Captain – Chapter 322 – The True Monster

This strike came too suddenly, as if all of Roy’s previous behavior, words, and even the entire negotiation had been preparation for this moment.

“Thud.”

A muffled sound as the blade entered flesh.

Vivian’s blood-red eyes widened slightly as she stared directly into those dark golden orbs.

She saw no emotion in them, yet still felt that bone-chilling coldness penetrating her heart, felt the resolve, intensity, and undisguised treachery contained in this strike.

How could one person be so complex?

Indifference and passion, fearlessness and shamelessness, straightforwardness and scheming…

Countless contradictory qualities seemed to emerge from those eyes, then vanish like raindrops falling into an icy sea—like fleeting, brilliant colors, intense and terrifying, making it impossible to discern the truth within.

The young woman had never seen such a person.

Even though she had lived so many years because of the Lady, seen countless pirates either heroic or despicable, she still felt unfamiliar with such a changeable being—contempt, anger, and faintly…

Fear.

The pirate before her was like the devil the Lady had described—no, exactly the same.

Those deceptive methods, that merciless style—if she hadn’t known Edward was still on Devil’s Island, Vivian might have suspected she was the Pirate King himself.

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No wonder he chose you, but unfortunately, there won’t be a second devil in this world.

Because you will die today.

Thinking coldly, the emotions in the young woman’s blood-red eyes gradually calmed.

“Tap… tap…”

With heavy footsteps, she slowly retreated.

Her abdomen, pierced by the curved saber, shed no blood. What stained the blade were blood-colored crystals, like ice fragments dyed crimson, emanating an eerie, tragic beauty.

As these crystals left her body, they rapidly sublimated into gas, pale red in color, intertwining with the deep blue light particles like the harmony of ice and fire.

This scene was truly beautiful, yet it made one feel as if plunged into an ice cellar.

As someone in the midst of this scene, Roy’s feelings were naturally the strongest, though both the tragic beauty and the penetrating cold lingered in her heart only momentarily, leaving no trace.

She had been watching not the other’s clouded eyes, but the wound beneath the pierced coat.

A cold wind came from outside the lighthouse, blowing both their clothes, coincidentally fluttering the tear in that blood-colored coat, revealing the scene within completely.

Vivian’s skin color, like her face, was terribly pale. This could hardly be called sickly, as it was far from what any human could possess. Because of this, that blood mark was particularly striking, looking like a stroke of red ink drawn across white paper.

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For an ordinary person, that red ink would not dry immediately but would continue to flow across the paper, until deepening the blood color and staining the deep blue of that captain’s uniform.

But the young woman didn’t. The cold wind rose and fell, the coat’s tear lifted and dropped, but that blood mark didn’t spread. Instead, it gradually healed, soon becoming a thin line before completely disappearing, as if it had never existed.

“This is simply cheating…”

Seeing this, Roy sighed deeply, feeling helpless for the first time, just like those she had previously manipulated.

In fact, her reason for negotiating with the young woman, apart from extracting information about the scholar, was to prepare for this strike.

The captain knew that if negotiations proceeded smoothly, she might have a good chance of deceiving the other and escaping easily. Upon returning to the Mermaid, she could pretend nothing had happened—what could Vivian do to her then?

But from the beginning, she had never intended to take this path.

Most of what she said in the negotiation was indeed true, including her dissatisfaction with the devil’s actions, which were Roy’s genuine feelings. But one thing could never be true—her willingness to reconcile and cooperate with the Lady.

Back in Yadris, she had already resolved to obtain the magical box. If given the opportunity, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill that deity, because she had personally witnessed the devil’s power and knew how dangerous it was to allow such an existence to remain in the world.

If the Lady were to recover one day, still harboring hatred for pirates, what consequences would that lead to? What fate would await the Southern Islands?

Roy dared not even imagine.

So whether to support the devil or side with the Lady wasn’t even a choice. Even if Edward were as terrible as Bivis claimed, he couldn’t compare to a deity in the world who might regain great power at any moment.

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At worst, she could just ignore the devil. Could he possibly leave Devil’s Island to cause her trouble?

Therefore, in the captain’s eyes, the Lady was an irreconcilable enemy, and her most capable follower—the Blood Craver Vivian—was a threat that had to be eliminated.

Her previous strike was an attempt to cut off one of the Lady’s hands, though even Roy herself hadn’t held much hope for this attempt.

If Vivian were so easy to kill, she would have died in the judgments over hundreds of years. After all, those she hunted weren’t beasts acting on instinct in the jungle, but extremely dangerous, utterly shameless villains.

Roy just hadn’t expected that not only would this strike fail to kill the other, but it would also reveal another answer, immediately dispelling any thought of trying again.

Blood in the form of strange crystals, unmoved by a blade’s penetration—perhaps these were abilities of Blood Cravers.

But that terrifying healing speed, the feeling of despair and helplessness against something seemingly unkillable, certainly couldn’t be achieved through the von Castein family’s rituals and vows. It was truly something that shouldn’t exist in the mortal world, originating only from supreme divine power.

Who could have imagined that the young woman before her was not only the world’s last Blood Craver but also blessed by the Lady—an immortal Death-Fearer!

Physical attributes like a monster, strength possibly greater than her own, and essentially unkillable—if this wasn’t cheating, what was? How could she possibly fight this?

Roy inwardly complained. Although a Death-Fearer wasn’t truly impossible to kill, achieving that would require either the Lady’s granted authority or the devil’s will to break such a curse, or blessing. How could she possibly do it alone?

Knowing she couldn’t win, what to do next was simple.

“Clang.”

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Since all the blood crystals had dispersed, the curved saber was as silver-white as before, unstained by blood.

Roy sheathed it, looking at that ghostly, sinister figure, grinning and even waving slightly: “Then, Miss Vivian, I’ll see you…”

A sharp whistling sound cut off the captain’s words.

Coming straight at her was a slender rapier, inscribed with complex patterns—not decorations, but blood grooves designed to increase bleeding, making one shudder.

To engrave blood grooves on a rapier—what an evil… yet brilliant idea!

Though this would increase the resistance of the blade entering flesh, what did such minor resistance matter against a Blood Craver’s terrifying strength?

Barely sidestepping it, Roy looked at the rapier piercing the ice tower wall, couldn’t help swallowing, and no longer dared to act smart. She hurriedly followed the spiral staircase upward toward the top of the lighthouse, as a ghostly shadow now hung on the path downward.

The captain quickly disappeared from view.

Vivian pulled her rapier from the ice wall, leisurely caressing it before walking upward at an unhurried pace.

Since Roy had run upward, she naturally didn’t need to hurry. No matter how tall the lighthouse, it had an end—just like the mermaid fleeing across the sea’s surface would eventually be enveloped by shadow.

Where can you possibly run to?