The Celeste sat motionless on the sea, the thick fog still churning around it and concealing the enormous ghost ship.
On deck, zombies and skeletons scrubbed the floor while the old pirate with only one leg supervised them, barking curses from time to time.
Ghosts and Spirit World Creatures circled the sails. Suddenly, they scattered as though something had frightened them. An enormous, blazing-white Flame Spear appeared in the fog overhead, tore through it, and plunged toward the Celeste as if to pierce the ship.
It landed on deck without setting anything alight, merely burning through the planks at the point of impact. Then it dissolved into scattered flames, which reassembled into a black-haired man in a top hat and a long trench coat.
Holding his hat in place, Sifa stamped out the flames beneath his feet before smiling at the old pirate. "I'm back."
Inside the captain's cabin, Celeste, who was moving about in Abrio's body, looked out the window at Sifa on deck with a cold, sinister gaze.
He had clearly sensed an unpleasant aura arising nearby moments earlier. It belonged to the Sun Pathway-warm and holy, something he loathed from the bottom of his heart.
Now he finally understood why Sifa had left the ship earlier. Had that human summoned the Sun's aura aboard, he might have failed to restrain the madness and malice he had been suppressing and turned the man into one of the ship's zombies.
Of course, that would inevitably have involved a fight, and quite a fierce one at that.
On deck, Sifa assessed his spirituality expenditure. Even after Recording several Sun Pathway abilities, he still had plenty left. Compared with when he had been Sequence 5, before reaching the demigod level, the difference was enormous.
His spirituality had indeed increased considerably after