Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 230. Collapsed

Listening to the words coming from the brass box, Daniel clenched his hands and crushed the device into fragments. Staring at the white light's growing intensity, he hurriedly grabbed a life raft hanging on the ship's edge, tossed it onto the deck and pulled both siblings toward it.

"Remember! Survive! Don't seek revenge for me!" Daniel commanded before spitting out seven or eight red stones mixed with blood onto the raft.

Before a tearful Margaret could respond, Daniel's muscles tensed up, and he hurled the lightweight raft like a paper airplane, flinging it far into the sea.

Daniel didn't wait for the raft to hit the water. He turned toward the control tower and roared, "Charge! For Cavendish!"

With a blare of the ship's horn, the flaps over all the gun ports on the three remaining Royal Titans opened. The warships advanced toward the spider up ahead with its propellers spinning furiously.

"Brother! We can't let Father charge to his death like this!" Margaret cried out in desperation.

Jack remained silent. With a pained expression on his countenance, he carefully gathered the blood-stained red stones on the raft and pocketed them.

A blinding dazzle of light illuminated the entire sea region. The Cavendish siblings squinted their eyes instinctively. When the glaring light faded, the Royal Titan that Daniel was on came to a gradual halt.

Thump! Thump!

Margaret could hear the sound of her racing heartbeat in her ears.

No... It can't be! Impossible! Father is invincible!

Accompanied by the creaking and screeching of metal, the Titanic-sized ship slowly split down the middle into equal halves. The two sections crashed into the sea and churned giant waves that pushed the life raft even further away.

As he watched the dramatic, majestic downfall of the Royal Titan unfold on the black-and-white screen, Swann let out a joyous whistle as he lounged comfortably on his leather couch.

"Though it took a full three years to build this, it was indeed worth the effort, don't you think so, Your Holiness?" Swann asked as he turned to the enormous stone sculpture next to him.

The statue nodded in agreement. "Your mechanical engineering skills are truly impressive. I thought you would need an even longer time."

Swann let out a hearty laughter. "Mechanical engineering is the foundation of the Albion Isles; it was necessary. I invest a lot in those universities every year, all for this purpose."

Swann lifted his glass and downed the contents in one mouthful. He then looked at the Pope with a hint of curiosity in his gaze. "I'm still rather intrigued. Where did you get all these technical blueprints and the actual items?"

The Pope's eyes narrowed into slits, and he shook his head. "There's no need for you to know. As long as you accomplish your mission, I'll reward you with benefits beyond your imagination."

"Oh? It seems like you have quite a few treasures, Your Holiness. Let me guess, they must be from inside that overhead crack on Hope Island, aren't they? Won't your Light God get angry over you taking these things so casually?"

The smile slowly faded from the Pope's face and was replaced with a cold glare. He directed his glare at Swann.

Swann, who was sipping on his second glass of wine, suddenly sprayed his drink onto the screen in front of him. He frantically lifted his hands and clutched his throat. Choking sounds escaped from his mouth as he realized that he couldn't breathe.

His face turned pale to crimson and then to a deathly gray.

The indomitable Governor of the Albion Isles just mere seconds ago was nowhere to be seen. Now, he was kneeling on the ground and kowtowing to the Pope for mercy like a pitiful dog.

Just as Swann's eyes turned white and his consciousness faded, the suffocating sensation disappeared.

Lying on the ground, Swann gasped for air rapidly.

He had never appreciated the preciousness of ordinary breathing more than this moment.

A cold, murderous intent flickered across Swann's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it before anyone could notice. He lowered his head and groped around his neck.

Cracks had appeared all over the Pope's stone sculpture, and specks of light could be seen within the fissures. He leaned forward and looked down with an oppressive gaze at Swann.

"I don't care how much you hate me. But if you dare to disrupt or delay my plans, I'll make sure you suffer a hundred, a thousand times worse than what you had just experienced!"

With his head bowed, Swann returned to his seat and watched the still-resisting vessels on the circular screen. He pulled out a brass horn and shouted through gritting teeth, "Spare none of them! Kill them all! And I want to see the bodies of all Cavendish! Every single one!"

***

By now, Margaret and Jack had already changed their vehicle and gotten onto a speedboat. Disregarding the distant sky ablaze with artillery fire, Jack steered the vessel toward the docks of Whereto.

Whoosh!

A bright firework exploded in the sky.

By the time Jack and Margaret reached the harbor, a car was already waiting for them. Jack dragged his sister, whose eyes were red from crying, and hurried into the back seat of the vehicle.

Margaret trembled involuntarily as she leaned against her brother, trying to seek some semblance of comfort. However, Jack had no intention of consoling his sister. He pulled out a dagger and swiftly began extracting small red stones from underneath his skin.

When the car stopped at the entrance of the Governor's mansion, Jack already gathered a handful of these stones. He pocketed them all and pulled his sister along through the main entrance.

"Jack! What's with all this blood on you? Where's your father? How did the negotiations go?" their mother, Kalytha asked as she approached them with an anxious look on her visage.

Jack offered no reply. Instead, he grabbed Kalytha by the wrist and pulled her along toward the study.

Upon reaching the room, he expertly pressed down on a book on the left side of the study and a secret passage opened up before them.

Leading his mother and sister down the spiral staircase, they soon arrived at a spacious underground river. A steamboat of the same size as S.S. Mouse floated upon the water's surface.

"The ship has everything needed for escape. After getting out of here, seek refuge in the other regions. The Northern Seas would be far from peaceful for a long while," Jack advised before jumping off the ship.

Margaret seemed to have realized something and reached out a hand frantically. "Brother, hurry up and get on board!"

Jack grabbed her hand and gently kissed the back of her pale hand.

"I can't. I'm the eldest son. If I were to disappear, they would definitely do everything they could to find me."

With that, Jack pulled out a small packet of stones wrapped in cloth from his pocket and tossed it to her.

"This is the Cavendish Family's heirloom. Take it. I can't protect you on the journey ahead, Margaret. It's time for you to grow up."

"Then, I won't leave either!" Margaret declared in an agitated tone and was ready to leap off the ship.

But before she could do so, a hand reached out with a glass vial and swiped it under her nose, and she collapsed on the deck.

"Please take good care of my sister. Thank you all," Jack said to the five individuals who had materialized from thin air.

"Understood!" the five echoed in unison with a salute.

Jack watched the ship vanish into the darkness before he turned and walked leisurely back up the stairs. He seated himself in his father's office and picked up a family photo from the desk.

He gently traced his fingers over the four smiling faces in the picture. A tender smile appeared on his face as he reminisced about the happy memories.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed when he heard the commotion outside growing louder.

"Time sure flies..." Jack muttered as he pulled out several red orbs the size of ping-pong balls from the drawers and stuffed them into his mouth.

Swallowing them as they were was painful and unbearable, but Jack showed no hesitation. He endured the pain in his throat and shoved all of them down into his stomach.

Just as he felt that the red orbs were almost piling up to his throat, he finally stopped. He lit a cigar and waited for his guests.

Bang!

The door was kicked open. The moment Jack saw the intruders clad in the navy uniforms of the Albion Isles, disappointment flickered across his face.

"Where's Swann?! Tell Swann to come see me!"

The soldiers ignored his demand and raised their guns at him.

Jack's face broke into a self-deprecating smile. He opened his mouth and inhaled deeply on the lit end of the cigar.

A deafening explosion echoed across the Isle of Whereto. The bewildered islanders turned their gazes onto the source of the sound. It had come from the Governor's Mansion—the Governor's Mansion had collapsed.