Cave

Cold, damp, the stench of rotting flesh, the sound of iron chains scraping across the ground.

A flood of strange sensations poured into Duncan's mind, yet for a moment he could not open his eyes—at that instant, he felt as though his soul had been split into two parts. One part remained aboard the Lost Homeland, while the other had been stuffed into an utterly unfamiliar body. This body was as difficult to control as an old, broken-down machine. Chaotic sensations rampaged through its nervous system, mixed with a certain sluggishness and numbness. He tried to open his eyes and move his fingers, but could not feel the corresponding parts of his body at all.

This unbearable sensation lasted several seconds before the indescribable numbness and sluggishness in his nervous system finally began to fade. Duncan felt as if his "body" had awakened from a long hibernation and was slowly regaining the ability to move.

At last, he opened his eyes and saw what lay around him.

Before him was a dim, cavern-like space. Burning torches had been set into the distant stone walls, and their wavering firelight revealed a horrifying sight: Duncan saw many people—or rather, many dead bodies—strewn haphazardly across wet, waterlogged earth and rocks. Most wore tattered clothes, though a few still had intact garments on them.

Condensed droplets fell from the ceiling of the cave. In the distance, he could faintly hear what sounded like wastewater flowing through an underground river or drainage channel. The scraping of iron chains seemed to come from deep within a passage connected to the cave, and it was already growing farther away.

Duncan blinked, trying to understand what had happened. He lowered his gaze to his right hand and saw an utterly unfamiliar, thin palm, along with tattered sleeves covering his arm. The Brass Compass he had been holding until moments ago had vanished.

He looked beside himself again. He remembered catching sight of a shadow following him as he passed through that starlight and web of light. Its outline had resembled some kind of bird, but naturally, he found nothing.

That birdlike shadow apparently had not followed him into the real world.

Duncan slowly clenched his hand, forcibly suppressing the unease in his heart, then tried rubbing his fingers together.

A tiny, incredibly weak green flame flickered to life at his fingertips.

It had to be said that this flame looked far weaker than the one Duncan knew, but it still gave him a measure of reassurance. As it burned, his still-confused mind stirred slightly, and he more clearly sensed a kind of... spiritual severance and connection.

He distinctly sensed that another part of his mind was not here. He sensed the existence of the Lost Homeland, and himself sitting before the desk, holding the Brass Compass.

The feeling was extraordinarily strange, but Duncan immediately began to vaguely understand what was happening.

His consciousness had undergone... some sort of projection, or perhaps extension. That projected portion of his mind had crossed an unknown distance and now entered yet another unfamiliar body.

And in this projected state, he could still clearly sense the existence of his "original body."

This had to be related to that Brass Compass! Could this be the ability of that "anomalous item"?

Several guesses arose in Duncan's mind, but he did not let wild thoughts occupy him for too long. After confirming that his original body remained safe and sound, and that his consciousness was still under his control, merely having temporarily entered a distant, nameless body, he calmed down somewhat and prepared to first determine what exactly was going on with this "new body" of his.

The first thing he could be certain of was that this environment was definitely not aboard a ship.

This was land—the land he had failed to find after drifting at sea for so many days!

Second, this gloomy cave was clearly no good place, and the corpses scattered around did not look like the result of any normal "burial." This body he now occupied... what kind of misfortune had trapped it in such a living hell?

Duncan took a deep breath and pushed himself upright—this body had previously been leaning against a large rock, and the position had hardly been comfortable.

But with that breath and sudden movement, Duncan abruptly felt something profoundly wrong with his body—he felt the air he had inhaled immediately leak out, while an empty, bizarre sensation came from his chest, distorting even the motion of standing up.

Duncan looked down in astonishment and saw a large hole.

The hole was where his heart should have been, and what belonged inside was naturally long gone. A cold wind blew through it, mingling with the breath Duncan had not yet fully exhaled, before finally dispersing into the damp air.

From a certain angle, Duncan could even clearly see the scene behind himself.

"...What the hell?!"

No matter how tough his nerves were, no matter how much "experience" he had gained aboard the Lost Homeland, Duncan still broke into a cold sweat at that moment. Goosebumps rose across his skin in endless waves, and every hair on his body stood on end!

But after that sudden jolt of horror, he immediately realized this: he was still standing here just fine. He even still had the strength to curse.

Even with his heart missing and a gaping hole in his chest, he did not feel any pain from this body at all!

"This is... a corpse?"

A moment later, Duncan had recovered from the shock. He understood his situation further and quickly calmed down.

Possessing a corpse and making it stand up and move perhaps was not something worth making a huge fuss over. After all, he had a ghost ship that could sail on its own, a wooden goat first mate who could chatter someone's brains into boiling, and he had recently met a Cursed Doll capable of splitting herself apart and skilled at riding wind and waves across the Boundless Sea. Which of those was not more terrifying than "a dead man talking"?

At least he had only lost his heart. Alice's head was often not even on her neck...

With all these random thoughts spinning through his mind, Duncan regained his composure at a speed that surprised even himself. He checked the mobility of his current body, adapted slightly to the distorted movements caused by the strange sensation in his chest, and then stepped toward the corpses scattered around the cave.

"As expected..."

Duncan examined the first corpse and was not surprised to see the horrifying hollow in the man's chest.

It was a haggard, middle-aged man in tattered clothes, looking much like a beggar by the roadside. He had been dead for quite some time, but his glaring, wide-open eyes still conveyed the struggle and despair of his final moments.

Duncan continued onward and saw corpse after corpse without hearts. They lay miserably across the cold stones, with only two exceptions—their heads bore gruesome wounds, as if they had violently smashed them against the rocks and died on the spot.

Duncan could not help drawing a few conclusions—perhaps these were two people who had ended their own lives before they could endure the agony of having their hearts carved out.

Honestly, what was in this cave was a little too much for an ordinary person. Even Duncan found it hard to bear after making his rounds, to the point that after checking the condition of every corpse, he had to find a relatively clean stone some distance away and sit down, slowly sorting through his thoughts as he calmed down and pieced together the truth of it all.

Clearly, this was a horrifying murder—but judging from the excessively cold and uniform method of killing, it seemed to be more than mere murder. It also carried a kind of evil... ritualistic quality.

Duncan summoned the Spectral Flame once more and felt the connection between himself and his "original body." He knew that he could sever this "projected state" at any time and return to the safety of the Lost Homeland.

But he felt it necessary to find out what exactly had happened here.

Even if only to obtain some information about the land.

Duncan let out a breath, feeling the draft through his chest. He rose from the large rock where he had been resting and looked toward the passage deep within the cave, remembering that the sound of scraping chains had come from that direction.

There were not only corpses in this underground space. Other people were moving about here as well. Those who could move freely through this terrifying place... should be able to give him some answers.

Rushing in to investigate was certainly not safe, but Duncan did not care—

After all, he was heartless now.