Mechanical Alchemist-Chapter 573 - 572: The Catastrophe of the Sea of Snakes

The Dawn Brigade journeyed westward, traversing the territories of three-headed dragon birds.

Along the way, they encountered several attacks from three-headed bird flocks, but after the Dawn Brigade members roughly hunted down a thousand of them, those bizarre birds finally realized that these humans were not weak prey but heralds of death, and the attacks dwindled significantly.

The rest of the voyage became much smoother.

The sea breeze was gentle, and the sunlight was warm.

A faint smell of blood wafted on the deck after the battle; the members of the Dawn Brigade were busily erasing the traces and smells of the previous fight, preparing for the next one.

At this moment, Su Lun was sitting on the mast, gazing into the distance.

Unlike other days, he was now wearing a monocle over his right eye.

This was a cursed object he rarely used—Robert's Monocle.

The monocle was originally meant to project True Illusions, causing mental damage to enemies.

But it wasn't rated very high in quality, not being very useful in the combat among high-level professionals, so Su Lun had seldom used it before.

But now, he had found another use for it: creating illusions and projecting them like an image to confuse the enemy.

With his current spiritual strength, he could completely disregard the cursed nature of the monocle, capable of constructing nearly perfect illusory projections.

And at present, it was exactly these projections that were being cast a mile ahead of the Evernight, where a huge black-sailed battleship sailed at a leisurely pace.

This was an illusory projection of the Evernight.

Although it was an illusion, the details of the ship, the busy crew on deck, and even the waves created by the ship in the sea were all incredibly realistic.

Without special perceptive abilities, one would certainly be misled.

The real Evernight that Su Lun was on had already activated an alchemical array for invisibility coating, absorbing the sunlight with a light-absorbing coating, rendering it invisible to the eye.

This technique was normally not capable of fooling the senses of high-level mages.

However, due to the delicate distance, it was quite a reliable insurance.

With his now greatly enhanced spiritual power, Su Lun's Soul Perception could cover a range of several kilometers, a distance which even the vast majority of eighth-tier great mages couldn't achieve.

Therefore, if the enemies wanted to ambush them, getting too close would lead to Su Lun detecting them in advance.

But if they observed from too far away, they would be misled by the illusion.

Well-versed in nearly all the tactics of the Divine Army's magic legions, Su Lun believed his illusion technique might have an extraordinary effect.

....

The towering Hell Volcano was still visible at the edge of the horizon; this was the core area of the Dragon Country's ruins now.

The surrounding sea no longer presented the vast expanse of azure but showed an increasing number of islands.

According to the sea chart, the Dawn Brigade had entered a highly dangerous area.

Over the communicator, Tanni reported on their current navigation: "Everyone, be careful. We're about to enter the Parrot Archipelago ahead. The chart indicates a possible overlord-level sea monster, the Titan Serpent. Watch out for strange objects in the water..."

"Roger that!"

The members of the Brigade heard it and continued their specific preparations.

For everyone, battles had become a daily routine.

Up on the mast, Su Lun was maintaining the illusion ahead with his eyes fixed on the distance.

The Dawn Brigade now had a well-established command system, and Su Lun didn't need to worry about it.

But the further they sailed, the more he felt an inexplicable sense of crisis in his heart.

Su Lun didn't think this was a false alarm.

Having progressed to his current understanding of the rules of death, he had become extremely sensitive to certain causal links that could lead to death.

His premonition of death even far surpassed most sensory professionals and prophets.

However, the current situation was that this sea area was full of danger, and as long as they continued to sail, danger was inevitable, so he wasn't sure where this sense of crisis originated from.

It felt like walking on thin ice, unable to predict which step would lead to a plunge into a frozen abyss.

The Raven Lord on his shoulder remained quiet, which was the assurance that made Su Lun feel somewhat at ease.

With a well-planned navigation route, they were currently sailing through the Parrot Archipelago, which was marked as a three-star (★★★) danger level on the sea chart.

Even if they encountered a monster attack, according to the danger rating on the chart, it was likely to be below ninth-tier.

It shouldn't be too fatal.

However, without any warning, a beam of light, like a shooting star, descended from the sky and in a thousandth of a second, pierced through the projected Evernight, exploding a few hundred meters high wave on the sea surface.

The light bomb was also enveloped in a heat so intense that it twisted space itself, burning a large hole in the sea and billowing clouds of white steam into the sky.

The attack was so sudden that Su Lun's pupils shrank sharply, and he cried out in his heart, "A demi-god forbidden curse, Divine Punishment Light!"

That beam of light turned out to be a demi-god level spell.

Facing an attack near the speed of light like this forbidden curse, Su Lun himself might be able to teleport away in an instant, but the Evernight would undoubtedly suffer a devastating blow.

Seeing the huge waves caused by the magic explosion before him, he also felt immensely relieved, "That was close!"

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The stronger the magic, the longer it took to chant and gather magic power.

Because they didn't want to be discovered, they must have launched from an extremely long distance.

Su Lun was also lucky that he had conjured an illusion; otherwise, if that previous strike had been aimed at the Eternal Night, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

Watching the ship ahead being pierced in one hit, the recently bustling crew of the Eternal Night froze, their movements stopping as they all swallowed hard.

Even the seasoned warriors' faces turned pale.

Because none of them was absolutely sure they could have avoided that strike.

But it wasn't over yet!

Before anyone could react, two more beams of light struck the same spot.

Releasing three forbidden spells regardless of cost, it seemed like those beings from the Divine Plane were intent on completely wiping out the Dawn Brigade in one fell swoop.

The shockwaves from the forbidden spells whipped up huge waves at sea, revealing the blurry outline of the Eternal Night's invisible coating in the wake of the shockwaves.

The Dawn Brigade didn't dare feel any sense of relief.

Because they knew if the enemy realized they hadn't sunk them, there must be more to come!

In an extremely short time, the Dawn Brigade's sensers had calculated the exact location of the magic release, and the various combat channels immediately erupted with noise.

"The enemy is at 11 o'clock direction, eight miles away!"

"Adjust the ship's left cannons for a covering volley! Load and fire the [T1 Blast Bomb] from the number three main cannon! Shoot the [Magic Interference Shells] from the close defense cannons in rapid succession!"

"Change course, widen the distance..."

"..."

The Eternal Night immediately responded by moving away from the direction of the magic release, and the cannons belched flames in unison.

In a flash, cannon fire roared deafeningly, and shells flew across the sky.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"..."

The sounds of gunfire merged into one.

Cannons had a longer range and a higher firing efficiency than magic, which also made them a formidable weapon against Mage Legions.

The best tactic in battle was to create distance.

After several rounds of cannon fire, a large expanse of explosive mushroom clouds appeared to the northwest in an instant.

The mages from the Divine Plane were clearly out of reach and there were no more magic fluctuations.

Su Lun watched the distant flames, his eyes narrowed, feeling far from optimistic.

The enemy did not have better ships than the Eternal Night, so it was unlikely the main force could catch up.

If a small number came after them, the Dawn Brigade wasn't worried.

The enemy clearly understood this as well.

Yet, since they had made their move, they must have been very confident.

This sub-god-level forbidden spell was strong, but definitely not their only resource!

As expected.

Right then, Tanni's voice carried a warning through the communicator, "Be careful, everyone. The fish in the sea are saying there are a lot of monsters coming from the northwest!"

No sooner had she finished speaking than Su Lun's perception detected countless soul fluctuations.

He had speculated that the beings from the Divine Plane might use sea monsters to launch a surprise attack, but it wasn't unexpected.

But the density of these monsters caught him off guard, "Why are there so many?"

In the distance lay a vast expanse of mist, making it impossible to see clearly what was on the sea's surface with the naked eye.

But Su Lun could clearly sense a dense, hive-like cluster of soul fluctuations, so tightly packed they seemed innumerable.

What surprised him was that most of these soul fluctuations were very weak, roughly that of second or third-tier beasts.

"What kind of monsters are they?"

Su Lun was puzzled.

But those creatures were even faster than the Eternal Night and, as they drew closer, he spotted some formidable beings of level seven and eight.

Before long, the monsters burst through the mist. Su Lun took a closer look and realized it was a horde of snakes!

Countless poison snakes surged over the sea like a tide, overlapping, rolling, squirming... their dark mass was eerie to behold.

And those powerful presences he perceived turned out to be serpent-haired sirens!

In mythological legends, gorgon women with snake hair could control poisonous snakes, and their hair itself could transform into countless poisonous snakes...

And such a scene of countless snakes swarming is called the "Sea of Snakes disaster"!

It's like the passage of locusts, where all living beings are wiped out.

This is the legendary terrifying strength that could slay gods.

Witnessing this scene before him, Su Lun had now experienced another of the legendary disasters.

The members of the Dawn group were also quite shaken.

"What the hell, why are there so many snakes? It gives me the creeps."

"Eh... there seems to be 'women' among those snakes?"

"..."

Hearing that the others hadn't realized what this was, Su Lun intended to remind them, but unexpectedly Phantom Thief Kit suddenly shouted through the communicator, "Fuck, those are gorgons with snake hair! Careful, don't look into the eyes of those gorgons!"

This guy, having previously suffered from a petrifying light ray, knew all too well how formidable this monster was.

And right after, Tanni's mother Frida also issued a stern warning, calling out urgently, "Be careful, we must keep our distance. Even without looking directly at a top-tier gorgon with snake hair, one could still be affected by the petrifying light ray! To control such a vast swarm of snakes, there must surely be an eighth-tier gorgon among them!"

As the only person in the Dawn group who had been petrified, she was well aware of the danger.

It was the "Sea of Snakes disaster" that had destroyed the entire Naga tribe and dozens of intelligent species near Rainbow Island.

This snake disaster, like a plague, left her with indelible terrifyng memories.

...

Eighth tier?

Even with those words, Su Lun's brows furrowed.

An eighth-tier gorgon with snake hair could almost be considered a top-tier being in this plane.

Yet seeing the gorgon with snake hair, Su Lun was also puzzled.

He knew that the people from the Heavenly God Plane had cooperated with the gorgons with snake hair, but before at the outskirts of King Aike's capital in Silver Dragon Country, wasn't a suspected eighth-tier gorgon killed by Helen, who had completed her trial and transformed into Queen Medusa?

What was the situation here now?

What was going on with Queen Medusa Helen and the swarm of gorgon women?

The map had marked an island populated by gorgons with snake hair close by, within about a day's journey. Because they were uncertain of the risk, Su Lun and the others had specifically avoided that direction. Yet, they still encountered them.

However, at this moment, thinking about it was pointless.

Su Lun closed his eyes too, using Old Crow's shared field of vision to watch the mass of snakes chasing after the Eternal Night.

Over the communicator, the mechanical group leader Dora also issued intensive bombardment commands based on the coordinates provided by Su Lun, "First and second layer cannons, continue fire suppression; third layer cannons, load [Alchemical Scatter Bombs], cover and scatter! Fifteen degrees north by east, Deck Four main cannon, fire!"

"Boom rumble~"

"Boom rumble~"

"…"

The Eternal Night's firepower was fully operational, pouring out alchemical ammunition like it cost nothing.

This snake tide could also be seen as a kind of legion fight—the more there were, the less room they had to dodge.

Even without deliberate aiming, when the shells fell, they inevitably blasted open gory sections among the mass of snakes on the sea's surface.

A few hundred cannons could kill hundreds of thousands of low-tier poisonous snakes every second.

However, not even a hint of relief appeared on Su Lun's face.

Through the crow's field of vision, he saw that even with the Dawn group's intensive firepower coverage, the number of snakes in the chasing tide wasn't decreasing at all but was increasing more and more.

And dealing with low-tier Poison Snakes was one thing; as long as they were numbered, even if they caught up, it wouldn't be a huge problem.

The tricky part was the gorgons with snake hair hiding among the swarm.

Even after Su Lun reported accurate coordinates and the shells accurately hit their mark,

the main cannon shells, capable of heavily damaging an eighth-tier, also turned to stone amidst the gray light swirling around those gorgons with snake hair!

"Petrifying light rays really are unsolvable..."

Seeing this, Su Lun's brow was tightly knit.

That was his concern; the previous antidote for petrification had been used up. Without a solution to petrification, they absolutely could not forcefully confront the gorgons with snake hair.

Moreover, the difficulty was that even now he couldn't understand the principles behind the "petrification curse" at the level of Divine Arts.

Not understanding it naturally meant that he couldn't find a solution.

The Eternal Night could only continue to fire and retreat.

And as they were firing, suddenly Tanni issued another warning, "On our southwest side, a large number of monsters have appeared!"

Su Lun looked, and in another direction of their retreat, the same endless snake tide appeared.

It seemed like a planned interception.

The Dawn Brigade couldn't afford a head-on confrontation, so they were forced to alter their course, avoiding being completely surrounded.

However, it was in this situation that Su Lun keenly sensed something amiss, thinking to himself, "It seems like these snakelike monsters are herding us toward a specific direction?"

This was a common method both in military tactics and in the natural world where magical beasts hunted prey.

A trap is set on several sides, leaving an opening to drive the prey in a certain direction.

Su Lun didn't think it was a coincidence; he immediately used the communicator to notify, "Tanni, Perception Unit, pay special attention to sensing our path ahead, and see if there's any danger."

A prompt response came from the communicator, "Yes!"

After a while, a response came through the communicator, "Mr. Su Lun, we haven't found anything abnormal."

Even Tanni and his mother's perceptive abilities had not detected anything amiss.

Yet, the lack of anomalies made Su Lun all the more cautious.

But the snakelike monsters seemed fearless, confident that if they did not flee along their planned route, they would have to face the overwhelming tide of snakes head-on.

In such a situation, one could say that even a ninth-tier would die here.

Even for Su Lun, the only way out would have been to teleport away.

However, he did not intend to expose his escape ace, the "Space-Time Ring of Urobolos," unless absolutely necessary.

But with the situation as it was, it seemed highly likely that some deadly danger lay ahead of them...

For a moment, Su Lun also found it difficult to choose, "Could there be something even more dangerous ahead than the 'Sea of Snakes disaster'?"

He was also somewhat puzzled.

Just these snakelike monsters and their snake swarms were already dominant forces in this sea area.

What could be more formidable than them?

However, not long after he put down the communicator, suddenly, a strong soul fluctuation appeared in his soul perception.

It seemed as if they had used some kind of Space Arcana, teleporting to a spot less than a hundred meters behind the Eternal Night.

How could the snakelike monsters teleport?

It was probably the work of Mages from the divine planes.

"Seventh-tier snakelike monster!"

Su Lun's expression turned grim.

In the shared vision of the black crow, the moment the snakelike monster teleported, its hair of snakes instantly launched a wide range of petrification light toward the Eternal Night.

Although at this distance, the snakelike monster couldn't petrify those who did not look directly into its eyes, the moment its light shone, the entire Eternal Night was as if affected by "Slowing Light Beam," its speed immediately decreased.

However, the members of the Dawn Brigade also reacted swiftly.

The moment the snakelike monster released the petrifying light, a Frost Flower Sword Qi suddenly slashed out.

With a "swoosh", blood sprayed in all directions.

The hideous, snake-covered head was sent flying into the sky.

A seventh-tier snakelike monster was already breathless.

However, these snakelike monsters probably had no knowledge of the human society and were naturally unaware that someone within the Dawn Brigade could kill it with one strike.

Approaching this close was simply courting death.

But seeing this, Su Lun was now one hundred percent sure that the snakelike monsters' aim was to herd them toward the southeast, toward the unknown sea region marked with a "mist pattern" on the seafaring map.

...

"We can no longer continue to sail..."

At that moment, Su Lun had made his decision.

Intuition told him that even if it meant revealing his trump card, he absolutely could not continue to sail according to the enemy's plan!

Otherwise, if they delayed any longer, they might encounter an attack more lethal than the previous "Divine Punishment Light."

However, just as he was about to order the crew to activate the vessel's space alchemy array and then escape by taking the Eternal Night into a small void world, suddenly, a strange voice came through his mind, "There lies a slumbering sea monster named Setes to your southeast, which will be awakened by the presence of humans."

Spiritual transmission!

Upon hearing this, Su Lun immediately located the person sending the message based on the barriers of spiritual power transmission.

Clutching the black umbrella in his hand and sensing again, he instantly recognized the soul fire as belonging to Helen, Queen Medusa, with whom he had some past encounters!

Why was she here?

Why was she warning me?

Numerous questions surfaced in Su Lun's mind.

But no matter the other party's motives, Helen's words confirmed his own suspicions.

To the southeast lay deadly danger!