Upon hearing Earl Berni's words, everyone present fell silent, a silence that soon gave way to shame and anger.
They were ashamed for having been bewitched by this lie, driven by their own fear to sell their souls to an Evil God.
And they were furious at the madness of the Purification Church.
They never imagined that in just a matter of weeks, the Purification Church was already preparing to sacrifice the entire human population of the main island of the Cordillera Islands.
The rumbling on the island continued, accompanied by another flash of light and a semaphore message from the shore.
Earl Berni quickly translated:
"They're asking why we've returned, and why we brought another ship. They say the World Beast is about to arrive and that we are to stay away from the main island, head for the deep sea, and sacrifice ourselves?!"
Shen Feng let out a cold snort, understanding that some people on the island had sensed something was wrong.
He commanded:
"Ignore them. Full speed ahead. Don't bother dropping anchor, just charge the docks!"
Although they were still several kilometers away, he could already feel a familiar electromagnetic fluctuation emanating from the main island.
The source of that fluctuation was none other than the Super Giant War Armor standing tall on the island—the Golden Mad King!
It was the electromagnetic signature of a fusion reactor running at minimum power, a sign that the War Armor was not completely destroyed.
From the outside, the surface of the Golden Mad King was battered and scarred, caked with dust from wind and sun. It looked bleak and lifeless, as if it had completely died, but beneath that corpse-like exterior, its engine heart was still beating.
"Yes, sir!" Hearing the Commander's order, the warriors replied in unison and accelerated forward.
With the Commander personally overseeing the battle, they were so fired up they could hardly wait to die for him.
"BOOM!" A huge explosion sent a plume of water erupting from the sea near the aircraft carrier. A cannonball fired from the island had exploded in the water.
The lights on the island flashed again. Apparently, having seen that the two large ships were disobeying orders, they had begun firing to drive them away.
This was followed by two more booms—BOOM! BOOM!—as two more plumes of water erupted in the sea ahead.
The enemy clearly believed the Black Sail Aircraft Carrier and the Sail Warship had no long-range heavy weaponry, so their warning shots were fired with contempt.
According to Earl Berni's earlier report, the bunker complex on the main island of the Cordillera Islands still had two operational gun turrets, with a plentiful ammunition supply of hundreds, if not thousands, of shells.
In an age bereft of advanced technology, these two turrets were essentially the most powerful defensive force available.
Shen Feng looked toward the two bunkers that had just flashed with cannon fire. "Take them out," he said.
Old Bill and his men, who had long been waiting for the order, immediately manned the ship's cannons and opened fire.
The two main cannons on the Sail Warship flashed instantly. On the main island of the Cordillera Islands ahead, the two gun turrets erupted in massive explosions, sending flames and columns of smoke soaring into the sky!
Seeing this, the people on the island seemed to finally realize the two ships had hostile intentions. Panic broke out, only to be quickly suppressed by the armed men.
Then, islanders in old military uniforms, armed with a variety of light and heavy weapons, began taking up positions behind crude fortifications along the shore, bracing for the two large ships.
By now, those aboard the ships had spotted a stone platform, dozens of meters high, constructed at the foot of the Super Giant War Armor, the Golden Mad King. Several lavishly dressed figures appeared to be standing on it, directing the island's activities.
The two great ships were now only a kilometer from the shore. Instead of furling their sails or slowing, they continued to charge ahead.
Seeing the two behemoths bearing down on them with no sign of stopping, the people in the island's main square finally descended into chaos and began to fall back. Not even the armed men could control them now.
And the "Mad Beast Horn," the sonic emitter that was summoning the World Beast, was finally affected by the chaos and ceased its deafening roar.
Shen Feng's furrowed brow relaxed slightly. He had feigned such reckless aggression mainly to intimidate the enemy and force the Mad Beast Horn to cease its summons.
Otherwise, the two warships alone would stand no chance against a World Beast.
The seeds of humanity were few and far between; these hundred thousand-plus people had to survive.
Now, the two great ships were only a few hundred meters from the docks. In the blink of an eye, they would slam right into them!
The two colossal ships loomed like a pair of charging mountains, striking fear into the hearts of those on shore. They fell back involuntarily, a black tide of people crying out in alarm.
No one wanted to be crushed to a pulp by these two juggernauts!
Just then, a deep rumble echoed from the docks. A dozen or so huge metal nozzles, each about two meters in diameter, suddenly extended from the metal-encased pier.
The nozzles shuddered, and half of them began spraying streams of a white, stringy substance. Upon contact with the air, it instantly expanded into a massive, elastic foam, swelling to the size of a ten-story building.
Unable to anchor or turn, the two giant ships slammed into the foam. Its elasticity absorbed their momentum, gradually slowing them until they came to a halt right at the edge of the docks, stopping them from crashing into the massive square beyond.
The foam was incredibly resilient, ensnaring the two warships like a spider's web and holding them fast upon the water.
Shen Feng, standing in the shadows, pulled up his hood and nodded slightly. 'He recognized the substance. It was an adhesive chemical used against World Beasts during the great war hundreds of years ago. A massive, simultaneous spray of it could trap smaller World Beasts.'
'I didn't expect the Cordillera Islands' docks to still have this stuff,' he thought. 'But it seems their supply is running low.'
The islanders finally recovered from their shock. From the high platform, a middle-aged man in a black robe covered with painted eyes demanded in a sharp voice:
"Earl Berni! You were supposed to be delivering a message to Paradise Island, yet you return to defy the Council! Is this how you show disrespect to the Whispering God?! And where did this other warship come from?!"
Earl Berni stepped forward and shouted back,
"Dormammu! You used the lie of the Savior's death to delude everyone, and now you plan to sacrifice over a hundred thousand people to a World Beast! Your crimes are unforgivable!"
He then turned to a hawk-nosed man with salt-and-pepper hair, dressed in white, and shouted:
"Speaker Charlotte! Are you really going to completely abandon the creed of the Salvation Army and bow to that Evil God, the Whisperer? Everyone here once placed their complete trust in you! Is this how you repay them?!"
The man in the eye-covered robe was clearly Dormammu, the mysterious figure from the Purification Church.
And the one dressed in white was Charlotte, the Speaker of the Minstrels' Western Council.
Earl Berni didn't reveal Shen Feng's identity immediately. Based on past experience, he suspected the Commander preferred to observe from the shadows for a while before revealing himself for maximum effect.
"What nonsense are you spouting, Earl? The Savior is dead. You all saw the footage. It's a fact that everyone must accept. Are you suggesting that footage was faked?" Dormammu shouted, his brow furrowed.
"That was the face of the former Savior—it's undeniable! Do you want to provoke the wrath of the Whispering God and bring about the utter destruction of human civilization?!"
Charlotte sighed, his eyes, ringed with dark circles, fixed on Earl.
"Earl, it really was the Savior... The Western Council keeps footage of the Savior, but only the Speaker is permitted to view it. I've made the comparison. The Savior is truly dead... Humanity must find another path if we are to survive... You few, you're the Minstrels who guarded the Glory Market, aren't you? I know this is hard for you to accept, but the Savior is truly..."
"Even if the Commander is truly gone, is that a reason to side with the Purification Church and sacrifice your own people?! It's always easy to find an excuse for corruption, you cowards!" Witch Tower roared in a fit of rage.
Dormammu let out a sinister laugh. He figured Earl Berni had likely been challenged by the Minstrels and forced to turn back. This was a minor nuisance at best.
He said,
"Believe it or not, the Savior is dead. If he were alive, he would be here right now to stop this ritual! As for you... you will make the finest offerings to the emissary of the Whispering God!"
He then turned to the heavily armed guards below the platform and ordered:
"Kill these Blasphemers! Throw their bodies into the sea!"
Chris couldn't help but step forward, ready to curse Dormammu. But before she could speak, the young, hooded Savior beside her threw back his hood and stepped out of the shadows, revealing himself to everyone.
'She was a little surprised. She hadn't expected the Savior to get tired of playing mysterious so... wait, no, to be unable to resist revealing his majesty so soon.'
Stepping into the sunlight, Shen Feng's gaze swept over the crowd. He spoke calmly.
"I'm still alive. And I'm back."
The vast square at the foot of the Golden Mad King fell instantly, utterly silent.