The pursuit begins: entering the dark ship

The moment the rift closed, space seemed to be pulled apart like a wrung-out wet cloth. Ye Mo felt as if all his internal organs were squeezed together, and the Steel Bone fragment in his right leg snapped and dislocated, causing him to kneel directly on the cold metal floor. He didn't utter a sound, but his left hand dug fiercely into the crack in the ground, his nail breaking but he didn't let go.

Before them lay utter darkness, not the darkness of night, but a deathly silence where even light had been chewed up and swallowed. The air was thick with the smell of rust mixed with rotting algae, making their throats dry with every breath. There were no stars overhead, nor the curvature one would expect from a spaceship—they had landed on a suspended platform, their feet on twisted black metal plates with jagged, saw-like edges. Looking down, they saw only surging, dark energy currents, like stagnant blood flowing through veins.

"Cough..." Emma Frost knelt on one knee, her silver hair plastered to her forehead, her face paler than paper. She raised her hand to wipe her nose, a trace of blood on her fingertip. "The Mental Barrier held up, but if it shakes like this a couple more times, I'm afraid it'll fall apart on its own."

Thor steadied himself, leaning on his hammer. The runes on Mjolnir flickered, like an old television with a poor signal. "This place doesn't welcome visitors," he whispered, his voice barely audible. "The shield is moving, like it's alive."

Ye Mo gritted his teeth and straightened the remains of his right leg, the pain making his vision blur. He looked up and saw a colossal object lying in the void—it was pitch black, irregularly shaped, and looked like the corpse of a giant beast forcibly welded together from countless pieces of torn armor. Its surface was covered with pulsating dark patterns, and from time to time, a purplish-black light would flash, like breathing, or like a warning.

"Is that his ship?" Ye Mo asked in a hoarse voice.

"No one but Malekith could make a spaceship look like a graveyard," Thor sneered.

Ye Mo didn't reply. He closed his eyes and let his consciousness sink into the 19th floor of the "Gene Spiral Tower." The system didn't give any prompts, but he could feel that floor trembling slightly—that was the Spatial Perception module automatically calibrating. He forcibly recalled the spatial waveform when Shadowcat Wall Phasing and superimposed it with the instantaneous memory of Nightcrawler's jump. The two sets of data clashed in his mind, making his temples throb with pain.

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes, his pupils still slightly trembling. "Three hundred meters to the left, the shield has wrinkles," he said. "It's not a weak point, it's just that it leaves a gap when it 'breathes,' about once every seven seconds, lasting less than half a second."

"Short enough," Emma Frost squinted. "We need to time it perfectly."

"I don't need to be inside for too long." Ye Mo tried to stand up, but the electrical currents in his left arm were completely unresponsive; his entire arm was as limp as a noodle. "As long as a person can get through, it's fine."

Thor glanced at him. "With your build, you'd have trouble even getting over a doorframe."

"I didn't run on foot," Ye Mo grinned, revealing a set of white teeth. "I've gotten this far by being shameless."

Emma Frost didn't laugh; instead, she placed her hand on his shoulder. A thin layer of silver light spread from her palm, enveloping Ye Mo's neural connection points. "Don't push yourself," she said. "If you lose signal halfway, I won't carry you."

"Then at least drag me in," Ye Mo patted her hand, "You'd better die in the enemy's home base."

Thor shook his head, raised his hammer, and a faint blue arc condensed at the tip. "I'll clear the way," he said. "A small current will do the trick, without disturbing it."

The three moved along the wall, their footsteps so light they were almost inaudible. The wind at the edge of the platform was corrosive, rubbing against their faces like sandpaper. Thor reached his designated position, and with a gentle tap of Mjolnir, a thin arc of electricity shot towards the shield's surface.

Buzz--

A ripple spread across the shield, like a needle pricking the surface of water. Then, the ripple spread rapidly, and the surrounding darkness seemed to come alive, beginning to slowly rotate.

"It's noticed!" Emma Frost whispered.

"No, it was just scratching an itch." Thor stared at the shield. "The frequency changed; that last attack caused a localized delay of 0.3 seconds."

Ye Mo immediately seized the opportunity, closed his eyes again, and activated his senses. This time, he no longer relied on the system's matching, but manually pieced together the memory fragments—when Wade Wilson tore through space, a brief "silent fault" would appear around him, and all energy readings would drop to zero, as if the world had been paused. He tried to cram that concept of "no-signal state" into his own perceptual logic.

His brain felt like it had been drilled, but he didn't let go.

"I'll lead you in a charge later," his voice trembled, "But I can only maintain this for two seconds... Within those two seconds, don't emit any energy fluctuations, don't breathe, don't let your heart beat, don't do anything."

"Are you talking nonsense?" Thor frowned.

"I'm not joking." Ye Mo opened his eyes, his pupils already unfocused. "Trust me, or wait here for him to come out for his next stroll."

The air fell silent for a moment.

Emma Frost took a deep breath. "I'll go along with you."

Thor stared at him for two seconds, then finally nodded. "Two seconds. I can't wait any longer."

Ye Mo didn't respond. Instead, he pressed his hand on the severed nerve connection in his left arm. It was already charred, and now it hurt terribly to the touch. He gritted his teeth and squeezed out the last bit of electrical energy from the muscle endings, preparing to create a miniature interference field at the moment of breakthrough.

"They're here," he suddenly whispered.

The dark patterns on the left side of the shield began to contract, like an eye slowly closing. In that instant, Ye Mo's eyes snapped open, his consciousness exploding—

"Walk!"

Thor drew lightning from the tip of his hammer, and an extremely thin arc of electricity precisely pierced the thinnest part of the shield; Emma Frost simultaneously released a mental pulse, disrupting the core node of the shield for 0.8 seconds; Ye Mo dragged his mangled body and charged forward, the instant his body collided with the black membrane, he actively severed all nerve signal output, entering a brief "death state".

A crack appeared in the shield.

He was thrown in like a rag doll, his back slamming heavily onto the metal floor, a metallic taste rising in his throat. He didn't vomit, forcing it back down, then with a backhand rip, pulled a broken piece of Steel Bone from the wound and slashed it viciously across the crack.

"Come in!"

Emma Frost practically rolled in, with Thor close behind. As soon as the hammer was pulled back, the shield snapped shut, returning to its original state.

The three of them collapsed to the ground, none of them speaking, only their heavy breathing echoing in the empty corridor.

"You're insane," Emma Frost finally spoke, her voice trembling. "Your heart stopped for two seconds."

"It's nothing," Ye Mo said, panting. "My medical reports always say 'irregular heartbeat,' I'm used to it."

Thor sat up, shaking his numb arms. "The shield will remember this intrusion method; we can't do it again next time."

"I never planned to come a second time." Ye Mo tried to stand up, but his right leg buckled and he fell to his knees. He cursed and simply knelt on one knee, pressing his palm against the floor.

The texture doesn't feel right.

The floor wasn't cold, it was warm, like skin. And... it had a pulse.

He abruptly withdrew his hand, leaving a faint black mark on his palm, as if it had been rubbed with some kind of slime.

"Is the ship still alive?" he asked in a low voice.

"Dark Elves technology is forged with lives." Thor stood up, hammer held horizontally in front of him. "Don't touch the walls, don't step on the cracks, and don't breathe in any air you shouldn't."

Emma Frost reconstructed her Mental Barrier, this time covering all three of them. She closed her eyes and scanned ahead, her brow furrowing deeper. "There are three paths within ten meters," she said. "The left path has normal gravity, but black liquid is seeping from the walls, suggesting a possible nerve conduction reaction; the middle path has a stable structure, but there are energy Circuit on the ground, possibly an alarm device; the right path... completely blocks my senses, like a wall."

"Then let's go to the left," Ye Mo said. "At least I know what it wants to do."

"Are you sure?" Emma Frost looked at him. "That thing might eat people."

"I'm in such a state I can barely stand. If it really wants to eat me, I'd be more than happy," Ye Mo grinned. "It saves me from dying of exhaustion."

Thor chuckled softly, "Your mentality is even weirder than my brother's."

"Loki?" Ye Mo asked.

"No," Thor shook his head, "It's my mother."

The three of them carefully moved towards the passage on the left. Ye Mo supported himself with his elbows, dragging his right leg behind him, and using his left arm for leverage. With each step, the floor sank slightly, as if he were stepping on a cushion. Black viscous liquid seeped from the walls, flowing down the metal grooves and making a slight "sizzling" sound when it hit the ground, as if it were corroding the floor.

"Is this thing afraid of fire?" he asked in a low voice.

"Yes," Thor said, "But it's also afraid of thunder. The problem is, we can't afford any big disturbances right now."

"Then don't fire the cannons." Ye Mo stared ahead, "Inching forward slowly."

Emma Frost walked at the front, her mental energy probing forward like a probe. Suddenly, she stopped. "Ten meters ahead, the path forks," she said. "A left turn leads to a downhill slope, a right turn to an ascending staircase, and in the middle... there's a door."

"The door?" Ye Mo frowned.

"Yes." Emma Frost nodded. "There are symbols engraved on the door, like some kind of seal."

"Don't touch it," Thor said immediately. "Doors in places like this are probably traps."

"I know," Ye Mo said, catching his breath, "But we have to choose a path."

He looked up at Thor: "How small a thunderbolt can you release?"

How small?

"Small enough to illuminate just a crack in the door, without alerting the entire ship."

Thor thought for a moment, and a sliver of almost invisible blue light gathered at the tip of his hammer. He flicked it lightly, and the light flew toward the crack in the door, shining in for a fleeting instant.

Behind the door was a secret room, with black robes hanging on the walls and seven stone pillars on the floor, their tops burning with eerie purple flames.

"This is... the ceremony preparation area?" Emma Frost frowned.

"It's not preparation," Ye Mo stared at the seven stone pillars, "It's Anchor. He hasn't gone far yet."

"You mean, he's planning to detonate the Aether here?" Thor gripped his hammer tighter.

"Not necessarily," Ye Mo shook his head, "But he'll definitely come back. This ship is his nest; as long as the nest isn't destroyed, he won't completely leave."

"So we need to figure out the ship's structure before he gets back," Emma Frost said.

"Yes." Ye Mo leaned against the wall and slowly stood up. "First find the control room, then the escape route, and finally... leave him a little something to say goodbye."

Thor glanced at him. "How do you plan to stay? You can barely stand up straight now."

"I didn't fight with my legs," Ye Mo grinned, pulling a piece of reflective film from his pocket. "I've survived this long thanks to my brains and luck."

He lifted his foot and stepped onto the first step.

The floor trembled slightly, as if the entire ship were breathing.

Emma Frost followed, her Mental Barrier firmly protecting the three of them. Thor brought up the rear, Mjolnir lowered, ready to deal with any unexpected situation.

The passageway extended upwards, and after turning a corner, a half-open metal door appeared ahead, with a dark red light shining through the crack.

Ye Mo stopped and reached out to touch the door frame.

The temperature was very high, like red-hot iron.