9th floor! - Anomaly and the Supreme-Protector

The Shadow Lord!!!

This was a title most of the Contestants familiar with Pirates of the Caribbean world had heard of. Even then, they would have never imagined hearing the name of this legend in this Random World, and at this point in the main Storyline.

The Shadow Lord, or Sir Henry Morgan, was a legendary Character; a Pirate Lord of the Brethren Court.

At the dawn of the Golden Age of Piracy, Pirate Lord Henry Morgan had helped write the Code of the Pirate Brethren with Bartholomew, another Pirate Lord. Not only was he a knight of England, but, in his later years, he had also become the lieutenant governor of Jamaica, of which the town of Port Royal was a part.

In his times, Sir Henry Morgan's atrocities and reputation knew no bounds, reaching to the furthest seas a man could find.

Later, the other Pirate Lords betrayed him, selling him to the Government. Nonetheless, Henry Morgan had turned that foul episode around miraculously, too.

One could even say that he was the Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa of his time.

But… these things couldn't even come close to the prime tale, which had turned this mere Pirate Lord and knight of England into a near Immortal Legend.

According to various lores, Morgan died in Port Royal on August 25, 1688.

Only later did the world find out that, through unknown circumstances, the Pirate Lord had moved to a secret laboratory on a remote island where he began to study Alchemy. Morgan then spent years studying all sorts of science, sorcery, and black magic. Not only that, but he also discovered a way to live forever, prolonging his life.

When the world came to know about this, by the 1710s, Pirate Lord Henry Morgan had already become the Shadow Lord; a master of Alchemy.

With his power, the Shadow Lord created the Shadow Army; an army of inanimate objects brought to life by magic.

Remembering the injustice done to him long ago, the Shadow Lord was bent on having his revenge on the Pirate Lords on the Day of the Shadow; a self-created event when he would rise and all the world would be crushed beneath his boots.

However, the Shadow Gold, a magical elixir and the source of his power, was stolen from him by Tia Dalma's Zombie, Alex, and scattered throughout the world.

Later, when the time came to resist the Shadow Lord once and for all, Tia Dalma sent Jack Sparrow to collect the scattered pieces.

This adventure later came to be known as — the Quest of the Shadow Gold!

At last, the Pirate Lords and Marines collectively defeated the Shadow Lord, ending the disaster.

Who knew he hadn't died, but biding his time to stumble upon an infamous theory he had drawn ages ago?

The Life Stone!!!

And who knew the Shadow Lord would just happen to be at Port Royal at the same time Life Stone appeared in the world?

There were just too many coincidences as if the negative forces of nature were guiding the events of the mortal world.

Then there was the fact that Characters like Henry Morgan, though abnormally powerful, weren't a part of the ongoing main storyline anymore. One could understand the significance of their presence from the fact that their powers exceeded what the timeline offered to the Contestants, according to the Overall Difficulty.

This Pirates of the Caribbean Random World had an Overall Difficulty of D+, equivalent to the 6th floor. That meant the strongest Contestant allowed in this world could be the most powerful Top-level 6th-floor Contestant. But no matter how strong, the Contestant from above 2nd Set just couldn't teleport here.

The moment the Shadow Lord had sensed the Philosopher's Stone, he brought out his hibernating power like a tempest, his strength already reaching the level of a strong 7th-floor Contestant.

And it was still rising!

These Characters were just not allowed to co-exist with the ongoing storyline, for their presence signified only one thing — An Anomaly!!!

An Anomaly was a severe and disastrous deviation from the main storyline, triggered by an even more incomprehensible action of a series of events.

Then how did the Primordial Tower deal with it?

The Primordial Tower could only do one thing when it came to Anomalies — Contestants.

These Contestants were the Tower's caution against any unpredictable event, called Anomaly.

These Contestants had only one job — to prevent disasters like the Shadow Lord from waking up, as much as possible.

These Contestants… were the hidden weapons of the Primordial Tower.

So, it was natural for these Contestants to be strong to such a degree that they could suppress all anomalies whatsoever.

That's why such Contestants always had a Stats cap of the highest strength from the next Set in the Primordial Tower, i.e. a Set above the Overall Difficulty.

These Contestants were called — the Supreme-Protectors!

If Kai hadn't taken care of all Protectors in the Harry Potter World using his Main Mission, then Gellert Grindelwald most probably would have enjoyed the watchful eyes of such Contestants.

This didn't mean that Grindelwald in the Harry Potter World, imprisoned, was stronger than Professor Dumbledore, who had equivalent strength as that of a 7th-floor Contestant. No. It meant that if Grindelwald were to become a part of the main storyline, then whatever circumstances led to this would make him a terrifying existence of the level of 9th-floor Contestants.

This was the power of a Timeline Anomaly.

If it weren't for sensing the Life Stone, the Shadow Lord wouldn't have released all his hibernating powers in an instant, either.

However, the concept of Supreme-Protectors was only valid up to the 5th Set, above which every floor was powerful enough to contend against all the floors beneath it; combined.

The man with the golden helmet trembling midair was such a Contestant.

A Supreme-Protector…

… a Top-level 9th-floor Contestant!!!

Fight Anomalies with Anomalies, this was the Primordial Tower's way; its preparation.

Being such an existence, the Tower placed heavy and fatal restrictions over the Supreme-Protectors. They could only use a part of their strength if they sensed a Timeline Anomaly that could temper with the ongoing main storyline.

No wonder the Supreme-Protector with the golden helmet had been monitoring all the Contestants on the Night of Truce from the shadows.

But even he couldn't have predicted the coming of this Timeline Anomaly.

Because this Anomaly had birthed from the greatest anomalies one could find in the Primordial Tower; the most desired anomaly that one could only seek but not find.

Glitch!!!

It was Kai who had brought about the anomaly called the Shadow Lord.

He was the embodiment of his Glitch, Blood Devour.

It was he who had begun this nightmare…

And it was just the start!

The wind returned to Port Royal, becoming a gale, howling and screaming. Moonlight returned, too, bringing a touch of blackness mixed in its serene moonlight.

"Ahh!" a woman screamed.

A shadow creature, looking like a frail person with exaggerated long limbs, a gaping hole for a mouth, and no eyes, crawled out from the shadow and grabbed her ankle.

Shadowy claws left dark marks on the woman's body as the shadow soldier brought its entire figure out. The woman seemed to have lost her senses, and other than letting out hideous screams, she couldn't do anything.

Rip!

When the claw reached the woman's bosom, it tore out her heart, then her limbs, her head, and everything until she lost any resemblance to her former self whatsoever. It was as if these creatures despised the living.

Moreover, this wasn't happening only near the bar where the Shadow Lord was, eying everything with his dark, furious eyes full of loathing.

It was happening all across the island.

Contestant Hadoken was at the easternmost side of the island's market. He, too, had sensed the pulse, and then the subsequent changes in his surroundings. After the incident with Kai, he remained quiet as if a lot was going on in his mind. But when the Shadow Creatures crawled out from the shadows, eating away walls, trees, glasses, and casks, a glint flashed across his eyes.

Grr!

Several Creatures growled through their hideous mouths and lunged at Hadoken, but a burst of Ren sent them all flying. They all were just too weak for a Protector like him; a mid-level 6th-floor Contestant.

It was then an even deeper and threatening growl reached his ears.

His own shadow lengthened and distorted under Hadoken's shocked eyes. Then, a hand shot out of the shadow, too thick and welling with overgrown muscles. The hand grabbed the earth and brought out its entire figure little by little.

It was over 7 ft and looked like a dwarf mountain. Every inch of its body was covered with muscles, and its long hands were brushing the ground. Even its face was hideously disfigured. But…

Hadoken couldn't help but feel a familiarity from that face as if… that face belonged to him.

A monstrous presence, which Hadoken had only felt from other Protectors, and infinitely near to… Blood Demon, burst out of the Shadow Creature. The Creature howled before putting his right hand at his waist.

Goosebumps took over Hadoken's entire body as a shiver ran down his spine. Hurriedly, he too took the martial pose, concentrating his Nen on his fist.

Then both punched.

BOOM!

"Cough!" Hadoken coughed out a mouthful of blood and got thrown dozens of feet away.

The Shadow Creature, too, staggered a few steps back. But it was obvious who had come out victorious in the last clash.

Hadoken rubbed the blood off from the corners of his mouth and stood up, his eyes trembling with a never-known bloodthirst.

On the other side, toward the docks, Blade Singer danced through the Creatures, cutting their heads and limbs.

It was then that her shadow, cast by the moonlight over the seawater, rippled, and a 10 ft tall Creature crawled out of it. Strangely, the Creature's over 7 ft long hands looked like two sharp swords, and its face resembled Blade Singer's as well.

Contestant Blade Singer's eyes widened, and she hacked at the newly arrived Shadow Creature with her full strength.

In the next moment, the 10 ft tall Creature disappeared with defying agility and hacked at her back with the same move, but greater strength.

This?!

Contestant Aloof wasn't faring any better. His entire right hand was missing as if it had been torn off his body in a very forceful and raw manner, his flesh dangling from the stump at his shoulder like bloody threads.

In front of him was a 2 ft tall Shadow Creature, hovering midair, growling like a beast. All around its tiny body, there were uncountable spatial fluctuations.

Then there was Moraine the Elegant.

Mullroy was at Fort Charles' ramparts, helping the other marines with the cannons. So, she was here too.

At this time, she couldn't care about the Character in the least.

A 20 ft tall, humongous Shadow Creature was advancing toward her with large strides. There was armor on its body that looked like Iron Man Mark V but entirely made of shadows, black fog churning off the armor's pieces like sinister steam.

But this alone wasn't Moraine's horror.

The Contestant, who had obtained under 100 rank in the current ToW, could see a touch of seven-colored hue around the Shadow Creature. It was this hue that had made her tremble, for she knew it was just utterly impossible.

In Fort Charles' prison cells, Jack Sparrow shuddered, sensing a familiar presence. "It's him!" he exclaimed, his tone brimming with a rare seriousness. "I can feel him. How is it possible?!"

All the drunkenness seemed to have pushed back to Kai's mind.

In his hands, Afro's Tachi and Murasame appeared, as he threw the Compass into his Inventory without even looking at it.

There was just one thought in his mind — The Book!

*************

AN: Two announcements -

1. From now on, breaks will only be taken in the later half of the week, i.e. Fri, Sat, and Sunday

2. As the word count of the chapters are ever-increasing, all Chapters with word count over 2400 will be divided into two parts. Both parts will be published on the same day, with a few hours of gap between them. So, if you see a chapter titled XYZ (1), then you can wait for the publishing of XYZ (2) to read them together. Anyway, its your choice.

Enjoy!!!