Chapter 0.5 Content is as the Title

The azure sky, a gentle sea breeze.

On the gently rippling sea, a massive black-sailed ship cruised along unhurriedly.

On deck, the Dawnbreaker crew was bustling, the sounds of hammering echoing everywhere. Shipwrights were repairing the warship's damaged areas, while mechanics were tuning and repairing the damaged cannons.

Yesterday's battle saw them rout a ten-thousand-strong Silver Dragon Knight squad, resulting in minor damage to the ship but also yielding a large amount of spoils. Many on deck were currently processing the downed dragons. Skin, flesh, and bones were separated; some for food, some for alchemical materials, and all stored separately.

Dragon meat was a top-tier ingredient, excellent whether smoked or grilled, and rich in nutritional value unmatched by almost any magical beast, greatly benefiting the body. It was a rare delicacy unavailable elsewhere.

The crew reveled in the joy of their harvest.

Meanwhile, in the ship's laboratory, several people had gathered.

Suren had previously extracted Garcia, the white-robed wizard's, memories, successfully concocting the [Petrification Curse Antidote].

Now, he was about to attempt to lift the petrification curse on Tanya's mother, Fríðr.

Dr. Banks assisted nearby, connecting various devices and instruments to the stone statue. He wasn't just helping; he also wanted to meticulously record this petrification reversal process using his biological knowledge, hoping to completely crack the secret of the petrification curse. After all, only one dose of the antidote had been created. Should the same problem arise again, there might be some scientific means of treatment.

Tanya stood beside, anxiously watching her mother, as if her breath was about to stop.

With everything prepared, Suren placed Tanya's mother in a container filled with distilled water, then poured in the crafted petrification antidote.

The potion, imbued with powerful magic, dissolved in the water, and a miraculous scene immediately unfolded.

Fríðr, as a stone statue in the water, suddenly sprouted countless bubbles, as if being corroded by acid. The grayish-white petrified layers slowly dissolved.

The water also gradually became cloudy, obscuring the figure within.

Everyone grew tense.

After all, Fríðr had been petrified for many years, and no one knew if any other unforeseen events might occur.

Even Suren's gaze was slightly solemn. After all, even the traditions of the wizard lineage did not record anyone having lifted the petrification of someone who had been petrified for so long.

However, although he couldn't clearly see the condition in the water, he could sense that the soul's fluctuations were still very stable.

The petrification curse did not petrify the soul but sealed it within the petrified body, like a frozen slumber.

As the antidote gradually took effect, the soul seemed to thaw from its icy prison, slowly regaining its vitality.

And the data was even more direct.

Suddenly, Dr. Banks, looking at the research instruments, exclaimed, "There are signs of life!"

Hearing this, joy filled everyone's faces in the lab.

Tanya squeezed her hands together even more excitedly, sweat forming on her palms.

After a long wait, the water had become completely murky, but the instruments showed the life fluctuations growing stronger and stronger.

In Suren's perception, the soul's fluctuations were no different from those of a living person.

Finally, half an hour later, in the murky potion, the figure moved!

The fishtail stirred slightly, and a head emerged from the water, a pure-blooded naga face with delicate features, seventy percent similar to Tanya's.

Tanya excitedly called out, "Mother!"

Fríðr had just been released from petrification, as if her memories had only just awakened.

Her slightly dazed eyes looked at Tanya for a moment before recognizing her, and then her face filled with joy: "Tanya?!"

Tanya, separated by the glass tank, looked at her mother, tears of joy streaming down her face.

After so many years of persistence, this day had finally arrived. Countless lonely days and nights, she had stayed by her mother's petrified statue, hoping that one day she would see her mother released from the curse and reborn.

Suren looked at this touching scene of mother and daughter reunited, feeling quite gratified.

The curse had been lifted, and it didn't seem to have left any aftereffects. He also breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, Fríðr wasn't wearing any clothes, so he didn't want to stay any longer, excusing himself: "I'll go out first. Tatu, help Tanya see what her mother needs."

Tatu nodded: "Okay."

......

Suren left the cabin and came to the deck.

At the bow of the ship, a large group of people had gathered, listening to an old man wrapped in bandages explaining the art of swordsmanship.

The old man was naturally the revived "Dragon Hunter" Bartolomeo Figaro. Because he was sent into the Little Void Realm in time, with Dr. Banks' treatment, his physical distortion was successfully suppressed.

Top-tier professionals had extremely tenacious vitality. Even after suffering such serious injuries yesterday, Bartolomeo could walk around on the ground today.

And because Senzoku, the captain of this ship, was a swordsman, the Dawnbreaker crew had a considerable number of swordsman professionals. Having finally encountered a legendary "Sword God," the crew naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity to ask for guidance.

As soon as Bartolomeo came out, he was surrounded by people on deck, all kinds of questions being asked.

Even Senzoku listened with great interest.

Bartolomeo was also enjoying himself.

He hadn't felt this lively in many years. These friends from his homeland gave him a sense of intimacy.

He was also very willing to pass on his swordsmanship at the end of his life.

Suren also walked over, not disturbing, and listened for a while.

Even though he wasn't a professional swordsman, he could still understand many high-level concepts and felt deeply moved.

"Senior Bartolomeo, are there any tricks to comprehending sword intent?"

"Nothing else, only battle. Swordsmen are born for killing. No matter how flowery the rhetoric used to embellish your actions, swordsmen are always killing. And you can only grow in killing... Guard your original heart, and you will more easily comprehend your own sword intent."

"..."

Suren listened quietly for a while without interrupting.

After Bartolomeo finished speaking and the crowd dispersed, he walked over.

Lulluta saw him first and enthusiastically shouted, "Mr. Suren!"

Suren nodded with a smile.

This girl seemed to have many insights. Without lingering, she held her sword and said eagerly, "I'm going to the sword hall to practice! Teacher, Mr. Suren, Senior Bartolomeo, goodbye~"

Bartolomeo looked at Lulluta's departing figure, his old face full of smiles, praising, "She's a good seed for swordsmanship."

Saying that, a deep emotion appeared in his eyes.

Looking at the current Dawnbreaker, he seemed to see the Black Same Troupe of his younger days.

Full of vigor, everyone sailing towards their dreams.

Suren asked with a smile, "Senior, are you used to life on board?"

Bartolomeo always wore a smile on his face, saying, "Although it's been decades since I've been on a real seagoing ship, I'm not unaccustomed to it."

Not only was he not unaccustomed, but he felt like he had regained his youth.

Suren also felt that it was good that this old Sword God was adapting well. With this top swordsman on board, the Dawnbreaker's strength would greatly increase again. He then looked at the bandages wrapped around Bartolomeo's left arm and asked, "How is Senior's injury?"

Bartolomeo raised his hand, indicating that it was nothing serious: "Just a minor injury."

Saying that, he sighed with emotion: "The times are really different. I didn't expect that even late-stage distortion can be suppressed."

He had originally thought that his final fate would be to die from uncontrolled distortion, but he didn't expect that in the Dawnbreaker, there was actually a biological laboratory that could successfully suppress distortion.

On the Eternal Night, Bartolomeo's emotions never stopped. The ship, cannons, personnel, technology... everything was vastly different from thirty years ago. Da Feng Novel

He looked at Suren with a somewhat complex expression.

Yesterday, he had witnessed the incredible puppet legion, thinking that this was already a miraculous young man.

After seeing the Little Void Realm again, he really didn't know how to describe his shock.

This Dawnbreaker was truly like that moment of light in the darkness, bringing hope to civilization.

For the first time in decades, he had such a strong desire. He felt that these old bones of his should really live a few more years and contribute his meager strength to the war of civilization.

He knew that Suren had been formulating a petrification potion earlier, so he asked, "How is Miss Fríðr's condition?"

Suren said, "The curse has been successfully reversed, and she's doing very well."

Bartolomeo's face also lit up with joy.

Just as he was speaking, several people walked onto the deck.

Tanya was supporting his mother, with Tatu following beside.

Seeing Suren and the others, Tanya excitedly walked over and gave a great salute: "Mr. Suren! Thank you for saving my mother!"

Suren smiled, not taking it to heart: "There's no need to be so polite. We are partners. Besides, it's not just my accomplishment alone. Being able to get here is the result of your and everyone's adventure and efforts..."

This was what he had promised Tanya when he recruited her onto the ship in the pirate city of Hastalin.

Now that he had accomplished it, it could be considered fulfilling a wish.

On deck, when everyone saw Tanya and the others come out, they all gathered around.

At this moment, Tanya's eyes were filled with tears, and he also gave a great salute to everyone: "Thank you, everyone!"

Everyone showed kind smiles.

They all knew about the petrification curse, and now they were very happy to see the living Fríðr, but more than that, they were amazed.

Fríðr's age was already considered middle-aged among humans, but she didn't look old at all. The bloodline of the naga race gave her the delicate skin of a young girl, and her eyes had the intellectual beauty of a mature woman.

Everyone couldn't help but exclaim, "Mrs. Fríðr is so beautiful!"

Fríðr responded with a gentle smile.

Although she wasn't very clear about what had happened during her petrification these past few years, she knew that these people in front of her had saved her, especially the "Mr. Suren" that her son kept mentioning.

She bowed, her face full of sincerity, and said to everyone, "Thank you all."

Suren didn't dare accept such a great salute and quickly helped her up.

At this time, Bartolomeo, who was standing next to her, also spoke with great emotion: "Miss Fríðr, long time no see."

Fríðr looked at the old man with white hair, thought for a moment, and then looked at the sword at his waist. Only then did she remember something, exclaiming, "Mr. Saito?"

Bartolomeo said bitterly, "Yes."

Neither of them had expected to see an old friend from nearly thirty years ago.

Seeing the "missing" old friend, Fríðr asked a few questions about the Black Same Troupe of those years, but she received a disappointing answer.

In the end, even that last glimmer of hope was gone.

However, seeing that her son had grown up, Fríðr's eyes were filled with satisfaction.

......

Suren asked Fríðr and confirmed that she could indeed seal the [Rainbow Well] on Rainbow Island, and he was overjoyed.

However, she had only just recovered from petrification, and her body was still very weak and needed time to recover, so Suren wasn't in a hurry to set off.

The seagoing ship sailed south all the way, its destination being Rainbow Island, the location of the mages' headquarters in the Celestial Plane.

In the evening, a grand celebratory banquet was held on the Eternal Night, celebrating yesterday's victory, welcoming the Sword God Bartolomeo, and celebrating the lifting of Tanya's mother Fríðr's curse...

There had been good news recently, which was worth celebrating.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, Suren returned to his cabin.

After yesterday's battle, although he had disrupted the Celestial Plane's plan in the Silver Dragon Kingdom, there were still many hidden dangers that had not been eliminated.

For example, those forces in the Silver Dragon Kingdom that already had faith in the Celestial Plane.

Killing one Garcia was far from enough.

He knew there were many more.

Not only the Silver Dragon Kingdom, but also in the two kingdoms of Pania and Akatissa, there were many Celestial believers.

Although these Celestial believers were not yet the mainstream, with the stabilization of the plane channel and the will of the Celestial Plane's gods being able to descend, faith would spread rapidly like a plague, and the believer group would become larger and larger.

Sooner or later, the three kingdoms of the Dragon Kingdom would all be reduced to the divine kingdoms of certain gods.

Perhaps it had already spread now.

The people of the Dragon Kingdom's sea area had countless years of deity belief customs, worshiping various false gods and fallen gods.

Suren couldn't change this deeply rooted custom and make people study alchemy. But he couldn't just watch these people become Celestial believers and become enemies.

Therefore, he thought of a method.

Only magic can defeat magic.

And only faith can fight against faith.

Suren thought of a person who could solve this problem.

That was Pandora.

For the matter of stealing faith, no one was more suitable than her.

Thinking of this, Suren immediately set up a summoning array in the captain's room.

He used the communicator to ask Pandora, who was far away in the Four Kingdoms of North Continent, and she was very willing to help with this matter. Faith was also an indispensable source of power for her.

Long-distance summoning required a considerable amount of energy, but fortunately, Suren now had no shortage of various crystal cores.

Before long, he had set up an ultra-large summoning array.

Pandora's "spirit object" was in Suren's Little Void Realm. It was placed in the center of the summoning array, and with a warlock seal, the light of the array lit up, and the connection was established.

Soon after, a figure slowly solidified in the alchemy array.

Summoning the will wasn't so troublesome. This time, he was summoning Pandora's main body.

A few minutes later, when the light of the alchemy array dissipated, Pandora had already appeared, descending in the form of the Tsukuyomi Great God.

In the alchemy array, she was wearing a robe condensed from moonlight, her hair fluttering without wind, her eyes filled with brilliant light, with a kind of indifference and arrogance that scorned all living beings in the world. She was floating barefoot in the air, and her whole body made people feel no worldly aura, completely and utterly a god high above.

Suren's gaze sharpened slightly.

He had seen the scene of the gods' will descending many times, and now, seeing Pandora descending, she was truly getting closer and closer.

Suren murmured in his heart: "She has become very strong..."

After the last disaster in Lindon, Pandora absorbed too much faith power, and now it seemed that she had completely digested it. Now her strength had reached an unfathomable realm.

However, the indifference in Pandora's expression only lasted for a moment. She caught Suren's slightly shocked gaze, and the corners of her mouth raised slightly into an arc: "What's wrong, don't you recognize me?"

Her eyebrows and eyes smiled charmingly, and the feeling of rejecting people thousands of miles away instantly disappeared.

After becoming allies, Suren also knew that Pandora's personality was the kind that was very easy to get along with.

He looked at her and greeted, "Long time no see, Miss Pandora."

Saying that, he pointed to the sofa and said, "Please sit down."

Pandora landed on the ground, and the ethereal divine power on her body was completely restrained. She wasn't polite at all, stepping barefoot on the floor and sitting on the sofa.

For some reason, Suren always felt that the divine power on her body seemed to have a strange attraction to his gaze.

Seeing Suren's gaze lingering on her robe, Pandora explained again, "I just subdued a few ghost kings in the Shadow Mountain, and I haven't had time to change the robe I was wearing."

Suren smiled slightly, saying nothing.

Looking at it more, just because this dress was indeed very special, because it contained a strong divine and ghostly power.

If he wasn't mistaken, it was still woven from the [Golden Fleece] that he had given her before.

As soon as they met, the two chatted casually for a few words.

Suddenly, Pandora thought of something and said in a slightly teasing tone, "Oh, I met your old friend a few days ago, that Miss Divine Garment Child. In order to compete for an ancient shrine, she had a little friction with one of my subordinates and had a fight..."

Hearing this familiar name, the image of the girl in the red and white shrine maiden outfit immediately appeared in Suren's mind.

They had suffered together, so naturally he didn't want to see his friend get hurt.

Before he could ask, Pandora said in a slightly joking tone, "Don't worry, she's doing fine now. No ghosts will really hurt her."

Suren didn't say anything more and went straight to the point, saying bluntly, "I told you briefly just now that I need your help to steal faith. The situation in the three kingdoms of the Dragon Kingdom is like this..."

He couldn't explain it clearly in the communication before. Now that they were face to face, he told her all the information he had obtained in detail, especially about the Celestial Plane.

With this information, Pandora would be able to better grasp the situation of the gods that people in this sea area believed in, and it would also allow her to deploy and steal faith as soon as possible, completely solving the problem.

Although Pandora also attached great importance to this situation in her heart, her expression was lazy.

She leaned back on the sofa, listening with a bored look on her face.

Occasionally she would change to a comfortable position, half-lying and half-sitting.

Suren was sitting directly opposite her, the wide clothes of the Shadow Mountain didn't cover her well, and Pandora's Tsukuyomi robe was even worse.

She wasn't wearing any underwear, and when she leaned over, a glimpse of that depth could always be seen; the robe was very loose, and when she raised her leg to cross it, people could always see large swaths of white thighs.

Perhaps because she felt that she had seen everything before, she didn't seem to mind at all.

Sensing the faint influence of that divine power, Suren hadn't forgotten the embarrassment of being made fun of last time and kept his eyes straight ahead.

Before long, the information was finished, and he spread his hands, finally saying, "The situation is roughly like this. If you need help, you can notify me at any time, and I will get there as soon as possible."

Pandora nodded.

He had explained it very clearly, and there was nothing to ask.

She turned her beautiful eyes, just asking, "Do you want me to set off now?"

Hearing this question, Suren naturally replied politely, "This matter is not urgent, you can stay on the ship for a few more days, rest well before setting off."

People had come all the way to help, so naturally he couldn't rush her to work. Besides, stealing faith wasn't something that could be done in a day or two, and there was no rush.

Hearing this, Pandora's eyes flashed with inspiration.

She scratched her face and looked at Suren, asking again, "Where do I live?"

Suren pointed to the door and said, "There's an empty cabin next door. If there's anything missing in the room, you can tell me, and I'll have someone send it over to you."

"Oh."

Hearing this, Pandora raised her eyebrows slightly and stood up.

She stepped barefoot on the floor and walked towards the door, glancing back, adding, "If there's anything else you need my help with, just say it. Otherwise, I'm going to rest."

"..."

Suren listened and thought about it seriously.

There really was!

"Alchemical Artificial Human" was the end point of puppetry, the culmination of the wisdom of Teacher Seraphia and Sir Isaac. These days, Suren's research on puppets had gone much deeper, and he had some new ideas about some of the designs that he couldn't understand before. Thinking that if he could see the real thing and study it again, he would definitely gain a lot.

He had originally been a little embarrassed to ask, but he didn't expect Pandora to mention it proactively.

He said tentatively, "That... if Miss Pandora doesn't mind, I would like to study the Alchemical Body again."

Pandora didn't seem to care at all, just asking, "Now?"

Suren didn't expect her to be so easy to talk to, quickly saying, "Not in a hurry."

"Anyway, I have nothing to do, so let's do it now."

Pandora paused, her tone lazy, asking, "Do I still have to take off my clothes?"

Suren: "If possible..."

Pandora raised her eyebrows, not taking it to heart.

Without saying anything, she walked to the sofa and took off her robe very naturally, just like last time.

With the robe falling to the ground, a flawless and beautiful body was exposed in the air.