"What’s the plan, Dear?" Reina asked. Standing close enough for her shoulder to brush his.

"We follow at a distance of three kilometers." Jack said. "Keep the invisibility active. Rune, monitor their presence. If you see their signatures start to fade, glow red."

Rune bobbed her head. Her tiny body emitted a steady blue light.

The fleet began to move an hour after the daybreak. Captain Wellcrow's White Crow took point. Its sails were billowing as it led the way south. They were moving toward the Barrentree Island route. A path most sailors currently avoided due to the Hungry Mist threat.

...

For two days, the journey was monotonous but tense. Jack's crew stayed in a state of high readiness. Leon, Ned, Bell, Moby, and Barnaby took turns on watch. Their eyes were scanning the horizon most of the time. Not just for hostile ships or creatures, but also for any sign of the mist.

Jack spent most of his time in his workshop. Working on various types of practical steamrune gadgets.

...

"Sparkle feels it." Chloe suddenly said on the third morning, when the crew members were having breakfast in the main cabin. "The air... it tastes electric. Like a thunder storm that refuses to break."

Chloe showed them Sparkle, her lightning kirin cub. The small creature was restless. Its fur was crackling with tiny bluish sparks.

Jack activated a runic function of the ship with his mental command. Turning one side of the wall transparent. Showing slightly misty horizon. "That's not a storm, Chloe. We're close now. That's the Hungry Mist."

By midday of that day, the temperature plummeted. The bright blue of the sub-tropical ocean began to turn grey.

In the distance, a wall of thick fog appeared. It didn't look like normal sea mist. It was thick, grey, and had a pearlescent sheen to it. It stretched from the surface of the water up into the clouds. An endless barrier of smoky grey.

The five ships in the fleet ahead slowed down. Jack watched through his binoculars as the White Crow signaled the others. They were moving into a defensive formation. Captain Wellcrow was no fool. He knew the danger was imminent.

"They're preparing to enter." Argust's voice could be heard from the internal communication device. "Ten minutes to contact."

"Maintain distance, Argust!" Jack commanded. "But prepare to change direction when I tell you to."

"Understood, Captain!"

Jack turned to Moby. "Moby! Prepare the ship's anchor. If the mist tries to pull us in faster than we want to go, we might need it to slow us down."

"Aye, Captain!" Moby replied and quickly moved to his designated position.

Jack raised his steamrune binoculars and kept observing the five ships in front of them.

The White Crow hit the mist first. As its bowsprit vanished into the grey, the sound of the ocean seemed to cut out. One by one, the Black Adder, the Blood Butcher, and the Sea Wraith disappeared into the gloom. The Morning Light seemed hesitated for a moment, before following the others into the unknown.

Jack's [Eyes of Judgement] flared to life. He, with the aid of the binoculars, was now close enough to observe the phenomenon...

[Phenomenon: The Hungry Mist]

[Type: Inter-dimensional Spatial Gate (One Way)]

[Destination: The Grim Spirit Sea]

[Properties: Soul Erosion, Spatial Distortion, Temporal Lag]

[Description: This is a one-way gate to a dangerous spatial realm. It emits mist energy that affects physical and spiritual erosion. The gateway destination, the Grim Spirit Sea is a realm of stagnant souls and forgotten echoes. Time and space are non-linear there.]

Jack lowered the binoculars. His eyes narrowed. "It's indeed a one-way spatial gate." He said. "The destination is the Grim Spirit Sea."

"Is that bad?" Serene asked. Her face was pale but other than that, she managed to control her fear well.

Jack looked at his crew. Most of them, even the Baroness, looked unsettled.

"I've heard of that." Baroness Artheim said. "It's a realm of ghosts and mysteries. It's a place where nightmare could casually manifest itself. A realm where curse and madness were common things." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"We can still turn back." Chloe suggested. Though she didn't sound hopeful.

"No!" Jack said. A mischievous smile touched his lips. "For others, that realm might be a dangerous thing. But did you forget where you are now? Silent Mermaid is a ghost ship. Grim Spirit Sea won't affect her and anyone within her... us."

He looked at the tiny, glowing Rune. She was pulsing a deep green and gold, interlaced with bright red. The color of opportunity, fortune, and danger. Mixed into one.

"Alright everyone! Get in the deck!" Jack commanded. "The mist released eroding energy that affects our physical and spiritual state. It's dangerous on the deck. Inside though, the Silent Mermaid's power will easily protect us."

The crew immediately left the deck and moved inside the ship. Jack followed behind them. He would probably be fine on the deck due to his [Mythical Adaptation] trait. However, he chose to stay with the crew. There was no need to show off that trait.

"Steady the helm, Argust!" Jack ordered once he was inside. "We are going into the Hungry Mist."

"Understood, Captain!" Argust's voice replied as he steered the Silent Mermaid toward the mist wall.

Inside the main cabin, Jack activated the transparent wall again with his mental command. The crew could watch the mist wall getting closer and closer.

It was an incredible view. Majestic yet terrifying at the same time. Most of the crew members felt a shiver run down their spine as the ghost ship took them, crashing against the mist...

Right after the Silent Mermaid crossed the mist wall, the world changed. The sun was gone. The sky became a reddish, eternal twilight. The water beneath the ship changed from blue sea water to a thick, viscous black fluid that didn't splash so much.

Jack observed his surrounding. He focused his [Eyes of Judgement] on the environment. It told him that they were no longer in the original realm. They were now sailing on the Grim Spirit Sea.

The Silent Mermaid glided deeper into the reddish world. Still invisible and silent. A ghost ship entering its natural habitat.

Behind them were the thick fog, but without any sign of spatial gateway inside. They couldn't return through the same gateway.

Ahead, the lights of the five mortal ships flickered like dying candles in a storm.

Jack looked at that direction. He took out his binoculars and used his [Eyes of Judgment] again to do the scanning. He wasn't looking at the ships. He was looking at the water.

The black fluid sea began to churn. It didn't foam like sea water should. It bubbled and rose in thick, strange manner.

"Something is coming..." Jack said. His voice was flat and observational. Devoid of the panic that was currently erupting on the mortal ships.

From the depths of the black sea, a shadow emerged. It was so huge that it dwarfed the White Crow. It was a dark spectral creature. A giant serpent. But then, the head of this shadowy serpent split into seven. It wasn't a spectral serpent. It was a Seven-Headed Spectral Hydra.

The hydra wasn't as big as the sleeping one in the Purplesky Realm. But this one was still huge. Each head was the size of a carriage. Dark, translucent and glowing with a pale, necrotic blue light. Its body was a mass of shifting mist and solidified malice.

The attack it initiated was sudden and brutal. The hydra didn’t roar. It hissed. A sound that vibrated in the marrow of the crew's bones.

One head lashed out at the Black Adder, the smuggler corvette. The spectral fangs passed through the hull of the ship as if the wood were smoke. The after effect was terrifying.

The wood withered. Turned to grey ash. And the ship snapped in half. Its crew didn't even have time to scream before the black liquid swallowed them.

The Sea Wraith fared no better. Two heads converged on the schooner. Both breathed a cloud of freezing, spectral mist. The ship and the crew on deck turned to statues of black ice instantly. Another head crashed against the frozen ship and broke it to pieces, like a fallen glass.

"Damn! That's a total annihilation." Reina whispered in shocked tone. Her hands were already on the holsters of her handguns. Ready to draw them anytime. "Those two are definitely gone."

The remaining three ships... Wellcrow's White Crow, the pirate galleon Blood Butcher, and Arthur Vance's Morning Light, didn't stay to fight. They were either led by veterans or, possessing experienced expert within.

They immediately scattered to different direction. None of them bothered to launch a counterattack that would attract the monster's attack instead.

Captain Wellcrow's ship banked hard to the port. Its sails were unnaturally full. Likely powered by the mystical artifact it possessed. The Blood Butcher headed starboard. Its crew members were frantically dumping cargo to gain speed.

The Morning Light, on the other hand, just barreled straight ahead. Steamrune lines glowed on its hull. Pushing it forward like powerful steam engine.

Jack watched them go. He considered following Wellcrow. The man was likely had a plan or at least a map. But then, a soft golden light pulsed from his side.

Rune, the steamrune fairy guide, glowed bright. It wasn't her usual soft glow. Her metallic wings vibrated with a joyful, rhythmic hum.

She pointed her small, glowing hand toward a direction that none of the ships had taken. A sharp forty-five-degree turn away from the path of the Morning Light.

Jack knew what the golden glow meant. Rune had sensed 'treasure'. And seeing the strong glow, this was either abundant in quantity, or extremely high in quality.

Jack didn’t hesitate. He wasn't here for Wellcrow's schemes or the Golden Seagull specifically. He was here to gain fortune.

"Argust!" Jack called out to the internal communication device. "Turn forty five degrees starboard. Full speed but maintain invisibility. Ignore the fleet and the monster."

"Understood, Captain!" Argust's voice replied. Sounding relieved to be moving away from the hydra.

The Silent Mermaid turned. Its hull cut through the black sludge sea with eerie silence.

The hydra was busy playing with the wreckage of the Black Adder. Ignoring the invisible ghost ship. As they sailed away, the red sky seemed to redder.

The silence of the Grim Spirit Sea closed in around them.

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