Gun of Ashes

”No! No, no, no!”

Hebdo roared low, enduring the penetrating pain. Just at the moment of despair, the rope suddenly stopped.

”Keep pulling, Hebdo.”

A weak voice came from behind him. Hebdo turned around, squinting against the light.

In the blinding light, Hebdo could barely make out his figure. Cliff had wrapped the rope around himself, holding it tight to prevent it from slipping away.

Suddenly, Hebdo understood why he hadn’t responded to his shouts. There was a deep wound on Cliff’s neck. When Hebdo was hit by the flying metal, it wasn’t only him who got hurt—Cliff was as well. He could only tilt his head, pressing hard on the wound to slow the blood loss.

His skin was covered in blistering burns, and one of his eyes had gone blind in the intense light, turning into a semi-transparent gel slowly flowing out. His other eye was squinting, but its vision was also gradually fading.

”This... will be my accomplishment to enter the Heroic Spirit Hall.”

Cliff said intermittently.

Hebdo was stunned for a few seconds, then roared as he picked up the taut rope, wrapped it a few times around his hand, and carried it toward the other end of the deck.

Selyu and Lorenzo were continually being hoisted, and the temperature was becoming increasingly scorching with them.

The Sea Serpent initiated a new round of action. Its massive body appeared on the other end of the sea surface, trying to coil around the Morning Glow Advance and crush it completely. The sound of metal shattering reached his ears, like someone slowly crushing a tin can.

In an instant, an indescribable power invaded here. Everyone felt something similar, as if an invisible presence had arrived.

At this moment, a grappling hook shot out from the boiling sea, striking directly into that burning eye. A painful wail echoed.

The hook retracted, and the Black Angel broke through the sea surface, charging toward the depth of the intense light. Its Iron Feather swung in strikes, so solid that even the extreme heat couldn’t melt or evaporate it in a short time.

The snake’s eye was unprotected by Scale Armor, adorned only with soft gelatinous skin. The Iron Feather cleaved into the soft flesh, the hook shooting to the other side, dragging the Black Angel for a horizontal slash.

Daylight was slain.

Selyu only felt hot rain pouring from the sky, with a stench of blood accompanying the turbulent heat.

She clearly sensed the high temperature was interrupted. She tried to open her eyes, seeing the Black Angel that blinded the Sea Serpent, a massive scar crossing its eyes and ruining its exquisite face. At this moment, a trace of emotion finally appeared on this calm face, angry and painful.

The hook shot out again, pinning onto the deck, and the Black Angel landed steadily, pulling the rope along to haul up Selyu and Lorenzo together.

The two fell heavily onto the scorching deck, its residual heat making Selyu grimace, while Lorenzo lay like a dead man, unresponsive.

”Lorenzo?”

Hebdo looked at the Black Angel with surprise, but it was somewhat different from when Lorenzo remotely controlled it before.

Fierce flames surged from the Armor’s seams, far more aggressive than Lorenzo’s, as if underneath the heavy steel, a burning Spirit Body was trapped. Once the Armor cracked, overwhelming flames would judge all things.

Moreover, the Black Angel gave Hebdo a different feeling at this moment, perhaps due to a change in demeanor or maybe some other details, suggesting that the entity inhabiting it now was no longer Lorenzo.

The flames roared, the Black Angel moved relentlessly, swinging its wings, with one sharp Iron Feather after another sliding out, precisely hitting the Sea Serpent’s noble face.

This was its only real weakness, unprotected by Scale Armor. The vulnerable flesh was fully exposed to its eyes.

The Black Angel seemed to dance, wielding a metal storm, densely embedding Iron Feathers onto its face.

The Sea Serpent wailed, ear-piercing roars causing everything around to vibrate with it. It reared high, unable to continue tormenting its prey and intending to deliver a fatal blow.

The serpent’s body rose, and during its descent, nothing could stop it. At the same time, as the Sea Serpent ascended, its grisly wound was fully exposed, huge and cruel after the Blood Shark’s ram and Ascalon’s bombardment.

After the light, came the immense shadow.

The Sea Serpent’s shadow engulfed everyone, bringing despair and oppression, not even the Black Angel’s Iron Feather could halt such a colossal body from falling.

Everyone’s eyes filled with fear, and the Black Angel also ceased its attack, standing quietly in place, awaiting the arrival of death.

The steam whistle sounded.

It was not the Morning Glow Advance’s whistle, but rather the horn from another ship.

What happened?

No one knew, except that in the next moment, the Sea Serpent seemed to have been struck by something, its figure distorted downward, with a loud noise, its entire body collapsed uncontrollably.

”Ahhh!”

Tuke screamed, driving the Seahorse into the Sea Serpent’s wound.

His mood was collapsing, accurately speaking, it had been collapsing ever since entering the Silent Sea.

The collision caused violent shaking, scattering golden coins that once fascinated Tuke immensely, but now to him, these were no different from dust, even more, he harbored an unprecedented loathing for gold.

All because of these damned gold coins, because of them, Tuke had undergone all this nightmare.

As the Seahorse crashed into the Sea Serpent’s wound, a torrent of blood gushed out, covering the deck in red, raising the temperature around him considerably, and he promptly fled the cabin, abandoning ship.

Seconds later, the bow exploded in succession.

This was a gift from the Seahorse, according to Tuck’s calculations, they should have caught up with the Morning Glow Advance sooner, but to prepare these explosives, they had docked for a while in the Viking bays to resupply these weapons.

The burning heat amassed into spherical exclusion zones, within which everything was being incinerated, destroyed. The powerful impact surged into the body, like a rampaging bull, constantly striking the twisted body, the scarlet tentacles had no time to heal before being wounded again.

The sturdy Scale Armor could defend against external attacks, but it couldn’t protect the fragile inner parts. Although there were scarlet tentacles, this momentary explosion was simply too intense.

The roaring explosion tore the Seahorse into fragments, broken metal impaling into the flesh one by one, ripping the serpent’s wound further. The Sea Serpent continued to wail, the continuous triple attack making its body even more fragmented, until the entire serpent could no longer be sustained and shattered entirely amidst the flames.

Selyu dragged Lorenzo. She could only see the massive head tightly closed bleeding eyes, its expression grimacing in pain, constantly howling, finally sinking into the sea bottom, raising countless waves.

Everything returned to calm.

Hebdo stared blankly at this, somewhat unable to believe his eyes.

Today’s narrow escapes were enough, leading him to suspect what he saw was merely a beautiful hallucination he’d imagined; in reality, he was already dead, merely waiting on the spot for the Valkyrie’s arrival to guide him to the Heroic Spirit Hall.

But after a few minutes, the sea turned calm again from its turmoil, dark red blood covering all visible sea regions, the temperature gradually dropped, even the repressive feeling of disgust in his heart kept waning.

Perhaps... they really won this time.

Even the Plague Doctor couldn’t believe it. He stood up but saw a figure jumping onto the deck, with evaporating steam veiling his figure. But he saw him throw someone up.

Tuke rolled several times on the deck, stopping in a corner, then painfully vomiting seawater. Another figure walked straight to Selyu, looking down at Lorenzo.

”What a sorry state, Lorenzo.”

He said, kicking the unresponsive Lorenzo. After a moment, Lorenzo opened his tired eyes, seeing the person who arrived.

Although the face was very unfamiliar, Lorenzo recognized her at first sight.

”Watson...”