Chapter 285

Chapter 285: Silver Warship

Wiseman led the charge, with Midi close behind and Reinhardt guarding the rear. The dark elf sisters and Vanguard ships followed. After eliminating the heavenly unmanned aircraft, the exploration team resumed their journey.

This time, with a clear direction, Midi kept the group tightly clustered in a defensive formation as they advanced.

The Necromancer’s two-headed wyvern proved invaluable. Though capable of flight, its true strength lay in its muscular limbs and dragon-scale hide, allowing it to plow through debris-filled skies.

While Midi’s Awakened Secret Technique "Sky Sword Dance" granted piercing power, his golden-red sword light radiated destructive force, turning him into a living blade. Yet thrusting a sword blindly into debris risked disaster, so Midi proceeded with caution.

Fragile Vanguard ships would’ve shattered against the floating wreckage, but the wyvern’s toughness let it ram through obstacles, even shoving massive debris aside to carve paths for companions. This made the journey a showcase for Wiseman, the "Hand of Nightmare."

With the wyvern clearing the way, Midi and the Vanguard ships trailed closely, speeding along the unmanned aircraft’s path.

The surroundings soon shifted. Warship wreckage grew denser—yet unlike the outer ring’s semi-intact hulls, these were mere splinters. It seemed an invisible force had shredded the ancient warships, scattering their guts like cracked nutshells.

Midi’s heart sank. Had a space rift caused this devastation? Such rifts usually emitted violent magic flows, yet the graveyard lay eerily still. Theory also dictated rifts couldn’t accumulate wreckage. What was happening here?

A shout shattered his thoughts.

"Damn, look at this!" Wiseman barked, uncharacteristically animated.

Midi surged forward on golden-red sword light, overtaking the wyvern.

His vision widened.

An immense void stretched before them—no wreckage, no magic currents, no floating islands. This hollow in the graveyard’s heart spanned kilometers, resembling a crater in a metallic sky.

At its center hung a silver skyship. Designed like an ancient bird-shaped vessel, it mimicked a swan: slender neck, sweeping wings, and tail fins spread like feathered plumes.

The entire warship was over eighty meters long with a wingspan of more than a hundred meters, a true behemoth. Though the Narwhal had always seemed massive, compared to this swan-like ancient warship, it looked like a tiny fish.

Bathed in the awed gazes of the group, the silver-white swan lay motionless at the graveyard’s heart, like a sleeping creature no one dared disturb. It was called "moored" rather than "drifting" or "stranded" because no floating islands or reefs provided support here. This meant the warship stayed aloft in the thirty-thousand-meter-high Sea of Clouds solely through its own power. It was still functioning.

This wasn’t merely a "complete wreck"—it was a fully operational ancient warship! A pristine relic surviving ten thousand years since the heavens’ great war! Its ability to hover without anchors proved its power system remained intact—the most advanced component, and Midi’s top priority.

The silver-white hull showed no bullet marks or blast scars, as if never attacked. Even after millennia, the metal showed no decay or rust, appearing factory-fresh save for the dust veiling its surface in haze.

An overwhelming gift.

Even Midi’s composure shattered. The Dragon Sealing Sword hummed eagerly within him, mirroring his exhilaration. A genuine ancient warship—just one could dominate modern aerial combat. The heavy armored cruiser from his past life would kneel before this white swan.

That cruiser had been Emil’s seven-year project, reverse-engineered from wrecks. Its engine and firepower were crude imitations. Modern materials couldn’t match ancient ones, leaving the replica inferior in strength, durability, and thrust.

Yet here lay a living ancient warship.

Excitement gripped even carefree Wiseman, eyes glinting. Emil, the alchemy-obsessed alchemist, stood entranced.

Midi steadied himself with deep breaths. "Let’s board it," he ordered.

The group snapped to action, Vanguard ships buzzing around the white swan, hunting entrances. But the eighty-meter hull offered no gaps. Suspected entry points stayed sealed.

Midi recalled bird-like skyships often had wing intakes for propulsion. He found four, but armored covers blocked them. Forcing entry? Even wielding the Dragon Sealing Sword, breaking through seemed impossible. An ancient warship’s defenses would defy any Awakened One below level 55—or even an Awakened One of Extraordinary Awakening.

As silence deepened, Emil spoke. "What about thawing that?" The dark elf pointed at the frozen heavens’ drone.