The sea abruptly changed its face after they crossed some invisible boundary.
One moment, the Dawn Ark was sailing over relatively calm, deep-blue waters beneath a sky typical of the New World, a dome of leaden gray interwoven with eerie shafts of light. The next, it seemed to plunge through a thick, silent curtain. The light abruptly dimmed, not with the coming of night, but as a more primordial, seemingly diluted gray pall enveloped everything. The sea turned an almost inky green, shimmering with uncanny phosphorescence, so viscous it was nearly gelatinous. Even the waves breaking against the bow seemed sluggish and silent.
The air carried a grotesque mixture of smells: the scorched tang of ozone, the fishy rot of deep-sea sludge, the rusty odor of metal seared by intense heat, and... a faint, cloyingly nauseating fragrance, as though countless flowers had bloomed and rotted in an instant.
"The Sea of the End..." Robin stood before the bridge's observation window, her fingertips brushing the cold glass as she gazed calmly at the strange waters ahead, which seemed capable of swallowing all light and sound. Her voice was quiet, yet exceptionally clear in the silent command room. "The end of the New World's known sea routes. A legendary graveyard where countless explorers and ambitious adventurers lie buried. According to the information obtained from the Ancient Factory and King, this place isn't just a natural deathtrap. It's also the final barrier the ancient system established to prevent its core secrets from being easily reached."
Lin Yan stood before the main console with his arms folded, his posture straight as a spear. He wore his black captain's coat with its gold patterns, the firebird emblems on his shoulders seeming ready to spring to life and take flight in the dim light. Deep within