Saiyan stowaways on the Ark

A stumbling figure ran towards them, but after only a few steps, it began to struggle painfully on the ground. Then, it moved its limbs in an extremely strange manner, slowly crawling towards the group of people, like a puppet on strings in the hands of someone with clumsy fingers. Every movement was extremely unnatural.

Struggling, writhing, whimpering, growling—but the newcomer was indeed a normal person dressed in normal clothes.

If they looked closely at the distorted face, Jody and Thiago would realize that it was one of their neighbors whom they greeted every day.

"Ah...help...it hurts so much..."

Uncontrollable pharyngeal muscles barely managed to squeeze out audible syllables, and the deep red eyes turned in different directions, one looking towards the sky, and the other towards Amaya.

"Amaya? Fellow countrymen...? Help me... Why is this happening... They... no... Why are we out of control—Ughh ...

Accompanied by a tremendous roar that seemed inhuman, the newcomer's body twisted to its extreme in that instant, as if it had been twisted into a pretzel by an invisible hand and then began to swell after air was poured into its mouth.

Clothes were torn apart, flesh began to change color, bones and internal organs seemed to be turned inside out and then absorbed back in and rearranged, and finally formed a bizarre creature that was translucent blue and resembled both a fish and a flower amidst the sounds of bones and flesh bursting.

Rather than fear, Jody and Thiago were more stunned by the incomprehensible sight before them, their minds going blank and they stood there, eyes wide open, completely motionless.

At first, they panicked and were at a loss, acting frantically to seize control of consciousness, plunging the believers, who were the vessels of their consciousness, into uncontrollable panic.

The external pressure has eased a little, but that doesn't mean they'll settle down.

They will only take further actions because of that stimulus, which will trigger a huge crisis instinct. Just like people who have escaped death and suffered will engage in various compensatory behaviors after escaping their predicament.

The compensatory behavior of the dinosaurs is more like "being prepared for danger in times of peace." In order to prevent that threat from becoming a threat again, they need to hunt, evolve, and reproduce.

If Tomat were still in the city, they probably wouldn't have dared to do it, but now that Tomat is some distance away from the town, it gives them the courage, as something that doesn't exist in the traditional sense, to carry out these things.

"Time to get down to business. Those guys are starting to show their true colors. Captain, can you lend a hand?"

Skadi looked at the dinosaur that burst forth from her body—or rather, the dinosaur that had transformed directly from a human—and sighed as she looked at Ulpian.

"Unfortunately, if it were a victim like the one in Yanfeng City, at least there would still be hope for recovery."

"Killing the hopeless is also a form of 'salvation'—alright, now it's my turn to shine as the nun who is best at saving others."

Ghost Shark poked Amaya's lifeless face.

Amaya's eyes regained some light after she saw the terrifying fish in front of her.

As for her first sentence, it was:

"My fellow countrymen! Run! Run!"

Amaya had no idea what the enormous threat that had previously caused the Ferocious Fish to riot and the Netherworld to fall silent was.

But she was at least clear about one other thing:

The three deep-sea hunters before them were not to be trifled with either.

[Event] The Fool's Tale: Chapter Twenty-Two - Glimpse the Truth

A mountain appeared in Gran Farrow Square.

A "mountain" made up of the remains of a dinosaur.

Granfalo has a small population, at most four or five hundred people.

Nearly two hundred of them live in this "mountain".

The already desolate town became even more prosperous after the riots ended.

The panic has not subsided, and the grief still lingers.

Sadly, many people lost their neighbors, close friends, and even family members—and quite a few brought their families along to become believers.

Fortunately, none of them succeeded in harming ordinary residents, and no one became nourishment for their "precautionary" evolution.

The whole process took less than ten minutes.

"Is this the monster you were talking about... the one on the beach?"

Why did they take on the appearance of the townspeople? Why did they come ashore?

"Those Agorians destroyed those monsters and captured Miss Amaya. Could it be... could it really be Miss Amaya who caused all this?! Uncle Thiago, please say something!"

Looking fearfully at the mountain of carcasses of the terror fish, Jody stood outside the square and bombarded Thiago with questions.

"Calm down, Jody..."

Thiago's cloudy eyes also reflected the small mountain of dinosaurs piled up in front of him—these were the townspeople he once knew.

He didn't know how to explain everything to Jody for a moment.

Therefore, the person who could answer the question appeared.

"Yes, calm down, young man. After all, the truth may be harder to accept than you think."

Dragging the mangled corpses, Ghost Shark silently passed behind them, then effortlessly tossed the bodies to the very top of the hill.

"I think this is probably the last one—you're safe now, I guess."

Ghost Shark greeted the two with a smile.

"You guys are really bold, daring to approach a place like this. Aren't you afraid they'll come back from the dead and eat you?"

As he spoke, Ghost Shark elegantly pulled out several remains of the Terrorfish from the hill, then roughly folded and squeezed them until they formed the shape of a chair in front of him. He then casually sat down on this seat woven from flesh and blood for a short rest.

“I saw your skills, which were awe-inspiring, and I also saw you fighting those monsters and protecting others, so I'm not worried about encountering any danger myself…”

Jody answered somewhat nervously, then pressed for more information:

“This… Sister, what is the truth you speak of…? Were the townspeople killed and replaced by these monsters? And Miss Amaya…”

“Kill? Replace?” These words surprised Ghost Shark, or rather amused her. In her opinion, it was adorably naive to say such things, and she did not disappoint her by tearing down Jody’s gentle fantasy. “No, these monsters are the people you know. It’s not that the monsters are disguised as them, but that they have become monsters and have been hiding themselves.”

"As for Amaya... that cute little bird is the culprit, or at least one of the culprits."

There was a deep-sea church in Granfalo before, and it's possible that Amaya took over the position of bishop after arriving rather than re-establishing it, which is why Specter said that.

While Ghost Shark was saying these words, the old man named Thiago's eyes were clearly darting around.

He shouted, "So, who exactly are you?! Did the court send you?!"

Ghost Shark waved his hand dismissively and said, "We're not the Inquisition. The Inquisition wouldn't do something like that in front of you."

She looked up at the skeletal remains of the terrifying fish around her and continued:

"They usually take away all the suspects who haven't yet revealed their true identities after identifying them, then use their own methods to force them to show their true forms before killing them."

"However, in your eyes it's probably just 'taking away innocent residents indiscriminately and never bringing them back,' right?"

Ghost Shark had no idea about the scene of the Inquisition's raid on the Deep Sea Church of Granfalo more than a decade ago.

But her experience clearly stirred up Thiago's deepest and most unwanted memories.

—That's how his wife was arrested by the court.

He also never believed that his wife really had any connection with the Deep Sea Church.

She was just an ordinary Agor woman, a housewife with some knowledge of engineering, a virtuous wife who would serve her hot meals every day, and a lover who cared about her health and urged her to rest early every day.

That's it.

Therefore, he hated the court and those who acted arrogantly in the name of Iberia.

They robbed the town of its prosperity, robbed him of his beloved wife—and now they're sending a few Agors to take away the last vestiges of peace?

They keep saying the Deep Sea Church is a dangerous and evil entity, but if his wife is, then why hasn't anything happened? Instead, the Tribunal has caused huge losses to the town.

He didn't understand what bad things the Deep Sea Church had done.

But he saw clearly what "bad things" the court had done.

At least, that's what he thought until he saw the "innocent Amaya," who hadn't done anything wrong to the town, being carried on Ghost Shark's shoulder.

Until just now, a member of the Deep Sea Church turned into a mindless monster right in front of him.

At this point, combined with Ghost Shark's words, Thiago—the nominal mayor of Granfalo—seemed to realize that the court's indiscriminate taking those people away might be the most basic form of mercy.

At least his wife wasn't killed and taken away after turning into a monster in front of him.

With a thud, Thiago knelt on the ground. The hatred he had accumulated for more than a decade, his rebellion against the court and his desire for revenge, had led to this end—his neighbors and friends had been turned into monsters and then killed.

Amaya once said that they were dissatisfied with the Iberian Tribunal's disregard for human life, and also promised that the so-called Deep Sea Church was never an evil entity, nor would it affect people's lives.

Only the courts are stubbornly obstructing all of this, or using it as a pretext to persecute more people.

Thiago believed her, not because he truly trusted the Church of the Deep Sea, but simply out of resentment and hatred towards the Inquisition.

What's wrong with the Deep Sea Church?

The problem lies with your courtroom!

This almost rebellious mentality, along with the convenience afforded by his position as mayor, gave Amaya the opportunity to preach far and wide, allowing the Deep Sea Church to grow and expand.

Thiago failed to see the distorted nature of the Deep Sea Church's ability to rewrite life and manipulate thought.

And this truth appeared before him in the form he least wanted to see, the mountain of corpses before him said it all.

He intended to use the Deep Sea Church to protect Granfallo from the audience of the Inquisition, but Granfallo had already fallen into a deeper crisis due to his own ignorance and recklessness.

"What...what have I done..."

[Event] Fool's Tale: Chapter Twenty-Three - Different Paths, Same Destination

Mayor Thiago is still lost in confusion and regret because of his leniency towards the Deep Sea Church and his glimpse of the truth, while a young man named Jody tries to understand the past of Granfalo, which he knows nothing about.

But Ghost Shark had no interest in continuing to accompany the two in history lessons. After confirming that there were no more terror fish in the area she was responsible for, she immediately found the other three hunters and discussed the next steps.

"Easy peasy~"

Specter greeted Gretia and the others.

"Since it's easy, don't leave it until the last minute."

"Greteia criticized, but she didn't expect Specter to take such criticism to heart."

Ghost Shark chimed in, "So, this counts as completing the instructor's mission, right?"

"Instructor... is that the person you were talking about before?" Ulpian asked. Before this, he had already learned about the current situation of the three of them on Rhodes Island through the accounts of Gladys and Skadi, and naturally he also learned about Tomat.

Although he found it hard to believe at first, he reluctantly accepted the stories after seeing Greta's serious expression.

“Yes, he’s still nearby, working with the judges,” Skadi said after sensing the presence, then looked at Specter. “But Shark, I don’t think we’ve met the requirements. These Terrorfish are far too weak, so we didn’t need to use much power to deal with them. Therefore, we couldn’t achieve the training objective of ‘considering the surrounding environment while using great power’.”