Chapter 560 - 424: Modi Caesar’s Plot and the Mournful Whale Song
He calmly gazed at the Endless Sea before him, its waters growing deeper, shifting from azure to an inky blue.
Inside the coffin lay the body of the Legendary Pirate King Barbossa.
Even though he had been dead for several months, the aura of a Domain Level Peak powerhouse had not yet completely dissipated.
This aura was like a lighthouse in the dead of night, exceptionally conspicuous to certain beings.
It was this very aura that had allowed the Deep Sea Giant Whale to target Seagull Port and enact its revenge.
They had flown for nearly a hundred kilometers, leaving the Continent’s coastline far behind.
All around, there was nothing but surging waves and the occasional seabird gliding by.
Just then, the seemingly calm surface of the sea below began to churn violently without any warning.
An immense whirlpool, over a kilometer in diameter, materialized out of nowhere.
Seawater rushed toward the center of the whirlpool at a frantic pace, creating a deafening roar.
Then,
BOOM!
A colossal wall of pure seawater hundreds of meters high erupted from the center of the whirlpool, soaring toward the sky!
The tsunami had arrived!
This was no natural tsunami.
Behind that sky-piercing wall of water, a shadow so vast it would make the soul of any beholder tremble in terror was slowly rising from the depths.
The Deep Sea Giant Whale!
It had finally been lured here by the aura of Barbossa’s body.
Facing this cataclysm, one that could easily destroy a port city, Astra’s eyes betrayed no emotion whatsoever.
ROAR!
A dragon’s cry transformed into a visible, silvery-white sonic wave that swept downward.
Space itself vibrated violently wherever the sonic wave passed.
The moment the unstoppable, several-hundred-meter-high wall of water met the draconic sonic wave, it was as if it had been viciously slapped by a giant, invisible hand.
RUMBLE!
The entire wall of water collapsed in an instant!
It became countless tons of seawater crashing back onto the ocean’s surface, falling like a torrential downpour and kicking up a sky-full of spray.
Two world-destroying powers, both at the Catastrophe Level, had engaged in a brief, probing clash.
Neither held the upper hand.
Beneath the waves, the Deep Sea Giant Whale was clearly enraged by Astra’s domineering strike.
WOOOOOO!
A long, mournful cry, filled with sorrow and fury, echoed up from the depths of the sea.
The entire surface of the sea began to boil in response.
Countless thick jets of water, like cannonballs fired from the seabed, erupted toward the sky, barraging Astra.
Astra’s massive draconic form carved an arc through the air, effortlessly dodging all the jets of water.
At the same time, brilliant, silvery-white arcs of lightning began to crackle across its body.
Countless thick, serpentine bolts of Lightning took shape, coalescing around its body.
In that instant, the sky grew dark.
Vast, leaden thunderclouds materialized out of thin air, blanketing the sea for dozens of kilometers in every direction.
Raylo knew Astra was about to get serious.
"Astra, please wait!"
He quickly sent his thoughts to Astra.
’Please, try to communicate with it first.’
The lightning in the sky faltered for a moment.
Astra temporarily subdued the lightning on its body.
The thunderclouds in the sky also began to slowly disperse.
It hovered a thousand meters high, letting out several draconic cries toward the churning sea below.
WOOOOOO!
From beneath the sea, the Deep Sea Giant Whale responded in kind with a long, drawn-out cry.
A conversation transcending species, a dialogue between Catastrophe Level powerhouses, began to unfold over the vast sea.
Raylo couldn’t understand their language.
He could only sense two equally immense Spiritual Powers intertwining and clashing in the air.
The process lasted for nearly a minute.
Finally, Astra fell silent.
’It has agreed.’
Astra’s voice sounded in Raylo’s mind.
’It says that Barbossa was the only friend it had in its long life. It destroyed Seagull Port only to avenge its friend.’
’It has agreed to your proposal. You will return Barbossa’s body to it, and it will leave these waters, never to return.’
Raylo breathed a sigh of relief.
Astra slowly descended.
When they were less than two hundred meters from the surface of the sea, Raylo pushed the heavy ironwood coffin off the dragon’s back.
The coffin traced a parabola through the air before smashing heavily into the sea.
SPLASH!
A huge spray of water erupted from the surface.
The next second, an indescribably enormous mouth slowly opened from beneath the water.
The massive maw was large enough to easily swallow a greatship.
The great maw closed slowly, swallowing the floating coffin along with the surrounding seawater.
Then, slowly, it shut its mouth.
The entire process was silent, yet filled with an indescribable, breathtaking awe.
After swallowing the coffin,
The Deep Sea Giant Whale revealed its full form to Raylo for the very first time.
Its body was even more immense than Raylo had imagined.
Its dorsal fin, like a giant sail, breached the surface of the water.
It twisted its colossal body, and its tail, as massive as a mountain range, gave a gentle flick across the surface of the water.
BOOM!
A hundred-meter-high wall of water was thrown into the sky.
Then, its immense body slowly sank beneath the waves, disappearing from sight.
From the distance, a whale’s song—mournful, yet tinged with relief—drifted over on the sea breeze.
The song echoed for a long time over the vast expanse of the sea.
The Deep Sea Giant Whale’s departure took with it the last pall of gloom hanging over these waters.
The sky was a crystalline blue, and the sea breeze blew gently, carrying a fresh, salty scent.
The suffocating, oppressive feeling from before was completely gone.
Standing on Astra’s back, Raylo watched the massive silhouette disappear into the deep, a complex emotion welling up in his heart.
The friendship between Barbossa and the Deep Sea Giant Whale transcended species, even overcoming the barrier between life and death.
Even Raylo could not help but be moved by such a bond.
’Let’s head back.’
Astra’s voice pulled him from his reverie.
Lightning crackled to life once more as the great Thunder Dragon turned and flew toward the Continent.
「In the most devastated area of Seagull Port」
A massive, menacing black warship was moored quietly, a stark contrast to the surrounding ruin.
The *Deep Sea Throat*.
The captain’s cabin was dimly lit.
Heavy velvet curtains blocked out the last traces of outside light, leaving only a few whale-oil Magic Lamps to cast flickering, sallow halos in the air.
A figure shrouded head-to-toe in a black cloak stood silently before the porthole, like a statue taken from a medieval tomb, melting into the surrounding darkness.
This was Modi Caesar.
A Legend among Necromancers.
He did not turn back; his mummified face, hidden in the shadow of his hood, was "staring" out toward the Outer Sea.
Out there, there was nothing but surging, inky-blue waves.
But to his senses, just a moment ago, a familiar aura of the Undead had been rapidly receding, ultimately dissipating completely into the depths of the Endless Sea.
That aura had belonged to the dead Legendary Pirate King, Barbossa.
"Sigh..."
A long sigh echoed through the captain’s cabin.
The temperature in the air seemed to drop several degrees in an instant.
The opportunity was lost.
That young Count, Raylo, was even more decisive than he had imagined.
He hadn’t chosen to claim Barbossa’s body for himself, nor had he used it as a bargaining chip. Instead, he had taken the most direct and decisive approach—striking at the very root of the problem—by returning the body to the Deep Sea Giant Whale that had been its guardian.
Returning the item to its rightful owner.
For the Deep Sea Giant Whale, which had lived for who knows how many ages, this was perhaps the best possible ending.
But for Modi Caesar, it meant that the plan he had been preparing for so long—a plan for which he had even deigned to leave the Abandoned Ruins—had completely fallen through.
He abandoned his plan to resurrect Barbossa.
As a Necromancer, it would be incredibly difficult for him to defeat a Catastrophe Level Ocean Magical Beast like the Deep Sea Giant Whale in its own domain.
Besides, this entire venture was merely a contingency plan, an escape route he had prepared in case one of his other schemes failed.
When he could no longer find a foothold on the Continent, he planned to escape via the ocean and seek out the possibility of ascending to the World Destruction Level.