Hollow Creek – Under Bombardment
The first thing that returned to Silas's consciousness was a sharp ringing in his ears, like a thousand bells tolling at once. Then came the taste of dirt and blood.
He tried to stand, but a strong hand pressed down on his shoulder to keep him low.
"Stay down. The pattern isn't finished yet."
It was Elyra's voice. When he opened his eyes, he saw her crouching over him, her sword Vortigern spinning in a circular motion so fast it looked like a silver disc, deflecting shrapnel and debris from the continuous explosions.
"Poggles?" Silas coughed, trying to wipe the dust off his cracked spectacles.
"Here! Here! Gyroscope spinning! I'm vomiting oil!" the mechanical lemur screamed, jammed under Silas's coat, clutching his shirt buttons in terror.
Silas looked around. The explosion had thrown them into a crater from a previous shell. The ground shook rhythmically. Boom... Boom... Boom.
"They aren't aiming at us directly," Silas analyzed quickly. "They're carpet-bombing the area in a grid pattern. They want to bury us." He pulled out his compass; the needle was spinning madly, not from magnetism, but from massive power generators underground.
"Elyra, do you see that wrecked ship? The one that looks like an old Galleon?" Silas pointed toward a massive wooden hull fifty meters away.
"Yes," Elyra said, swatting a flying piece of metal with her blade. "It's burning."
"No, that's steam, not smoke," Silas corrected. "There's a ventilation chimney hidden inside the broken mast. That's their entrance."
Elyra looked at him, a flicker of admiration mixed with doubt in her eyes. "You want us to run into the fire?"
"I want you to run toward the answers. I'll try to keep up without dying."
"Hold on."
Before he could object, Elyra grabbed his coat collar with one hand and her sword with the other.
"Poggles, activate armor mode!"
The lemur retracted into a solid metal ball on Silas's back. Then, Elyra took off. She wasn't running; she was skating on chaos. She leaped over craters, swerved to dodge shells, and dragged Silas behind her like light luggage.
They reached the wrecked ship. Elyra kicked the rotted wooden planks with force that turned the wood into splinters. Behind the wooden wall, there wasn't a ship's hold, but a massive circular steel hatch designed to look like a giant wine barrel.
"Locked!" Elyra shouted.
Silas pulled out his "Cane" and pressed a hidden button. A small needle shot from the tip into the keyhole. "Poggles! I need you now!"
Poggles jumped out, extended his tail which ended in a rotating screwdriver, and jammed it into the mechanism. "Unlocking! Unlocking! Password is... 1-2-3-4? Who uses stupid passwords like this?"
CLICK. The hatch hissed open with immense air pressure, and the three of them tumbled inside just as a shell exploded exactly where they had been standing a moment ago.
Underground – The Secret Factory
They rolled down a long metal ramp before coming to a stop on a cold grate floor. The silence here was sudden—no sound but the hum of distant machinery and dripping water.
Silas stood up and dusted off his suit. He pulled out the Anchor Log and checked it quickly. "Thank God, the paper is intact." He then looked at Elyra. "Are you alright?"
Elyra didn't answer. She was staring ahead, her eyes wide.
"Silas... what is this place?"
Silas turned around, and he froze too.
They weren't in a basement. They were in a colossal industrial cathedral stretching miles beneath the island. The ceiling was a maze of intertwined copper pipes pumping green steam.
But the terrifying part wasn't the place; it was the "product."
Endless rows of those mechanical skeletons (like the one they faced outside) were hanging on production lines. Robotic arms were welding metal bones, and others were draping the frames in tattered ghost cloaks.
"A ghost factory..." Silas whispered, pulling out a small vintage camera and snapping a photo. "The legend that scares sailors... is being manufactured here wholesale."
"Look down there," Elyra pointed with her sword.
At the bottom of the factory, there were massive glass tanks filled with that glowing blue liquid. Men wearing white hazmat suits and bird-beak masks were moving barrels. Stamped on the crates was the logo of "The Silent Horizon."
Silas said in a low voice, "Blue Fuel. It's Raw Memory Elixir. They are extracting it from the blood of ancient whales in this region, and using the ghost story to keep people away from the hunting grounds."
Suddenly, a mechanical voice boomed from the factory speakers.
"Intruders in Sector 4. Activate Purge Protocol. Release the Combat Class Dolls."
The green eyes of hundreds of hanging skeletons began to light up one by one in the darkness.
Elyra swallowed hard, tightening her grip on her sword. "Silas... I feel like I forgot something important."
Silas looked at her with concern. "What?"
She said with absolute seriousness, "Did I lock the ship's door?"
Silas smiled, flicking his cane open into an electric spear. "Don't worry. Poggles booby-trapped the doormat."
He then turned his gaze to the army of robotic ghosts moving toward them.
"The exploration chapter is over, Elyra. The smashing chapter has begun."