"Does Susie know she taught you that gesture?"
Lilith blinked innocently.
"Miss Lilith doesn't understand what you're talking about~"
"…Forget it," Edward sighed. "Anyway, we don't have a new batch of 'trainees' for now, so keeping these ones around might be good for some new…experiments."
As soon as Edward stepped out of the captain's cabin, the pirates nearby turned their gazes toward him, eyes shining with anticipation.
"I need three volunteers."
He held up three fingers. "I will teach them knowledge that is more secretive and more forbidden than anything they've encountered—knowledge that even many demigods may not know."
"But I must warn you—this knowledge comes with its own risks."
The moment the words left his mouth, the pirates began whispering among themselves in hushed excitement. Within moments, over a dozen raised their hands, scrambling to volunteer.
"Me! Me! Me!"
Edward gave them a kind, benevolent smile.
"Very good. Fortune always favours the brave. You three, then."
He casually pointed at the three closest pirates and pulled them over with an invisible hand. Then, he opened the Traveler's Door and stepped through the spirit world, bringing them to a deserted island he had passed earlier.
The instantaneous leap across hundreds of nautical miles left the three pirates stunned and ecstatic. They couldn't help imagining the day they too might wield such supernatural power—go wherever they pleased, rob whoever they wanted, kill, plunder, and vanish before anyone could react. The freedom would be glorious!
Edward turned to Lilith with uncharacteristic seriousness.
"Lilith, what I'm about to say—you must not listen. Understand?"
Lilith nodded obediently.
"Okay~"
Though the little one could be rebellious at times, she clearly knew how to weigh the gravity of things Edward emphasized.
He cast a Muffliato spell on her, then tucked her into the leather pouch on his belt before turning back to the pirates.
"All right. Let's begin."
The three pirates sat down in a row, faces solemn and attentive.
"Do you know," Edward began calmly, "that in a little over a decade…the world will end?"
His opening line was like a thunderclap.
"This is not a metaphor. I mean a literal apocalypse. Loen, Feynapotter, Feysac, the seas, the Southern Continent…everyone will die."
The pirates froze.
"S-sir… are you joking?"
"Why would the world end?!"
Edward pointed to the second pirate.
"Mmh. I like students with curiosity."
"The world will end," he continued, "because the Outer Gods are coming."
Before they could ask more questions, Edward pressed on, "You're probably wondering—what are the Outer Gods? To put it simply, they are deities from beyond this world…beyond Earth."
"They don't intend to exterminate humanity. But their arrival alone will bring about humanity's destruction. Because compared to them, humans are pitifully weak."
"Each Outer God carries terrifying pollution. When they descend upon the Earth, they don't need to do anything—their mere presence spreads corruption so powerful that even gods may not be able to withstand it. Ordinary people and Beyonders either die instantly or mutate into horrific, twisted creatures."
"And all this could happen in a single moment—the instant of their arrival. That's all it takes for everything to be wiped out. Just like the crimson moon currently hanging in the sky—it's already been occupied. It's no longer a moon, but a dreadful Outer God."
"Soon, the planet beneath our feet may meet the same fate."
As Edward continued, the pirates' expressions began to contort. Their eyes reddened rapidly—bloodshot veins creeping across their sclera like cracks in glass.
They weren't afraid.
They were being corrupted—in real time—by the weight of the knowledge.
"So, then," Edward said, holding up one finger at a time, "how many Outer Gods are there?"
"The Son of Chaos. The Primordial Hunger. The Circle of Inevitability. The Goddess of Fate. The Supernova Dominator. The Inextinguishable Ravings. The Monarch of Decay. The High-Dimensional Overseer. The Mother Tree of Desire…"
"…And finally, the most powerful among the Outer Gods—The Mother Goddess of Depravity."
BOOM!
The pirate in the middle exploded.
He burst like a rotten fruit, his flesh and blood spraying outward and drenching the other two in crimson gore.
Fortunately, Edward had anticipated this and warped the spray away just in time.
But the other two pirates began mutating almost immediately.
One of them grew blood-red tendrils and slips of paper from his mouth, his eyes, his nostrils—even his pores. The other's belly ballooned outward like an inflating bladder.
"AAAHHH!!!"
Their screams were agonising.
It was clear they were moments away from becoming something inhuman.
"Incendio."
Scarlet flames surged across both their bodies.
But oddly, even though they were just ordinary people, the spell—imbued with mystic spirituality—couldn't incinerate them outright. Instead, the fire was gradually suppressed as their mutations deepened.
The transformation was amplifying. Twisting.
BOOM!
The next instant, the flames surged again—consuming them completely in their violent struggle. They were reduced to nothing. Not even ash remained.
Edward flicked a coin and watched it spin through the air. When it landed, the result showed no traces of lingering pollution.
Only then did he let out a slow, heavy breath.
"Whew…So this is the knowledge-based corruption of a Great Old One…"
Although the original novel repeatedly emphasised that "knowledge is poisonous," that "knowledge corrupts," it never truly showed what that meant. But now, Edward had seen it with his own eyes.
And almost at the exact moment those three pirates began mutating, Edward also felt the potion within him digesting further—judging by the degree of progress, it was no less effective than the hours he'd previously spent lecturing on occult theory.
In other words, that entire ship of pirates could offer him another round of "experience gains."
But…would that be too risky?
Who could say if the Outer Gods' corruption might directly create a demigod-level abomination?
Edward opened the pouch and let Lilith out.
The moment she emerged, she looked around inquisitively.
"Where are those three people?"
"They're dead."
"Dead?"
Her eyes immediately lit up with curiosity.
"How'd they die?"
"They listened to knowledge they shouldn't have. Got corrupted. Mutated into horrific monsters. And then were put down."
Edward tugged lightly on her soft pink cheeks.
"Is Lilith curious now too? Want to hear it for yourself?"
"No, no! I don't want it!"
Lilith frantically waved her hands, retreating in mock horror.
"All right. Time to go back."
He took her tiny hand, and with a single step, they teleported back onto the pirate ship.
The moment their figures reappeared, the gossiping pirates fell silent and turned to stare—where were the three who'd been taken?
Edward didn't bother sugarcoating the truth.
"Unfortunately, the three of them didn't survive the forbidden knowledge."
Uproar.
Gasps rippled across the crew—but more than fear, the predominant reaction was disbelief.
How could someone die just from listening to knowledge?
Edward said calmly, "That's the way the Mysticism world works. Danger and opportunity always come hand in hand. If you're lucky enough to withstand the corruption of taboo knowledge, your future will be limitless. If not…well, that's just fate."
Most of the pirates looked lost and unsure. Only a few—like Red-Hair and the other Beyonders—hunched in corners, not daring to breathe too loudly.
Edward said flatly, "That's enough for today. Tomorrow, if any of you believe you might be one of the lucky ones…come find me."
"You—let's just call you Red-Hair."
Red-Hair jumped in fright and quickly stepped forward.
"I—I'm here!"
"When's the next time we'll run into other pirates?"
"Uh…"
Red-Hair wiped the sweat from his brow and replied, "It's pretty rare to just run into other pirates out at sea. But—but we can head toward some islands that are known pirate haunts."
"Good. You make the arrangements."
Edward walked to the edge of the ship and gazed out at the shimmering ocean. In his heart, a decision was forming:
"If we can find a new batch of pirates, then there's no need to risk teaching Outer God knowledge. But if we keep sailing without encountering anyone…then I'll just have to take the gamble. Fortune lies in peril, after all."
———
Although it wasn't his first time watching the sunset at sea, Edward still found it breathtaking.
The orange-red sun sank into the horizon, half-submerged by the ocean, dyeing the skies and sea in brilliant hues. It was nothing short of majestic.
Lilith sat on the railing, resting her chin in her hands and watching flying fish leap out of the waves. She kept trying to summon them with the Accio charm, but, unfortunately, none of her attempts succeeded.
Edward suddenly recalled an old theory he'd read online in his past life:
Some believed that the sun in the Lord of the Mysteries world—that same sun that rose and set every day—might actually be the Eternal Blazing Sun "Himself".
The thought struck him as hilariously absurd.
Aucuses, the Eternal Blazing Sun…backstabbed the Ancient Sun God, devoured "His" divine essence, schemed against the other six deities—and after all that, just to hang himself in the sky, burning nonstop 365 days a year?
So that's why you have your followers obsessively praising and worshipping you?
Just to ease your own psychological imbalance?
What a joke.
Just then, the air nearby split open with a sudden rip, and a cold aura surged out.
Phoenix burst forth from the Spirit World.
Its feathers were ruffled, its aura disordered—it looked like it had just survived a brutal battle.
Edward's expression changed.
"What happened?"
"I went to find that blond kid," Phoenix said as it landed on a lantern post and began preening its feathers with its beak, "but a demigod spotted me."
"A demigod? Around Danitz?"
"No. They were all on an island. That demigod was in the middle of preparing a sacrificial ritual. I sensed something…deeply disturbing."
It paused and added in a more human tone, "In your human terms, it felt like the aura of an evil god."
Edward froze.
"An evil god?"
Danitz? How could he possibly be connected to an evil god?
At this point in the timeline, Danitz hadn't even met Klein yet—he had no chance of coming into contact with The Fool, let alone other beings of that level.
"What about Danitz—the blond kid? Is he okay?"
"I don't know. I didn't see him."
Phoenix shook its head.
"The space around the island is extremely unstable. I couldn't directly navigate the spirit world to reach him."
After a pause, it added, voice firm:
"But he's still alive."
…Good. As long as he's alive.
———
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