Divine Projection

With the sailors working at full force, the sailing ship crossed the churning waves and came to a stop at a dock that had not yet been completely destroyed.

Feeling the rolling heat in the air, Laud had been mentally prepared, but when he truly saw the harbor reduced to ruins up close, he could not help but shudder. The smile on his face grew even more eager than before.

"Mr. Laud, you finally came. I thought you had already successfully crossed the sea by ship..." Lynn led Joanne and the unconscious White Dove aboard the Sail Battleship via the lowered gangplank.

"Hahaha, Wizard, you jest... How could that be? It was merely a last-minute change of plans. Since we never received your further instructions, we could only drift out at sea and wait," Laud said with a hearty laugh, explaining himself with perfect composure.

Lynn had no intention of exposing him. He had never had much of a relationship with the Ship Gang to begin with; their cooperation had only been temporary, founded on the threat of the Church and their shared goal of crossing the sea to the Land of Wizards.

So even though he suspected they had intended to abandon him and flee, Lynn was not angry.

"Mr. Laud, is there a physician aboard this ship?" Joanne interrupted their conversation and asked anxiously.

Laud glanced at the unconscious White Dove and immediately realized the seriousness of the situation. He promptly had his deputy summon the ship's physician. To deal with any emergencies that might arise during the crossing, he had prepared a plentiful supply of various herbs.

Yet after examining her, the ship's physician could only shake his head helplessly. "This Witch's external injuries are not serious. The reason she has ended up like this may... may lie elsewhere..."

Hearing this, Joanne immediately recalled how White Dove had used [Soul Shriek] to attack Antioch, only to suffer a backlash herself. This was likely an injury to her soul.

Seeing that the ship's physician could do nothing, the silver-haired Witch could only look at Lynn with her last sliver of hope.

'071,' Lynn silently called out in his mind.

[Preliminary assessment: the target has suffered severe mental trauma. It is recommended that she immediately proceed to a federal medical center for a professional neurological examination.]

Lynn felt rather helpless. He would have to be able to get back first. Besides, while the Federation's technology was indeed advanced, its research into consciousness and souls was extremely limited. Most of the relevant materials were classified, far beyond the access rights of someone like him.

Thus, beneath the Witch's eager gaze, Lynn could only cruelly shake his head.

The beautiful sapphire-blue light in Joanne's eyes immediately dimmed, but she soon felt the little Witch in her arms seem to tremble.

"White Dove..." Joanne cried out in surprise.

"So cold... My head hurts..." The thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl curled herself into a ball, her eyes tightly shut and lips slightly parted. Her breathing grew increasingly rapid. Her lips moved faintly as though she were muttering in a dream, before she unconsciously called out her family's names. Her voice grew weaker and weaker, while her hands trembled without cease, as if trying to grasp something illusory and intangible...

Joanne held White Dove tightly as crystalline tears streamed continuously from her eyes. She had long since broken down sobbing.

Seeing this, Lynn could not help but sigh. There were things even he could not do. He could only step forward slowly, take White Dove's trembling hand, and offer her the slightest comfort.

[Unknown energy detected... Extract?]

A system prompt suddenly sounded in his mind. Lynn visibly froze. Watching the girl's life force gradually fade away, he hesitated for a long while before finally murmuring in his mind.

"Yes!"

Under his perceptive vision, a faint glow invisible to the naked eye flowed from White Dove's arm into his body. It only stopped after about half a minute.

[Special energy entity absorbed. Estimated conversion: 12% energy reserve. Use immediately?]

"No!" Lynn immediately responded in his mind.

Although he did not know what the glow absorbed by the intelligent brain was, he could be certain that it was not magic power, as that had already been recorded before. That left only one possibility... a soul?

The thought flashed through Lynn's mind, but quite a few people had died before him in recent days, and he had personally killed even more. Yet this was the first time the intelligent brain had given him such a prompt.

Was there something unique about White Dove?

Even as Lynn grieved, his heart was filled with confusion. Then his expression changed again, because Joanne, who had been holding White Dove, swayed and collapsed as well.

Everyone present was startled. Laud shot the physician a furious glare and told him to do something quickly. If this Wizard became enraged, they would all be finished!

After a frantic examination, the final result made everyone breathe a sigh of relief. Joanne had merely fainted from excessive exhaustion and overwhelming grief.

Laud immediately ordered several female attendants to take Joanne away to rest. Then he glanced at White Dove lying on the ground and cautiously asked, "What should we do with this Witch?"

Lynn did not reply. He crouched down and pressed a hand against White Dove's abdomen. Frigid ice crystals emerged around the girl's body, eventually forming a massive ice coffin that sealed her within.

He had no way to save her now, but perhaps the wizards of the Land of Wizards, those proficient in all manner of mysterious magic, might have some method...

"Look, the fires in Harbor Town seem to be going out!" a sailor suddenly shouted.

Laud and the others immediately turned to look. During this delay, the Sail Battleship had long since left the harbor and entered the Sea of Mists. Yet even from far away, they could clearly see the crimson glow over Harbor Town slowly fading...

The Church's reinforcements must have arrived... Lynn quickly came to that conclusion. Archbishop Antioch had been completely helpless against the White Phosphorus Fire before, so whoever had resolved Harbor Town's crisis had to be an even higher-ranking cleric!

The next instant, a colossal phantom of the Goddess, vast enough to cover the entire city, appeared above Harbor Town. Her crystal-clear body reflected a dazzling radiance beneath the silver moon, making people unable to resist drawing near, kneeling, and prostrating themselves before her to confess their sins...

Ella?

Lynn forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart. Laud and the others beside him were trembling in terror, clutching their heads as they lay flat on the deck.

The faceless phantom of the Goddess gradually turned her gaze toward them.

Fortunately, at that moment, the thick mist surrounding them surged forth, and the entire Sail Battleship vanished from the sea in an instant...

(PS: Please support the new book in every way!)

Thanks to reader You're Really Lonely for the 200 Qidian Coins reward, and Diviner Izeville for the 100 Qidian Coins reward.