596
Chapter 596
"It's been a while, Right Wing Commander."
Zeke spoke in a low voice toward the crystal ball.
Souma's voice flowed from the crystal ball.
"What brings Lord Zeke to such a distant place?"
He showed a sharp reaction to Souma's sly voice.
"Let's drop this pointless probe of each other."
Zeke continued with a thorny voice.
"Where is Arthur Draker?"
When Zeke took the initiative, Souma paused briefly before replying.
"If you mean the former head, he has already passed away..."
CRACK!
Zeke didn't listen further and shattered the crystal ball.
He had no immediate use for the crystal ball anyway, so he acted decisively to send a warning.
Moreover, Souma, the commander of the Right Wing Division in charge of Black Corps intelligence, was by no means an easy person to deal with.
Not having grasped Arthur Draker's purpose yet, even Zeke could be swayed by his words if he wasn't careful.
'The best method in such times is to cut it off beforehand.'
This was an immediate solution Zeke had learned in his previous life.
Before those with silver tongues can speak, cut off their heads.
He looked at the Black Corp's ship ahead and ordered his summons with sharp eyes.
"Prepare for battle. We'll crush them all."
Richmond and Bane nodded tensely at Zeke's words.
He summoned Nahuel and took something out from his inventory.
WHOOSH!
An ice elemental stone emanating powerful cold energy appeared.
He smiled coldly while looking toward the Black Corps.
"Souma, I'll make you regret opposing me."
Zeke immediately performed Polymorph while holding the stone.
TZZZZZ!
Transformed into an elf, Zeke summoned a water spirit while holding the elemental stone.
SPLASH!
Zeke levitated the stone toward where the high-rank water spirit was.
RUMBLE!
The elemental stone's cold energy merged with the high-rank water spirit's power, beginning to emit even stronger cold energy in all directions.
Zeke applied his unique authority Infinite Break to this power.
At that moment, the cold energy amplified and spread across the entire sea.
CRASH!
The sea touched by the cold energy froze solid with its waves intact.
The strong cold energy kept expanding its range until it surprisingly reached where the Black Corp's ship was.
CREAAAAK!
Bane and Richmond gaped as they saw the sea completely frozen from Zeke's ship to the entrance of Storm Island.
Especially Bane, who used ice magic, couldn't get his bearings seeing Zeke's power that froze the entire sea.
"How is this possible…?"
Barely omitting the words 'brute force,' Bane realized anew what an absurdly powerful being Zeke was.
While the two liches were shocked, Zeke smiled with satisfaction looking at the frozen sea.
Then he said to Richmond and Bane:
"What are you doing? We now have ground to fight on and the enemy is over there."
The two arch liches, who had been wearing blank expressions at the impossible sight, finally came to their senses.
They created summons on the thick ice ground covering the sea.
GROWL!
STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!
Beasts made of ice and armor-clad skeleton troops advanced forward in formation.
Simultaneously, Zeke summoned shadow spirits.
The Gurab unit along with the Cayman unit emerged and charged toward the Black Corp's ship.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
As the summons gallantly ran across the ice ground, something began crawling out from the Black Corp's ship trapped in ice.
SCREECH!
An otherworldly demon beast that looked like a mix between a tiger and scorpion let out a strange cry as it stood on the ice ground.
ROAR!
Starting with that one, various grotesque otherworldly demon beasts emerged from the Black Corp's ship from ones resembling giant mantises to huge worms and creatures that seemed to be crosses between snakes and spiders.
The otherworldly demon beasts spread out in a wide line as if following orders, waiting for Zeke's summons to charge.
RUMBLE!
The skeletons and ice beasts charged toward them first.
ROAR!
The otherworldly demon beasts possessed power as terrible as their appearance.
One swing of a scorpion tail turned all the skeletons to bone dust, and the ice beasts similarly shattered into ice powder in an instant.
SHRIEK!
The insectoid demon beasts clashed with the Shark Dragon unit led by Gurab while spitting sticky poison.
Surprisingly, the otherworldly demon beasts didn't yield to Gurab's powerful strength but rather held their ground while attacking the other Shark Dragons behind.
That's when Cayman, who had been running at the very back, led the Dragon Knight unit to attack the otherworldly demon beasts from the flank as they faced off against Gurab's unit.
CRUNCH!
The otherworldly demon beasts' outer shells made loud noises as they were destroyed by Cayman unit's attack.
But as if that wasn't the end, tentacles with sharp teeth crawled out from inside the broken shells.
SCREECH!
Just as the tentacles were about to wrap around the shadow spirits to absorb their power, red energy poured down from above.
WHOOSH!
Caligula, who had been summoned by then, stopped the tentacles' movement with the power of blood eye.
Beside him, Ashvin spread his four wings and took stance holding a black spear.
Ashvin threw the black spear toward the otherworldly demon beasts.
CRASH!
The otherworldly demon beasts pierced by the black spear shrieked and leaked sticky bodily fluids.
Though their wounds healed automatically and created tentacles from the cut parts, their movements were much slower than before.
While the summons were holding back the otherworldly demon beasts, Zeke secretly headed toward the Black Corp's ship.
Since the Black Corp ships trapped in ice couldn't move even if they wanted to, Zeke infiltrated inside.
TZZZ!
Appearing on the flagship's deck, Zeke realized he couldn't sense any human presence.
'Are they not here?'
Given that Souma had contacted him directly, he was certainly here, probably hiding somewhere.
Zeke first wanted to catch the hidden Souma to learn information about Arthur Draker.
He slowly went below deck.
CREEAK!
The stairs creaked with twisting wood sounds with each of his steps.
The narrow cabin corridor was only filled with darkness, and again he couldn't sense any human presence.
Zeke searched for traces of Souma while examining his surroundings with dragon eye.
That's when he sensed something approaching from the end of the corridor.
GROWL!
It was staggering and making strange moans.
'There was definitely no presence before...'
Zeke looked at the approaching figure with dragon eye.
Surprisingly, one of the Black Corp members was staggering toward him, but his condition was not normal.
"GRRRR!"
Half of the Black Corp member's face was grotesquely transformed, and soon tentacles like sea anemones burst from his mouth.
The moving Black Corp member suddenly spotted Zeke and reached out.
Simultaneously, tentacles shot out from their hand trying to wrap around Zeke.
CRASH!
Zeke blocked the Black Corp member's tentacles by raising shadows.
Then he unleashed lightning imbued with light energy.
CRACKLE!
The Black Corp member who took the light lightning head-on trembled before collapsing to the floor.
Zeke frowned looking at the Black Corp member emanating otherworldly demon beast energy.
'Don't tell me they implanted otherworldly demon beasts into the Black Corp members?'
Otherworldly demon beasts were beings that differed from ordinary demon beasts.
Even the Akashic Code didn't have proper information about these otherworldly beings.
GROWL!
The Black Corp member hit by Zeke's lightning slowly got up.
Then even more grotesque tentacles extended from their entire body than before.
When the Black Corp member stretched out both arms, thick tree-like tentacles revealed sharp teeth and flew at Zeke like snakes.
Due to the narrow cabin, Zeke didn't draw his sword but created a dagger form with shadows.
SLASH!
Zeke gripped the shadow-made dagger and cut down all the approaching tentacles.
But no matter how much he cut them, the tentacles kept growing and endlessly regenerating again and again.
'This isn’t working.'
Zeke held the dagger in one hand to cut the tentacles, then reached toward their cross-section with his other hand to emit purifying light.
WHOOSH!
Golden light extended from Zeke's hand and touched the tentacles' cross-sections.
The tentacles began to melt.
SHRIEK!
Unlike when just cutting the tentacles, the Black Corp member turned demon beast let out agonized screams as if in pain.
Zeke withdrew his shadows and raised golden light in both hands.
WHOOSH!
Taking an Infinite Chain technique stance, Zeke ran straight toward the Black Corp member.
CRASH!
The flying tentacles melted and faded when they touched Zeke's moves.
Zeke threw a punch with all his soul energy in the strike.
BOOM!
The strike imbued with breaking energy blasted a huge hole in the Black Corp member's body in one hit.
Simultaneously, purifying power settled throughout the Black Corp member's body, preventing regeneration and making it completely melt away.
SCREECH!
When the Black Corp member imbued with otherworldly demon beast power could no longer attack, Zeke tried to read his memories but surprisingly, not a single trace remained.
'Did someone intentionally erase the data?'
But then.
Zeke's instincts detected something unsettling.
He instantly raised his head and looked at the ceiling.
Zeke’s eyes widened.
'What's that?'
He discovered cocoons densely hanging from the ceiling.
Then one cocoon tore open and something fell to the corridor with sticky fluid.
THUD!
A Black Corp member fused with an otherworldly demon beast slowly rose and approached Zeke.
All the cocoons hanging from the ceiling contained magic-humans imbued with otherworldly power.
From the start, this ship was a trap to lure in Zeke.
RIIIP!
Soon more tearing sounds came from the ceiling as demon beasts began falling from the cocoons one by one.
SCREECH!
The demon beasts letting out horrible screams got up and approached Zeke.
Despite their grotesque appearances, Zeke calmly took an Infinite Chain technique stance.
"Come, I'll face you."
At that moment, the demon beasts rushed at Zeke extending their tentacles, and the dark corridor was dyed golden.
* * *
RUMBLE!
Deep in the Storm Sea, a giant kraken was being devoured while dead.
The one that attacked the kraken, which had guarded Storm Island from Storm Coast for thousands of years, was an otherworldly demon beast in the form of a sea serpent.
The suddenly appearing sea serpent beast succeeded in subduing the kraken by coiling around its body and injecting poison through tentacles inserted inside.
During this, the intruders forcibly opened the path to Storm Island and could enter.
In the end, the kraken lost its life to the otherworldly demon beast, and the guardian of Storm Island met its end.
The one controlling this sea serpent beast was none other than Black Corp Right Wing Commander Souma.
Souma was watching the situation above water through a crystal ball inside a translucent orb firmly attached to the beast's forehead.
'Zeke Draker, even you won't be able to stop hundreds of mutant baptized ones.'
Those currently working for Arthur Draker were called the baptized ones magic-humans who received otherworldly power.
However, not everyone could receive baptism.
Only the chosen ones could receive perfect baptism and be reborn as a new 'race'.
Souma was one of those chosen individuals.
He lured Zeke into a trap on the ship filled with mutants who failed baptism.
No matter how strong a Black Knight was, it would be impossible to stop hundreds of mutant baptized ones that endlessly regenerate and divide alone.
So Souma thought he could perfectly handle Zeke Draker here.
As he waited for Zeke Draker's death, suddenly the crystal ball he was watching was dyed golden.
"UGH!"
When Souma, who had squeezed his eyes shut, looked again, the crystal ball no longer showed the scene above water.
He furrowed his brows at the sudden golden light bursting from the trap he had set.
'Could Zeke Draker have...?'
Harvey Draker, who newly joined their side, said Zeke should be judged as more than a Black Knight.
Souma and other baptized ones didn't fully believe Harvey Draker's words.
Still, they couldn't ignore it, so they set this trap taking that into account, but an unexpected reaction appeared.
Souma felt a momentary anxiety.
'I should go up and see what happened.'
He was about to move as is, but just in case, he tried to surface by moving the beast he was connected to control, abandoning the tattered kraken.
THUD!
As Souma controlled the beast, it wouldn't move as if caught on something.
'What?'
But then.
CRASH!
He felt a massive impact striking the beast.