part0017

By the time King Zayn and thousands of his warriors arrived at the port nearest to the palace, the monsters from the ocean had already come ashore. Tens of thousands of humanoid creatures with worm-like tentacles as feet had already started massacring the pirates stationed at the port. Even those onboard the ships weren’t spared by the parasitic demons. Using their tentacles and claws, the parasitic demons started climbing the ships and attacked all the humans they saw.

The pirates desperately fought for their lives, but the sheer number of the parasitic demons made their efforts futile.

“There’s too many of these monsters!”

“Eeek! H-Help me!”

The pirates of Mullgray Islands, the so-called rulers of the ocean, were being slaughtered by the dozen.

King Zayn trembled with rage upon seeing this.

If they knew they were going to be surrounded, they should have used their ships’ artifacts. King Zayn was certain that even demons wouldn’t be spared once hit by their lightning rods.

“Mad Eye,” said King Zayn.

“Your Majesty!” said the leader of the warriors.

“You’re in charge.” King Zayn gripped the hilt of his cutlass tight. “Lead the warriors.” He snarled, “Slaughter all of these bastards!”

Without another word, King Zayn fearlessly shot toward the parasitic demon horde. He strengthened his body with magic and swung his blade, beheading several demons in a single strike. Like a rampaging beast, he pounced at all of the demons he encountered along the way toward the largest ship in the port. His inherently strong body, coupled with his body strengthening magic, made it possible for him to cleave his enemies in half. Even his bare hands were strong enough to rip the parasitic demons into shreds.

At the same time, Mad Eye and the warriors under his command also started charging toward the demon horde.

“What are you all doing?” shouted King Zayn the moment he reached the flagship.

“King Zayn!” shouted the pirates onboard the Snap Lightning—one of the flagships of the Grand Pierson Pirate Fleet.

“Activate the artifact!” King Zayn jumped onto Snap Lightning’s deck. “Use the damn lightning rod! Now!”

With his words, the crew finally came to their senses. They’d been too preoccupied trying to survive by themselves that they forgot about the flagship’s infamous artifact. The same weapon they’d used to destroy several naval ships of the Empire.

The ship’s captain was already dead.

The quartermaster and the boatswain used the opening brought by King Zayn’s arrival to run toward the ship’s bow. With the other pirates and the king blocking the parasitic demons, they opened a hatch and pulled out a tubular weapon. An artifact resembling a cannon.

“It’s too heavy!” shouted the quartermaster. “We need more people!”

Several more crew members ran toward the bow and helped pull out Snap Lightning’s weapon. The metal artifact was as large as five men combined, and it took four people to finally pull it out.

“King Zayn! Where should we fire?” shouted the quartermaster.

King Zayn dodged the tentacles of a parasitic demon and retaliated by cutting off its head. Blood spurted out of its headless body, it fell on the ground, squirmed for a moment, then turned limp.

King Zayn quickly scanned the battlefield.

One of the two massive flagships docked at this port had already been destroyed by the parasitic demons. Three of its masts had fallen, and half of its body had sunk. Only this flagship—Snap Lightning—remained. Even the crew on the smaller schooner ships were struggling against the parasitic demons. Currently, more than half the ships docked in the port had fallen to the enemy.

The army led by Mad Eye was no different. Although the thousands of warriors under his command were far more skilled than regular pirates, even they struggled against the enemy’s massive numbers.

A large shadow loomed in from the sky.

King Zayn looked up. His eyes widened, seeing tens of thousands of demons flying in the sky.

That’s right—he’d almost forgotten about those monsters. He remembered that the demons from the ocean weren’t their only enemies. They also needed to be wary of attacks coming from the sky.

The flying demons screeched, swooped down, and using their talons, grabbed the humans on the ground. Even the quartermaster who’d been trying to operate Snap Lightning’s artifact wasn’t spared by the flying demons. After the sky demon grabbed his head using its talon, it flapped its wings and flew into the sky. The quartermaster struggled, his feet kicking the air with all his might. His scream was muffled by the sound of wails, screeches, and clanking metal.

King Zayn realized that at this rate, even if the ship was left intact, they wouldn’t have enough people to operate its artifact.

It seemed that they needed to take care of the more troublesome opponents first.

King Zayn had decided.

“At the sky!” said King Zayn. “Fire it at the sky!”

The three men next to the weapon inserted a low-grade magic stone into the artifact’s muzzle and pointed it toward the sky. The artifact was activated, lightning flashed and streaks of pure white shot toward the sky. The lightning spell struck several dozen sky demons with that single attack, killing them in an instant. The sky demons, their bodies charred, fell toward the sea.

“Again!” roared King Zayn. “Keep firing!”

The crew members nodded and loaded another magic stone into the muzzle. Seeing how effective the artifact was against the demons, the other crew members also ran toward the ship’s bow and opened several more hatches and pulled out three more cannon-like weapons.

The pirates kept firing lightning spells at the flying demons, one after another. Fortunately, they’d been preparing to attack another port of the Empire once harvest season arrived. They had a crate filled with low-grade magic stones at their disposal.

“Over there! Look!”

One of the ship’s crew shouted and pointed.

From the direction of the Depths of Anapos—the sea near the border of the Empire and Everfrost, an armada of ships came into view. It was the main fleet of the Grand Pierson Pirate Fleet that had left for Everfrost over a week ago.

“W-We’re saved!”

“It’s the main fleet!”

“They came back just in time!”

The pirates cheered upon seeing the armada. With renewed vigor, they started fighting back. The sound of a horn resounded through the battlefield, signaling the start of the pirate’s counterattack.

Nine massive sloops and several dozen schooners aimed their lightning rods toward the demons in the ocean and the sky. Lightning spells were fired one after another, creating deafening booms and hundreds of streaks of white light. The pirates on board the ships also started firing volleys of arrows, effectively stopping the advance of the parasitic and sky demons.

Monsters. Demons. Humans. It did not matter. They would not simply stand by and let their enemies take over these islands!

Now that the Grand Fleet had appeared, he was confident of turning the tides of war.

“That’s it!” King Zayn laughed. Fighting a life-or-death battle was exhilarating. His blood boiled with excitement. “Slaughter them! Keep firing our spells!”

After killing all of the parasitic demons that had boarded Snap Lightning, King Zayn jumped to the seacoast and started massacring the rest of the parasitic demons. Several sky demons swooped down toward him every now and then, but his agile movements, coupled with his inhuman strength, made it easy for him to dodge and retaliate against their attacks.

Thinking of it, these demons were nothing compared to the ragiacrus in the Black Expanse. Compared to the twenty-meter sea wyverns, facing dozens of parasitic demons wasn’t as difficult. He just needed to dodge well and retaliate when the opportunity arose.

“You’re quite the strong human. Interesting.”

A high-pitched, grating voice was heard behind him.

King Zayn reflexively turned around and swung his cutlass. But to his surprise, a silver-black tentacle blocked his attack. Other parasitic demons would have been cleaved in half with that strike, but this demon before him was left unscathed.

What was this monster?

It looked more human than the other parasitic demons. Its upper body was humanoid, with a single horn protruding out of its forehead. It also had two feet, with four silver-black tentacles squirming from its back.

King Zayn’s instincts screamed at him, telling him to run away from this creature, no matter what.

“I’ve decided,” said the demon, its voice still grating to the ears. “You shall give birth to the first nest.”

The demon’s tentacles whizzed toward King Zayn at a frightening speed. He managed to block three of them with his cutlass, but the fourth one pierced through his defenses and struck his stomach.

Mad Eye and the rest of the warriors who saw this were horrified. They disengaged from battle and ran toward Zayn.

The demon with silver-black tentacles looked at the warriors running in its direction. It exclaimed in delight, “A king! What a wonderful find! I see, I see”—it nodded its head several times—“No wonder you’re quite strong for a mere human.”

Blood dripped down Zayn’s lips. For some strange reason, he lost control over his body the moment the tentacle hit him. He couldn’t move a muscle. He couldn’t even speak.

“Be honored, King of humans,” said the demon. “For you will give birth to a high-ranking nest. With this, you shall forever live and serve the parasitic demon tribe!”

Using its tentacle, the demon transferred a fist-sized egg into Zayn’s body.

It was excruciating.

Zayn could feel the egg quickly expanding inside his body, its core pulsating within him. The egg sucked in the blood and mana of Zayn, and using it as nutrients, massively grew in size.

Mad Eye and the warriors halted in their tracks, seeing their king’s body bloat and become a grotesque-looking monster. A monster with a hundred eyes, several dozen tentacles, and a large serrated mouth.

Plagas, the parasitic demon who’d transformed the King of Pirate’s body into a monster, cackled in glee. It seemed that he was right. Indeed, the body of that human was suitable to be the host of a high-ranking parasitic nest.

Truly, a great find!

Although Plagas was the weakest among the leaders of the alliance, he’d been assigned with reconnaissance in this realm, after the Demon Lord Barkuvara woke up. The parasitic demons could breathe and swim underwater, moreover, they could also move on land. They were the most suitable demons for this task.

Furthermore, since the Lord of the Sky Demons died by Agreas’ hands, Plagas had also been given authority over their tribe temporarily.

It was an exhilarating feeling. Right now, in the Human Realm, Plagas held absolute might.

“Now, my beloved nest!” Plagas spread his arms wide. He declared, “Heed my orders! Plant your seeds into the bodies of these humans! Today, we shall welcome more members to our parasitic demon tribe!”

The high-ranking nest screeched. Despite its large body, it moved toward Mad Eye and the warriors at a frightening speed. It shot out its tentacles and pierced the warriors’ bodies.

“M-My King!” shouted Mad Eye, his face drained of all color. Although Zayn had turned into a monster, his right-hand man still did not dare raise his sword against him. “Please come to your senses!”

Mad Eye had sworn loyalty to the king. Even if he died, he’d vowed to never harm him.

A tentacle from the high-ranking nest shot out and struck Mad Eye in the chest, implanting an egg into his body. Mad Eye froze as numerous veins bulged in his neck; his eyes turned crimson. Like a rabid beast, he opened his mouth and roared.

All of the warriors struck by the high-ranking nest were turned into hosts of parasitic demons.

“Excellent! Excellent!” squeaked Plagas.

Watching the so-called king massacre his own people was an amusing sight.

“Now, let’s take care of those annoying pests,” said Plagas.

He signaled the sky demons to launch an all-out attack on the Grand Pierson Pirate Fleet. Under Plagas’ command, tens of thousands of sky demons swooped down from the sky.

The crewmembers repeatedly fired their spells using their ships’ lightning rods.

The high-ranking nest also joined the fray. It jumped into the sea, and using its tentacles, started destroying the ships of the pirate fleet.