With their lights illuminating one another, every airship could establish its position, so following the formation posed no problems. Yet after traveling through the fog for over an hour, they still showed no sign of emerging.
The surrounding fog began to thicken. The lights they shone out grew increasingly faint, barely discernible, and even the racket of the propeller blades seemed to fade. Everything around them seemed to sink into silence.
More troubling still, the domain field information exchanged between them began to suffer as well, becoming faint and intermittent. Even telegrams were affected in the same way.
This fog had appeared under strange circumstances to begin with. If things deteriorated further, trouble was inevitable. The vast airship fleet could easily lose cohesion and scatter, or even collide.
The navigators noticed something was wrong and immediately compiled reports, sending them to the flagship.
Upon receiving the news, Head Xie immediately asked, "How much longer until we reach the West Coast?"
The staff officer checked his watch. "According to our current estimates, if we've maintained the correct heading, we should see the Federation's coastline in three hours at the latest. That would be around seven in the morning, Linax time, roughly sunrise."
Head Xie asked again, "How is the Esoteric Ritual Group's analysis coming along?"
The staff officer said, "Their report indicates that all sorts of chaotic auras have been present since we entered Federation waters. Numerous biological experiments and excessive Esoteric Sect Rituals must have been conducted nearby. With the airships still moving, they simply haven't had enough time to analyze much."
Head Xie considered this, then said, "Starting now, have the active consciousness entity adjust and calculate our positions, then transmit the data to the members of the airship fleet. Order them to maintain their heading."
The flagship carried