A macaw had been hiding behind the apple leaves, watching for most of the day.
From the moment it saw Violet changing her outfit, it wanted to go out and tell them stories. This desire intensified when it saw this glorious dance of death, exciting it so much that it fluttered its fiery red wings uncontrollably.
"Elegant! It's just so elegant!"
Oh, my dear creator, First Mate Thomas swears, this is precisely the artist I've been looking for!
Those from the Hall Sequence are just too sensitive; opening their Spirit Vision often allows them to see many things they shouldn't.
And they even call this 'inspiration.'
In reality, they're just walking time bombs.
Never mind helping me, just getting near that thing could lead to them losing control on the spot.
Good heavens, I can't even imagine what a terrible disaster it would be to bring them there.
And the Transcendents from other Sequences are too rough and reckless, knowing only how to fight and kill, lacking any artistic temperament. They wouldn't be easily accepted by that thing.
Just like Mr. Andrew, despite his elegant aristocratic air, still didn't make the grade.
The poet I encountered on the road, who spoke so eloquently, had been the most promising one, but I absolutely couldn't accept his nude performance art.
But this young lady, and this gentleman, are both very good. Yes, this feeling is simply wonderful.
To turn the act of killing into an art form—they are undoubtedly true artists!
Apparently, First Mate Thomas wanted to find a poet full of artistic flair not only for their shared interests. It was also to achieve a certain purpose with stringent prerequisites.
Eleven years ago, after telling Andrew the appropriate fairy tales, he had later entrusted him with a very important task during the subsequent treasure hunt, but the results clearly did not meet expectations.
The parrot could only hope that now, eleven years later, among the numerous treasure seekers, it could find other suitable candidates.
For this damn errand Flint gave me, I haven't had a good night's sleep for hundreds of years.
I swear on Mr. Andrew's moldy captain's hat.
Once I complete this last mission from Flint before his death, I must leave this wretched island that, apart from gold and roasted chicken, doesn't even have a second macaw.
For hundreds of years, I, a fine, vigorous parrot with normal inclinations, have never even touched a female's claw.
My creator, do you hairless upright apes understand how I've spent these lonely years?
Yes, of course, you do!
Because I guess... you must have gone through the same thing.
Watching the battle come to an end, First Mate Thomas, who had had enough of keeping company with goats, was about to fly down jubilantly. However, as if suddenly sensing something, it twisted its plump buttocks and hid back behind the leaves.
Although its situation was special—it wasn't attacked by the island's monsters and was even immune to most rules—it was not, in essence, a battle-oriented Extraordinary Creature. Simply put, it was a weakling bird that, at most, bullied the island's goats.
A little later than the parrot, Byron and Violet also sensed the strangeness in the woods, distinctly feeling a continuous tremor coming from beneath their feet.
It seemed the intense smell of blood in the Golden Apple Orchard had attracted a formidable, massive creature.
"Let the clown see what I've found," a voice boomed. "Seems like the clown caught two little bugs scurrying around. Sea Hunter, you can't get away this time. AHA, AHA, HAHAHA... CACKLE CACKLE..."
Hearing this all-too-familiar voice, Byron and Violet immediately looked stern and said in unison, "Bone-Eating Clown Koraskin!"
Although the newcomer was massive, its movements were agile. Two ghastly white hands, covered with lumps and tumorous growths, parted a lush golden apple tree, revealing a gigantic head the size of a treehouse.
It was Koraskin, whom Byron had previously stranded on the rocks using the Crystal Skull No. 12, "Polaris."
Strictly speaking, this mad clown and his circus ship were the first to land on the island.
Currently, a Golden Great Devil Card, depicting a grisly laughing face, was fitted squarely in his forehead, shining brilliantly. The inscription at the bottom read, "Offer fear to the world."
Essentially, it was a strand of Capricious Joker's own hair, sent from the Sea of Origin Matter in response to someone's summons.
Byron and Violet had long witnessed its power and knew that Koraskin was not far from being completely Fallen. Nothing surprised them.
The most terrifying thing was the "attachments" on his body. The clown crew's body parts were all merged into him in a highly contorted fashion, leaving only the heads of cackling clowns on the surface of his mountainous body.
To say that Koraskin was now the entire Clown Pirate Group was no exaggeration.
Simultaneously, colorful strands of hair extending from the inside of the Golden Great Devil Card had spread to every corner of Koraskin's body. They completely controlled his body, just as a puppeteer controls a puppet with strings.
It was less accurate to call him a member of the Clown Pirate Group; rather, he had become a marionette, like a walking corpse. Most of the "anchor chains" on his body had snapped, and he was only half a step away from becoming a true Bizarre. No matter how famous his legacy might have been, no amount of solid Anchoring could likely pull him back now.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Byron understood the cause and effect:
Koraskin was clearly being devoured by a surge of possessiveness. The stronger the desire (id), the lower the sense of morality (superego), the less stable the [Anchor] becomes, and the faster possessiveness breaks its limits. There must have been a considerable number of clown crew members who survived on the circus ship earlier, but they were soon killed off by the captain, who was on the verge of madness. The Bone-Eating Clown's most famous ability is his miraculous Clown's Trickery, capable of stealing someone's bones without them even noticing. And this time, he truly began to 'eat bones'.
He judged the current situation in the blink of an eye.
Without a hint of hesitation, Byron grabbed Violet, who was beside him, and a whirlwind sprang from the ground as they aimed to shoot up into the sky.
Unlike the Black Serpent Brotherhood, which was annihilated without even showing themselves, the Bone-Eating Clown posed a completely different level of threat compared to mindless Reanimated Corpses.
It was said that corruption makes one ten times stronger!
This Third Order clown, plunged into madness and almost totally Fallen to his Beastly side, was far more terrifying than in his normal state. Byron had absolutely no interest in fighting him to determine who was superior.
"Where do you think you're running?" Koraskin bellowed. "Just merge with me willingly. From then on, the island's treasure will belong to 'us' together. Isn't that wonderful? Once you're dead, there will be no strife, no suspicion, only happiness—this is the true mission of a clown! CACKLE CACKLE CACKLE..."
Although this rationale—preventing suicide by killing a person first and claiming to do everything for their own good—was laughably absurd, the clown's methods were not funny at all.
Casually tearing off a clown head with a bloody spinal cord still attached, he threw it into a dense pile of Reanimated Corpses.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Amidst the screams of that clown head, a murky, colorful Divine Light flared up, and another massive creature shot towards the sky at a speed even faster than Byron and Violet.
"That is...!"
Upon seeing the true nature of that thing, both their pupils contracted involuntarily.
The entity before them clearly broke the boundary between animal and vegetation. Centered around the clown's flesh, it comprised the golden apple trees from the orchard and the bodies of many Reanimated Corpses. The black bark was the skin of Reanimated Corpses, and the branches reaching for the sky resembled multi-jointed human arms. Numerous spinal bones twisted and entwined to form a thick trunk, woven together by muscle tendons and wrapped in a layer of human skin.
As it continuously absorbed the surrounding material and grew taller, the trunk and branches divided rapidly like a real tree. The entire treetop became a massive, blooming forest of human hands. The heads on the branches, with bloodshot eyes, stared fixedly at Byron and Violet, shouting, "It's all mine, all mine..."
Inside the transparent burls at the base of the trunk were bundles of human internal organs, ceaselessly pumping blood and nutrients into the roots and branches. The writhing tree roots didn't dig into the soil; instead, at the end of each root system grew a complete human mouth. In the blink of an eye, they devoured the nearby corpses and fruit trees. Not even the completely shattered remains of Reanimated Corpses were refused.
Bizarre - Bone Tree:
"An entity created from the living fusion of numerous humans and golden apple trees, born from humanity's darkest desires. It possesses an insatiable stomach."
The Transformation power of Clown's Trickery had been taken to its pinnacle by Koraskin. This was a capability beyond the reach of all other Third Orders, possible only with the aid of powerful Cursed Objects like the Golden Great Devil Card.
The Bone-Eating Clown himself suddenly inflated, buoyant like a gigantic balloon, and burst into wild laughter as he snapped his fingers.
SNAP!
Hundreds of dark hands unfolded from the Bone Tree and swarmed down from the sky toward the two of them.
"Hand it over! Give me your flesh!"