episode_0217

Above the sea where a cool breeze blew, in a situation where one might be sucked into the lightless abyss if they weren’t careful.

Crackle!

Seol Hayeon was the quickest to react. With her silver hair fluttering, she stepped on the water’s surface, covering the entire area with ice.

Although the warship was destroyed and began to sink… still, aside from minor casualties, no one was seriously injured.

Crew members without awakened abilities also quickly planted their feet on the ice and lowered their bodies.

No matter how skilled an Awakener, it was difficult to operate while submerged in the sea.

And it went without saying for the crew members. Seol Hayeon, her eyes gravely lowered, scanned them and spoke softly.

“Disciple-nim. Icewood.”

“Yes.”

Just before, as the warship was shattered by an unidentified attack, Lee Hyunjin, who had just managed to put on his clothes, rose to his feet.

Fortunately, he had avoided the major catastrophe of entering the battlefield naked, but that wasn’t what was important now.

Lee Hyunjin immediately snapped his fingers, installing a bluish-white tree on the frozen water’s surface.

Rumble! With a fierce tremor, the Icewood stretched, its vast surface poised to serve as a fortress protecting non-combat personnel.

Likewise, Ryu Seeun, who had been briefly observing while awkwardly dressed, quickly generated plant stems, and the stems that surged from all directions soon grasped the crew members one by one.

“Oh, uh.”

“Ah…?”

They were flustered by the sudden binding, but Ryu Seeun gently spoke to them as she lifted them onto the Icewood’s branches.

“Please don’t move. You might fall if you’re not careful… If you stay up there, you’ll likely be safe from harm.”

“…Yes, yes!”

Upon hearing their answer, Ryu Seeun smiled sweetly. Following that, she activated the ‘darkness’ mana she had received from Ryu Jinseong.

Lee Hyunjin’s unique magic was indeed close to perfect, but regardless, she was the best at reinforcing it due to her compatibility.

Ryu Seeun placed her hand on the Icewood, and her mana flowed into it, causing a portion of the branches to soon begin to turn black.

Moreover, it was unlikely that any attack, unless truly extraordinary, would be able to instantly destroy the Black Icewood installed in this way.

“…Let’s see, over there?”

Lee Hyunjin waved his hand with a light expression. There was no longer any need to worry about the safety of their allies, so it was time to counterattack.

Sound was shot out in all directions in the form of waves, and he soon detected the enemy’s presence.

A massive body and numerous, somewhat grotesque limbs…

‘…Hmm.’

An octopus, perhaps? A kraken?

Crackle, crackle!

Even by the felt form alone, he could somewhat guess its identity, but Lee Hyunjin, without hesitation, first summoned lightning.

A battle fought on the sea — this was also the field Lee Hyunjin was most confident in.

-Heavenly Lightning.

It didn’t matter if it was a kraken or not. Even if it were any other being, how could it remain unaffected when scorched by lightning?

Roar!

In an instant, a lightning pattern was etched near Lee Hyunjin’s eyes, and immediately, a burst of golden light pierced precisely through the center of the sea.

The lightning, at first glance, seemed to innocently strike an empty spot.

[Screech!]

It was soon starkly revealed that this was not the case. Something surged from beneath the sea with a monstrous scream that felt like it would tear eardrums.

Reddish-brown skin, a dozen or so eyes that wiggled disgustingly, and dozens of pairs of arms and legs squirming with unpleasant suction cups.

“Good heavens.”

Yang Chan-ho looked at the monster, which in every way resembled an octopus, with a disgusted expression.

Though merely a matter of personal preference, he wasn’t particularly fond of cephalopods.

“It seems that’s what struck the ship, wouldn’t you say it’s confirmed?”

“…It seems so. You cleverly noticed it, Hyunjin-gun.”

Yang Chan-ho nodded at Lee Hyunjin’s question, given for confirmation. And he grasped a mop, which appeared from who knows where.

“Is it a pet octopus raised by that cult? Coincidentally, the coordinates point exactly to a submarine cave right below us.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to go down and see for ourselves?”

Just as that mop was about to take the form of a holy sword, an elderly man with red hair stepped forward even before it could, snorting.

Despite his appearance suggesting countless years had accumulated, Flame Emperor Hong Myeongseon’s eyes shone brightly as he conjured seething flames in both hands.

“That fellow, he’s an octopus that looks like he’d be good to roast and eat.”

“…Are you serious? Grandfather-nim.”

“Don’t call me that! You rascal.”

Hong Myeongseon, disregarding Lee Hyunjin’s disgusted reaction and clicking his tongue, immediately plunged a pillar of flame into the sea.

Boom! A massive roar and heat accompanied the explosion of the S-rank mage’s flames, and that attack was also a kind of signal.

“Shall we defeat them first? Whatever they are, they don’t seem friendly to us.”

Yang Chan-ho completely shed his previous nonchalant attitude and brought his holy sword down in a straight line.

Outwardly, it was merely a lightly swung slash, but the results were far from light.

Flash!

In an instant, a platinum light flashed, and within a time most couldn’t even perceive, five or six of the monster’s legs were severed.

[…!]

And before the creature could even scream, lightning and cold, flame and sword energy, and other attacks poured down relentlessly from all directions.

What monster could possibly withstand such a bombardment from nearly ten S-ranks?

Even if the unique entity that appeared in Istanbul last month were to reappear, it would have no means to endure this onslaught.

“…They surely wouldn’t be unaware of such things, would they?”

Seol Hayeon, simply scattering cold from her spot, muttered softly.

Her two blue eyes gleamed with an utterly chilling light.

“What in the world are you thinking? Senior Sister-nim.”

She was looking at the monster, but what she was truly seeing was beyond it. The person who must have sent this monster here.

Moonlight Cult Leader Haru.

Privately… a senior-junior disciple relationship who once shared the same mage as a master.

Seol Hayeon gradually expanded the frozen area, looking down beneath the sea.

‘Her,’ who could also be called a fated enemy, waiting for her beneath.

And it was in the very next moment.

Whoosh!

“…”

A sudden sound of cutting through the air brushed past her ears, and Seol Hayeon reacted precisely to the octopus’s leg, which swung like a whip.

Lowering her stance, she swiftly extended her hand, spreading a biting cold as if exploding it.

Thanks to her quick reaction, the suction cups on the incoming leg were held in place, retaining their shape, without reaching Seol Hayeon.

“…Ha.”

Seol Hayeon couldn’t help but twist her lips with an incredulous expression.

The leg that had just tried to strike her appeared from ‘another direction’.

Not the first one, which had been miserably crushed without even properly resisting the concentrated attacks of the S-ranks for several minutes…

[Screech!]

A completely different entity, a completely different one.

Furthermore, it wasn’t just one or two.

“Well, now.”

Lee Cheonsang, who had been busy slicing and dismantling the remaining octopus remnants, displayed a bewildered reaction.

He had, of course, thought that just one of these monsters wouldn’t be the entirety of their welcoming party.

“…They’ve raised quite a lot of pet octopuses. Did they breed them themselves?”

Clicking his tongue, Lee Cheonsang sharpened the sword energy on his blade even further.

Because if he didn’t, he felt he wouldn’t be able to respond in time to the attacks flying in from all directions.

“It’d be troublesome if too much time is wasted.”

Yang Chan-ho muttered, frowning. The goal of this expeditionary force was the submarine cave below, not to idly chat with octopuses.

Given the situation, perhaps they would have no choice but to divide their personnel and distribute roles.

“Hyunjin-gun, Seeun-yang. First, you two go down towards the cave with me—.”

As soon as he made that decision, Yang Chan-ho tried to look after his students first.

“…”

The moment he turned his head, Yang Chan-ho’s expression hardened to a terrifying degree.

The location where Lee Hyunjin and Ryu Seeun should have been, the very spot they were originally in.

Creak, creak…

Nothing remained there except for a crack that seemed to tear through space, accompanied by an ear-grating sound.

Yang Chan-ho, brandishing his holy sword with a fierce glint in his eyes, succeeded in tearing apart the spatial rift.

But that didn’t mean the vanished individuals would return.

Yang Chan-ho, who had looked around with a blank expression, soon couldn’t help but let out a chilling laugh.

“…Is this ‘the beginning,’ or something like that?”

Because more than half of the expeditionary force had already vanished from the frozen sea.

Aiming for Yang Chan-ho, who gritted his teeth, the octopuses’ legs began to shoot out like tentacles.