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The island of Menorca, which had just begun to appear before their eyes, was getting closer as time passed. The laughter and chatter of the passengers and sailors gradually stiffened into tension as the island drew nearer.

“Now there’s really no turning back.”

“Let’s stay alert. Who knows what might happen.”

The passengers of the St. Maria exchanged such words with grim expressions. They too were beginning to realize it. The Menorca island before their eyes was no ordinary small rocky island, but a proper city with a port and urban areas.

Thinking about ramming such a city with just one ship, some began to feel their mouths go dry. But having come this far, there was no turning back, right? They felt that there was truly no way to reverse their course now.

However, their worries were somewhat premature.

Conra, a boy holding an antique long spear adorned with intricate silver inlays, gazed at the distant port and ships of Menorca and unleashed a spell he had memorized early that morning.

Thud, the boy struck the spear against the ship’s side and quickly recited the incantation.

“Somerkaikh an fasra a fasang i kliaban na masa mara…! (Oh, brethren of the flora growing in the embrace of the mother sea!) Feyol arna eidris ag karai giachara geara knapacha…! (Oh, flesh disguised as sharp and rugged rocks!)”

The resonance of rising energy, the spell structure stored in the boy’s mental socket, began to activate in response to his clear call. Naturally, the flow of air guided by the manipulation of energy swirled around, fluttering the boy’s clothes and hair.

“Fas suwas (Grow)! Por (Prosper)! Geb mo naimd (Bind my enemies)!”

With a flash of light, the spell’s target and direction were set, and finally, the spell structure released from the spell socket began to reveal its grandeur.

“Look, look at that! The sea is turning black!”

As people murmured, the sea, under the influence of Conra’s spell, began to turn black. The seaweed growing on the seabed and the barnacles clinging to rocks and ship bottoms suddenly grew rapidly and began to multiply.

The seaweed, now enormous, quickly entangled the anchors of the ships docked at the port, immobilizing them. The barnacles, having already occupied the lower parts of the ships, began to climb up and block even the holes where oars moved.

With this, the pirates’ most feared aspect—the departure and operation of their ships—was completely blocked. It would take considerable effort for them to remove the barnacles and seaweed and regain control of their ships, and Sophia’s group had no intention of giving them that time.

Meanwhile, Hildegard was also making her own preparations. Naturally skilled in handling the mysteries related to the Celestial God, Hildegard had sharpened her skills. In an instant, she chanted prayers and hymns invoking the blessings of the celestial messengers, hunting gods, war gods, martial gods, gods of judgment, and gods of victory.

“The glory of the celestial gods lies in Grazheim! The holy war that judges sinners is carried out in Midgard!”

As several prayers and hymns followed one after another, all the passengers and crew aboard the St. Maria began to feel an unprecedented blessing upon their bodies.

“This is incredible, I feel so strong!”

“My body, the weapons feel lighter!”

“My senses are sharpened! The scenery of the distant island is as clear as if it were right before my eyes!”

This is doable! Feeling as if they had become superhumans several levels higher in an instant, those aboard the St. Maria began to feel a grand confidence swelling in their chests.

It was then.

Sophia, Hildegard, Esiocles, and Conra, having completed their preparations, leaped from the ship’s side even though the ship was still far from the port.

The first to leap were Hildegard and Esiocles. Using the acceleration of their run and the recoil of their jump, they shot forward like cannonballs. However, their jumping power wasn’t enough to reach the distant port, so the two soon arced and fell towards the water.

But the moment they touched the water, a huge splash erupted beneath their feet, and their figures soared again. Just as Esiocles had shown before, they kicked off the surface of the sea and leaped again.

They repeated this several times, kicking off the water’s surface, and finally reached the port of Menorca.

Next, Conra, who had launched himself, flew up with a much more concise and refined movement than Hildegard and Esiocles. Unlike the two who had half-forcedly mimicked qinggong by manipulating ethereal muscles, Conra had been taught orthodox qinggong along with energy manipulation by Sophia.

Leaping with a swift movement, Conra glided as if riding the wind, landing like a feather, then leaped again like a salmon jumping. The salmon leap technique passed down in Erin’s warrior group, combined with the qinggong taught by Sophia, had brought Conra’s movements to a unique level.

Since the force required to kick off the water’s surface was much less, Conra, though starting a bit later than Hildegard and Esiocles, arrived almost simultaneously.

Sophia, who had been quietly watching the group running across the sea, suddenly floated up as if a feather caught in the wind… and the next moment, she was already in the air, looking down at the port of Menorca.

Due to the side effects of the 4-Banding Origin God’s possession, her body weight had disappeared, and she had been maintaining her daily life by substituting it with qinggong techniques. Because of this, she had quickly mastered the application of the Heart Sword’s mysteries to her movements.

Just as the Heart Sword skips the process of ‘flying towards the target’ and leaves only the result of ‘cutting,’ Sophia’s movement technique had reached a level where it skipped the process of ‘moving’ between departure and arrival, leaving only the result of ‘arriving.’

Thus, despite being the last to kick off the ship’s side, Sophia was the first to arrive at the port. She stood in mid-air, looking down at the port, then took a deep breath.

It was the long-awaited Lion’s Roar attack.

“―――――!!!!”

Sophia immediately let out a tremendous roar. The deafening sound, as if thousands of gongs and bells were struck simultaneously, erupted from her vocal cords and shook the entire port.

Few could remain unharmed in the shockwave of such a massive roar. The pirates, without exception, felt their eardrums burst and their semicircular canals shaken, collapsing to the ground or writhing in pain. Blood flowed from their ears as they writhed.

To make matters worse, Sophia’s Lion’s Roar additionally shook the spirits and caused internal injuries to those with malicious intent.

The ships docked at the port and the pirates nearby were mostly knocked out or writhing in pain, crawling on the ground due to Sophia’s move.

Following closely, Hildegard, Esiocles, and Conra arrived in quick succession. How could the pirates possibly resist now?

Even the skilled pirates who managed to withstand the Lion’s Roar were in no condition to put up a fight.

In an instant, the four had cleared the port and soon moved further into the island. They left the cleanup of the port to the soon-to-arrive people of the St. Maria.

The path from the port to the city was already blocked by pirates who had gathered upon realizing the emergency. But Hildegard and Esiocles charged straight into the pirates’ formation without hesitation.

“Uryaaah!”

Thud, thud, crash!

Hildegard’s halberd, the first to advance into the pirates’ ranks, cut through their formation in all directions, shrinking their movement. And the pirates, whose movements were now restricted, became prey for Esiocles’s muscle strikes and muscle binding techniques.

“Hmph!”

With a strange posture, Esiocles’s strikes made the pirates’ bones and flesh go limp, robbing them of consciousness.

Finally, as the St. Maria arrived at the port and began tying up the scattered pirates and seizing the port facilities and ships, people couldn’t help but marvel at the four’s prowess.

“I’ve heard the Paladins of the Church Order are strong, but seeing this, it’s terrifying.”

“Look over there! They’ve already taken half the streets!”

“Haha, look! People are lying around like trash!”

Though there were some strange reactions in between, the passengers and crew, who had been tensely anticipating a fierce battle with blessings, were now left with repetitive tasks.

They tied up the scattered people, collected valuables, and restored the ships and port facilities. These were the most difficult and laborious tasks assigned to them.

Feeling somewhat foolish for being so tense, they methodically followed the path the four had already swept through, repeating the same tasks as at the dock. They tied up the fallen, searched for secret places and valuables, and gathered them. The gathered treasures would later be calmly distributed once everything was settled.

It was then.

Finally, after the nun knight group had dealt with most areas and stormed into Hayreddin’s castle, an unprecedented wave spread across Menorca.

“Ugh, what is this wave? Ugh… could it be…!?”

One of the passengers, an adventurer who had experienced dungeon exploration before, shouted in panic. After the wave passed, they suddenly realized the island’s air had changed, and even the sky’s weather and celestial alignment had transformed. The midday sun was shrouded in night’s darkness, and the stars’ arrangement followed that of a distant past.

Most horrifying of all was the presence of a fleet of shipwrecks slowly rising from the sea, bubbling with foam. From the surfacing wrecks, a strange song, like that of sirens, began to echo.

The situation was clear. The adventurer passenger, with a horrified expression, shouted in shock.

“The entire island has become a dungeon!?”

 

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