Chapter 189: The Fourth Name

Chapter 189: The Fourth Name

Something strange? Klein felt a headache coming on, though his expression remained perfectly unchanged.

“What is it?” he asked.

“A fish with human fingers growing in its belly!” Without waiting for Gehrman Sparrow to respond, Frank Lee thumped out of the dining room. Before long, he came running back at high speed, now carrying a strange blue-black fish in his hand.

The fish was of ordinary length, but where its eyes were, it had eyelids like a human. Its belly had already been cut open, revealing three bloody fingers stuffed inside.

“I didn’t put these in! They were already there! Look at its mouth. It probably couldn’t eat this kind of thing, so they could only have grown out of it! Of course, I still can’t figure out what purpose growing fingers would serve for the fish itself.” Frank spoke rapidly, laying out his judgment.

Klein glanced at the fish and, after some consideration, said, “It’s also possible someone else stuffed them inside.”

“…That makes sense. Then it isn’t the most unique fish after all.” Frank froze for a second, faintly disappointed. “Fingers are flesh and blood. I’ll ask Heath. He’s the expert in this field.”

As he spoke, he looked around and found Heath Doyle, who was curled up in a corner eating.

Frank quickly walked over and placed the blue-black strange fish before “Bloodless.”

Heath Doyle extended both hands and pressed down on the fish body. He was just about to lower his face toward it.

Watching the scene, Frank suddenly felt that something was wrong.

He quickly realized what it was and laughed.

“No, this isn’t food for you. You’ve been eating fish all this time, and your body is starting to smell fishy.

“What I mean is: do you recognize the fingers inside the fish’s belly? Can you find their original owner?”

Heath Doyle stopped lowering his body and studied them seriously for a few seconds.

“They belong to a Rose Bishop. At the very least, a Rose Bishop.”

He took out the three fingers and stacked them together, bloody and slick.

After a brief moment of stillness, the fingers melted like candles, becoming a lump of viscous flesh and blood.

That flesh and blood wriggled, writing a crimson word upon the dining table:

“Help!”

The fingers of a Rose Bishop… Help… Seeing the scene, Klein, standing nearby, instantly formed an association.

He thought of the Black Saint Leomaster in the dream world!

That Saint of the Aurora Order had been affected by the residual power of an angel or god of the Spectator pathway inside some ruin or relic, splitting off a good personality and becoming trapped there as a result.

His good and evil personalities constantly confronted one another, often clashing on the mental level. The darker-leaning main personality had gradually gained the upper hand, while the good personality could only hide throughout the inner world, seeking help.

So this is an attempt by Leomaster’s good personality to ask for help? As a Saint of the Aurora Order, he was most likely promoted from Shepherd. It wouldn’t be strange for him to possess a Rose Bishop’s Beyonder abilities… Klein nodded thoughtfully, feeling that his judgment should be close to the truth.

“Help? How?” Frank Lee looked at Gehrman Sparrow in confusion.

You should be asking your captain, not me… Klein shook his head.

“Leave it alone.

“This sea has too many strange things.”

The basis for his suggestion was that the previous dream had made it clear Leomaster’s main personality held an absolute advantage. If one truly wanted to save him, one would have to be prepared to deal with a demigod. Although the good personality would certainly interfere, at most it would weaken the Black Saint’s strength to a certain extent. He would still remain a demigod.

Of course, the Future had the Queen of Mysteries as insurance. If they truly wanted to attempt it, it was not impossible. But if saving Leomaster were that easy—if he could be made thoroughly and simply into a benevolent Black Saint—Klein believed the Queen would have acted long ago. Since she had not, there had to be some real obstacle.

For example, the place where Leomaster was trapped might contain a power that split the personalities of living beings so thoroughly that even the Queen of Mysteries did not dare challenge it… In Leomaster’s dream, merely recreating a small portion of it had almost thrown me into a situation I couldn’t handle. I only solved it quickly by taking out the Sea God Scepter. If I encountered that in the real world, my personality would truly split apart and I’d become a member of an asylum. I’d have to find a way to borrow the Nightmare Candle from Father Utravsky to have any hope of being cured… Heh, I could also seek treatment from Miss Justice, but her current strength definitely isn’t enough… Klein recalled the earlier incident and mocked himself inwardly twice.

“Mm.” Frank Lee trusted Gehrman Sparrow’s judgment. “Perhaps the fellow asking for help is already dead…”

At that point, his gaze suddenly brightened. He stared at Heath Doyle and asked, “Can you erase the original mental imprint from this flesh and blood?”

“Yes,” Heath Doyle replied concisely.

The corners of Frank Lee’s mouth widened bit by bit. He smiled like a two-hundred-pound child.

“I’ve always been very curious about the flesh composition of a Rose Bishop.

“I’ve always wondered what would happen if similar flesh were used as a medium for hybridization.”

One day, you’re going to die in one of your own experiments. Fortunately, I’ll be leaving this ship soon… For some reason, Klein had the feeling of watching a destructive child enter an armory.

Heath Doyle, whose face was pale almost to the point of translucence, froze for two seconds. Then he sincerely said, “Thank you.”

“What do you mean?” Frank Lee scratched his head, utterly bewildered.

He’s probably thanking you for restraining your curiosity and not using his flesh as an experimental sample. It means you’re a trustworthy companion… Klein tried interpreting it while the corner of his mouth shifted faintly. He increasingly felt that the Future’s first mate and second mate both had extremely strange ways of thinking.

…

Afternoon Town, inside the half-collapsed church.

Demon Hunter Colin stood beside the clergyman dressed in plain white robes and asked in a low voice,

“Who are the Kings?

“What does the great disaster refer to?

“Who tempted Sasrir?”

The clergyman seemed not to hear him. He remained prostrate there, repeating his confession again and again, like an illusory image left behind by the environment.

A wraith, a ghost, or an evil spirit? Derrick looked nervously in that direction.

Seeing that the clergyman gave no response whatsoever, Demon Hunter Colin extended his right hand, letting the silver straight sword coated in pale-gray ointment approach the other man inch by inch.

Yet even when the sharp tip of the sword pressed against the back of the clergyman’s head, the man continued confessing without the slightest change.

Colin Iliad withdrew the silver sword. Dark-green symbols protruded within his eyes as he looked around.

Then he walked toward the altar ahead and to the side, his gaze falling upon the candles that emitted dim yellow light.

After several seconds of silence, he stretched out his left palm and extinguished all the candles.

The collapsed statue at the center of the altar abruptly dimmed. The white-robed man lying prostrate on the ground finally stopped confessing.

He slowly raised his head. His face was a ghastly green-black, and his eyes were filled with hatred.

Before Derrick, Heinm, and the others could react, the devout clergyman had already pounced. He moved so fast that he almost dragged visible afterimages behind him.

Demon Hunter Colin seemed to have been prepared all along. His right foot stepped diagonally outward, his body half-turning with the motion, and the silver straight sword in his hand swept whistling behind him.

Specks of light rose from the blade, instantly forming a tremendous storm.

The storm, formed entirely from radiance, swept across the surroundings. It first froze the clergyman in midair, then swallowed him completely.

The storm soon ended. Demon Hunter Colin looked at the clergyman, now infused with points of dawn light, and repeated the questions from before:

“Who are the Kings?

“What does the great disaster refer to?

“Who tempted Sasrir?”

The clergyman’s figure had already become extremely blurry. In a dull voice, he answered, “The Kings are Sasrir, Ouroboros, Medici…”

He was about to say the fourth name when transparent flames suddenly surged from within his body!

The flames engulfed him instantly, burning him into spreading black gas.

So “Kings” refers to the Kings of Angels… Who was the fourth name, and why did he self-destruct the moment he was about to say it? Was it the one who tempted Sasrir, or someone else? Derrick felt his mind fill with questions.

As the clergyman disappeared, beast-like roars suddenly echoed one after another from the streets outside, from throughout the whole of Afternoon Town.

Derrick instinctively looked toward the window and saw an enormous face.

It was pressed against the place where glass had once been. It had a single unique eye, and its face was covered in dense, short black fur.

Thud, thud, thud! A similar monster charged out from inside the church. Its height belonged to an ordinary human, and it had two eyes, but its body was likewise covered in beast-like black fur.

“A fallen town completely corroded…” Demon Hunter Colin sighed and went forward to meet one of the monsters.

Derrick, Heinm, and Joshua also formed a combat formation, attempting to block the other monster.

…

The Future sailed peacefully, soon welcoming another brief night.

After Klein arrived in the dream world, he discovered that he had returned to his previous location—beside Admiral of Stars Cattleya.

He was just about to look across at the projection of the Giant King’s Court on the opposite mountain, searching for possible clues, when he suddenly heard Cattleya, sitting with her arms around her knees, ask in a muffled voice, “You met her?”

Klein gave an “Mm,” making no attempt to hide it.

Cattleya pressed her lips together.

“She’s on the ship?”

“Yes.” Klein turned his head and looked at Admiral of Stars, saying casually, “You have very deep feelings for her.”

Cattleya’s expression was no longer confused and vacant. She bit her lip, then smiled self-mockingly.

“Yes.

“I was with her before I was even three years old. Heh, that’s what they told me. I don’t have any clear memories of it.

“She taught me knowledge, held my hand while we went on adventures, and watched me grow up little by little. To me, she is my captain, my teacher, and also… also my mother…”

As she spoke, Cattleya suddenly fell silent.