“Boom!!!”
A deafening rumble exploded over the pier.
The grotesque ice fortress, woven from flesh and extreme cold, finally shattered with a thunderous crash.
White ice shards and dark red frozen flesh rained down like a sickening downpour.
Amidst the swirling ice mist and bloody water, a massive dark silhouette slowly stood up from the core of the ruined ice fortress.
It still retained the vague silhouette of a human Missionary.
The loose black robe representing its identity as a member of the Mist Veil Society had been torn apart by excessively swollen muscles and bones, reduced to tattered rags hanging from its body.
But its head had completely transcended the human realm.
It was a deformed, swollen sea-beast head, its surface covered in rough, grayish-green scales and dripping mucus.
What made one's skin crawl the most was the area beneath its neck.
Right where the collarbones should have been, eight semi-melted human faces were crammed together!
Their cloudy, white eyeballs still twitched neurotically up and down amidst the frost and slime.
Their eight mouths opened and closed mindlessly, like fish out of water.
They were actually still desperately trying to maintain that same slurred, incoherent prayer.
The monster's chest and abdomen, which should have been flat, split open to reveal a massive vertical rift.
There were no human organs inside.
Instead, there were concentric rings of ghastly white, razor-sharp teeth!
Old Crowley stared at the monster, his usually casual eyes turning graver than ever before.
“A Prayer Eater.”
The old man lowered his voice, spitting out a word that reeked of blood.
“The taboo form of a Missionary.”
“A Missionary who, in a desperate situation, devours the spirituality, flesh, and even the faith of their companions.”
“Using this blasphemous method, they temporarily reconstruct themselves into an esophagus for their 'Lord' to descend into the material world.”
Hearing this, Elias stared intently at the frantically spinning gears of teeth on the monster's chest.
He felt as though his understanding of mysticism had been forcibly expanded yet again today.
So these cultists didn't just compete ruthlessly with each other in their daily organizational lives.
When it came down to a matter of life and death, they actually resorted to cannibalistic absorption?!
Was everyone in the Mist Veil Society some kind of insatiable glutton?
Elias recalled his past two months since transmigrating.
First, he had encountered Aaron's brainwashed, pitiable sister, who ate raw deep-sea delicacies sent across realms by their 'Lord.'
Then, he had seen a siren in the Hope County central district sewers opening its bloody maw to devour people.
Now, things had been upgraded.
They were eating their own people!
Talk about keeping it all in the family.
On a side note, this thing's appearance was a worthy rival to the previous mutated siren and the mountain of flesh.
Honestly, in terms of ugliness, it easily ranked second among all the monsters he had ever seen.
First place was still held by the mountain of flesh.
Even though he hadn't actually seen that many monsters in total, that didn't stop him from ranking these hideous creatures in his head.
“Roar!!!”
The moment the Prayer Eater was born, its meat-grinder-like ring of teeth shuddered violently.
It did not immediately launch an indiscriminate attack on the nearest targets, Xia'an and Dabu, like a mindless beast.
Instead, it slowly raised its deformed sea-beast head.
Its cloudy eyes locked onto Elias.
The rotating teeth on the monster's chest slowly parted outward.
The eight human faces beneath its neck stopped their mindless twitching in unison and opened their mouths.
Eight different voices overlapped in the air.
“Pen... dulum...”
Elias was startled.
It had found him!
It really was coming for him!
What was even worse was that he could clearly feel the monster seemed to have some strange resonance with the pendulum.
Because at this very moment, the 【Gluttonous Stomach】 tied to the inside of his waist was vibrating uncontrollably!
Elias's Adam's apple bobbed as he instinctively reached down to cover his waist.
Fortunately, the vibration wasn't too intense.
The hem of his trench coat was just enough to perfectly conceal this minor disturbance.
If it had vibrated any harder, buzzing like a high-powered motor, he swore he would have yelled, “Oh, I'm getting a call!” and bolted immediately.
Of course, this was just his own wild, self-indulgent imagination.
There was no running away.
But whether this monster could pinpoint the pendulum inside the Gluttonous Stomach was something he wasn't sure about either.
Therefore, the best strategy was to play dumb.
Deny everything to the death.
“What pendulum?”
Elias yelled back at the monster with righteous indignation.
“You've got the wrong guy!”
“Your good buddy Luke was already taken away by an infernal demon!”
“If you want the pendulum, why don't you go down to the Inferno and ask him yourself?”
He fabricated the story on the spot, easily shifting the blame onto Guss.
However, the monster clearly had no interest in bickering with him.
“Roar!”
The Prayer Eater unleashed a deafening roar, completely ignoring Elias's excuses.
It took a sudden step forward, the massive rift in its chest and abdomen opening completely.
A torrent of foul, pungent, dark red seawater erupted from deep within the ring of sharp teeth, spraying like a high-pressure water hose!
Its target was aimed directly at Elias!
“Get back!”
Xia'an shouted, pulling Dabu with her as they rolled behind a nearby shipping container.
Elias was also extremely quick to react.
The Moonlight Barrier unfolded in front of him.
But Old Crowley was noticeably faster. He let out a cold snort.
Raising his calloused right hand, he made a clutching motion in mid-air.
The dark red seawater, which was about to splash all over their faces, bizarrely froze in mid-air!
It was as if a massive, invisible hand had squeezed it tight.
The next second, the old man flicked his wrist sharply and threw it back toward the monster.
The glob of dark red seawater, laden with terrifying corruption, actually flew backward completely intact!
The foul seawater slammed heavily against the Prayer Eater's massive body, drenching it completely.
Yet the monster was clearly completely immune to its own secretions.
Wiping the seawater from its face, it let out a mocking hiss, entirely unharmed.
But while the monster was fine, the surrounding environment was not so fortunate.
Hiding behind his barrier, Elias saw the devastating aftermath of where the seawater had landed.
He felt the cold sweat on his back pour down even faster.
The wooden packing crates splashed by the dark red seawater instantly grew grayish-green fish scales on their surfaces, while sickening fleshy buds frantically squeezed out of the gaps in the wood!
Even more terrifying was the steel shipping container on the ground.
The moment the once-hard iron plating came into contact with the seawater, it rapidly softened and collapsed like soggy toilet paper!
Massive patches of rust spread at a visible speed, emitting a pungent metallic stench.
“Holy shit!”
Elias couldn't help but blurt out.
What level of corruption was this?!
It could instantly corrode and assimilate even steel?
If he had been just a split second slower and got splashed directly, wouldn't he have turned into a pile of rotting flesh covered in fish scales by now?
Just as Elias's scalp was tingling with dread,
Old Ed suddenly spoke in his mind, as if he had realized something.
“Kid!”
The old ghost's voice was more serious than ever, carrying a barely perceptible tremor.
“This Divine Scion... probably has a direct connection to the Lord of the Raging Sea!”
“The most logical guess is that it might be a Chosen descended from the Lord of the Raging Sea!”
A Chosen?
Elias was taken aback. He had heard Old Crowley mention this earlier but hadn't had the chance to understand it yet.
What is a Chosen?
he asked in his mind.
Old Ed quickly gave him an on-the-spot explanation.
“In the belief system of the Seven Orthodox Gods, deities usually do not directly interfere with the material world.”
“But if they encounter special circumstances or need to execute a certain will, the deity will bestow their blessing of power.”
“This is equivalent to the deity pre-selecting a temporary heir in the mortal realm.”
“Once someone becomes a Chosen, they can directly wield a portion of the deity's authority over rules!”
Elias grimaced as he listened.
A deity selecting an heir?
That was actually quite interesting.
How can you be sure it's related to the Lord of the Raging Sea?
Elias pressed.
“Just look closely and you'll see!”
Old Ed analyzed confidently.
“Even though the spells of the Mist Veil Society look incredibly evil, haven't you noticed?”
“At their core, all of their followers' offensive methods are inextricably linked to wind and water.”
“The barriers made of marine organisms, the dark red seawater, even the scale mutation...”
“These are all classic, twisted characteristics of the pathway belonging to the Lord of the Raging Sea.”
Hearing Old Ed's meticulous analysis, Elias stared at the monster constantly spewing corrosive seawater, feeling his head throb with a massive headache.
How on earth did a random fight manage to get entangled with a high-and-mighty deity?
Was his luck just too good?
First the Moon Lord, now a Divine Scion.
Was he tired of living, or did he just really want to be a glowing target on the gods' chessboard?
After several failed attacks, the monster flew into a rage from being shot repeatedly by everyone.
Various elemental bullets fired from their firearms caused its skin to repeatedly rot and regenerate.
However, its attacks could not penetrate the defenses Old Crowley had constructed primarily using the Wind Wall and Control Water spells.
Old Crowley also seemed to realize that against a monster of this level, trading ordinary spells was no longer going to cut it.
The old captain looked grim as he reached inside his tattered captain's coat.
He pulled out an object.
Elias squinted to get a closer look.
It was actually a tiny black iron anchor!
It was only about the size of an adult's palm and looked entirely unremarkable.
The anchor was covered in mottled, reddish-brown rust, looking as if it had slept at the bottom of the sea for centuries.
And wrapped tightly around the end of the anchor was a segment of wet chain.
The moment this black iron anchor appeared, the violent wind pressure in the area came to a bizarre standstill for a split second.
When Bloodsong saw the old man pull this out, his tense body relaxed visibly.
Exhaling a long breath, a look of post-disaster relief washed over his face.
“Thank goodness...”
Bloodsong leaned against the metal container, muttering in a low voice.
“The old man is finally willing to get serious.”
Hearing Bloodsong's words, and then looking at the black iron anchor in Old Crowley's hand that was clearly no ordinary item,
Elias's eyelids twitched violently.
He holstered his revolver.
He wore an expression that said, “I knew it.”
“Damn it!”
“That old geezer really was holding back!”
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