Ghosts Under the Moonlit Night

Buck's body lay where Arthur had originally stood.

Arthur didn't rush to examine the corpse. Instead, he circled back to where he'd been and picked up the pistol.

After clearing away the residue, he reloaded it with powder and lead shot. The process took a minute.

Then he aimed at Buck's head and pulled the trigger. With a bang, Buck's head exploded, and only then did Arthur feel at ease.

Once the tension drained from his body, Arthur finally heard the cries of battle on Blue Bay Island.

Screams came from a distant tavern. There were sounds of fighting near the Stuart Family's tavern, too.

Arthur searched Buck's body and found a special beast-bone necklace around his neck. It looked as though it had been made from the tooth of a ferocious beast.

Buck had a single silver coin on him, and a slave brand on his shoulder.

The Black Devil Order's people were rather poor.

Closing his eyes to feel the sea breeze, Arthur picked up a pinch of sand and tossed it into the air. He opened his eyes and watched which way it drifted.

"Let the wind guide me."

He strode off in the direction the wind had pointed!

On the beach a hundred paces from the Stuart Family's tavern, a painter blocked Arena's path.

"Daughter of the Stuart Family's Night Griffin, stand here and watch quietly~"

"A great being will cast its gaze upon you. You will become its sacrifices!"

Arena remained silent and thrust her sword at the man blocking her way.

Moonlight fell upon Arena's blade, bursting into dazzling white light that obscured her true position.

Raphael sneered. A linen canvas board and a folding sable-hair brush appeared in his hands, and he quickly sketched a swordsman on the board.

He tore a sheet of pulp paper from the board and blew gently on it. A Dark Swordsman flew off the paper, landing on the ground and growing larger.

"Silver! Moon!"

Arena chanted in Old Hermetic Language, piercing through the swordsman Raphael had drawn.

Raphael retreated as he walked, his folding sable-hair brush whipping through the air in a blur. Sheet after sheet of pulp paper was used up on the board.

Suddenly!

Arena vanished before Raphael's eyes.

Raphael's vision went completely black. Even the silver moon overhead was obscured, but he calmly drew a suit of armor on his board.

A giant suit of armor appeared, blocking Arena's sword.

The Rite had already begun. No one could stop it. He only needed to stall long enough.

Arena furrowed her brow. Her opponent kept wearing her down with his supernatural abilities, but her Swordsmanship didn't need supernatural enhancement.

If they kept wearing each other down like this, her opponent was bound to lose.

He was stalling, but if he kept at it until the Church of Night arrived, the Black Devil Order wouldn't be able to escape Blue Bay Island.

Did they really have enough confidence to get away unscathed after causing chaos on Blue Bay Island?

The two of them were locked in a stalemate on the beach.

By the shore, Baker killed the pirates one by one as they tried to escape, hanging their corpses from the ships' masts.

He was extremely cautious. When stopping fleeing pirates, he never tried to block more than two at once.

That was just like him. They were holding such a sinful Rite on Blue Bay Island, and if it failed, he wanted to be able to escape as quickly as possible.

Just then, a single-masted boat drifted in from afar.

A sailor warned Baker that outsiders were approaching. Cautious as ever, Baker frowned when he saw three people aboard, a sense of foreboding rising in his heart.

"Fire a shot over there. Let's see what they do."

Baker, who controlled the harbor, ordered the sailors to man the cannon. At his command, it boomed, firing toward the distant boat.

It was too far away for Baker to see clearly, but he sensed supernatural power.

The three people on the boat seemed to be supernatural beings.

"Three against one isn't in my favor. Besides, there are so many people hanging—one, two... I won't be needed for the Rite anyway."

Baker didn't warn the sailors. He turned and ran toward the tavern, where Simon was setting up the Rite. It was the safest place right now.

The three people on the boat were the Ghosts Under the Moonlit Night, an enforcement squad sent by the Church of Night after Arena notified them.

The leader was a Priest of Night, a cleric who worshiped the Goddess of Night. That was equivalent to Sequence 7 on the supernatural pathway.

"Night blankets the earth, the silver moon shines with pure light—Moonlight!"

The ancient Hermetic words rang from the Priest of Night's mouth, echoing across Blue Bay Island's harbor.

A pillar of moonlight descended, shining on the fleeing Baker and revealing his location.

"After him!"

The two Swordsmen with the Priest of Night leapt from the boat. Their toes skimmed the sea, sending ripples across its surface as they charged toward Baker.

The Battleaxe Tavern was littered with corpses, and the Scimitar Bar was in shambles.

Simon had hung up the corpses and used their blood to draw a picture on the ground, creating a Rite to offer to a great being.

Everything was going astonishingly smoothly. The smuggling island of Blue Bay Island couldn't put up much resistance, and he'd killed more than thirty pirates on his own.

The barkeep from the Battleaxe Tavern and the barkeep from the Scimitar Bar both hung at the entrance to the pastry shop.

Arthur hid in a dark corner, watching Simon intently draw the Rite. Dark red blood congealed on the ground.

He lowered his voice and made his movements as small as possible, using cover to get close to the Rite.

Crouching behind an overturned plank, he cautiously reached out with the Whale Herder Sword and nudged the blood-drawn pattern apart.

Suddenly!

A shout rang out nearby. "Simon, supernatural beings have come to Blue Bay Island. Something may have gone wrong!"

Simon kept his composure. He cut the heel of a corpse and used the dripping blood to draw the final stroke on the ground.

The sacrificial Rite was now perfectly drawn. All they needed was enough offerings and to carry out the Rite in the proper order. Then they could make a deal with it.

"Baker! How many people came?"

"And another thing: Buck went to hunt down that lord. Why hasn't he come back yet?"

"Three! There are three of them!"

Simon saw Baker running toward him beneath the Pillar of Moonlight, and couldn't hold back his anger.

"Damn you, you stupid fish! This is the crucial part! Couldn't you have gone to Raphael?"

Baker grumbled unhappily, "What if Raphael's opponent kills me?"

Then he shouted, "Forget all that and hurry up with the Rite! We can't wait any longer!"

Simon calmed himself and walked to the center of the Rite, chanting in Old Latin.

"Devil sleeping in the ancient hell, you are the sum of all desires, trading with all people as equals."

"Your most faithful believer, Simon, offers you a soul filled with desire!"

As Simon chanted, Arthur raised the Fear Pistol, aimed at his chest, and pulled the trigger.

A sudden wave of Dread interrupted Simon's prayer.

Arthur stood up and kicked sand across the ground, ruining the carefully drawn Rite.

"Holy crap! You damned pirate!"

When Baker saw Arthur wreck the Rite, a question mark seemed to form on his forehead. He strode toward Arthur.

The fool had dared to ruin their Rite!

Simon warned Baker, "Use his blood to cover the gap."

Then he continued chanting the Rite, reciting Old Latin as he swept his scimitar across the ground.

Arthur had heard Simon's warning. Blood could cover the Rite?

If his blood would work, wouldn't Baker's work too?

The fight couldn't start here. Arthur turned and slipped into the Scimitar Bar, moving the battle into a cramped space.

Baker snorted, then suddenly stopped and stepped back. It had just occurred to him that Arthur was Buck's target, hadn't he?

That madman Buck had died at Arthur's hands!

"Damn pirate, trying to lure me away? Dream on!"

His face twisted as he took out a small knife and cut his palm. Blood dripped into the gap in the Rite.

Baker was using his own blood to mend the flaw in the Rite!