The blood on the floor swiftly traced itself into shape, forming an arcane and peculiar sigil.
Silas sensed danger from that symbol, however faint, and immediately retreated, putting distance between himself and Tracy.
The instant the symbol finished forming, some strange ripple of power manifested, and ripples spread across the space above it.
A pale, delicate hand reached out from within, followed by an arm, and then a body. At last, a woman stood on the floor of the Black Death's captain's cabin.
The woman wore an extremely simple white robe, slit high on both sides, revealing a pair of long, snow-white, rounded legs.
She had the same black hair and blue eyes as Tracy, her features pure and lovely, her eyes as innocent as a newborn fawn's.
And yet, this being who looked like nothing more than a young girl bore down on Silas with an overwhelming sense of pressure.
His inner spiritual instincts were screaming at the top of their lungs, warning him that she was a Beyonder of formidable strength, a Sequence 3 demigod.
The white-robed Sequence 3 Unaging turned her slender, pale neck, sweeping her gaze across the room to take stock of the situation.
"Please save the captain..."
The suffocating pressure of a high-Sequence Beyonder made it hard to breathe. The blonde maid trembled beneath the woman's gaze, yet still managed to plead, her voice shaking.
Tracy herself, on the verge of collapse, said nothing, only stared at the woman with a complicated expression.
Having seen the look in Tracy's eyes, the corners of the white-robed Demoness's delicate lips curled slightly, as though a faint smile had bloomed there. At last her gaze settled on Silas.
In the next instant, the space around her turned pitch black.
No, that wasn't quite right.
It wasn't a solid color at all, but countless fine, dense strands of black texture: hair, jet-black strand upon strand of long hair! The hair danced wildly as though alive, like a nest of black serpents!
Shk!
A sense of crisis surged through him in an instant, and Silas moved on pure instinct, trying to break free from the encroaching hair.
And then his thoughts froze right there in that moment.
His entire body had turned an ashen gray, rigid and unmoving, like a stone carving. And it wasn't only him.
The hull of the Black Death, everything the white-robed Demoness was facing, had also taken on that same ashen hue. With the Demoness as the boundary, everything before her had been turned to stone.
Seen from a distance, the Black Death had become a strange sight: half wood, half stone, half tawny brown, half ashen gray.
"So this is the legendary Blood Reverend?"
The white-robed Demoness walked up to Silas and looked him over carefully, a glint of curiosity flickering in her eyes.
Her voice was soft and lovely, her manner innocent and lively, carrying a girlish, natural allure.
"Is he dead?"
Tracy struggled to her feet, supported by her maid.
"Not yet."
The Sequence 3 Unaging said, turning back to give her a scolding look. "Why didn't you contact Mother sooner? Do you have any idea how close you came to dying?"
As she said this, her demeanor shifted once again, as though she had transformed from an innocent girl into a gentle, concerned mother.
An air of inclusive, mature allure rose naturally from her, and the blonde maid, who only moments ago had been trembling in fear, now stared at her blankly, her eyes growing hazy and entranced.
"Well then, I'll leave the rest to you. I'm taking him with me."
The white-robed Demoness spoke as invisible strands, like spider silk, spread outward and wrapped around the stone statue that had once been the Blood Reverend.
She reached out and stroked his face, still fine-featured even in stone, her eyes shimmering with a hazy, seductive light.
"Heh, what a handsome face..."
She murmured to herself.
"..."
Hearing the white-robed Demoness speak this way, Tracy, standing behind her, plainly showed an expression of revulsion, as if she had just laid eyes on something filthy and foul.
But that expression quickly turned to terror.
"He's moving!"
Sure enough, with a faint crack, the stone covering Silas's body began to split apart in countless fissures.
In the next instant, a dark shadow came surging out through the cracks!
————
Meanwhile, on the other side of the island.
Boom!
A shrieking cannonball flew over the sailors' heads and struck the edge of the Hind's mainmast, instantly exploding into a great burst of flying splinters.
"Kill you all!"
A splinter grazed Filia's ear, but caught up in the heat of battle, he didn't even notice. He worked frantically to assist the gunners, hauling cannonballs, clearing the barrels, doing everything he could to get their side firing sooner.
Across from them, two pirate ships under Vice Admiral Ailment's command kept up a relentless barrage, cannon fire falling around them like rain.
"If only the captain or the first mate were on this ship..."
In a lull between exchanges, Filia found himself wishing this with all his heart.
The Blood Pirates were short on living crew, and the remaining gaps had been filled with flesh puppets made from the captain's blood.
The puppets were fine for mechanical tasks like sailing the ship or operating the cannons, but they weren't nearly as agile as human crew.
To improve the pursuit, Anderson had spread the men out across the ships, and had gone aboard one of them himself.
At the moment, the highest-ranking man left aboard the Hind was the boatswain, "Sea Serpent" Walter, and the ship's combat strength had dropped sharply as a result.
"Everyone, hold on tight!"
The helmsman Ruber's furious roar echoed across the deck. Without waiting for the sailors to react, he wrenched the wheel hard, sending the ship's hull carving a dangerous arc across the water.
The entire vessel swayed violently as the salty waves slammed against the hull, drenching everyone from head to toe.
Pfft!
Filia struggled up from the deck, looked around in a daze, and spat out a mouthful of seawater.
"Wind!"
Just then, he suddenly heard an odd, archaic-sounding voice behind him. A stern-faced man rushed to the ship's rail and dropped a shining metal sequin at his feet. A gust of wind howled up instantly, lifting his body and sending him rocketing toward the enemy pirate ship.
Filia quickly recognized him: the strange man who had climbed aboard the Hind earlier, who seemed to already know the captain.
"He can fly too, just like the captain."
Filia watched the man's figure recede into the distance with a touch of envy. Suddenly, cries of alarm rose from the sailors behind him.
"By Kalvetua, look, what is that?"
"The sea's freezing over!"
"Is that the captain's doing?"
Filia turned toward the sound of the voices, and there, on the far side of that hidden island, he saw a vast expanse of sea had somehow congealed into a sheet of ice, wreathed in bitter cold mist, its scale nearly rivaling that of a small island.
————
A bone-deep chill spread across the surface of the ice, upon which the Black Death, half stone and half wood, lay frozen fast.
Because of the difference between the two materials, the ship had already broken clean in two, the edge of the split running sharply down from the top.
"I must say, I'm impressed. To think you could resist even petrification. No wonder you managed to break into Sodela Palace all on your own."
The white-robed Demoness praised him in a soft voice, glittering crystals of ice clustering around her, making her look both saintly and beautiful.
And yet, at the same time, the slit in her robe had fallen open at the side, her pale, soft thigh exposed directly to the freezing air, drawing the eye and refusing to let it go.
Across from her, gathered atop the white ice, was a vast expanse of deep, pitch-black shadow: a small giant clad in black armor, red light flickering in its eyes, raising a greatsword high.