In the current day, high above the raging sea, Alger continued his assault without pause.
Lightning descended at his command, one brilliant strike after another tearing through the darkness and smiting the enormous tentacles emerging from beneath the waves. Several were scorched and forced back into the depths, yet for every limb driven away, more seemed to rise in tandem to replace it. At the same time, the surrounding waters churned violently as the creature beneath attempted to wrest control of the sea from him.
Currents twisted against currents. Waves that should have obeyed Alger's authority shuddered and broke away, only to be seized once more under his influence. Neither side could completely overwhelm the other, leaving their control over the surrounding ocean approaching an uneasy stalemate.
Another deep roar erupted from beneath the sea in retaliation to his bombardment.
Alger's expression remained solemn as lightning gathered around him once more.
Suddenly, his spiritual intuition flared. His head snapped toward the source of the warning. With the senses of a Sea King and his connection to the surrounding environment, he immediately located what had triggered it.
A dark figure was streaking across the storm-filled sky.
Large wings extended from the back of a demonic silhouette as it flew rapidly toward the Death Announcer. A woman was held within its arms, seemingly unconscious.
Alger's gaze sharpened as he recognized her.She was the Ace of Swords, a Minor Arcana of the Tarot Club serving under Madam Judgement.
Then he noticed what was being carried alongside her.
The Moon Card of Blasphemy!
Alger immediately raised an arm. His fingers spread as the surrounding winds and seawater responded, ready to converge upon the winged demon the instant he clenched his hand.
Before he could do so, the creature looked back. Their eyes met across the distance and Alger's movements faltered.
What stared back at him was no ordinary demon. Its gaze carried an undisguised malice and bloodthirst, like a beast that had already noticed his hostility and was merely waiting for him to make the first move.
Fear surfaced within Alger. It lasted only a heartbeat, but that was enough.
As a Saint of the pathway controlled by the Lord of Storms, Alger was no inexperienced beyonder incapable of recognizing the difference between himself and those standing at a higher level. The danger conveyed by that single glance was unmistakable.
A higher existence, perhaps even an Angel.
Fear brought doubt, of which produced hesitation. And on a battlefield of this level, even an instant of hesitation had consequences.
A brilliant bolt of lightning suddenly descended from above and struck Alger directly.
Electricity exploded across his body, illuminating his figure against the dark sky. Yet as a Sea King, lightning was hardly an unfamiliar force. He endured the majority of the strike with little more than a violent tremor passing through his body, translucent scales emerging across his skin instinctively.
Before he could fully recover, the sea below erupted. Another colossal tentacle surged upward, curling toward him in an attempt to seize and drag him into the depths.
The momentary fear within Alger disappeared. In its place came irritation, then anger.
Wind exploded around him.A dense dome of violent currents formed around his body, countless compressed wind blades revolving within it at tremendous speed. The approaching tentacle crashed directly into the barrier and was immediately assaulted from every direction. Flesh split apart beneath the barrage until the enormous limb was severed outright, its upper portion tumbling back toward the sea.
Alger shot out from the collapsing dome immediately afterward, rapidly putting distance between himself and the creature below.
Lightning still flickered across the scales covering his skin as he steadied himself in the air. His expression had grown considerably darker.
He raised one hand and brought it down in a sharp cleaving motion.
A deep fissure opened across the ocean beneath him, enormous walls of water peeling apart on either side as the divide continued downward. The crevice deepened until the darkness hidden beneath the surface was exposed, and with it, the creature responsible for the disturbance.
A gigantic kraken emerged into view.
Its monstrous body occupied much of the newly exposed depths, surrounded by the tentacles Alger had been fighting. Its maw opened wide, revealing layer after layer of densely packed teeth. Now fully exposed, the beast released another furious roar, far clearer and more oppressive than those previously muffled beneath the sea.
Alger swept his hand upward.
The water remaining beneath and around the kraken was immediately torn from the depths. Countless droplets rose into the air, filling the enormous crevice like suspended rain. At the same time, a tremendous current of wind surged upward through the gap, carrying spray and debris high into the sky.
Alger ignored the violent gusts and snapped his fingers.
Every suspended droplet exploded.
A chain of detonations instantly filled the entire crevice. One explosion merged into the next until the space between the divided walls of seawater disappeared beneath a massive blast. The kraken's roar was swallowed by the resulting devastation as water, flesh, and vapor were hurled in every direction.
Despite the scale of the attack, Alger's control remained precise. The force was deliberately directed away from both the Blue Avenger and the Storm Dew, preventing the blast from engulfing either vessel.
As for the Death Announcer, Alger would have been more than pleased to let the explosions tear through its hull and send the entire accursed ship to the bottom of the sea. Unfortunately, it had already moved too far away to be caught within the attack.
The explosions gradually subsided.
Steam and seawater obscured the depths, preventing Alger from immediately determining what remained of the kraken.
Before he could investigate, his spiritual intuition flared again.
Danger!
Alger looked upward.
A lightning storm was already descending upon him.
He threw both arms upward, commanding the surrounding seawater to rise. Layers of water surged around him to form a rapidly rotating barrier as he simultaneously flew away from his original position.
Lightning crashed into his defenses. Brilliant arcs spread throughout the water, blasting portions of the barrier apart and illuminating the surrounding sky. Amidst the blinding flashes, Alger sensed something else.
A figure was approaching from above at terrifying speed, descending from the sky toward the sea with a sonic boom trailing behind it.
Too fast!
Alger barely managed to shift his posture before the figure reached him.
A sharp pain flashed through his left arm. Blood scattered into the wind as a shallow gash appeared across it, Alger having raised the limb at the last possible instant to protect his chest. He immediately countered with his other arm, sweeping it upward and forcing a mass of seawater to erupt between himself and the attacker.
He needed distance.
Even a second would be enough to reassess the situation.
Then the roar came again, but this time, it was different. More pronounced than any that had come before.
The roar swept through Alger, carrying an invisible force that struck directly at him. For one brief instant, the Stormbringer hung motionless above the sea.
…
On board the Death Announcer, the dome of overgrown trees finally began to recede.
Branches withdrew from one another, roots loosened their grip upon the deck, and layers of leaves folded back until the defensive barrier thinned enough to reveal the two figures who had been sheltered within.
One was Amaranth Edelweiss.
She stood in a dark-green dress, her long black hair falling around a face of almost unnatural beauty. Beneath the storm-darkened sky, her pale skin seemed faintly luminous, like a flower blooming beneath cold moonlight. The contrast of her crimson eyes only deepened that impression, lending her an eerie, bloodless elegance reminiscent of something that had long since stepped away from ordinary humans.
Beside her stood another figure in a demonic form.
For the first time since Ace Snake's assault had begun, the two of them had a moment to breathe.
They had endured the Mandated Punisher captain's lightning, resisted the monstrous torrents thrown against the ship, and survived the Stormbringer's later interference. Even the Death Announcer itself had been forced through violent currents and attacks from creatures beneath the sea.
For a few seconds, neither moved.
Then the demonic figure suddenly froze. His posture stiffened as his Danger Premonition had seized him by the spine.
"We need to—"
A harrowing laugh erupted across the deck. It was wet, twisted, and disgusting, carrying something ancient and profoundly malicious within it. The sound struck both Saints before either could react, freezing their movements almost at once.
Their emotions surged out of control.
Irritation became fury. Suspicion sharpened into hostility. Hidden desires swelled violently upward, while impulses normally buried beneath reason suddenly demanded to be acted upon.
Before either could stabilize themselves, a blue-green fireball tore across the deck.
It exploded between them. Sulfurous flames washed over their bodies, corroding flesh while continuing to interfere with their already destabilized minds. The fire did not merely burn. It aggravated everything the laughter had stirred up, making every emotion feel sharper, uglier, and more difficult to control.
Amaranth clenched her teeth as pain and conflicting impulses tore through her.
Beside her, the demonic figure staggered but remained upright.
Then something landed on the deck.
A heavy thud shook the planks.Both of them turned to see.
A large, viscous mass had appeared before them, dark in color and vaguely demonic in shape. Wings protruded from its back for only a moment before the entire form began to rearrange itself. The monstrous body rapidly drew itself together into a humanoid shape, then continued changing until nothing overtly demonic remained.
A man stood there now.
He wore a dark-red suit, his features refined and composed, with a mature handsomeness that contrasted sharply against the malicious aura surrounding him. In his arms rested an unconscious young woman.
Halsey slept deeply. Neither the violent landing nor the surrounding explosions had stirred her in the slightest.
Amaranth reacted almost entirely on instinct, making moonlight descend upon them. A pale radiance spread around her body and extended toward the Blatherer beside her. Wherever it touched, the lingering blue-green flames weakened, their corrosive intensity diminishing enough for both Saints to begin regaining control over themselves.
The demon beside her exhaled harshly, forcing his chaotic emotions back under restraint.
Erynos watched them recover and chuckled. He lowered Halsey onto the deck with surprising care, then he stepped over her.
Once, twice. He approached the two Saints at an unhurried pace and began to clap in a slow and mocking manner.
"What seems to be the problem?" His smile widened. "Are you confused?" He took another step. "Or perhaps you're simply... slow?" The words themselves were ordinary Hermes.
The voice beneath them was not.
Layered under every syllable was something ancient and demonic, deeper than the voice of any normal human throat. It seemed to vibrate directly through the mind rather than merely enter through the ears.
Language of Foulness!
Amaranth's expression tightened. The demon beside her visibly stiffened.
Erynos turned toward him. His smile disappeared. "You."
The single word pressed down on the deck like invisible weight.
"Your behaviour before me is an act of blasphemy."
The Blatherer tried to react, but his body betrayed him. His thoughts became muddled, as though several contradictory impulses had been forced together at once. The command to retreat collided with the urge to attack. The desire to resist was undermined by sudden doubt.
His movements slowed. And Amaranth suffered the same effect.
Her thoughts became increasingly disordered, and every attempt to force clarity only produced another conflicting response. Her already weakened emotional state made the interference far worse than it otherwise would have been.
She tried to raise her hand, move away. Attack, defend…Each decision was buried beneath another before it could fully form.
Their bodies began responding sluggishly, as though thought itself had acquired weight.
Worse still, whenever either attempted to resist Erynos's influence directly, their own actions seemed to betray them. A movement started too late. A thought shifted direction halfway through. Intentions became tangled before they could become execution.
Erynos continued walking toward them, still clapping. And with every step, the confusion only deepened.
Erynos's slow applause finally stopped.
He had arrived directly before the Blatherer whose demonic form had yet to recede. Without warning, Erynos extended his right hand, and blue-green flames erupted from his palm before condensing into an enormous weapon.
A Sword of Lava took shape. The massive flaming blade curved like an oversized scimitar, its surface resembling molten rock barely contained beneath layers of raging fire. The temperature around it rose instantly. The deck beneath Erynos's feet blackened and began to smoke, while the air distorted violently around the blade. Had the Blatherer not been maintaining his demonic form, with its greatly enhanced resistance toward flames, merely standing this close would have been enough to set his flesh ablaze.
Even so, the threat of the weapon was unmistakable.
Amaranth understood that she could no longer afford to remain trapped within the confusion affecting her thoughts.
She forcibly gathered her will. Her right hand trembled as she tried to raise it toward her chest. The simple movement became agonizingly slow under Erynos's interference. Several times her arm seemed ready to stop halfway, her own thoughts urging her to abandon the action, but she continued resisting until her fingertips finally touched the front of her dark-green dress.
A faint glow spread across her pale body.
Nothing else seemed to happen.
Then the fabric over her chest shifted, revealing something that should never have been part of a human body.
Embedded within Amaranth's exposed chest was a long, thin brown puppet.
It appeared to have grown directly from her flesh, its body extending inward and connecting with her organs. Its eyes and mouth curved into unnatural crescents, while dried flowers and withered grass sprouted across its surface. Beneath the pale moonlight, the grotesque object formed a disturbing contrast with Amaranth's almost ethereal beauty, like something rotten taking root within a flower in full bloom.
The puppet abruptly turned crimson.
For an instant, it looked as though it had been completely soaked in fresh blood.
Then it collapsed. Its wooden form dissolved into a pool of filthy mud that surged inward, disappearing among Amaranth's organs.
Something began forcing its way out.
An arm emerged first.
Black, sticky liquid flowed continuously across its surface, bubbling and deforming as strange objects protruded from within it. Tiny skulls surfaced before sinking back into the sludge. Barbed tongues twisted through the viscous substance, while three-dimensional eyes opened at impossible angles and rolled independently of one another.
The oppressive presence that followed needed no introduction.
Abomination Suah!
Erynos had been expecting something of this nature. The instant that presence manifested, the Sword of Lava vanished from his hand and he retreated without hesitation.
In a blur, Erynos crossed the distance back toward Halsey and scooped the unconscious woman from the deck. His human appearance immediately collapsed, dark flesh swelling and flowing outward until he once again assumed his enormous, viscous demonic form. A pair of wings tore open behind him as he braced himself against the corruption and influence radiating from Suah's manifestation.
The emerging Abomination turned toward him, then Suah noticed what Erynos possessed: The Moon Card of Blasphemy, closely gathered with the sleeping woman in his arms.
The strange eyes scattered throughout the black sludge fixed upon it almost simultaneously. That was precisely what the Rose School of Thought had been searching for!
Several malformed limbs erupted from Suah's manifestation at once. Arms of different sizes stretched across the deck, some bent at unnatural angles, others ending in distorted hands that clawed toward Erynos, attempting to seize him together with Halsey and the Card of Blasphemy.
Erynos's wings beat downward. He shot into the sky before the limbs could close around him.
Several grotesque hands swept through the place he had occupied a fraction of a second earlier, while others extended farther in pursuit. Erynos twisted between them, climbed higher, and rapidly cleared the Death Announcer's deck.
Only then did he glance back. A mocking grin spread across his demonic face. "About time you showed up."
Suah's attention remained locked upon him.
Erynos deliberately shifted Halsey in his grasp, allowing the Moon Card of Blasphemy to remain clearly visible.
"If you want your precious Card back..." His wings spread wide. "Come and get it."
He accelerated away from the Death Announcer, heading directly over the open sea.
Behind him, the manifestation of Suah surged forward. The provocation had worked and the Abomination followed.
Left behind on the deck of the Death Announcer, Amaranth and the Blatherer finally found another brief opportunity to recover.
Neither had escaped Erynos's influence unscathed. Their thoughts remained muddled, their emotions slow to settle, and the lingering effects of the sulfurous flames continued gnawing at their bodies. Still, with Erynos having drawn Suah away over the sea, the oppressive interference affecting them was gradually weakening. For the moment, at least, they could breathe.
Amaranth slowly forced herself upright. Her dark-green dress was damaged in several places, and strands of black hair had fallen loose around her unnaturally pale face. She steadied herself before turning toward the Blatherer beside her.
Something immediately felt wrong.
The demon's shadow was too large.
Despite the lightning flashing overhead, the darkness stretching behind him remained strangely dense and elongated. It expanded across the deck rather than shifting with the surrounding light, and within it, the vague outline of another person gradually began to emerge.
Amaranth's spiritual intuition screamed.
Her crimson eyes widened.
Before she could utter a warning, a deafening scream erupted across the deck.
The shriek struck both Saints like a physical blow. Their minds, which had only just begun recovering from Erynos's interference, were thrown into turmoil once more. Amaranth's body stiffened, while the Blatherer's movements halted before he could even turn around.
The blurry figure stepped completely out of the shadow.
A sword appeared in his hand.
Unlike the enormous black greatsword he had wielded before, this blade radiated brilliant light. Dawn seemed to gather along its edge, bathing the surrounding darkness in a clear, luminous brilliance.
The sword descended.
One clean slash tore across the Blatherer's back.
His demonic flesh split open beneath the radiant edge, leaving behind a deep gash as one of his wings was severed outright. The detached limb spun away and crashed heavily onto the deck.
Amaranth struggled against the lingering paralysis and forced her gaze toward the attacker. The figure before her remained indistinct for only another moment before his features finally became clear.
It was Babayaga!
The instant Amaranth recognized him, her crimson eyes met his.
His brown eyes suddenly lit up. Two flashes resembling condensed lightning shot from his pupils like bullets and pierced directly into her mind.
Psychic Piercing!
Amaranth's body froze.
The attack struck directly at her soul, sending another wave of agony through her already weakened consciousness. Her thoughts scattered before she could organize any resistance, and the little strength she had recovered after Erynos's departure was immediately disrupted.
Babayaga wasted no time taking advantage of it.
He turned toward the fallen Blatherer and extended one arm. His hand abruptly lost its human shape, with his fingers collapsing together into a grotesque mass of writhing flesh. The fleshy substance expanded rapidly before pouncing upon the injured demon.
It enveloped him completely.
Grazing!
The Blatherer struggled beneath the mass, but his condition was already too poor. At the same time, Babayaga stretched his free arm toward Amaranth.
Several shadowy limbs burst from it.
They swept across the deck and wrapped themselves around her arms, waist, and legs before she could recover from the Psychic Piercing. Amaranth instinctively attempted to activate her abilities, seeking to recompose herself and heal her injuries, but failed to do so. She discovered that most of her beyonder abilities had been deprived! The shadows tightened around her defenseless body and dragged her violently across the deck toward Babayaga.
His second hand distorted as well.
Another mass of grotesque flesh surged outward and swallowed Amaranth just as it had the Blatherer.
Neither Saint could effectively defend themselves anymore. The Blatherer had suffered heavily from Erynos's pathway suppression and Babayaga's subsequent assault, while Amaranth had been deprived of the very abilities that might have allowed her to recover or escape. With their bodies and minds already pushed to their limits, both had become easy targets for Grazing.
Within several seconds, their struggles ceased, and both Saints met their ruin.
The masses of flesh contracted and flowed back toward Babayaga's arms. His distorted limbs gradually returned to their original human appearance, leaving no trace of either Amaranth or the Blatherer upon the deck.
Instead, two bracelets appeared around his left arm.
Both were formed from bloody flesh, yet each possessed a distinctly different coloration.
As of this moment, he had successfully grazed the soul of a Blatherer, along with that of a dual-pathway Saint possessing the characteristics of a Shaman King of the Moon Pathway and a Pallbearer of the Mother Pathway!
Even he couldn't help feeling a flicker of surprise and satisfaction at such a considerable harvest.
The ambush had proceeded exactly as intended. By concealing himself and his hostile intentions through Mind Concealment, he had avoided prematurely triggering the Blatherer's Danger Premonition, allowing him to emerge from the demon's own shadow before either Saint could properly react.
Nevertheless, his satisfaction quickly faded.
Babayaga lowered his arm and turned toward the open sea, his gaze following the direction Erynos had taken with Halsey and the Moon Card of Blasphemy.
The brief delight of obtaining two powerful souls vanished from his expression, replaced by a cold, callous seriousness.