Goodbye

The saxophone music gradually reached its climax.

The wide-ranging notes surged like furious waves at sea, rising and falling, crashing and roaring.

Inside the cabin,

The Celestial Dragon danced wildly, mercilessly lashing out with the iron whip in his hand.

His expression was frenzied and exhilarated, his face twisted into a sickening grin.

His feet moved to the rhythm of the music, the sound of the whip weaving through the soaring, stirring saxophone melody, answering it beat for beat.

Crack!!

Crack!!

Crack!!

The whip cracked against tender flesh. The woman clenched her teeth as her body was covered in countless bloody welts.

A searing pain shot from her wounds, but she didn't dare cry out. She only clenched her teeth and struggled to keep a fawning smile on her beautiful face.

"No, that's not right! Your eyes are wrong!!"

Saint Childers suddenly roared in fury. His hand, covered in jeweled rings, swung the whip again, harder and harder.

"You should look at me with defiance!! You should hate me!! You should despise me!!"

"Think about it! I killed your father. I killed your mother. Remember it properly for me!!"

Crack!!

The vicious lash cut through the air and landed on the woman's chest, leaving a bloody wound.

The woman let out a muffled groan. Soaked in blood, she lay on the floor, gasping for breath, her gaze growing ever more humble and submissive.

She knew very well that if she showed hatred in her eyes, it would only fuel the Celestial Dragon's twisted, sick desires.

By contrast, if she simply obeyed and submitted, he would usually lose interest before long.

"Damn you!! Damn you!!"

Saint Childers strode forward and slapped the woman across the face with his fleshy hand.

Her body flew two meters through the air. Her face visibly swelled, blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and her long black hair fell in disarray.

"How boring!!"

The Celestial Dragon cursed, panting, growing angrier by the second.

He drew the golden pistol from his waist, clicked off the safety, and pressed it against the woman's bloodstained forehead.

He'd planned to spare her life if she could please him.

But it seemed there was no need.

As expected, a noble god like him had no reason to show mercy to these lowly, filthy ants.

After all, he'd already found himself another exquisite toy, hadn't he?

At the thought, Saint Childers grinned cruelly once more.

"I'm sorry, my dear wife."

He looked down at his seventeenth wife, his finger resting lightly on the pistol's trigger.

"Goodbye."

But at that very moment,

Saint Childers saw the woman's pupils suddenly contract.

The blankness in her expression began to fade, and her eyes fixed on something behind him.

"Hmm?" Saint Childers frowned.

He caught a strange smell.

One he knew very well.

The smell of blood.

An overwhelming stench of blood.

Just then, a creaking scrape sounded behind him.

Saint Childers turned and looked curiously toward the cabin door.

The cabin door was slowly being pushed open.

On the floor, crimson blood seeped in through the gap beneath it.

As the cabin door swung fully open,

A fierce wind, carrying snow, rushed inside.

A tall figure stood there, drenched in blood. Snow clung to his short black hair, and his broad white cloak billowed behind him, stirring the bloody air.

Saint Childers' eyes widened. He couldn't help but cry out:

"It's you!!"

He stared at Darren standing in the doorway, his peripheral vision catching the carnage on the deck outside.

Bodies dressed in black suits hung suspended in midair.

The twelve CP agents assigned to escort him had all been killed. Rusty steel rods pierced their bodies, leaving them sprawled in disarray.

They hung in the blizzard like tattered clothes.

Blood dripped from their corpses, staining the entire deck crimson.

Saint Childers' pupils contracted to pinpricks.

This man... he'd killed my men!?

Could it be...

In an instant, a bottomless chill surged from the Celestial Dragon's feet, raced up his spine, and shot into his head, making his scalp prickle.

"Darren, North Blue Admiral and the highest-ranking Marine officer in North Blue, Colonel at Marine Headquarters, pays his respects to Lord Saint Childers."

Darren stood in the doorway, narrowed his eyes, bowed slightly, and smiled.

Bang!!

Flames burst from the golden pistol.

The bullet struck Darren squarely in the forehead, only to ring out like iron striking iron before ricocheting away with a shower of sparks.

"Lord Saint's aim is quite good, I see."

Darren smiled as he stepped forward.

"You... you..."

Seeing that the gunshot had no effect, Saint Childers was shaken to the core and stumbled back two steps.

"Darren, what are you trying to do!?"

"What am I trying to do... Now that's a good question..."

Darren smiled, paused for a second as if considering it, then winked at Saint Childers.

"What do you think, Lord Saint Childers?"

Saint Childers froze, then roared in fury:

"Whatever you're trying to do, you've already offended me. You must die!!!"

As the Marine Captain drew closer, Saint Childers frantically pulled the trigger.

Bang bang bang bang!!

The bullets struck the Marine Captain one after another, only to ricochet away, leaving several bullet holes in the cabin's floor and walls.

After firing several shots, Saint Childers stared in bewilderment at the man now standing before him.

"You..."

Darren slapped him across the face. The glass helmet he wore shattered along with it, and countless shards cut into the Celestial Dragon's face, drawing blood.

Under Darren's terrifying strength, Saint Childers' piggish face twisted out of shape. His body spun through the air and flew several meters before slamming into the cabin wall.

The wooden boards shattered with a bang.

Saint Childers let out a wretched howl, his bloodshot eyes glaring venomously at Darren as he pointed at him.

"You lowly—"

Schk!!

Two steel rods suddenly shot up from the cabin floor, coiling around the Celestial Dragon's arms like roots. They pierced straight through his fleshy hands, pinning Saint Childers to the cabin wall.

"AAAAAAAH!!"

Saint Childers screamed like a slaughtered pig.