Chapter 1029
Chapter 1029
“Look over there!”
Lawaine stretched out an arm, pointing straight toward the coastline where all illumination had completely vanished.
“I can scarcely believe my eyes, but that dark stretch of coast is Belder!”
He bit down hard on his lower lip while staring at the port submerged in total blackness.
“Belder Harbor…”
Raon’s gaze hardened as he pulled himself up onto the vessel’s wooden rail.
‘Could it have been overrun already?’
The harbor of Belder was cloaked in a gloom far thicker than a night without a moon. Had Lawaine not called attention to it, they surely would have sailed right past without ever realizing a settlement existed there.
‘There isn’t a breath of mortal presence.’
Spreading out his senses through his aura, Raon failed to detect even the faintest pulse of vital energy across the whole area. It appeared every living inhabitant had met their end.
‘Yet the mana of the sea churns beneath the surface.’
In stark contrast to the absolute absence of living souls, a potent wave of mana saturated with the brine of the deep drifted across the entire anchorage. If he could only inspect that peculiar resonance closely, he might discern the true nature of the culprit.
“Stay with me.”
Signaling with a nod to the Light Wind Palace Swordsmen, Raon leaped from the railing of the Azure Wind straight into the water below.
“Understood!”
“Right behind you!”
With Burren at their front, the warriors of the Light Wind Palace followed suit without hesitation, vaulting off the deck. Emitting a resounding burst of force, Raon deployed his Supreme Harmony Steps to glide effortlessly across the rolling swell, setting foot upon the dead ground of Belder Harbor. The instant his boots touched the sodden soil, an unsettling frost crept straight along his spine.
‘Can this truly be Belder Harbor?’
Lawaine had earlier described Belder as a bustling port community numbering over three hundred souls, yet there was neither a living person in sight nor a single scrap of the domestic life they had once built.
Briny water swept past his feet. In truth, tides of seawater were inundating the streets and alleyways of the entire settlement. It seemed as though a colossal surge of waves had crashed through, carrying away everything the harbor possessed.
‘Has everyone genuinely perished?’
The faint optimism he had retained collapsed instantly. Despite having set sail the moment word reached them, they had plainly arrived far too late.
-There is no sign of life whatsoever.
Wrath gave his head a dismissive shake, similarly unable to perceive even a whisper of human presence.
-This feels as miserable as plunging into the freezing depths of an ocean trench.
His brow pulled into a tight frown, radiating sharp annoyance.
‘From where I stand, it resembles a city of corpses.’
The docks constructed for mooring vessels were wrecked beyond recognition, residences and structures were smashed into mounds of debris, and not a solitary lantern survived to pierce the gloom. Swallowed entirely by shadow, the port looked like an ancient realm that had crumbled into oblivion hundreds of years in the past.
“Good grief…”
“Is this honestly Belder Harbor?”
“Has everything been wiped out?”
The trailing Light Wind Palace Swordsmen gasped in dismay as they took in the devastated port and the azure currents washing back into the ocean.
“Did every single person really die…?”
Burren stared into the pitch-black ruins, letting out an incredulous breath.
“Not a thing remains, let alone the populace.”
Martha’s face twisted into an irritated scowl as she observed that not just mortals, but even stray dogs and common bugs were entirely absent.
“Look at this…”
Runaan lowered her hand to touch the water washing out toward the open sea, her expression growing somber.
“This is seawater. Extremely frigid.”
She affirmed with a nod that its temperature fell far lower than the open water they had just crossed.
“Hmm…”
Raon focused intently on the briny stream receding toward the open water.
‘It is freezing, precisely as Runaan noted, however…’
Intertwined with that bone-chilling cold was an extraordinarily heavy saturation of oceanic mana. A thick tide of mana smelling of salt drifted across the length and breadth of the harbor. While finding traces of marine mana was natural in a coastal port, this degree of concentration was drastically abnormal.
‘Wrath. Take note of this flow…’
Raon contacted Wrath within his mind while flicking away the droplets clinging to his hand.
‘Does it not strike you as identical to the beast’s power?’
The oceanic mana permeating the ruins bore an unmistakable resemblance to the energy exuded by the blue wolf they had met upon their arrival at these waters.
-It certainly does.
Wrath agreed with a nod as he cast his gaze over the ink-black water.
-In fact, calling it merely similar would be an understatement; they are virtually identical.
Wrath wrinkled his nose, remarking that despite a few microscopic variations, the momentum, scent, and energetic signature aligned precisely.
‘Could that beast truly be responsible for ravaging this harbor?’
Raon had deliberately avoided jumping to the conclusion that the blue wolf was the villain, yet witnessing the devastation of this town made it almost impossible to dismiss the suspicion.
‘Yet how did it execute such a thing?’
He could not fathom what kind of art could eradicate hundreds of people without leaving behind a single drop of blood or discarded trace.
‘Did it spare them execution and simply drag them beneath the waves?’
To verify his thought, he pushed his aura perception further out into the surrounding sea, yet he found only common marine creatures and sea monsters lurking below.
“This is terrifying…”
Dorian shivered from head to toe, visibly rattled by the prospect of standing in a settlement whose entire population had vanished into thin air.
“Pull yourself together! That beast turned tail and fled because it was petrified of our might!”
Krein waved his hands to project confidence, yet his own nerves betrayed him as his stride turned timid, creeping forward with hesitant steps.
“Everything of value has been washed into the ocean by the tide; finding any trail will be an uphill battle.”
Burren sighed deeply, remarking on the futility of searching for evidence.
“I suppose that’s standard for a seaside town. Even the broken timbers and stone look rotten through and through…”
Martha rubbed her hands together to dislodge the grit and grime, clicking her tongue in disgust.
“While it’s natural for salt and moisture to degrade coastal structures faster than normal…”
Stepping up beside Martha, Raon bent down to scrutinize the shattered framework she had been prodding.
“Natural weathering never rots the core of a structure this fast. This destruction happened recently.”
It was an undeniable truth that buildings facing the sea degraded much faster than those inland on account of the wind, salt, and moisture. Even so, it was practically unheard of for such decay to penetrate directly into the deepest heart of the materials overnight.
‘Could this mean…’
Raon slipped into a standing ruin to his right, inspecting the crumbling walls and ruined floorboards.
‘It bears the exact same marks here.’
The decay was not confined to the site Martha had inspected; countless other buildings and residential foundations were completely hollowed out by unnatural saline decay.
‘This proves ordinary waves did not just sweep over the town.’
Whether through arcane sorcery or dark arts, a deliberate and unnatural power had unquestionably been unleashed here.
‘I must scour the area for further traces… What’s this?’
Just as Raon gathered his senses to investigate further, a violent eruption of mana surged up from the ocean depths like a wildfire, pressing down on him with suffocating weight.
“What is that—?!”
Spinning around, he watched an immense surge of water rear up as though reaching toward the heavens, and within the churning crest, the visage of the blue wolf manifested once more.
‘How is this possible…?’
Raon’s fingers gave a sudden twitch as his gaze met the eyes of the azure beast.
‘Has it transformed again in such a brief window?’
The creature had expanded in stature, its reservoir of mana far more suffocating than before. Yet that was hardly the most alarming transformation.
‘The malice it exudes has darkened considerably.’
Where the blue wolf had previously resembled an entity balanced between a sacred spirit and a fell beast, the incarnation looming before him was far closer to a pure monster. Given the heavy stench of blood clinging to it, the beast seemed to be feeding upon human lives to cultivate its strength.
“The puppy…”
Runaan pressed her lips together, her stare fixed upon the azure predator.
“It appears as though it is weeping inside…”
Though a bitter, suffocating frost emanated from the creature, her heart went out to it.
“I… I cannot fathom what the wolf is thinking…”
Dorian wrung his shaking hands.
“Yet I sense an overwhelming grief from it.”
He scratched at his scalp in frustration, seemingly doubting his own intuition.
“Are you out of your mind?! That beast is glaring at us with unvarnished thirst for blood!”
Krein snapped back, shaking his head frantically while declaring that he could hardly bear to meet the creature’s gaze.
“Regardless of its feelings…”
Raon drew Heavenly Drive from its scabbard and took a resolute step toward the surf.
“We cannot permit it to roam unchecked.”
The moment he leaped toward the sea utilizing his Supreme Harmony Steps, the massive wolf dissolved into frothing foam and spraying mists, mimicking its escape from their first encounter.
-It runs away once again?
Wrath blinked in sheer astonishment, utterly baffled by its sudden retreat.
-What game is that four-legged beast playing at!
‘I am just as clueless as you.’
Raon grimaced as his eyes tracked the receding wake, which had taken on a distinct crimson tint compared to before.
‘Did it conclude it could not prevail against me? Or…’
Could it have been trying to convey a message?
Raon breathed out a long, weary sigh while perched upon the prow of the Azure Wind as it carved through the cerulean swell.
‘I expected to settle this affair without delay…’
Yet progress had hit a dead end. For ten consecutive days following the destruction of Belder Harbor, they had scoured every league of the surrounding coastline, yet the creature had never shown itself again, nor had any additional ports or hamlets been struck.
‘That hardly implies the crisis has passed.’
Both Lawaine and the members of the Light Wind Palace assumed the blue wolf had scattered out of sheer dread toward Raon. If that conjecture held water, the monster would simply strike the second they departed, leaving the core problem entirely unresolved.
-Indeed.
Wrath offered a calm nod of agreement.
-The second your back is turned, that hound will immediately resume its feast.
He sneered, clearly convinced that the beast had only retreated because it still lacked the strength to strike Raon down.
‘Let us review the facts we possess.’
Raon rested his back against the ship’s rail, staring up into the vast, cloudless expanse.
-What facts are there to review? Settlements set upon by that hound are left as barren wastelands, and the beast grows stronger the more mortals it devours. It is as plain as day.
Wrath waved his hand dismissively, treating the conclusion as self-evident.
-The deepening malice clinging to its soul is undeniable proof!
‘It may not be that straightforward.’
Raon shook his head with quiet composure.
‘None of us has directly witnessed the wolf laying waste to a village.’
While he too had initially suspected the beast after detecting its distinctive mana lingering in the ruins of Belder Harbor and watching it appear right behind them, the impressions shared by Runaan and Dorian—both blessed with sharp intuition even among the Light Wind Palace—combined with its refusal to engage in combat kept him from rushing to a final judgment.
-So you intend to release it unharmed once more?
Wrath clicked his tongue, mocking what he perceived as naive foolishness.
‘Hardly. While I will not execute it immediately, I will definitely corner it and force an exchange next time.’
Raon stated firmly that he would not let the creature flee again, though he promptly sighed.
‘Of course, that relies on the beast actually revealing itself… Hm?’
His aura perception, cast wide across the waters in search of the beast, caught the unmistakable signatures of numerous humans.
‘From the western waters?’
Shifting his focus toward the western horizon, four substantial sailing craft came into view. The sinister skull insignias emblazoned upon their fluttering canvas left no room for doubt: they were sea marauders.
“Hostiles! Pirate vessels advancing from the west!”
A heartbeat after Raon detected them, the lookout perched high on the mast lowered his spyglass, shouting at the top of his lungs to alert the crew.
“So they truly are pirates…”
Raon let out a brief breath.
“Those belong to the Kusar Pirates, the most formidable and savage cutthroats operating across these waves.”
Lawaine observed the four approaching pirate vessels, nodding grimly.
“They likely intended to plunder the harbor just past our position before stumbling directly across our path.”
Lawaine scowled, mentioning that these raiders had grown increasingly brazen, chipping away at their waters ever since Alice had been away. By all accounts, they were wretched scoundrels whose slaughter would draw no mourners.
“Then we shall give them the greeting they deserve.”
A chilling smirk touched Raon’s lips.
“Commence battle preparation—”
“There is no need for such formalities. We have plenty of hands over there who are practically clawing at the deck for a fight.”
Raon flicked Heavenly Drive, bisecting an incoming mana cannon shell fired by the Kusar Pirates, and gestured with his chin toward the enemy.
“Go ahead. Just ensure you capture their leader breathing.”
Aiming his blade at the approaching pirate vessels, Raon granted the Light Wind Palace permission to annihilate the opposition.
“By your command!”
With Vice Palace Master Burren taking the vanguard, the swordsmen of the Light Wind Palace bounded from the deck of the Azure Wind into the open sea. Striding across the crashing crests as though crossing stone pavement, they descended upon the marauders’ hulls.
‘This ought to serve as a decent exercise for them to accumulate combat experience and honors.’
Pirates were seasoned combatants bred for warfare upon the sea, and with several Master-level figures counted among them, Raon figured it would provide worthwhile practical training for the squad. Yet he had vastly underestimated his subordinates’ ferocity.
With an earth-shattering boom, Martha, who had grown thoroughly restless from ten straight days of idle sailing, cleaved an entire pirate vessel clean in two. Trevin reduced the second vessel to splintered ribbons as though treating it as a training post, while Runaan encased the third warship trailing behind in an instant tomb of solid ice.
“Wh-what in the world is happening…?”
The lone commander perched upon the remaining flagship could only gawk in sheer horror at the unbelievable display.
“Turn about! Flee at once!”
Yet the swordsmen who had not even managed to unsheathe their weapons leaped onto the deck of the final vessel like a pack of starving wolves, refusing to let their remaining quarry escape.
“Heh…”
Lawaine could only stare in a daze; while he knew the Light Wind Palace was formidable, he had never imagined they possessed such terrifying, lopsided might. Raon smacked his lips dryly as concussions and detonations shook the fourth vessel.
“It has become nearly impossible to provide these children with meaningful combat practice.”
He had presumed this pirate armada would offer a suitable challenge, yet his subordinates had ascended to a realm where such battles were entirely meaningless.
-Children?
Wrath pointed in sheer disbelief at the final pirate vessel, which had already begun to sink beneath the waves.
-How in the realm of hell can you call those monsters children! They are nothing more than rabid beasts!
Wrath shook his head violently, grumbling that the squad was looking more and more like a feral pack of mad hounds with every passing day.
“Here is your catch.”
Martha dropped a middle-aged man wearing an eye patch and a scarlet coat directly at Raon’s feet.
“He claims to be their leader.”
She scowled, openly disappointed by how frail he proved to be.
“Indeed. The whole thing was thoroughly dull…”
Runaan chimed in with a slight nod, lamenting the lack of entertainment.
“And that is precisely why I commanded you two to exercise restraint!”
Burren stomped his boot in frustration, protesting that the rest of the unit hadn’t even had the opportunity to swing their swords thanks to their haste. He seemed to be the solitary warrior who had actually understood Raon’s instructional intentions.
“State your name.”
Raon pressed his boot firmly against the one-eyed man’s shoulder, angling his chin downward.
“P-Paros. My name is Paros.”
The one-eyed veteran trembled uncontrollably, plainly terrified by the absurd power Martha and Runaan had demonstrated.
“What brought your filthy pack slinking into these waters?”
Raon pressed Heavenly Drive against Paros’s exposed throat, his tone icy.
“W-we never ventured south out of ambition…”
Paros gave his head a desperate shake, swallowing hard around the dry lump in his throat.
“Explain what you mean by that.”
“Ev-every harbor and coastal settlement within our domain has been wiped from the map. We had to find bread to keep from starving, so we were left with no alternative…”
Wringing his hands in pleading desperation, Paros explained that because the settlements and coastal outposts under their protection had all been reduced to ash, they had drifted here to claim territory left unattended after the Pirate King disappeared.
“Don’t tell me…”
Raon’s brow furrowed tightly as he scrutinized the pirate leader.
“Was your realm devastated in the exact same fashion? Without a single survivor remaining?”
“Precisely! Four maritime towns under our watch were wiped out entirely! Not a single person lived to tell of it, and every building was reduced to rotting rubble…”
Paros bobbed his head in frantic confirmation, lamenting their complete ruin.
‘It matches perfectly.’
Raon shared a meaningful glance with Lawaine as he processed the captive’s testimony. What Paros had witnessed mirrored the fate of Belder Harbor to the letter.
“Did you happen to catch sight of an azure wolf as well?”
Raon narrowed his gaze, searching Paros’s face for answers.
“I-I saw it! It showed up right after that craft sailed past and left the town in ruins!”
Paros gave a frantic nod, swearing he had laid eyes on the scene himself.
“I see… Wait, what?”
Raon’s eyes snapped wide as he stared down at the trembling pirate.
“After a craft sailed past? You are telling me the wolf was not the one razing the towns?”
“Pardon? Of course not! The wolf only manifests once the destruction is already finished! The entity that actually obliterates the ports is…”
Paros shivered violently, visibly shaken to his core by the mere memory of the vessel.
“The… the Ghost Ship.”
Comments for chapter "Chapter 1029"
MANGA DISCUSSION
Madara Info
Madara stands as a beacon for those desiring to craft a captivating online comic and manga reading platform on WordPress
For custom work request, please send email to wpstylish(at)gmail(dot)com