Still dripping with milk, Ebner stood frozen for half a heartbeat. The cold, sticky liquid trailed down his cheeks, his chin, and even the collar of his shirt. For a moment, he could only blink in confusion. Then, with a simple activation of Insight, he understood the entire ludicrous situation in an instant—and felt a helpless mixture of amusement and exasperation rise within him.
He lowered his head and surveyed the Future below. The warship—normally elegant, mysterious, and even beautiful in its dreamlike craftsmanship—had become completely unrecognizable. Its entire deck, masts, railings, and even rigging were overrun with mushrooms of every imaginable shape: bulging spheres, trembling stalks, translucent sacs, and pulsating, veined growths that looked disturbingly alive. Under the glare of the sun, they kept bursting open with wet little pops, spraying milky juice everywhere in chaotic arcs.
Admiral of Stars Cattleya and the pirates around her were drenched in that white slime, from head to boots. It clung thickly to clothing and skin alike, leaving them looking as though they had survived an explosion in a dairy barn.
But Cattleya had no time to worry about her image. Her expression remained stern as she channeled power through her link with the Future, resisting with all her might as the mushrooms attempted to reshape and assimilate the ship's hull.
As a fellow tarot member, Ebner of course would not stand by and watch. He reached casually into his pocket and plucked out the miniature scepter that Lilith had re-created and carefully sealed.
A sudden mischievous urge welled up in him. On impulse, he flicked the tiny scepter into the air and chanted with theatrical flair:
"Scepter Beast—Ultimate Evolution!"
Simultaneously, he simulated the Songster's ability, providing spirited background music—as though announcing the evolution of a heroic battle pet.
On the Future, Cattleya—already at her wit's end—heard music drifting from above. Alarmed, she raised her head sharply… and nearly forgot to breathe.
From the floating scepter emerged a palm-sized woman: a radiant red rose blooming atop her head, a tight crimson bodysuit clinging to her lithe figure, and a small, teasing smile playing at the corners of her lips. She struck a sultry, perfectly practiced pose as she hovered in the air.
This fairy-like being was Lilith's creation: the "Rose Beast."
Because her essence drew from the extraordinary characteristic of the Desolate Matriarch, the moment she completed her pose she invoked the authority of Desolation. A silent wave spread outward like an unseen tide. Every mushroom on the ship—no matter how violently it had been pulsing a second prior—instantly shriveled, collapsed, and disintegrated into drifting grey dust within mere seconds.
Cattleya finally exhaled long and deeply. Relief loosened the tightness in her shoulders. She cast a wary look at the palm-sized fairy, whose power was clearly far beyond harmless, and then shifted her focus to the man who had appeared above her ship.
"Was that Mr. Tower's doing? And he arrived this quickly… Such a shame the Death Announcer always avoids demigods—and that little fairy just had to reveal her true strength…"
As she turned her eyes toward the horizon, she saw the massive vessel—the Death Announcer—tilt sharply and flee at full speed. Within one or two seconds, its colossal form vanished completely into the distance.
Cattleya could only sigh helplessly.
She was preparing to ascend and thank Mr. Tower personally, but the moment she looked up, he gave her a polite, elegant smile—and vanished from sight.
He probably went after the Death Announcer… Cattleya concluded quickly, regaining her captain's composure. She turned around, intending to reprimand Frank Lee for his catastrophic failure.
Yet the instant she pivoted, she found Frank staring intensely at the tiny red-clad fairy, eyes gleaming with sudden revelation.
"I get it!" he exclaimed.
Cattleya blinked in confusion. "…You get what?"
Frank practically vibrated with excitement, all misery from earlier forgotten:
"I finally understand why I couldn't solve those problems before!
"It's because the creations I'm aiming for are already beyond the limits of a Biologist!
"So, Captain—
"I'm done being a Biologist.
"I'm becoming a Druid!'"
For a brief moment, Cattleya's thoughts went blank. Even the lecture she had prepared slipped from her mind. After a long pause, she managed to respond slowly:
"…I have a way to obtain a Druid characteristic. Do you want it?"
"Huh? Of course!" Frank brightened instantly. "Thank you, Captain! Once I become a Druid, I'll finally understand those mushrooms thoroughly, and they'll never spread uncontrollably like this again!"
…I am starting to regret saying that…
The thought surfaced in Cattleya's mind before she could stop it. She drew in a deep breath and assumed her commanding posture again:
"But before anything else, you are cleaning the Future from top to bottom."
…
Aboard the Death Announcer, the Undying King Agalito obeyed his "Lord's" command to abandon the chase without hesitation. Even though he had sensed no danger near the Future.
Centuries of survival told him plainly: his Lord was always correct. If an order to retreat came, then danger lurked where he could not perceive it.
He prayed instinctively for guidance—but received no reply.
That did not surprise him. Like most deities, his Lord rarely answered ordinary prayers.
What he did not know was that his Lord was currently facing a crisis of His own and had no time to spare for him.
Deep within the Death Announcer, in a hidden chamber concealed in the lower decks—the very heart of the ship—
Ebner stood calmly, one hand resting lightly on a peach-shaped, blood-soaked "heart" that pulsed faintly beneath his palm. He smiled and said softly:
"'Death Announcer'? No… perhaps I should address you more appropriately—
You, the subordinate god of the Mutated King Kvastir:
The great God of War, Lord Gonter."
Yes—long before his playful background music began, Ebner had already slipped aboard the Death Announcer, fully aware of its tendencies.
The version of himself left floating above the Future had been nothing more than a phantom created through secret arts—capable of providing BGM and hovering, but no more.
His true body, concealed by Evans' Secret Barrier and guided by Insight, had infiltrated directly into the ship's core.
The Death Announcer had initially tried to summon its crew to resist him. But Ebner answered by activating the Pure White Eye, releasing the terrifying might of the Sun, and then freeing Richelieu—the former High Priest of the Church of the Eternal Sun—from the Magic Mirror.
That overwhelming power made the ship freeze instantly. Even dulled as its intelligence had become since transforming into a vessel, caution was deeply ingrained in its nature.
Once it was subdued, Ebner wasted no time. He plunged into a deep Insight and soon uncovered its origins.
It truly was Gonter, the God of War—one of the subordinate gods under the Mutated King Kvastir.
After Kvastir perished together with Lilith, Gonter was slain soon after. His soul, warped into a vengeful wraith, had eventually fallen into the hands of the God of Fortune.
At that time, the God of Fortune was attempting to verify an inspiration gained from the Box of the Gods, and thus brought Gonter into the Abyss for the very first "Soul Stone Reincarnation" experiment—
the same ritual Klein had once divined: a towering, handsome, three-meter-tall man transforming a soul into an "egg."
"So you really are Gonter, the God of War… An Angel-level soul—that explains why the Death Announcer is so unusual…
"And I recall Denet's memory—Tolzna once mentioned that Gonter had been recklessly impulsive as an Angel, charging headlong without ever planning…
"Yet now you're so cautious.
Could it be that the trauma of your fall was too deep—
And overwhelming regret twisted your original nature?"
(End of chapter)