"Is that the item you obtained through your deal with the devils?"
After everything was done, Isabel slowly walked over, her gaze fixed on the bloody dagger in Raylin's hand.
From the very beginning, she had sensed something off about this cousin of hers — he was clearly hiding some secret.
Moreover, during several pirate raids, Raylin had never deliberately concealed things from her, so Isabel knew that his rapid rise in power had to be linked to some murky relationship with the devils.
Still, even knowing this, she had no intention of revealing it.
Their childhood bond was one reason; shared circumstance was another.
Though demons and devils stood at absolute opposing poles of the spectrum, the gap between them always blurred when it came to their mortal worshippers on the other end.
On the contrary, Isabel was deeply worried — deals with devils often required the sacrifice of one's very soul!
And those devils loved nothing more than employing schemes and stratagems to slowly gnaw away at a contractee's soul, dragging them into complete damnation.
Among the knowledgeable, it was fair to say that devils were often more terrifying than demons.
Of course, the very fact that devils were more scrupulous about honoring their contracts meant that throughout the entire world of the gods, there were actually slightly more followers who worshipped devils than those who served demons.
Meeting Isabel's gaze, Raylin understood what she was thinking.
"Don't worry — I didn't choose a soul deal!"
A blazing fireball shot from Raylin's hand, instantly incinerating the dried corpse on the ground to ash.
He hadn't kept anything from this cousin of his, but some things still needed to remain secret from his subordinates. Destroying the evidence was a perfectly good solution.
"Be careful. The cunning of devils is legendary even across the multiverse!"
Isabel offered the warning, then lapsed into silence — though something like resolve seemed to gleam deeper in her eyes.
When they returned to camp, Ronald and Robin Hood — whom they hadn't seen in quite some time — came forward to greet them.
"My lord! The entire camp has been cleared out!"
Robin Hood reported respectfully. His standing had seemed to decline recently, and he hadn't received much attention — but that was because he had been operating in the shadows, managing Raylin's true loyalists and elite forces.
"Good. Let's head to the fleet — it should be quite lively over there by now..."
A smile played across Raylin's face.
……
Shifting back slightly in time, at the shore — aboard the Black Skull.
A teleportation gate materialized, and then the somewhat disheveled figures of High Mage Borujie and William stumbled through.
Since he lacked high-mage armor, William had still taken damage despite fleeing quickly. His handsome hair had been singed into what looked like a bird's nest, and he bore multiple burns across his body.
"What happened? What was that?"
The horrifying explosion had been clearly visible even from the shore. William gripped the railing with glazed eyes and let out a wild roar.
The sensation of having brushed past death still left him trembling.
"It must be goblin explosives, but the power has been significantly amplified! Our forces are likely wiped out!"
Borujie was unscathed, but his brow was furrowed, his expression deeply puzzled. "Also, why didn't my earlier detection pick up anything unusual? Could it be some kind of new concealment spell, or the effect of a large-scale magic circle?"
"Hm—something's wrong!"
In an instant, Borujie's expression shifted rapidly. A ring on his hand exploded directly, unleashing a powerful magical barrier.
Blade of the Mage!
A magical sword of light materialized and clashed with a massive metal flying axe. The air erupted with a tremendous boom, and the resulting shockwave tore several gaping holes right through the deck.
"There's an enemy—who is it?! Jadama! Show yourself!"
William had also realized something was wrong. They had all been fixated by the colossal explosion and hadn't noticed the changes in their surroundings.
The deck was far too quiet. All the pirates left behind had vanished without a trace.
"Are you looking for this?" A massive shark head was tossed to the ground—the severed head of a sharkfolk merman, and one that William had once been all too familiar with.
Jadama had clearly suffered greatly before death. Below his neck, blood still dripped steadily, as though someone had wrung it off with bare hands.
Thud. Thud. Thud. A giant barbarian appeared in William's field of vision, shouldering an enormous cavalry saber. Several bloody wounds marked his body, but they were already healing at a terrifying rate, revealing fearsome vitality.
"It's Oggod, captain of the Barbarian Pirates! He ambushed our garrison!"
William's mind raced, and he immediately guessed the truth.
"So... Hegai Island was just a decoy. You set out long ago—it was all a trap!"
Reaching this location from the battlefield would indeed require two days of travel, but if an elite force had departed ahead of time, they could easily have gone unnoticed.
Bitterness twisted William's lips. Most of the family's forces had been completely destroyed, and he himself might not survive this time—a devastating blow to his standing.