Hall of Stars.
Hastur sat upright in his seat, having observed the High-Dimensional Overseer for quite some time already.
At this moment, He was aboard the Blue Avenger, with Alger by His side, ready to provide service at any time.
Judging from His recent series of actions, He seemed to genuinely want to conquer the entire sea for fun.
Any pirates unlucky enough to encounter the Blue Avenger had only two choices: surrender and join the Blue Avenger, or choose death.
Before the High-Dimensional Overseer's unsolvable strength, the Blue Avenger rampaged across the seas without restraint, its fleet growing larger and larger.
Regarding the High-Dimensional Overseer's intention to conquer the sea, Hastur felt it was quite good. Letting Him have something to occupy Himself with would also save Him from running off to Backlund again.
What was truly worth paying attention to was whether the High-Dimensional Overseer would follow Alger and enter above the Sefirah Castle.
Now that Alger had been targeted by the High-Dimensional Overseer, before next Monday arrived, he would likely try to pray to Mr. Fool and seek His help.
Once that happened, unless Klein made no response at all, it would be very easy for the High-Dimensional Overseer to glimpse the existence of the Sefirah Castle.
After thinking it through, Hastur ultimately decided to do nothing.
Based on his understanding of Klein, Klein's tendency to follow his heart... his cautiousness had already been developed to a certain level.
If Alger truly sought help, he would mostly observe from the sidelines, or simply act as if he hadn't heard anything.
Because with his current abilities, he was fundamentally incapable of intervening in matters on the distant seas.
Hastur then shifted his gaze toward the pair of white crystal eyeballs.
The devout believer responsible for enshrining them wore a calm and tranquil expression, a strip of white cloth now covering his eyes.
Had his eyes also undergone a mutation?
Had he become a blind man?
Hastur linked what had happened to him with Chief Reed, becoming increasingly certain of his earlier speculation.
Blind Man was very likely Sequence 9 of one of the High-Dimensional Overseer's Beyonder pathways.
The main advancement direction of this pathway was the eyes. Just like the pair of white crystal eyeballs.
If the High-Dimensional Overseer truly established a new religion, what would it be called?
The Salted Fish Church?
The Church of the Overseer?
The cult of One Piece?
Hastur always felt that, following this Beyonder pathway left behind by the High-Dimensional Overseer, sequences such as Wanderer or Ranger would eventually appear.
This was an inference he made based on the High-Dimensional Overseer's behavior along the way.
After finishing his observation of the High-Dimensional Overseer, Hastur swept his gaze once more across the star where the Supernova Dominator resided.
Bernadette had already arrived on the Southern Continent for quite some time, yet she had never found any trace of the Mother Tree of Desire or the Supernova Dominator's followers.
No news at all was the worst kind of news.
....
Waters near Pasu Island.
The Blue Avenger led a fleet as it passed through the vicinity of the Chasm.
This place had always been forbidden territory for pirate fleets, because it was where the Church of the Lord of Storms held its greatest power.
At present, the arrival of the Blue Avenger could be described as openly flaunting its might right at the Church of the Lord of Storms' doorstep.
At the bow of the ship, Alger looked ahead at the sea with a worried expression. As a believer of Storms, he knew just how powerful the forces stationed here by the Church of the Lord of Storms were.
This place was equivalent to the Church of the Evernight Goddess' Cathedral of Serenity.
That young man who called himself part of the Blue Avenger had deliberately detoured to pass through here after learning that this was the Church of the Lord of Storms' holy ground.
Flaunting power, a naked provocation, this was what Alger felt from that young man.
He seemed to harbor a deep dislike for the Church of the Lord of Storms. Along the way, whenever they encountered ordinary people or Beyonders who believed in Storms, he would force them to become pirates who burned, killed, and plundered without restraint.
It looked as if he were deliberately opposing the Church of the Lord of Storms.
Now he was even swaggering through the waters under the Church of the Lord of Storms' jurisdiction.
Alger, who had originally planned to look for an opportunity to seek help from Mr. Fool, now instead placed his hopes on the Church of the Lord of Storms.
He hoped that the archbishops or high-ranking deacons within the church could deal with this wicked young man and allow him to regain his freedom.
On the surface, Alger still displayed concern for the future of the Blue Avenger.
In the distant sea, black clouds rolled in, lightning and thunder raging within, while a hundred-foot-tall white wave rose on the ocean's surface.
At the highest point of the wall of waves, a figure stood unmoving, blue-haired, blue-eyed, with a burly physique, like a sea god descending from legend.
Faced with such majesty, pirates whose willpower was already weak dropped their weapons one after another. Some even knelt and kowtowed, begging the god for forgiveness.
Alger was shaken to his core, his eyes burning with fervor. Becoming such a powerful existence was the very goal that had driven him to step into the Beyonder world.
He secretly glanced at that young man. That person was not looking at the burly figure atop the wall of waves, but rather at the sky shrouded in black clouds.
Alger observed that the young man seemed completely unconcerned with the situation before them, instead gazing toward a more distant battlefield.
Perhaps enraged, or perhaps intending from the start to cleanse sin with the storm, the burly figure drove the wall of waves forward, crushing down.
The sea churned violently. Ships that failed to leave the area in time were swallowed by the ocean one after another.
As the wall of waves approached, the Blue Avenger beneath Alger's feet began to pitch and roll, as if it were about to be torn apart into pieces.
After a moment's thought, Alger deliberately stepped forward and said in panic, "We're no match at all. We should leave the Church of the Lord of Storms' territory as soon as possible."
"Captain, do you want me to win, or the Church of the Lord of Storms to win?"
"Of course you. We're already on the same ship now." Alger could only speak against his true feelings.
"Captain, you have good judgment."
The novice crew member smiled, then told Alger to push the Blue Avenger to full power and steer straight toward the oncoming colossal wall of waves.
This was an almost suicidal action.
Alger instinctively felt it was wrong, yet he did not dare to directly defy the young man's will. Along the way, anyone who dared to disobey had already been sent to the fishes' bellies.
"If things go bad, I can only abandon the ship and escape."
Alger was reluctant to part with the Blue Avenger, but at this moment, his own life was the most important thing.
He entered the control room, pushed the engines to their limit, adjusted the heading, and the Blue Avenger surged upstream, charging straight at the wall of waves.
He had thought the Blue Avenger would be crushed to pieces by the hundred-feet wave, but to his astonishment, it actually climbed along the wave at a nearly ninety-degree vertical angle!
This wasn't scientific!
Seeing this, Alger's eyes widened, fear filling his heart.
That young man's strength was far too terrifying, he could accomplish this with ease!
Even more astonishing was that, despite the Blue Avenger moving upstream like this, there was no sensation of weightlessness. Nothing on the ship fell straight down; everything remained in place.
It was as if the Blue Avenger were sailing on a calm sea, not on a terrifying wave capable of devouring all ships.
As the Blue Avenger climbed to the top of the massive wave, the thunder that had been suppressed in the sky for so long finally transformed into terrifying beasts, bolts crashing down one after another.
Alger's body began to tremble, his limbs weak. Before such overwhelming might, he felt an urge to kneel and kowtow.
But just as he thought the Blue Avenger would be torn apart by lightning, another miraculous scene occurred.
The descending lightning vanished abruptly just before touching the Blue Avenger!
It was the power of space!
Alger's heart shook. This time, he watched very carefully. When the lightning was about to strike the hull, space itself underwent a slight distortion.
This distortion was extremely hard to notice, concealed by the vast brilliance of the lightning.
It was only when several bolts skimmed past the hull that he managed to glimpse the subtle spatial warping.
Twisting space, what Beyonder pathway did this ability belong to?
Alger searched his memories, yet was not able to reach a correct conclusion.
With a sigh, he continued to follow the young man's instructions, adjusting the course and moving forward.
At this moment, the Blue Avenger was already level with that burly figure.
He stood there alone, blocking the path ahead. His already massive form now resembled a gigantic wall, anyone attempting to pass would have to pay a grievous price.
Until Alger piloted the Blue Avenger and leapt over his head.
Only then did Alger suddenly come to his senses and instinctively glance back.
He saw the burly figure standing, his body invisibly divided into countless fragments, then swallowed by the sea.
The scene was like slicing sashimi, each precise cut leaving behind thin, translucent slices of fish.
Only, the one tasting them was not him, but the all-encompassing sea.
Fear, shock, helplessness, all kinds of emotions surged through Alger's heart.
He did not know which existence of the Church of the Lord of Storms that burly figure had been, but he could be certain that this person was absolutely a powerful Beyonder of Sequence 4 or above.
Yet even such an existence could not contend with that young man, not even able to mount a proper counterattack.
This was because there was an insurmountable gap in strength between them.
With the death of the burly figure, everything on the sea returned to normal.
The Blue Avenger sailed steadily across the surface, passing openly through the Church of the Lord of Storms' front gate, followed by a few ships that had been lucky enough not to be swallowed by the wall of waves.