It wasn't hard to imagine that Salokdar's first mate from all those years ago was still alive.
The well-maintained cabins and starship systems they had seen on the way to the bridge had already hinted at the truth. Fato hadn't let the Bloodfiends destroy the crew of the Crimson Dawn. On the contrary, he had given them complete freedom aboard the ship, even granting them the authority to manage it.
That was the only way to explain how a starship stranded for a thousand years could still be in such good condition.
Murphy even suspected that over the past millennium, the crew had repaired all the mechanical damage the starship had suffered when it crashed.
The ship was ready to take off at any moment. All they needed was the key to start it.
The Secretblood Clan's spatial seal was vicious and overbearing, but Murphy didn't think it could trap a starship capable of traversing the sea of stars. Once the ship's warp engines were running, they would naturally disrupt the surrounding space.
For a starship capable of faster-than-light travel, a spatial seal was the most useless of measures.
They could only be thankful that the Lord had taken Losa's mechanical key with him back then. Otherwise, the Bloodfiend disaster would probably have spread across the entire continent long ago.
Back to the present.
The first mate, Sir Solmar, who had held his post for more than a thousand years, strode over with his sword in hand. Murphy and the others drew their weapons, ready to fight. But just as they were about to face the respected Bloodfiend first mate in a fierce battle, he launched into a classic opening stance of Blood Vulture Swordsmanship—and, without hurting anyone, promptly stumbled and fell flat on his face.
It was an utterly