Captain – Chapter 496 – Land of Decay

In this barren, lifeless wasteland of rocks, hoping to find any living creature or treasure left by previous visitors would be nothing but a foolish fantasy.

Nevertheless, an eerie cemetery atmosphere permeated the air as the crew searched the area.

With exclamations and hushed cries, the pirates who had scattered about returned one by one to Roy, reporting what they had seen—strange skeletal rock formations and dark, giant skull bones half-embedded in the ground.

Human, beast, bird, and even some twisted or astonishingly large monster remains the size of small cabins appeared like bamboo shoots after rain as the group advanced deeper into the island, with new discoveries every few steps.

However, these weren’t actual bones, but entirely made of stone.

“Damn, this really is a burial island.”

The crew spread out around them, exploring while protectively encircling their captain and first mate like stars around the moon. Listening to the reports and looking at the bizarrely shaped fossilized bones, Roy couldn’t help but curse under her breath.

“But Captain, all the remains we’ve seen are actually just rock. So rather than a cemetery, this seems more like a forest of stone sculptures.”

Recalling the strange stone sculptures he had seen in the Auran Art Gallery during his time as a military officer, the first mate reminded her. The pirates had already “quite disrespectfully” verified the stone theory.

Their verification method, naturally, was to chip off samples from the skeletal remains.

If this truly was a burial ground, that would be grave robbery.

“Stone sculpture forest, what an imagination you have.”

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Giving the young man a sidelong glance, Roy sighed softly: “Think about it. The people who came here before, impressive as they might have been, were pirates just like us. Why would they have the leisure or patience to create these?”

Those great individuals who came to bury Aegis might have included some who enjoyed sculpting, but there was no reason they would waste their talents here, on this uninhabited lonely island with nothing but stones.

Besides, not to mention whether those important figures had actually passed through this strange island, even if someone did have the spare time to carve these stones into bones, the required workload for what they had seen would take more than a lifetime to complete.

That skull the size of a small mountain alone would have required thousands of workers.

“Also, with all the bizarre curses in this world, who knows if these fellows were cursed to turn to stone after death.”

Roy shrugged, offering this analysis casually, though it seemed to hit the mark.

Having experienced so many strange events, the first mate had gradually become more accepting of such illogical, unreasonable deductions, and nodded slightly: “That’s certainly possible, especially since Captain Edward could do something like this.”

Hearing this, the girl grimaced, clearly displeased by the mention of that person in Caine’s words: “Such unscrupulous behavior does seem like his handiwork. Someone who could exterminate an entire race out of selfishness—nothing he does would surprise me.”

The group followed the direction where the skeletal remains were distributed until, after walking some distance, they gradually discovered that as they went deeper, the frequency of skeletal remains decreased, but their size became increasingly enormous, even approaching completeness.

They lined both sides like valley walls, creating a natural path.

A path leading to the deepest part of the lonely island.

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As the skeletal remains appeared less frequently, and those that did were so massive that their complete form was difficult to discern, with most buried underground, the pirates’ reports grew fewer.

Finally, they proceeded almost in silence.

Overhead were curved, spike-like bone structures casting shadows that blocked most of the daylight, making the already dim environment even more gloomy.

Gradually, no more skeletal remains appeared. The sides truly became dark stone walls, with no more gaps above. They seemed to have entered a narrow passage, pitch-black and impenetrable, fortunately they had brought enough torches.

Following the firelight forward, in this quiet space, people’s footsteps and breathing became exceptionally heavy, with a peculiar solemnity gradually spreading.

It was as if this passage was the legendary path of pilgrimage.

Finally, after walking for an unknown length of time, some light appeared ahead, with the sounds of tides and wind growing closer—everything indicated that the exit was approaching.

Soon enough, the cave opening came into view.

Emerging from the passage, although cliffs still blocked the sky above and the light wasn’t abundant, Roy had to squint for quite a while before her eyes adjusted.

Continuing forward for a bit longer, the cliff walls finally ended, and the view suddenly opened up to reveal a vast beach similar to what they had seen when first landing on the lonely island.

But the scenery was completely different.

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“My God, what are those…”

The pirates all stopped in their tracks at the shocking sight. Even Roy couldn’t help but gasp when she saw the layers upon layers of towering mountains.

“What kind of creatures left these remains?”

Those dark, grim, and grotesquely shaped mountains were also skeletal remains. No, some even still retained their form, or were simply like soft-bodied creatures preserved in stone, presenting a kind of withered beauty.

A mad, deadly beauty.

At first glance, the girl knew these were not beings that humans could communicate with—they were the mortal enemies of all life, true taboos.

Even ancient history would not willingly mention them.

“This is indeed a burial ground, but I think it has nothing to do with my ancestor.”

After a long silence, although Roy still didn’t know the origin of those mountain-like remains, she reached a definite conclusion, because her intuition told her that even a devil would find it difficult to threaten such terrifying existences.

Collecting herself, under the captain’s direction, the group set off again, wanting to get closer to explore the unknown horror. But before they had taken many steps, they were attracted by a severely damaged stone tablet, with only half remaining.

This man-high stone tablet was clearly made from local materials, the same deep gray as the other rocks on the lonely island. The craftsmanship was extremely crude and primitive, with not even the edges smoothed before it was slanted into the ground.

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Characters were carved on the tablet, emitting a dim glow, as if countless brilliant, never-fading stars were hidden in those grooves.

The language used was none of the known languages today—it didn’t even match the ancient Auran text that Roy had taken time to briefly study.

She even thought it might date back to the Dark Calendar.

Just as the pirates were staring at each other in confusion, completely at a loss with the ancient text, and even the captain was about to give up and leave temporarily, Caine frowned and called them back, saying that somehow, he seemed to…

understand this script.

Walking around the first mate a few times, Roy looked at him with utter disbelief, stopping in front of him and asking: “Look, Caine, apart from studying ancient Auran with me for a few days, I’ve never seen you pick up any foreign language materials.”

“I’m not sure either, Captain.”

Looking at those flowing, jumping characters that seemed like they might change meaning at any moment, the young man’s brow furrowed even deeper. He vaguely felt this wasn’t a good thing, but rather some kind of indescribable, extremely ominous sign.

Because this language seemed to be called…

the Mourning Tongue.