Chapter 229: The Storm Arrives

Chapter 229: The Storm Arrives

At the leeward side of Simim Island, beneath a towering stone wall, the deep waters rose and fell in no small waves, affected by the surrounding sea.

Aboard Mad Captain Connors Victor’s One-Eyed Skull, several pirates threw on cloaks, pulled up their hoods, and walked out of the cabin into rain that struck painfully against their bodies, facing wild winds strong enough to shove a child over. They began inspecting the surroundings to avoid any accident.

Their cloaks were made from linen, but the surface had been coated with a viscous liquid that had already solidified. Rainwater could not seep in; it could only slide downward and fall onto the deck.

That liquid was sap from the Doningsman tree, produced in the rainforests of the Southern Continent. It was a natural rainproofing material, and because it was relatively common, its price had once been very low. However, after a research team suspected last year that it had an obvious effect in promoting hair growth, its price had risen considerably.

“In weather like this, the proper thing to do is stay in the Red Theater, drinking spirits, smoking cannabis, and holding women!” one pirate said, sticking his head beyond the ship’s rail to look outside.

His companion tugged at the hood of his cloak and echoed, “I heard the Red Theater recently got a new batch of goods. I’d really like to have a taste.”

“How do you know that?” another pirate asked casually.

The pirate from before chuckled.

“I heard it from the boss. It’s not as if you don’t know what kind of ‘business’ the Captain does. So the boss knows quite a few traffickers. Ha, they prefer calling themselves slave merchants.”

“Speaking of that, I just remembered one time.” The pirate who had spoken first revealed an expression full of reminiscence. “Among the ‘goods’ sent over, there was actually a noble young lady who had run away from home. That skin, that figure, that face—tsk, it was, it was… I don’t even know how to describe it. Anyway, I still haven’t been able to forget her. Pity she killed herself!”

As they spoke, they felt the world brighten slightly and instinctively looked up into the sky. They saw that within the dark clouds obscuring the red moon and stars, amid the pounding rain, silver-white lightning was abnormally roaming and lingering.

All of a sudden, a massive bolt of lightning that illuminated the surrounding sea struck downward, heading straight for the upper cabin of the One-Eyed Skull!

Rumble!

Electric serpents began darting everywhere. Only when flames rose from the wooden cabin structure did the deafening thunder echo in the pirates’ ears.

Immediately afterward, one silver-white bolt after another, all brandishing claws and fangs, descended densely. In an instant, the sizable sailing ship known as the One-Eyed Skull entered a forest of thunder.

At that very moment, the thick bolts of lightning that had nearly interwoven together suddenly split apart. They split apart in defiance of natural law, failing to strike the One-Eyed Skull. Instead, they brushed past its surroundings and struck the black water, lighting up the nearby sea until tiny crackling electric snakes could be seen everywhere.

The pirates on deck had been affected. One was already charred black, like burnt wood, while two others had collapsed, their bodies twitching.

“There really is something wrong!”

Above the gray fog, Klein saw his Lightning Storm being resolved through the image, and could not help exclaiming inwardly.

He was certain that this was power at the demigod level!

If he had recklessly infiltrated the One-Eyed Skull, even with Creeping Hunger, the Death Knell revolver, and Travels of Groselle, he would have been unable to mount any effective resistance against such bizarre power. At that point, there would have been no time to pray to himself, enter above the gray fog, and respond with the Sea God Scepter!

Drawing a deep breath, Klein made every blue-green gem at the tip of the white bone scepter light up all at once, rather than one after another.

Around the One-Eyed Skull, the sound of the storm suddenly split into two kinds. Half was sharp, as if it could pierce eardrums and penetrate the brain; half was deep and low, as if pounding against the heart and questioning the spirit body.

This brought the pirates an extremely uncomfortable experience. One after another, they felt an urge to vomit blood. But that was only the prelude. The crashing of waves abruptly intensified. From the direction facing the stone wall, a deep-black swell surged upward, nearly ten meters high!

The wave was like a wall built by a god and pushed by an invisible hand. It surged toward the One-Eyed Skull!

This was the tsunami Klein had created!

This already qualified as a natural disaster!

The crashing sound was like an explosion. The pirates inside the ship watched the deep-black sky, the wildly rolling clouds, and the enormous wave outside. It was as though they had entered the apocalypse of myth and legend. All of them lost the will to save themselves.

Yet as they waited in despair for final judgment, chaos appeared inside the immense tsunami wave—chaos that fundamentally violated logic and scientific law. An indescribable vortex swiftly took shape, tearing at the whole body of water, causing the terrifying wave to collapse at astonishing speed!

Amid rumbling like a mountain collapsing, the secondary waves flung the One-Eyed Skull high into the air. Spray from the great wave’s disintegration splashed onto the ship, snapping one mast, leaving the cabin battered and broken, and completely flooding the deck.

Woo!

A violent wind suddenly intensified. It spontaneously wrapped around its surrounding companions and transformed into a hurricane that exceeded its normal limit, forcibly pushing the airborne One-Eyed Skull toward the open sea.

Then the ship rode that wild wind through the air. In a single burst, it flew several nautical miles, and it did not fall back onto the undulating sea afterward. It was as if it had become an airship, continuing forward steadily.

Klein was astonished by the method the demigod—or a Sealed Artifact of corresponding level—aboard the One-Eyed Skull had used to break the tsunami. At the same time, he sighed that his own Sequence was still insufficient. Even after mobilizing a small amount of power from the mysterious space above the gray fog, he had still been unable to create the sort of tsunami Kavituwa had once made, the kind capable of destroying a harbor.

Even so, he was just about to seize control of the hurricane, deprive the One-Eyed Skull of its support, and make it plummet so that it would not escape the five-nautical-mile range he could influence.

His current goal was not to destroy the One-Eyed Skull, nor to capture Mad Captain Connors Victor. It was to force the demigod—or the Sealed Artifact of corresponding level—inside the ship to reveal itself.

Powerhouses and objects at that level could be counted even on the scale of the entire world. Once he saw their appearance, sooner or later he would learn who they were and what organization they belonged to.

And that would become a direction for the follow-up investigation into Backlund’s Great Smog!

I just hope it isn’t the Seer pathway. Otherwise, who knows whether that would be their real face… But that would also be a good thing. It would let me investigate the truth behind the Great Smog tragedy and figure out what Ince Zangwill is doing, preparing for future revenge, while also searching for the Bizarro Sorcerer potion formula and main ingredients along the way… As Klein sighed silently, one gemstone at the tip of the Sea God Scepter emitted pure azure light.

With a whoosh, the One-Eyed Skull’s flight changed. It fell straight down like a stone, unable even to glide!

Suddenly, it became incredibly light, so light that its descent onto the sea resembled a feather brushing across a human face.

At that moment, Klein, whose spirituality had already been greatly consumed, was about to force out the last of his strength and create another tsunami when he suddenly heard a tremendous, explosive sound from within the image.

It was a terrifying sonic boom!

And unlike an ordinary sonic boom, it seemed to carry the sobbing howl of the wind domain.

It came from Sea King Jahn Kottman! Although he was still far from this place, as the controller of these waters, he could exert influence remotely while rushing over!

This was Sequence 3, a Saint close to the rank of an angel!

The terrifying sonic boom instantly hurled the One-Eyed Skull away without even asking whether it was a victim. In any case, there was never a problem with striking pirates!

At the same time, Klein sensed an overwhelmingly powerful mind “sweeping” the surroundings, searching for every location that might contain something abnormal. Even the image before him was affected, growing blurry.

Suppressing the urge to launch one more strike, Klein calmly and rationally ended the response, closed the corresponding prayer image, then casually tossed the Sea God Scepter into the junk pile.

“The difference is more than just a little. If Sea King hadn’t appeared, I wouldn’t have had full confidence in forcing out that demigod either. My own Sequence is still too low. Using the scepter is always somewhat difficult, and the burden is very heavy… Still, at sea, the Storm pathway really is powerful. It’s practically a mobile natural disaster…

“The demigod just now displayed elements of distortion, chaos, borrowing, and violation of convention. That’s very similar to the Black Emperor pathway. Others might not have that feeling, but I have the corresponding Card of Blasphemy! This definitely isn’t only Sequence 5 Mentor of Disorder… A Fallen Count? Hm. The military has part of the Black Emperor pathway’s potion formulas, but it seems limited to the first five Sequences. They don’t have Sequence 4 or above…”

Although Klein had failed to force out that demigod or Sealed Artifact of corresponding level, he had grasped certain clues from the other party’s display. He suspected that besides cooperating with the Demoness Sect and Ince Zangwill, a certain faction within the royal family had also secretly contacted a force that controlled most of the Black Emperor pathway’s Sequence formulas.

Descendants of Solomon? Or Trunsoest? Is the King of the Five Seas, Nast, involved in this matter? Klein was seriously thinking when layered, echoing prayers suddenly sounded beside his ears.

That interrupted his train of thought. Instinctively, he extended his spirituality toward the halo of light beside the seat.

Then he saw Danitz.

This famous great pirate had his eyes closed and was praying to The Fool with apparent devotion.

“…” Klein somewhat blankly pulled out his pocket watch, snapped it open, and checked it again and again, confirming that it was now two or three in the morning.

Is there something wrong with his head? Why is he praying in the middle of the night? Is he trying to let people sleep or not? Klein felt both irritated and amused. He examined the scene more carefully and discovered that Danitz looked rather drunk, while faint singing echoed outside.

Are the Golden Dream’s crew holding another bonfire party? Is this one to celebrate Gehrman Sparrow finally getting lost? And they actually kept it going until midnight! Klein immediately understood why Danitz was only praying now.

He inhaled, extended his will into the halo, and spoke in a low voice:

“Recite My name in your heart.”

…

Sea King Jahn Kottman flew to Simim Island and began searching the area where the abnormal tsunami had just appeared, as well as the ship belonging to some unknown pirate crew.

He was very certain that a demigod had been aboard that ship!

This tall, burly Cardinal of the Church of Storms, this senior deacon of the Mandated Punishers with thick, deep-blue hair, clenched his fist. The dark clouds overhead immediately split open, and crimson moonlight spilled onto the sea.

After identifying the position of the stars, Jahn Kottman flew in a certain direction.

Suddenly, his speed slowed, because ahead, drifting on the sea, was the pirate ship bearing the mark of a one-eyed skull.

No one controlled the ship. It drifted with the wind and waves, many parts of it burning with scarlet flames. Charred corpses lay everywhere.

At the middle section of one mast, a middle-aged man wearing a tricorne hat and black eye patch had been bound in place. His single eye was wide open and filled with terror. A wooden stake had been driven deep into his chest, staining a large area with blood.

His life and spirit body had already completely dissipated.