Chapter 116: Cruise Ship (14)

The moment Lamia dissipated, a long, haunting whale song suddenly rose from the distant sea.

The mournful cry was like a funeral bell the ocean tolled for the departed, vibrating painfully in the heart. Everyone who heard the whale song was overwhelmed with sorrow, unable to hold back their tears.

But now was not the time to weep.

Everly lifted her tear-blurred eyes toward the distant sea.

There, the Mary Jane, hurled by the humanoid fish monster, was sinking slowly, bottom-up.

As the ship descended, it created powerful whirlpools around it. Some were lucky—they managed to swim out the instant the cruise ship hit the water, escaping the danger zone. But many others, trapped in the cabins or injured, could not get clear of the vessel immediately.

When the latter finally regained mobility and tried to escape the sinking ship, they found themselves caught in the whirlpool, powerless against the pull, being dragged beneath the waves.

Misha, George, Gene, Penny, the captain, Mark… familiar faces flashed before Everly’s eyes. She held back her grief and forced herself into action.

She had a strong feeling—she could save them all!

Before Lamia vanished, she had blessed Everly, saying that Everly would receive the ocean’s endless love. Now, soaking in seawater, Everly felt a power of unimaginable intimacy.

At this very moment, the ocean was no longer capricious, mysterious, or merciless. It enveloped her gently, healed the torn injuries on her shoulders, obeyed her will, followed her intent. Countless tiny undercurrents snaked through the water, encasing all the unconscious, injured, and trapped people in air-filled spheres, then pushing the spheres to the surface.

One by one, the bubbles floated upward, bursting with a sharp pop.

Inside the bubbles were George, his head battered and bleeding; Penny, still unconscious; and even Misha, clutching both of her backpacks, on the verge of passing out from lack of oxygen. All of them were lifted to the water’s surface by the currents, slowly moving toward the survivors around the sinking ship, where those still able to help took over their care.

Everly kicked her legs. The ocean sensed her intent, and the water coalesced into a transparent fish-tail shape, wrapping around her legs. With a casual flick of the tail, her body shot forward, breaking the water’s surface effortlessly and gliding far ahead, as if the resistance of the waves no longer existed.

The survivors quickly reunited with Everly.

The captain and several crew members in the bridge had been luckier. Before the cruise ship crashed into the sea, they had been thrown from the shattered glass windows of the bridge. Floating atop the waves, they had witnessed the earlier chaos of the sea god battle, and they had seen the underwater survivors rescued by the currents and the bubbles.

Seeing Everly approaching, they all looked at her with awe and gratitude.

“You… you’re the sea witch? Or some kind of extraordinary summoner?” The captain, as the leader of the survivors, was the first to speak, stammering slightly.

“No,” Everly replied. “It wasn’t me who saved you—it was a siren called Lamia.”

Even now, speaking the name of the siren made Everly’s nose ache with emotion, and tears threatened to spill. Not wanting to show her vulnerability in front of the others, she turned her gaze away toward the distant Golden Anchor.

During the earlier battle, the derelict giant cruise ship had been carried far by the currents. By a stroke of luck, it had avoided the impact of the sea god clash and remained largely intact.

The ship was now empty.

All those passengers who had been bewitched by Sretan had been offered as living sacrifices to summon Dagon, the evil god.

As for Sretan, after the humanoid fish monster appeared, he had transformed into a water creature similar to the white monster, but even more grotesque and terrifying, and leapt into the sea, circling the humanoid fish monster. During the earlier final battle, he too was torn apart and killed by Lamia’s ocean whirlpool.

“The Mary Jane has sunk. With so many of us, we need to find a new ship. Let’s go to the Golden Anchor.”

Having said this, Everly flicked her fish tail and led the way at the front of the group.

At the same time, unseen by anyone, the waves around the Golden Anchor spontaneously began to push the ship toward the survivors.

The two sides met halfway.

The gangway on the side of the Golden Anchor was still in place, not retracted. Though the metal supports were somewhat old, with a little care, people could still climb aboard safely.

The survivors from the Mary Jane did not rush; they took turns ascending the rusty, worn exterior of the giant cruise ship. Some of the less injured even helped carry those who had lost mobility.

After a little over half an hour, everyone had finally made it onto the battered vessel.

Everly counted. Despite timely rescue, due to the destruction caused by the humanoid fish monster and the white creature’s devouring, of the 92 people originally on board the Mary Jane, only a pitiful 58 remained.

The only good news was that the survivors were mostly Mary Jane crew members—they had extensive experience piloting a cruise ship. And although the Golden Anchor had become dilapidated after leaving the time-space zone, its engines, propellers, control systems, and navigation systems were all still operational.

Of course, even if the Golden Anchor could not sail on its own, Everly could ask the ocean to help push it. But that would naturally be slower than the ship moving under its own power.

“I don’t really know much about driving a ship, so I’ll leave it to the captain, sir.”

“Mm, thank you so much today, Miss Everly. You should go rest—leave the rest to us.” The captain noticed the girl’s distracted expression and spoke considerately.

Everly then said goodbye to the captain and went to find Misha.

That silly girl had been trapped in the cabin earlier and hadn’t been able to escape in time. When she thought she was about to die, she had clutched both backpacks tightly, refusing to let go—a stubborn determination to take the bags with her even in death—which made Everly feel both heartache and amusement.

Misha was the only one present who knew about Everly’s connection with the siren.

Because of the cruise ship’s fall into the sea, she hadn’t witnessed Lamia’s battle with the humanoid fish monster. After Everly recounted everything that had happened, Misha reached out and hugged her friend tightly.

“Your mom was amazing. She sealed the evil god away, killed all those horrible monsters. She saved all of us… I think her deeds deserve to be known by everyone.”

“Yes… she is no longer the siren who devoured infants. Mom will atone for her past sins in the underworld and then be reborn… that’s a good thing, but I just… I just feel so sad…”

Misha gently patted Everly’s shoulder.

“Cry, Everly… parting with your mother is always painful. You’re allowed to cry. But when you’re done, lift your head, hold your chest high, and move forward bravely—carrying her love and expectations with you.”

Misha’s embrace was warm, damp with seawater, carrying the salty scent of the sea.

She held Everly tightly, giving her a feeling of support and recognition. A sharp, bitter ache welled up in Everly’s throat, and she could no longer hold back, letting out a low, choked sob.

…

The Golden Anchor’s radio transmission equipment was completely intact.

While navigating the ship back, the captain also attempted to send a distress signal to the Coast Guard using the ship’s equipment.

Midway through the voyage, the two sides successfully made contact. When the Coast Guard saw the massive cruise ship—missing for 13 years—reappear and still sailing normally, their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

Because the cruise ship itself was of significant investigative value, the Coast Guard only evacuated those seriously injured on board. The rest continued aboard the giant vessel, heading for the nearest harbor in Newport, Yalijifu State.

When the ship was halfway to the harbor, Misha’s friend from the deck, a crew member named Mark, approached Everly holding a worn, faded little bear backpack.

“I thought… maybe you’d like to see this,” he said, nervous yet respectful, handing the backpack to Everly. “I found it in one of the cabins. It seems to be the witch’s personal belonging…”

Everly thanked Mark and opened the backpack.

Inside was a children’s notebook with a fairytale-style cover, some pretty hair clips, bracelets, hair ties, and other items a little girl would like, along with a photograph of a family of three.

The daughter in the photo was the same time-witch Everly had seen on the deck of the Golden Anchor.

Everly silently whispered “sorry” in her heart and flipped through the notebook briefly.

Although the cover looked playful and childlike, the contents were heavy with gravity.

Just as Everly had suspected, the appearance of a six- or seven-year-old child was not the time-witch’s original form. For some reason, she had fixed her time at the stage of childhood.

Erica Barnes—this was the name of the time-witch.

Her witch talents were inherited in a skip-generation pattern. Erica’s great-grandmother had been a witch of limited ability. By the time it came to Erica’s generation, her father, mother, and all her siblings were ordinary people. Therefore, when Erica awakened her powers at the age of twelve, she was met not with praise or guidance from her family, but with rejection, fear, and disgust.

Because her family was poor, when she was fourteen, her father tricked her into taking on the appearance of a young child and sold her to a “freak show” troupe, using the gimmick of a “girl who would never grow up.”

“Listen, Erica. I want you to stay looking like this, understand? Only this way, when I come back to find you, I’ll be able to recognize you in the crowd.” Before selling her, her father pressed his hands on her shoulders and made this promise.

At that time, Erica’s powers had only just awakened, and she was still a very immature witch. Without guidance from elders, she did not know how to maintain the effects of her abilities over the long term. Fearing that her father’s described future might come true, she constantly told herself: “Be a child. Never grow up. Be a child. Never grow up…”

Thus, Erica’s body was permanently fixed at the age of six. Even decades later, though she had long seen through her father’s lies, her body still could not return to normal.

The year she was sold was 1943, at the height of the popularity of freak shows in the United States.

But Erica’s situation was not ideal. Her body had no deformities and looked like an ordinary girl. Only her birth certificate revealed her true age, which did not provide enough visual shock to satisfy the audience’s curiosity.

As a result, Erica was soon resold by the dissatisfied troupe owner to another traveling show.

This cycle of being sold from troupe to troupe continued for many years. By the 1950s, with the rise of modern medicine and shifts in social morality, public attitudes toward freak shows gradually changed. At the same time, the popularity of radios and televisions brought new forms of entertainment. People no longer needed to spend money going to theaters; they could access more interesting and diverse content from the comfort of their homes.

The last freak show troupe to acquire Erica soon disbanded, leaving her once again adrift in a long, wandering existence.

In 1994, due to her unusual physical condition, Erica was detained and studied by a secret scientific laboratory. That same year, the laboratory was exposed for a series of cruel experiments and was destroyed by investigators dispatched by the U.S. government.

It was then that Erica met the couple in the photograph.

They were investigators from the Special Affairs Investigations Bureau. They recognized the witch bloodline within her and saw that beneath her childlike appearance was the soul of an ancient witch.

Yet they welcomed her without hesitation, raising Erica as if she were their own child and giving her the love and respect she had never known. They even hired a witch they knew personally to teach Erica how to properly use her powers.

Unfortunately, this happiness did not last. On a day in 20X1, the couple received a secret mission: to investigate a man named Joroni, who was suspected by the Bureau of having ties to a dark cult called the “Dagon Covenant.”

Joroni, it turned out, was the captain of the Golden Anchor.

To get close to him, the couple boarded the Golden Anchor in May of that same year.