"Faster! Faster!"
"Hard to port—no, starboard! Full starboard!"
"Fire! Open fire already! What are you standing there for? Do you want to die?!"
The pirates of the Krieg Pirates had completely fallen apart.
They shouted, screamed, cursed, and stumbled over one another in panic. Some of the more cowardly ones were so terrified they were on the verge of pissing themselves.
That wasn't an exaggeration.
The figure within that towering wave—
had become the entire Krieg fleet's nightmare.
He had smashed through five of their ships with overwhelming force and slaughtered nearly two hundred pirates with brutal efficiency.
All it took was one swing of that strange demonic blade in his hand—
and someone died.
There was no resisting it.
Yes, the Krieg Pirates had been the ones to provoke that man first.
But in their minds, the blood of two hundred pirates should have been enough to cool his anger.
Clearly, they had been wrong.
That figure…
was still chasing them.
He had no intention of letting them go.
He meant to wipe out the Krieg Pirates to the last man and bury them all beneath this sea.
"Are the cannons ready yet?!" Don Krieg roared through clenched teeth.
A terrible chill climbed up his spine and shot straight into his skull. His entire body was trembling.
The figure in the wave was getting closer.
And now Krieg could see his face clearly.
Sun-bronzed skin.
A body built with hard, controlled muscle—not oversized, just solid.
Sharp, handsome features.
Black hair whipping in the wind.
But what truly filled Krieg with dread—
was his eyes.
They were blood-red, like a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood had been crammed into them.
"Can a human being even have eyes like that…?"
Krieg's teeth chattered uncontrollably as fear took root in his heart.
"Boss Krieg! The cannons are ready!!"
The gunner's howl rang out like salvation.
It yanked Krieg out of his terror. A trace of joy had just begun to rise on his face—
when it froze.
Within the giant wave, Kairos D. Vale blurred into motion and shot forward.
Boom!
The small pirate ship closest to the wave shuddered violently.
Kairos flashed through the air and swept his blade in a circular slash.
The Magic Blade Thousand Blades—
erupted.
Shhhk—
A radiant arc of blade-light flashed through the air, brilliant and deadly. Under the sunlight, it carved out a breathtaking curve, like the Milky Way descending to earth.
For an instant—
time itself seemed to stop.
Krieg's eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the scene before him.
He had already seen this happen five times today.
This was the sixth.
He knew exactly what came next.
Yet he couldn't even summon anger anymore.
At this moment, the only thing left inside him—
was boundless fear.
Silence.
The entire Krieg fleet fell into dead silence.
Every pirate aboard that ship had their mouth open in a soundless scream.
Crk…
At last, a harsh creaking sound rose from deep within the hull.
A crack appeared across the middle of the ship.
Clean.
Sharp.
Just like the mountain bandit Higuma when he had been cut in two.
Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.
And it wasn't only the ship.
The pirates on board gave off dull, muffled sounds from within their own bodies.
From the moment that slash was unleashed, none of them moved again.
Not because they had been frightened senseless.
But because—
the instant that blade-light flashed, every pirate aboard the ship had gained a tiny red line across their body.
Their lives had all been severed.
Not one survived.
Crimson flowers of blood blossomed open, one after another, grotesquely beautiful.
Boom!!
The ship split apart and sank into the sea.
The men died and dissolved into blood.
In one second—
in a single instant—
one pirate ship and thirty-six pirates were buried forever beneath the ocean.
Splintered planks rained down through the air. Severed limbs and blood stained the sea red, creating a scene horrifying beyond words.
"Run! Run, damn it!!"
Krieg finally snapped out of it.
He no longer cared about firing the cannons. He scrambled away from the railing on all fours, face twisted with fear and rage. He shouted hysterically, drool spilling from his mouth like a madman.
Rumble…
He didn't even need to order them anymore.
The pirates, scared out of their wits, had already pushed the ships to their limit. The well-built vessels groaned under the strain, as if crying out from the overload.
Krieg dropped to the deck and clutched his head, burying his face between his knees.
He trembled uncontrollably, beads of cold sweat rolling down his face and soaking the planks beneath him.
He was afraid.
Truly afraid.
He had no idea how much time passed.
But when Krieg finally gathered the courage to lift his head and look back—
the sea behind him was nothing but blue.
There wasn't a single trace of blood.
Nor was there any sign of the grim reaper who had been hunting him.
…Did I survive?
Krieg stared blankly into the distance.
He was genuinely stunned.
There was no relief in his eyes.
Only numb confusion.
…
Elsewhere—
Kairos swam back toward his little boat.
A fish leapt from the water and landed neatly inside it.
He rubbed at his temples.
His head hurt badly, like a needle was drilling into his brain.
And beyond the pain, a deep exhaustion pressed down over him.
Kairos knew the feeling well.
He had experienced it many times while training Qi Control.
This was the sign of overusing his mental energy.
"My training still isn't enough."
He took a deep breath and shook his head, trying to drive away the lingering discomfort in his mind.
There was no way his small wooden boat could match the speed of Krieg's pirate ships under normal conditions.
So he had wrapped the boat in Qi and made it skim across the surface of the sea.
That was much easier than trying to make it fly outright, but the pursuit had gone on for far too long—most of the day, in fact.
That was why his mental force had been drained so heavily.
Thinking back to earlier that day—
Kairos had been drifting across the sea, still debating where to head next, when he happened to run into the Krieg Pirates.
To Krieg's credit, the man had been perfectly true to form.
Acting like everyone who blocked his way deserved death, he had opened fire on Kairos without hesitation.
Since they had provoked him first—
and since Krieg himself was also a potential source of new cards—
Kairos had no reason to let him go.
That was what led to the massacre just now.
It was only because traveling by small boat was so inconvenient that Krieg had escaped with his life.
"Still, it wasn't a complete waste."
A thoughtful glint appeared in Kairos' eyes.
The Magic Blade Thousand Blades was still in his hand.
Which meant the Assassin Wu Liuqi Card hadn't expired yet.
But it had already been active for nearly half a day.
That gave Kairos a much better idea of how long a card's duration could last.
Of course, he still couldn't be certain whether every card lasted that long.
He let the thought go.
The pain in his head had almost faded now.
Kairos lifted his gaze and looked in the direction Krieg had fled.
"Krieg… how could I possibly let you off?"
Blue light rose once more from the Magic Blade Thousand Blades in his hand.
And his cold voice drifted slowly across the sea.
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