Seeing that the mood was just right, Tris pushed aside the clutter blocking the door and unlatched the bolt locking the entrance.
With a dagger in hand, he was the first to rush out.
Behind Tris was the captain of the Clover, holding a revolver.
Most of the ship's firearms had been seized by the rioting thugs, and they had not left the crew with many cold weapons either.
Yet encouraged by Tris, the crew had gradually lost their minds and most of their fear of the thugs' weapons.
Flooded with Wish Power, Morien also rose to his feet and followed everyone out of the lower deck cabins.
He felt light on his feet, as though drunk.
In the various cabins, thugs who heard the commotion outside also rushed out with guns and knives.
The two groups ran into each other in the corridor.
Very quickly, the corridors, cabins, dining hall, and deck all descended into chaos.
Gunshots, shouting, and the sounds of slaughter.
Morien moved much more slowly. He was the last to leave the room, only after everyone else had charged out.
He took a few unsteady steps into the battlefield, neither seeking cover nor using his ability to lower his presence.
Someone immediately set their sights on him.
Bang!
A bullet flew toward Morien, who was completely exposed.
He grinned. His Spirituality suddenly stirred, making him instinctively turn his head toward the bullet flying in from not far away.
An ordinary person's Spirituality should not have been capable of such a function, yet he had truly done it.
For an instant, the bullet slowed in Morien's eyes. He could see it spinning as it approached him.
He could see it clearly!
He had actually seen it clearly!
Morien raised a hand and reached for the bullet.
Whoosh!
Blue "flames" ignited in his palm.
Calling them flames was not entirely accurate. Their form was hard to describe; they were somewhat like wind that had been dyed, more like something akin to an "aura" given color.
This was the manifestation of Cursed Energy Discharge.
Pfft!
He caught the bullet firmly.
"Huh?"
Even Morien froze for a moment.
That action had been entirely instinctive.
He had never imagined that he would catch a bullet barehanded, much less that he would actually succeed.
Morien's act of catching a bullet barehanded did not frighten the distant thugs.
A barrage of bullets immediately poured toward him.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
At the same time, the "flames" in Morien's palm spread across his entire body, setting him ablaze.
Recalling the manga he had once read, Morien covered the surface of his body with Cursed Energy.
The bullets struck him in a rapid clatter, but every single one was deflected.
Ordinarily, with the total amount of Cursed Energy he possessed, he could not have covered his entire body.
Even covering both hands was difficult.
But this time, Morien found that he had done it effortlessly.
As he sensed the Cursed Energy covering his body's surface, Morien suddenly noticed something.
His Cursed Energy was quite different from the Cursed Energy of Jujutsu Morien in his memories.
Both in quality and quantity.
"Wow," Morien murmured.
In the setting of Jujutsu Kaisen, there were five grades.
Grade 4, Grade 3, Grade 2, Grade 1, and Special Grade.
Assuming ordinary weapons could harm Cursed Spirits:
A Grade 4 Cursed Spirit was something an ordinary person might be able to deal with using a wooden stick.
A Grade 3 Cursed Spirit was roughly something modern handguns could handle.
A Grade 2 Cursed Spirit could barely be killed by repeated shotgun hits.
A Grade 1 Cursed Spirit might not die even after being blasted by a tank shell.
Finally, there were Special Grades, beings that could not be harmed even by carpet bombing.
Jujutsu Sorcerers, meanwhile, were rated based on being able to routinely defeat Cursed Spirits one grade above them.
For example, a Grade 3 Jujutsu Sorcerer could normally fight a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit alone.
Before entering the space, Jujutsu Morien had been at the level of a Grade 4 Jujutsu Sorcerer, or perhaps even lower.
After all, Morien had never received systematic training, and his physical fitness had been absurdly poor.
Most importantly, in the setting of Jujutsu Kaisen, even ordinary people possessed Cursed Energy. Before crossing over, Jujutsu Morien had possessed no Cursed Energy whatsoever, and his body had never undergone even the slightest enhancement from Cursed Energy itself.
Others were Grade 4 Jujutsu Sorcerers because Grade 4 was all they were capable of.
Morien was a Grade 4 Jujutsu Sorcerer because Grade 4 was the lowest grade available.
The Most Ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerer in History truly lived up to the name.
What could Reggie, whom netizens called The Most Ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerer in History, possibly compare to him?
But now, Jujutsu Morien seemed to have been strengthened after synchronizing with his other selves.
The synchronization was comprehensive.
It included physical fitness, mastered abilities, the energy within his body, and even the body's innate talents.
And it seemed that he had stacked the Cursed Energy of the Jujutsu World, the Spirituality of the Mysteries World, and the Path Power of the Honkai: Star Rail World together. The three could convert into one another and had each gained some of the others' traits.
An ordinary person would not have much Spirituality, and the Path Power of someone who had just stepped onto a Path would not be particularly high either.
But Morien already had the mask's enhancement, and he had alone swallowed up all the Wish Power produced over a week by every crew member aboard the ship.
The primitive pistols of this era could no longer harm him at all.
Kill them...
Morien raised both hands. Great quantities of Spirituality, Cursed Energy, and Path Power gathered in his hands alongside Wish Power.
I want to go home... I want to live... I want to see my family...
His movements halted.
The next moment, those complicated energies rapidly shifted downward to his legs.
Boom!
The strange masked man who had been standing in the middle of the area, his entire body stained with "flames," suddenly vanished. At the same time, a hole appeared in the ceiling overhead.
On top of the cabin, Morien had smashed through the ceiling and jumped up.
He forced himself to sit down where he was, patting his head as he felt that his emotions were extremely unstable.
A person who had only just become a Pathstrider had absorbed the accumulated extreme emotions and extreme Wish Power of nearly a hundred people aboard one ship over an entire week.
Morien felt that he could not quite handle it.
He had been contaminated by Wish Power.
Drip.
A drop of water fell.
Rain began to fall from the sky.
Just as Morien had guessed, there would be a torrential storm today.
On the roof, he touched his mask and fell into thought.
As he thought, Morien came up with a new idea.
Tris, who had originally been the first to rush out, had somehow retreated into a corner. He concealed himself in the darkness with an Assassin's ability, a smile on his lips.
Rain began falling from the sky, and fierce winds rose.
It seemed there would be a storm today. It really suited the current situation.
Tris thought silently.
Soon, rain began to fall.
It started as a drizzle before quickly becoming a downpour.
The smile on Tris's face grew more and more pleased.
He felt that his Potion had been completely digested.
This incitement had been the final step in digesting his Potion.
But...
Isn't this too bland?
He heard a voice from the depths of his heart.
No, it's enough.
Tris raised his head in delight.
I can already feel that the Potion has been fully digested.
No. I said it isn't enough.
He heard that voice again.
This time, Tris finally sensed that something was wrong.
At first, he had thought they were his own thoughts, that he was questioning himself.
But how could he possibly refute himself?
He forced his eyes open and swiftly looked around.
Was there another Beyonder on this ship?
Who was it?
Where was he?
"Who..."
He had only uttered one word.
Boom!
Suddenly, the ship violently shook.
Splash!
The surface of the water broke apart.
Amid violent waves, an enormous tentacle emerged from beneath the water.
Tris's pupils abruptly contracted.
He braced himself against a nearby pillar with one hand, steadying his body.
"What are you afraid of? It's all fake." That amused voice continued to echo in his heart.
Fake? What was fake?
Was he saying that the tentacle before him was fake? An illusion?
Just as Tris was about to say something, he saw the tentacle smash down with force, leaving a crater in the deck.
The tentacle became lodged in the crater.
More and more tentacles emerged from beneath the water. One after another, they slammed against the ship and wrapped around its hull.
The ship suddenly sank.
You're saying this is fake?
"Who exactly are you?"
Tris forcibly calmed himself.
Since the other party was willing to communicate, there was room to negotiate.
He wanted to incite others, but he had never intended to die here.
Guided by his Spiritual intuition, Tris raised his head with all his strength and looked toward the cabin roof.
He saw a sneering mask.
He had noticed the commotion from earlier as well, but if it was merely someone resisting bullets head-on, Tris was somewhat wary. So he had hidden amid the chaos.
"Morien?" Tris asked in confusion.
Unusual clothing, a strange mask, fluorescent patterns covering his body...
Everything about him radiated abnormality, yet Tris always subconsciously overlooked those abnormalities.
"Who exactly are you..." Tris's pupils suddenly shrank.
It was not as though he had never seen a Sequence 7, nor had he never seen methods resembling invisibility.
But he did not believe a Sequence 7 could accomplish this.
He was clearly standing right before him, clearly so full of abnormalities. Yet as long as he did not speak first, Tris could notice nothing at all.
This was at least a Sequence 6!
"What do you want?" Tris tightly gripped his dagger.
If he was a Sequence 6...
Boom!
The Clover shook violently once again.
But Morien was not worried in the slightest.
He stood on the cabin roof, swaying to a rhythm Tris could not hear, looking to be in an especially good mood.
"I already told you, it's fake." Morien sat casually atop the cabin, grinning. "I'm not skilled enough to create a real Sea Monster this huge."
He adjusted the mask on his face and communicated with Tris using the Resonance Curse Technique.
It could not be helped; he truly did not know how to speak Loenese.
Fortunately, the Resonance Curse Technique directly sent what Morien wanted to say into the target's mind.
"Relax, calm yourself, and feel it carefully." Morien raised one finger, swaying his head from side to side.
"As long as you believe it doesn't exist, it won't be able to hurt you."
Hearing this, Tris forced himself to calm down through meditation.
After all, faced with a Mid-Sequence powerhouse two sequences above him, all he could do was obey.
Then he looked again at the tentacles around him and discovered that they had actually become faint and indistinct.
One tentacle swept past his feet, brushing against his calf, yet it passed straight through...
Then it tore down a railing.
"But it's tearing apart the ship!" Tris blurted out.
This Sea Monster could not hurt him, but it could hurt the ship!
If the ship sank, there was no way he would survive aboard it.
"Exactly." Morien tilted his head and made a helpless gesture. "Because plenty of people on this ship believe it exists."
"You are the ones who created it." Morien spoke with a smile in his voice.
"I merely gathered your wishes together for you."
He made a gathering gesture.
"This is a Sea Monster... that can only harm this ship and the people aboard it."
Morien held his mask and raised his head, looking at the sky, at the Wish Power spreading through the air above the entire ship.
"A full week..."
"Massive amounts of emotion gathered on this ship, lingering without dispersing."
"On Elation's Pathway, humor and malice possess equal power, and whether what finally emerges is fear or smiles does not matter." Morien sat atop the cabin, his voice reaching Tris's ears.
Tris did not understand what a Pathway was.
But instinctively, he felt that something was wrong.
"The desire to survive, bloodthirsty instincts, humanity indulged without restraint, the willingness to do anything to stay alive..." Morien placed a hand over his mask.
"Thank you so much for helping me 'instigate' these emotions. If it were only me, I definitely couldn't have done it."
He lowered his head again.
His entire posture remained relaxed as he sat on the edge of the cabin roof, left leg folded beneath him and right leg dangling loosely.
"I can tell you right now how to kill this Sea Monster with ease. How about it?" He held a finger before his lips, his tone brimming with amusement.
He had originally wanted to call this kind of creation Imagenae.
Unfortunately, the name Imagenae had already been registered in advance.
What a pity.
Tris was no fool.
On the contrary, he was very smart.
When Morien had first reminded him that this Sea Monster did not exist, he had already thought of the solution.
But what was the use of thinking of it?
There was nothing he could do.
Morien continued speaking.
"Go on and try. If you can instigate everyone into believing that this Sea Monster does not exist."
"Then it will disappear immediately."
Morien's voice grew more and more delighted.
As an Instigator, Tris immediately judged that Morien had not lied from beginning to end.
But... but...
He instinctively turned his head, just in time to see the Sea Monster's tentacle lash out and snap a mast.
How was he supposed to make everyone else believe this was fake?!
He turned back once more to look at Morien.
Morien gently spread his hands.
"Do your best."