Chapter 872 — The Ocean
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The chaotic torrents of magic and the raging wind and waves were like an immense forest, churning a vast stretch of sea into a terrifying spectacle—yet a "forest" must always have its bounds. Out of the curtain woven from towering waves and roiling energy, a ship wreathed in a powerful shield burst through layer upon layer of surf. A suddenly upwelling current flung it high, and it plunged on, staggering and crashing across the heaving surface, until at last it reached calmer waters.
Brilliant sunlight and a gentle sea breeze gathered round together to welcome this challenger that had overcome a thousand perils.
A sailor crawled out from his hiding place, then cast a flight spell and rose to the upper deck. He gazed toward the stern and saw a gray-black wall of cloud receding swiftly from view, while bright, radiant sunlight shone upon the sea around the Courage—a contrast so sharp it seemed like two different worlds.
"...Goddess of Magic..." the sailor murmured. "That was far worse than any magic turbulence I ever saw in the mage's tower..."
"We need to recalibrate our course," said another sailor, also coming up to the upper deck. He raised his head to the clear sky, and suddenly several pale blue rings of light appeared before his eyes; within the "lens" formed by those layered rings, starlight flickered without cease. After a moment, the sailor frowned. "Tch... we've drifted off course after all. Good thing it isn't by too much..."
In the Courage's command room, the mage-controller floating in midair looked toward Count Owen Dyson. "Captain, we are recalibrating our heading."
Owen Dyson nodded. "Get us back on the right course as quickly as possible—the disordered turbulence out on the ocean can reappear at any moment, and the longer we linger in this region, the greater the danger."
Powerful magical energy flowed between the ship's compartments; the magic arrays that covered nearly the whole vessel and the crew stationed throughout had already been brought to maximum efficiency. Because so much equipment was damaged—even the prototype magic-energy engine had suffered a serious breakdown in the earlier storm—the advanced exploration ship could now sail almost only by manpower. Fortunately, the amplification arrays in the main hull were still intact, and the sturdy anti-magic shell had protected the spellcasters aboard when the magic turbulence struck, so the ship could still carry on its mission in reasonably good condition—the only good news among all the bad.
"We'll have to reassess the 'disordered turbulence' out on the ocean," Owen Dyson could not help reflecting on this voyage now that the situation was a little safer. He looked at the first mate beside him, his tone grave. "It isn't simply wind and waves mixed with magic turbulence—the fact that it appeared without any warning before is the most dangerous part."
"We built the 'warning astrolabe' after the holy relics of the old Storm Church, but it seems it hasn't done its job—at least not reliably," the first mate said, shaking his head. "It did go into a frenzy once the Courage fell into the storm, but all that did was fray everyone's nerves."
The warning astrolabe...
Count Owen Dyson could not help looking toward a long table near the porthole. On that table, carved with intricate runes, a complex magical device was fixed at the center of a magic array. It consisted of a core sphere and a great many orbits and small spheres revolving around that core; it looked much like the celestial instruments astrologers used to calculate the motions of the stars, but its core sphere did not represent the earth—instead it brimmed with a seawater-blue glow.