As Saga journeyed towards the Greyrock Archipelago.

In the Whirlpool Sea, somewhere to the south, there lay an island built upon black rocks, with forests and lakes atop, surrounded by densely scattered large reefs on the vast, curtain-like blue sea.

Not counting the surrounding reefs.

The land area of this island was about the size of the entire Moon Bay.

This was the Black Skull Archipelago—the stronghold and base of the Black Skull pirates.

Though called an archipelago, aside from the largest main island, the rest were merely large rocks; calling it an archipelago was a little trick by the Black Skull pirates to make their base sound more impressive.

At the highest point of Black Skull Island, there was a steep cliff with a sharp peak.

A pirate flag adorned with a black skull pattern fluttered in the wind, snapping loudly.

In the middle of the island, the land had been cleared of trees and rocks, creating an open space where non-natural buildings crisscrossed.

Shops selling magic potions, weapons, armor, multi-story bamboo or stone buildings suitable for living, slave markets binding sapient beings, taverns, brothels, and arenas where sapient beings or monsters fought to the death—all the buildings had a rough style, clearly resembling a pirate settlement.

Here, a large number of pirates came and went.

Some drank coarse rye beer in taverns, boasting and joking with their pirate comrades, exaggerating their brave deeds, or sharing mysterious tales of the sea with a secretive air.

Some hurried into small inns or groves with numb, haggard women or humanoid creatures in one arm and holding up their trousers with the other.

Others browsed various shops, selling treasures they had plundered or buying weapons and armor to save their lives.

But the liveliest place was undoubtedly the arena.

Surrounded by layers of steps, with a vast interior divided into many different fighting areas, the arena was filled with pirates watching the bloody battles between monsters, slaves, and volunteers, screaming hoarsely for those they bet on, or cursing and swearing when they lost their bets.

Inside the arena.

The most eye-catching was the central fighting platform.

A tall and burly man, wearing only simple hemp shorts and revealing strong muscles covered in blood, stretched out his arms as if listening to the calls of the pirates, or as if embracing this cruel world of dueling.

Opposite the man lay a duck-mouse behemoth, lifeless, its neck twisted violently.

The behemoth, with the body of a giant duck and the head of a giant mouse, lay motionless.

At first glance, its body seemed intact, but beneath the skin and fur, the flesh was soft and rotten, its bones shattered, and its body covered in brutal marks from punches and kicks.

“Balbert!”

“Balbert!”

“Balbert!”

“Balbert!”

The pirates shouted the man’s name with fervent emotion.

If one were familiar with the pirate world, upon hearing the name Balbert, they would tremble, realizing it belonged to a pirate general.

A high-ranking pirate lieutenant listed in the Pirate Bounty Catalog—

The seventh-tier ‘Evil Knight’ Balbert, who openly had the blood of at least five peers on his hands!

The ‘Evil Knight’ Balbert slowly opened his eyes, revealing a pair of oppressive pupils, and with a slight downward motion of his arms, the noisy and excited shouting stopped as if a pause button had been pressed.

His eyes were different from ordinary people’s.

Within the pitch-black sclera were blood-red irises, which, combined with his cold gaze, looked particularly eerie and violent.

“Pirates, continue, unleash your desires to your heart’s content.”

The Evil Knight spoke calmly.

As the pirates’ voices surged like waves once more, the Evil Knight’s body bent slightly, the muscles on his legs tensed, and then he suddenly leaped out of the arena’s open-air outer wall, jumping dozens of meters high.

Moments later.

The Evil Knight Balbert, with meticulously combed hair, a stern face, and wearing a silver-white armor engraved with intricate patterns and a hint of holiness, appeared in a simple and monotonous room.

A wooden table.

A hard plank bed.

A chair.

These were almost all the decorations in his usual dwelling. In such an environment, his silver-white, holy armor seemed out of place, but combined with his eerie eyes and cold, violent gaze, it strangely harmonized.

Sitting upright in the chair like a statue, the Evil Knight was motionless, his stern face expressionless, his thoughts unknown.

After several minutes.

The pirate general reached into the inner side of his breastplate and pulled out a palm-sized object.

It was a strange metal badge, constructed of crossed runes, and upon closer inspection, one could see many skulls engraved on its surface, giving it an abstract skull-like appearance.

It was blood-red, as if drenched in fresh blood.

Judging by the mottled color showing through the faded areas, it seemed to be made of brass.

The Evil Knight gently rubbed the brass blood badge, feeling the cold and rough texture, along with an indescribable force of brutality emanating from it.

Only the Evil Knight could hear the roars and growls in his ears.

“Pray with the gushing of blood and the breaking of bones!”

“Worship with endless fighting, violence, and slaughter!”

“When the seas of the world are replaced by blood, and the high mountains are obscured by skulls, His glorious name shall be revealed!”

“Blood sacrifice to the Blood God! Skull offering to the Skull Throne!”

This was like a roar mixed with countless spurts of blood, shattered bones, clashing weapons, as if from a battlefield of slaughter, each word causing even the mentally strong Evil Knight to frown slightly, needing to concentrate to guard his mind. Still, a violent aura crept over his body, affecting him.

With a slight relaxation of his brow, the Evil Knight exhaled softly.

He looked down, quietly gazing at the brass blood badge, then lowered his head to look at the silver-white armor he wore, silently pondering and reminiscing.

The Evil Knight Balbert was once a paladin, and some habits from his paladin days still lingered.

Unlike paladins who serve faith deities, Balbert gained his power through a sacred oath, choosing a path, choosing a world-witnessed vow, and executing and adhering to it without reservation, binding himself to gain great power.

Balbert, who became a paladin, chose the oath of protection.

He could resist disease, heal companions, and wield holy power to punish evil.

He was loyal, honest, upright, and brave, fearless in the face of danger, and unhesitant in the face of death, using the power of a paladin to protect his country and earning countless honors and medals.

Until the spread of a deathly plague.

A plague demon from the abyss infiltrated the material world, spreading plague within the kingdom of Paladin Balbert.

Fortunately, the kingdom’s casters reacted swiftly, detecting the presence of the plague demon and pinpointing its location. Paladin Balbert led a group of warriors to exterminate the plague demon, achieving victory after a tough battle.

However, a small town near the kingdom’s capital had been infected with the plague.

The plague demon’s disease was highly contagious, spreading directly through the air, turning ordinary people without resistance into mindless monsters, and spreading incredibly fast.

To prevent the plague from spreading to large cities, to avoid greater losses to the country he protected.

The paladin made a decisive decision.

He ordered his warriors to seal off the infected area, then entered alone to purify—meaning to kill all the villagers infected with the plague, including those who might be infected but indistinguishable.

Afterward, the paladin did not receive flowers and glory.

His massacre led to scorn, insults, accusations, and punishment from many human rights defenders, with countless people demanding severe punishment for this terrible and cruel executioner, calling for his execution.

The paladin, imprisoned in a cell, could not understand.

He was simply following his oath, trying to protect his country as much as possible.

Sacrificing a small town to eliminate the possibility of plague infection could save countless more citizens of the kingdom—a simple truth and the best course of action.

The paladin did not understand why he was being punished.

Those who once admired him as a paladin now looked at him as if they had seen a demon, and the few voices supporting him were drowned out by the tide of the masses.

Before his execution.

The paladin was silent all night, broke his oath at dawn, and became a rare Oathbreaker Paladin.

Normally, if a paladin broke his oath, he would only lose his power and become an ordinary person, but this paladin’s situation was abnormal. He firmly believed his decision was without fault; he broke his protective oath not by his own hand, but by the country and people he protected.

Ironically.

After breaking his oath, protection turned into slaughter, righteous power transformed into evil, healing became harm, and the ability to resist disease became the spread of plague, just like the plague demon he had personally killed.

The paladin shattered his cell and fought back and fled under the pursuit of the kingdom’s Silver Knight Order, eventually jumping into the Whirlpool Sea, gravely injured and near death, and was rescued by a group of pirates he had once despised.

From then on, the paladin who protected others no longer existed.

In his place was the Evil Knight Balbert, who pursued power and self-interest, living only for himself.

As for the brass blood badge in his hand, it was something he had obtained after punishing and killing a group of madly murderous cultists when he was still a paladin. The paladin kept it, sensing its extraordinariness, intending to purify and dispose of it.

After becoming the Evil Knight, he changed his mind and gained considerable benefits from it.

Balbert confirmed that this brass blood badge pointed to a god-like existence.

Motionless like a statue for more than ten minutes, after a long period of thought, Balbert’s memories froze on the grand scene when the Eternal Dragon of Time and Space appeared, silencing the entire world.

“Gods, do they truly possess such terrifying, such enviable power?”

He lowered his head, gazing at the brass blood badge.

Hesitant for several years, his wavering thoughts gradually solidified.