Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 749 Those who come to Castel are almost always going crazy at least once.
Old Vance had complained to others, but the responses he received were all strange.

“Coming to Castel is almost a given; everyone goes crazy at least once. That’s normal,” the security guard replied absentmindedly.

Old Vance glanced at him. It was said that he was also from the North. Because of the war, his family had all died, leaving him the only one who had fled to Bloodharbor.

It is said that after arriving there, he converted to some imperial truth and spent his days attending classes at the church.

Thinking of this, old Vance was somewhat disdainful.

He had been a carpenter his whole life and had never heard of anyone who could do a good job just by going to church and praying.

Thinking of this, he looked up and saw the security guard take out a holy book and open it.

Ha, what's the use of opening the holy book now? Does it say when the tsunami will end?
"The tsunami will end in five minutes. Let's get ready to go down in a bit," the safe zone said, flipping through a book without looking up.

Old Vance: "???"

He was full of question marks.

What does that mean? Could it really be written in the sacred texts?
Old Vance increasingly felt that he was probably going crazy.

The people inside the safe house didn't seem too nervous. They huddled together in small groups, chatting. When the sound of waves came from outside, they all gathered by the window and looked out.

Old Vance joined the others and went to the window to look at the distant sea.

The weather was clear and the sea breeze was gentle; it should have been a calm and peaceful day.

But on the distant sea, a white line was slowly but irresistibly approaching.

Old Vance squinted.

The tsunami wasn't high at all; old Vance might have thought it was just a slightly larger wave. But waves always eventually get submerged, and the white line, no matter what it encountered, remained the same—neither high nor low, neither fast nor slow—just surging in.

There's always been a strange feeling about Old Vance.

He recalled the great river where he occasionally went fishing. Once, he saw a huge creature in the river, a gigantic being that looked like a water monster, which frightened him so much that he dared not go out for several days.

The strange fish was swimming underwater and could not be seen from the shore at all. You could only see the water surface bulging slightly and pushing forward.

The vast ocean before him inexplicably reminded him of the strange fish in the river.

It was as if there was a colossal beast in the sea, swimming silently forward. It was so enormous that I couldn't even see its edge.

It moved forward in the water, with the waves following it, unstoppable.

How enormous would that be? A colossal beast that fills the entire ocean!
Old Vance jolted awake, realizing he felt a chill run down his spine. He instinctively reached up and touched his back, finding it soaked with cold sweat.

He instinctively wanted to say a few words of prayer, but he didn't know who to pray to—old Vance had never really believed in those churches his whole life.

"Let us pray to the lord."

Suddenly, a voice came from beside him. Old Vance turned his head and saw that it was the security officer, who was still holding the Holy Scripture. Sensing Old Vance's gaze, the officer smiled and nodded.

"Most people who come to Castel fall ill, and I was the same when I first arrived. All you have to do is chant the Lord's name."

Recite the name of the Lord?

Old Vance was a little confused. Although he had only been here for a short time, he knew that his lord had been replaced by Hughes.

What's the point of Croissant saying the lord's name? He's not some god. Even so, he still subconsciously uttered Hughes's name.

Strangely enough, the fear and confusion in his heart seemed to have dissipated a little, and the trembling feeling he had just experienced had also left him.

Old Vance looked up in surprise. These church people didn't seem to be entirely useless after all; at least they had successfully helped him get rid of his fear.

For the first time in his life, old Vance showed some interest in the church. His gaze swept over the security guard and landed on the holy book in his hands.

But after just one glance, he was stunned.

The surface was covered with all sorts of twisted and bizarre symbols. Just one glance was enough to make one dizzy, as if staring into a bottomless abyss. An indescribable sense of fear instantly gripped his heart.

He had a strong intuition that the book contained extremely blasphemous and terrifying forbidden knowledge, and that anyone who came into contact with it would suffer misfortune.

"What is this?" he murmured unconsciously.

"Advanced Mathematics".

After a sickening metallic scraping sound, the safe house door was pushed open.

The safety officer, wearing a life jacket, peered outside cautiously for a while before turning back and calling out:
"Come out, everyone, this tsunami is over."

People gave a haphazard reply, squeezed out of the door, and went down the stairs.

Old Vance tugged at his life jacket, feeling a bit awkward.

The clothes are a striking orange-red color that helps people float on the water.

But the safety officer told him it was best not to fall into the sea—the ocean was so vast that unless a siren happened to be patrolling nearby, it would be very difficult to find someone who had fallen into the water during a tsunami, even if they were wearing a life jacket.

Old Vance wholeheartedly agreed, and he was extremely careful as he stepped down the concrete stairs.

It's somewhat puzzling that Bloodharbor, with such an amazing building material as concrete, would need a carpenter like him on the construction site.

He had asked the safety officer what he needed to do, but the answer he received was, "You'll find out later."

As he descended from the towering lighthouse, old Vance carefully placed his boots on the muddy ground.

The recent tsunami flooded the land, and there's a specially constructed channel here that's filled with water.

The area around the lighthouse and safe house is on higher ground, so there isn't much standing water; the ground is just a bit muddy.

"Open the sluice gate!" the safety officer shouted into the distance. A person at the dam at the end of the water channel waved and then pulled down a control lever.

In the cement-lined water tank, seawater swirled and surged toward the sluice gate. Old Vance looked in that direction and saw the accumulated seawater merging with the seawater released from other tanks, flowing into a dry river valley.

Old Vance then noticed that not only his water tank had been built on the beach, but also numerous lighthouses and safe houses had been erected in the area, and several airships floated in the sky.

At that moment, countless water tanks opened simultaneously, releasing water. The seawater that flowed in converged and became a surging river, rushing towards the land.

The rushing river, as if an extension of the recent tsunami, surged forward with great passion, filling the dried-up riverbed in moments and flowing onward.

Old Vance's eyes widened. He had only ever heard of rivers flowing into the sea, and this was the first time he had ever seen water from the sea flowing into a river.

"May the lord protect me." This time, he didn't need to be reminded; he recited it subconsciously.

(End of this chapter)