Chapter 583: Contingency Plan
The ice-cold water instantly inundated Klein, drenching his golden-red
dress and making him sink like a rock.
At the same time, Creeping Hunger had already finished eating the
pirate, lightening his load.
Klein didn't attempt to float up and had instead continued sinking
downwards. He could faintly hear splashing sounds across the distant
waves. Apparently, pirates from the Sailor pathway had engaged in
pursuit.
This was their home ground!
They could act like fish in such environments for a very long period of
time!
Klein wasn't alarmed. As a Magician who never performed unprepared, he
had obviously thought of his escape plans if he met with failure. After
all, there was nothing guaranteed about such matters.
To do his best acting as Helene and not be discovered by Vice Admiral
Ailment Tracy, he had not only left the other mystical items and cash
above the gray fog, but he had even done so for the charms that came
under the water and wind domain that he recently made. However, this
didn't affect him. As a god, a Blessed, and a believer trinity, he had
many miraculous methods to deal with the corresponding situation.
He quickly made Creeping Hunger turn pale and be dyed in a gloomy green.
The surrounding seawater froze, forming layers of frost.
Before the frost completely turned into ice, Klein spread his wing
muscles and spread out his arms. With the strength of a Zombie, he
shattered the frost, sending them slightly further away.
This way, he temporarily produced a narrow space that didn't have any
seawater around him.
The water instantly surged backwards to fill the space. Klein extended
his left palm and released the terrifying cold and spread it out,
creating layers of ice walls.
For a brief moment, he seemed to be encased in an ice prison. He could
stand in it and produce sound, but he was only limited to that tiny
space.
Klein immediately took tiny steps in a counterclockwise fashion while
murmuring "The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings,"
before rapidly letting his Spirit Body go above the gray fog.
Just as his body appeared at The Fool's high-back chair, he immediately
picked up the Sea God Scepter which he had placed on the table.
Without needing to identify anything, he selected the point of light
representing Gehrman Sparrow who had recently been promoted to a
believer of Sea God. Through a previously established connection, he
raised the short milky-white scepter and made the blue "gems" on it emit
a blurry luster.
He replied to his "believer" and augmented himself with all sorts of
spells, including but not limited to underwater breathing, freedom of
movement, and pressure resistance.
Finally, he used a paper angel to interfere with any divination. He then
ordered the nearby undersea creatures to help protect Gehrman Sparrow's
escape.
After doing all of this, Klein didn't delay and had immediately returned
to the real world and gained control of his body.
At that moment, the seawater's pressure had crushed the constantly
melting ice wall and had retaken that "independent" space.
However, Klein could already breathe easily and swim rapidly.
Through the rippling but crystalline water, he saw fishes swimming
towards him. A dark shadow rose up from beneath his feet as an unknown
behemoth rapidly rose.
It was a strange brownish-red creature that looked like a squid. It was
so massive that its tentacles were enough to bind an entire ship.
It spewed black ink and instantly dyed the surrounding sea black. The
few Sailor pathway Beyonders who were pursuing Klein instantly saw black
as their bodies turned numb.
Unclear of what was happening, they immediately floated to the surface
and dealt with the abnormalities in their bodies.
By the time they dived down again to find the enemy, they had already
lost track of Klein.
At this moment, Klein was swimming at the bottom of the sea with great
satisfaction; he even had the time to divert his attention to recall his
failed operation and reflect on what he had done.
*I had sufficient preparations to act as Helene. Even Tracy, who had
shared numerous nights with her on the same bed, couldn't instantly see
through me. It accelerated the digestion of the potion.*
*During this process, I still had to overcome my aversion and find a way
to both get into character and be detached. This was extremely helpful
to the digestion of the potion.*
*I basically did the best I could for the battle. It can be considered a
prepared performance, but I underestimated the strength of a Sequence 5
Demoness of Affliction and the experience of someone who inched her way
to becoming Vice Admiral Ailment. Even though she lost her mystical item
in the beginning, just my present strength and my mystical item weren't
enough to kill her quickly, unless I had used the Sea God
Scepter... But this is around the Rorsted
Archipelago.*
*Through today's battle, I can clearly tell that I lack a mystical item
with powerful offensive abilities...*
Facing the reality of a failed mission, Klein was no doubt somewhat
disappointed. However, he wasn't depressed, because this wasn't the end
of this matter. He planned on writing to Mr. Azik to see if he was
interested in the ancient chronicles related to Death and if he had the
time to pay a visit.
Before Klein left the captain's cabin, he had snapped his fingers to
ignite the male clothing he had left in the changing room, as well as
any hair or skin he had left behind. This was to make it seem like he
didn't wish to leave any traces, but it was in fact a form of
concealment and deceit.
What he was concealing was the hair and button he had secretly thrown
into a particular room without anyone noticing after he entered the
cabin.
Having wiped away any traces of himself, Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy
would mistakenly believe that the assassin was afraid of exposing
himself because of the fear of suffering a remote curse. Then, it would
be difficult for her to seriously get the pirates to check for any
remnant items.
With the hair and button, Klein could use divination to lock onto the
location of the Black Death up to a certain amount of time. This way, as
long as Mr. Azik was willing, he could bring him to Vice Admiral Ailment
Tracy.
*Sigh, I originally thought I wouldn't need Mr. Azik's help. I thought I
could succeed just by myself, alone. Ultimately, I fell just
short...* Klein sighed and felt a blow to his self-esteem.
This was one of the reasons why he didn't seek Mr. Azik's help in the
beginning. The other reason was that he wasn't certain that Tracy was in
possession of the ancient chronicles related to Death. If she really
didn't have it, it would be rather awkward to have Mr. Azik make a trip
for nothing. Furthermore, he was worried that even with Mr. Azik's help,
that he would still need to act as Helene to find the Black Death and
Tracy. He still needed to wear her clothes and use himself as bait.
That would be too embarrassing to do it in front of someone he knew!
*In fact, if it wasn't to obtain intelligence and solely to eliminate
Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy, it would've been a lot simpler. Once I swim
back to Bayam and go above the gray fog, I simply need to lock onto
their location and use the Sea God Scepter to create a storm...*
*This isn't to say that a huge area-of-attack blast will definitely kill
Tracy on the spot, but it will attract Sea King Jahn Kottman's
attention. When the time comes, the Black Death's location would be
exposed to the Church of Storms... Sea King will happily take down
Ailment Maiden...*
Klein shook his head with self-deprecating mockery. With his Seer's
spiritual intuition guiding him, he rapidly swam towards the shore.
On the Black Death, Tracy removed her layers of defense and walked to
the diamond-inlaid bangle, in her damaged, blood-stained clothes. She
bent down to pick it up.
*What a cautious attacker. I might not even be comparable to her back
when I was an assassin... No, him...* Tracy suddenly clenched
her teeth.
This wasn't because she nearly died at his hands, but because he had
sensed that the man had done something to Helene.
According to the way Emperor Roselle put it, she suspected that there
was something green[A Chinese saying of being cuckolded, wearing a green hat.] growing on her head.
"Helene, are you really that cold and heartless? No, perhaps she was
forced." Tracy turned her head to look at the nasty wound on her left
shoulder as she felt the heart-wrenching pain.
If not for the strengthening of her physique brought about by the
Assassin and Instigator Sequence, with a significant enhancement in
subsequent Sequences, just that one blow alone could've made her lose
her entire arm. She would be like those pirates who had their arms blown
off by rifles.
As the blood flowed and stained her vision red, Tracy got the blonde
female attendant to enter and use her abilities to help her deal with
her injuries while instructing the surrounding pirates who had their
eyes fixated on her to search for any items the attacker had left
behind.
Unfortunately, the pirates informed her that all of his clothes had been
automatically destroyed.
This made Tracy recall the snap the enemy had made before he left. She
sighed once again.
"How careful.
"Furthermore, he's not one bit greedy. If he had taken the bangle, then
I wouldn't need to worry about not catching up to him."
Tracy waved her hand, motioning for most of the pirates to leave,
leaving behind Wormtongue Mithor King and a few high-ranking members of
the crew.
"Third Mate, go to Bayam again. Perform a thorough investigation to
figure out where the Resistance found that Helene," Tracy ordered in a
solemn voice.
With great difficulty, Mithor retracted his gaze from his captain's
chest.
"Alright!"
Tracy thought for a moment and added, "Spread this matter. Say that I'm
seriously injured and will not be able to recover anytime soon.
"Also, First Mate, immediately set sail. Don't stay here any longer."
As she issued orders, silence was quickly restored around Tracy.
Only at this point did she have the time to figure out which faction the
attacker came from, why he would attack her, and what motives he had...
Unfortunately, the more Tracy thought, the more puzzled she became. She
had no idea what the truth was. Although she had many enemies, none of
them possessed similar powers.
Finally, she found a clue as she muttered to herself, "Creeping Hunger?"
In the middle of the night, in a private harbor on Blue Mountain Island.
Standing by the receding and advancing waves was a female figure. She
was none other than Klein, who was still disguised as Helene.
He circled under the water and quickly came onto shore. He infiltrated
the house of a nearby fisherman and got some tattered clothes to change
into before changing back into Gehrman Sparrow.
Leaving behind the rather expensive dress as compensation, Klein rapidly
left the private harbor and returned to the City of Generosity, Bayam,
before daybreak.
He wasn't in a rush to meet up with Danitz. Instead, he found a random
motel to stay in. He used a ritual and brought back Azik's copper
whistle, other mystical items, and cash back to the real world.
After confirming that he could divine the location of the Black Death,
he blew the copper whistle.