Captain – Chapter 551 – Night and Fire

The giant serpent was forced to turn back, the man wounded and near death, until night bloomed like a lotus—through several turns and shocking changes, the process seemed long but actually occurred in an instant.

Just as that lone captain had said, night was falling.

And so darkness descended in a flash.

Slightly cold “black mist” surged, covering everything beneath the heavens, swallowing the distant Mermaid and obscuring the crystal lenses of the telescopes in people’s hands.

From then on, no one could see that man’s figure.

Even those eyes in the sky, the dozen or so “suns” in the night, could not capture him.

The deck fell into deathly silence.

Wyatt slowly lowered his telescope but still gazed toward the Ghost Scythe’s direction, toward the position where that man had been before being shrouded by night, knowing he was there.

Yet he could see nothing, do nothing.

The first mate’s hands trembled slightly, and even his usually cold mask seemed to bear cracks.

The Night Curtain captain’s confidants and the important figures of the Mermaid all stood at the stern. Behind them, the crews of both warships could no longer distinguish themselves from each other.

Everyone remained silent, their mood indescribably heavy.

Because of the scenes they had just witnessed, and that unwelcome yet persistent premonition.

Since this grand drama had entered its main act, those legends, the pillars they relied upon, seemed to be retreating one by one, gradually leaving them behind.

Richi trapped on the damaged ship, Roy and her companion who departed never to return, and now this…

Night curtain like a requiem.

The dense night surrounded everyone, depriving them of their vision, yet it brought not fear but peace of mind. But what if it dispersed?

Whom could they still depend on? Or should this ghost ship truly choose a new captain?

Could they really… leave this dead zone alive?

No one had answers. The shadow cast by the giant serpent and the mastermind’s omnipresent schemes made the pirates feel suffocated, unable to summon even half a heart for resistance.

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Continuing like this, the collapse of morale was only a matter of time.

But just as everyone felt dejected, even desperate, movement came from the other side of the night.

Light even began to shine.

Those were brilliant golden flowers—blood flowers.

Blood splashing like a downpour fell on the spectral creature, the sea, and the tilting warship, igniting roaring flames that illuminated some blurred, indistinct scenes.

Scenes that even night could not cover.

Wyatt, Ben, and others immediately raised their telescopes, while the crew members behind them either stood on tiptoe or groped their way to higher positions, all widening their eyes.

Then they were struck speechless by what they saw.

At this moment, the giant serpent was extremely close to the Ghost Scythe, even less than twenty meters away. Lowering its heads, its skulls could reach near the deck, near that figure amidst the fierce flames.

But it did not, or rather, could not.

The surging night, like an incomparably violent tide, brought fierce winds and raised massive waves, carrying terrifying power as it crashed against that mountain-like giant shadow from all sides.

Facing such an assault, even the Hydra dared not relax its defenses to approach.

It roared, meeting the storm with its massive body, illuminating the path ahead with blazing golden blood, breaking through the night’s barriers bit by bit, approaching that person.

In the sudden rain and sea of fire, the tattered giant serpent and the man holding his head high—unexpectedly, this tragic and strange scene would be forever etched in the pirates’ hearts.

Finally, all fires were extinguished, the giant serpent’s roars ceased, and everything returned to calm.

This war between “mortal” and “deity” had finally fallen to its curtain, for before vision returned to darkness, everyone saw that the giant serpent had reached the ship’s front.

Its nine heads dispersed, surrounding the Ghost Scythe and indifferently pressing inward from the middle.

Accompanied by ear-piercing cracks, that scythe which had once swept across the Western Seas and made countless people tremble was gradually breaking and twisting. When it sank…

That man would have no path to survival either.

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As if knowing what would happen next, Wyatt tremblingly lowered his hand, gripping that finely crafted telescope until it was somewhat deformed.

“When the sky returns to normal, everyone immediately return to your posts, prepare for battle…”

“Or flight.”

The first mate turned and walked toward the bow, not stopping regardless of whom he bumped into or what he knocked against. When giving orders, no emotion could be heard in his voice.

Seeming calm, yet like his heart had died.

Regarding his orders, the important figures of the Mermaid, who were also putting away their telescopes and preparing to mobilize the pirates, had no objections, for this was the only choice.

Though they didn’t know the situation of the captain and his companion, they couldn’t just sit and wait for death.

If everything was irreversible, aside from fleeing the great triangle, they had no second choice.

But when the Mermaid’s people were in panic and chaos was about to arrive, no one noticed that Alfie, perched on the highest crossbeam and gazing at that scythe about to break, suddenly raised her head, as if sensing something through intuition.

After a moment, she tilted her head slightly and called out uncertainly.

“Captain?”

Unlike the Mermaid, the Ghost Scythe, now damaged beyond recognition and unrecognizable from its original form, still maintained silence.

At the same time, as the source of night, its deck, cabins, and even corners were all filled with the deepest “black mist,” nearly isolating all perception.

Though the giant serpent had descended and was even crushing the warship, it still could not penetrate that night curtain to see, hear, or smell anything. At this moment, this disaster born before the old calendar and witness to all time actually felt nervous.

Because of this unknown it had never experienced.

Then it heard that whisper.

Gentle, yet seemingly possessing magic, possessing… a kind of fatal attraction.

“I’m right here.”

Hearing this voice, the giant serpent’s pupils, which had become quite dim due to injury and bleeding, suddenly brightened, as if wanting to use that ghostly light to pierce the night and capture that person.

It no longer relied on its body to crush the warship, but lowered all its heads together. Eight searched on the deck, while the central one quietly approached the source of the voice.

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“Click.”

A light sound suddenly broke the deathly silence.

It came from the severely twisted cabin—two flints lying askew on the ground, driven by some unknown force, suddenly struck together, bursting into brilliant sparks.

Sparks before a prairie fire.

And this was just the beginning. The same scene repeated throughout every part of the warship, in every room, every corridor, even in the gloomy and terrifying dungeon.

“Click, click, click…”

The low sounds continued endlessly, as if playing a magnificent farewell song for that solitary man.

Unfortunately, the giant serpent could not hear it.

“Yes, just like that, a little closer…”

“A bit closer.”

In the black night, the man guided gently, even extending his hand toward that approaching giant head, as if wanting to caress it. And in the end, he did achieve this.

Feeling the fine scales pressing against his palm and the coolness they conveyed, feeling the ghostly light that finally pierced the “black mist” and fell upon him, Enzo’s lips curved upward.

A slight smile appeared, incomparably gentle.

But seeing his smile, the dark gold vertical pupil in the spectral creature’s giant eye suddenly contracted. Without thinking, it wanted to raise its head and distance itself from this man.

Though it felt no warning signs, its near-divine intuition and subtle perception of nature still made it sense something amiss, sense…

The terrible danger rapidly approaching.

What truly unsettled it and confirmed this judgment was the man’s gentle smile and the color called love rippling in his magnificent purple pupils.

That was certainly not for it, but…

For that girl.

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For her sake, he did not hesitate to face himself and embrace hell.

This was a complete madman, even more insane than those representatives of the gods!

Upon discovering this, even the spectral creature couldn’t help but feel chilled.

However, whether intuition, retreat, or heart palpitations, all were too late at this moment, for when it touched that hand, the man had never intended to let it leave.

If when night first fell, these “spectral mists” dispersed like a blooming lotus, then now, this black lotus that connected heaven and sea and covered all things…

Closed its petals.

They gently wrapped around the giant serpent, like a mother embracing her child, without using force, harboring no malice, yet that child still struggled frantically.

But could not break free no matter what.

Seemingly smelling gunpowder, seas of blood… even the quiet scent of death, the giant serpent roared. After struggling futilely, it fiercely lowered its head back down.

The other eight serpent heads either avoided individually or entangled in twos and threes in defensive postures.

Only the central one, directly facing the night curtain, growled and opened its mouth, revealing scarlet flesh and sinister, spike-like fangs.

Then it bit down viciously at the man who spread his arms wide and laughed freely.

Time seemed to freeze for an instant.

The next moment, an invisible ripple, starting from that breaking and sinking warship, suddenly spread outward in all directions, bringing sonic booms and countless splashing water droplets. Even the distant Mermaid was affected.

Everyone on the ship stared blankly at that place. Only Wyatt stood alone at the bow, silently lowering his head, watching the night rapidly flowing away before his eyes.

After that sonic boom, no more sounds came.

What appeared before the pirates’ eyes was flowing night, suddenly closing lotus petals. All “black mist” was surging toward the source, causing the entire night curtain to fade.

Then, within that tightly closed black lotus, a spark-like fire suddenly lit up.

Tiny, yet incomparably warm.