Pirate Kingship-Chapter 620 - 441: Shocking News, The Death of the Gods (Essential Core Setting Must See)!_2
The symptoms were quite bizarre. Involuntarily, individuals would pick up a quill and use whatever writing materials were at hand to copy this message. They would then stuff it into an empty Rum bottle and toss it into the sea.
They had never learned the Runes, yet they wrote them with apt precision. Furthermore, they didn't need to dip their quills in ink; their own blood would automatically flow to the tip, enabling them to write.
The more times the message was copied, the more frenzied their minds became.
This was undoubtedly a special type of memetic influence: one that achieved mental contamination through imitation and was particularly adept at disseminating information.
Byron didn't allow his crew's condition to worsen; merely a drop of the Blood of Transformation was all it took to save them.
Theoretically, if enough people were given it, even entities as massive as the Old Gods could regain consciousness. Resolving such a minor problem with the Blood of Transformation was, therefore, naturally well within reach.
However, the information they inadvertently spread while under the memetic influence had captured Byron's particular attention.
The coordinates marked "Edge of the World" corresponded exactly to the Glacial Archipelago that Byron and Violet had read about in the notes of the Father of the School of Sharks!
The Father of the School of Sharks, Bonaparte, had recorded in his notes:
"The entire area, carrot-shaped and roughly half the size of the Old Continent, is located at the southern tip of the Southern Continent. A chain of glacial islands exists there, marking the beginning of the Second Circulation Belt.
It seems there are people who worship a Fifth-Order Pseudo-God [Tidal Hunter]."
Bonaparte suspected that other branches of the Rift Monastery might have circumvented them and quietly established a foothold on the Southern Continent.
But Byron and Violet felt there was another possibility.
This meant that the worshipped [False God] might be none other than Jack Harold, the [Whale Hunter] who also practiced the Calamity Curse.
Their initial destination had been this very place. They intended to explore whether the [Whale Hunter] had left any clues for his descendants and to discover where he—or his people—had ultimately gone.
Now it seemed that the community, possibly established by the [Whale Hunter] himself for his own worship, might have encountered some serious trouble.
What concerned Byron even more was the latter half of the message.
"The Great Flood has never receded!"
He looked up at his Sailing Logbook, where the same phrase was written, only with slightly more content than what was found on the drifting bottles.
"Remember! The Great Flood of this world has never receded. Be sure to tightly fasten your [Anchor] (Chapter 33)!"
The writing was in the same Runes, and even the urgent tone between the lines was almost identical.
The moment he saw this passage, the Decryption Rate of [Secret: Prophecy, the racial revival prophecy of Woden, God of Authority and the Mad Hunt, historical influence 69] also rose from 51% to 52%.
The last progress in this Secret's Decryption Rate occurred due to a piece of information inadvertently revealed by the Father of the School of Sharks during his communication with Dagon:
"These Deep Sea Clans have only recently crawled out of the ocean, taking advantage of the world's rising Source Tides and sea levels. This has only been happening for a few years.
In the babbling dreams of the Old Gods, the Source Tides will intensify. The upcoming 'Luanyan Epoch' will eventually sweep them and all the Deep Sea Clans back ashore."
Connecting these two pieces of information, it wasn't hard to infer that 'The Great Flood' was no ordinary deluge. It was most likely an extraterrestrial Source Tide—and a terrifyingly catastrophic one at that!
It was quite a coincidence that legends of the Great Flood existed both in the ancient texts of the Old Continent and within the Bantaan Archipelago and the Sun Empire.
The last such event took place around the Era Transition between the "Mythological Era" and the "Silver Era."
What those Kin call the 'Luanyan Epoch' is clearly not mere fearmongering.
Could this supernatural disaster of 'The Great Flood' be the harbinger of an Era Transition?
Could it be that the followers of the [Whale Hunter] on the Glacial Archipelago encountered some extraordinary accident, forcing them to warn the outside world in this manner?
Thinking this far, Byron summoned Succubus Therese, who was dressed in a black skintight leather suit and open-toed high-heeled shoes, entirely unfazed by the biting cold.
After outlining the intelligence he had gathered, he asked her,
"Miss Therese, you must have Old Continent blood in you as well, correct?
Where exactly did the Ancient God's Chosen Races that landed in the Hundred Beasts Paradise come from? How much do you know about the Great Flood and the Spiral Annals?"
Therese clearly knew far more than Freya, the [Goddess of Love and Beauty] from the Deep Dive Church.
After a moment's contemplation, she explained to Byron,
"Vast and perilous seas separate the continents, completely severing contact between human groups since the disaster at the end of the Mythological Era.
However, there is one natural phenomenon that cannot be severed—Blue Holes.
Blue Holes, appearing randomly from time to time, connect the entire ocean. They can bring things that don't belong in a particular sea area to another.
There's also a pattern, as natural as water flowing downward: Blue Holes usually transport things from higher elevations to lower ones, not the reverse, unless external forces interfere.
In terms of Mysticism, this means all sorts of things are transported from the Old Continent—which has the calmest tidal activity and highest terrain—to the Southern Continent, the Eastern Continent across the sea, and even to the Sea of Origin Matter!
Consequently, over the ages, many people from the Old Continent have vanished into Blue Holes. In reality, this was passive immigration.
For example, the ancestors of our 'Pleasure Banquet Sisterhood'—Succubi—were initially transported to a mirror island in the Sea of Origin Matter.
To adapt to the high concentration of Source Material in the environment, they held a Black Mass Ceremony, defiling the Church's Sacred Artifacts. They collectively transformed from mortals into a naturally supernatural Kin.
However, male Succubi were too few, so they could only continue their lineage through the reproductive worship of our Lady Lilith.
It wasn't until recent years, as the concentration of Source Material in the Material World and the mystical water level in Mysticism rose, that we were able to crawl ashore from the Sea of Origin Matter through the World Rift, our numbers ever increasing.
As far as I know, a series of sects on the South Continent East Coast:
The Deep Dive Church, the Rift Monastery, the Pleasure Banquet Sisterhood, the Blind Eye Church, the Blood Beast Nest, the Revenge Blade, the Voodoo Sect... and so on. Most of them are in this situation."
Byron nodded silently. He could tell Therese was not lying.
The ancestors of those 'Bay Exiles' also arrived on the Southern Continent only after being swallowed by a mysterious Blue Hole when they accidentally entered the Doldrums.
The notes showed that the main members of the Rift Monastery were also immigrants from the Old Continent.
Even though the Old Gods have been dead for many years, when choosing their Kin, they still seem to hold a special fondness for believers from the Old Continent. Furthermore, they are extremely hostile to the Church, or rather, to The Bound Creator!
It seemed quite reasonable that a group of dead Old Gods would naturally be hostile to the only great being still alive.
Of course, it wasn't out of the question that the Creator had done something to them in the past.
Considering this, Byron continued to inquire,
"What about the Great Flood?
Do the Kin who climbed out of the Sea of Origin Matter know what happened during the Twilight of the Gods?"
Succubus Therese touched the fragmented Zero-Level Sacred Relic, the [Blood Cup], in her hand, her eyes reflecting a look of reminiscence as she said,
"The information we possess also comes from the murmurings of the gods' corpses; it's fragmented and unsystematic.
As everyone knows, a sudden and particularly fierce War of the Gods ended the Mythological Era, which was ruled by deities.
Afterward, the Silver Era, ruled by the so-called sole god, the [Creator], gradually began.
The fact that nearly all Zero-Level Sacred Relics in the world were shattered into fragments attests to the ferocity of that war among gods."
Speaking to this point, a trace of incredulous doubt crossed Therese's face.
"However, despite the ferocity of the divine war...
Our Kin, the scions of gods, discovered through exchanges that the deities they served didn't fall into eternal sleep because they were slain by other great beings.
From the fragmented murmurings of the gods' corpses, we learned their cause of death was strikingly consistent: they were all... drowned by a Great Flood that immediately followed!"
