Chapter 58: Suppression

Chapter 58: Suppression

Even after leaving the Odra family’s underground area, Emlyn White still felt a little dazed, unable to believe that he had obtained the 7,000-pound reward so easily.

The draft in his hand was light, almost weightless, yet it made him experience the absurdity of reality.

Mr. Hanged Man’s method really worked… Lord Nibbs did not expose me or punish me. Instead, he gave me a generous reward, and all of that just to pretend not to know, to encourage me to keep trying so they can observe from the shadows… Are the minds of the Blood Clan this complicated too… Emlyn drifted between bewilderment and sighs.

Very soon, he gathered his scattered thoughts and returned his attention to that 7,000-pound reward.

“With this, I can buy the baron’s legacy from The Hanged Man and concoct it into a potion…

“I will soon become a baron—a Blood Clan Baron, Lord Emlyn White!”

Emlyn’s eyes abruptly brightened, and even his steps became much lighter.

Within the Blood Clan, if one did not receive the gift of an elder through a corresponding ritual, then the level one was born with would remain fixed. It was almost impossible to rely on oneself or on time to advance.

Among vampires roughly Emlyn’s age, apart from those who had been exceedingly lucky—whose family ancestors had neared the end of their lifespans and had no choice but to bestow power upon their descendants through ritual—the vast majority remained within the concept of “adult,” with no possibility of obtaining a “title” for decades.

Emlyn’s father and mother had lived for so many years, yet even now, they still had not become barons. They could not even see much hope!

When he walked out through the main door, Emlyn could not help glancing at Casimi Odra beside him.

This elder vampire, who had been active during Roselle’s era, is only a baron even now… And I am about to reach that level! One day, I will become a Blood Clan marquis like Lord Nibbs! No—duke, perhaps even prince! Only then will I be worthy of bearing the responsibility of the Blood Clan’s savior… Mm, the baron’s legacy is only a little more than four thousand pounds. I will still have quite a bit left. I can buy a few more dolls and prepare some new clothes for them… Emlyn unconsciously straightened his back and walked with even greater confidence.

…

City of Silver, the Berg residence.

Derrick lit the candles and began preparing the sacrificial ritual.

After the frequency of lightning in the sky alternated several more times, he finally waited for an opportunity.

He was completely certain that the Chief had no way of watching him at this moment, because the man had taken young Jack—whose injuries had just preliminarily healed—and an exploration team out of the City of Silver, searching for the route by which the boy had supposedly come from the seaside to that destroyed city-state.

It did not take Derrick long to arrange everything. Then, piously and solemnly, he began softly reciting Mr. Fool’s honorific name.

With great familiarity and orderliness, he sacrificed the Spirit Eater’s stomach pouch Miss Magician needed, as well as the Beyonder materials Mr. Hanged Man had specified, to the ruler above the gray fog.

On the City of Silver’s solid walls, there were many cracks, but they had been filled with hard black soil. In those cracks grew clumps of fine, dense weeds, swaying gently in the wind like human hair.

Suddenly, all of them lifted upward, as though trying to seize something, only to fall back down without finding purchase.

…

At dawn, inside the Church of Waves.

Alger Wilson, who had come to collect his bounty, heard a rather important piece of news from Diocesan Bishop Chogo:

Leticia Dorella of the Moses Ascetic Order, using the identity of an archaeologist as cover, had entered the depths of Simim Island’s jungle. It was unknown what she had done, but it had caused Sea God Kalvetua, who had been grievously wounded and hiding for many years, to approach collapse. Like a madman, He was now searching for a chance to prolong His own existence.

Rumor says this evil spirit, who calls Himself Sea God, was defeated long ago, after the Rorsted Archipelago was discovered, by two cardinals working together with powerful figures from the military and corresponding Sealed Artifacts. He had only barely escaped and hidden away… That state lasted for more than a hundred years without essential change. Why is He suddenly close to collapse now, unable to maintain His existence? Alger frowned slightly, thinking of what recent events differed from the past.

“Did the Moses Ascetic Order deliberately create this situation?

“But if so, why did they not do it at any point during the past hundred years?

“To coordinate with another plan of their own?”

As conjectures and doubts alternated, Alger suddenly became aware of one important factor.

The greatest and most essential difference between the recent period and the past hundred-plus years was this:

The World had arrived in Bayam!

Mr. Fool’s Blessed had arrived in the Rorsted Archipelago!

Wherever he appears, does it mean that major events are about to happen there, or are already brewing? First there was the Great Smog of Backlund, then Bansy Harbor’s mutation, and now Sea God Kalvetua’s death struggle and the Moses Ascetic Order’s unknown scheme… No, more precisely, it should be described as: wherever major events are brewing or about to occur, Mr. Fool’s Blessed will arrive! They accept Mr. Fool’s arrangements and chase the activities of hidden organizations, evil gods, and angels! With a shift in his thinking, Alger suddenly felt enlightened, as though he had grasped the truth.

It was not that wherever The World went, something would happen. Rather, wherever something was about to happen, The World and the other Blessed would appear!

What benefit does this bring Mr. Fool? Is it purely to sabotage the schemes of hostile forces, or does this help Him undo His seal and let more of His power seep through? Alger suppressed his doubts and decided to seize this opportunity to submit a certain piece of intelligence from earlier.

He clenched his right fist, pressed it to the left side of his chest, and said with a hesitant expression, “Your Excellency Chogo, while tracking the remnants of Steel’s forces, I heard a piece of news.”

“What?” Chogo had originally intended to arrange for this bishop-level captain to go out to sea and search for traces of the rebels, but he was forcibly interrupted, making him rather irritable.

Alger “recalled” and said, “Someone mentioned Bansy Harbor while chatting, saying that something happened there, but the descendants of the Medici family hid themselves well and were not discovered.”

Bansy Harbor. An incident… Chogo took a step forward and pressed, “What else did they say?”

“They said a Church bishop had fallen there. Nothing else. Your Excellency Chogo, is the Medici family some dark family from the Fourth Epoch?” Alger deliberately asked.

Chogo’s expression darkened.

“That is not something you should know.

“I will report this to His Excellency Kottman immediately.”

This referred to the Church of Storms’ cardinal, Archbishop of the Rorsted Seas, high-ranking deacon of the Mandated Punishers, and true ruler of the archipelago’s Beyonder world: Ain Kottman.

After thinking for a moment, Chogo asked again, “Who mentioned this matter? What did they look like?”

Alger was long prepared.

“I do not know them. They never appeared again afterward.

“I remember that the one who mentioned Bansy Harbor and the Medici family was an ordinary-looking young man. His face was thin, his forehead broad, his eyes black, his hair black, and he wore a crystal monocle.

“He seemed to notice that I was eavesdropping, but he was not angry. Instead, he smiled at me.”

What Alger described was none other than Amon the Blasphemer!

He intended to make the cardinals believe that the exposure of the Medici family and Bansy Harbor’s secrets originated from a struggle between Kings of Angels.

This truly is an object very suitable for use as an excuse… He will not come out to explain anything, and even if He does, no one will believe Him… Divination against Him will obviously produce no result… If extraordinary means are used to confirm the source of my information, because it involves Mr. Fool, there will be signs of powerful interference, making it impossible to obtain an accurate answer. In appearance, this can be considered equivalent to Amon’s doing… Alger thought with considerable ease.

Chogo nodded lightly.

“Search for these people and continue tracing the rebels’ movements.”

“Yes, Your Excellency Chogo!” Alger responded with a devout expression, striking the left side of his chest with his right fist.

…

High above, layers of dark clouds were stacked upon one another. The sky had grown gloomy to the extreme. Torrential rain fell, pattering against the ground and throwing up misty white sprays.

At Bayam Harbor, the azure seawater rose slowly but resolutely. Cargo ships and passenger vessels rocked and swayed as though they were leaves drifting in midair.

The rain did not stop. The sea level gradually drew close to the embankment. Water gathered in many parts of the city, and the entire environment became abnormally oppressive.

One fanatical, numb local after another, wearing Taraba shirts and tattered jackets, came to the edge of a cliff or atop a seawall, then leaped into the sea in succession.

Their flesh and skin rapidly lost moisture. By the time they fell into the water, they had already become dried corpses long weathered by time.

A group of people screamed and cried as they seized a navy soldier who had walked out from a base. In grief and fury, they bit him to death with their teeth, leaving behind a bloody, mangled horror. Chaos was everywhere across the streets.

Crash!

Boom!

The embankment collapsed, and the continuously rising seawater surged into Bayam.

Klein abruptly woke, the images from the dream still echoing in his mind.

For a Seer, this was an extremely obvious revelation!

“Kalvetua, this ‘Sea God,’ cannot find a way to survive. He has completely given up and gone entirely insane. He wants to create a storm, raise a tsunami, drown the entire Rorsted Archipelago, and drag countless people into burial with Him? And at the same time, His believers are also carrying out all kinds of extreme acts… I have already notified the Church of Storms. They should have enough time to stop it… No, even if I had not notified them, once this kind of situation appeared, they would still be able to sense the problem and respond…” Klein rolled out of bed, put on his clothes, and left the bedroom.

He saw Blazing Danitz standing by the window, gazing outside.

He saw low, oppressive clouds and endless curtain-like rain, as if it would never stop.

The signs have appeared? Klein walked beside Danitz and likewise looked out at the oppressive weather, faintly hearing the abnormal sound of the tide.

In the silence, an explosive crack of thunder suddenly rang through midair. The leaden clouds rapidly split apart. The falling rain lost its support, and in the direction of the harbor, everything returned to normal.

Morning light scattered from the sky. Bayam seemed as if bathed in sacred radiance.

Danitz hissed softly, as though speaking to himself.

“Ain Kottman changed the weather…”

Ain Kottman… the Church of Storms’ cardinal and high-ranking deacon of the Mandated Punishers? He suppressed Kalvetua’s power? Klein thoughtfully withdrew his gaze.

Danitz let out a breath of relief.

“I was actually quite worried just now, heh. I was afraid that the Sea God on the verge of collapse would create a disaster.

“But Ain Kottman is here.”

Seeing that Gehrman Sparrow did not speak, he added on his own, “If it is at sea, not even the King of the Five Seas or the Mystery Queen could defeat him.

“The captain said—the captain said that he is a Sequence 3 demigod. The name of the potion is…

“It is… Sea King!”