Pirate Kingship

In another corner of the Combined Divine Country, an ancient city of modest scale stands between two rivers.

The city is neatly planned, with square stone buildings lined up straight, including residences, plazas, palaces, towers... clustered closely together.

This place should have once been inhabited by at least tens of thousands of people.

But the entire city is now covered with moss, weeds, and scattered bones, looking abandoned for many, many years.

Yet, this day is unusually lively.

"Squeak squeak squeak..."

"Howl howl howl..."

The bizarre howling sounds from every corner of the city blend into a cacophony.

Webs are woven between buildings, and a group of grotesque creatures climbs quickly upon them, with spider-like slender legs, yet their bodies are formed from countless blood-colored eyeballs into a sticky egg sac;

In the crevices of the buildings, the intertwining red and yellow meat-eating fungi look incredibly dangerous, with each filament expanding into human hands, crawling swiftly across the ground;

In the river, numerous grotesque creatures, resembling fish but with human hands and feet underneath, fearlessly charged onto land...

All the grotesque creatures converge into a tide, heading straight for a metallic fortress built on the foundation of a defensive watchtower at the city’s corner.

Flames surged along the city walls, with shrapnel flying, turning the area surrounding the fortress into a massive swamp of blood and flesh with a mix of black and red.

The overlapping spaces within the Combined Divine Country form an extremely complex maze, where arriving at any region isn’t determined by footsteps but by affinity.

Byron and Violet, after leaving the magma-filled smithy of the craftsman’s incarnation, passed through three or four empty domains before being pulled here early this morning due to the aggregation effect.

It was none other than the [Fertility] Divine Incarnation of [Venus Goddess] Ishtar they encountered on this narrow path!

The entire ancient city had become Her nest, nurturing countless grotesque creatures using Mortal World’s blood offerings and Her own authority, boasting combat power far surpassing the craftsman’s incarnation of the Master Creator.

Violet’s mechanical fortress was fully deployed.

Under the control of Alpha and the Gun Demon Spirit, constructed gun towers, rear-loading rifled guns, scatter guns, and bolt-action rifles resisted wave after wave of attacks fiercely.

Meanwhile, the [Atmosphere Talisman] immediately alerted them to the presence of other companions, preventing indiscriminate bombardment over the entire city.

After half a day’s stalemate, they finally found the flaw in the Divine Incarnation.

This time, Violet, whose strength had greatly increased, was responsible for attracting the enemy’s attention.

Byron transformed, using the power of [Transformation] to become one of the countless grotesque creatures, mingling with the scattered defeated troops and infiltrating the base camp where the [Fertility] Incarnation resided.

The layers of extremely twisted grotesque creatures posed no obstacle to Byron, allowing him to easily locate the enemy’s original body, who played the role of "Beast Tamer."

This was a towering rock temple, its Great Hall completely emptied, with thick layers of red biological tissue resembling a fleshy fungal carpet covering the floor, walls, and even the ceiling.

A quick scan with his right eye’s [Sailing Logbook] revealed the entire situation here.

Nutrient troughs, hatching nests, repair pouches, and other tissue structures resembling biological organs grew on the fungal carpet, resembling the exposed internal organs of some colossal entity.

Fresh soldiers continuously flowed out from the hatching nests, while severely wounded veterans would receive treatment in the repair pouches, and upon slight recovery, they were thrown back into the battlefield.

Should they manage to capture humans during battle, offering sufficient tribute to the [Fertility] Incarnation, they might achieve evolution within the pouches.

Unfortunately, within the mechanical fortress, there was only cold, lifeless steel; the grotesque army was drawing no nutrients, growing weaker and more chaotic the longer it fought.

Byron stopped paying attention to them, gazing through the translucent repair pouches towards the furthest wall of the Great Hall.

A figure, over five meters tall, pale and naked, grew upon that wall.

Legend tells that when [Venus Goddess] entered the Netherworld, she passed through seven gates, stripped of seven layers of divinity.

The essence of the strip-dance known as "Seven Layers of Veil Dance" originates from here.

Afterward, Ishtar’s elder sister, Queen of the Underworld, Alish Qiga, hung her naked corpse on a hook, using it as a water-skin.

The current form does somewhat resemble the mythological tale.

However, the naked Ishtar now lacks any trace of beauty.

Her skin is deathly pale, while from the abdomen downward, her lower body abruptly swells into large patches of bright red fungal mycelium, being the source of the fungal carpet in the temple.

Her head seems to have exploded from within.

Above the neck, the fungal filaments resembling nervous tissue spread across the wall like colorful flowers, rendering any semblance of a brain nonexistent.

Anyone gazing upon Her risks having their viscera and brain begin to mold instantly, sprouting mushrooms from every pore.

There’s no need at all for the "Mushroom King" to perform any transformation.

This is Byron’s first time seeing a pure [Sun] or [Storm] domain Old God, his expression grave:

"Even an incarnation fragment suffers under the burden of the Main Divine Position.

No Old God is more unfortunate than Her, up to this point.

This deity seems to suffer both in life and death.

Luckily, the [Atmosphere Talisman]’s sensing hasn’t failed; we’ve finally found other teammates, still alive!"

A large mouth opened in the abdomen of the [Fertility] Incarnation, and a silver-white mirror was being ground and digested by countless fungal filaments.