A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 652 The Promise

The souls of pilgrims do not fully return to the source; these ethereal things are merely temporarily gathered in a ethereal place where a segment of their memory is erased before being placed back into their reconstructed bodies.

Now, this process is finally over.

The wrecked Temple ship had been swallowed by an even larger behemoth, and shuttle boats quickly approached them from the hangar inside, scanning, dismantling the broken hull, and removing radioactive interstellar dust.

Then came the constant shouting. The "Sacred Bell" system resumed operation and established contact with the "New Marin". The other side requested that the pilgrims' ship undergo quarantine and clearance, and that the crews of both sides could meet face-to-face after the risk was eliminated.

The bishop readily agreed, and then briefly explained the situation to the survivors:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have escaped the nightmarish cloud! We are now saved, praise the Lord! Rest assured, the broadcast from the other side is clearly an act of goodwill."

A look of joy appeared on everyone's faces, and they all began to praise the Lord. The injured novice priest, supported by the paladin, also rushed to the cockpit. He clutched the "Holy Decree" tightly and saw that most of the crew members were present, but the technical priest was missing.

The bishop's expression quickly changed, and he said in a serious, low voice, "However, in order to escape this terrible realm, our technical priest made a bold attempt and a fearless sacrifice, holding on to the very last moment. He and the other brothers in the engine room were all called by the Lord!"

The news shocked everyone; they stopped smiling, bowed their heads, and began to pray.

The most heartbroken was the novice priest, who would rather continue arguing with that guy than hear such devastating news. The bishop was still mournfully reminiscing, "Not only them, but we also lost our brothers and sisters in other fleets. May they rest in peace!"

When the prayers were nearly finished, everyone's feet gradually left the ground—not because they were about to ascend to heaven, but because the temple's own gravity system began to collapse.

Not only that, their protective shields and life support systems were also at their limits. They should be grateful that the New Marlin discovered and took them in in time; otherwise, even if they had managed to escape, they would not have been far from collective martyrdom.

The ship's loudspeaker crackled again: "We have noticed that your vessel has ceased operations and will be covering the hangar with gravity traps. Please proceed with caution."

Before the broadcast had even faded, a new wave of gravity struck, successfully throwing the charlatan inside the ship into a daze. Jonas put away his binoculars and gloated to his companion what he'd seen through the other ship's porthole: "Look at that charlatan in the red robe, his butt's definitely split in four!"

Alek looked helpless. Jonas was clearly middle-aged, just like him, but his mentality was still the same as when they first met: "We've given them plenty of time to prepare. Now it's our turn to go."

At this time, both he and Jonas were systems engineers on the ship, responsible for maintaining a small part of the various magic-driven operating systems within the spaceship.

Although Alek was nominally the owner of the giant ship as the financier, he was neither the captain nor held any other important position. He exerted influence indirectly through the Royal Estate Trust, and he rarely used this power.

Jonas never understood Alek's absolute low profile, ultimately attributing it to Alek's ambition to be a protagonist in a wish-fulfillment novel and his penchant for playing dumb to outsmart others. "You're definitely looking forward to experiencing the feeling of showing off and getting slapped in the face someday!" Jonas would say this with absolute certainty in private.

Alec simply smiled at this. The real reason was that he didn't want to get involved in too many "mundane things," preferring to deal with magic circuits, and there were also practical factors at play.

The "New Marin," a permanent settlement ship built over fifteen years, was intended to be the first immigrant ship to enter the New World. It carried almost all of the last remaining Imperial population, more than 3,700 people from the border territories.

With the prime plane completely "collapsed," this ship is the Empire's last mobile territory. However, as long as Alek dares to step forward and assert his right to legal succession to the Empire, neither the Alliance nor the Second Republic of Valois will allow the "New Marin" to leave port.

So things are fine as they are now. He has fulfilled the promise he made in his youth, and all that remains is to arrive in the New World at the sixteenth anniversary.

"Alex, Jonas, proceed to the designated location immediately and take over the target's control system." The command was transmitted via [Communication].

"Received." The two raised their wrists, and beneath the sapphire dials were no longer complex hands, but a pool of developing solution. It was said to be a saturated solution of some kind, which would crystallize different reflected waves when stimulated by magic. Alec couldn't say for sure. In recent decades, alchemy had developed to the point that no one would generally call themselves an alchemist, but would humbly say that they worked in a certain area.

The developing fluid began to fluctuate, and the image went from blurry to clear, indicating that their short-distance teleportation destination had been locked. The two activated the drive gauges, and their figures were teleported from the hangar control room to the cockpit of the Temple ship. There, a large group of people were standing or sitting, clearly indicating that some had been successfully "ambushed" by the gravity trap and were still recovering.

Alek glanced at Jonas, as if to say: Look what you've done!

They weren't the only ones transported; a liaison representative from the spaceship, a diplomat-like figure, was also present. The stern-looking woman was originally an official from the count's territory. In addition, armed personnel and more technicians arrived.

Therefore, Alec and Jonas, the two "intermediate spellcasters," were not conspicuous. They could pry open the maintenance port cover of the control panel in the corner, under the bewildered gaze of a few paladins, and tell them that they were "maintaining" it.

A paladin expressed his gratitude on the spot, which Jonas accepted with a forced smile.

The church, of course, lacked alchemical expertise; all the wiring was as old-fashioned as it had been decades ago and was in line with the Alliance's technology. Yes, this ship, decorated like a cathedral, was built to perfect compliance with the fourth edition of the safety technology protocol. They connected their own drive gauges to the ship's control system while manually connecting loops to a transceiver.

As they fiddled with it, short blue ripples spread across the Temple spaceship's path, centered on the transceiver, and a fresh stream of air blew out from the spaceship's dome.

The power supply to the Temple ship has been restored. It was the two of them who had the ship spirit of the "New Marin" take over the ship and activated its own life-sustaining array.

"Done." Jonas, who had finished work, was in no hurry to leave. He pulled Alek to watch the show—in the Astral Plane these days, charlatans were a rare species, especially a ship full of charlatans, who were a precious group.

"Are you referring to the Gregorian calendar? Sorry, let me convert it. Anyway, let's put it this way: we are the pilgrim fleet that set sail in the fifty-third year after the Black Sun Cataclysm. I am Archbishop Estherwell, the captain, and this is our twelfth year on this voyage."

Upon hearing this, all the crew members from the "New Marlin" were extremely surprised.

The liaison officer asked, "How long have you been trapped in the nebula?"

"Yes, it's been over a month. We've run out of fuel and supplies, so thank you all so much for coming to our rescue."

"No, you've been trapped for fifteen years!"

"What? What about the other pilgrim fleets?"

"We were unaware that just three days ago, the Maxim opened a teleportation portal to 'The End of the World,' and we'll be there soon. We haven't encountered any other ships belonging to the Church of Order pilgrims during this time."

A jolt of inspiration struck the preacher once more, and he screamed frantically, "Don't go! Don't go! The promised new world is a lie! The oracle is false! It's all a lie!"

(End of this chapter)