Chương 25: Ship Hijack

Ivan liked the cove better in the dark. In the morning light it was too clear. The high rock walls showed every gouge from old anchor chains, the pebbled shore glistened with oil slicks and rotted rope. The water itself was the wrong color for a normal sea, a heavy blue that seemed to swallow light instead of throwing it back. The Void Ship sat in the middle of it all like a badly landed joke. A Void Ship wasn't too different from a normal ship.

What made it special were the water enchantments that allowed it to cross the Abyssal Sea. Those enchantments also confused sea beasts, making the ship feel like a mass of water moving through more water. Yes, like a "void" in the beasts' senses. There were also rumors about a few much rarer Void Ships that could teleport, disappearing into the void and reappearing somewhere else. Up close, nearly every part of the hull had been carved with runes and strange patterns.

Black iron bound the dark wood, while pieces of bone had been fixed along the railings. A stylized serpent's head jutted from the prow, though age had taken away most of whatever impression it was supposed to make. He walked down the worn stone path to the water's edge. The air was cold and damp, he liked it since it cleared some of the grit out of his head. Rys leaned against the low stone railing that kept the more suicidal from walking straight into the drop. Wind played with the ends of her pink hair.

She wore the same tattered clothes from the fight, but she'd washed the blood out. Her tail flicked slowly behind her as she watched the ship.

"Morning," Ivan said.

"Yeah," she said.

"Didn't get much sleep." He came to stand beside her. From here the ship took up most of his forward view. It floated steady, moored by thick mana‑woven ropes that glowed faintly where they bit into the pier posts.

"That's an ugly ship," he said.

"Really ugly," Rys said.

"But if it gets us out of here, I don't care." He watched her profile. Her ears sat half‑upright. She wasn't relaxed.

"You're eager to leave," he said.

"Aren't you?" she asked. He thought about Victor's face when he'd broken the Corrupted Scroll. The way the Heart's chains had throbbed as the General died. And also the divine offers waiting in his System.

"Yeah," he said.

"We need to get out before they come looking." Rys sighed.

"It feels insulting," she said.

"Running while there are still slaves on different coasts in this continent. Still Chain forts. We burned one place and now we leave."

"We killed a general out of sheer luck," Ivan said.

"The next group who tries this won't have that element of surprise. We did what we could." She was quiet for a moment.

"I know," she said finally.

"Still feels wrong." He understood that. The feeling that there should have been a perfect move on the board, some bit of geometry that saved everyone. It was hard to accept that sometimes there just wasn't.

"There were a few foxkins I saw among the freed people. Are they your people?" Ivan asked, and she looked dejected.

"They aren't… It's still reassuring to see them saved, but they aren't from my town," Rys didn't look too happy about that.

"I see. So what now?" he asked.

"Still want to get to Asterion? You and Ren." Her ears perked at the name.

"Of course," she said.

"My shrine is near there. My family. Whatever's left. And if any of my people manage to flee from the slavers too, their destination will be our home. So that's still the plan."

"I'm glad. I'd like to spend a few more months with you," he said. She gave him a sideways look.

"Young man, don't confess your love now. You've got the Order of Dawn interested in you," she said with a smirk.

"That Knight and that Mage. That's a lot of attention, why are you still trying to hog mine?" He let that sit.

"I'm not joining the Citadel," he said.

"I'll work with them while it makes sense, but I'm not wearing their colors. I still have unfinished business with Victor and the Chain. And their Citadel is too scared to meddle with them directly. You on the other hand… you aren't scared." Rys's shoulders loosened a fraction. She looked into the horizon, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ears. She remained quiet for too long.

"You don't have to, you know? I know you promised to help me with the Chain, but you don't have to endanger yourself because of my problems." Ivan gently hit her shoulder with his.

"Hey, now you're making it awkward. I just want their EXP."

"For sure," she giggled. Bootsteps sounded behind them on the stone. Elizabeth came down the path with her staff in one hand and a thick roll of parchment under the other arm. Her robe was clean but wrinkled, like she'd slept in it. Her hair was tied back at the nape of her neck in something that used to be a ponytail. She blinked at the two of them, then at the ship.

"You're up early," she said to Ivan.

"Good. We need to start now before my headache gets worse."

"Morning to you too," Rys said. Elizabeth gave her a distracted nod and shifted her grip on the staff.

"Yara wants the ship ready by noon," she said.

"We need to check the arrays, cut any links to the Chain, and make sure it won't break down when we're out at sea." Rys pushed off the railing.

"Don't sink it, you two," she said.

"I hate swimming."

"I'll try not to," Elizabeth said. Ivan glanced at Rys.

"You coming?" he asked.

"Hello, I'm not a Mage, let me rest," she said.

"And I need to find Ren and figure out which free people want to go back on board and who want to remain here."

"See you on deck," he said.

"Be careful with the runes," she called after them. Elizabeth led the way onto the narrow wooden ramp up to the ship, yawning a little.

The Void Ship's deck felt very strange under his boots. Some of that was just age. The planks were worn smooth by years of traffic, but little hairline fractures spidered out from the anchor points where the stupid slavers had overcharged a ward or slammed something heavy down too hard. The rest was Mana. It sat under the wood like a second skin, humming faintly against his soles even without [Mana Sense] fully engaged. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Leo waited near the main mast, arms folded, bow slung.

"What are you doing here?" Ivan asked. He thought it was dangerous to roam the ship before Elizabeth's check.

"Doing my own search. Good morning," he said.

"We'll see good or not," Elizabeth said. Leo gestured with his chin toward the fore.

"I checked earlier," he said.

"Main control room is below the quarterdeck. There's also an engine room further down. Lots of weird glowing stuff. I didn't touch anything."

"Smart," Ivan said. Elizabeth tapped the deck with the end of her staff.

"I'll set up a stabilizing spell in the control room," she said.

"Just enough to keep things straight when you start messing with the arrays. Stay close once I start." He nodded. They followed Leo down the short stair to the lower deck and then along a central corridor. The air changed as soon as they left the open sky behind. It got tighter, full of the faint bitter taste of old ritual smoke and something like cold iron. They passed cramped crew bunks first. Rows of hammocks, hooks, and shelves. A storage room with barrels strapped down in neat lines.

A stair going further below, where the engine‑glow pulsed. The hum of wards grew louder as they walked. The hub sat behind a reinforced door with inlaid runes along the frame. Leo unbarred it and stepped back.

"I'll stay out here," he said.

"If something goes wrong, I'll pull you out. Or run. Don't hold it against me."

"Thanks," Ivan said. Elizabeth pushed the door open with the butt of her staff. The chamber beyond was circular, maybe five meters across. The floor was one vast carved circle, layered with concentric rings of script and symbols. Thick mana conduits ran from its edge into the walls and up toward the deck above. At the center stood a raised platform with a waist‑high pillar and a black crystal set into its top. Ivan's [Architecture of Mana] woke up without him needing to call it.

Lines lit up in his vision, runes connecting through loops that vanished behind other functions. Trying to follow everything at once felt like tracing the veins inside a living body.

"Don't step on the inner circles," Elizabeth said.

"Outer ring is fine. Inner two, no." He kept his boots on the narrow path along the wall. Elizabeth walked to the far side and planted her staff. The metal ring at the top glowed faintly.

"[Greater Stabilize]," she said under her breath. The air shifted. Mana thickened and drew inward. It wasn't the raw flood of Mana Zone from last night. This spell was a careful pull, a small dome that settled over the room like a lens. Ivan felt the ship's own flows slow a fraction. The sharpness of the arrays in his inner sight increased.

"That should do it," Elizabeth said.

"But it's not invincible. Barely enough to keep things from exploding while you work." He nodded. He let himself look properly then. The big floor array had three major clusters. One set of loops and sigils tied directly to the pillar and the black crystal. A control nexus. He could see routing nodes – Helm, Sails, Wards, and Depth. The crystal itself pulsed with a steady, slow heartbeat of energy. Another cluster ran off to the left wall and then down toward the engine glow.

It was Propulsion – which could mean anything for a ship coated in water enchantments. The third cluster was what interested him most. Thin, tight glyph‑lines ran from the main circle to six smaller plates along the wall, each bearing a different sigil. Those lines left the room through a narrow bundle and vanished into the hull toward the open sea. He stepped nearer the wall and focused on one plate. The glyph above it was simple but precise, it was a symbol for "Anchor" combined with a stylized eye.

"These are tracking beacons," he pointed and explained.

"Six of them connected to the hull. They report position and status back to the Chain, if I'm not wrong."

"Can you cut them?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes," he said.

"But I need to be careful and you guys need to be fast in moving the freed people into the deck. If Chain notices a ship suddenly vanishing, they'll know something's wrong." He put his hand flat near one of the wall plates, careful not to touch the crystal itself. Cold Mana tingled against his palm. He let [Architecture of Mana] sink deeper. Beneath the physical array he felt a thinner structure hum. It wasn't a Skill, but nor was it a spell. It sat in the gap between those things, an identification field.

=== Asset: [Void Courier 7-13B]. Status: Active. Owner: [IRON CHAIN CONSORTIUM – PORT VALLOW BRANCH]. Captain: [BARNIK TESS]. === The names came through as flavor, not full data, but they were there. He could feel the path that connected this construct to something far away. A narrow, high‑tension tether in the abstract space where System functions lived. He did not have access to the other end. He could, however, alter what went out from here.

"So there's an enchantment here that's like Inspect but for ships. It sends info about the ship back to them. So first step," he said.

"We change what it reports." Elizabeth watched him.

"How?" she asked.

"It's a trick I learned," he said vaguely, winking at her.

"I can't cut the connection, but I can change what gets sent." She nodded but didn't push for details. He focused on the beacon array. This was an enchanted item, not a spell or Skill. [Principle Interference] could work with this. He hoped so… and his hope was correct. [External Function Detected: Ship Beacon – Status Ping] [Allow? Y/N] [Advanced option: Edit Output] Yes, he thought. Edit. The beacon's identification data appeared in his mind like a form he could fill out. He needed to be smart about this.

If he made the ship vanish entirely, they'd know something was wrong. If he kept it as Iron Chain property, they'd know there was something wrong and might send orders or reinforcements. The best option was to make it look like the ship had been legally seized by someone they couldn't easily challenge. Asset ID: keep the same. Status: Impounded. Owner: change to 'UNNAMED MARITIME AUTHORITY.' Captain: 'PENDING ARBITRATION,' he thought. The beacon accepted the changes.

Now it would report that this specific ship was tied up in some bureaucratic mess by some large group, maybe even Thalassa Prime from the drowned edges of the old Mediterranean, one of the global superpowers. [Output Modified.]"Done," he said.

"Now it shows as impounded by maritime authorities. They won't rush to investigate." He moved to the other five beacons and made similar edits. By the time he finished, his head was pounding, but all six now reported the same story. Elizabeth watched the central crystal.

"No alarms so far," she said.

"Good," Ivan said.

"Now for the captain controls." The central pillar was more complex. It had layers of enchantment built into it, designed to recognize a specific captain's mark and grant control of the ship accordingly. He could see the authentication routine clearly with [Architecture of Mana]. It was looking for a particular magical signature tied to the dead captain's ring.

"This is checking for the captain's ring," he hummed in thought.

"If we use the dead man's ring, it'll work. But it also means the Chain could potentially send override commands through that same connection. In which case, we might have to cut off the finger of whoever is wearing the ring then."

"We don't want that," Elizabeth said.

"No," he agreed.

"So I'm going to add a bypass. Make it accept a new captain without checking the old system, and pray it works." He placed his hand near the crystal and pushed with [Principle Interference] again. This enchantment was more sophisticated, but the principle was the same. [External Function Detected: Command Authentication] [Allow? Y/N] Yes. Edit behavior. It worked. An interface opened before him. Instead of replacing the old check entirely, he added a new condition on top.

If someone had a "Local Captain" flag, grant them full access without checking the remote authentication from Chain Headquarters. [Behavior Modified.]"Nice, done. Now we can set our own captain," he said.

"They'll have full control without needing the Chain's ring." Elizabeth was staring at his back with a scowl, and Ivan didn't understand why. After a short moment, she nodded.

"Alright, who should it be?"

"Yara?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"She's the one giving orders anyway." They called up to the deck. Yara came down a few minutes later, looking tired but alert.

"What do you need? Is the work done?" she asked.

"Yes, mostly finished. I changed the ship's tracking to show it as impounded by maritime authorities," Ivan said.

"And we've set up a way for you to control the ship without using the dead captain's ring. Just need you to touch the console so I can flag you as the new captain."

"Any risks?" she asked.

"If the Chain checks their records, they'll see this ship tied up in bureaucratic disputes, and they might theorize it's been seized by Thalassa Prime," he said.

"That should buy us time. The captain controls are local now, so they can't override us remotely." Yara stepped up to the pillar and placed her hand near the crystal. Ivan triggered the Local Captain flag. [Subject Authorized: LocalCaptain.] A small pulse of mana confirmed the change.

"Test it," Yara said. Leo called down from the deck and made a small steering adjustment. The ship responded smoothly, turning a few degrees before settling back.

"It works," Elizabeth said.

"No interference. This is… strange. What the hell? I didn't have to do anything at all." Only when she said that did Ivan realize that Elizabeth was looking tired earlier because she was preparing herself for some heavy lifting, but then there was he, who just touched this piece and that, and suddenly things fixed themselves. Maybe he should have been a bit more careful… Yara nodded.

"Good work. Get some rest. We leave in an hour." Ivan stepped back from the console, rubbing his temples. The ship was theirs now, at least until someone looked too closely at the paperwork.

"Come on," Elizabeth said.

"Let's get some air before we're stuck on this thing for weeks. And I'm curious about what you did, will you share?"

"Maybe another time." She sighed like she'd expected that response. As they climbed back up, Ivan caught her watching him again, still trying to understand what he had done. The morning sun was finally burning off the chill.