Lord of Mysteries : The Undead Do Not Die from Kindling the Fire

The Silence Mandate was invoked! A purple magic circle descended from above and landed on the deck. In the next moment, it transformed into layers of purple magic seals, like a binding curse, marking everyone. At that instant, everyone felt their abilities were completely sealed. Now, the only thing they had left were their fists and feet.

"What's happening?!" The demigod's eyes suddenly became frantic, and he furiously demanded, "What did you do to me?"

"Kill him!" The sailors who hadn't acted before now immediately reacted, howling as they charged at the demigod. Everyone was now on equal footing! If they didn't act now, when would they?

Facing the ferocious pirates, the demigod felt utterly humiliated. When had a demigod like him ever endured such disgrace? Almost instantly, he drew his pistol and aimed it at the sailors. But in the next second—

Thud! A short, rusty, dull knife pierced through his throat from behind, accompanied by a calm voice. "Take a deep breath, dizziness is normal."

Almost instinctively, the demigod took a deep breath, and blood surged, clogging his arteries. Before he could react, the next second, a spear pierced through his chest from behind.

The demigod felt a sharp pain in his chest, but before he could fully grasp it, his body was flung into the air, and the gun slipped from his hand. While twisting and spiraling, the spear wreaked havoc on his soft, unprotected organs, tearing them apart.

The spear continued forward, pushing his body toward the bow of the ship. The spearhead collided with the railing, pinning the demigod there.

Gripping the bloodied spear that had pierced his chest, the demigod struggled in pain, his throat flooded with blood, preventing him from making any sound. With great difficulty, he turned his head, only to see Ashes rolling backward. In the next moment, Ashes drew out another enormous sword-lance, which looked like a fusion of a great sword and a gun.

As soon as this hybrid weapon appeared, it was instantly bathed in golden light, accompanied by crackling electric sounds. It was lightning!

The demigod's pupils contracted, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. Partly due to his chest wound, But also because—

Everyone had been sealed from using magic, so why was he the only exception?

The demigod instinctively wanted to speak, but his mouth could only open slightly without uttering a sound, as blood poured from his nose and mouth. The short blade had pierced his throat, causing blood to flood into his windpipe, and his neck felt tightly bound, rendering him speechless. That word would remain forever unspoken, echoing only in his mind.

If it were an ordinary Beyonder being, they would have been dead by now. Only a demigod could survive this long with such tenacity. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even consider this a serious injury. But now, with his magic sealed, he could only watch helplessly.

"Lightning Strike!"

Ashes raised the sword-lance high, and golden lightning snaked around the blade like a slithering serpent. In the blink of an eye, a surge of golden lightning enveloped the entire bow of the ship. And with it, the demigod was completely consumed!

"..."

The sailors stood agape, dumbfounded by what they had just witnessed. They, too, wanted to ask, like the demigod, why?

"Continue." Ashes calmly stowed away the dragon-hunting lightning lance and pulled out a long katana from his waist— The famous blade Moonshadow.

The Silence Mandate could seal everyone's magic, but it wouldn't cancel out buffs that were already active, nor would it affect the battle skills that were intrinsic to weapons.

So—

Ashes crouched down, positioning the katana at his waist, assuming a iaido stance. Then— He drew his blade.

Shing! A brilliant blue light, like the twinkling of stars, flashed from the blade, slashing toward the demigod, who was still enveloped in lightning at the bow.

Thud!

The sailors seemed to faintly hear the sound of something being severed. But because of the golden lightning covering everything, they couldn't see clearly. As they watched in stunned silence, Ashes pulled out another katana, seemingly preparing for another strike.

But in the next second, his actions suddenly stopped.

[Soul +500000] [Soul of Chunash Kolge] ['Earl Of The Fallen' Beyonder Trait]

Ashes sheathed his blade and turned to walk toward Edwina. "He's dead," Ashes said calmly. "But his soul remains. Can anyone here perform a séance? I need to ask him who he was working for."

"Dead?"

Edwina stiffly turned her head, still feeling as though she were in a dream. That was a demigod! Yet in your words, it sounded like killing him was as easy as sweeping away trash?

"I, I can!" Edwina took a deep breath, quickly regaining her composure. She turned to her crew and issued orders, "Hurry, save the others!"

Meanwhile, the sailors who had fallen overboard began resurfacing. But they were far from their usual confident selves; their faces were still twisted in pain, merely floating on the surface, supported by the buoyancy of the water.

The remaining sailors, snapping out of their daze, rushed to the ship's edge, diving into the sea to rescue the others. Though they saved them from drowning, the sailors' ankles, still twisted at unnatural angles from before, remained shattered and limp.

At that moment, the purple sealing magic circle that had bound everyone's abilities suddenly shattered with a quiet snap.

Edwina, seeing the seal lift, let out a breath of relief. She was about to perform a ritual spell to heal her crew when, in the next second, a warm light appeared on the deck, healing everyone's wounds.

Startled, Edwina instinctively glanced back at Ashes.

Ashes politely asked, "the séance."

"Got it!"

Edwina nodded without hesitation and quickly walked toward the bow of the ship.

The lightning had dissipated there.

Only a corpse was left nailed to the bow.

Calling it a corpse wasn't quite right.

It had turned into 'charcoal,' with its flesh and clothes dissolved, and even the bones had carbonized.

First, it was poisoned by a dagger stabbed into its throat, then struck by lightning from a dragon-hunting spear, and finally finished off by a legendary blade.

It would be hard not to die.

But Ashes felt a bit disappointed.

This demigod had been pathetically weak.

It was the weakest boss he had ever fought.

But this seemed to be a common problem in this world—once sealed by a silence spell, even powerful beings became useless.

He thought this was only an issue for low-level sequence Beyonders, but even demigods were no exception.

"Plop!"

The demigod's heavily carbonized black head could no longer hold together and suddenly dropped.

It rolled twice across the deck, coming to rest at a sailor's feet.

And then, without paying attention...

"Smash!"

The sailor looked down at the shattered head under his foot, raised both hands in despair, and said, "Would you believe me if I said I didn't do it on purpose?"

Edwina's face darkened as she angrily yelled, "Danitz, get over there and help!"

"Yes, yes, right away!"

Danitz nodded hurriedly and ran over to help the other sailors, though there wasn't much left to do.

Everyone had been saved, and their injuries healed, so what was there for him to do?

"Huh?"

Edwina walked over to the corpse and suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

"What's wrong?"

Ashes stepped forward, frowning. Could something have gone wrong?

"His spirit is gone?"

Edwina hesitated and asked, "Could it have been… because of your lightning?"

She was about to ask if Ashes had struck too hard and dispersed the spirit along with the body.

But the next moment, she saw Ashes stretch out his hand, holding a pure light.

It was the demigod's soul.

"Ask him about those slaves."

Just as Edwina was about to start the séance, Ashes, who had just pulled the spear out of the corpse's chest, reminded her.

"Understood."

Edwina nodded slightly and began the séance with the demigod's soul.

The process went smoothly.

A demigod who couldn't resist when alive certainly couldn't resist now, acting like a wooden puppet without any struggle.

But to be safe, Edwina started with basic questions.

"What's your name?"

"Tunas Kolger."

"Which faction do you belong to?"

"The Ninth Bureau of Intelligence. I am a deputy director with the rank of Major General."

"The Ninth Bureau?"

Edwina's expression changed slightly, but she didn't have time to think about it and continued questioning.

"Why did you come after us?"

"Captain Mad has been secretly supplying slaves to us, and my department was responsible for handling them. Due to some incidents in Backlund, I was ordered to retrieve a 'painting' that was in Captain Mad's possession."

"But when I arrived, Captain Mad had already been killed, and the painting was nowhere to be found. So I divined your location and forced the Deep Sea Admiral to take me in pursuit."

"No wonder he was in such a hurry to escape," Edwina thought.

The Deep Sea Admiral was clearly afraid that the demigod would silence him afterward.

But he probably never imagined the demigod would die so easily.

"Where did you take the slaves?"

Edwina remembered Ashes' instructions and asked.

She thought this was a simple question, but the next moment, she realized she was wrong.

Tunas Kolger's soul trembled, his expression becoming horribly twisted, as if his soul was about to explode.

Edwina's face changed, and she quickly withdrew from the séance.

"Sorry."

Edwina took a deep breath and quickly explained, "His soul is bound by some kind of restriction, preventing him from revealing key information. If I push him further, his soul might explode."

"I only found out his name, Tunas Kolger, a deputy director of the Ninth Bureau of Intelligence. His department was responsible for handling slaves with Captain Mad. But he can't reveal where the slaves were sent."

"I can't do anything about the restriction, but if someone could break it, they should be able to get more information."

"The Ninth Bureau of Intelligence, huh?"

Ashes wasn't surprised; he had expected it.

After all, it was the Ninth Bureau that had dealt with Caping too.

As for the restriction on the soul...

Ashes frowned slightly and looked down at the soul in his hand.

[Soul of Demigod Tunas Kolger]

[The soul of demigod Tunas Kolger. A powerful and distorted soul. It can be used to obtain various souls or refined to extract its power. He was once a demigod, sworn to guard certain secrets, and his soul was bound by a stronger being.]

Ashes frowned slightly. He had no good way to deal with a restriction on a soul.

Tears of Healing could cure abnormal states, but only if the subject was 'alive.'

In the past, he would have sought the help of the Firekeeper.

But now he didn't even know where his Firekeeper was.

"I see," Ashes said, nodding slowly. "Thank you for your help."

Edwina was only a Sequence 5, so he couldn't expect too much from her.

As long as he held on to the soul, he could always find someone else to break the restriction back in the Kingdom of Loen.

"I think I'll go back to my cabin to rest for a bit. If you need anything, feel free to call me."

Ashes considered this and then told Edwina.

"Of course."

Edwina nodded slightly. She wouldn't dare refuse.

As Ashes walked down to his cabin under the respectful gazes of the pirate crew, First Mate Bru approached Edwina nervously.

"Captain," he said, swallowing nervously, "that man… is he a demigod?"

"What do you think?"

Edwina, feeling a bit conflicted, gave him a sidelong glance but didn't answer, instead throwing the question back at him.

"…"

Bru gave a sheepish smile.

The answer was obvious, wasn't it?

After all, the man had just killed a demigod right in front of them!

And he hadn't just done it effortlessly; he had done it with extreme ease.

Killing a demigod was no different from slaughtering a pig!

In the blink of an eye, the demigod was dead.

It wasn't that the demigod was weak.

It was that 'Mr. Ashes' was absurdly strong.

"So, what should we do now?"

Bru awkwardly changed the subject and asked in a low voice, "About the Deep Sea Admiral, should we…?"

"Ignore him for now. Clean up the ship and remove any traces."

Edwina remained calm as a captain, shook her head, and instructed, "Tell the sailors to set sail. We're heading to Toscat Island."

The Deep Sea Admiral had come after them because he was threatened by Tunas.

That's why he had turned and left without hesitation.

In theory, both sides were in the same boat regarding this matter.

As long as both parties kept their mouths shut, no one would know that Tunas had died on their ship.

Of course.

If Tunas' superiors used divination to track them down, there would be no avoiding it.

Even killing the Deep Sea Admiral wouldn't help.

And besides.

They probably wouldn't be able to catch him anyway.

The Deep Sea Admiral had left quite some time ago, and their flagships weren't much different in speed, so catching up would be nearly impossible.

Not to mention, if it came to a critical point, the Deep Sea Admiral could abandon his flagship and use his sea monster to dive into the deep sea—catching him would be impossible.

While the Deep Sea Admiral might not be the strongest of the pirate lords, with the help of his sea monster, even a demigod would struggle to kill him.

So rather than wasting time in a chase, it was better to stick to the original plan and head north.

This way, they could quickly deliver Ashes to his destination.

After that, they could proceed to Sonia Island in the north—

It had once been part of the Kingdom of Loen.

However, it was ceded to the Feysac Empire seven hundred years ago during the 'Twenty Years' War.'

This meant that the demigods of the Kingdom of Loen wouldn't dare step foot on Sonia Island lightly, as such an act would be seen by the Feysac Empire as a provocation and could lead to war between the two nations.

The Kingdom of Loen would not want to give the Feysac Empire any excuse.

So, as long as they could safely reach Sonia Island, they could at least guarantee temporary safety.

During this period of temporary safety, Edwina could wait for reinforcements from the Church of Knowledge.

By then, she could turn the tables—

The demigods of the Kingdom of Loen had openly threatened believers of the Church of Knowledge and even boasted that no one would know if they were killed. There was no way the Kingdom of Loen would be able to brush off such an incident without offering an explanation.

Edwina glanced at the charred corpse at the bow of the ship, her light blue eyes gleaming with a strange emotion.

The Kingdom of Loen was being a bit too arrogant, as if no one else had powerful backers.

Meanwhile.

As Ashes walked toward his room in the cabin, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, a voice echoing in his mind—a voice from the Fool.

"The upcoming gathering is temporarily canceled."

"Did something unexpected happen?"

Ashes furrowed his brows slightly.

PS: Danitz, the rebellious son.

(End of the chapter)