Chapter 220
Bastian gritted his teeth and tried to fire his magic gun at Zeke again.
However, no more shots were fired, indicating that all the bullets had been used up.
Only then did Zeke realize the flaw in Bastian's magic gun.
"Isn't that thing terribly inaccurate?"
Siemens wouldn't have given a proper weapon to a pirate.
At Zeke's mocking question, Bastian threw down the magic gun he was holding and shouted at his subordinates,
"Kill that bastard!"
The pirates drew their weapons and charged at Zeke.
Zeke snapped his fingers in an instant.
Chrararak!
Ghost soldiers hidden in the pirates' shadows sprang out and severed their necks.
"Kuh-uk!"
Even the Night Killers couldn't stop them, let alone these pirates.
The ghost soldiers, having revealed themselves, unilaterally slaughtered the pirates.
"N-no way! What are those things!"
Zeke slowly approached Bastian.
"See? You should have just spoken up when I offered you an easy death earlier."
As Bastian tried to escape, Zeke extended his left hand.
Charrrrrrrrrk!
Chains shot out and tangle Bastian's body.
"Kuh-uk!"
Bastian struggled desperately to break free, but he couldn't escape the Soul Sealing Technique.
Zeke slowly approached him.
Then, he injected Bastian with paralyzing poison.
"Ugh... ugh..."
Bastian's eyes were filled with terror as his body became paralyzed, preventing him from even screaming.
Zeke drew Annexie's dagger and said,
"Don't imagine too easily what's going to happen from now on."
* * *
"Krrrrrrk!"
Bastian, covered in blood all over his body, returned to his original state due to Zeke's healing.
However, even though his body recovered, the pain remained because of the paralyzing poison and the Authority of Decay that Zeke had injected.
Just as he was about to lose consciousness, Zeke buffed him with steadfast mental defense and infinite stamina, keeping his mind clear so he had to face the pain in his right mind.
"How about it? Feeling like talking now?"
Bastian moved his eyes frantically.
Noticing that it was an affirmative answer, Zeke removed the poison he had injected into Bastian's body. Only then did Bastian open his mouth and let out a sound.
Zeke asked Bastian,
"Who was the one who ordered you?"
At those words, Bastian shuddered. Zeke casually raised Annexie's dagger, as if he had no intention of waiting.
Then, Bastian trembled and opened his mouth.
"T-the Empire! Initially, the Empire's intelligence agency contacted me!"
"The Empire's intelligence agency, huh. So they were the ones who hid you."
"Y-yes. With the intelligence agency's help, I stayed in a safe house prepared in the Empire, planning to return once the situation in the Southern Continent settled down."
"But you must have been flustered that the Favela Cartel collapsed faster than expected. The Syndicate just took its place."
Bastian groaned and nodded.
"Y-yes. So, while I was wondering what to do, the Empire made another offer."
"What kind of offer?"
Bastian swallowed hard and said,
"They said that if I killed Cali Draker on Captain Kidd's treasure island, they would pardon my sins and allow me to defect to the Empire."
Zeke's guess had been somewhat accurate.
"Are Peter Pan's merman pirates also here?"
"I-I haven't seen them directly, but I heard they were deployed. They attacked and wrecked Cali's ship."
"The merman pirates directly attacked the ship?"
"Yes, they did."
Zeke himself hadn't seen Pirate King Peter Pan directly in his previous life either.
He only knew the fact that Peter Pan had driven Cali to her death, taken over her territory of Jason, and then controlled the Central Sea.
Zeke asked Bastian,
"Bastian, have you ever met Peter Pan directly?"
Then, Bastian shook his head.
"I-I have seen him. Actually, when the Favela Cartel was transporting Soma, we contacted Peter Pan's side before the Syndicate."
"You tried to bring the merman pirates into the cartel and entrust them with transportation?"
"Y-yes. But... the merman refused the cartel's request."
"Hoo, so that happened. Knowing your personality, you wouldn't have just let that go."
Bastian said, sweating coldly,
"Actually, I led my men and raided their base... but we couldn't even get close."
"Why not?"
"A massive whirlpool was blocking the front of the island, making it impossible to approach."
"A massive whirlpool? Are you talking about the one we encountered when we came to this island?"
"It was smaller in scale than that, but similar. I heard that Peter Pan can wield ancient curses."
Hearing Bastian's words, Zeke pondered Peter Pan's abilities.
'Ancient curses, huh. So Peter Pan wasn't just a simple pirate.'
He probably wasn't a mage, so there was a possibility he had a special-grade bloodline ability like Six.
Zeke asked Bastian again,
"What were your orders?"
Bastian shuddered and said,
"They said that if the Empire sent orders in the form of a coded missive, I just had to follow those orders."
"Are you sure the Empire was the one who sent the missive?"
"W-well..."
Bastian rolled his eyes back and forth. Without hesitation, Zeke plunged Annexie's sword into Bastian's thigh.
Then, he used the Lightning Strike skill.
Pajijijijik!
"Krrrrrrk!"
Bastian felt as if every nerve in his body was burning, and he felt like he was going to die, but his body recovered again, preventing him from even dying.
Zeke asked Bastian again,
"Tell me straight. Was it really the Empire?"
"Ugh... S-Siemens. I'm connected to Siemens."
Zeke got the answer he wanted.
"Do you have any proof that you're connected to Siemens?"
"I-I stole information from those Empire intelligence bastards. If Cali Draker is dealt with here, the Empire will support Abel Draker..."
From the Empire's perspective, it seemed they judged that having the pro-Empire Abel as the head of the family would be more advantageous than Cali becoming the head.
'Governor Julius might be involved. He couldn't eliminate Karus, but since Karus is seeking refuge in Cali's territory, he must be a thorn in his side.'
Once Cali was eliminated, eliminating Karus would be an easy task.
It was then.
"Cough!"
Suddenly, Bastian coughed up blood and began to tremble violently.
Zeke grabbed Bastian and urgently used healing magic.
But it was no use.
Black fluid streamed from all seven orifices of his head.
Seeing Bastian's reaction, Zeke remembered something.
'The Abyss's geas?'
He didn't expect that even someone like Bastian, who wasn't a mage, would have such a geas placed on him.
Before he knew it, Bastian was dead, black fluid streaming from him.
Zeke gnashed his teeth at Siemens' meticulousness.
'He's eliminating all potential evidence with geasa.'
Zeke used the Authority of Decay to dispose of Bastian's body and the corpses of the dead pirates, and he absorbed the demon beasts with Gluttony to replenish his depleted mana and mental strength.
Then, he headed in the direction of the Empire's camp, which he had learned from Bastian.
'The fact that the Empire bastards have set up camp here means it's not just to trap Cali.'
Governor Julius's power was strong, but he didn't have the authority to move the Hounds.
Only the Emperor could command the Hounds.
And what the Emperor was interested in was only one thing.
'Ancient ruins for immortality. The Emperor thinks there are ancient ruins here too, so he sent the Hounds. He probably tricked them by saying Captain Kidd's treasure is ancient ruins.'
In fact, the treasure of the Sea God was hidden on this island.
Zeke didn't know how much the Empire knew about the Sea God's treasure, but he could infer that they had sent the Hounds to explore the ruins.
Following the direction Bastian had given him, he found a huge lava cave located in the center of the island.
Zeke discovered that the Empire's Hounds had established a base in front of the cave.
'Damn those Hounds. How did they even find out about this place?'
Zeke shook his head involuntarily and sent a ghost soldier to find a gap to infiltrate the base.
Just as the Hound unit he had encountered with Bastian had been accompanied by Fiends, Fiends stood guard like sentinels throughout the base.
'So, the research on Fiends has progressed to the point where they can be used in actual combat.'
It was when Zeke was looking for a gap in the base.
Suddenly, the base became noisy.
Peeeeeeeeek!
An alarm signal rang, and the Hounds moved busily.
"Intruder in Sector 14! Move quickly!"
Bastian had said that the Empire managed this island by dividing it into a total of 30 sectors. Zeke, who had roughly heard how it was divided, mentally pinpointed the sector.
'Sector 14... that's where Clone is.'
He had told her not to engage if possible, but he had expected that Clone's personality wouldn't allow her to just pass by. Sure enough, it seemed a battle had broken out.
As the Hounds dragged the Fiends out, a gap appeared in the base's defenses.
'Good.'
Taking advantage of the commotion, Zeke concealed his presence with Stealth and entered the base.
Zeke approached the lava cave, clung to the ceiling, and went inside.
Then, using the Mana Reflection skill, he neutralized all the surrounding alarm devices.
Keeeeeeng!
As Mana Reflection spread, the magic lamps illuminating the cave flickered.
The guards watching the cave sighed as they saw the flickering magic lamps.
"That thing's acting up again."
Then, another guard shook his head and said,
"Just leave it. It'll probably go back to normal."
In that instant, Zeke used the Authority Shadow Domination to subdue the shadows of the two guards.
The guards whose shadows were subdued froze in place.
Zeke quickly read the guards' memories.
'There's a way to go underground inside.'
Zeke released Shadow Domination and passed by the guards, entering the inner part of the cave.
There, he found the elevator that went underground, which he had seen in their memories.
Zeke grabbed the rope connected below and descended. It was connected to a deeper underground than he had thought.
Towards the ground that seemed quite far below, Zeke used Dragon Wings and glided down through the air.
Hoo-oong!
Just as he was about to touch the ground, Zeke's body floated up.
'Good thing I unlocked the skill. It's very useful.'
He could have achieved a similar effect by using the Wind Field, but for Zeke, it was still difficult to control the output when using the Elemental Sword, making it hard to use stealthily.
However, Dragon Wings allowed him to move his body freely in the air, making it very useful.
Zeke, having lightly descended underground using Dragon Wings, concealed himself and surveyed the surroundings.
The lava cave branched out in several directions, like a maze of an Inverted tower.
'It's not easy to find the way since the map isn't loading properly.'
Even sending ghost soldiers to scout the way had a distance limit.
After pondering, Zeke decided to try using the Authority Fortune.
It was to throw a dagger and go in the direction the tip pointed.
"Fortune, tell me where I need to go to find Cali."
He threw the dagger, but there was no sound of Fortune activating in the system window.
Zeke threw the dagger several more times.
Whoosh!
How many times had he thrown it? Finally, the message window appeared.
[Authority Fortune has been activated.]
However, the dagger Zeke threw didn't point in a direction but instead got stuck in one side of the ceiling. As a result, cracks appeared around it.
Jjeojeojeok!
In an instant, one side of the ceiling broke, and lava rocks rained down, creating a hole in the ceiling.
And then, a strange sound came from inside that hole.
'What is this sound?'
Sasasak!
A swarm of spiders began to pour out of the hole, turning it black.
'Damn it!'
They weren't as big as Giant Spiders, but these spiders, the size of a child's head, crawled out incessantly.
However, among the three-way intersection, the spiders went only towards the middle and right paths, leaving the left one untouched.
'Why aren't they going to the left?'
The fact that the spider monsters instinctively avoided a path meant there was something there.
Zeke chose the left path that the spiders weren't taking and moved forward.
The path in the lava cave continued longer than he had expected.
After walking for some time, Zeke realized that water was gradually filling the floor.
With a thought, he scooped up some water and tasted it.
'Salty. So seawater has pushed its way this far.'
He thought he knew why the spiders hadn't come this way.
As he went deeper, the seawater gradually rose.
Zeke pondered and once again reminded himself that this was the Isle of the Sea God.
'Perhaps there's a path further inside.'
Zeke drank the 'Breath of the Whale' potion and dove straight into the seawater.
Thanks to his Dragon Eyes, he could see clearly in the dark water.
The cave submerged in seawater continued deeper down.
Zeke swam straight ahead, going deep inside.
'Quite deep. It would be difficult for an ordinary person to reach this far.'
Just then, he felt something.
Whoosh!
Feeling like something was trying to stop him, Zeke looked around.
'What is it?'
He felt a strong hostility from an unknown entity. It was as if it was telling him not to come any closer.
Zeke hesitated for a moment but moved further forward. In that instant, something rose up in front of him.
Kugugugugu!
Zeke was startled by the being blocking his path.
'A golem? In the sea?'
