Chapter 477: Destroy the World!

Chapter 477: World Destruction!

Alfred glanced down at his pocket watch, stood up, and walked toward Cullen, who had his eyes closed in rest after ending the "communication" in his chair. Before he could speak, Cullen opened his eyes.

"Young master, it is time."

"Very well."

Cullen stood up, walked to the side of the bed, and gently picked up Purr.

Purr rubbed her eyes and asked, "Are we leaving now?"

"Yes."

"Oh, all right."

Purr turned over, facing inward, patted Cullen's chest with her paw, and went back to sleep.

Kevin stood up, shook out his fur, and took his own leash in his mouth. Seeing that Cullen’s hands were full, he proactively offered it to Alfred.

Alfred took the leash and followed his young master out of the room. Outside, all the team members were already prepared and waiting.

Cullen spoke up, "Everyone knows the best-case scenario in their hearts, and Alfred has already explained the worst-case scenario to you. Naturally, I hope for the best to happen, but every single one of you, keep your wits about you. No matter how the situation develops, we are the ones going home. I hope no one collapses right at the doorstep. Am I understood!"

"Yes, Captain!"

"Yes, Captain!"

...

The coffee shop.

Taffman sat inside, playing with a white ring in his hand. This was a piece of Dorons’ body left behind on Dark Moon Island, which he had gathered and fashioned into such a piece of jewelry.

The coffee shop was closed for business tonight, and inside sat over a dozen of Light believers under Taffman’s command.

He lifted the cup of coffee in front of him and took a small sip.

He had a choice to make tonight, a deed to perform. Right now, he was not hesitating; instead, his heart felt tranquil.

This was very different from his past self. The old him would not hesitate in his actions either—he had been decisive when commanding the fleet to wipe out pirates and when killing his own nephew—but to say his mind had been entirely unruffled back then would naturally be a lie.

Now, he had attained true peace. This was a grounding serenity where he did not need to consider motives or the gains and losses of interests, only needing to move forward following that beam of light within his heart.

Looking at

He must have been the intermediary, and should he choose to sabotage the plan at that pivotal moment, the three ruling families of the island would certainly never let him off.

This had nothing to do with Taffman's personal strength; an army of ants could bite an elephant to death, and these pirates were far from mere ants.

Furthermore, the Light believers currently following Taffman would undoubtedly turn against him once he committed such an act.

"Keep an eye on Ophelia for me, if you would."

"Very well, I understand."

The carriage came to a halt.

Everyone disembarked, and outside the teleportation array hall stood over a thousand pirates, all radiating a bloodthirsty aura; these pirates were not ordinary men, nor could they possibly be.

Old Winbolt, patriarch of the Delan family, stood upon the steps, supported by two maidservants.

Taffman stepped forward and offered his greetings.

Old Winbolt returned the gesture and inquired, "It seems your numbers have grown a bit."

Taffman replied, "How could you possibly have tracked every single one of our people?"

"True, true, I understand, but still... there are a few too many."

Old Winbolt scanned Cullen and the others with the cunning gaze of a fox.

Cullen looked toward Taffman and asked, "What is the meaning of this?"

Taffman remained silent.

Knowing the question was meant for him, Old Winbolt smiled and said, "Young man, do you believe in intuition? It is a pirate's primary tool for survival, and my intuition tells me that you do not seem to faith in the Light."

"Intuition can sometimes be deceptive."

"Oh?"

Cullen took a step forward and reached out toward Old Winbolt; instantly, numerous sharp auras from every direction locked directly onto him, and even the two maidservants supporting Old Winbolt raised daggers with their free hands.

"Heh." Old Winbolt waved his hand, taking a step forward, "I still choose to believe my intuition."

"You are old."

Cullen placed his palm against Old Winbolt's shoulder, and a warm, glowing aura of Light flowed from Cullen's palm into the old man's body; to outsiders, nothing was visible, but Old Winbolt could perceive it with absolute clarity.

"Heh."

Taffman chuckled.

"Heh." Old Winbolt chuckled as well.

In truth, Taffman was not laughing at the same thing Old Winbolt was.

Now, certain mysteries regarding Cullen's relationship with Dark Moon Island were explained, because Light could be converted into power of other attributes.

However, Taffman felt neither anger nor resentment.

Because he was no longer that naval commander; at this moment, sensing that faint trace of the Light from the young man beside him actually brought him the greatest comfort.

As expected, the Light was everywhere.

Of course, what Taffman did not know was that in terms of true Dark Moon "lineage," the current Cullen possessed enough to make the entire royal family of Dark Moon Island look like mutts.

"It seems I truly am getting old," Old Winbolt nodded.

Taffman spoke, "As agreed, your men will remain outside, and my men will go in to operate the array."

"Oh, naturally."

Old Winbolt waved his hand, and the pirate legion parted ways completely.

Taffman led the way, Cullen followed behind, and the rest lined up in two files, marching together into the teleportation hall.

A teleportation hall required immense, complex construction costs and continuous maintenance expenditures, which meant only a stable and sufficiently powerful faction could afford to build a properly functioning one.

Even Diss back then could not deploy a teleportation array instantaneously and still had to rely on the teleportation arrays under the system of the Church of Order to jump across distances.

Taffman pointed toward an array ahead and said, "Go to that array over there; it can teleport you to a neutral, bustling hub, and you can transfer from there. By the way, do you have enough tickets?"

Taffman drew a stack of tickets from his robe pocket, which were the hard currency and most sought-after Order Tickets of the present era.

"It is enough."

Though the words claimed it was enough, his hand still took the tickets.

Because this felt somewhat like an elder giving pocket money to a junior, and moreover, it was not merely for Ophelia's sake.

"I take back what I just said; you do not need to look after Ophelia for me anymore, I feel she would be in even greater danger by your side."

"Heh." Cullen smiled, signaling his subordinates to follow him toward that teleportation array.

But right at that moment, an adjacent array suddenly flared with light.

Immediately after, a communication array on the flank also chimed with a summons.

Taffman frowned slightly, stepped forward, and opened the communication array.

Within the blue circle of the array, the figure of a man appeared:

"Prepare to receive me, I am coming over right now."

Taffman bowed and said, "Elder, there is still some time before the agreed teleportation window."

"It might be that those pirates dug too deep; I sense that the Cerberus of the Abyss has become more agitated than anticipated, so I must arrive early. The teleportation array on my end is already active; prepare the reception on yours."

"Yes, Elder."

The communication array deactivated.

Taffman turned to Cullen and said, "When this array hall is conducting an ultra-long-distance teleportation, other arrays cannot be activated. I must receive the Elder first, so you will need to wait a moment; once I have completed this, I will cover your teleportation departure."

Cullen did not ask why he did not just destroy the reception array here directly, because Taffman wanted to halt the awakening of that three-headed dog; if he merely destroyed the array, that Light Elder would still be able to cross over once it was repaired.

Furthermore, while there were likely no other teleportation arrays elsewhere on Fire Island, who knew what those three most powerful pirate families might have preserved internally.

Taffman intended to cast the Elder into the spatial undercurrent just as his teleportation began.

The reception commenced.

The teleportation array began to emanate radiant light, while Cullen and the others stood aside, watching.

After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, when the array's light reached its peak, a sword of Light materialized in Taffman's hand, and he struck down, directly destroying the active array before him.

"My Lord?"

"My Lord?"

The Light believers who had followed Taffman inside all showed expressions of shock; they clearly had never anticipated that Taffman would do such a thing.

Taffman spoke aloud, "This is a deception, a trap set by Order against our kind! If I had not just destroyed the teleportation array, those appearing here would have been the Whippers of Order!"

At times like this, speaking with absolute confidence was paramount; evidently, Taffman, having served as a fleet commander, excelled in this regard, and his words instantly deprived the group of Light believers under his command of their capacity to think clearly. Although seeds of suspicion and doubt had been planted, they would at least not attack Taffman as a traitor right now.

Taffman said to Cullen, "I will activate the array for you, get in quickly."

"Alright."

Just as the word left his mouth, a burst of flame suddenly erupted where Taffman had just destroyed the array, and then the flames dispersed, forming the phantom silhouette of a fire phoenix.

Purr, who had been sleeping soundly in Cullen's arms and had not even woken when Taffman entrusted Ophelia to Cullen earlier, now opened her eyes and lifted her head:

"Hmm, what a pure spirit of flame, yet it carries such a dense aura of death—what a paradoxical existence, meow."

Upon her appearance, the Fire Phoenix spat flame downward, and the fire instantly coalesced into a new summoning array.

Taafman immediately conjured the fire of light, intending to purify this Fire Phoenix, but just then, a hand appeared out of thin air above the array, dispelling Taafman’s unleashed fire of light with a single, direct slap.

"Heh, a renegade?"

Dark red power erupted instantly around Taafman as his form surged upward.

Yet, a shield of light suddenly manifested, blocking Taafman's strike; right after, a hollow-eyed, hunched man who looked quite young stepped out from the "nothingness."

"If I hadn't carried this Fire Phoenix spirit left behind by the God of Flame to help me forcibly forge a channel for positioning, I would have been lost in the spatial countercurrents by now.

Renegade, were you trying to bury me?"

"Smack!"

The shield of light vanished as the hunched youth thrust one hand forward; in an instant, the flesh of that palm peeled away entirely to reveal white bone, and a terrifying tearing force slammed straight into Taafman, instantly shattering his defenses.

The hunched youth followed up with a downward press of his single arm.

"Bang!"

Taafman was slammed heavily onto the ground.

"Ah!"

The hunched youth lifted his head and let out a low shout; a gray vortex materialized beneath Taafman, and three giant pythons emerged, wrapping Taafman completely.

The power within Taafman’s body erupted as he prepared to break free from the constraints, but the hunched youth appeared right by his side, driving the bony hand directly down into his chest.

"Puff!"

A ghastly white, resembling fish scales, blanketed Taafman, suppressing his resistance; meanwhile, the tails of those three giant pythons began connecting to the hunched youth’s back, and the power inside Taafman was continuously transferred into the youth's body through the serpentine forms.

Karen's eyes filled with astonishment; so this was the believer of light who had reportedly returned from the God-Burial Ground—aside from that shield of light, where else did he look even remotely like a believer of light!

The hunched youth scanned his surroundings, but fortunately, the contingent of genuine believers of light brought by Taafman also looked at him with eyes full of fear and dread, allowing Karen’s side to "blend in perfectly."

This entity who had forced his way into existence did not know, or at least did not realize at this moment, that a Squad of the Whip of Order was also present on the scene.

The hunched youth opened his mouth and let out a long howl; his tongue lengthened and flew out at that moment, condensing in midair into the hideous countenance of a woman, who let out a piercing shriek and cried:

"In the name of the servant to the God of Flame, release the seal!

Abyssal Sinful Three-Headed Hound—Gyragon.

You are now granted freedom!"

"Boom!!!!!!!!!!"

The dormant volcano at the center of the Fire Island suddenly let out a terrifying roar, and the sky above was instantly painted an eerie, fiery red.

The residents across the entire Fire Island awoke from their slumbers one after another, beginning to scream and flee; this commotion was no exaggeration to be called the end of the world.

"Buzz buzz buzz buzz!!!"

Blazing fireballs erupted one after another from the volcano, and magma began to flow out; following that, the ground started to bulge, and the volcano began to split apart.

A three-headed vicious hound, its physical size matching that of the volcano, stepped out from the magma; of those three canine heads, the left one symbolized "curse," the middle one symbolized "melting," and the right one symbolized "annihilation."

Having obtained its freedom, it took a step forward.

With just this single step, it directly triggered a violent shaking of the ground below.

"Crash-clatter..."

A row of villas originally built at the foot of the volcano collapsed instantly.

Seeing this scene, the three-headed vicious hound Gyragon, whose aura had been overwhelmingly fierce just moments before, widened its eyes in a sudden stare, seemingly startled.

Then, its left canine head took a deep breath toward the sky, inhaling all the scattered, flying meteors of fire that were about to crash down below entirely into its mouth;

Its right canine head lowered, inhaling deeply toward the ground, sucking in the magma that had erupted and was about to surge toward the town.

The middle canine head crouched down, extending its tongue to lick the row of houses it had previously shaken into collapse; by the looks of it, it wanted to use the adhesion of its saliva to piece these houses back together.

A whimper issued from its throat echoed toward the entire Fire Island and the nearby sea, and the meaning of this sound was:

"Good... useless dog..."