In the North Sea Region, not far from Iron Anchor Bay, lies the seashore of the Eternal Night Peninsula.
Upon the already dark and dimly moonlit sea, a thin fog arose, making several pirate ships flying black skull flags appear and disappear intermittently.
They looked exactly like the legendary and terrifying Ghost Ships.
One of the skull flags depicted a skeleton dragging a bloody, twisted worm’s body—it was none other than "Woodpecker" Maltz’s Chirping Insect.
This was also an unusual pirate group; influenced by "Black Sorcery: Ant Queen’s Blessing," all its members had been turned into women.
The Chirping Insect had clearly adjusted its position in advance, its stern facing the Eternal Night Peninsula and its bow pointed towards Iron Anchor Bay.
It looked ready to weigh anchor and set sail at any moment.
Suddenly, a voice as thin and sharp as an insect’s chirped, "Midnight has arrived! All crew to your stations! Do not leave your posts, no matter what you hear."
"All officers, stay for the ritual."
"Bring that slave to me."
As the "Queen Insect," "Woodpecker" Maltz’s authority on this pirate ship was clearly greater than that of most pirate captains. The crew members he (she) had infected with tapeworms, thereby turning them into "Ant Queens," were completely submissive to him (her).
Soon, they had drawn a Pentagram Array closely resembling a goat’s head on the tall sterncastle deck using fresh blood.
Several burly, yet heavily made-up, pirate officers escorted an elderly slave, whom they had drugged into unconsciousness beforehand, into the center of the array.
Maltz arranged him into an upside-down crucifix shape and placed a white candle at each of the four points of the inverted cross.
If Byron were here, he would have recognized at a glance that this slave was one of the "raw materials" they had previously competed for at the Golden Palm Trading Company.
This Transcendent was not being used as food for worms but was clearly intended as a sacrifice for another malevolent ritual.
Whether this was fortunate or unfortunate was hard to say.
"Woodpecker" Maltz first poured a barrel of red wine, resembling blood, from the stern into the sea.
Then, taking two silver coins from his (her) pocket, as if conducting a pirate’s funeral, he (she) placed them over the slave’s eye sockets.
But these were no ordinary silver coins—in the faint candlelight, they were clearly identical to the octopus silver coins Byron possessed!
He (she) took the ritual sword handed over by the first mate and, without a change in expression, plunged it into the sacrifice’s heart.
Blood dripping from the sword’s tip fell onto the two octopus silver coins in the slave’s eye sockets.
The moment the silver coins came into contact with the blood, the upward-facing side instantly turned blood red.
An invisible wave of energy radiated outwards from the stern.
The surrounding fog instantly condensed into white frost, causing many of the Chirping Insect’s pirates, who were far stronger than ordinary people, to shiver uncontrollably.
The sacrifice twitched slightly and then grew completely cold.
"Captain, is that all for the Black Mass ritual conducted by profaning Sacred Artifacts?" the first mate asked, unable to hold back his question upon witnessing such a bizarre scene.
Even the captains of Privateer Ships knew that these sets of octopus silver coins, forged using "Forbidden Knowledge," were certainly not Sacred Artifacts. They were replicas of the Zero Tier Holy Relic: Thirty Silver Coins!
The infamous "Thirty Silver Coins" were the payment a traitor received for betraying the Saint Heir fifteen hundred years ago, symbolizing "unjust" wealth.
Thirty pieces of silver back then was roughly the price of a slave.
Due to the immense historical turning point and its influence, these thirty silver coins, regarded as Sacred Artifacts by the Church, became a terrifying Cursed Object.
Innumerable unjust souls were imprisoned and punished by them, eventually forming various ferocious Curse Spirits.
Since then, a taboo existed among the upper echelons of the Old Continent:
When minting silver coins, one must absolutely never produce exactly thirty coins of the same specification at one time.
Even such a trivial connection was enough to imbue them with a trace of the name’s resentment, turning them into potential hazards.
Simply performing a Black Mass, a ritual to extract power by desecrating Sacred Artifacts, made it extremely easy to attract wandering Evil Spirits and Bizarre entities!
The required traits for a sacrifice included: "slave," "Transcendent," and "believer in the Creator" (Remit lineage preferred).
The so-called Faceless Man and the Ripper were merely Fallen Ones who retained a part of their self, used to test the effects of the silver coins and to misdirect.
Each person had only received a single silver coin, to block divination and absorb elements from the North Bay Folks.
The Black Mass ceremony conducted here by a host of privateer ships was the real main event.
Following the Chirping Insect, the other ships also began their rituals.
The temperature of this sea area continued to drop, plummeting at least ten degrees in just a short while.
If one listened closely, they could hear something whispering beneath the pitch-black water. Yet, searching for the source would yield nothing.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!...
Before "Woodpecker" could answer the first mate, a knocking sound suddenly echoed on the deathly silent ship.
No, it wasn’t knocking at a door; something underwater was ferociously pounding the ship’s hull!
For a moment, many old sea dogs felt as if they had returned to those foreign sea routes where sinister oddities outnumbered fish.
Their legs trembled, and their bodies felt weak.
A skeptical young man, holding a whale oil lamp, cautiously peered down into the water.
It was as if he had seen something utterly terrifying; his face turned deathly pale, his eyes bulged, and his teeth chattered, "There’s... there’s..."
Before he could scream, an invisible force seemed to seize his throat, dragging him down.
At that moment, the chest of the corpse in the center of the pentagram suddenly heaved. It gasped, its mouth agape, and began to breathe again.
A terrified shriek escaped its damaged throat, "It’s here! It’s here! It..."
The body convulsed violently as if electrocuted, about to rise.
"Quick, hold him down!"
"Woodpecker" Maltz didn’t panic, knowing the Evil Spirit summoned by the ritual had possessed the sacrifice’s corpse.
The pirate officers, already prepared, rushed forward and pinned the body down.
Swiftly, "Woodpecker" Maltz stepped forward and flipped the two silver coins in the corpse’s eye sockets, so the unstained, bright white side faced up.
The summoned Evil Spirit seemed to be crushed under an immense weight, unable to move.
As if dying all over again, it lay back down obediently.
"It has been temporarily sealed."
The Black Mass ritual aboard the Chirping Insect concluded with more fright than harm, costing only one minor underling.
Lights flickered on the mast, signaling to the fleet’s temporary flagship.
On the flagship positioned in the center, flying Red Beard’s Goddess of Vengeance pirate flag.
The temporary commander, also the Executioner Bill of the Goddess of Vengeance, lowered his brass spyglass and let out a slight sigh of relief.
A good start is half the battle. I hope nothing unexpected happens tonight.
As one of Red Beard’s trusted lieutenants, he, along with three privateer captains, had received their orders from Red Beard and then hastened away from Iron Anchor Bay with two other fleets.
They had journeyed to the vicinity of land, relatively densely populated and teeming with more Evil Spirits and Bizarre phenomena, to launch the Black Mass ceremony, inviting Evil Spirits aboard.
A total of fourteen ships were executing the same mission, corresponding to the remaining twenty-eight octopus silver coins.
They were responsible only for execution; nothing else mattered.
All they needed to do was ensure these "sacrifices," sealed with those Evil Spirits and Bizarre entities, were safely brought back to Iron Anchor Bay.
What kept them most on edge was that some of the Bizarre entities and Evil Spirits were under the constant effect of a peculiar Accident Magic.
If there was a possibility of things going wrong, no matter how small, it would inevitably happen.
The danger lay not only in the entities themselves but also in the various accidents they brought!
Dealing with these sinister beings, one could die a horrible death, regardless of caution or care.
Before undertaking the mission, every privateer captain had received a hefty incentive from Red Beard; otherwise, no one would dare gamble their luck.
He watched as the Chirping Insect, and then another privateer ship, the Sunflower, successively signaled their successful rituals.
The last one, the Rainbow, however, remained silent.
Just as Executioner Bill was preparing to signal an inquiry.
Chaotic gunfire and screams suddenly erupted from that entire privateer ship.
It was unknown what the crew had experienced, but someone was even firing cannons wildly, nearly hitting the other three ships nearby.
Bill couldn’t help but curse under his breath, Damn it, a bunch of fools! They failed to seal it?!
But he also knew it was completely uncontrollable what kind of Bizarre entities or phenomena the replicas of the Thirty Pieces of Silver would attract during a Black Mass.
No matter how careful one was, unpredictable accidents could still occur.
He also remembered the taboo of adventuring: a strong curiosity is often the root of trouble.
He immediately signaled to the other privateer ships, "The Rainbow is done for! No one get close!"
"Entire fleet, retreat to Iron Anchor Bay! Full speed ahead! Run!"
The three ships, already poised for action, didn’t hesitate for an instant. They abandoned their comrade and collectively weighed anchor.
As if a ravenous beast were furiously chasing them from behind, they sped towards Iron Anchor Bay.