At noon, in the waters due south of Jaya Island.
The sky had gone completely dark. The immense, heavy Cumulonimbus Emperor hung over the sea like a colossal black curtain of iron, swallowing every last ray of sunlight. Day had been forcibly turned into night.
In this pitch-dark sea, where visibility was almost nonexistent, the Eclipse plowed through the waves.
"Caw! Straight ahead! Keep going straight! Caw!"
Above the wheelhouse, Macaw the parrot beat his wings and relayed the direction of the Compass Bird, bound to a wooden perch, to Carina at the helm with pinpoint accuracy.
Carina gripped the wheel tightly, fine beads of sweat gathering on her forehead. With the magnetic field in complete disarray and the waves raging, the Compass Bird was the Eclipse's only navigational marker.
"According to the coordinates Uncle Cricket calculated for us, we've reached the heart of the eruption zone."
Sabo stood on deck, his tailcoat snapping in the gale. Gripping the Alloy Staff, he warily scanned the churning black sea around them.
Below deck, the red glow of the furnace fire illuminated Jeno's feverishly excited face.
Bare-chested, he worked as the indicator lights on his Mechanical Exoskeleton flashed rapidly in the darkness. He frantically shoveled high-burning coal into the Steam Boiler's firebox. The two enormous boilers, linked in parallel, roared deafeningly, and the pressure gauge's needle had nearly reached the red line.
"Power system's warmed up! The second that damned current appears, I can make this ship fly!" Jeno's gravelly roar rang across the deck through the speaking tube.
"Rumble..."
The moment he finished speaking, an incredibly deep, muffled sound suddenly reverberated across the sea. It wasn't the sound of waves crashing. It was more like the earth's crust deep beneath the ocean was splitting apart.
Then the water around the Eclipse