Could Jabus Be Better?

Habit was a terrifying force.

Though countless harsh taxes and levies existed under Jabus's rule, a great many people still supported and remained loyal to him.

On Vitalia Island, Jabus was the sole ruler, an existence like a god.

Mark looked at Victor with a half-smile. "What, are you scared?"

"..."

Victor lowered his head, his hand trembling slightly.

He truly was afraid. That was Jabus, the ruler of Vitalia Island, the nominal master of them all.

Mark opened the chat group and typed with a smile: Looks like this kid isn't all that brave either.

Jennie: What's strange about being afraid of Uncle? I'm afraid too.

To her, Jabus had always been terrifying. Before, although he was frightening, he at least did not kill people indiscriminately, so she had held him in awe.

But now that Jabus had gone mad, even her awe had turned into fear.

Wasn't that perfectly normal?

Yet when Mark saw Jennie's words, he felt a little displeased.

This was already the second time Jennie had spoken up for Victor. He suspected that she had feelings for Victor.

Mark typed: Jennie, don't tell me you like Victor?

Jennie: How could that be? I already have someone I like. I don't like him.

Mark: Then who do you like?

Arthur: I want to know too. Sister Jennie, who do you like?

Ai Miye: Arthur, you idiot, why did you have to speak up? Wouldn't it be better to watch quietly?

Jennie: ...

The chat group instantly went cold.

Mark closed the chat group, torn between hope and fear, only to see that Victor had already picked up his blade and resumed sharpening it.

He crouched beside Victor and watched him sharpen the blade. Only after quite a while did he speak. "What, you still want revenge?"

"My reputation in Two-Harbor Town is terrible. Everyone thinks I'm an idle good-for-nothing. Only Xiao Wei was willing to listen to me and believe that my dream could come true," Victor said in a low voice as he sharpened his blade.

Mark asked curiously, "Can I ask what your dream was?"

"It's gone now." Victor fell silent for a moment before answering.

Mark nodded. "All right. So you still want to take revenge?"

"..."

Victor did not answer, merely continuing to sharpen his blade.

Just then, Hawkins emerged from the Black Knife's cabin, and Mark immediately returned to the Black Knife.

"Bring us ashore!" Hawkins ordered Mark.

Mark nodded and entered the cockpit.

The Black Knife gradually approached the shore before finally docking at the pier.

Victor stopped sharpening his blade and rose to look at the Black Knife, his grip tightening slightly around the weapon in his hand.

He was not afraid of death.

But he feared that if he died, no one would be left to avenge Avril.

Hawkins and Mark disembarked. Before they had taken more than a few steps, a Long-Haired Demon charged out of a nearby house.

"Watch out!"

"Come back quickly! There's a Long-Haired Demon!!"

Those watching from the ship shouted warnings one after another.

But when the Long-Haired Demon came within three meters of Mark, his Curse Spirit, Silver Wolf, struck.

Silver Wolf's fingernails transformed into long, slender blades. With a sweep of his right hand, he sliced through the Long-Haired Demon's thick hair and severed its outstretched arm.

That was not all. Almost simultaneously, Silver Wolf's other hand cut off the Long-Haired Demon's head. It remained in its charging posture for a moment before its body crashed down and rolled across the ground, finally stopping at Mark's feet.

Though Long-Haired Demons were powerful, their defenses were clearly inferior to Joyce after he had turned into a paper doll.

Silver Wolf's nails could extend and retract, and he also possessed formidable invisibility. Caught off guard, the Long-Haired Demon had been killed in an instant.

"Doesn't feel that strong."

Mark looked down at the headless corpse and said to Hawkins beside him.

The main reason was that the Long-Haired Demon's weakness was too obvious. It could only attack at close range and had no ranged abilities whatsoever. Mark's Curse Spirit specialized in mid-to-close-range attacks; before the Long-Haired Demon could even touch him, it was killed instantly.

Hawkins's Curse Spirit was called the Eternal Spirit and possessed two traits: hardness and mist form.

Put simply, it was "hard black mist."

Precisely because the Eternal Spirit was in mist form, its greatest difference from Silver Wolf was its ever-changing nature and myriad forms.

In an instant, black mist poured from Hawkins's palm. Like ropes, the mist swiftly bound the charging Long-Haired Demons.

Naturally, the Long-Haired Demons were unwilling to be restrained. They struggled frantically and even rolled around on the ground, but they simply could not break free from the black mist.

Hawkins opened a passage to the Eternal Space, and the black mist directly dragged the Long-Haired Demons one by one toward the passage, throwing them into the Eternal Space.

"Dead?"

Hawkins frowned slightly. The Long-Haired Demons had all died abruptly the moment he threw them into the Eternal Space.

He thought of one possibility: perhaps Long-Haired Demons could only survive on Vitalia Island, and once they left Vitalia Island, they would die.

If that hypothesis was correct, then did Jabus have a similar weakness?

Hawkins opened the chat group and asked: Jennie, has Jabus ever left Vidalia?

Jennie replied: I don't know. I rarely see Uncle. I see Qiao Si more often than I see him.

Qiao Si: Captain, only the butler knows Jabus's whereabouts. There's no use asking us.

On all of Vitalia Island, the person closest to Jabus was his butler. Most of his itineraries were arranged by the butler. Other than a few maids, no one could see Jabus himself without being summoned by him.

Out at sea, Victor and the others all stared at the shore in shock. They had originally thought the two men were doomed, but in the blink of an eye, the pair had dealt with all the Long-Haired Demons.

Mark's Silver Wolf was invisible, so the headless Long-Haired Demon's death had seemed rather inexplicable.

But Hawkins's Eternal Spirit was visible to the naked eye. In their eyes, Hawkins was like a sea demon from some tale, possessing miraculous power and able to release strange black smoke that instantly wiped out a group of Long-Haired Demons, not even leaving corpses behind.

Yet no one dared cheer, because sea demons were said to be temperamental and might even eat people.

Victor felt some fear as well, but recalling that Mark had not seemed like a bloodthirsty madman when speaking to him earlier, coupled with the obsession in his heart, he still found the captain and decided to go ashore.

A moment later, he rowed a small boat toward the pier, quickly climbed onto it, and caught up with the two men.

"Wait!" he called out.

Hawkins and Mark stopped and turned to look at him.

Victor did not panic. He ran up to them and said between breaths, "I know where Jabus is!"

"You know?" Mark asked in surprise.

Victor nodded. "I swam through the sea all the way and saw him enter a cave with my own eyes. I'm the only one who knows that place!"

"All right, lead the way!" Mark looked at Hawkins. Seeing him nod, Mark agreed.

Victor looked at the two of them and said, "If possible, could you let me deliver the final blow?"

"We'll see." Hawkins did not agree outright.

Victor understood as well. He nodded. "That's enough. Follow me!"

"Kid, what happened to that little guy afterward?" Mark followed behind Victor. Seeing that Jennie had asked him in the chat group to help inquire, he spoke up.

Jennie had not seen George's final fate in her dream, so she was curious.

"He was taken away by Jabus. I guess he's probably dead." At the mention of George, Victor's expression darkened somewhat.

Hawkins suddenly stopped and pondered, "No, why would Jabus take George away instead of killing him directly?"

"That's right. Everyone else was killed, so why did he only capture George?" Mark came to his senses and asked curiously.

Victor shook his head. "I don't know, but Jabus really did take George away."

"Captain, hasn't Jabus already gone mad? Could capturing George mean he's recovered?" Mark guessed.

Hawkins smiled noncommittally. "Wouldn't we know if we went and looked? Let's go!"

However, he became wary deep down as well. A madman and a rational person were certainly not equally dangerous.

If everyone were ordinary people, then a madman would naturally be more frightening. But Curse Casters were different. The calmer a Curse Caster was, the more dangerous he was, because you never knew what abilities he had hidden away.

Neither the amount of Curse Power nor one's rank was enough to judge a Curse Caster's strength. In the end, it depended on what Cursed Relics the Curse Caster possessed and what abilities they had.

It was not entirely impossible for a First-Rank Curse Master to bring down a Ninth-Rank Curse Master. If one embraced the resolve to die, even a low-rank Curse Master could be dangerous.

Hawkins extended his Curse Power and began scanning the surroundings.

In truth, even if Victor had not come along, Hawkins could still find Jabus as long as he was nearby. It would simply take more time.

The three left Harbor Village and headed toward Two-Harbor Town.

Along the way, they encountered quite a few Long-Haired Demons. This time, Hawkins simply dissected them on the spot, and Mark and Victor both went pale at the horrifying sight.

But the two soon discovered in shock that there was no blood inside the Long-Haired Demons!

Hawkins cut a Long-Haired Demon in half and found that its insides had all been replaced by a kind of black hair. Its entire body was stuffed with black fur, like a cloth doll.

"Mark, shave off the hair on this Long-Haired Demon," Hawkins ordered after pondering for a moment.

Mark froze briefly, then nodded in acknowledgment. Silver Wolf behind him immediately grew sharp nails and swiftly shaved away the Long-Haired Demon's hair.

Once the hair had been shaved clean, a swollen human face appeared before the three of them.

"It seems Long-Haired Demons were transformed from people," Hawkins said calmly.

Mark nodded. "Looks like one of Jabus's abilities is making puppets. These Long-Haired Demons are all his puppets."

"Not necessarily puppets. It could also just be making use of waste," Hawkins said thoughtfully as he looked at the Long-Haired Demon on the ground.

He had already vaguely guessed what Jabus was doing, but for the moment, he did not understand the purpose behind it.