Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Chloe's line of thought was simple. They had all been mistaken before. What was happening in Gem Bay was indeed "dreaming," but the protagonists of this dream were not the murlocs. It was someone else.

In other words, the murlocs on this island were actually the dream itself.

They were part of the dream, which was why they appeared logical at first glance but could not withstand deeper scrutiny. They were part of the dream, which meant they could be manipulated at will.

So, who was the protagonist of this dream?

Looking toward the distant Pirate King's Court, Chloe's expression grew serious. If there was a central point to the anomalies in Gem Bay, she believed it was most likely there.

Extraordinary beings would not enter the sea, so almost no one understood the Church of the Sea God. However, the Church of Candlelight had preserved many secret histories. Through various means, they had eventually fallen into Chloe's hands.

For instance, Chloe knew that the Church of the Sea God had been collecting entity pollution for years to conduct certain blasphemous rituals and gain extraordinary power from them.

Extraordinary power inevitably brought pollution. Conversely, pollution itself contained extraordinary elements.

Even zealots like the Moths Chasing Fire treated pollution with extreme caution. They would rather pay a heavy price to summon a heretical god than allow pollution to remain within them. That alone spoke to how dangerous this substance was.

That was not normal. That was very abnormal.

To gain extraordinary power from pollution, one could not use any means to resist its corruption. Chloe could not fathom how they had managed this. Direct contact with pollution was deadly—out of a hundred people, barely one might survive. Even then, any extraordinary abilities gained would come with overwhelming contamination, making it nearly impossible to maintain sanity.

The Pirate King's Court was located on a massive island, the largest in the Martha Archipelago, several times the size of Castel.

This island had gone by many names. Today, pirates simply called it White Sand Island, named after its pristine white beaches.

The moment Chloe arrived above White Sand Island, she knew she was in the right place.

Like the other islands, this one was bustling with activity, but its inhabitants were all murlocs.

However, unlike other places, White Sand Island was covered in black, contaminated serpents. They crisscrossed the white sands like an intricate spiderweb, appearing both menacing and eerie.

These contaminated serpents stretched out from the palace at the island's center, extending in all directions before vanishing into the surrounding sea.

This was the first time they had seen these contaminated serpents on land. Originally, they had only existed beneath the ocean. But here, they had surfaced and were all reaching toward the palace in the middle.

The pillars of the palace bore the emblem of the Dark Sails, while murlocs dressed as pirates guarded its entrances.

This was the Pirate King's Palace—the very heart of Gem Bay—the location of the Pirate King's Court.

"Looks like Hughes guessed wrong. The center of this anomaly is not the Eye of the Storm, but the Pirate King's Court."

Chloe looked down at White Sand Island, her expression complex.

"Chief, should we return to report this first?"

"There's no time. Look at those." She pointed at the contaminated serpents below. "I suspected something when Nini described them. These so-called contaminated serpents are actually pipes for transporting pollution."

Following Chloe's direction, they all looked at the writhing serpents. They undulated with an unsettling rhythm, continuously funneling entity pollution into the grand palace.

"We were all wrong before. These contaminated serpents are not drawing pollution from the deep sea to distribute elsewhere. Quite the opposite—they are collecting pollution from the sea and bringing it back here."

"I don't know what's inside that palace, but it has absorbed an unimaginable amount of entity pollution. It must be terrifyingly powerful already, and it is still getting stronger."

Chloe turned to the others. "We don't have time to go back for reinforcements. I just used my ability to check—the concentration of pollution in the palace has already reached an absurd level. Soon, that pollution will undergo a qualitative transformation. I have no idea what it will turn into, but once it happens, nothing in this world may be able to stop it."

"That's the pollution of the entire Storm Ocean."

She glanced at the palace below, then at Castel's direction, clenching her teeth.

She was the Chief—the Chief of the Moths Chasing Fire. Her squad carried all of Castel's hopes.

The members of the Moths Chasing Fire fell silent. They exchanged glances, their expressions gradually becoming manic.

"Chief, we've been prepared for this all along. Give the order!"

Chloe looked at them, and as if releasing a heavy burden, her own face twisted into a crazed grin.

Her eyes burned with intensity. "To be honest, I'm curious myself. If such a powerful creature were to fight a heretical god, what would happen?"

Within the Church of Candlelight, it was widely believed that the heretics of the Moths Chasing Fire had gone mad the moment they committed themselves to the pursuit of knowledge. The unique nature of knowledge and pollution merely made them appear sane.

But when that fragile balance was broken, they would reveal their true insanity. Most of the destruction caused by the Moths Chasing Fire came from moments like these.

Perhaps that belief was correct. At that moment, aboard the airship, the squad seemed to have shed their shackles. No other emotions remained in their eyes—only excitement as they huddled together to plan.

Various extraordinary materials were carried out of storage. Chloe climbed onto the airship's balloon, brush in hand, and began painting intricate symbols on its skin.

She intended to engrave ritual sigils onto the airship and activate them using extraordinary power.

There were two layers to the ritual. The first was a communication ritual, which could send a message to a designated location—Castel had already set up a reception point.

The second was a ritual to summon a heretical god.

Both rituals had severe limitations. The communication ritual, even though it only transmitted a single message, could not reach such a distant location.

Meanwhile, summoning a heretical god required a large number of participants and a long preparation time. Once the communication ritual was completed, the fragile airship balloon would be destroyed, and the airship would plummet, making it impossible to complete the summoning ritual.

But Chloe had a way to solve both problems at once: by increasing the sacrifices.

If she and the others offered themselves as sacrifices, the communication ritual could be significantly amplified, ensuring that the message was sent.

At the same time, the summoning ritual could bypass the need for time and manpower, instantly succeeding. The airship would then crash, and the summoned heretical god would land directly on the palace.

Chloe planned to add another layer of destruction. The airship still carried explosives, and the balloon was filled with highly flammable, explosive hydrogen.