Chapter 140
Chapter 140. The Serpent of Paranoid Delusion
“So, that’s what’s been happening all this time?”
“Yes.”
Yul listened to everything from Lucian’s perspective—the uneasy atmosphere aboard the ship, the navigators filled with discontent, people disappearing one by one, and the moment when black mist began to rise from the ship.
While washing off the ink that had stained his clothes, he was startled by the sounds of a mutiny outside and grabbed his weapon—but when he stepped out, there was no one there.
Or rather, Lucian was the only one left on the ship.
“I think I get the gist of it.”
It reminded him of a scene from an old Sci-Fi movie—people existing in the same space but unable to perceive each other, mistakenly believing they were in different places.
The Strellock was in a similar state. The black mist consisted of multiple layers. The mist distorted time and space, separating people into different phases. It wasn’t for nothing that he felt it was similar to Dragon Land.
Some were alone, some were in groups of four, some in groups of ten….
‘The mist has the power to amplify human emotions.’
Greed and suspicion were both being intensely amplified.
“Take this.”
Yul handed over the Infinite-Series Dimensional Perceiver that had been strapped to his waist.
“What is this?”
“It lets you see through spatial distortions and keeps you from being affected by them.”
“What about you?”
“I’ve awakened a new Demon Eye.”
The moment Yul equipped the Infinite-Series Dimensional Perceiver and came into contact with the black mist, he immediately awakened the Demon Eye of Distortion.
That was how he tore through the mist’s power and reached Lucian without delay.
“From here on, we’re going to find the crew.”
At first, the black mist had no power. But as suspicion and greed took root, it found its strength.
So they would erase it step by step and track down the source of the enemy.
“We’re moving to the next layer. Let’s find the navigators who started the mutiny first.”
At Yul’s words, Lucian checked the weapons mounted on his gauntlets. With the ship engulfed in black mist, neither the vessel nor the Rune Frame could be controlled—only a few artifacts attached to his gauntlets were still usable.
“I’m ready.”
Yul stretched out his hand. Part of the mist tore apart, and as if space itself had been sliced open, another dimension revealed itself.
This place was darker, more saturated in color.
The moment they stepped in, Yul and Lucian heard shouts echoing from somewhere.
“UAAAAAAAH!”
“GRAAAAAH!”
“DIE!!!”
“Khk, urgh.”
“You bastards!!”
There, they found men divided into factions, fighting each other.
“Corman! Get a grip!”
“How dare a second mate speak to me like that, you bastard!”
Cowin and Corman had drawn their swords and were clashing.
“So what happened to those sailors who wanted more gold? They clung to a helm that wouldn’t even work, stabbed each other, and thinned their own numbers!”
“That’s even better! Fewer people to share the gold with!”
“Bullshit!”
The third mate, Coren, was lying in the distance, coughing up blood with his body pierced through. It looked like he had been struck from behind and was on the verge of death.
As Yul and Lucian tore through the darkness and appeared, Yul felt the need to intervene.
“You guys are doing a great job!”
He raised his UV Thermal Gun and fired straight into the sky.
Even with the output lowered, the massive beam of light shooting upward made the navigators freeze in place.
Lucian stepped forward, aiming his gauntlet at them and shouting,
“Drop your weapons!”
Cowin immediately threw his sword to the ground. But Corman still held onto his.
His face was covered in wounds, and blood splattered across it as if he had already stabbed several people.
“Corman! Who was it that said they wouldn’t forget my kindness?”
“……”
“Was that talk about surviving at sea through loyalty alone a lie?”
“……”
“Stop before you do something you’ll regret!”
Clang.
Corman dropped his sword. He collapsed to the ground as if his senses had suddenly returned.
“W-what have I done……”
Yul approached the fallen Coren, pulled out the sword lodged in his abdomen, and used a portion of his faith to seal the wound.
Navigators were high-value personnel, not easily replaced. He treated Coren first over the others.
“Captain……”
“You’re under some kind of spell. I’ll overlook what happened today, so don’t worry—”
Lucian, who had been approaching Corman, suddenly stopped.
Corman’s eyes had turned pitch black.
“Who are you?”
“You should have come a little closer. What a shame.”
The ‘something’ possessing Corman licked its lips and stared at Lucian.
“You must be the source of their trust. How did you escape the deepest darkness?”
“If you release Corman and leave this ship now, I might let you live. Get lost.”
“And why should I?”
A black mist began to spread from Corman’s body.
“You humans are truly amusing. To wield the power of greed so well.”
The black mist touched Lucian’s body. He felt a strange sensation, but there was no real change. It was likely thanks to the Infinite-Series Dimensional Perceiver at his waist.
“What is that equipment? It seems to be resisting my power.”
Realizing it was already too late, Lucian raised his hand and fired a magic bullet.
The shot struck Corman square in the forehead and pierced through. His body went limp and collapsed to the ground.
The first navigator of the Strellock was dead.
“Yul, let’s move to the next one.”
“……Alright.”
Yul used the Demon Eye of Distortion to open the next layer.
From then on, it became a repetition of rescuing crew members and pushing back the new darkness.
Within this darkness, the sailors became extremely faithful to their desires.
Some stabbed each other to obtain something, while others manifested bizarre urges.
In any case, Lucian and Yul continued forward, rescuing them one by one, then in groups, then in larger numbers.
The darkness gradually began to thin. Those who were rescued saw the other crew members appearing alongside Lucian and regained a sense of ‘trust,’ awakening to what they had been doing and falling into regret.
“Thankfully, many of them are relatively stable.”
“I selected people with high stress thresholds.”
Thanks to the basic criteria Yul had used when choosing the crew, they were unstable but not completely insane.
Perhaps the fact that Yul found them quickly had also helped.
“The darkness is about to lift. We’ll soon return to the final phase—reality.”
Lucian had rescued more than half of the crew.
And together with them, they stepped out into the world beyond the darkness.
The moment they emerged—
They saw it.
A gigantic black serpent is coiling around the ship.
It was unlike an ordinary sea serpent. Its body was wide like a cobra’s hood, and a horn resembling lightning grew from its forehead.
The serpent coiled around the Strellock, looking down loftily at those who had emerged onto the deck.
And in its tail, it held the Divine Light Spire.
“Huh? What are you doing?”
-Hehehe. You idiot! Leaving something like this on the deck and just walking away.
The Divine Light Spire, glowing with light, was clutched in the creature’s tail. Yul let out a laugh in disbelief.
“Are you actually stupid?”
-Even if you can break through my mist, what do you think will happen if this weapon hits you?
“Go ahead and try.”
From the serpent’s massive body, the Divine Light Spire swung down.
The anchor, held at the tip of its tail, came flying toward Yul to crush him—and then stopped midair instantly.
-W-what?
“That weapon belongs to me.”
A weapon bound to Yul at the level of his soul could not harm him.
Yul extended his hand, imagining himself gripping the Divine Light Spire, and then swung it again.
Responding to his will, the Divine Light Spire rose naturally into the air and smashed straight into the serpent’s head that had been holding it.
Clang!
The anchor struck its head precisely, producing a metallic crash.
With telekinesis, Yul grabbed the sea serpent, its skull caved in as it fell toward the ocean.
“Weaker than I expected. Where are you from? The Outer Ocean?”
-Th-that’s right. I am the king of those who worship the totem……
“King, my ass.”
Yul examined the sea serpent closely. This creature’s ability was to use that black mist to plant paranoid delusions.
And that ability seemed to evolve into spatial isolation, feeding on the souls of those who died within those isolated spaces.
“From the looks of it, you were probably driven out even from the Outer Ocean.”
He raised the UV Thermal Gun and aimed it at the serpent’s head. One shot would be enough.
-W-Wait a minute. Let’s make a deal. Spare me!
“What?”
-I’ll give you treasure! Better treasures than that golden ship you found are sleeping in my warehouse!
“Besides that? Is there nothing else?”
-I-I’ll become your slave!
Yul turned his head and looked at Lucian.
“What do you think? I can finish it off. Or we could capture it and use it as a slave.”
“When it possessed Corman, I clearly gave it an ultimatum. But it refused.”
-W-wait.
“Then die.”
Ziiiiing.
A beam of light burst from the UV Thermal Gun and pierced straight through the sea serpent’s head. Its enormous body went limp and collapsed.
“It had a strange ability, but the main body was weaker than I expected.”
Perhaps it was precisely because its body was weak that it relied on amplifying suspicion among others in that way.
“I’ll take care of the dead. You can do whatever you want with the serpent’s corpse.”
“Alright.”
With a grim expression, Lucian began gathering the dead. From the First Mate onward, nearly half the crew had been lost.
Yul first helped treat the injured alongside Lucian.
After things were brought under control to some extent, Yul approached the corpse of the dead sea serpent.
Inside its body, he discovered a massive magic stone.
“Huh.”
He pulled the enormous magic stone out from the serpent’s thick body.
It was about 3 meters in size, with a matching spherical volume.
“That’s an enormous magic stone.”
Lucian said as he approached. Despite his poor condition, as a magic engineer, he couldn’t help but be drawn to something like that.
“Want it?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’d like to install an engine beneath the ship. If we design it with greater thrust than now, we won’t get caught by monsters like that again.”
“You said the root of the problem was that gold-filled ship, didn’t you?”
“I plan to persuade them again.”
Lucian spoke while looking at the fallen serpent’s corpse.
“Corman could have endured it. At least until that serpent used its wicked magic.”
“As for the gold, we could deal with it right here.”
“Pardon?”
“I can just transport it as it is and transfer it directly into an account in Frangia.”
“An instant deposit?”
“At the very least, the crew won’t start a mutiny.”
Lucian was taken aback by the unexpected solution. He nodded.
“That sounds good. I’ll gather the crew and explain the distribution of the gold.”
Even if the gold issue was resolved, there were still many problems left. For one, the reduced number of crew would make operating the ship difficult.
“Lucian, about replenishing the crew—we can handle that here.”
Beyond the place where Yul’s main body had been sealed, their next destination was the Archipelago Ocean. And along that route lay the Island of Boundaries.