Chapter 543 — The Reality That Exceeds Expectations

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The target appears to have been found... Klein looked away and made a rough judgment.

As there were no portraits, the dead adventurer’s face was burned black, which meant that Elland clearly didn’t recognize this as one of their targets. After observing the situation and listening to the creepy laughter for a few seconds, he pointed to the three or four military personnel lying outside the house.

“Drag them back first, then wait for the other teams to arrive before launching our attack.

“Or...”

He hesitated for a moment, then he raised his head to look at the approaching dark-blue airship.

Without another word, and without instructing Klein and Danitz, Elland ran to the unconscious military personnel whose faces were purple.

Tap. Tap. Tap... The closer he got, the weaker his steps became. In the end, his body became stiff and every step he took became extremely difficult.

Elland, who had been the boatswain of the Imperial Navy, was experienced, He decisively stopped moving forward and turned around slowly, walking back one step at a time.

The more he walked, the smoother it became. However, he was still shaking uncontrollably, his eyebrows and temples were covered in a thin layer of frost.

A quick freezing effect that defies common sense... An extreme cold reminiscent of a disaster... With Elland’s attempt, Klein was able to grasp the danger level of this area, and he could only sigh inwardly.

Unfortunately, the Sun Brooch isn’t able to produce actual heat. It’s only a stimulation of one’s mind. Although it can make a body generate clear effects, it will only allow a person to withstand this cold for three to four seconds at most...

Looking at Elland’s chattering teeth and how he was unable to open his mouth despite wanting to say something, Klein’s gaze swept over Danitz.

He threw his cane and said in a low voice, “Fire.”

Fire? Danitz was stunned at first, but he quickly understood Gehrman Sparrow.

He had also witnessed the entire process of Elland’s failure!

A scarlet fireball that couldn’t be considered bright formed on Danitz’s right palm, and he threw it towards the flanks of the military personnel.

The fireball traveled for nearly twenty meters and then landed on the ground without creating an explosive sound. Instead, it quietly rose into the air.

The scarlet pillar of fire emitted sizzling sounds as it continuously shrank and quickly dimmed.

Suddenly, it expanded, as if it was in a desperate struggle before it perished.

Klein, wearing a black tweed coat, jumped out and landed right next to the military personnel.

He bent down and reached out with both hands and grabbed the man’s clothes.

Then, he pushed his feet against the ground, exerted strength at his waist, and threw the man out.

The military personnel immediately flew into the air, smoothly flying out before landing ten meters away from the area, escaping the region with the coldest chill.

After doing this, Klein snapped his fingers and lit a match in his pocket before the chill seeped into his body.

The scarlet streams of flames gushed out like water, instantly enveloping him.

By the time everything faded, Klein had disappeared from his location.

Flames leaped out, flickering and extinguishing from time to time. With the help of Danitz’s fireballs and his own matches, Klein constantly phased around in the extremely cold area, easily throwing out several military personnel.

After two to three attempts, he carried the last member of the military back to his original position.

Elland had clearly recovered as he gave a thumbs up.

“I’m very glad and honored to have made the decision to ask for your help today.”

Captain, I like your tactful praises... Also, remember to raise the remuneration... Klein nodded politely, half turned, and looked at the open windows of the house. He heard the laughter grow stranger.

Danitz pursed his lips to the side and silently cursed Elland.

Did you not see the contribution I made?

Although my fireball has become something akin to a prop for a magic show, it still made actual contributions!

This guy’s nickname is Just Elland, but he’s not just at all!

As he muttered, a shadow loomed over the area, and the airship had arrived in the air opposite them.

“Evacuate the people in the surrounding houses!” an officer shouted from the airship.

After Elland and two other teams cleared several nearby buildings, the airship lowered its altitude and adjusted its cannon muzzles.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The cannons fired continuously, bombarding the house which was still filled with creepy laughter.

Hearing the explosions and seeing the flashes of flames, Klein sighed as he held his cane.

This is the firepower bombardment he advocated. He had once proposed it in Tingen City but was unable to put it into practice. And today, however, the overseas colonists were producing the real scene before him.

Elland and the others stood guard in different positions under the deafening sound of the cannons, so as to prevent the people or perhaps monsters inside from breaking out.

Soon the house collapsed, and smoke rose from the piles of masonry. All the snow and ice was gone.

Suddenly, a thick bolt of lightning flashed, openly striking the airship.

Klein frowned. He saw that the airship was completely still and heard a steam boiler produce a jarring sound.

The dark-blue monster in the sky lost some control. Significant amounts of smoke began to billow out as it began descending to the side.

Seems like they’re being shielded by ammunition and being protected by an outer layer of air... I thought it would cause an explosion, blasting the airship to pieces... Klein turned his full attention back to the collapsed house.

When he initially felt the extreme coldness and saw the male adventurer’s charred body, he thought he had met another demoness—one who grasped the Witch potion formula. Having dealt with demonesses several times, he knew that Beyonders of this pathway could control ice and black flames from Sequence 7.

But that flash of lightning had made him reject this judgment. He believed that Leticia was indeed a member of the Moses Ascetic Order or Element Dawn, a real woman.

The moment Klein arrived at this conclusion, the pile of bricks and wood were immediately lifted away. The bright red and charred figure crawled out, with its elbows used to prop it up from the ground.

She was a female and Leticia’s original appearance could barely be recognised. This made Elland and the others shocked to discover that they had already found their target. However, compared to before, Leticia’s current state was both terrifying and miserable.

Her body was covered in black spots. The artillery shells had torn open red holes that lined her body. White fascia that seemed to have a life of its own was squirming inside her body.

The top of her head had split open, and her brain came oozing out, sticking to the surface like the palms of children overlapping each other.

Her gray eyes were out of focus, one of them blazing with fire, the other flashing with lightning.

Two heads that were screaming in pain were embedded at her abdomen below her chest. They were the other two male adventurers.

Not only has she lost control, but she also appears to be corrupted... She was already severely injured from the previous bombardment, and her aura had dropped to an extreme level... Klein didn’t take action and instead watched as the Beyonders from the military began to attack.

Psychic Piercing, Whip of Pain, Purifying Bullets, and small-caliber gunfire were launched... With this series of attacks, Rampager Leticia, who only had enough time to crack the ground and spread the crack outwards, completely broke down and became a dismembered corpse.

Pa!

Her torso fell to the ground, and the heads of the two male adventurers rolled out.

Klein’s eyes slightly narrowed. He discovered that there was a yellowish-brown book hidden within the flesh and blood of Leticia’s abdomen.

On the surface of the book, there was a line of words written in Elven: “Book of Calamity.”

Why do these books and notebooks always find themselves in the stomachs of people. It’s the same as the Antigonus family’s notebook last time... Klein lampooned, then he suspected that the Book of Calamity was the item that the fake archaeologist, Leticia, had taken from the ruins of the Sea God.

At this moment, some military personnel grabbed the two male adventurers’ heads who still seemed capable of speaking and hurriedly asked, “What did you do in the ruin of the Sea God?”

“Sea God’s Ruins...” One of the male adventurers answered with pain and confusion, “We haven’t been there...”

He tried to move his eyes, to check the situation below his neck.

“The Sea God ruin in Symeem Island,” the military personnel reminded him.

“No... We didn’t...” The male adventurer wanted to shake his head, but he couldn’t do so. “We went to an ancient elven ruin... Leticia found a book there... She liked it very much... She quickly began to study it, then s-she went mad! She’s crazy!”

As the male adventurer shouted out, whatever was left of his mind completely dissipated.

It’s not a lost temple of the Sea God but a ruin of the ancient elves? This is different from what I imagined... Klein was about to listen carefully when Elland came over and politely asked him and Danitz to distance themselves from the interrogation.

Turning into another street, Klein slowed down and thought about the whole thing.

Why would Leticia’s act of taking the Book of Calamity out of the ancient elven ruins cause Sea God Kalvetua to be no longer capable of maintaining its existence, slowly bringing it to the point of breakdown? What’s the connection between the two?

Elves... Sea God... According to Little Sun, the ancient god, Elf King Soniathrym, wielded the present authorities of the Lord of Storms. That is to say, the elves no doubt possess Sequence 3 Sea King, or an even higher Sequence 2...

Could it be that it was by chance that this sea serpent, Kalvetua, discovered a ruin of the elves at the bottom of the sea, directly devoured the Beyonder characteristics left behind by a certain high elf, and was lucky enough to survive the two possibilities of death and losing control? As such, it succeeded in acquiring the rank of a demigod and gradually gained the faith of the Rorsted Archipelago’s natives?

Klein slowly came to a realization, and he had to thank Mr. Hanged Man for this.

Initially, Little Sun didn’t reveal the corresponding authorities of the eight ancient gods, but later, under the guidance of The Hanged Man, he explained some things, including the Elf King Soniathrym general situation.

As for devouring Beyonder characteristics or the corresponding ingredients to advance, it wasn’t something that didn’t happen. Before the potion system was fully constructed, the human ancestors had made similar attempts to obtain Beyonder powers. However, only a very small group of extremely fortunate people had managed to survive to become Beyonders without becoming monsters, lunatics, or dying on the spot, with their flesh and blood falling apart.

Such an attempt had a one in a thousand chance of success, or even a one in ten thousand chance. After the potion system was established, no one was willing to take such a great risk.

If that’s the case, then Kalvetua was indeed very lucky back then... Of course, there’s also the factor of its strong physique... However, its intelligence didn’t seem to increase much, only being capable of deceiving its believers. It didn’t actually find any traces of the elven ruins on Symeem Island, and how it’s closely related to the one it’s hiding in...

After Leticia and company took the Book of Calamity, that ruin collapsed, causing Kalvetua’s hiding spot to experience abnormalities, resulting in the barely surviving Kalvetua to be unable to hold out any longer? This can explain how Leticia and company managed to easily succeed. There aren’t any members of the Resistance or the Sea God’s followers defending the area. Only when something happened did Kalvetua discover the problem and realized the connection between the two ruins.

With what he just gathered, Klein tried to explain what he had been wondering about the whole time.

This included why the dying Sea God Kalvetua didn’t allow its followers to become carriers—it would’ve reduced most of the accidents and made things easier. With the brutality Kalvetua displayed, it was only right that it made such a choice.

The answer Klein arrived at was that the body Kalvetua wanted to corrupt and possess had to have a certain amount of elven blood, and that was the only way to survive the transfer of Beyonder characteristics up to a certain level.

However, when Klein touched it, due to the gray fog and his uniqueness, it allowed Kalvetua to instantly find a better target.