"Who… are you?"
The voice of Death Announcer's "heart"—the twisted remnant of the former God of War Gunt—resounded directly within Ebner's mind. It did not echo; it vibrated, as though scraping across the inside of his consciousness.
The tone was impossible to describe with a single word.
At one moment it rasped with a hoarse dryness like sand across metal, the next it spiraled into overlapping noises like a dozen whispering mouths. Then it slipped into incoherent muttering, almost like fevered sleep-talk, only to abruptly bloom into something disturbingly melodious, like a warped hymn sung underwater…
And woven into that unstable voice came a flood of emotional impulses—desires, cravings, compulsions, irrational urges—all forcibly thrust at Ebner's mind.
But they never touched him.
Every intrusive whisper shattered cleanly against the immaculate barrier of the Pure White Eye.
He smiled faintly.
"So even after becoming so 'cautious', you still can't help being naughty."
At that moment, Death Announcer realised that none of its power could penetrate the young intruder's spirit. Worse—deep in that spirit, it sensed something terrifying. As though the blazing, sun-like protection around Ebner's eyes was not shielding the young man… but shielding it from the young man.
Its voice trembled.
"Who exactly are you?"
Ebner withdrew his right hand from the deformed, pulsating "heart", took out a handkerchief, and wiped his palm clean with slow, deliberate motions. Then, lifting his gaze, he spoke lightly—yet with unmistakable weight:
"Who am I? Heh… You really thought that by clinging to the Mother Tree of Desire, you could shake off the preparations I left behind in the past?"
The heart lurched violently.
The entire ship shook with it.
On the deck above, King of Immortality Agalito and the pirates staggered; several nearly fell over. Thinking the ship was under attack, they scrambled into defensive positions—only to discover it was nothing but a tremor.
Then, from the heart, came a furious snarl:
"Oliver Constantine?!"
The hatred in that name was so dense it felt like poison.
Ebner blinked, genuinely surprised.
Why does this thing hate that identity so much?
Did Yaloran's intelligence miss something? Was the God of War not killed elsewhere, his wraith drifting into the hands of the God of Luck… but instead slain by "me" back then?
He paused.
Mm… The God of War should have held ancient Hunter-pathway characteristics… a subservient deity of that archaic system. Wait—Yaloran once said I had laid out the Calamity Seal experiment ages in advance, even helping the Sauron Family's ancestor ascend to Sequence 1 "Conqueror"…
Could it be… the Conqueror characteristic that became the Calamity Seal originally came from the predecessor of Death Announcer?
If that was true, Gunt's fate could only be described as miserable:
Killed by Ebner,
His wraith turned into a research subject,
Even his split-off characteristic used and schemed over for long-term layouts…
Used to the absolute limit. No wonder the hatred runs deeper than that of the "Glorious One" who ambushed me inside Groselle's Travels…
But why didn't I perceive this just now? Mother Tree interference? Or something else buried even deeper?
As dozens of thoughts flashed across his mind, Ebner ignored the heart's increasingly violent emotional fluctuations. Instead, he separated a Wisdom Eye and sent it stepping into the Land of the Unknown. There, he located a corresponding shadowy "spot" related to this wraith and gently tapped it.
Instantly, the heart went still.
No matter how it struggled, no matter how it scraped and clawed inside that warped spiritual realm, it could no longer gather the force of emotion.
—Because the moment Ebner's palm touched the heart earlier, he had perceived the hidden trick the God of Luck once left behind. With casual decisiveness, he activated it, reattaching the God of War's wraith to the Unknown.
Ebner sneered softly.
"Seems the Mother Tree of Desire didn't value you very highly."
Indeed, the fragment of its power hidden within the ship wasn't even as strong as the faint contamination found in Sharon. Before the Unknown, it disintegrated instantly.
From this point onward, Death Announcer could no longer reply.
It had not been fully devoured by the Unknown—its angelic essence prevented complete dissolution—but it had lost all control over its "body" and subordinates.
It could only watch—horrified, furious, powerless—
as the one it hated most issued an order in its name:
An order commanding King of Immortality Agalito
and all pirates aboard
to slaughter one another.
…
On the Future, Cattleya had just finished ordering the deck to be scrubbed clean. She hadn't yet had time to wash herself, change her sticky clothes, or even wipe off all the mushroom slime clinging to her hair.
Then she saw Mr Tower descend from the sky, the fairy-like creature perched lightly beside him.
Ebner maintained his "Professor" disguise. Letting Cattleya recognise him as Ebner was out of the question—especially since, in her understanding, he had still been an ordinary man only a year ago.
Bernadette knew that Tower was Ebner. But because this involved the Calamity Seal, the Queen would never casually reveal such information to the "Admiral of Stars".
As the two prepared to land, Cattleya dismissed the lingering crew on deck, then stepped forward with solemn gratitude:
"Mr Tower, thank you for allowing this… young lady to act. She saved me from a tremendous disaster by removing those mushrooms."
Ebner's expression stiffened with embarrassment.
After returning, he had already perceived precisely what had occurred here. In truth, his visit now was not to receive thanks—but to apologise, with "Rose" in tow.
—Because the sceptre's final evolved form resembled Rosemon from Digimon, and because Ebner was hopeless at naming things, he had simply started calling her Rose.
"In fact," Ebner sighed, "I brought this child—Rose—to apologise to you. She has quite a sweet tooth, and earlier she accidentally… 'influenced' some of your words and actions."
As he spoke, he pinched Rose lightly.
The fairy immediately retracted her influence over the Admiral of Stars.
Cattleya froze blankly for a second. Then, as she met Rose's moist, sparkling eyes, a sudden realisation cascaded over her.
Right. Am I insane?
Frank caused such a massive incident, and I immediately wanted to buy him a Druid characteristic?!
Even if I planned to buy it eventually, I should have punished him first—made him understand the danger. Agreeing right away? That's basically encouraging him to make the Future spray milk again!
So… the decision she'd just made—
had been this tiny fairy's doing?
Her gaze toward Rose became stiff with alarm and wariness.
Seeing this shift, Ebner coughed lightly and added:
"This child enjoys drinking the milk that Frank produces… so she wanted him to advance further."
"In any case, I apologise for her mischief. And I am willing to compensate you."
He reached into a card and unsealed its contents, handing something over—
A human head.
Cattleya caught it instinctively.
Only after a second did she register what she was holding. She opened her mouth, stunned. If not for her years as a pirate hardening her nerves, the old, courtly version of herself would have screamed on the spot.
But she had no time to dwell on the grotesqueness.
Because she immediately recognised the face.
"King of Immortality Agalito?
"You killed him?!"
Writing late—this is all for now.
(End of chapter)