museum’s main structure in an attempt to suppress the temperature on the exterior walls to prevent further collapse. This would not only bide time for the authorities to rescue more victims inside and bring them to the square, but also to prevent the fire from engulfing those who manage to flee to the roof.

Duncan ran straight towards the survivors at the square as his first point of contact, checking to see if Nina was among them. There, he overheard what the victims were saying in their description of the flame.

“…… Fire suddenly came out of the air! It really appeared out of thin air! It’s as if it has been burning for a long, long time, but no one has seen it, and then it popped into existence!”

“I also heard a whistling sound, a sharp whistle like that of the devils!”

“…… I definitely saw a scorched man crawling out of a room. Oh goddess protect me! The guy was wearing clothes from decades ago… He crawled out of the room, but that room hadn’t even caught fire yet! The fire started after he climbed out!”

The survivors at the edge of the square were extremely anxious and hysterical, many of them describing the terrifying scene in erratic manners. By the time Duncan came over, the storm priest with a thick black beard had already been at the scene and frowning.

“The panic rate is too high. One-third of the people are mentally unstable, and these people are showing signs of being contaminated by supernatural powers…” The storm priest took on an ugly expression and quickly said to the guardian next to him, “There may be unclean things in the museum… When will the cathedral support arrive?”

“At least half an hour.”

“…… No, it’s too late. If there is really something unclean, I’m afraid it will get out of control in less than ten minutes looking at this scale…” The black-robed priest turned his head to stare deeply at the museum. Then swinging his head over to an attendant beside him, “Ask the police force to take control over this location too.”

After saying that, he pulled off the priest robe he was wearing to reveal the black shorts and trousers underneath. Then raising the “Storm Codex” in his hand, he began praying loudly and with power.

“Please bear witness! Our bravery be our strength!”

The rest of the guards joined and shouted in unison: “Please bear witness!”

After the prayer, a faint layer of water mist had floated around several storm faithfuls, wrapping around their bodies like the shelter of the waves. In the next second, they charged towards the building that was still burning without falter in their expressions.