svetikya Chapter 271 A Wanderer's Journey, Facing Death
Chapter 271 A Wanderer's Journey, Facing Death
Chapter 271 A Wanderer's Journey, Facing Death
Kojiro stopped at the edge of the coral forest.
Ahead, the trail left by the sword energy broke.
It didn't fade away gradually, but rather disappeared abruptly, as if severed by a sharp blade, right in front of that swaying, glowing coral reef.
The seawater continued to flow slowly, and the fluorescent microorganisms flickered in and out of the darkness. Everything seemed so natural, too natural.
"It concealed its presence—no, it blended into the environment."
He crouched down, his fingertips lightly touching the fine sand on the seabed.
A faint magical ripple remained in the sand, like the last ripples after ink is dropped into the sea.
This is a professional technique; it doesn't involve brute force to erase traces, but rather diluting one's presence to the point of being indistinguishable from the surrounding environment, as if one had never been there.
The basic skills of an assassin.
Kojiro closed his eyes and pushed his senses to the limit.
The direction of water flow, temperature changes, the swarming movement of microorganisms, and the faint bioluminescence frequency emitted by corals —
Everything in the sea was telling a story. And amidst this cacophony of voices, he searched for that one discordant note.
Ten minutes have passed.
He opened his eyes, a hint of seriousness flashing in them.
No.
Silent Hassan seemed to have truly become part of the sea, even the ripples of his soul were perfectly subdued.
This level of concealment surpasses the realm of ordinary Assassin; it represents the pinnacle of breath concealment.
If it weren't for the sword intent that left a mark on her spirit foundation with his previous sword strike, he wouldn't have been able to track her here.
"Then————"
Kojiro stood up, no longer wanting to continue his futile pursuit. He looked around, re-examining the area.
The Coral Forest is one of the sacred sites on Fishman Island, where special corals that emit a healing light grow.
But at this moment, this area didn't feel healing to him; instead, it gave him a profound sense of silence.
It is not a peaceful silence, but a silence in which even life itself is suppressed.
He moved slowly along the periphery of the area where the trajectory disappeared, always keeping the welding at the most comfortable angle.
After walking three hundred paces, he discovered the first anomaly.
It was a cluster of fluorescent corals about two people tall, with a beautiful shape and emitting a soft blue-white light.
But in the shaded area at the base of the coral, there is a small, unnaturally flat patch on the sand.
It's as if someone once knelt here for a long time, and carefully smoothed away all traces when they left.
Kojiro didn't touch it, but instead bent down to observe it carefully.
At the edges of the smooth area, there are almost invisible dark red particles, as fine as dust.
He gently picked up a few grains with the tip of his scabbard and placed them in his palm.
It is neither a fragment of coral nor a mineral.
In the magical vision, these particles exuded a faint aura of death, carrying a rusty, sweet smell.
"Blood Sand"
A medium specifically used in certain séance rituals, made from the blood of offerings mixed with special minerals and ground together, capable of stabilizing the connection between the spirit and the mortal world.
A ceremony was held here, and it was quite large.
Kojiro continued his search.
Over the next half hour, he discovered seven similar traces within a 500-meter radius.
All the clues point to the same conclusion.
This coral forest is being transformed into a vast magical base, but the core of the base is not in the forest itself, but deeper inside.
He returned to the point where the trajectory disappeared, but this time he adopted a different approach.
If Quiet Hassan's goal was not simply to escape, but to reach a specific location, then there must be a reason for the path she chose.
Avoiding main roads is understandable, but why go through this area where fortifications are being built? Unless—
"This is part of the position, or rather, the gateway to the core."
Kojiro closed his eyes again, this time not searching for aura, but sensing the flow of magic.
He was just an assassin, only able to roughly sense directions, and even with all his might, he wasn't guaranteed to be accurate.
If a magician who is truly proficient in this art had the ability to sense it, it would be much more accurate and faster.
The magic of the sea is like countless invisible rivers, some surging, some gentle, some warm like the pulse of life, and some cold like the sigh of death.
but----
In the Coral Forest region, most of the magic flows naturally, except for one place.
About 800 meters to the southeast.
A strange vortex appeared in the flow of magic there.
It wasn't that we were attracted there, but rather that we were forcibly swallowed up, like an invisible black hole, silently devouring all the energy around us, even causing light to be slightly distorted when it passed through.
Kojiro opened his eyes and looked in that direction.
To the naked eye, there are only layers upon layers of coral jungle, but in the magical vision, there is a hole about thirty meters in diameter.
The edges of the cavity were blurred like frosted glass, and the inside was a bottomless darkness.
"A barrier—no, a rudimentary formation. It's strange that a group of assassins would construct such a formation—"
He moved silently in that direction, each step precisely avoiding the magic marks on the ground.
As the distance closed, the feeling of being swallowed grew stronger, and even the temperature of the surrounding seawater began to drop.
500 meters, 300 meters, 100 meters —
When Kojiro was about fifty meters from the edge of the hole, he suddenly stopped.
There are people in the coral reefs ahead. Not just one person.
The purple-haired Hassan stood on a relatively open sandy area. Three eerie green crystals floated in front of her, connected by thin rays of light, forming a constantly rotating triangular array.
On her left and right sides stood two Hassans who looked different.
One of them held a short blade and kept watch around, while the other knelt on one knee with his hands on the ground, seemingly maintaining some kind of spell.
Kojiro immediately suppressed his aura, even lowering his heartbeat to the lowest possible level.
He blended himself into the shadows of the coral; his ability to conceal his presence, though not strong, was sufficient.
Bai Mao seemed unaware.
She stared intently at the triangular formation, chanting some ancient incantation in a low voice.
The language did not belong to any existing language family; its syllables were distorted and bizarre, and each word uttered would dim the surrounding light by a fraction.
As the chanting continued, an image gradually appeared in the center of the triangular formation.
That was the scene of a deep-sea altar.
At the top of the altar, a dark red pool of blood was slowly rotating, and countless agonizing, twisted faces appeared on the surface of the pool, roaring silently.
At the edge of the pool, Hassan the Cursed Arm was sprinkling a handful of bone powder into the water, and with each sprinkle, the color of the pool deepened.
On the third platform of the altar, the serene Hassan sat cross-legged.
The wound on her waist was completely covered by some kind of black substance, which was wriggling slightly like a living thing and was merging with her spiritual foundation.
Her skull mask was slightly raised, as if she were looking up.
Not the top of the altar, but even higher up, to the sky that is theoretically invisible, piercing through ten thousand meters of seawater.
The image lasted for about a minute before fading away.
Bai Mao stopped singing.
She reached out and retrieved the three crystals, and her two clones turned into mist and returned to their original form.
"Time is running out," she muttered to herself, her voice devoid of emotion, only cold calculation.
"Quiet's injuries will need another two hours to stabilize, but the Straw Hat crew will find us here soon."
She turned around and looked in the direction where Kojiro was hiding.
Kojiro's muscles tensed instantly, but Hyakko's gaze didn't focus on him; instead, it passed right through him and looked into the distance.
"The First Lord is still observing—but Lord Azrael's plan cannot be delayed."
She raised her hand and took out a pale bone fragment from her bosom.
An inverted cross is engraved on the bone fragment, with a jet-black gemstone set in the center of the cross.
"In the name of the old man in the mountains, the agent of death," Hyakko's voice became ethereal, as if relaying the will of some higher being.
"The construction of the Coral Base is being accelerated; the basic framework for the Underworld Projection will be completed within three hours. Required offerings will be replenished from the port area."
She pressed the bone fragment to the ground.
In an instant, countless pale lines spread outwards like a spider web from the bone fragment as the center!
Those patterns crawl across the coral, burrow into the sand, and even extend upwards with the water flow. Wherever they pass, the breath of life quickly fades away, replaced by a cold, lifeless silence.
Kojiro watched as the patterns passed beneath the coral reef where he was hiding, sending a chill down his spine.
This is not a cold in terms of temperature, but a conceptual erosion of death, to which even the seawater itself is wailing.
The lines spread for about two hundred meters before stopping.
The light in the entire area dimmed by at least 30%, and the glow of the fluorescent corals became pale and weak.
Bai Mao retrieved the bone fragments and turned to leave.
Her figure flickered a few times among the coral reefs before disappearing from sight.
Kojiro did not act immediately.
He waited in the shadows for another five minutes, making sure Bai Mao had indeed left and there were no other ambushes around, before slowly revealing himself.
He walked to the spot where Bai Mao had just stood and looked down at the ground.
Those pale lines have begun to seep deep into the sand, leaving only faint traces.
But in the magical vision, they appear to breathe like blood vessels on the seabed. Each pulse draws life force from the surroundings, transforming it into pure death magic.
He crouched down and carefully studied the direction and structure of the patterns.
It is very ancient and very complex.
This is definitely not a modern magic system, nor is it the magic system of his time; it is much older than that era.
It's not even part of the human magic system.
The patterns contain strong remnants of divinity, but it is a distorted divinity, like tainted divine blood.
"Projection of the Underworld————"
Kojiro recalled that the information related to the Holy Grail War did indeed include advanced magic related to the construction of domains.
Generally speaking, for a Heroic Spirit to establish its own Realm of Boundaries in this world, it requires consuming a tremendous amount of magical energy and enduring the world's corrections.
However, if there is a suitable anchor point and medium, it is possible to cleverly project a part of the realm into the present world, although the power is greatly reduced, the consumption is also much less.
And the underworld is undoubtedly the most suitable realm for Azrael, the god of death.
So, what is an anchor point?
Kojiro's mind raced.
First, the location.
Fishman Island is located at a depth of 10,000 meters in the ocean. It is the place where humans and the fishman race are separated, and conceptually it is one of the boundaries between life and death.
It is said that the deep-sea altar was also a place where bloody sacrifices were performed in ancient times, accumulating a large number of concepts about death.
This is a natural advantage.
Second, the medium.
The blood of the sacrifices in the blood pool, mixed with the life essence of multiple races, can serve as a bridge connecting to the underworld.
Third, the key.
Brook's Yomi Yomi no Mi (Revive-Revive Fruit) ability allows him to bridge the gap between life and death, making him the perfect person to open the door to life.
Fourth — there is another key point.
Kojiro looked in the direction where the pale lines were spreading.
They don't extend randomly; rather, they have a clear direction, all pointing in the same direction.
"It seems there's more than one position."
He understood. The position in the coral forest was a receiver.
The position on the other side of the deep-sea altar is the launcher.
When the Gates of the Underworld open at the altar, the power of the underworld surges forth, then is filtered and stabilized through the coral forest's defenses, ultimately forming a stable projection area of the underworld on Fishman Island.
Within this region, Azrael's power will be exerted to its fullest extent, not even appearing as a Servant, but descending directly upon the realm—
Kojiro stood up and decided to temporarily abandon his pursuit of tranquility.
The intelligence was crucial enough; he needed to inform Luffy and the others immediately.
But before that—
He looked into the depths of the coral forest, into the hollow where the magic had been swallowed up.
Before leaving, Bai Mao said to accelerate the construction of the position, so that empty hole is very likely one of the core nodes of the position.
If we can destroy it, we can at least buy some time.
He moved toward the hollow.
It took him ten minutes to walk fifty meters.
Every step tests the ground's magical reflexes, avoiding all possible traps.
Finally, he stood on the edge of the void.
From the outside, this is just an ordinary coral reef, but in the magical vision, it is a spherical field with a diameter of thirty meters.
The boundary of the domain was like a semi-transparent black glass, and the inside was pitch black, so dark that not even light could escape.
Kojiro reached out and lightly touched the edge of the territory with the tip of his scabbard.
"Om one"
A deep, resonant sound rang out, and ripples spread out from the point where the tip of the scabbard touched the ground.
At the same time, a cold suction force came, trying to pull him in.
He immediately stopped and took two steps back.
The area is highly formidable; a forced breakthrough would trigger an alarm. Furthermore, the internal situation is unclear, making a hasty entry too risky.
Just as he was pondering a solution, a sudden change occurred within the domain.
An image slowly emerged from the darkness—
It was a throne made of bones.
The throne floated in the void, surrounded by countless wailing spirits. And on the throne sat a blurry figure.
The figure wore a tattered black robe, had dark blue hair, and an expressionless face.
But unlike the King Hassan that Kojiro had seen, this figure had an inverted cross mark on the forehead of his skull mask, with pale flames flowing within the mark.
It's Yazlar!
Or rather, it is a mark left by Yazlar on the battlefield.
Azrael slowly raised his head, and even though they were separated by the boundary of the domain, Kojiro still felt a gaze fall on him.
That gaze was devoid of emotion or murderous intent; it was purely scrutiny.
It's like observing a tool, a phenomenon, or something that is about to die.
"swordsman."
The voice rang directly in Kojiro's mind, hollow and distant, as if it came from the depths of the underworld.
"What you see is the inevitable end."
Kojiro gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, offering no response.
"The cycle of life and death will be reshaped," Azrael continued, his voice like a cold tide, trying to drown one's will.
"The balance that the old man in the mountains guarded was nothing but stagnation. True death is not the end, but—sublimation."
In the image, Azrael raises a hand. The hand is so pale it seems lifeless, and grayish-white mist flows from its fingertips.
"Join us. Your sword can sever not only trajectories, but also—the shackles of life."
This is recruitment.
Kojiro calmly watched the video and slowly shook his head.
"My sword will only cut down what deserves to be cut."
A brief silence.
Then, Yazlar let out a low laugh.
"Then become the foundation. Offer your blood and soul for the new world of death."
"The past he protected will be overshadowed by the future I create."