The ships in the graveyard seemed to be hundreds of years old since they had been abandoned, but Nathan had never heard of such a place before.
"How did this place stay hidden for so long?" asked Nathan as the ship got closer and closer to the graveyard.
"For the same reason we had no connection to the outside for decades" Enarys answered without stopping shivering.
Soon they entered the graveyard, and the ship made its way through the other abandoned ships. Nathan watched the ships carefully, looking for an explanation, but to no avail, so he had no choice but to look at Enarys with confusion.
"How did these ships get here?"
Enarys simply kept quiet and smiled, all this while still looking straight ahead.
Seeing that Enarys wasn't going to answer the question, he had no choice but to assume that perhaps she didn't know the reason or simply couldn't share it.
"We can't go that fast or it would be dangerous, so we'll be here for quite a while. You should rest, I'll call you if I need anything" Enarys said turning her back on him and going back to the captain's cabin.
Nathan watched her leave and then went back to looking at the abandoned ships.
'Do you think this has anything to do with any realm?' Nathan asked Amelia. The northern islands had been isolated for many years, but not long enough for wooden ships to still be used back then.
There was also the ship they were currently traveling on, which was also made of wood instead of steel. Nathan looked at the abandoned ships for a while with some intrigue, but then he listened to Enarys and returned to his cabin.
The hours passed and the sun began to set. His food ration had been delivered earlier than usual and as he returned to his cabin he noticed that the deck was emptier than usual, as if it was being cleared for the night.
Nathan ate in peace having to split his ration in two for the Luschvik as it refused to investigate the waters below the graveyard.
'Why are they hiding?' asked Amelia in her materialized form as she watched the Luschvik eat half of Nathan's ration.
Nathan, who had already finished eating, sat watching through the window of his cabin. "I don't know... Enarys likes to keep secrets" he muttered with some annoyance watching the abandoned ships.
He looked at the clock in the room and realized it was only a few minutes to midnight. Nathan yawned and waited for Luschvik to finish his meal before he went to sleep.
When the Luschvik had finished eating, he climbed into the upper bunk and closed his eyes. In the meantime Nathan picked up his plate and put it on the table, and just as he was about to go to bed he saw a light out of the corner of his eye.
"What is that?" Nathan looked out of the window and noticed the light that had appeared above the deck of one of the abandoned ships.
Suddenly the light began to multiply more and more to the point where there were at least five lights on the deck of each ship. Nathan had to close his eyes slightly to see what was generating the lights.
Each light was generated by a torch, which in turn was held by a person dressed in old clothing. Some wore luxurious but completely torn and tattered attire, others wore uniforms as if they were crewmen, and others wore clothes that pirates would wear. But they all shared a common trait.
"Skeletons?" was Nathan surprised to see the dozens of undead walking aimlessly on the decks of the derelict ships.
'So that's why' muttered Amelia mentally.
Nathan nodded, stopping peering out of the window. "We're not inside a realm... Then why are there undead?"
It wasn't the first time Nathan had seen an undead, as Thorius' servants were skeletons. But he hadn't interacted with them much and had only seen them for a couple of minutes.
I had already read about them, and technically they were not considered calamities since they were not alive. The undead could not exist on their own and needed a source of essence in order to move.
That was how Thorius' servants moved, thanks to his essence that fed them. And here it was no different.
"A mysterious ship graveyard and a calamity that shouldn't be here" Nathan murmured, sunk in thought. "...What's going on here?"
The first thing that came to Nathan's mind was a realm that had merged with the earth as had happened with the castle. But he could not confirm anything without Enarys' information.
Nathan tried to fall asleep, but the presence of the hundreds of undead surrounding them simply made it impossible for him to fall asleep, so he stared at the window.
The undead seemed not to notice the presence of the ship, as their hollow gazes never rested on it. Or they simply ignored them completely.
Nathan had no idea, but while he was thinking about it, he suddenly saw something rise from the water several dozen meters away from them.
His eyes opened wide and all the sleepiness he was feeling disappeared because of the sudden surge of adrenaline that surged through his body as he saw the large transparent neon-colored tentacle rise dozens of meters in the air and then descend towards them.
A large barrier surrounded the ship as soon as the tentacle was within a couple of meters of them. But the blow was enough to cause the ship to lurch, almost knocking Nathan to the ground.
Inside the ship several voices began to be heard and suddenly an alarm began to beep, painting the inside of the ship red.
Nathan cursed as he saw the large tentacle attack them again, causing the ship to shake fiercely once again.
"What the fuck is that!" shouted Nathan as he saw two more tentacles begin to rise from the water.