by Feng Yue
Heavy rain poured from the sky, and fell on the felt cloth, causing it to evaporate and rise into the sky again in a thick fog of steam, only to condense and fell as water droplets again upon encountering the cold air above. Cold fog and hot air met in the sky, strangling each other. Finally, they blended together, forming layers of sickly white clouds.
It was as if hundreds of iron furnaces were working at the same time, or as if lava had broken through the crust of the earth and was flowing over the ground. An appalling amount of heat were constantly spreading out from the workshop.
The viscous and scorching air escaped from the valves on the door with a rotten stench.
It was like the breath of living things.
“Is it really alright to build a ship this way?” Igor stood on top of the cliff and looked down, his gaze fixed on the covered workshop. No matter how many times he had heard the explanation, he still felt incredulous, as the production method employed was truly beyond his imagination.
“The current stage of our industrial development is not advanced enough to produce such a massive thing the conventional way, so we could only do it in an alternative manner.” Carol, who had been appointed as the chief engineer, held his umbrella as he looked down and observed his work. He said, “Now the entire port and anywhere less than five hundred meters from it are within the radiation range of the alchemy reactions.
“An alchemical reactor of such a gigantic size would cost as much as half the national treasury and would take more than ten years to manufacture. “Furthermore, it can only be used once, as it would be destroyed in the process, and it has to be recycled as waste after that. The whole process requires more than a hundred alchemists to collaborate, using up countless materials and funds. “We do not have so much capital and time to waste.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be blessed with such favorable conditions, Captain Igor, we must keep everything simple. “
“This is considered simple?” Igor was shocked.
He squatted on the edge of the cliff, then lay down to look at the huge workshop more closely.
Under the cover of the heat-insulating felt cloths, the workshop was like a monster of a gray-black color lying on the harbor of refuge, crawling and rolling around in gluey motions, convulsing in the rain as if it was alive, but also abhorrently ugly.
So ugly that it looked terrifying.
Five days ago, the musicians of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith removed the entire harbor of refuge, then built a dam at the estuary, turning whole entire port into an enclosed, bowl-like structure.
The ‘bowl’ was covered, and only a warm murky stream of water spewed out steadily from the dam. The turbid water containing alchemical elixirs and toxic metals exuded a pungent stench, staining the black ocean water white.
The hull was being manufactured in it.
As the organization that had inherited the legacy of the Religious Court of Inquiry, developing various methods to utilize demons was almost instinctual to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Plus, many demons themselves were excellent raw materials. With such a precious resource like the Mountain of Nomadism, they couldn’t possibly let it rot and spoil.
The development plan, which seemed budget-conscious to most, was considered imprudent by the old devils of the Court who had gotten used to being thrifty.
If the Congregation had a complete industrial system and enough supporting resources, they definitely wouldn’t agree to such insanity of wasting the huge piece of precious material on a goddamn ship.
“In some sense, it cannot be considered a ship at all.” Carol said, “We are just utilizing the resources at hand to as best we can, leveraging the molecular activeness of the Mountain of Nomadism’s flesh to grow it into a ship.
“If we have enough resources and time, it’s even possible to create a ship that can fly in the sky forever, occupying the sky like the winged people… Damn, those bastards not only monopolize the resources of the star belt, but also deny us access to the deep sky…”
“For me, having a boat in itself is more than enough, Mr. Carol,” Igor interrupted.
He sniffed the pungent smell coming from the workshop, looking intoxicated. “I don’t give a shit about whether it’s alive or dead, or whether it’s the child of catastrophes. I’m happy as long as it is a ship and I can sail it. Of course, it’ll be even better if it can take down a legendary warship in one go.”
He wanted to witness the process in the core of the workshop, but it was a pity as there was no way he could get close to it.
The interior of the workshop had been transformed into a petri dish that was super enormous in size. A dense forest consisting of large quantity of fungi toxic to humans grew in it. Lethal toxic gases and corrosive alchemical materials were everywhere.
Such was the most suitable environment to cultivate artificial flesh.
Beneath the cover of the gray-black felt cloth, the sea water had been transformed into a viscous culture medium of dark yellow. Innumerable muscles and organs of a tender red color floated within like seaweed, growing slowly…
Except for the musicians who were cultivating them and the engineers wearing three layers of protective clothing each, no ordinary creature could survive in that environment.
Even from a long distance, one could still smell the rich scent of blood spreading constantly.
Within the past few weeks, the smell of blood had attracted a large number of the vile spawn of the sea.
The endless demons that swarmed towards the port had all become the practice targets of the organists, their bodies contributing to the building of the ship as raw materials or cultivation media.
The organists, carefully selected by Maxwell, were undisputed elites, each of them fitting the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s requirements for newcomers perfectly — although they had impure faiths and questionable pasts.
But during such a critical period, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith naturally wouldn’t concern themselves with the rules of the past pedantically — In fact, only the young men whose minds were preoccupied with glory and the conquest of the east might have trouble accepting the fact that the rules could be bent. As for the older men, they all had no trouble with seeing which way the wind was blowing. Shi Dong had even told Ye Qingxuan all the secrets of the old Religious Court of Inquiry, and he couldn’t care less about such rules.
They only cared about the fundamental purpose, and apart from that, the end would justify the means.
As long as the Religious Court of Inquiry could be re-established, the glory of the olden days restored and the long-cherished wish to conquer the east realized, they wouldn’t think twice even if the price was that they must assassinate the Pope.
Among the organists brought along by Ye Qingxuan, the majority would be trained to become the new generation of the Witch Hammer in the next few months.
The rest were aged men whose paths had been fixed and were almost irreversible. For them, rather than to spend their lives doing a half-ass job as a member of the Witch Hammer or as a purifier, it would be better to continue along their own path. So, they chose to quit after taking part in certain courses.
The results of the short-term training course of the Congregation were remarkable.
In the short span of a few days, most of the organists who had had combat experience, or had been knights even, had mastered the main techniques and skills that would originally require one to two years to learn. Although they were still lacking in certain aspects, what they needed was just the accumulation of experience over the years.
In the past few days, the outcome of the fights against the vile spawn of the sea had made the old men who took time off their schedules to check on the progress laugh with glee. The new generation of the Witch Hammer was in embryo. Unfortunately, the progress of the musicians was still slow — although they were provided with a lot of purifying movements and esoteric music theory,
those of them whose sound of heart movements had formed already had their own style of music. While they could still learn the techniques of the Religious Court of Inquiry, the learning process was much lower in terms of efficiency as compared to the purifiers who were cultivated from a young age.
Regarding this, the old devils were willing to let nature take its own course.
Musicians take a long time to cultivate, as music is not something that can be learned all at once — even express musicians, whom orthodox musicians look down upon, require three months of training.
Presently, in addition to guiding more than ten musicians, who had yet to enter the level of Resonance, to switch to learning purifying music theory, the old devil in charge of the training, who still bore a youthful appearance, had started hatching a plan involving Ye Qingxuan… The relationship between Ye Qingxuan and Maxwell was obviously no secret. When Maxwell dies, as the reserve sword-bearer, Ye Qingxuan will be the first heir to his inheritance. I wonder if Anglo’s Royal Academy of Music would mind having a new department then?
If Maxwell knew that a member of Ye Qingxuan’s relief troops was looking forward to his death before even arriving at Avalon, surely his expression would be very interesting?
Boom!
Another dull bang came from the depths of the stronghold.
Igor and Carol were stunned for a moment. They turned and looked at the stronghold.
The fortress was shrouded in moonlight of an indeterminable source, making it seem ethereal and illusory all the more, almost as if it was dissipating. From the depths of the stronghold came loud bangs and roars one after another, but it seemed a long distance away from them, and they could only heard the dull echoes.
“Something went wrong again?” Igor sighed and said, “What the hell is happening in the advanced training course?”
Carol couldn’t help but gave a wry smile.
He replied, “To tell the truth, I’m curious as well.”
548 The Remnants
The room was so noisy. A giant table was in the huge basement, on the walls of which were numerous maps with all kinds of marks on them. Documents and files were scattered on the floor, leaving barely any room for Ye Qingxuan to stand.
Everyone in the room was so busy and anxious. The cigarette smoke mingled with the unpleasant smell of saliva and sweat. Combined with the hot air from the thermostat matric, the air was stifling.
“Our defense collapsed!” the bald old man beside the table cried, with a copy of a document in his trembling hand. “The defense line fell completely due to the mistake of the commander of our fleet in the West! Avalon was lost!” The old man lost his voice and beat his chest. He suddenly vomited a lot of blood and fell on the wheelchair.
“General Norin! General Norin!” The people around him panicked and shouted, “Medic, medic!” Two old men limply got up and pushed general Norin away.
In the chaos, one old man swept the document off the table and shouted, “Coward! Coward! Where is this commander of the west fleet? Get him on the stake! Burn him!”
“Burn him!” Other people waved their hands.
“No! You cannot do this!” The commander shouted, “I have my strategic considerations! Anglo cannot fight against this catastrophe now. You cannot do this! Let me see the Grand Inquisitor! Let me see the Grand Inquisitor!”
“Go to hell, you coward!” An old man with an oxygen mask on his face got up angrily. He took the decorating sword on the wall and stabbed the commander in the stomach. There was no blood but only wires of some mechanical entrails coming out of the hole produced by the sword. The sword went through the gap between the entrails, causing almost no damage at all. Yet the commander, overplaying his role, screamed and fell on the ground.
“Carry him out!” An old man with a metal pipe on his neck, wearing the hat of the top commander, waved his hand and said, “Now we can only count on the southern corps. Get me the map of Asgard!”
“Sir, we have no map of Asgard. Please make do with the map of Caucasia.”
“You fool! How can that work!” The top commander shouted angrily, “This is serious negligence! Military police! The white-haired kid, you, come here! You are the military police now. Get this guy away and burn him!”
Not knowing what to do, Ye Qingxuan paused. The old man urged him again, and the old man accused of negligence cocked his eye at Ye Qingxuan and gestured to him. Ye Qingxuan reluctantly pushed him to the side and two other old men who had been eating sunflower seeds covered the accused man with a sheet of red cloth to imitate the fire. Under the red cloth, the old man screamed as if he were really burned alive.
What the hell was this?
Ye Qingxuan was totally shocked while the commanders were still giving orders at the headquarters. Reports and urgent orders came and went, deploying troops. Yet all the reports and telegraphs, after they were signed out, were dumped in a dustbin in the corner along with cigarette ash and fish bones.
Pretty soon, things turned for the better under the “command” of the headquarters. Yet ten minutes later, the situation went out of control. Following the fall of Anglo, the Western Desert and North Ice Field were both lost to the enemy. Then Asgard was occupied, Burgundy was divided, and all of Caucasia was set on fire as a strategy to defend the enemy, leaving no one alive there. Finally, only the Sacred City remained, fighting alone against the dark world.
Silence fell. The commander in chief took his hat and shouted hoarsely, “Comrades, we are now in grave danger. We must guard the Sacred City! We shall not lose! The 10007th Crusade will not end here!”
All the other old men followed him enthusiastically. Then in harmony, someone shouted, “Wait a moment!” The old man who had been “stabbed to death” got up with a huge book in his hands. “You made a mistake! I had six Instruments of harmonious melody for enchantments fully charged. How was it possible that I lost all my troop after one assault by the enemy?”
The old man in charge of calculations glared at him and said, “Out of 100 points, you got only nine for weather conditions! Failure! The enemy was helped by the storm. You didn’t have enough supplies and lost half of your musicians. The instruments self-destructed!”
“I had topographical advantages!”
“That was canceled out!”
“Sh*t! This is against the rules! You son of a b*tch, your calculations were wrong! I also bought two airships! But you didn’t count them! Get them back to me!”
His mistakes exposed, the calculator felt embarrassed and shouted angrily, “I made the rules for sea battles! I modified them! You got a problem with that?”
“Yo, heretic! I’ll kill you!”
“Come and get me then! You are a son of a bitch if you don’t!”
They got more and more excited and began to fight in no time, despite their old age and deteriorating health. Those around them wanted to pull them apart, yet those who were “dead” were also making trouble, leading to total chaos in a few minutes.
It seems the 10007 crusade will end here. Ye Qingxuan shouted at them from aside but he was completely ignored. He heaved a sigh and had to wait. Then, a sunflower seed shell was thrown on his head. He turned back and saw an old man waving at him, sticking out his head from behind a curtain.
“Hey, young man. You, come here.”
Ye Qingxuan lowered his head in dismay, wondering what the old man would ask him to do. Yet after he got behind the curtain, he couldn’t help but hold his breath.
It was only a curtain away, yet it was totally different here.
He saw, besides piles of untended documents and files, numerous machines piled up with all sorts of wires. He was quite familiar with them as he had seen them in the hospital. An oxygen maker, a heart rate monitor, a blood pump… Numerous wires stretched out from above the ceiling, beneath the floor or behind the walls, and were connected to the old man in the heavy iron chair to support his life.
The half face Ye Qingxuan saw might be the only flesh left of the old
man. Half of his cheek was replaced with metal and many other parts of his body were also patched with metal. The skinny old man was almost wrapped up by the machines. He had an artificial heart, a lung made of steel, a man-made spinal column and half of his skull was transparent, through which the silver electrodes in the withered brain could be seen…
Sitting on the chair facing the wall, he could hardly move any part of his body. On the wall was a narrow window through which he could see the ocean where some fire was burning.
It was torture to live like this.
“Scared?” The old man signaled Ye Qingxuan to sit, then said in his odd voice produced by metal vocal cords, “You have come here from afar. Sorry that I could not get out to meet you.”
“It’s okay. I’m still young. I’m able to cover long distances as long as I can see the one in charge here.” Ye Qingxuan looked at him carefully. He could see the wrinkles and the age pigmentation on his face, yet he could not tell how old the man was.
“I know why you are here.” The old man heaved a sigh and patted the armrest with his left hand. “Mr. Ye, you want to see us, but we are not what you expected. There is no one in charge here. We are only a bunch of defeated losers.
“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has collapsed. We hide in this neglected corner only to heal our wounds. Even our leader has died in the Sacred Court. You want to find a glorious temple, but we only have the ruins; no value at all. Am I not right, Mr. Ye?”
After a short silence, Ye Qingxuan took off the Sacred Belt and put it aside. Looking at the old man’s eyes, he said, “I need your help.”
“I know.” Seeing the Sacred Belt beside Ye Qingxuan, the old man seemed to be a little emotional. He moved his figure and pointed at it. “May I have a look?”
Ye Qingxuan put the Sacred Belt into the old man’s hand. The old man held it tightly. Feeling the texture of the belt with his fingers, he smiled with a hint of nostalgia.
“The Sacred Belt of the Grand Inquisitor. It has been 100 years since I last saw it.”