Chapter 483: Gazers and Trap
"you……"
Angel squeezed out a word, but didn't know how to continue.
“Meow—”
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the black cat Wensa rolled over suddenly, broke free from the bite of the blond, red-eyed head, and landed lightly on the altar table. He looked up with bared teeth, and a tuft of short black hair floated in the air and disappeared before landing.
The headless messenger stopped attacking and instead straightened up gracefully, floating in the air, holding four heads in its hands. Its four pairs of eyes stared at the black cat, Angel, Klein, and the door respectively.
If one of the heads didn't have a few scratches from cat claws on its face, the scene would have been more serious.
Just as Alger reached the door and stopped to knock on it to ask, he felt a sudden shock in his heart. He slowly lowered his outstretched hand and continued walking. He walked through the door and went back to the deck from the other side of the corridor.
It was as if he had just come here for a walk.
Don’t ask what you shouldn’t ask, don’t look at what you shouldn’t look at… “The Hanged Man” felt like he was back to the state he was in when he first attended the Tarot Club.
But isn't this my boat?
When he returned to the deck, this was the only question left in his mind.
Inside the room, the two messengers and their masters looked at each other in a long and awkward silence.
"Summon..." "I..." "What's..." "Something."
Finally, it was the headless messenger lady who broke the silence. The four heads in her hands spoke in turn, trying to distribute the words evenly, as if they were performing a funny comedy.
"Ms. Renette Tinicole, we may encounter some danger on the island ahead of this ship. I hope to summon your help later to deal with those creatures traveling through the spirit world. Is that okay?"
Hearing his words, the four heads of the headless messenger Renette withdrew their gazes and looked in a certain direction at the same time.
That is the location of the nameless island, the destination of the ghost ship.
After a moment, her heads turned back.
"You want to..." "Deal with..." "Which one?"
It seemed that there was a problem with the allocation, and the last head did not get any lines. Its lips were very pale, and its mouth, which seemed to be lacking in blood, was slightly open, and it was stunned on the spot.
"'The Gazer'."
Angel answered for him.
"Can."
That head quickly added a word, and then all the heads spoke again:
"But," "You need to..." "Pay..." "Two thousand gold coins."
Two thousand gold coins... even if calculated using the most valuable Loen gold coins, it would only be 2,000 pounds... Of course, that's not to say 2,000 pounds isn't high, but compared to the main ingredients for a Sequence 4 potion, it's already very cheap...
Angel agreed immediately without much hesitation.
"No problem, but I'll wait until the deal is done before paying, as it takes time to raise the gold coins."
Although it was only the first time that Angel met the Headless Messenger Renette Tinicole, she was deeply impressed by the way she dealt with the black cat Ms. Windsa, whom she had contracted with, and had high expectations for the role she could play.
At the very least, as a messenger capable of traveling through the spirit world, she could also track down the fleeing "Gazer."
Hearing the answer, Renette's four heads nodded at the same time, causing her hands holding her hair to shake slightly.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Angel looked at the black cat Wenza who had been motionless on the table. Seeing its blue eyes looking at him with some sadness, he suddenly felt guilty.
After all, I summoned it with a spell, but I made an agreement with someone else's messenger in front of me to assist in the battle later. It always feels like...
Just as she forced a smile and prepared to sincerely apologize, she heard Wensa open his mouth, meow, and then say:
"I only want 1,500 gold coins."
After being stunned for a full second, Angel realized that Wensa was going to compete with Ms. Renette Tinicole for this "contract".
But then, she felt a surge of joy in her heart. No matter what the final outcome of the battle was, at least Wensa could fight Tinicole in the spirit world. If her offer was relatively low, could she...
As soon as this thought came to Angel's mind, she felt several gazes fixed on her face. She glanced over and found that all the heads in Renette's hands had turned around, and those pairs of scarlet eyes were staring at her intently.
Are you planning to break the contract now?
Without waiting for the other party to speak, the threat, read out word for word in the style of the headless messenger, echoed in her mind.
But Wensa's offer was very cost-effective. While she was tempted, she also had a glimmer of hope, hoping that Renette could also feel the pressure of competition and take the initiative to lower the price.
"Or, we can..." At this moment, Klein beside him suddenly stepped forward and whispered, "Do you want both?"
In an instant, twelve eyes of different colors looked at him.
————
On the sea surface, which was illuminated by the golden light of the evening sun, Alger, the "Hanged Man", paddled hard with his oars. After sending Angel and Klein to the beach, he breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at the "Blue Avenger" docked not far away.
Finally, we got them out. Otherwise, I'd be worried about what strange things might happen to my ship... He silently praised Mr. Fool and the Lord of Storms in his heart, and then said aloud:
"It's dusk now. We have to wait for 24 hours at most. If I don't see you tomorrow night, for the safety of my sailors and to preserve this ship that doesn't belong to me alone, I will choose to leave.
"Of course, if you pray to Mr. Fool and ask him to convey to me that you ask me to wait a little longer, I will consider it."
This was basically just a polite remark. If there was a chance to pray to the Fool, it meant the situation wasn't too bad, so waiting a little longer wouldn't be a problem. However, if one really encountered a crisis where they couldn't return to the "Blue Avenger," there might not even be a chance to ask for help.
"Thank you, we'll be there in time."
Angel nodded in thanks and walked with Klein toward the woods in front of the beach. Behind them, Alger was struggling to leave the shallows in his famous boat.
Compared to the boundless primitive island that the three explored at night last week, this nameless island is pitifully small. The side facing the "Blue Avenger" is a beach and a not very lush jungle. In the center, there are two mountains about 300 meters high, one in the south and one in the north, and a narrow canyon in the middle.
According to the information provided by Arrodes, the "Gazers" were wandering in the canyon between the mountains, and that would be the target of the two tonight.
Of course, Angel first brought Klein to the east side of the island, which was the location where she saw a stranded ship in the dream of Pierce, the senior deacon of the Church of Night on Pala Island.
When she observed with a telescope from a distance, she did not find the ship, so she was always worried - could this not be the island she was looking for?
But when the two men came to the edge of the cliff on the east side as the sun set in the west and night fell, and looked at the sea below, they immediately understood the fate of the ship.
In the waves that kept hitting the cliff below, floating wooden barrels, wooden boxes, various cables, glass bottles and other daily necessities kept rising and falling, appearing and disappearing between the waves and the reefs.
Further away, two broken masts were stuck in the reef, swaying slowly under the impact of the sea water.
There are countless pieces of wooden planks between the reefs, which are gradually drifting away under the turbulent currents in different directions.
The stranded ship had been shattered by some powerful attack.
Of course, Angel could tell at a glance that this was not the effect of the "disaster" spell. The ship hit by the power of disaster would show obvious signs of decay, as if a thousand years had passed in an instant, while the various fragments underneath were very new, as if the hull was intact a few days ago.
Many of the surrounding reefs also have sharp fractures, as if they were formed after being attacked by large-caliber artillery.
"No wonder I didn't see it through the telescope. It's already broken into pieces..."
Angel was a little disappointed. If it was a complete stranded ship, perhaps there would be some valuable things left inside.
"Judging from the time, Vice Admiral Ivan Bulatov's fleet passed by here two days ago. This ship might have been destroyed by them."
Klein made this judgment, tossing a coin and performing a divination to confirm his thoughts.
"Or we can plunder it first and then destroy it, so we don't have to go there again..."
Angel said a little frustrated.
Having fulfilled their wish, the two quickly returned to the jungle and headed towards the canyon between the two iconic peaks.
The jungle was quite lively after nightfall, completely different from the primitive island Alger had taken them to. Unfortunately, the animals that appeared were all ordinary, mostly small herbivores, and there was no sign of extraordinary creatures.
But in fact, this is the common ecosystem of isolated islands in the sea. Even on Blue Mountain Island, the capital of the Rorsted Archipelago where Bayam is located, it is rare to see traces of extraordinary creatures. Even if there are a few occasionally, they have been hunted down.
The scene of the curly-haired baboons from the southern continent, the hunting black spiders from Intis, and the blue shadow falcons from Sonia Island happily gathering on the primitive island seemed like a miracle to experienced Beyonders, like a hodgepodge designed for the protagonist's experience in an adventure novel.
"Even the trees on that island aren't the type that can survive in the archipelago's climate. Instead, they resemble the snake-scale trees found on the southern continent, and their variety is quite limited."
Following Angel, who was using dark vision to explore the way ahead, Klein analyzed while holding up the lantern and looking around.
"But here it's much more normal, with towering palm trees and low shrubs...very similar to the rainforest on Blue Mountain Island."
"So there's something strange about that island?"
Angel asked casually, looking forward vigilantly. Although there were no extraordinary creatures here, there were more dangerous "Gazers". You know, if you were stared at by them for too long, you would fall into various negative states. Once surrounded, it would be difficult to escape.
"There's no doubt about that. With so many creatures from different regions and with different habits gathered together, there must be some force at work. Perhaps it's the magical item Alger mentioned, or perhaps it's the person who ordered Vice Admiral Hurricane Qilingos and the Apostle of Desire to assassinate Duke Negan."
Indeed, the Apostle of Desire's goal was a certain "Card of Blasphemy" that would allow him to ascend to a higher sequence, while Qilingos was also pursuing the "magical item" that would be obtained after completing the mission. They were likely provided by the mysterious organization behind them, the "Twilight Hermits," whose name could not even be mentioned.
Wait, Mr. Fool also seems to have a "Black Emperor" card. Could it be that he is also related to this organization in some way?
And in the ruined city I arrived at after death, the two blasphemous cards, "Witch" and "Red Priest", were also stored...
Angel vaguely felt that there was some hidden connection between them, but he couldn't grasp the thread.
The two of them analyzed the situation back and forth, and soon they crossed the jungle and came to the entrance of the canyon between the mountains.
"This is……"
Angel stopped walking after pushing aside the branches of the bushes in front of her. Klein, who was standing behind her, curiously looked out and also stopped where he was.
This is a deliberately cleared area with a temporary camp set up.
The railings made of shrub branches, the collapsed and broken tents, the rusty iron pots, the campfire whose ashes had solidified into lumps, and the simple stone stove all showed that this place had been abandoned for a long time.
One person held a lamp, the other used dark vision, and they quickly explored this small abandoned base. Apart from finding some documents written in Feysac language that were no longer legible due to the effects of time and rain, they did not find anything else useful.
"It looks like a shelter built by stranded sailors. It's well-equipped, with plenty of fresh water, fruit, and small animals nearby. There shouldn't be a shortage of survival supplies, but it's clearly been abandoned for years, and... not even a body has been found."
Angel concluded, holding a scimitar that was also severely rusted in his hand. This is a weapon that sailors and pirates at sea love to use. It can chop and cut and is easy to maintain.
"The sailors on the ship sunk by Vice Admiral Dusk?" Klein analyzed.
"Probably not. The fragments of that ship are quite new. If it had been stranded here for the same amount of time as this camp, lacking maintenance and repairs, it would have long since decayed in the wind and rain."
Angel shook his head, denying Klein's guess.
Fortunately, both people present were experts in divination. Klein found an open space and sat down. He used the rusty scimitar he had picked up to perform a dream divination and quickly obtained some answers.
"They were pirates who were stranded on the island five years ago when another ship lost its way and ran aground. Since this place is far from the normal shipping routes, they chose to live here after reaching... a balance in numbers."
After waking up from the dream, Klein frowned as he explained his divination results. Judging from his expression, this "balance in numbers" was obviously achieved through some kind of violent means.
After all, a pirate ship has at least a hundred sailors, and this camp can only accommodate a small half of them at most.
"But after living like primitive people here for a month, they mysteriously disappeared again. My divination was somewhat disturbed, and I couldn't find out where they went."
Perhaps I could eliminate this interference within the gray fog, but I couldn't do it in front of Angel. Even if I had a convenient excuse, it wouldn't be long before we disembarked, and I really couldn't bring myself to say it... Klein grabbed the scimitar, hesitant.
"That was most likely done by the Gazers. They can easily kill ordinary sailors, and their anti-divination properties make it difficult for you to reconstruct the scene."
Angel didn't notice his struggle, looking around the abandoned campsite and coming to his own conclusion.
"It's very likely. These 'Gazers' have pure hatred and malice towards humans. We must be careful."
Throwing away the rusty scimitar and standing up from the ground, Klein patted the dirt off the hem of his windbreaker and said.
Even if it had no ill intentions, wouldn't I kill it for its materials? Every step of a Beyonder's advancement involves stepping on the corpses of countless extraordinary creatures... Angel quickly shook off this sentimental emotion, took out his "Good Luck" pistol, held it in his right hand, carefully left the camp, and continued forward.
Regardless of whether the desertion of the camp was related to the Gazers, her goal remained unchanged.
As we stepped into the narrow valley, the moonlight above our heads became clear. The crimson light sprinkled on the treetops and penetrated through the branches and leaves, giving the quiet valley a strange atmosphere.
The two took turns opening their spiritual vision, searching for traces of the Gazer, but apart from clumps of bushes, large trees, and pieces of rubble at the bottom of the valley, there was no sign of any biological activity.
Swish, swish.
In the darkness of the night, the only sounds were the friction of their footsteps on gravel and soil, and the rustling of leaves in the occasional breeze from high above.
After the lagging Klein walked past a bush, a pale figure slowly rose from under the flat stone he stepped on.
It was wearing a white robe made of an unknown material, with its hands and feet tucked inside, leaving only its head exposed. However, on top of its head, which had the same facial features as humans, there were thick tentacles where the hair grew.
At the top of each tentacle, an eye with no white, only pupils, opened. These eyeballs quickly turned and stared at Klein, who was at the back of the team and was unaware of the danger.
Instantly, Klein, who was being stared at, felt a cold touch on his back, followed by a pervasive sense of exhaustion and stiffness throughout his body. He wanted to call for help, but even breathing became difficult. His vision rapidly weakened, becoming dimmed like an old television set, from the sides to the center. Even Angel, who was wiping sweat from his forehead and carefully patrolling ahead, gradually dimmed.
His "clown" intuition could sense the gazes of the "Gazers" that emerged from the ground behind him, which was far beyond their expectations before they took action, and there were more than ten eyes staring at him.
This would prevent him from even having time to call for help, and he would suffer total systemic exhaustion and die here!
The next second, Klein fell to the ground stiffly, still striding forward. Under the gaze of more than ten eyes, he turned into a crudely cut, translucently thin, yet equally stiff paper figure.
At the same time, a healthy Klein walked out from behind a nearby tree, stretched out his hand, and snapped his fingers.
A bright yellow flame shot up beside the Gazer, who was wearing a white robe and had a head full of tentacles. They licked the spiritual creature that failed in its sneak attack, but could not cause any effective damage.
But this provided another extraordinary person with a perfect landing point. With a "bang", the flames merged and surged, and Angel, who was ten meters away just now, emerged from it. She held the "Good Luck" revolver in her right hand and pulled the trigger in the nick of time. The "Sun Brooch" on her chest flashed continuously, and all the bullets with the power of "purification" were shot into the body of the white-robed figure.
In his empty left hand, a sharp bone blade appeared out of thin air, burning with blazing black flames, and chopped straight at the tentacle with eyeballs on the head of the "Gazer".
Before he could even take his gaze away from the paper figure, he was hit by the black flame blade and purification bullets. His thin and fragile figure instantly collapsed and shattered like an illusion.
Mirror Stand, this extraordinary creature can actually use the extraordinary abilities of a "witch"!
Far away from the two of them, the pale figure of the "Gazer" emerged from the void. The eyeball growing from one of the tentacles on its head had been broken. It was the result of being hit by a substitute that replaced the original body.
But there are still more than ten eyeballs left, which means that it is almost invincible in a short battle, unless all the "stand-ins" can be consumed by some means.
"boom--"
Without hesitation, Klein activated Creeping Hunger, which he had been afraid to activate due to concerns about side effects. His left hand shone with a sun-like brilliance.
"Holy Light!"
A thick beam of light descended from the sky, covering the Gazer who was using a substitute to distance himself. Its pale face seemed to be blended with a layer of golden color, and all its tentacles had their eyes tightly closed, squirming to avoid the dazzling light.
Angel's sight was also locked on the Gazer bathed in the brilliance. She summoned invisible threads, pulled the surrounding trees, and launched herself out like a projectile. She approached the opponent again at a speed that almost left an afterimage. The bone sword with black flames on the tip of the sword carried her speed and pierced into the body in the holy light, smashing it into fragments all over the ground that were still reflecting the holy light.
High in the sky, a figure in a white robe with a trace of black flame on its body appeared again. As its missing eye tentacle looked down, it felt its brain heat up at the sudden lightening and lightning-like gaze. The "mental shock" was like a hot knife piercing its head, bringing severe pain and suppressing all its thoughts.
"Bang--"
The black flame that was about to go out suddenly exploded. Angel used "Flame Jump" again to track the opponent into the air, raised the bone blade and was about to chop it down.
At this moment, all the eyes of the "Gazer" that were narrowed due to severe pain suddenly opened, and her cold gaze was fixed on Angel. Her left hand that was about to chop down immediately became slow.
Taking advantage of the momentary opportunity, this spiritual creature turned to the other side without hesitation, its body gradually becoming illusory, and it was about to leave here with the help of the spiritual world.
Just as Arrodes said, once this creature feels the battle situation is unfavorable, it will choose to escape.
"It is forbidden to escape into the spirit world here!"
As his gaze shifted, Angel, who had recovered from his sluggishness, used "Lightness" to briefly stay in place, while switching the rose necklace to the soul of "Judge", marking a large area around him as a prohibited area for entering the spirit world.
The white-robed figure that had become illusory paused for a moment, then became clear again. A flaming bone blade pierced through its back and came out from its chest. In the suddenly rising black flames, pieces of illusion fragments fell.
The figure of the "Gazer" who once again used a substitute to escape emerged from the air below, and without hesitation used gravity to fly to the ground. It wanted to escape from this space where it could not enter the spiritual world, drill into the ground or fly into the mountains on both sides to avoid these two terrible hunters!
On the ground below, Klein switched "Creeping Hunger" from the interrogator to the zombie. His whole body's strength surged, and his movements were like a beast. Frost formed on his fists, and he ran step by step towards the landing point of "Gazing".
At the moment the two sides were about to make contact, Klein once again felt the sluggishness and weakness he felt when he was attacked by surprise. He squinted his eyes and looked upward. All the eyeballs of the "Gazer" tentacle were staring at him again, using its concentrated gaze to add layer upon layer of negative effects to him.
This moment of delay caused him to pass by the figure in white robe.
"It is forbidden to escape into the spirit world here!"
The ancient Hermes language was heard from above again. The illusory figure of the "Gazer" that was about to drill into the ground became solid, and its pale head with tentacles hit the hard ground. More than half of the tentacles stopped twisting in the violent impact, and the eyes at the tip were tightly closed, no longer looking around.
Seeing that it could not get into the spirit world, it moved its legs under its robe without hesitation and ran towards the depths of the valley at a speed that surprised the two.
If it were to leave the forbidden area again, it would be difficult to stop it... Angel and Klein tacitly chased in that direction, alternately lighting the black flame and throwing it out, or igniting the flame on the dry branches and grass in the distance, and then leaping forward, closely following the "Gazer" who was fleeing in panic but unable to enter the spiritual world.
It seems that the ability of "Madam Despair" to use her eyes as substitutes for the magic mirror comes from the "Gazer", and this guy actually has so many eyes... Three of its eyeballs have been used up, and there are still about ten. If we continue with this tactic, we should be able to use up all its substitutes and keep it... Angel kept disappearing and appearing in the flames, calculating in his mind while chasing the pale figure in front.
When she stepped out of the flames again, she was less than ten meters away from the fleeing "Gazer". As if sensing danger, the tentacles on the other side's head that were still able to move turned backwards, and its eyes without whites stared at her closely.
"Spiritual Storm!"
Without hesitation, Angel raised his right hand, and the "Good Luck" pistol released a dizzying wave, and the tentacles immediately trembled and closed their eyes.
But at this time, Angel had no way to catch up. After the knife fell, her whole body stiffened, and she stood there with her limbs weak. Behind her, Klein, who was using fire jumping to catch up, was in the same situation.
Around the two of them, pale figures rose from the ground, their eyes staring at them coldly.
The fleeing "Gazer" turned around, and a smile appeared on his pale face with human features.
It successfully lured two enemies into the lair of its own tribe.
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