Chương 188: After the War

"This place prohibits ghosts and undead!"

The undead that was charging forward like a tide suddenly froze, and then they were blown up by an invisible majestic force and vanished in the blink of an eye as another voice echoed on the sea.

When the Pritz arrived on the battlefield, the situation on the Marines' side, which could only be passively beaten, quickly changed.

The sailors on the battleship where the Ocean Songster was stationed were no longer shivering in terror due to the undead's aura. Instead, they started loading shells and launching counterattacks.

In an instant, dozens of cannons on the left side of the warship roared.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Cannonballs flew out and landed around the Black Tulip, creating huge waves on the sea. The mist that was stirred up covered a large area.

However, the strange thing was that the intense bombardment failed to hit the Black Tulip. Some of the shrapnel brushed past the ship, but they seemed to have touched a projection and passed through it!

Seeing this scene, a lady standing on the Pritz frowned. She extended her right hand and pressed down again.

"The mystery of this place has weakened, and reality has strengthened!"

Just as she finished her sentence, a thick black fog suddenly rose from the surface of the Black Tulip, as though it was resisting some invisible force.

However, this resistance reduced the mystery of Specter Ship. Immediately, it was hit by several cannonballs, sending the skeletons controlling the ship flying.

At the same time, the Pritz finally entered the battle. The two main cannons on the deck in front of them were the first to take action. Almost instantly, two large holes were torn open on the Black Tulip.

The main gun of the Pritz was a 305mm heavy cannon. Fortunately, the "Black Tulip" was also a giant ship, and it still had some mysterious protection. Otherwise, those two shots would have blown off half of the ship's bow.

However, the military was obviously not satisfied with the current results. The other six rapid-fire cannons on the Pritz, twelve six-pound cannons, eighteen six-barrel machine guns, and four torpedo launchers fired at the same time. Dozens of shells and torpedoes immediately exploded on the Black Tulip, causing the Specter Ship, which had been sailing across the Five Seas for countless years, to flare up and show signs of breaking.

Admiral Hell Ludwell's masked face couldn't be seen, but he knew that he had reached the most dangerous moment. Furthermore, he hadn't received any response from the bronze door in his body to the Numinous Episcopate…

He had to make a decision!

Seeing that the second round of attack from the Pritz was about to descend once again, Ludwell looked at the Black Tulip beneath his feet with some reluctance. He thought to himself, Thankfully, only the Black Tulip came alone because of the pursuit of the Future… Furthermore, the first and second mate are scattered across the various fleets. Even if I lose my flagship this time, as long as I don't return to the Underworld, I'll still be Admiral Hell.

Taking a deep breath, Ludwell no longer hesitated. He took off the silver mask on his face again and removed most of the restraints on his Underworld.

Right on the heels of that, the illusory bronze door appeared once again. The opening produced an extremely terrifying suction force, causing the people on the nearby ships, be it ordinary sailors, soldiers, or Beyonders, to feel their Spirit Bodies float up uncontrollably, separating from their bodies bit by bit. Furthermore, they were unable to stop it!

…

"The reason why Admiral Hell Ludwell kept wearing that mask was that he had accommodated an extremely powerful Underworld creature that far exceeded his own. On the one hand, this creature was used by him, but on the other hand, it had corrupted his body and transformed him into a half-dead, half-human existence.

"And the mask's effect is to pacify the soul, allowing the Underworld creatures in Ludwell's body to remain relatively calm most of the time.

"Now that he has been forced to a dead end, he should have steeled his heart and completely released the restrictions on that Underworld creature! That's why he has such a terrifying suction force on his Spirit Body… Look, even the Imperative Mage has no choice but to focus on resisting. He can no longer maintain the previous' restrictions'."

In the master bedroom at 28 Gold Street's garden villa in Cherwood Borough, Ebner explained the current situation to Xio based on the information in the novel and the mysticism knowledge he currently possessed.

Xio nodded slightly when she heard that and said thoughtfully, "I'm afraid he will pay quite a price for this."

"That's for sure… However, now that the law of 'Spirit World Traversal' has disappeared, he has a chance of escaping, right?" Ebner took a sip of sweet iced tea and smiled.

…

It was just as Ebner had predicted. The moment the decree disappeared, Ludwell raised the square black ring on his left index finger again and aimed it at the illusory bronze door, infusing the power of death into it.

The bronze door suddenly changed. It connected to the world of death, but this time, it didn't expand to the size of the Black Tulip.

Ludwell deeply knew that the chance of escaping was only a few seconds. There would definitely be a counterattack from the Imperative Mage later, and the Black Tulip's hull was too massive. It was impossible for it to pass through the door in such a short period of time.

His gaze first swept across the lady on Pritz before landing on the Ocean Songster on the corvette. As though he wanted to remember the two enemies, he decisively stepped through the bronze door and vanished.

…

At the same time, the image in the "mirror" in the villa's bedroom suddenly stopped.

"Ebner, Mirror, you can blow the copper whistle and hand it to the messenger tomorrow morning… I still have some matters to attend to, so I'll stop here."

As Jane's voice came from the mirror, it indicated that the "live stream" was officially over.

Ebner stood up and sealed the mirror with his spirituality before storing it in a box. Only then did he smile and tease Xio, who still hadn't had enough. "I'm going to sleep after watching the naval battle. Are you staying here or going back to sleep?"

Xio rolled her eyes at him when she heard that. She knew that he was using a joke to ease her fear, so she deliberately said in all seriousness, "Alright, I don't have any objections… But have you considered the consequences of me leaving your room tomorrow morning and being seen by the servants? You were already in the limelight at the previous banquet. Don't tell me you really want to be in the headlines?"

Then why did you come to my room in the middle of the night? Klein didn't know how to make up stories about us in Sefirah Castle!

Ebner complained in his heart, but seeing that Xio was obviously joking and teasing him, he knew that she had already adjusted her mindset and was no longer as helpless as before. He was relieved.

In particular, Klein clearly had no intention of pulling him into Sefirah Castle for questioning. This meant that Xio didn't have any strange traces or limbs left behind by the ancient dragon or the high-level Beyonder of the Tamara family…

As for being noticed or 'arranged', that was unavoidable. They could only react accordingly.

After all, even he and Mr. Fool were still being "arranged"!

…

In the Sonia Sea, on a small island nearly 50 nautical miles away from Pritz Harbor, a thin-haired elder emerged from the void.

He looked at the direction of the sea outside Pritz Harbor with an ugly expression and learned the result of the naval battle from the surrounding natural spirits.

This elder was a demigod of the Numinous Episcopate. After receiving Admiral Hell's distress signal, he rushed over via Spirit World Traversal.

While he was traveling, he suddenly fell into a peach forest full of flowers.

The peach forest seemed to be a sealed off space. Its connection to the outside world was completely cut off by the mountain at the end of the forest's water source.

Left with no choice, the old man could only try to explore the outside of a small cave…

But when he finally passed through the cave and walked out of the peach forest, he realized that time had passed far faster than he had imagined.

"Who is stopping me?"

The elder thought for a while, but he couldn't figure out which pathway this power came from. And now, the military demigod seemed to have sensed his arrival. Therefore, he had no choice but to enter the spirit world again and leave this island.

…

In a cave on an island, Ludwell, who had been rendered immobile by the powerful spiritual backlash in his body, raised his head with great difficulty. He looked at a gigantic Spirit Body with pitch-black flames burning in its eye sockets not far away from him. Immediately, he felt his brain buzz before he lost consciousness.

…

Early Thursday morning, Ebner, who had just woken up and had yet to blow the copper whistle to return the "mirror", suddenly felt his spirituality stir. He hurriedly activated his Spirit Vision and saw a nearly four-meter-long skeleton messenger place a thin rapier on the table in front of him.