Ch.9696. Voyage (3)

That day, as always, I began preparing lunch on the fifth day of our voyage, sensing the stirrings from the Desert of Death.

“How about chicken sandwiches?”

“……Sounds good!”

Today’s meal was chicken sandwiches, which is fried chicken placed between bread… simply put, a chicken burger.

Hamburger buns, a piece of fried chicken, some sliced onions, and a bit of special sauce.

A simple composition, but precisely because of that simplicity, it’s a combination that can’t help but taste good.

Additionally, at least for me, chicken sandwiches aren’t particularly difficult to make.

Inside Sophia’s devil essence storage, there are not only large quantities of boneless fried chicken and hamburger buns… but also various sauces I’ve made myself, each stored in bulk.

Since it’s impossible to cook everything from scratch every day, I prepared various meal options in this quasi-“subway” style, and finding myself in this situation, it turned out to be a decent meal in its own way.

Anyway, as our pleasant mealtime was coming to an end……

[Master—!! Enemy, enemy!!]

[I’m returning now! There’s a ghost ship!]

From Corinne, who had gone out with Gretel for “reconnaissance and flight training,” came the news that a ghost ship was approaching our location.

In my previous life, the term “ghost ship” meant an empty vessel drifting alone without people, and in this world, the meaning isn’t much different.

However—while there are no living people aboard, the interior crawls with undead.

In this life’s oceans, given their level of danger, ships occasionally drift or sink with their entire crew perishing, and these vessels, where everyone on board has been slaughtered, transform into independent mobile otherworlds under the influence of the corpses.

Depending on the case, they might even develop abilities like underwater submersion, becoming literal “ghost” ships.

[Is it submerged?]

[No submersion! It’s floating on the water!]

Fortunately, according to Corinne’s report, this pirate ship doesn’t seem to have submersion capabilities, but……

That doesn’t mean we can underestimate the danger of a ghost ship.

A ghost ship is ultimately “a vessel that has undergone undead transformation.” Thanks to its unique characteristics as both a colony-type undead and a mobile otherworld, a ghost ship becomes a powerful undead with various special abilities.

After transforming the crew members who were aboard when the ship sank or was annihilated into undead.

Binding their souls to the ghost ship so they remain eternally bound unless the ship itself is purified—this is just a basic characteristic of ghost ships.

In this case, the “master of the otherworld” who dominates the ghost ship is called the captain, while the remaining undead are treated as “crew members,” residents of the otherworld.

The crew members are typically low-level undead with self-awareness… not exactly zombies or skeletons, but “ghost ship crew” undead that retain the damaged parts of their former bodies.

The crew members have corpse-like appearances with barnacles or dead coral attached all over their bodies, and missing body parts are roughly patched with broken metal prosthetics or chunks of seafood.

Of course, there are exceptions among them, such as ghost crew members or skeleton crew members, and there are plenty of mid-level crew members as well.

And the combat power of these crew members should never be underestimated.

Being fundamentally immortal, they fight without regard for their lives, and even if they die, their bodies reconstitute and revive in about 10-20 minutes.

The various environments of the ghost ship, treated as an otherworld, support the crew fighting there and guarantee them an even more advantageous environment.

Additionally, even after becoming undead, they mostly retain their combat abilities from when they were alive, and mid-level undead are no exception.

In fact, sometimes the captain or the ship’s strongest becomes the master of the otherworld and runs rampant, and the fact that this is a warship already speaks volumes.

The ship’s cannons or firearms become “ghost weapons” that fire magical bullets, and it’s common to find ancient “supplies” generated inside the ship.

Some ghost ships even develop independent consciousness in the vessel itself, moving like living beings, while others lose their physical form entirely and fly through the sky as spectral ships.

Of course, these ghost ships have various effects as “otherworlds.”

From intuitive aspects like healing effects for undead or physical ability enhancement, to powers that grant spectral characteristics to subjects belonging to the otherworld.

Furthermore, they can enhance the “captain’s” abilities in proportion to the number of crew members inside.

Additionally, ghost ships affected by otherworldification have dramatically improved durability, and naturally, when destroyed, they gradually regenerate through their inherent power.

In other words, each ghost ship is essentially a mobile maritime-undead fortress.

“Sophia, Corinne says she’s spotted a ghost ship.”

“……That’s serious.”

So I informed Sophia of this while trying to open the pouch I received as a reward from the last subjugation…… when suddenly, I noticed something unusual in the flow of life force around us.

An ominous atmosphere, as if rushing somewhere in a crowd, and voices from outside the room that felt strangely heated.

Perceiving all of this, I… finally became aware of the priests aboard this ship.

……..The priests of the Chronima Temple, who believe that life exists solely for battle and war.

※ ※ ※

Right after Sophia and I came up to the deck. We both captured a truly amazing scene in our eyes.

And what was that……

“”””Kill! Kill! Kill the heretics!!””””

“””””Fight! Annihilate! Burn them!!”””””

“”””Uoooooooooh─!!!””””

Hundreds of priests engaged in “battle” with the ghost ship, shouting so loudly it bordered on madness.

Armed with shields and one-handed weapons from who knows where, they were fueling their fighting spirit while casting holy magic with various strengthening effects on each other.

Individually, from an objective viewpoint, these novice priests might not be considered particularly strong, but instead, they possessed a passion bordering on madness.

‘……These people are kind of scary.’

That was Astra’s reaction as she hovered near my soul, observing them.

-Whooooosh─

The undead ship, which had appeared as a dot in the distance, was rapidly approaching, and from that ship—the ghost ship—cannonballs surrounded by blue “ghost fire” began to fly toward us.

[Get behind me─!]

-─BOOM!

Of course, the incoming cannonballs were deflected by the protective holy magic deployed by Lady Dorthea, who had stepped forward, and meanwhile, the distance between the ghost ship and this armed transport vessel continued to shrink……

-KABOOM─!!!

In the meantime, the cannons mounted on the sides of the armed transport ship roared to life in counterattack.

Just below the deck of the armed transport ship. The Venetian armed transport ship, with 10 cannons placed on each side, has such impressive performance that it’s hard to believe it’s not a warship, but….

The problem now is that this ghost ship is rarely one where most of the hull is spectral. In other words, it’s a unique type of ship where destroyed parts have been replaced with ghostly matter.

While our cannonballs pass through the ghost ship without inflicting even the slightest damage, the ghost ship’s cannonballs can inflict plenty of damage on us.

But that alone cannot win the battle.

In this era where the performance of gunpowder weapons is relatively lacking, naval battles are ultimately decided by hand-to-hand combat at sea.

And…… how could our army of war god priests possibly lose to a bunch of undead riffraff?

The flow of battle was one-sided. Perhaps because it was too one-sided, it was at a level that’s difficult to describe.

“””Graaaaaaah─!!!”””

“”””Kill them! Kill those things!””””

“This is a holy war waged in the name of the Great One!”

“Don’t show our guests a shameful display!”

“”””””””Holy war! Holy war! Holy war! Holy war! Holy war! Holy war!””””””””

The priests, buffed like mad, swarmed together, beating down the undead with weapons imbued with holy power or wrapped in sacred flames.

Of course, the crew members resist by wielding weapons drawing on their experience in naval combat, but they’re no match for heavily armed clerical warriors with their rusty, barnacle-encrusted cutlasses.

The enemy’s mid-level—the captain—is directly confronted by the ship’s mid-level warrior, the harpooner, and Lady Dorthea herself.

The combined assault of a harpoon filled with aura and a blade surrounded by holy aura is too much for even the “master of the otherworld” to withstand for long.

In other words, the outcome is already decided at this point.

[─Purify!]

After rushing forward like a swarm of locusts and devastating the pirate ship. Dorthea’s holy magic activates, cleanly removing the mysteries of death and undeath bestowed upon the ghost ship.

The remaining wreckage of the ship, having lost everything, sinks into the sea.

The souls of the crew members, who had been bound and assimilated into the ghost ship, are liberated and depart for somewhere else.

One ghost ship thus collapsed due to a momentary error in judgment.