Chapter 244: Don't be surprised, Edward, this is my escape route, old man!

"Boom!!"

The solid spherical cannonballs, trailing ghost-green Ghost Fire, descended from the sky, exploding into circular shockwaves of flame the moment they hit the ground or made contact with the Scarlet Parasites.

All the Scarlet Parasites that touched the ghost-green Ghost Fire were ignited, burning into charred lumps in just a few seconds.

"A Ghost Ship?" Bishop Land looked toward the distant coastline with an expression of disbelief; even though his line of sight was blocked by buildings, he could still feel that aura as if it had returned from the netherworld.

According to legend, a Ghost Ship is a special vessel formed by the accumulation of a vast amount of resentment and curses within a sea area.

No matter how severely damaged it is, it can self-repair over time.

Furthermore, depending on the nature of the resentment and curses, the abilities of a Ghost Ship are bizarre and varied.

Some can fly in the sky, some can conjure thick fog, and others can dive, use Invisibility, or perform Resurrection on the dead... These special abilities are all extremely powerful, but using them often comes with a price; otherwise, a Ghost Ship would not be known as a ship of curses.

Those who fly in the sky for too long eventually suffer from a terminal illness that prevents them from returning to land, while the Captain who conjures thick fog will become lost in the vast ocean.

The skin of those who dive into the deep sea cannot be exposed to light, and those who use Invisibility will gradually be forgotten by the world.

The dead who are resurrected will irreversibly undergo a Transformation into Undead, becoming walking corpses that can never rest for all eternity.

The youngest Ghost Ship in history—the Sunset—was captained by the "Mercenary who steals stars, Edward Luokasina."

"I never expected that the famous Wave-Treading Knight would actually be hiding in this tiny Frostfall City."

"Can't be helped, someone made a promise to someone else," Edward chuckled, not at all surprised that the other party could recognize his identity.

From the moment he intended to summon the Sunset, he had already prepared himself to be recognized.

And opposite him, Bishop Land was recalling information regarding Edward and the capabilities of the Sunset.

According to records, the Sunset had not been a Ghost Ship for long; the only recorded sighting was twenty-one years ago, when the Starry Church attempted to seize back a Meteor Fragment from it and dispatched ten warships to surround and annihilate it.

As a result, three of those warships were sunk, four were severely damaged, and two had their masts broken; only one ship suffered only minor damage.

In that naval battle, the Sunset displayed formidable firepower and incredible agility.

Those fired cannonballs would all trail ghost-green Ghost Fire, causing violent explosions upon touching any target.

The temperature of the splashed flames was extremely high, capable of melting even Steel into a pool of molten iron.

However, those were not the most troublesome abilities of the Sunset—Bishop Land still remembered the contents written in that report: the Sunset's ability was suspected to be the manipulation of those ghost-green Ghost Fires.

Aside from enhancing the power of the cannonballs, those Ghost Fires could also burn out of thin air around the ship, acting like a protective shield.

Furthermore, when the entire ship was engulfed in flames, it could ignore any physical contact.

That single ship that only suffered minor damage had attempted to ram the Sunset with its prow, but the entire ship passed through the hull of the Sunset without causing any harm.

This caused the captain of that ship to lose the will to fight, eventually fleeing that sea area.

It seemed there was no ability that could leave the surface of the sea.

"Hmph." Thinking of this, Bishop Land couldn't help but feel much more at ease.

It was just Mortar support from a Ghost Ship; he could still handle it. After all, at such a long distance, it was simply unrealistic to expect it to hit him accurately.

However, the next second, he saw a burst of restless ghost-green Ghost Fire suddenly ignite on the longsword in Edward's hand.

"..."

You're cheating, right? We are both Master-level Transcendents, how can you still command the Ghost Fire of a Ghost Ship? Since you are heartless, don't blame me for being unrighteous! "No wonder you had the confidence to come and stop me alone, but if you think this level is enough, you are being too naive."

Bishop Land sneered; things had reached this point, and he no longer needed to pretend.

He first ordered a large number of Scarlet Parasites to block Edward, then hid in the rear.

Crunch.

Snapping the neck of a Scarlet Parasite beside him, Bishop Land opened his mouth and stuffed the dead Scarlet Parasite inside.

The intense stench and the sour smell of rot filled his mouth, and he couldn't help but frown.

If it weren't necessary, he would not choose to recover his strength this way; after all, the taste of the parasites was truly indescribable, and consuming parasites would cause the King Parasite within his body to develop feelings of resistance.

But he couldn't care about that now.

Watching the ghost-green Ghost Fire that had burned large swaths of parasites to death, Bishop Land couldn't help but speed up his eating.

As the power within his body gradually recovered, Bishop Land's breathing became increasingly heavy.

His coat was torn open by expanding flesh, countless scarlet tentacles formed his limbs, two huge mountain-like humps rose from his back, and his chest writhed, transforming into a tongue covered in barbs.

An orange-yellow, bloodshot eyeball opened on his forehead, and sharp teeth grew, rotating within a mouth that appeared out of thin air on his abdomen.

When Edward broke through the obstruction of the parasites, what he saw was a monster nearly 16 meters tall, its massive volume occupying almost the entire street.

"Hiss—" Even as experienced as Edward was, seeing this scene, he couldn't help but gasp.

"You guy, you are completely no longer human."

"And so what?" Bishop Land's hoarse voice sounded from the head at his top.

He extended several fleshy tentacles from his abdomen, binding the Scarlet Parasites surrounding him and pulling them into his belly.

"The Fear of death has always driven me forward, but I have not abandoned my faith in the Goddess of the Dark Night," he said slowly.

You've turned into this, and you still say you haven't abandoned your faith in the Lady of the Dark Night? Edward widened his eyes, not expecting there to be such a shameless person in this world.

"I still believe in Her; as for the Scarlet, I am merely researching its power."

Bishop Land looked at Edward's expression, which had the words 'I don't believe you' written all over it, and spoke the truth.

If he truly believed in the Scarlet, he wouldn't have been 'killed' by Natavia.

To him, the Outer God was too dangerous and not stable enough.

If his lifespan hadn't been coming to an end, he wouldn't have chosen to study its power.

"Hehehe..." Edward was actually amused by this guy; he sneered, "If you truly believed in the Lady of the Dark Night, you shouldn't have released these parasites, and you shouldn't have turned into this ghostly mess."

"Shouldn't a devout believer go to the Goddess's God's Kingdom after death?"

"In the end, it's just that you don't believe in the Lady of the Dark Night enough. Whether you think it's a conspiracy or you think the God's Kingdom doesn't exist, you fear the unknown after death, you fear that you aren't devout enough to reach the God's Kingdom."

"That is why you have become this neither-human-nor-ghost mess, and even the Scarlet has chosen not to accept you."

When Edward said this, he couldn't help but laugh out loud: "You are just a clown, do you know that?"

"You don't understand anything at all!"

Bishop Land was clearly broken by Edward's words; the flesh on his body writhed madly, forming countless thorny flesh tentacles that lashed out continuously toward Edward's position.

At the same time, from the mouth in his abdomen, he sprayed several streams of dark green acid.

"Whoosh!"

Scorching flames swept across, and both the tentacles and the acid were burned into fly ash, dissipating before Edward. "Idiot."

Edward held his longsword and silently retreated two steps.

A familiar whistling sound came from the sky; the mortar shells, which were originally extremely difficult to hit with, could now easily cover the Bishop Land's location after his transformation.

"Boom!!"

A scorching mortar shell descended from the sky, striking Bishop Land's body squarely.

The heat wave stirred up by the explosion blew against Edward's face, causing him to tighten his grip on his longsword.

The next second, a black shadow flew out from the smoke and dust.

The charred Bishop Land laughed as he leaped over Edward's head, his tentacles covered in suckers firmly adhering to the buildings on both sides of the street, running toward the distant Painter Association with great agility! Didn't expect that, did you, Edward? This is my escape route!

He had eaten too many Parasites, and the King Worm's resistance was becoming hard to suppress; he needed human flesh! In fact, his current appearance was due to the King Worm inside him not being very obedient.

After all, he wasn't a moron; of course, he knew that increasing his size would increase the hit probability of the mortar shells.

That last shell had taken away at least one-tenth of his vitality, and he didn't want to fight Edward in such an environment.

At the very least, he had to change locations. Once he reached that place, the mortar shells would cause collateral damage to others, and the opponent wouldn't be able to use the Ghost Ship's long-range strikes to interfere with him.

By then, relying on his and the King Worm's power—with one foot already stepped into the Champion level—wouldn't it be easy to finish off a Master-level Wave-Treading Knight who had mastered Ghost Fire? "Not good!"

Edward guessed the opponent's intention at a glance, but he hadn't expected one thing.

Bishop Land's bloated post-transformation physique was actually so agile, and the tentacles at his feet could even adhere to walls to move.

Compared to him, who could only run on the ground, the opponent had too much of an advantage; for a moment, he simply couldn't catch up! "Boom!!"

"What's that sound? Why is it so noisy?"

Yun Mu's hand, which was drawing a painting, paused slightly, and she looked in the direction the sound came from.

"It seems to be coming from the direction of Frostfall Port?" Brenna, who was at her side, judged.

Just as she finished speaking, Yun Mu saw several things in the sky that looked like shells, dragging trails of ghostly green flames, smashing into a certain street in Frostfall City.

"Boom!"

A violent explosion sound came from afar, and Yun Mu looked at Brenna with a stunned expression: "This, what is going on?"

"Could it be that the Frost Kingdom's fleet thinks Frostfall City is beyond saving and intends to wash the ground with shells?"

What kind of Exterminatus behavior is this?

"What are you thinking about?" Brenna gave her a look of annoyance.

"Is your painting finished? I intend to go over there and take a look."

"Just a little bit more." Yun Mu looked at the painting in front of her.

Ever since she acquired the skills for Mecha Piloting and mechanical maintenance, she had gained some understanding of the internal structure of Steam Mecha.

Therefore, she intended to use that damaged Steam Mecha as material to draw another painting related to mecha.

However, this time she didn't intend to draw the Vanguard-class Titan from Titanfall 2.

Instead, she shifted her target to a game that also had a '2' at the end of its name.

That is... adopting heavy Steel, ceramic composite modular armor, capable of replacing damaged modules at any time, or adjusting by switching to heavier armor according to the battlefield situation.

Plus a mecha cockpit with a heat-resistant kinetic energy net, tempered glass canopy, built-in dampers, foam padding, and a six-point safety harness.

And a combat mecha using a torso-embedded high-explosive missile launcher and a 250mm Punisher Cannon as weapons—Thor! As a behemoth in StarCraft 2 that can sweep away Brood Lord armies and kick aside Ultralisk herds.

Yun Mu believed that this thing might have a higher compatibility with the Guard Hall's Steam Mecha.

Of course, this doesn't refer to the size, but the method of attack.

The Guard Hall's Steam Mecha all adopt heavy-firepower long-range strikes, which is somewhat similar to Thor.

By comparison, the Vanguard-class Titan in Titanfall 2 seems too agile.

Thinking this way, Yun Mu began to draw the scene inside the mecha cockpit on the canvas.

Monitoring equipment composed of multiple indicators and displays could show all of Thor's system statuses at any time, while the main holographic display could project computer-generated map images.

And even if the displays malfunctioned, the tempered glass also possessed a complete set of head-up display equipment, a navigation screen, and a basic target-locking system.

She didn't understand these things before, but now she could roughly infer their uses and appearance based on the names, combined with memories from her past life.

As for how she thought of the detailed settings for Thor... of course, it was because she saw them on the internet before she transmigrated!

These memories were originally quite blurry, but ever since she was instilled with knowledge by that Scarlet Outer God, she discovered that she could actually recall these things!

Although it wasn't as exaggerated as the hyperthymesia mentioned on the internet, if it was just game settings, she could still recall them.

"Finished!"

Yun Mu put away her Paintbrush and integrated the card containing 【GHS-7274】 into the painting.

The next second, the Ether in the air boiled, and under Yun Mu's excited gaze, this painting became the sixth Supernatural Painting in her hands.

Yun Mu's vision blurred, and she arrived inside a scorching factory.

She saw countless flexible mechanical arms swinging, and in just a few minutes, a gray-white mecha was assembled.

Afterward, Yun Mu walked involuntarily to the front of the mecha, followed the opened hatch, and stepped into the cockpit.

The moment the display screen lit up, she returned to reality.

"Thor, let's call you Thor!" She immediately said.

【Painting: Thor (Purple)】

【Vitality +50】

【Comic/Mecha/Mechanical/Firearms/Heavy Firepower】

【Skill: Thor Is Here】

【Support/Single-Target】

【Range: 0】

【Use a Medical Transport to air-drop 【Thor】 to the designated location.】

【A Supernatural Painting created by 【Civilization Spreader · Painter · Yun Mu】, capable of summoning a mech named 【Thor】 to participate in battle.

"Thor? That name is truly interesting." — God of War and Thunder Helington.】

(End of chapter)