Chapter 177: This Beyonder Ability Is Strong

Chapter 177: This Beyonder Ability Is Strong

Aboard the Future, Anderson Hood pressed both hands against the ship’s rail. He watched the army of undead that had surged out from beneath the pitch-black sea retreat like the tide, trampling and crashing into one another as they rushed toward the rear deck of the Black Tulip. He watched Gehrman Sparrow descend from the sky, right hand pressing down his hat, landing steadily opposite Admiral of Hell Ludwell.

Under the illumination of crimson and gloomy-green light, with shadows, wraiths, and all manner of strange spirit world creatures as a backdrop, the scene possessed an indescribable beauty.

Cool! As expected of the craziest adventurer… Anderson sincerely praised him. Then another matter suddenly came to mind.

Before Gehrman Sparrow flew over, he seemed to have thrown a charm in front of me. And he even specially demonstrated the activation incantation!

Does he mean… Anderson Hood lowered his gaze and found the charm made of white tin at his feet.

Aboard the Black Tulip, Klein, whose body was slightly arched and whose gaze locked onto the enemy, was nowhere near as cold and calm inwardly as he appeared.

Anderson, hurry up and use the charm to fly over. The chances of me handling this alone are low, and it’s extremely dangerous… As the silver-white mask and those two clusters of pale flame reflected in his eyes, Klein silently and fervently prayed.

Because of those mysterious eyes that had watched the deck and watched him, and because of the door-opener deep inside the dream world that Anderson Hood had mentioned, he prudently gave up the option of immediately praying to himself, going above the gray fog, and responding with the Sea God Scepter. He warned himself not to expose anything in that area unless the situation became truly desperate.

He believed that Creeping Hunger, the Fire Seed glove, the various Beyonder powers of a Magician, and the different charms from the Sea God’s domain would give him the strength to fight Admiral of Hell Ludwell. As for Azik’s copper whistle, its attraction toward undead creatures and spirit world creatures leaning toward the necromantic domain could help him neutralize the strongest method of a powerful spirit medium. For a Sequence 5 of the Death pathway, as long as the situation did not exceed a necessary limit, when facing a certain number of mid-Sequence enemies, they were always fighting with numbers on their side!

However, Klein did not think that in such a situation, he was guaranteed to win against Admiral of Hell Ludwell—much less kill him. First, the main battlefield was the Black Tulip. Referencing how Admiral of Stars made use of the Future, anyone with a brain would know that the situation was not so optimistic. Second, Admiral of Hell Ludwell was currently the most senior of the pirate admirals, backed by two major powers: the King of the Five Seas and the Numinous Episcopate. The mystical items and even Sealed Artifacts he carried would not be much inferior to Klein’s. They might even surpass his. On top of that, many rumors pointed out that Ludwell possessed a ring left behind by the ancient Death!

Adding the fact that Klein’s own Sequence was indeed lower than Admiral of Hell’s, rather than feeling excited that his hunt was about to succeed and that his acting as the crazy adventurer would advance further, Klein remained restrained and tense, not daring to be careless. He only hoped that the unlucky “Strongest Hunter” would fly over as soon as possible.

If two people of roughly the same level joined forces, then they would have a decent chance of defeating or resisting Ludwell after his undead army had been taken away, buying Admiral of Stars Cattleya and her pirates the time and space needed to clear out the stitched monster!

The thought flashed through his mind. Klein did not hesitate. He launched his attack, letting the Poisonous Fog stolen by the Fire Seed glove rapidly spread outward.

No one could see the many turns of worry and concern inside him.

At the same moment, Admiral of Hell Ludwell, wearing an exaggerated tricorn hat and silver-white mask, raised the left fist he had been keeping clenched the entire time. He opened his five fingers and aimed his palm at Klein.

In an instant, the front deck was enveloped by a shocking yellow-green fog. Before Ludwell, illusory radiance first erupted, then began spinning rapidly around a single point, collapsing inward to form a slightly blurry pair of bronze doors.

The bronze doors were covered in all kinds of mysterious patterns, exuding an indescribable depth and deathly silence.

With a creak, the doors trembled and opened a narrow crack.

Beyond the crack lay bottomless darkness, like the deepest and heaviest night sky.

Pairs upon pairs of indescribable eyes hid within that profound darkness, densely packed everywhere, yet impossible to see clearly.

Blood-drenched arms without skin stretched out. Dark-green vines protruded, each bearing the face of an infant. Hand after hand, split with mouths and covered in teeth, reached outward. They shrieked, laughed, cried, and howled, scrambling to seize everything outside.

A terrifying suction followed. A hurricane cold enough to freeze a person’s marrow rose from nowhere, pushing object after object toward those bizarre things, toward the crack in the bronze doors!

The yellow-green Poisonous Fog was cleared away at once. Klein involuntarily leaned forward, staggering several steps.

The glove on his left palm immediately turned pitch-black, carrying both the sinister quality of night and the nobility of the starry sky.

Klein’s brown eyes deepened, turning dark and profound. His left arm opened to the side, making a gesture of “please.”

The terrifying suction sweeping across the front deck suddenly changed direction. One after another, the skeletons and rotting corpses that had been rushing toward the rear deck were “grabbed” and hurled at the crack in the doors. They were left to be entangled by dark-green vines with infant faces, embraced by blood-drenched arms, and dragged toward the region where countless eyes waited behind the bronze doors.

Distortion!

The Corrupt Baron’s Distortion!

Klein had “distorted” the mysterious doors’ target, using the skeletons and living corpses aboard the Black Tulip in place of himself.

Even so, he was still affected by the aftershock of that immense suction. His steps became heavy and difficult, preventing him from taking advantage of his agility and speed.

The flat cap on his head had already been lifted by the hurricane. It spun through the air, drifting after the undead creatures being sucked forward.

At that moment, Admiral of Hell Ludwell, wearing his exaggerated tricorn hat, raised his right arm and stretched his palm forward.

The right side of his upper body swiftly became illusory, as though belonging to a ghost or wraith. His arm and forearm stretched continuously, instantly crossing a not-insignificant distance as that pale palm reached toward his enemy.

Woo!

The howl of the hurricane abruptly vanished. A faint weeping entered Klein’s ears, numbing his body and making his blood seem to freeze.

As the pale hand drew closer and closer, it was as if Klein had been possessed by a wraith or evil spirit. He could not make any effective response. He could only watch death approach, feeling in despair as his vitality drained away faster and faster.

Without the slightest resistance, Ludwell’s pale, illusory right palm grabbed Klein and crushed him into a thin paper figurine.

The paper figurine was covered in dark-green corrosion marks. Very quickly, the ceaseless hurricane tore it into powder.

To the front and side of the bronze doors, Klein’s figure instantly appeared. The glove on his left palm had already turned the color of pure sunlight.

He immediately straightened, spreading both arms wide.

A sacred beam of light wrapped in golden flames descended from midair, striking the bronze doors covered in mysterious patterns!

Sunlight erupted abruptly, so bright that Klein nearly could not open his eyes. The terrifying doors “created” by Admiral of Hell Ludwell not only became shaky and much blurrier, even the exaggerated suction coming from within them weakened. The dark-green vines with infant faces and the blood-drenched arms evaporated by more than half out of thin air.

However, more strange arms and more twisted creatures had already surged to the crack, attempting to squeeze out.

Klein was just about to continue using the Priest of Light’s Holy Light to purify the bronze doors when Admiral of Hell Ludwell’s pale giant palm clawed toward him in a frenzy.

He hurriedly threw himself sideways, rolling again and again to avoid both the aftershocks of the hurricane and the soul-devouring hand.

Once, twice, three times—his body suddenly sprang up and leaped diagonally outward. At some unknown point, Creeping Hunger had become as though forged from gold.

In Klein’s eyes, Admiral of Hell’s silver-white mask and the pale flames within its eye holes were first reflected. Then, deep within his pupils, two bright bolts of lightning lit up.

Interrogator: Psychic Piercing!

At that very moment, a square, black, heavy-looking ring on Ludwell’s left index finger faintly glowed.

A scene immediately appeared in Klein’s mind:

It was a gigantic throne made from the rotting heads of humans, elves, giants, dragons, demonic wolves, sea monsters, vampires, and other creatures. On every tiny side of it, transparent faces of wraiths, shadows, and evil spirits protruded, filled with hatred, malice, and unwillingness.

Suddenly, Klein’s head felt as though someone had split it open with an axe. Terrible pain instantly occupied all his thoughts.

His Psychic Piercing not only failed to take effect, it rebounded onto himself—multiplied several times over!

If he had not experienced even more extreme pain before, Klein would certainly have toppled to the ground, howling and struggling. Even so, he temporarily lost the ability to resist, his expression twisting as his back half-bent.

Seizing the opportunity, Ludwell slowly spoke from the mouth seam of his silver-white mask in a language that normal living beings could not possibly understand. The surroundings instantly turned even dimmer, at once hazy and illusory.

It was a language of death from hell, from the underworld!

Klein had only just recovered a little when he discovered that his spirit body was floating upward uncontrollably, separating inch by inch from his physical body!

And the terrifying suction of the bronze doors was even harder for spirits to resist.

No, this won’t do! While his spirit body had not completely separated from his body, Klein barely controlled his right arm, raising it and spreading the five fingers wearing the Fire Seed glove.

Different colors of light instantly overlapped and appeared before his eyes, constantly changing and flashing at high speed.

Without hesitation, Klein grabbed a cluster of pale light flowing with gloomy green and twisted his wrist, extracting it.

In this battle, what he most wanted to steal was the Beyonder ability that created the bronze doors. But he could not guarantee success and could only pray for the Goddess’s blessing.

That light flew out and landed inside the Fire Seed glove.

However, it was not the Beyonder ability Klein most wanted. Even so, it was not bad.

Behind Ludwell’s silver-white mask, his mouth opened and closed erratically, yet he could no longer produce that difficult, awkward language that every living creature was inevitably unable to understand.

At the same time, Klein opened his mouth.