Even after she went berserk, Marina was unable to hit him at least once.
While dodging and evading her punches, the two of them reached the ship's front corner. Seeing him cornered, she grinned,
"Let's end this little dance, shall we?"
Michael decided to end this little fight after successfully gauging her strength.
"Death Range" He knew he couldn't defeat her with just his raw strength. Hence, he cast the Death Range to enhance his strength. The moment he used the spell, the entire ship grew darker regardless of the lantern lights.
Marina's eyes went wide as she realized that he just used magic. The overwhelming joy and shock prevented her muscles from moving.
Boom!
Michael punched her right in the abdomen with enough force to send her flying from one end of the ship to another. She literally traveled in the air, breaking all the poles in the ship before hitting the wall beside the captain's cabin door.
"Captain!"
"Captain Marina!"
The crew members and Packard screamed. Their bodies shuddered in shock as they stared at Marina's body with wide eyes.
"Dark...Dark...Lord" the words barely escaped her mouth. Despite the blood flowing out of her mouth, she was smiling. Her eyes contained a tint of delight.
The others might haven't heard the words she spoke but Michael did. It completely took him by surprise. He was about to take a step forward when he noticed something glowing on her chest.
[The system has finished scanning]
[The system has found a radioactive medallion on her chest. It doesn't harm her body as a radioactive material would do on earth but this medallion strengthens her body from the molecular level]
He didn't need help finding the medallion.it was glowing in bright jade color on her chest. Locking his eyes on the medallion, he activated the lightning dash to reach her in a blink of an eye.
"Captain!"
"Wind blast"
The pirates rushed at Michael when he reached Maria as they thought he's going to kill her. They tried to protect Maria but the wind blast blasted some of them into the water while the others to every corner of the ship.
He squatted down before Marina to take a closer look at the medallion.
The medallion on her neck was the size of a coin. There was no etching or designs could be seen on the surface except for one letter, L. First, he used it to spread the name of Lucifer by leaving an L mark on the crime scenes, then he realized the order of the death has been using the symbol way before he was even born as the symbol was everywhere in the Abyssal and now, he saw the same symbol once again on the medallion.
"Dark Lord...it's...you"
"Where did you get this?"
She tried to answer yet the pain in her abdomen prevented her from speaking. He willed the system to give him a healing potion from the system storage.
"Drink this" Michael poured the healing potion into her mouth, not gently though as he needed answers quicker. Almost half of the potion trickled out of her mouth. Considering the potion was 90% pure, her pain began to dissipate in a few seconds. She started to breathe as normal. Soon, she pulled herself up to kneel before him.
Michael stood up, trying not to show the confusion in his heart on his face.
"Order of the Death, Dark Lord. This medallion had been passed onto us from our ancestors"
"Your ancestors served the order?" she still kept her head lower without looking directly into his eyes.
"Yes, Dark Lord. We've been waiting for you to lead us. We never stopped searching for you, if I hadn't found you, my kin would have continued the search"
He was pretty confused about the sudden turn of events. The last thing he expected was to find a descendent of someone who served the Order of the Death, the same order that apparently worshipped him as a god.
"Dark Lord, please take this. My father said this will prove our loyalty to you"
She presented him with the medallion after snatching it from her neck.
He took the medallion from her hand expecting some kind of change in the coin but on the contrary, he never felt anything except the coin glowed brighter in his hand. Michael willed the system to create an invisible barrier around them for 1000 badass points so none would hear their conversation.
"I, Maxine Kane, swear my loyalty to our god, the Dark Lord. From this day onwards, I'm yours to command"
[Does the host wish to accept Maxine Kane as your subordinate?]
The system prompted him when he finished taking her oath.
"Yes"
He wanted to check her loyalty level. Although he never sensed any treachery vibe from her, he still wanted to make sure this wasn't a trap created by those pesky old guardians.
Subordinate: Maxine Kane
Cultivation Level: Arch Sensing Stage level 2 (Cannot cast spells due to geological restrictions)
Race: Human
Status: Healthy
Trait: Warrior
Loyalty towards the host: 95%
"It is true"
There was no better proof than the system's loyalty meter to prove Maxine's loyalty to him. Her loyalty also showed him that what she said about her ancestors is also true. If he could, he really wanted to meet those people who worshipped him as god and searched for him for thousands of years. He wondered what made them devote themselves to him.
"Serve me well Maxine" he placed his hands on her shoulders, helping her stand up. Her eyes brimmed with joy as tears of joy already began to flow out. She looked at him as a devotee would look like her god. He could tell that if he asked her to kill herself, she would without a second thought.
The pirates on the other hand were confused as hell witnessing their captain bending her knee to Michael. After getting blasted by Michael, no one dared to utter a word and make a move. The question of how he used magic made the pirates feel dizzy.
"How long have you been searching for me?"
"Ever since I was old enough to walk, Dark Lord. My father always said that the Dark Lord will lead this world to a better age"
"Your father is correct. Where is he now?"
The smile on her face gradually faded away,
"He died of old age, Dark Lord"
He sighed inside. If the old man was still alive, he could have answered some of his questions about the order and their secrets. Still, Michael was glad that he found another loyal subordinate.
"Do you know anyone else from the order?"
If Maxine, a descendent of the order was alive and still loyal to him, he wanted to see if there are more descendants like her.
"No, Dark Lord. My father said after the Supreme guardian destroyed the order, only a few survived and escaped. According to my father, those who escaped went dark"
"It was the right decision. Otherwise, the guardians would have found them and finished what they started. However, if you're here, we cannot say for sure there are no other descendants alive. The only question is, do they know who they are?"
Even if he were to find them, he wouldn't force the descendants to serve him if they were unwilling. After all, he wasn't a slave master and those descendants weren't his slaves. However, if there was a chance that those descendants were still searching for him like Maxine, he had to find them.
He would rather have a few loyal subordinates than a bunch of unloyal powerful people as his subordinates. Although Maxine would not stand a chance against cultivators, he had the system to change that.
If he couldn't make a southerner powerful enough to face a cultivator, he wouldn't have come to the Southern continent as there was no point in building an army that could be destroyed by a couple of cultivators.
"I assume your father told you that you cannot serve two lords"
"You're the only one I serve, Dark Lord. I was using Pirate Lord Corey's resources to locate you"
"Did you search for me in the other continents too?"
Yet again she shook her head,
"We believed that only the Dark Lord could break the cultivation restriction and use magic inside the void line. My father always said it'd be easier to find you here than in any other continent"
"Your father sounds like a great man" Michael genuinely praised her father. If they were to search for him anywhere but here, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. It was a different story in the Southern Continent as her father believed, he was the only one who could use and make others use Arch energy inside the void line.
"I would like to meet Pirate Lord Corey"
"It'd be my honor to take you to Corey with me, Dark Lord. I just hope we didn't damage the ship too much" she scratched the back of her head with an embarrassed look on her face.
"It's okay, we'll use my ship" she looked around to see any new ships,
"Gibson, you can come out" Michael talked with Gibson through the earpiece. She was confused, wondering who he was talking to. Soon, Maxine felt a tremble under her feet as the sea around them rippled violently.
Whoosh!
Her eyes almost bulged out when a ship emerged from the sea suddenly before their eyes. Compared to the Silent Reaper, Maxine's ship looked tiny. The ship's look itself intimidated the pirates. Michael slowly ascended to the air.
"Meet my ship the Silent Reaper, Maxine"