Chapter 55: Sudden Change! Great Evil God of the Deep Sea!

“Creak… Creak…”

The empty, eerie wooden ship swayed on the sea surface. It didn’t have the vast length of Noah’s Ark stretching for a thousand meters; it was merely several hundred meters long, old and dilapidated, with tattered sails fluttering weakly in the cold wind, ready to fall apart at any moment.

Although Miss Vilyric couldn’t quite understand why the embodiment of Surs Te’s grievances would take on such an external form, there was no doubt that it resembled a “living” entity.

She could sense that bizarre and eerie gaze, like a wounded wolf, bleeding profusely from its injury, yet still casting a vicious stare at its enemy, contemplating whether to tear it apart and consume it to replenish itself or to flee for its life.

The answer would soon become clear.

“Hmph, do you think you can escape?”

As thick fog enveloped the ghost ship once more, it suddenly began to sink below the surface of the water. The black-haired girl raised her staff and pointed it toward the sky!

“Holy Light Chain!”

“Whoosh!!!!”

The radiant light emanating from the tip of the staff illuminated the sea, and countless golden chains surged forth from the void, wrapping around the massive hull in layers!

However, as one of the Four Disasters, the ghost ship would not simply sit idle even after sustaining such heavy damage. Countless dark mist gathered around it, shaping into chains that recoiled against the oncoming golden ones while it sank deeper into the Ghost Sea at a faster rate.

Miss Vilyric had a nagging feeling that this was a conceptual shift; if it were to completely sink into the sea, it would likely revert to that intangible form, which couldn’t simply be chased under water.

But at that moment…

“Whoa~!!!”

With a resounding whale’s call echoing through the sky, a magnificent figure over a thousand meters long suddenly burst forth from below the surface, crashing hard against the side of the ghost ship, pushing its already submerged hull back into the air before heavily slamming back down onto the sea, creating gigantic waves!

“Hmm?”

The priestess, who was about to cast an even stronger spell, was momentarily stunned.

Without a doubt, it was the Azure Giant Whale, the Pirate King Rashid, attacking the ghost ship.

It was helping.

Perhaps during its heyday, this allegedly underage creature would not have been able to directly contend with the East Disaster, but now that the ghost ship had been heavily damaged, it could certainly strike a downed opponent.

Noticing the pure azure glow subtly emanating from the iron-gray body of the giant whale, the priestess suddenly understood certain things.

She shook her head helplessly as the golden chains broke through the barriers, seizing the moment Rashid created to lunge downward.

“Ha… A god is indeed a god; even in death, it can produce so many derivatives and even help its followers clean up the mess they left behind. It seems Rashid obtaining that Book of Truth wasn’t just a coincidence…”

“Woo~! Woo~!!!”

The golden chains intertwined and restrained the overturned ghost ship, while the Azure Giant Whale continued to circle and hover nearby, its massive shadow flickering beneath the surface, seemingly ready to launch a new attack against its nemesis at any moment.

The ghost ship emitted a series of rapid creaks, its dark essence and sea mist surging violently over its deteriorated surface, struggling to break free from the golden chains like flowing light, but it was a futile effort.

Indeed, Miss Vilyric possessed the power to utterly crush the opponent, yet this complete collapse shouldn’t have happened so swiftly.

The traps meticulously designed by Queen Anies and the others inflicted far more serious damage on the East Disaster than initially apparent, rendering it temporarily tangible, and with the assistance of the Azure Giant Whale, the priestess could easily subdue the already spent ghost ship, delivering the final blow.

Once she grasped the entire sequence of events, Vilyric couldn’t help but let out a slight sigh of relief, lowering her staff.

At first, she had anticipated a prolonged battle, yet it was resolved more easily than she had expected…

After all, it was just a ghost born from the grievances of a deceased god. Eerie as it may be, it could never truly compare to the original entity once brought into the open.

It seemed she had grown overly sensitive from encountering too many strong foes in the Ancient Spirit Realm. Initially… the priestess had imagined the ghost ship as a foe on par with visions beyond the Phantom Cloud, or even a Taotie or decayed wood-level enemy, especially since it had demonstrated the ability to absorb powers belonging to gods, like “Faith.”

Pondering this, Vilyric redirected her gaze toward the gigantic ghost ship, now trapped and overturned on the water’s surface, unable to move.

“However… I hadn’t really thought about how to deal with this thing. Should I just slay it outright? Or wait for Anies and the others to discuss it further when they come…”

Yet before the girl could finish her thought, her expression suddenly changed!

“BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Enormous tentacles, reaching skyward and measuring several dozen feet in width, suddenly broke through from the depths of the sea, crashing hard into the ends of the golden chains binding the ghost ship!

“Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!!!!”

Those tentacles, as formidable as giant blades, carried unimaginable power. With their impact, even the golden chains summoned by the priestess trembled violently. Though they didn’t snap under the first strike, they instantly displayed numerous visible cracks, and the surface luster dimmed rapidly.

The Holy Chains—genuine 7th-tier magic—were even more resilient than Radiant Protection, revealing just how formidable the opponent’s strength must be.

And the shape of those tentacles clearly indicated who had struck.

“The Great Evil God Oktaviel of the Sea? Hey, is it still supposed to be napping? Why is it suddenly showing up now?!”

Moreover, was it actually… trying to rescue the ghost ship?

“Woo~~!!!!”

In the spirit of sheer audacity, the Azure Giant Whale, wandering the seas, showed no fear upon encountering an enemy and promptly leaped out again from beneath the surface, its thousand-meter-long body spinning gracefully in the air, its tail crashing down like a giant hammer towards one of the nearby tentacles of the evil god!

That scene looked just like a massive airship engaging in a physical assault.

However, a horrifying sight unfolded.

“Bang!!!!!!!!!!”

The whale, whose size rivaled that of Noah’s Ark, capable of stirring up surges and tsunamis when it flipped, was treated like a mere toy before the evil god’s tentacle, its full-force impact only producing a loud noise without harming the latter in the slightest—before it was ensnared in the air and tightly constricted!

“Woo!!! Woo!!!!”

The giant whale let out a mournful and painful cry, as if some azure energy within it was being forcibly plundered by the tentacle. It struggled desperately, yet like the ghost ship before Miss Vilyric, it was nearly powerless to fight back.

“Whoosh! Boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The golden holy spear’s brilliance swept in from afar, rapidly expanding in the air and transforming into a divine weapon over a thousand meters long. With a single strike, it completely severed the evil god’s tentacles that were binding the giant whale, the ensuing roar and waves even splitting the entire Ghost Sea in two, sending towering torrents soaring hundreds of meters high!

That was the holy spear of the Radiant Spirit. At this moment, Vilyric had no time to consider whether an all-out war would awaken the evil god or what disaster it might bring to the sea area.

If she had delayed just a few seconds longer, the Azure Giant Whale, which had aided them tremendously, would likely have been fully snared and torn in two.

“Plop!!!”

The front half of the evil god’s tentacle rapidly vanished like ice melting under golden light. The nearly-killed giant whale finally returned to the sea, letting out a series of urgent and grateful calls before hastily diving into the depths and disappearing from sight.

Mythical creatures are indeed very clever; they can naturally tell that the battlefield before them was no longer something they could get involved in.

“The Great Evil God…”

Floating high in the sky, the black-haired girl spread her white wings, glowing brilliantly enough to nearly illuminate the entire sky, shielding her with the resplendent golden spirit. She glanced at the countless terrifying tentacles darting toward the sky, slightly frowning.

She wasn’t afraid of the opponent; she just couldn’t comprehend why Oktaviel would suddenly show up now and actively aid the ghost ship, especially since it was a ghost spawned from the remains of its old nemesis, the Sea God. Previously, King Willipol even intended to use this thing to deal with it.

Even if they couldn’t be considered enemies, the two definitely couldn’t be allies. What exactly was the Great Evil God’s purpose in protecting it?

   

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