"This fog is pushing us backward," Balladeer said, walking onto the deck and peering down at the sea.
Around the ship, tiny ripples silently swayed. Ripples are inherently soundless, and with the thick fog surrounding them, most people probably wouldn't even notice if the ship had turned around.
"Everyone! Tie the ships together with ropes, keep them close, and don't fall behind!"
Upon realizing this, Balladeer immediately looked around and shouted to the Fatui.
"Ha... haha, I'm... I'm still quite capable, aren't I?" Childe, slumped on the ground, forced a smile upon hearing Balladeer's words.
"You did contribute this time." Balladeer didn't refute Childe's words this time; if it weren't for Childe, he might have discovered this too late.
"Alright, it's better for the injured to rest and recuperate," Ember said, seeing Childe looking smug as if he was about to stand up, and pressed him back down with a hand.
"It's just weakness, not an injury at all," Childe retorted, sitting back on the ground, enduring the tearing sensation in his body.
He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but after activating his Foul Legacy Transformation and entering this fog, he felt a constant force repelling him.
It was precisely because of this repulsive sensation that Childe was able to discover the secret within the fog first.
While they were talking, the calm sea became completely tumultuous. Relying on the ropes Childe had previously conjured with his power, the fleet temporarily huddled together.
But this wasn't enough; Childe's power wasn't permanent, and the ropes would dissipate soon. So they had to quickly connect all the ships while they had the chance.
The Fatui moved swiftly. Soon, each wooden boat had several thick iron chains, each connecting to another ship.
"Is it all done?" Balladeer asked the Fatui who came to report.
"Yes, Lord Balladeer, it's all done, not one missing!" The Fatui nodded, responding with certainty.
"Good, prepare to set sail again." Balladeer immediately ordered the fleet to resume its journey after hearing this.
"Set sail? The stars in the Sky are gone now, and the sea is covered by fog. How do we determine direction?" Ember pointed to the gloomy Sky, reminding Balladeer.
"That's a problem." Balladeer stroked his chin and walked to the railing.
To his left and right, besides the Fatui's ships, there was only rolling fog. Under these conditions, any method of determining direction would likely be useless.
"But it won't stump me!"
Balladeer curled his fingers into a claw, and then an extremely bright purple lightning orb appeared in his hand.
After compressing all the nearby element power into his palm, Balladeer waved his arm, and the purple lightning orb floated in mid-air.
"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!"
Sharp thunder rumbled from the lightning orb, and the smooth sphere seemed to have a small hole, with countless leaping bolts of lightning bursting forth from one corner of the orb.
The lightning orb now looked like a tadpole made of lightning. The orb's body was the tadpole's head, and the leaking lightning was its tail.
"Head in this direction, go!" Balladeer breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the purple lightning tadpole stably suspended in the air.
He had just had a sudden idea to use this method to determine direction in the fog, and he hadn't expected it to succeed immediately.
"Oh, you're quite clever," Ember said, looking at the shining lightning orb above his head, praising Balladeer.
Even though the fog prevented the light from the lightning orb from penetrating very far, the sparse element power in this space allowed everyone to know that this was a place they had been before.
Balladeer glared at Ember, not replying to his words.
"Splash!"
The sound of oars splashing echoed, and the ships began to sway again. The wooden boats were connected, but no one had ever had this experience.
The frequency and force of rowing varied, and so did the speed of the wooden boats. As a result, the connected ships immediately began to pull at each other.
"Can't you all be more coordinated? This is too shaky!" Standing on the rocking deck, Ember experienced "seasickness" for the first time.
"Stop!"
"Huh? You're really stopping?" Ember was puzzled when he heard Balladeer actually stop the ship.
He was just complaining, why did he actually stop?
"It's not because of you!" Balladeer turned to look at Ember, then pointed forward with his finger.
In the thick fog ahead, a huge shadow appeared before everyone's eyes. From its appearance, it seemed to be another ship.
"Someone else came to this cursed place?" After resting for a while, Childe felt much better.
He went to the bow and shouted at the shadow, "Hey! We are ships from Snezhnaya! Where are you from?!"
Childe didn't say they were from the Fatui because he was afraid of scaring them away.
But Childe waited for a long time and didn't hear any response, which made him somewhat puzzled.
"The people opposite aren't responding to us. Do you think they somehow recognized us as Fatui?" Childe walked down and spread his hands helplessly at Balladeer.
"No need to shout, they probably won't respond to us." Balladeer shook his head, then he shouted loudly: "All ship leaders, respond if you hear me!"
"Redmond!"
"Here!"
"Andre!"
"Here!"
..."Solis!"
"Here!"
After the last name was called, everyone answered Balladeer's roll call. But Balladeer's face showed no relief; his expression of doubt grew even deeper.
"What's going on?" Childe asked, leaning over when he heard Balladeer finish.
"Roll call."
"Why a roll call?"
Balladeer glanced sideways at Childe, "Didn't you notice that the ship's shadow opposite is the exact same size as our ship?"
"Really?!" Childe, upon hearing this, finally took a good look at the ship's shadow opposite.
Then he was surprised to find that the shadow opposite, whether in height, length, or width, was exactly the same as the ship they were on.
"You just called roll, and everyone responded. So what exactly is this newly appeared ship?!"
As Childe spoke, a chill ran down his spine; this was too eerie. What kind of place was Tsurumi Island?
He would rather risk his life fighting enemies several times stronger than himself than face such a bizarre scene.
"I wish I knew," Balladeer said, looking at the shadow opposite with a solemn expression.
This scene reminded him of his previous experience when he went underground to search for traces of the Abyss.
He eventually secured his position as the Sixth Seat with the results he brought back, but the various eerie events etched in his mind were something Balladeer never wanted to experience again.
He hadn't expected this feeling to descend upon him again in Inazuma.
"Why don't we just go and see?" Ember suggested when he saw Balladeer and Childe chatting animatedly but without any conclusion.
"No, it's best not to look when encountering something like this; go around it." Balladeer immediately shook his head upon hearing this. During his days underground, he understood what "curiosity killed the cat" meant.
So when encountering such an eerie event again, Balladeer's first thought was how to bypass it, not to investigate it.
"But if we do that, we won't be moving in a straight line, and all the marks you made before would be wasted, wouldn't they?" Ember reminded him when he saw Balladeer wanting to take a detour.
In a situation where direction is unknown, the most taboo thing is to take a crooked path.
If Balladeer took a detour like this, when they saw the marks again, they wouldn't know if it was because they had detoured or if there was something wrong with the space itself.
Upon hearing Ember's words, Balladeer's movements paused. He suddenly realized, could this phantom be something the fog specifically used to block them?
"Damn the fog! Damn the island!"
Balladeer somewhat understood why Ei was unwilling to investigate here.
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