Ch.265265. Temple of the Deep Sea (3)

The beam of light fired from the main cannon of the Red Ark struck the reef—at that very moment.

As an immense amount of light and energy erupted from the impact point, everything in the Sargasso, known as the Sea of Death, began to burn and vanish.

Nothing was spared—not the ghost ships carrying the undead who couldn’t truly die, not the hideous Deep Ones with their fish-amphibian hybrid appearances, nor the reef zones they had claimed as their dwelling places.

The result of a Level 5 spell amplified by a first-class cleric—an apostle of God specialized in magic—

At the epicenter, literally nothing remained.

The overwhelming heat generated by the magic burned, ravaged, and incinerated everything.

The reef didn’t just turn to dust—it completely evaporated as it broke down to the particle level. Naturally, all the facilities contained within vanished without a trace.

When solid rock was evaporating, seaweed had no chance of survival, and the Deep Ones suffered catastrophic, apocalyptic damage.

Most of the Deep Ones didn’t just burn—they evaporated in the white lightning charged with tremendous energy. Only an extremely lucky few managed to leave behind bone fragments or a few scales before dying.

In this devastation, part of the surrounding sea evaporated while the temperature of nearby waters rose dramatically. Near the blast center, the sea had evaporated due to the intense magical heat, creating what looked like a hole—

Through that gap in the divided sea—beyond the hole—appeared a massive palace made of stone. More precisely, it was the half-destroyed dwelling place of the deep sea god of terror and a temple built for his worship.

The structure was enormous enough to house humans at least 20 meters tall, and despite being constructed primarily of stone, it boasted remarkably ornate decorations…

Perhaps as a price for such grandeur, more than 30% of the upper portion of the palace had been shattered by the main cannon’s fire.

But was this merely a sign of what was to come?

Crack! Rumble! Boom!

The stone temple of the deep sea god—the evil god of terror—suddenly cracked and collapsed, revealing what he truly wanted to hide—the Palace of Horus.

Though weathered by the passage of time, the palace’s framework consisted of various stone pillars and walls built with stone bricks that seemed as if they would last forever.

Inside Horus’s dwelling were eerie corridors and rooms filled to capacity, each symbolizing different fears.

Outside, abundant seaweed and algae—green slime—enhanced the gloomy atmosphere, making it even more chilling.

This palace was certainly not made of stone alone. Its windows, which light could not penetrate, were covered with a dark green substance…

Bronze, iron, and decorative items made of an unknown black-colored verdigris subtly asserted their presence.

The true identity of this new dwelling of Horus, flaunting its presence in all directions, was a place where rituals were performed for the evil god of terror, Horus, to descend more safely into this world directly—a part of Horus’s divine territory rooted in the material plane.

And at this very site, the massive palace trembled like an enraged being, its windows flashing dark blue before suddenly opening “doors” through which hideous monsters began to emerge and descend into the real world.

They resembled giant squids, flashing colors similar to navy blue or purple but indescribable in human terms.

Their streamlined bodies had dozens of tentacles with suckers at the ends, and their surfaces flashed that indescribable color as they writhed and swam through the air.

These strange life forms, varying in size, specific appearance, sucker tentacle size and length—every aspect different—were approaching the Red Ark with precision despite having no visible sensory organs.

“Open the turrets! Prepare for battle!”

Unfortunately, the Red Ark had just fired its main cannon and couldn’t annihilate them in one strike, so Captain Lisa decided to eliminate the approaching enemies using the turrets attached throughout the hull.

Boom—!! Boom—!! Boom—!!

Whiiiiiiing—ratatatatata!!!

As the massive triple blood cannon turrets mounted on the Red Ark’s upper deck fired blood-red shells,

The anti-aircraft guns made of six bundled magical rifles shot beams of light, shooting down small entities measuring 1-5 meters.

Kwang!! Kwang!!

Phuuuuuuung—!!!

While the massive magical cannon gunners densely positioned along the sides dealt with large entities of 10-20 meters, the blood cannons on the lower deck burst with scatter shots, literally pulverizing medium-small entities under 10 meters.

The Dawn Empire’s most powerful area-of-effect firepower, capable of reducing even a major city to dust in about an hour, had reached a level that couldn’t be challenged by mere alien squids.

Thus, the squids were being destroyed faster than they could emerge from the opened “doors,” and finally, the Red Ark’s attacks reached and shattered the “doors”—at that moment.

—Rumble!!

Suddenly, Horus’s palace, which had been standing firm and intact until just moments ago, lost its color and turned to stone. Then, like an egg cracking during hatching, it began to break apart from the inside—

《—————■■■■■■■■!!!》

Shattering Horus’s palace from within, an enormous monster emerged with a horrific cry.

This creature, like a gigantic version of the earlier Deep Ones, had tentacle-legs of cephalopods growing instead of hair, skin covered with jade-colored scales, and barnacles attached in various places.

Additionally, it had an extra pair of arms growing above its shoulders with crab-like pincers, and a total of four eyes on its face with pupils similar in color to the squids from earlier.

This being, possessing several characteristics of sea creatures, was the body that Horus had intended to possess.

Created by piling up corpses of various deep-sea creatures and pouring Horus’s blood into them, this body was strong enough to contain Horus’s soul and essence, even though Horus had not yet possessed it.

《■■■■■■■■■———!!!》

Thus, this body, despite lacking not only intelligence but even a soul, awakened due to the attack from the Red Ark—a being capable of killing it.

“Oh, it’s coming!!”

Horus’s body began to approach rapidly toward what could kill it, following its instincts.

The method chosen by this soulless body was to create waves using the surrounding water and then approach.

As if possessing power over water, the wave created by just one swing of its arm moved as if with a will of its own and attacked the Red Ark—

“Load the main cannon! Transfer authority to the vice-captain in the meantime!”

Having quickly assessed the situation, the Red Ark began intercepting the wave while reloading its main cannon.

One might wonder how to intercept a wave, but surprisingly, wave interception could be accomplished through a fairly simple method.

Kwang!! Kwang!!

Phuuuuuuung—!!!

Boom—!! Boom—!! Boom—!!

Whiiiiiiing—ratatatatata!!!

The Red Ark aimed its auxiliary weapons at the wave and began firing, and the tremendous firepower of the guns instantly shattered the wave, exposing what was behind it.

And beyond that wave—

《——————■■■■■■■■■■■■!!!!》

Horus’s empty shell body was fully exposed, charging forward riding the wave to attack.

“Fire!!!!”

——————Kwaaaaaaang!!!!

At that exact moment, a beam of white lightning shot from the Red Ark’s main cannon, which had been sparking with white energy.

The beam, accompanied by an earth-shattering roar, blasted a huge hole in the empty shell’s chest and continued with enough force to pierce the horizon—

《——————■■■■■■■■!!!》

“—What?!!”

What they hadn’t anticipated was that the being could still move even after being hit by the main cannon.

Of course, it was merely squeezing out its remaining strength to move.

In reality, it would completely collapse and vanish after moving for just a few seconds to ten seconds at most.

But still… even so.

Those ten seconds would be enough for that empty shell to half-destroy the Red Ark.

Everyone on the bridge was shocked and tried to somehow prevent that destruction during those remaining seconds.

And at that very moment.

——————Slash!!!

From far beyond the distant horizon, a massive slash attack flew in and cut the shell to pieces.

The attack, which appeared as merely a black flash even to Lisa, cleaved Horus’s body in half. This proved to be the finishing blow, and Horus’s body gradually shattered into pieces and dissolved into the air, vanishing.

As if it were being absorbed by something.