Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 555

Chapter 555: Chapter 556: Contact Chapter 555: Chapter 556: Contact “Before we know more, we can't recklessly perform destructive testing on this material–especially after confirming that it has a living heart inside,”
Ted Riel said while opening his hefty tome, retracting the “stethoscope” back into the pages. A complex expression appeared on his always tired-looking face.

“Frankly, this is the strangest 'thing' I've ever seen in my life. I've seen plenty of indescribable entities that invade the real world, but a pulsing metal mass is not so common, and it's so… quiet,”
“Quiet?” Lucracia asked, unconsciously frowning upon hearing this.

“Yes, quiet, almost harmless,” Ted Riel nodded, “As you have seen, its 'shell' has almost solidified. According to the field team, it had a brief period of vigorous activity just after it entered the real world, but it quickly changed into this 'solidifying' state. Moreover, it hasn't shown any 'active characteristics' like trying to escape containment, contaminate the guards, or resist external probing…”

As the secret-keeper spoke, he slowly shook his head: “This is very unusual among 'living' 'anomalies'–an attempt to break containment is the prime characteristic of all 'living anomalies'.”

Lucracia didn't speak for a moment, while Nina gradually revealed a thoughtful expression. It was unclear what she was pondering when she suddenly said, “Does it seem like it's 'tired of living'?”

“That's an interesting… perspective, although I don't think this living metal would have such a human response,” Ted Riel glanced at Nina, but clearly he didn't take this whimsical thought to heart, “I am more inclined to believe that it's unable to adapt to our world's living conditions, but with time it might gradually acclimate, and then it might go through another phase of increased activity.”

“Tell us about what happened at the market,” Duncan interrupted the silence, his gaze falling on Nina and Sherry, “Nina, when you contacted me, you said that you and Sherry felt an inexplicable surveillance, and were about to report it to the watchers nearby when this 'thing' suddenly appeared?”

“Yes, yes,” Nina immediately nodded, recalling the situation as she spoke, “Multiple times, Sherry and I felt like we were being watched, and there was a presence drawing near. I believe it was this thing–later, when Sherry and I were about to find someone to report it, it couldn't contain itself and sprang forward, and…”

She suddenly stopped, a hesitant look on her face. After several seconds of hesitation, she spoke again with a frown and less certainty: “Moreover, there's a very disturbing detail I'm not sure I saw correctly. When this thing first appeared, in the corner of my eye, I thought… I thought it was a person.”

Nina's voice was full of doubt, and the room went quiet at her words. Even the usually weary and lazy Ted Riel suddenly widened his eyes. However, before he could speak, Sherry, who was closest to Nina, was the first to exclaim, “What? What did you say? It was like a person at first? Why didn't you tell me?”

“The field team's report didn't mention this,” Ted Riel spoke, his expression extremely serious, “Miss Nina, are you certain?”

“That's why I said I'm not sure if I saw it wrong,” Nina said a bit nervously, “The market was chaotic, with people running everywhere. I might have been mistaken… Or maybe the watchers on the scene missed it. After all, it was just for a moment at the beginning…”

“It's unlikely, 'Strict Contact Process Recording Standards' are enforced in the protocol of the watchers. Since many 'anomalies' indeed have the ability to rapidly change themselves or avoid detection, we require personnel executing 'first contact' to provide a detailed description of 'the initial moment of contact', and whether anyone's gaze shifted during the action, to ascertain if there was an 'observation gap' with the target…”

Ted Riel briefly explained the protocols of the “Knowledge Guardians,” then shook his head: “According to the field team's report, they initiated contact the instant the target entered the real world, with at least two guardians watching the spot where it appeared even before it manifested. There was also at least one person watching it continuously throughout the encounter, so there was no possibility of an 'observation gap'.”

No sooner had he finished speaking, Duncan suddenly broke the silence, “But I believe what Nina said.”

Ted Riel looked taken aback, as if realizing something, “…What do you mean?”

“At least from Nina's perspective, this 'invader' looked like a person at the very beginning,” Duncan said calmly, then glanced at Sherry, “You were with Nina all the time, and you didn't see that moment, right?”

“No,” Sherry immediately shook her head, “I didn't see it 'like a person'.”

“Different observers, leading to different 'forms' observed on the same target?” Ted Riel's eyes evidently underwent a change as he looked at Nina with surprise and contemplation, “And only Miss Nina saw something different from everyone else around… Why is that?”

He seemed to be filled with great curiosity, and his gaze quickly turned to Duncan: “Does Miss Nina have something special about her?”

This “Keeper of Secrets” looked quite puzzled; he wasn't aware of Nina's background. After all, Nina would seem like an utterly ordinary seventeen-year-old girl to an outsider, provided that one doesn't actively invoke “Spirit Vision” to observe her–but without a doubt, this “ordinary girl” must have something special about her.

Simply because she was able to stay aboard Duncan Ebnomal's ship.

“Have you heard of the 'Black Sun Descending' incident in Prailand? If so, you should know that when the Homeloss left that city, it took away some fragments of the Ancient Sun,” Duncan said, pointing at Nina, “She is one of them.”

He did not pay attention to Ted Riel's suddenly animated expression but instead refocused his attention on Nina, “Do you still remember what that 'person' you first saw looked like?”

Nina immediately tried to recall and finally spoke after a moment, “It seemed like a person wearing strange ancient armor, the kind you see in history books, like a can of iron… Oh, and a ragged scarf, or maybe a short cape? Because it was just for an instant, I'm not sure about too many details…”

She paused then added, “Because they were wearing a helmet, and the armor seemed very thick, I couldn't tell what the person inside looked like, not even if they were male or female, but I could feel that the armor was tattered, as if it had been through many battles.”

“A warrior clad in ancient armor…” murmured Lucresia on the side. She quickly pondered and asked another question, “Then how did this 'person' transform into a mass of living metal? Did you see this process?”

“No,” Nina shook her head, “in an instant, it turned out this way, as if there wasn't a gradual change… Maybe I blinked? I'm sorry I can't remember clearly… ”
“Remembering this much is already very impressive, you've provided some crucial and important information,” Duncan said, consoling the somewhat downcast Nina, before turning and walking over to the platform where the “sample” was placed.

He looked at the solidified “living metal” with a serious expression, sorting through the information he had grasped so far.

In the first moment, “it” appeared to be a warrior wearing thick ancient armor, and moreover, the armor was worn and battle-scarred.

Nina had repeatedly felt eyes on her, creating a sensation of being tracked, which suggests this entity likely came for her, or perhaps… for the “Ancient Sun.”

People came and went in the market, but no one noticed anything unusual when Nina first felt the gaze and the sense of being tracked, indicating that “it” either possessed some kind of perceptual disruption ability or had “transitioned” into reality from a deeper world like the Spirit Realm…

Duncan slowly reached out his hand, pressing it against the “metal's” surface.

A cold, hard sensation transmitted from his fingertips.

He felt as though he could sense the heart buried deep within this mass of metal, its slow pulsations, and the deep heartbeat sound.

It was alive, alive in a way incomprehensible to humans.

It seemed to have had a purpose but encountered an accident at the very last step of its mission–it appeared from hiding and lunged at Nina and Sherry, likely not intending to become a solidified mass of metal in the end.

Ted Riel looked nervously at Duncan's actions, then subconsciously shifted his gaze to the “witch” nearby.

Lucresia just shook her head, signaling not to interfere.

A trace of pale green sparks appeared at Duncan's fingertips.

He carefully controlled the flame, ensuring it did not ignite the metal in front of him, which clearly belonged to the “Transcendent” category. He let the fire permeate into the metal, sensing its life flow, its heartbeat, and possibly existing… thoughts.

However, all that responded to him was a vast emptiness and a blurred, chaotic “sense of touch.”

There seemed to be no information inside the metal that could be “interpreted.”

Yet, for some reason, Duncan always felt there was something hidden in the depths of that void and blurred chaos–it wasn't that he couldn't find it, but that he temporarily couldn't “understand” it.

“… Who are you?” he couldn't help but ask silently in his mind, “Where do you come from?”

After an indeterminate amount of time, that vast emptiness remained, yet within the faint signals returned by the flame, a ripple seemed to suddenly appear.

Duncan felt as if he heard a voice, or rather, an “intention,” emerging in his own mind–
“We are trekking toward the end of days.”

Chapter end

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