The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

“Hard to port! Turn! Turn!”

Marquis Molodo’s voice pierced the quiet, followed by the ratcheting sound of the ship’s wheel turning. But despite this noise lasting for a while, it was still impossible to feel the fast sailboat turning around.

“We’ve been hexed by the devil, Captain, we can’t turn the ship!”

“There’s no wind, no waves, even rowing won’t get us anywhere!”

“It’s over, it’s truly the Devil Cloud, it’s Marquis Cohen’s Ghost Ship, coming to take vengeance on us!”

“I shouldn’t have peeked at Lady Gaia bathing in the tavern, truly, I knew I’d face retribution!”

The sailors were already petrified.

Marquis Molodo was also out of options, the fast sailboat was as if under a freezing spell, motionless, waiting for the collision with the ghost ship.

“Douson, Multiple Stone Spikes!” Liszt, seeing the Captain was out of options, suddenly decided to strike first, pointing at the ghost ship and giving Douson the command.

Douson, very nervous due largely to the atmosphere, had no idea what the ghost ship opposite was, and upon hearing Liszt’s command, immediately spewed magic from his mouth.

Pfft!

Pfft!

Pfft!

Several Rock Spikes protruded from the ghost ship’s deck one after another, but unexpectedly, these Rock Spikes did no damage to the ghost ship; instead, they fell directly off the deck, and you could even hear them plunging into the sea with a splash, splash.

“This…”

Liszt wanted to say this was unscientific.

But after seeing dragons, elves, specters, and Black Dragon Wraiths, what else could be scientific? Perhaps, in this fantastical Different World, the existence of such things was scientific, merely inexplicable by science.

In a daze.

Some sailors had begun to scream, clutching their heads, some even wetting themselves from fear; the Captain slumped in the cabin, his bottle of wine wobbling, wanting to drink but unable to lift it to his lips; even the normally brave Li Vera gripped her longsword, shouting shakily: “Don’t!”

Unable to resist!

Everyone watched helplessly as the ghost ship, with an unavoidable posture, collided head-to-head with the fast sailboat, bit by bit.

“Hold tight!”

“Prepare for boarding combat!” Captain Layden raised his Knight’s Longsword and bellowed, “Knights, summon your courage and charge with me!”

His display was worthy of a knight’s stature, fearless and valiant.

However, the atmosphere wasn’t as he imagined; the collision never came. The decaying ghost ship simply passed through the fast sailboat, like a mist, without any physical presence.

“Uh…”

With his Knight’s Sword raised, Captain Layden was somewhat dumbfounded.

At that moment, the previously tense Levis suddenly burst with courage: “Liszt, Li Vera, gather around me! Captain Leo, organize the knights to hold the deck. We’ll stay right here and collide with these damn phantoms. Knights with Dou Qi are invincible in battle!”

Liszt gripped his Crimson Blood Sword tightly, quickly joining Levis: “I was just thinking of fighting side by side with my brother and sister!”

As he spoke, he deployed the Eye of Magic in his eyes.

He could see the ghost ship burning with green ghost fire, its structure outlined by magic, slowly engulfing the fast sailboat. Or perhaps not engulfing, but passing through like a phantom. In the blink of an eye, the decayed hull was already rushing towards him.

The decayed wooden hull was tattered, and one could even smell the stench of rot.

It looked very real, but this ghost ship had already “swallowed” several sailors who failed to dodge in time. Their cries for help could still be heard as they sat on the deck calling out for salvation.

Creak!

The grating sound burst through the eardrums as the Eye of Magic, pushed beyond its limits, collapsed in an instant.

Liszt and the others were also swallowed by the ghost ship, and everything in front of them seemed to change in an instant. He was no longer standing on the deck of the once-fast sailing ship, but on the crumbling deck of the ghost ship. The surrounding area was shrouded in mist, and he couldn’t see Paris, Levis, and the others who were just beside him.

But that was only what the naked eye could observe.

It was as if he were trapped on the ghost ship; he even extended his foot to probe a hole in the deck, and indeed he could actually slip his foot in, meaning he truly was standing on the deck of the ghost ship.

“Why is this happening?”

Suppressing his anxiety, he thought rapidly but could not understand why one moment he was standing firmly on the deck of the fast sailing ship, and the next he was on the deck of the ghost ship, stepping on it and hearing the creaking as if the boards would break at any time—very real, not an illusion.

“Levis!”

“Li Vera!”

He called out, but there was no answer, only the creaking of the wooden boards.

“Douson!”

“Paris!”

All without response. The mist was swirling, the light dim, and even the will-o’-the-wisps he could see earlier were now gone: “Have I been trapped inside the ghost ship? Why is this happening, are my senses experiencing an illusion? Or have matter and spirit twisted at this moment?”

The triangular theory believed by magicians surfaced in his mind; he remembered what Granney had said about the theory—the constant transformation of matter, magic power, and spirit.

But the Crimson Blood Sword was still in his hands; he refused to believe that so many people and the vast fast sailing ship could be transformed so swiftly.

“I must be having an illusion!”

“Yes, an illusion!”

Rubbing his eyes fiercely, the feeling of fatigue seemed to have subsided a bit. He immediately cast the Eye of Magic again. In a flash, everything around him underwent a drastic change. He saw where his companions had gone; their human shapes outlined by magic power had not strayed far.

They were just spinning in place, even brandishing weapons to fight, engaged in infighting.

He saw Levis, desperately swinging his sword at the air in front of him. He saw Li Vera, holding her sword and trembling. He saw Captain Layden, who had chopped down an Apprentice Knight to the ground.

Then, he spotted Paris, right behind him, less than a meter away.

Douson was over there too, but Paris and Douson hadn’t noticed each other. Paris held her knights’sword and vigilantly surveyed her surroundings, while Douson kept opening his mouth, apparently barking.

At that moment, the movement of a magic power figure alerted Liszt—the subject had fallen from the deck into the hold of the ghost ship.

Which meant, even though these people, including himself, were plunged into illusions.

The place they were in was no longer the fast sailing ship but indeed the ghost ship, for only the ghost ship would have such a decayed and hole-riddled deck.

Without the time to ponder the reasons, Liszt moved straight towards Douson and then slapped him hard on the back: “Douson!”

Douson turned and snapped, shooting a Rock Spike.

Luckily, Liszt was prepared, he twisted away and continued to slap Douson while constantly calling out: “Douson! Have you even forgotten your master?”

But Douson seemed completely unresponsive, his dog eyes confused as he continued to recklessly release Multiple Stone Spikes.

It wasn’t until Liszt took out a piece of jerky, found the opportunity to stuff it into his mouth, that Douson finally bit down hard on the jerky, then shook his head, his dog eyes regaining clarity.

Seeing clearly the person in front of him was Liszt, he held the jerky and barked joyfully: “Woof woof!”