Chapter 58:
Blackwater Bay, Pompey Royal Navy Secret Shipyard, Underground Berth No. 0.
This was Victor Pompey's private domain. Not even Varys's little birds could fly in here.
The massive underground cavern was lit as bright as day by high-power arc lamps.
In the central docking pool sat a strangely shaped steel behemoth, completely different from the Sea Wolf-class submarines.
It was no longer a slender cigar shape. It was wider, thicker, with a matte black hull. Its bow featured a huge reinforced glass observation window like the eye of a giant. Both sides of the hull were covered with complex cooling grilles and mechanical arms.
[Pompey-class Deep Submersible Research Vessel · Unique Prototype]
[Name: Nautilus.]
[Length: 120 meters.]
[Armor: Valyrian steel / lead-alloy composite (radiation-proof, high-temperature resistant).]
[Power Source: ???]
At this moment, Victor stood on the control platform in the engine room, wearing thick protective goggles.
Before him was a reactor core container made of unknown transparent metal.
Inside the container floated the [Heart of the Titan] — the blue-glowing crystal he had extorted from Braavos.
"All readings are normal."
The chief engineer of the Pompey Royal Academy of Sciences had trembling hands. He looked at the instrument panel with both excitement and fear.
"My lord, this thing… it's breathing. The energy readings are off the charts! Is it alive?"
"It's not alive. It's merely a high-dimensional energy projection."
Victor pulled down the control lever.
Buzz——————!!!
With the limiter removed, the blue crystal erupted with blinding light. A stream of blue energy surged through the conduits into the massive steam turbines.
There was no black smoke from burning coal, no roar of diesel engines.
Only a deep, rich, soul-shaking hum.
This was the first heartbeat of magitech power.
The ship now had nearly unlimited endurance.
…
"Madness. This is sheer madness."
A hoarse, rough voice came from behind.
Victor turned around.
Two guards were escorting in a burly, ugly old man with a crooked nose that had been broken multiple times. He wore a dirty maester's robe.
He was chewing sourleaf, red juice dripping from the corner of his mouth like blood.
Maester Marwyn.
The most unruly maester in all of Westeros, and the only one who had truly studied magic, traveled to Asshai, and possessed a Valyrian steel mask and a glass candle in the Citadel.
"I was perfectly comfortable in the black cells of Oldtown. Why the hell did you drag me here?"
Marwyn spat a mouthful of red saliva and glared fiercely at Victor.
"So this is the Duke Pompey who blew up the Faith and wants to burn down the Citadel? Doesn't look like he has three heads and six arms."
"I brought you out because you're the only one who knows what he's looking at."
Victor pointed at the glowing reactor.
"Look at that, Doctor. Tell me what you see."
Marwyn snorted disdainfully and turned toward the reactor.
The next second, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
He lunged forward and pressed his face almost against the reinforced glass, staring greedily at the blue crystal.
"Gods above…"
Marwyn muttered, "This is the Titan's spark… a creation from before Valyria. Those Braavosi misers hid it for centuries, and you actually got your hands on it?"
"And moreover…"
He turned to Victor, looking at him as if he were both a madman and a genius.
"You actually… stuffed it into a steam boiler?! To boil water?!?!"
"This is a magitech turbocharged engine."
Victor corrected him. "Don't worry about how it's used. It can take us anywhere."
"Including the Smoking Sea."
At the mention of the Smoking Sea, Marwyn's expression instantly turned serious.
"You want to go to Valyria?"
He wiped the sourleaf juice from his mouth.
"That place is full of the dead, the mad, and things worse than the dead. Even I wouldn't dare go deep."
"You want to go die?"
"I want to find the truth."
Victor walked up to Marwyn and handed him a cigar.
"That escaped Euron Greyjoy brought back a horn that controls sea monsters from Valyria. He may have brought back other things as well."
"If we don't get to the root of this, we will always be on the defensive in this war."
"So, do you want to keep rotting in your cell, or come with me to see what that god-cursed forbidden land actually looks like?"
Marwyn stared at Victor for a full minute.
Then he snatched the cigar, baring a mouth full of red-stained rotten teeth in a grin.
"To hell with the cell."
"I've been wanting to dig up Valyria's ancestral graves for a long time."
…
On the deck, the farewell ceremony.
The atmosphere was tense.
Tyrion Lannister paced anxiously back and forth on the pier, looking like he wanted to grab Victor's leg.
"You can't go!!! You are the Regent!!! You are the brain of the Federation!!!"
Tyrion shouted. "If you die in that cursed place, who will run everything? Cersei will laugh herself awake! The slave masters will counterattack!"
"Yes, Victor."
Sansa Stark also looked worried as she tugged at Victor's sleeve.
"Let Jon go, let Grey Worm go, even let the Hound go. Why does it have to be you?"
"Because they wouldn't understand."
Victor gently patted Sansa's hand, his eyes resolute.
"This ship is specially built. Only I understand its systems. If that reactor loses control, the entire Blackwater Bay will be wiped out."
"Besides…"
Victor looked toward the dark tunnel exit.
"This isn't just about fighting a war. This is archaeology. I need to confirm whether the enemies we will face are gods… or another group of ancient people who mastered high technology."
"If I don't come back."
Victor took out a thick envelope from his coat and handed it to Tyrion.
"This is the draft of the Federal Constitution and the five-year industrial development plan."
"Follow this, and even without me, the Pompey Federation can continue to operate."
Tyrion's hands trembled as he accepted the envelope, his eyes slightly red.
"You arrogant… bastard."
"You'd better come back alive. I'm still waiting for that thirty-year-old Arbor gold I've been saving."
"Don't worry."
Victor turned and strode toward the hatch.
The Hound (wearing a prototype heavy powered armor), Daenerys (who insisted on going because it was her ancestors' homeland), and Maester Marwyn followed closely behind.
Clang—!
The heavy airtight hatch slowly closed.
The massive interlocking gears turned, sealing out all light and air.
"Nautilus, begin flooding procedure."
Victor's voice broadcast throughout the ship.
The water level in the dock began to rise.
The black steel behemoth slowly sank into the water, leaving only a trail of rolling bubbles.
…
Nautilus, main command cabin.
This didn't look like a warship. It looked more like a luxurious Victorian-style mobile palace.
Leather sofas, mahogany bookshelves, a huge Persian carpet, and an enormous observation window that took up an entire wall.
Of course, it also had plenty of complex instrument panels and brass pipes.
"Depth: 100 meters."
"Depth: 300 meters."
"Reactor output: 15%."
"Life support systems normal."
Victor sat in the command chair, holding a cup of red tea.
Through the observation window, the seawater outside had already turned pitch black. Only the ship's forward searchlights cut a lonely beam through the abyss.
"We are approaching the edge of the continental shelf."
Maester Marwyn was pressed against the window, holding a glowing obsidian candle and performing some kind of magical scan.
"Do you feel it?"
The old man suddenly laughed nervously.
"The current has changed. The temperature is rising."
"That direction…" He pointed toward the end of the abyss. "There's a scent. Sulfur, blood, and… ancient resentment."
"That is our destination."
Victor set down his teacup and pressed the ship-wide announcement button.
"All hands, attention."
"We are about to enter the Smoking Sea region."
"Check all radiation shielding layers. Check all weapon systems."
"We are about to knock on the gates of hell."
"Full speed ahead."
With the order given, the Heart of the Titan flashed brightly.
The Nautilus's pump-jet propulsors accelerated silently.
This ark, equipped with humanity's most advanced technology and the strongest magical core, shot forward like a sharp sword, piercing through a thousand years of taboo, heading straight for the coordinates that had terrified sailors for centuries.
And in the darkness ahead,
Countless eyes were slowly opening in the ruins on the seabed, watching these reckless intruders.
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