At the moment, Michael was in his Dark Lord form in the dark forest. Azazel was cleaning the room while Nightmare and Vedora played with each other on the bed.

"My lord," As Michael was correcting his robes before the mirror, Elidyr entered the room.

"I am ready," Elidyr said.

"Let's go then," Nightmare stopped flicking Ayag on the head and leaped to land on Michael's shoulder.

"You're not coming buddy," Michael said to Nightmare as he nodded,

"I know,"

"Where is Gaya though? What's taking her so long to kill one puny human?" Ayag sounded lazy and tired of playing with Nightmare for so long. However, what Michael said next excited her,

"She will join us later at the pirate haven Aden. Buddy," Michael looked at Nightmare,

"Return to Royal land and stay in the room. If anyone asks for me, contact me,"

Michael had to stay in the Royal Land castle due to King Kramer and Queen Imat's hospitality. They were quite insistent for him to stay the night. Since Michael did not have any more business to conduct in Royal Land, he agreed to stay the night. As far as they were concerned, Michael was cultivating in his room.

"Hmm," Nightmare nodded before vanishing into thin air.

After Nightmare teleported to King Kramer's castle, Vedora landed on Michael's shoulder with a single leap. Surprisingly, a rune glowed on their body, and in a few seconds, they too vanished. But they didn't teleport like Nightmare. Instead, they just vanished from the naked eye thanks to Elidyr's little rune.

The cloaking rune would have been perfect for Ghost. However, according to Elidyr, anyone above the Body Strengthening stage could see through the rune. Hence, there was no point in using the rune in the cultivation continent and Michael had no need to use the rune in the southern continent.

He did ask Elidyr about placing the rune on his army only to learn that the rune requires a high amount of arch energy. Fifty arch energy crystals to hide oneself for five minutes wasn't a very eye-catching deal to Michael.

"Azazel, you go to the Crypt and use the undead to clean the place. Dular and Jonah also need a new working place so see what you can do,"

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"As you wish my lord,"

Following Nightmare, Azazel disappeared from the room. Finally, Michael and Elidyr were teleported to Caius's mansion by the system and when they appeared in the room, Maxine and Corey greeted Michael with a deep bow.

"My Lord,"

"My Lord,"

Michael flicked his wrist as the throne materialized behind the oak table. He plunged onto the throne as Elidyr took a long look at both Maxine and Corey for a few moments.

"Maxine, Corey, meet Elidyr,"

"Lord Elidyr,"

Elidyr just nodded.

"Maxine, is it ready?" asked Michael.

"Yes my lord. It's on the Big Bertha,"

Michael then turned his gaze towards Corey.

"So they haven't taken our offer?"

"No my lord. To be honest, I didn't expect them to be this stupid. A true pirate would have seen the opportunity. These are just mindless drunkards,"

"I am glad you've seen the truth, Corey. Pirating is a fragile and dangerous business. If you don't change your ways, eventually, you'd go extinct. It's time we root out these weeds and unite the pirates under one banner, my banner,"

"It'd be an honor for the pirates to serve you my lord," Maxine felt proud and excited to unite all the pirates under the Dark Lord instead of the Pirate Lords. As a pirate herself, she knew the dangers of being a pirate. It was only a matter of time before the kingdoms unite against the pirates and strike them down. Especially, the empress of Awor was keen to wipe out the pirates from not only the waters of Awor but also from the southern continent.

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However, once the Dark Lord unites the pirates and brands them as something else, the empress might not go all out in a war against them.

"Go wait for me on the ship," Michael dismissed the two ladies and turned his gaze towards Elidyr.

"You have something to ask?"

"I don't quite clearly see your play here my lord. First, you went to ally yourself with the holy church and now openly waging war against the pirates,"

Michael smiled,

"Who is hunting the Dark Lord along with the Guardians? The Holy Church. Ghost is now a friend of the holy church. Other than the obvious benefits such as being an ally to a growing superpower, now I hold the key to the Holy Church's destruction,"

Elidyr looked more confused than before.

"I can only keep Ghost and the Dark Lord separate for a time Elidyr. Eventually, someone would always figure it out, someone smarter than I am. So when they figure it out, the Holy Church would be the last organization to come out full swinging. Because they would be crucified along with Ghost. By getting donations and being allies to Ghost, the Holy Church has become an ally to the Dark Lord. How could they go against Ghost's allies when they themselves are one? "

Elidyr finally learned Ghost's reasoning behind his visit to the Holy Church. Now that the Holy Church received donations from Ghost, the Holy Church wouldn't be able to wage a war against Ghost because they would be busy fighting the public and the Guardian Guild.

"What about your other allies?" asked Elidyr.

"I have plans for them. But before someone figure out my identity, I better be strong and have an army strong enough to fight off our foes,"

"We have to my lord. I have seen what Skyhall could do. They would go to any length to stop you. They are the real evil in the form of good,"

"Don't fret it Elidyr. They couldn't stop me when I wasn't even born. Now I am here, and I have a score to settle,"

Michael willed the system as the skull mask covered his face. Just like a breezing wind, the two of them disappeared from the room. At that time, Gibson was preparing everything for Big Bertha's journey towards the pirate haven Aden. Since Maxine announced to the crew that the Dark Lord would arrive to meet them, the crew was extra motivated and didn't dare to slack off.

Unlike the Silent Reaper, the Big Bertha was in pristine condition. No one would believe the ship was manned by the pirates or one would recognize the crew as pirates. Instead, the crew looked like disciplined soldiers wearing black leather armor and carrying new cutlasses.

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Of course, they still possessed habits such as getting as drunk as possible and eating without any restrictions. Maxine and Corey were still in the process of turning the pirates into soldiers, and Big Bertha's crew were the front runners to become disciplined warriors of the Dark Lord.

"Bring it out!" Gibson climbed out of the lower decks and shouted at the crew before throwing a roll of ropes down the hole.

"Pull with all your strength. That thing is heavy," Maxine stood at the other end of the rope along with a group of pirates. The rope was attached to a pulley to make lifting the mortar a bit easier.

"You can lift it now!" Gibson and Maxine heard Shorty shouting from the below decks.

"One two three," Maxine counted until three to pull down the rope using every bit of her strength.

While Maxine was pulling down the rope, Corey remained at the helm, waiting for the Dark Lord. Even without the so-called new weaponry, the Big Bertha was a beast. The upper deck alone had ten cannons on each side. In addition, they fitted the Big Bertha with three rows of cannons, each with fifteen broadside cannons. One side of Big Bertha totally had forty cannons, making the total count of cannons a whopping eighty cannons.

Usually, that number of cannons would slow down the ship but the Dark Lord ordered them to do so despite the drawbacks.

When Corey did a test run with Big Bertha, it took them almost five minutes to reload all the cannons. Unless they fix the reload speed somehow, a talented ship captain could do a lot of damage to Big Bertha within five long minutes.

As Corey was weighing the pros and cons of the Big Bertha, The Dark Lord finally appeared beside her, almost sending shivers down her spine.

"My lord,"

"Our Dark Lord is at the helm!" Gibson shouted as loud as he could when he saw Michael.

Fortunately, the mortar was in place, or they would have saluted at Michael and dropped it down the hole.

As Michael climbed down the steps from the helm, the crew bowed their heads towards Michael and Elidyr. Corey followed the two of them behind to the mortar where Michael saw the mortar forged with sturdy black metal and engraved with intricate patterns resembling a coiling dragon.

The pirates were so curious to see what this thing could do. Under their curious gazes, Elidry squatted beside the mortar and drew a few symbols on its surface as well as inside the mortar through the firing hole. Although it looked as simple as drawing a few symbols, Michael knew the intricacy behind each rune. Among all the specializations in the world, Runemastery was the most difficult to master. According to Elidyr, they had only explored ten percent of the entire rune mastery. Michael hoped to bring out the fullest potential of rune mastery with the help of the system.

Everyone, including Michael, waited for Elidyr to finish. When he finally took his hand off the mortar, several runes brightly radiated crimson red light.

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"It's ready," Elidyr wouldn't usually show any emotions on his face. Still, even he couldn't help proudly grinning after finishing one of his finest works to date.

"Gibson set a course to Aden. When the sun rises tomorrow, there will only be one Pirate Lord,"