Aboard the Doe, the crew faced the most desperate crisis of their lives.
When disaster struck, it was under the leadership of extraordinary figures like the boatswain Walter and the helmsman Rupert that the Blood Pirates had managed to regroup and flee back to the ship.
But partway through their escape, like all the other pirates, they had been stopped cold by the barrier the Divine Abomination had raised.
On the island, Suah's true body ran rampant. At sea, the Death Announcer, ship of the King of Immortality, bore down on them. There was nowhere left to run.
Worse still, the two people the crew needed most were nowhere to be found.
First Mate Anderson had gone to the center of the lake and not been heard from since, whether he was fighting alongside the sovereigns against Suah, no one knew. And their captain, the backbone of the entire fleet, their captain, had also vanished without a trace!
When they burst into the captain's quarters, what they found was a hollow double, something that wore the captain's face but had none of the captain's power.
"We're finished!"
At the sight, someone let out a despairing wail. "The captain must have abandoned us! He's run off on his own!"
"Impossible!"
Walter snapped, his face taut with anger. "Do you not know what kind of man the captain is?"
This was a man who had dared to strike the royal palace alone, a Scarlet King who had brought them victory after victory.
How could he possibly abandon them and flee by himself at a time like this?
"So what do we do now?"
The plump Apothecary Darkwill was hopping in place with anxiety. "You're the boatswain! Think of something, quick!"
The other Beyonders aboard the ship were all looking at him the same way.
With the captain missing and the first mate trapped on the island, it seemed he was the only one left who could make a call.
Walter gritted his teeth.
"Help the pirate generals! Attack the King of Immortality!"
"If they lose," he said, "we'll all be dead in an instant! Buy time, however you can. The captain will come save us. If you want to live, hold on until then!"
To survive, the sailors had no choice but to obey. Under his command, they turned their cannons on the Death Announcer.
A good number of the other pirates reached the same conclusion and opened fire as well, covering the assault of the pirate generals.
But they had forgotten one thing: their enemy was a sovereign of the sea.
"Ahahahaha!"
The massive single-masted vessel cruised across the water, proclaiming the arrival of death to all who beheld it.
From somewhere aboard the ship came a terrible laugh, a sound that seemed to stir inside every mind, dragging out the darkest, most twisted desires buried in each heart.
More terrifying still, at that very same moment, Suah on the island let out a soul-rending shriek.
The pirates' resistance collapsed entirely.
Their heads split with pain, their limbs went limp, their bodies locked rigid, and they could do nothing but watch, helpless, as the Death Announcer closed in fast, the pirates aboard it grinning with open malice.
The Death Announcer, its two ends curved sharply upward, its single sail unfurled, bore straight down on the Doe.
Compared to the pirate generals, it seemed to judge the Blood Reverend's subordinates the more valuable prize.
And by then, the crew of the Doe could no longer move at all. They sat slumped on the deck, watching in terror as the dreadful Death Announcer thundered toward them.
Then something strange happened.
"Hm?"
The first to notice was Admiral of Hell Ludwell."
As a Beyonder of the Corpse Collector Pathway, he was the most sensitive among them to the currents of the spirit world, which was how he had noticed before any of the other pirate generals that the spirit world had been sealed off.
Now he sensed that although the seal itself still held, something within it had gone wrong, something discordant.
It was a feeling hard to put into words, as if the very rules of space had been twisted, as if something had forced its way through the barrier the Divine Abomination had thrown over the spirit world, and was descending upon them.
Shhh!
By now, the other pirates had noticed it too.
Because they all saw it: the deep blue, near-black waters suddenly welled up with a great spread of red.
As if some enormous creature had torn open a wound beneath the waves, the thick, vivid crimson spread rapidly, and in moments had stained the entire stretch of water before the Doe a solid red.
The Death Announcer, which had been bearing down on them, slowed the instant it caught sight of that spreading crimson stain, and then, by some means no one could name, it came to a dead stop.
Under the gaze of every surviving pirate, from deep within that sea of blood, a three-masted sailing ship rose to the surface.
The ship was black from stem to stern, its design old and elegant, and of its three sails, only the very center one was pure white, standing out against the rest like a discordant note.
Some of the pirates felt a stir of familiarity looking at it, comparing its shape to the flagship of the King of the Five Seas. But more of them had their eyes fixed on the man standing on its deck.
A handsome man stood at the bow, his robes blood red.
The Blood Reverend, Alexander Gascoigne.
"Captain!!"
Aboard the Doe, cries of excitement rang out, no one could say how many voices joined in. Their captain had come. They were saved!
Silas stood at the prow.
He gave his crew a small nod first, calming their nerves, then looked around.
He saw the waters near the island in ruins, a massive barrier blocking any path of escape, the sailing ships smashed apart by the Death Announcer reduced to a few planks still floating on the surface.
The island itself had been twisted beyond recognition, its swollen flesh crawling with mutated monsters, and together with the great black tree descending from the sky, they surrounded the two sovereigns locked in battle at the lake in the island's heart.
The enemy was the King of Immortality and the Divine Abomination Suah, a combination of Sequence 3 and Sequence 1.
And on his side...
He glanced instinctively at the ship carrying him.
Two Sequence 3s, himself a Sequence 4, and... one Sequence 2.
---
The great tree on the island, as if drenched in black tar, let out another shriek, and this time the sound seemed to carry something like fury within it.
Suah had sensed an angel breaking through his blockade, descending upon this place.
Tap.
In the next instant, a stunningly beautiful woman with black hair and crimson eyes appeared at the ship's rail. Her eyes calm as she looked toward the island, she raised her arm.
"Distort!"
An unseen rule surfaced in Antia's palm and spread rapidly across the entire island.
The pirates immediately felt it: that soul-annihilating shriek no longer felt so unbearable, the agony it caused had become something they could endure.
Seizing the opening, Silas made his decision at once.
Kill the King of Immortality, Agalito, first!
Both enemies were dangerous, but looking at the lake at the island's center, Queen Mystic and the King of the Five Seas were in no immediate danger.
It was the pirates near the shore who were on the verge of being wiped out entirely.
Eliminate one enemy first, then regroup their strength and destroy the other!
Boom!
The very instant that killing intent surged in his heart, the Death Announcer, sensing the danger, immediately turned its bow and sped toward the center of the lake.
The King of Immortality was trying to run!
۞۞۞۞
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