Amid the mercenary commander's wails of despair, that cold, resolute voice rang out once more.
"I promised you, but you still have something left to do."
Through the wraiths' eyes, Moros witnessed the mercenary commander's near-mad state.
Before today, Moros had never had any dealings with the mercenary commander, and the undead soldiers under his command had slaughtered most of the mercenaries under the commander's command.
As a meticulous necromancer, Moros would never casually trust the promise the mercenary commander had made on the Ocean Miracle out of necessity.
Though the mercenary commander might report to Moth to Fire according to Moros's wishes out of gratitude for Elysia's mercy, Moros would never place his hopes in someone else's hands.
Thus, Moros dispatched a small squad of wraiths to follow the mercenary commander closely, ensuring everything proceeded according to his plan.
For incorporeal wraiths capable of flight, stormy weather and violent sea winds posed no obstacle.
The wraiths silently boarded the small transport ship the mercenaries had arrived on and quietly monitored the situation's development.
When some mercenaries attempted to attack the Ocean Miracle, Moros controlled one of the wraiths to speak, giving the mercenaries enough intimidation to ensure they would not lash out in desperation.
Moros's objective was clear: he wanted the mercenaries to know that every word and action of theirs was under his control.
Any reckless move would only bring about even more miserable consequences.
Once the mercenary commander understood why the wraiths had appeared, he struggled to his feet and staggered forward.
"I understand..."
He spoke softly, promising the wraiths, and the necromancer behind them, that there would be no suspicious actions.
Through the wraiths' perspective, Moros clearly observed every movement the mercenary commander made in the communications room.
Moros watched as the mercenary commander reported the situation to his employer—Moth to Fire.
It seemed this fellow still valued his life quite highly.
Having reached that conclusion, Moros withdrew his gaze from the mercenary commander.
Of course, Moros had no intention of recalling those wraiths.
In the necromancer's view, it was well worth sacrificing a few wraiths to keep monitoring the mercenary commander and the mercenaries aboard the ship, ensuring that Elysia and Eden's existence would not be discovered by Moth to Fire.
His attention returned to the Ocean Miracle.
After realizing that the undead soldiers had no intention of harming them, the passengers aboard the ship began to grow restless.
"Hey! I'm Deputy Minister Zhao from the Mu Continent Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I know someone must be controlling you from behind the scenes. Bring him out to see me at once."
A politician in a suit, his belly protruding, blocked the path of a passing Vampire Lord and spoke in a forceful tone.
Behind him, a group of people dressed in all kinds of formal attire, clearly wealthy and influential, spoke up to support him.
"That's right! I'm the chairman of XX Company. Our company has connections with the Mu Continent military..."
"My father is Minister Chen. If you don't come out, I'll have my father punish you severely..."
"You can't do this. We want freedom..."
Not only these self-important elites, but many crew members and ordinary passengers also voiced their dissatisfaction, hoping the controller behind the undead soldiers would reveal himself.
In similar incidents elsewhere, Moros would usually have the undead soldiers take action and drive them away.
He believed that once the undead soldiers acted, the passengers aboard the ship would understand their situation.
After all, they had already submitted to the mercenaries once to survive. Bowing their heads again to the necromancer who had controlled the undead to slaughter the mercenaries was only natural.
But things became complicated in the shopping plaza.
Because of Elysia and Eden's presence, Moros could not use his methods freely.
At the very least, with them watching, Moros could not give an order to disperse the crowd through slaughter.
That would lower their favorability.
However, Moros was unwilling to simply let the people gathered in the shopping plaza go.
If he did, Elysia and Eden's identities would be exposed to Moth to Fire.
Though Elysia and Eden said it would not matter even if they were exposed, Moros was still unwilling to compromise on this point.
"Trust me, I can handle all of this."
As he reassured Elysia and Eden, Moros issued orders through the Hero Panel to the wraiths wandering through the Ocean Miracle.
Under the necromancer's command, the wraiths immediately abandoned everything they were doing and swiftly flew toward the shopping plaza.
With flight speeds comparable to Attack Helicopters and spiritual bodies that ignored all ordinary obstacles, they flooded into the shopping plaza not long after Moros finished speaking.
When hundreds of wraiths gathered together, the negative energy field they formed was enough to have a noticeable effect on ordinary people.
In fact, if Elysia had not protected Eden in time, Moros had been prepared to cast a defensive spell on her to resist the negative energy field's erosion.
The passengers shrouded by the negative energy field felt only a bone-piercing chill seep into their marrow, a sign that the flames of their lives had begun to flicker.
Moros watched them and spoke in a cold, hard voice.
"Listen. I'll have the wraiths watch you. I hope you understand what you can say and what you cannot say."
Though he said that, Moros actually had no intention of sparing these passengers.
None of the spells he currently possessed could permanently rewrite memories.
For Elysia and Eden's safety, the choice Moros would make was obvious.
Only the dead could keep secrets!
He said this now purely so Elysia and Eden's opinion of him would not decline.
The Mercenaries' Destruction and the Spectral Dragon
Feeling the wraiths' malicious gazes, every passenger gathered in the shopping plaza was gripped by fear.
They had personally witnessed the undead brutally slaughtering the mercenaries. Now, faced with these terrifying beings, the passengers all claimed they had seen nothing and knew nothing.
Seeing this, Elysia and Eden said nothing.
They understood Moros's intentions. This was to ensure their safety and keep their identities from being exposed to Moth to Fire.
Elysia and Eden had personally heard the mercenary commander explain the inside story behind this attack. They knew very well what consequences awaited them if they entered Moth to Fire's sights.
Though the Pink Fairy Lady was kind-hearted, she attached great importance to the safety of her dearest friend—Eden.
And Eden, who would eventually become the representative of Pre-Collapse Civilization art, was unquestionably intelligent.
Therefore, even though Moros's threatening words ran contrary to mainstream values, Elysia and Eden could understand and accept them.
Of course, that was because they did not know Moros had already issued a kill-on-sight order for these passengers in his heart.
Given Elysia and Eden's personalities, they would never stand by and watch hundreds of people be slaughtered by their friend simply so Moth to Fire would not trouble them.
"It's getting late."
After driving all the passengers and staff lingering in the shopping plaza back to their rooms, Moros gazed at Elysia and Eden's beautiful faces.
"Let's leave it here for today."
Hearing Moros's words, Elysia responded with a smile.
"All right, then get some rest early. Eden and I will also... yawn~"
Yawning, the Pink Fairy Lady lazily stretched, perfectly displaying her captivating curves.
"Staying up late is a girl's greatest enemy! See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow!"
"Mm, see you tomorrow."
Moros smiled as he bid Elysia and Eden farewell, then turned and headed toward his cabin.
At the same time, his gaze shifted toward the small transport ship where the mercenary commander was.
This was not because Moros intended to take any action against the mercenaries, but because something had gone wrong with that small transport ship.
Under the wraiths' close surveillance, the mercenary commander gave his employer a detailed report of the mission's failure.
When his employer asked for the specific reason behind the failure, the mercenary commander answered as Moros had instructed: they had encountered the necromancer Moros.
Just as Moros had said aboard the Ocean Miracle, the mercenary commander's employer reasonably accepted this explanation.
Considering that even the Mu Continent, the world's hegemon, had backed down before the necromancer, it was already an impressive performance for a squad of mercenaries to have a few survivors.
They truly could not be expected to complete the original
mission.
Originally, the matter had nothing more to do with Moros at that point.
However, while Moros was handling the aftermath aboard the Ocean Miracle, the small transport ship carrying the mercenaries suddenly exploded violently.
In an instant, flames shot into the sky, their intense light exceptionally glaring in the darkness.
The explosion thundered across the sea. Massive columns of water surged upward as smoke spread everywhere.
The small transport ship instantly collapsed in the violent blast. Its keel was torn into pieces, while fragments of its hull scattered in every direction and fell into the turbulent sea.
With their keen senses, the wraiths discovered that the explosion was no accident, but the result of a torpedo attack from beneath the water.
Clearly, even though the necromancer had spared those mercenaries disguised as pirates, their employer—Moth to Fire—had no intention of sparing them.
After receiving the wraiths' report, Moros swiftly issued an order for them to trace the torpedo's path in reverse and search for the source of the attack.
The vision of the undead differed from that of the living.
The living would have their sight obstructed by the rain curtain of the storm and the murky, surging seawater, but the undead would not.
Moros believed the wraiths could complete the task he had assigned them well.
At the same time, he ended his conversation with Elysia and Eden and slowly walked toward his cabin.
Come forth, my proud servant!
As he walked toward the first-class cabin area, Moros opened a Demiplane passage above the Ocean Miracle that connected to Graveyard City.
"Roar!"
With a dragon's roar that shook heaven and earth, a gigantic, terrifying black dragon head emerged from the Demiplane passage.
Spectral Dragon!
This powerful undead creature, standing at the pinnacle of the Graveyard faction's forces, was so enormous that the Demiplane passage opened above the Ocean Miracle could barely accommodate its powerful body.
Its enormous, tattered wings were tightly pressed against its sides as it forced its way out of the portal. Only after its upper body had fully emerged did they suddenly spread outward, blotting out the sky.
"My God!"
"What is that?"
"A dragon, that's a dragon!"
"..."
The passengers and sailors cried out one after another, their faces filled with shock and fear.
They had never seen such a massive creature, much less from such close range.
Even Eden and Elysia, who had been talking late into the night by candlelight, were stunned by the Spectral Dragon's appearance.
"Elysia, is this Moros's doing too?"
Eden's voice trembled. Though she tried her best to remain calm, she still could not hide the shock in her heart as she faced the Spectral Dragon circling in the sky.
Elysia looked up at the Spectral Dragon. Its colossal body and the mist of negative energy swirling around it made her feel as though her worldview had been violently shaken.
Though the Spectral Dragon's strength was nothing remarkable in Elysia's eyes, even the well-traveled Pink Fairy Lady could not understand how a pile of bones could fly through the sky.
What surprised her even more was that Elysia could not sense even the slightest trace of Collapse Energy from the Spectral Dragon.
Otherwise, she would not have been so surprised.
After all, Collapse Energy could do anything.
"My dear Eden, you already have the answer in your heart, don't you?"
Elysia understood her dearest friend far too well.
Though Eden had asked in a questioning tone just now, she already had a clear answer in her heart.
Before you continue