Pirate: It’s not a phantom beast, it’s a phantom god!

Chapter 316 The Taste of Death

"Goooo~"

"What...what is that?"

A soldier's voice, completely distorted by chaos and fear, came from his mouth... The scene before him was so shocking that his legs gave way and he collapsed onto the deck of the warship.

But now no one would laugh at or scold him as they usually did.

Thanks to the few seconds of light produced by the thunder piercing the air, the people on the sea were able to vaguely glimpse a fragment of the enormous creature that had torn through the dark clouds and descended upon the sky.

It was a colossal body that spanned heaven and earth, beyond description.

He did not stand upright, but rather coiled and undulated like a dragon from ancient legends, appearing and disappearing amidst the churning, dark thunderclouds.

His body was a dazzling crimson, like fresh blood, and it also emitted a faint glow, as if his body was covered with a layer of magnificent scales.

Its slender body, seemingly endless, along with the several thorns standing upright on its back, extends upwards segment by segment until it disappears into the deepest part of the sky, as if its source is the sky itself.

Each subtle twist of its body produced a low, tearing "whoosh" sound, accompanied by bursts and leaps of golden lightning around its body, like devout believers attending to it and praising it.

Huge, cloud-like dragon wings slowly unfurled behind it, easily obscuring the entire sky... as if their purpose was not to fly, but to proclaim its dominion over the heavens.

Every slight tremor of these membrane wings creates visible ripples in the air, carrying an aura of destruction.

……

Boom!

In the instant of another flash of lightning, everyone finally saw the dragon's head descending from the clouds.

That doesn't resemble the dragon in mythology at all; there's not a single resemblance whatsoever...

A crimson crown held high, cold golden pupils, a sacred blue jewel... and most strikingly, two gaping maws, one above the other.

Strange, ferocious, sacred, arrogant, noble, mysterious... no words can accurately describe the being before them. The moment anyone saw His true face, their soul was captivated, unable to move an inch.

This is a pressure that transcends mere aura or spirit, even more overwhelming and terrifying than Conqueror's Haki.

"Roar------!!!"

A dragon's roar exploded!
That was not just sound, but a real shockwave.

The air was compressed into a visible, distorted, transparent giant wave, accompanied by a terrifying sonic boom that shattered space, crashing down onto the sea like a tidal wave!

"Get down!" *2
On both ships, Mien and the white-clad CP0 officer shouted simultaneously. The latter, disregarding his overstepping authority, leaped towards Natania, pinning her down and shielding her beneath him.

Bang—crash!
The deck beneath our feet cracked inch by inch amidst its mournful cries!

The sturdy mast snapped as easily as a cheap disposable chopstick, and was then carried away like trash by sails bearing naval or world government symbols, flying out of sight.

This roar, filled with divine anger and sorrow, pierced through eardrums and struck the very soul of every living being below, bringing with it a primal, almost devastating fear and a profound sense of insignificance.

"puff!"

One soldier couldn't bear it any longer, vomited a mouthful of blood, and then immediately fainted.

Then came the second one, the third one...

thump~
thump~
thump~
The dull thuds of flesh hitting the deck were incessant. In the blink of an eye, all the soldiers who hadn't had time to lie down were down, their fates unknown.

"call……"

"You... phew~"

"asshole!"

Mien, lying on the ground, shouted hoarsely.

Watching his soldiers fall one by one, that familiar feeling of helplessness resurfaced.

He stared intently at the enormous object in the sky, his emotions seemingly on the verge of spiraling out of control.

The creature before him was not the slender figure he had expected, but a strange monster he had never seen before.

That familiar, desperate sense of fear crept into my heart once again, just like when I faced that golden figure back then.

[No! I'm different now! I won't be afraid anymore, I can't be afraid anymore!]
"What the hell are you?!"

Mien questioned.

"Roar--!"

His response was yet another earth-shattering dragon roar.

This time, however, Mien sensed the anger and sorrow hidden within... Not just him, but everyone who was still alive felt this inexplicable emotion.

It was as if the entire world had involuntarily resonated with this being in the sky.

The dragon's roar faded, but those golden eyes, seemingly burning, turned to Mien, locking onto his soul.

It was this person; this person killed him.

Without needing to ask, the remnants of someone's soul on the other's body spoke volumes... At the same time, Mien finally became certain of the true form of the red dragon before him...

[It was you! No, it really was you!]
[So that's how it is... those wings, that tail... I shouldn't have been so surprised!]
Rumbling--

In the blink of an eye, countless golden lightning bolts fell like rain due to the emotional fluctuations of the Sky God, instantly enveloping the entire sea in a golden pool of lightning.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Snap!
Without deliberate aiming, such a dense attack was impossible to completely dodge. In an instant, the warship and cruise ship were struck by several bolts of lightning, and more than a dozen unlucky people were immediately blasted into molecular state.

"Alas--"

"Quick! Protect me!"

"Everyone, protect me!"

Seeing an agent being hacked to ashes right before her eyes, Nathania was terrified and ran away in a panic, but dared not move, and could only shout loudly.

“Use those slaves as shields to escort me back to the cabin!”

"Yes!"*n
Upon hearing this, the agents gritted their teeth and pulled the slaves together, protecting Nathania in the middle, and the large group slowly moved towards the cabin.

Fortunately, these slaves had already lost all hope and stopped resisting; otherwise, the situation would have been even more complicated.

"..."

"What...when did this kind of thing appear in the New World?! Why hasn't any information leaked out?"

"Is this the ability of a superhuman, or a real monster?"

Even the CP0 members guarding the Celestial Dragons, constantly watching out for lightning strikes falling on their heads, couldn't hide their panic.

……

Click!

"Sir!"

On the warship, a bolt of lightning struck the spot where Mien was standing in full view of everyone, immediately causing a gasp of surprise.

"Lieutenant General Mien!"

"Lieutenant General! The Lieutenant General... is dead?"

"No, that can't be, right?"

slap~
slap~
slap~
While everyone was still speechless at the sudden annihilation, a series of stomping sounds suddenly rang out.

It was Mien. Of course he wasn't dead. He escaped by using Moonwalk at the last second before being struck by lightning, and then used it to soar directly into the sky...

“Drink aaaaaaa——!”

He shouted loudly, seemingly trying to dispel certain emotions in his heart.

"Die! Monster!"

"Swift One-Sword Style Secret Technique: White Dragon!!!"

Swah——

"Ow~"

A blinding white light flashed, and the crowd vaguely heard a clear and sharp dragon roar, completely different from the earth-shattering roars of the previous two times.

Looking up again, one could see a white dragon twisting its body and fiercely attacking the enormous creature in the sky that was many times larger than itself.

This is not a real flying dragon, but Mien's sword technique, the ultimate sword technique that he can deliver at the level of a great swordsman!
[Try it if you can handle it, Princess Ming! Here comes my ultimate technique to break through your limits!]
Clang!
In the blink of an eye, the snow-white dragon crashed violently into the massive body of the crimson dragon—and then shattered into a cluster of fragmented light.

Bang~
Like a snowball being forcefully slammed against a wall, Mien's ultimate technique didn't even leave a scratch on Osi's divine body.

"..."

"Hey, hey..."

"What, what is this..."

"That's impossible!"

"My sword, the sword I honed with all my might for revenge, how could it be..."

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle~
Before Mien could continue to doubt himself or even fall into self-destruction, a rhythm that seemed to pull his soul out of his body suddenly rang out.

Without a doubt, the strange sound originated from the enormous creature in the sky, or more precisely, from the second mouth of that crimson dragon...

This is the sound produced when a kind of power, transformed from the abstract into the concrete and undergoing a miraculous materialization, is compressed into a blazing energy.

Watching that blue-white energy being compressed, and compressed again...

For the first time, everyone, including Mien, truly felt the scent of death emanating from their own souls.

(End of this chapter)