Chapter 509 - 208: The Puppet Dancing with God (3)

"...I’m so jealous..."

The two exchanged a look and sighed in unison. They raised their glasses and clinked them together. "To our shitty captain, cheers!"

"...The Mutated Mage, Wei’en Loft! The warrior who dares challenge the Dawn Church!"

"Bullshit! That’s only because he has the Ghost Soul School backing him. What other Extraordinary would dare slaughter the Dawn Church’s followers so brazenly on the Eastern Continent?"

"Exactly. You think those terrifying zealots from the Dawn Church just don’t exist?"

"I’ll bet two gold pieces that the next time the Dawn Church makes a move, that Mutated Mage will be thrown into the Deep Sea and fed to the aberrations!"

"I’m in!"

’Such... foolish and phony people...’

A figure shrouded in a black robe sat in a corner of the tavern. His cloudy eyes swept across the room as he let out a low laugh. The sound was hoarse, as if it contained countless overlapping voices.

’The Mutated Mage... after tonight, he’ll never be seen again!’

Just then, a man dressed as a pirate entered the tavern. He went straight to the black-robed figure and whispered something in his ear.

"Oh?"

After listening, the black-robed figure vanished, leaving behind only a trace of ash and blood.

The pirate turned to leave, but his arm accidentally brushed against the ash. In the next instant, his entire body erupted in a fiery blaze, as if he had been set alight. The surrounding pirates, moments before boisterous, scrambled to get away.

"Damn it, someone actually dared to make a move in here? Aren’t they afraid of being hunted down by the Black Pearl?"

"Enough talk, just run!"

"..."

Leaving the chaos of the tavern behind, the black-robed figure reappeared in a five-story building, the one closest to the tall tower.

A golden wooden plaque at the entrance clearly read: Golden Dis Headquarters.

The black-robed figure emerged from the shadows and slowly entered the building. He went straight to the top floor, pushed open the door, and walked inside. "Dis," a cold voice rang out, "the mission was a failure?"

In the center of a lavishly decorated room, a giant nearly ten feet tall sat cross-legged on the floor. Several kegs rested on a table before him, and he was chugging from one.

Not far from him, several pirates in motley attire were doing the same, drinking heartily and laughing amongst themselves.

A joyous party was clearly in full swing.

However, when the black-robed figure walked in, all laughter and conversation ceased. Even the giant in the center put down his keg. "You’re here, Petel Cabreara."

His voice was gruff. An unusual flush colored his cheeks, a clear sign he had already been drinking heavily.

"Hmph. One of your men told me that the people sent to assassinate the Mutated Mage are dead?"

"Yeah, they’re dead. That madwoman Stacy, along with those monsters of yours—all dead." The giant, Dis, let out a belch and glared sullenly at the black-robed figure. "I believe you owe me an explanation. Why were your subordinates so useless? How were they so easily controlled?"

"Controlled?" The black-robed figure froze for a second. "Are you certain?"

"Of course!"

"Impossible! As servants of the Sovereign of Reality, we cannot be controlled by illusions!"

THUD!

The giant slammed his hand on the table and held it out to his side.

A small girl timidly emerged from behind him and placed a palm-sized Gemstone in his hand.

"This came from the ship. Take a good look!" The giant tossed the Gemstone over.

The black-robed figure caught it. His cloudy eyes sharpened as the bindings on his hand loosened slightly. A wisp of ash burrowed into the Gemstone.

The Gemstone flared with light, projecting an ethereal screen into the air.

The image slowly resolved to show a white, gold-trimmed Five-Masted Sailing Ship cutting through the waves under a red moon.

Then, like a moving picture, the scene continued to play out.

Stacy leaped onto the ship, leading hundreds of screeching Deep Sea aberrations, and slaughtered dozens of pirates.

At the same time, the five black-robed figures behind her followed, surrounding an exceptionally beautiful woman with a perfect figure.

"Whoa—that woman’s got a great body!"

Watching this, one of the pirates let out a loud whistle. But before he could say anything more, the black-robed figure at the door yanked down his hood. It revealed a gaunt body underneath, wrapped entirely in blood-red strips of cloth. A jet of ash mixed with blood shot from his fingertip.

Pfft.

"She really is something else, I... huh?" The pirate looked down and saw the scorched, bloody hole in his chest. He stared blankly at the black-robed figure. "You..."

"Silence!" The black-robed figure’s eyes were ice-cold, his gaze still fixed on the image in the ethereal screen.

The other pirates started to rise, but the giant in the center raised a hand, signaling them to stand down.

"Petel, this is the last time!"

"He was disturbing my viewing."

"Let it happen again, and our alliance with your Dusk Sect is over!"

The black-robed figure glanced at him. Beneath the blood-red wrappings, the corners of his mouth twitched, as if forming a smile. "Then we’ll have it your way."

"Hmph!"

The giant snorted but said nothing more, his cold gaze fixed on the woman in the image.

The impossibly beautiful woman, surrounded by several Twilight Secret Cultivators, was desperately dodging their attacks of ash and blood.

Just when everyone thought she would fall to their attacks, a dazzling black light suddenly erupted from her body.

Everyone in the room froze.

’Black, and dazzling?’

But upon closer inspection, even the black-robed figure had to admit that it was, indeed, a luminous black light. The luminosity, however, was a layer of some other, secret power clinging to the darkness.

"What kind of Extraordinary trait is that?" the giant Dis asked, his face a mask of confusion.