Saiyan stowaways on the Ark

The other person was simply using their own methods to protect her from the harm caused by immature thoughts.

This slightly rough gentleness reminded her more of the admonitions her former teacher, the Grand Inquisitor Dario.

However, while using somewhat cruel language to diminish Eleanor's hopes for Rhodes Island's continued existence, Thomas also said in a slightly more optimistic tone:

"However, at least I think that no matter where they are, neither the Doctor nor Kal'tsit are the type to sit and wait to die. Even if it's just for Amiya's request, Kal'tsit will do everything in her power to protect the Doctor and the others. As for how long she can protect them, I'm not sure."

"So, are you planning to stay in Iberia any longer, or come with me?"

Thomas extended an invitation to leave this place and find the current location of Rhodes Island.

After a brief moment of confusion, Elena nodded.

After hearing Tomat's words, she was mentally prepared—whether Rhodes Island survived or ceased to exist, she would not have any regrets about the outcome of this trip.

It's not numbness, but rather a long-awaited awakening.

Eleanor was willing to stand by and witness whether Thomas could keep his promise and allow her to wait with hope for the reversal of the apocalypse.

"By the way, do you know where you're going? Do you have any transportation? It's practically impossible to travel by sea or air, have you prepared a vehicle?"

As Tomat looked around, as if inspecting something before setting off, Elena suddenly asked with some curiosity:

"If possible, let me find a suitable weapon before we set off. Fighting the terror fish with my bare hands is too dangerous. I don't want my body, which has just recovered, to become sea creatures again because of their blood."

“A car? No need. There’s a location I was particularly interested in. I’ll double-check it and then we’ll set off.” Tomat began to reposition the location thousands of kilometers away where a large amount of energy had gathered. Then he reached out and shone another strange beam of light on Elin. The latter immediately felt a weight on her back. Upon closer inspection, she saw a black shoulder strap in front of her, as if Tomat had fixed something to her back.

Turning my head, I realized it was a simple-looking longsword.

"This is fine, I remember you use a sword."

"I'm better at rapiers... This looks more like a sword from Yan Kingdom. Oh well, at least it's a complete weapon."

No longer surprised that Thomas could conjure weapons out of thin air, Elena raised her hand over her shoulder and pulled it out with a backhand slash. The smooth cutting sensation made her feel that this weapon was even more handy than she had imagined.

"It may not be as good as your usual weapon, but I can guarantee its strength. As long as you have enough strength, you can chop it however you want. There's probably nothing here that can wear it down."

"Since you've said that, it's probably true."

Elena stopped testing the longsword, sheathed it, and continued asking:

Is the place you mentioned very close to here?

"Don't worry about that, we can get here anytime. If you want to practice more with the weapons, you can find some guys here to practice on."

If teleportation were possible, reaching the location of the aura would only take a blink of an eye.

However, before that, while sensing the aura, Thomas also noticed some other people who were worth paying attention to.

One is the aura of a massive, still, and terrifying fish located in a distant place.

The other one could sense that it was still human, yet it exuded an aura of filth and madness.

The owner of the aura was approaching this place at an astonishing speed.

"—For example, that person who was walking towards us from not far away, exuding a murderous aura."

A dark figure emerged from the distant ruins.

Those eyes, gleaming with a dark purple light, left streaks of light in their wake as they moved at high speed.

An aura of madness was emanating from him without any attempt to conceal it.

The instant Eileen turned away because of Thomas's words, the figure, still quite a distance away, raised his gun with the precision of a skilled hunter, and a huge flash of fire erupted from the muzzle.

Before the sound even arrived, the bullet, which had turned crimson from friction with the air, had already reached Enelly's forehead.

In that instant, time seemed to stand still.

Elena strained her body to dodge, but at this rate, she could at least wipe her forehead clean—

Just as she could feel the heat of the bullet and the pressure of the air on her skin, she saw a dark shadow flash past her eyes, and as it disappeared, the bullet vanished as well.

"Wow, what's wrong with him now?"

Thomas looked at the newcomer, his hand still clenched into a fist, then he released it, a huge cloud of smoke spreading from his palm, and a grain of rice-sized red metal fell to the ground.

The projectile, which was designed to cause a massive explosion and extremely high heat, silently released its power in his palm. Even though it was confined to such a small space, its compressed force failed to harm the skin that appeared to be no different from that of an ordinary person.

"What's wrong with your grandmaster? He doesn't seem to have become like Hai Si."

Elena stared intently, her body frozen in place, her eyes wide, yet she couldn't utter a single word.

She recognized the old man standing not far away all too well.

The one who suddenly appeared and attacked Elene was none other than Carmen, the last saint of Iberia.

[Event] The Fool's Tale: The seventh grandfather and grandson met, their eyes blazing with hatred.

Carmen and the one Tomat remembered didn't look too different in appearance.

However, Elene in this world has grown up a lot, while Carmen does not appear to have aged.

He was still dressed in the solemn attire of an Iberian saint, his feathers fluttering in the wind, the Inquisition emblem on his chest untouched by dust. This old man, whom I remembered as someone who never yielded to the honor of Iberia, was without a single unnecessary injury or stain. In this world, dimmed by the presence of tarantulas, he seemed so out of place. One hand cannon still emitted lingering smoke, while the cold glint of his rapier dispersed the dust in the air. Only the ever-burning lantern at his waist was nowhere to be seen.

If there's anything different, it's that his dark purple eyes seem to reflect nothing at all. His expressionless, indifferent demeanor belies a madness that keeps emanating from his bewildered gaze.

It was impossible to tell what he wanted to do, but his actions were all too clear.

—Killing.

"Carmen... teacher, you...?"

Elene's momentary hesitation stemmed from the unexpected encounter with an old friend. Memories of Iberia's time when she was still alive surged up like a tide, only to recede later.

In the next moment, all that remained in their eyes was a resolute look.

Don't hesitate, and don't harbor any naive fantasies.

Saint Carmen's attack just now, launched without hesitation, was entirely aimed at his own life.

The real Carmen would never do that.

No matter how similar they are, even if there are no traces of Hai Si in their appearance, the other party is only a vague resemblance to the kind yet stern old saint in my memory.

The longsword, which she had not yet mastered, was drawn in an instant. Using a rapier stance that was not suitable for this weapon, Elena's eyes were fixed on Carmen, who had now stopped moving.

He had already loaded the hand cannon, showing no hesitation whatsoever because Thomas had caught the bullet with his bare hands earlier.

Although his movements had temporarily stopped, the aura emanating from him gave no indication that he would cease his attack.

"Damn it, the hand cannon is lost..."

Although she didn't know why Carmen was there or why she attacked her, Elena's thoughts had long since abandoned those doubts, leaving only the question of "how to fight back".

Elene's weapons were lost and broken during her previous transformation into a sea creature, but she has managed to fight against the Terrorfish with that broken sword thanks to her willpower and the enhanced physical abilities brought about by the transformation.

Although she has now recovered her body and acquired new weapons, she cannot guarantee that she can unleash physical abilities that are stronger than when she was transformed by Hai Si – at least before, having several holes pierced through her body was not considered a fatal injury.

"boom."

Carmen vanished from her spot, her rapid strides creating a deep crater with a footprint in the center where she had stood. The next moment, the already drawn sword clashed with the longsword swung by Elene.

The upward slash of the rapier was blocked halfway, and the resulting turbulence blew away the rubble, illuminating the faces of both sides with the sparks.

Carmen remained unmoved, her expression cold and numb, while Eleanor gritted her teeth and persevered, revealing no weakness in front of her former saint.

In just one glance, Elena knew that the other party's power was genuine.

The next moment, flames shot into the sky, and Carmen's other hand held a hand cannon that spat out flames. The bullets grazed a few strands of hair that were fluttering in front of Elene's forehead as she retreated, turning into starlight and disappearing into the sky.

He then instantly loaded a second bullet and pulled the trigger, aiming straight for his chest.

Alene, still in her backward leap, had no choice but to grit her teeth and draw her sword to block—her combat skills, befitting her title of Inquisitor, and her dynamic vision allowed her to accurately slash at the incoming projectiles.

The bullet struck the blade, its kinetic energy propelling Elene backward through the air. She used the force to spin around, dissipating the impact and using the blade to slice the bullet in two. The two halves of the bullet, their trajectory altered, fell to the ground and crashed into the ruins, exploding with tremendous energy. Upon impact, they launched fireworks that illuminated the sky.

The next wave of attacks followed. Carmen closed the distance to Elene again, and within the range of her rapier, she precisely aimed at Elene's throat, heart, wrist, and abdomen, unleashing a dense yet fierce barrage of thrusts, like a fine rain.

Alini, who had just landed and was still a little unsteady on her feet, could only do her best to dodge or block these merciless and deadly attacks. If she was not careful, her body would be pierced or cut apart.

"Destreza!"

Without a single superfluous movement, the supreme art of Iberia was recreated under the old saint's blade.

It's a combination of offense and defense, and Elene has already focused all her energy on defense alone, not to mention finding a gap to counterattack from the opponent's all-encompassing defense formed by offensive attacks.

In close combat, Carmen's skills and strength were superior to Elene's. Her precise and powerful thrusts and slashes kept Elene busy, but she was not yet able to break through Carmen's defenses.

Creating distance would put even more pressure on her from the hand cannon's firepower. Even if it didn't cause a direct hit, the destructive force would severely disrupt her actions if it exploded nearby, and she herself lacked corresponding long-range countermeasures.

At this moment, Elena had no time to think about anything other than the battle. She focused all her attention on the confrontation with Carmen, and her mind could not afford any extra carelessness.

But Carmen's next move, as if she had seen through Eleanor's fear of the cannon, plunged her into a predicament that left her mentally paralyzed.

Carmen raised the hand holding the hand cannon, but he did not fire.

He simply scattered a bunch of ammunition into the air.

In their reflexes and speed of engagement, the speed at which a normal object falls is far slower than their movement speed and dynamic vision.

So what Elena saw was bullets slowly falling from mid-air, while Carmen continued to attack her with his rapier during the gaps between these bullets.

Is it to distract and divert attention?

It did have a similar effect, and Elena quickly retreated to create distance.

The bullet was still slowly falling, and it had reached about directly in front of Carmen's face.

But in the next instant, Elena dismissed the idea that "the bullets were just to distract the viewer."

Carmen immediately "slid" the falling bullet into the already opened barrel of the hand cannon with a waving motion.

The waving potential energy causes it to be loaded directly, and then the trigger is pulled, spitting flames to launch the projectile.

Then the chamber opened again instantly, ejecting a smoking cartridge case. While the cartridge case was still suspended in the ejection position and the bullet that had just left the barrel had not yet escaped the muzzle smoke, the wrist was swung again to slide another floating, intact bullet into the hand cannon.

The one Carmen used was an old-fashioned Inquisition hand cannon that emphasized single-shot power, and it was different from the one that Eleanor knew Carmen used.

Its single-shot power is astonishing, but its inability to fire continuously and the need for repeated reloading are also very obvious drawbacks.

But this flaw does not exist for Carmen now.

The second shot, the third shot, the fourth shot, the fifth shot...

—This process repeats itself, as if in a still moment of time, the machine is methodically loaded and fired repeatedly.