70
Chapter 70
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KABOOM-!!!
"Agh!! Fuck! What is this?!"
"Ah, why the hell are you suddenly screaming?"
Elvira snapped bluntly at Russell's shout.
It wasn't that Russell's reaction was hard to understand.
Anyone would be startled to open their eyes and see flames erupting right in front of them along with a fierce explosion.
That was it. The very first memory Parang and Oceanus peeked into after the Dive was an explosion.
Flames bursting before their eyes, a tearing sound that seemed to echo throughout the entire sea.
And there was someone calmly watching the raging heat wave that seemed intent on burning everything in the world.
A knight clad in brilliantly shining white Plate Armor, holding a Shield in her left hand and a Lance over two meters long in her right.
With her long, straight brown hair fluttering, she stared at the explosion with an air of noble isolation.
The Slayer, Kang Yuri.
"......How many hours ago is this video from?"
"......It's from 40 minutes ago."
Parang asked back in slight surprise.
"40 minutes? Why is it so short?"
40 minutes was way too short. She had a lot of wounds on her body, sure, but she didn't have any severed limbs, nor was there any major damage to her Head.
Considering Matilda's case at the South China Sea Hive, where she was absorbed by the Gorgon and barely left with her Head in a gruesome state, this was an unusually short time.
"I don't know either. She might have just looked fine on the outside while being full of internal injuries."
"Let's just keep watching. I don't even understand this situation to begin with. What's with the sudden explosion?"
This part was just as puzzling.
Out of the thousands of species of Monster Fish that Oceanus had caught so far, not a single one had ever breathed fire or exploded.
"Got it. I'll play it for now."
The paused memory slowly began to flow again.
The flames died down.
There was nothing in front of Kang Yuri.
Just an empty space filled with water, as always.
'Is it a self-destructing Monster Fish?'
Various thoughts popped into Parang's mind, but they quickly vanished.
Because a moment later, she could confirm the true nature of that explosion with her own eyes.
Naturally, it wasn't an explosion caused by a Monster Fish.
Grind-
Rumble-!!
What Oceanus had thought was an empty space until now slowly tipped over.
It wasn't that there was nothing in front of Kang Yuri.
It was a large Hole torn open from somewhere.
A massive humanoid mecha about 300 meters tall.
The final, strongest, and most ominous machine that Marianne had risked her life to create.
The Decisive Battle Weapon, Goliath.
A Giant of Steel that made one wonder if it could even support its own body.
On its chest.
There, Kang Yuri pierced a Hole.
A very massive Hole, to be exact.
Goliath slowly fell backward,
Crash!!!!
And laid on the Floor.
A massive roar that echoed through the entire space.
Anyone would have been able to tell.
Kang Yuri had destroyed Goliath.
Marianne's ultimate move, with her own hands.
Parang recalled Marianne, who had recklessly attacked her.
'Was she already possessed at this point?'
And as if to prove Parang's thought right, a shouting voice could be heard from far away.
"......rianne!! Wake......up!!"
It was Hunter Han Siwoo's voice.
Thankfully for Oceanus, Kang Yuri dragged her aching body and headed that way to help Han Siwoo.
And the scene everyone had expected unfolded before their eyes.
With her eyes glowing purple, Marianne pulled out every Weapon and was aiming at Han Siwoo,
While Han Siwoo was blocking all of them and shouting at Marianne.
"Please, please wake up!! Damn it!!!"
Even as dozens of Railguns targeted him and fired lasers, he deflected every single attack.
Given the circumstances, it seemed these three were the only ones left.
The battered Kang Yuri and Han Siwoo, and Marianne.
Other than them, there was nothing else.
Leaving that lonely, bizarre, and sad scene behind, Oceanus finally had the leeway to look around.
Kang Yuri was the second to last. Meaning, she was teleported to the Hive right before Marianne.
If this was 40 minutes before her death, it meant the battle had already reached its final stages.
The surrounding environment was definitely different from Alexandra's time.
First, there was something all of Oceanus, including Parang, had been feeling since the Dive began.
"Am I the only one feeling really weird right now?"
Russell spoke in a gloomy, profoundly somber voice, unlike his usual self.
"......Me too."
Voices of agreement erupted from here and there.
Parang was naturally feeling it too.
Depressed. Gloomy. Anxious. Scared. Sad.
Whether it was because they were watching the end of the Slayers, or due to some other factor.
The vast, deep, dark sea spread out around them seemed exceptionally, endlessly depressing and dreary right now.
It was unpleasant.
For the first time in her life, Parang looked at the sea and harbored a feeling of disgust.
A creepy sensation was rolling in from the surroundings to that extent.
An endless sense of emptiness, futility, despondency, and all sorts of negative emotions were Dashing in.
Second, the swarms of Monster Fish that had completely blackened the surroundings had vanished without a trace.
They could quickly confirm where they had gone.
Above, and below.
Countless Monster Fish, presumably slaughtered by the Slayers, were floating above them,
and the remains of Statues, presumably smashed by them, were piled up like mountains below.
"No way, did they......kill them all?"
"......It seems so."
Parang gulped, swallowing her saliva before speaking.
There was no one else around to massacre the Monster Fish besides the Slayers, and above all, Kang Yuri's condition clearly showed that she had gone through a fierce battle.
First was the condition of her Armor.
They couldn't see it well earlier due to the explosion, but it was in a truly horrific state.
Her left Pauldron must have been completely destroyed as it was gone, and scorched marks could be seen on her exposed shoulder.
Not just her shoulder, but her legs, arms, chest—every part of it was cracked or shattered, leaving not a single intact spot.
"Hah......hah......ugh......."
After gasping for breath, Kang Yuri grabbed her left shoulder.
It was the spot with the scorched marks.
"It's a burn wound from being seared by something. Most likely......."
"It must be Marianne's doing."
"Did they really, kill them all......? Every single one of them......?"
Bertea muttered in a tone that showed she still found it hard to believe.
Parang honestly couldn't believe it either.
They had clearly seen it in Alexandra's final memories.
The way such a massive number of Monsters moved with chilling precision.
The infinite army that showed no signs of decreasing, even when thousands or tens of thousands of Monster Fish were swept away at once.
They had all seen it.
But as if to show off, the Slayers had done it.
They had wiped them all out and were still standing.
And that sight only brought more questions to Oceanus.
"......How many minutes before her death is this."
"30 minutes."
"This makes no sense."
Parang spoke with difficulty.
The wave of negative emotions she had been feeling since earlier was now truly unbearable.
The Slayers had, at any rate, won.
Marianne was not in her right mind, and Kang Yuri and Han Siwoo were battered, but they were still standing there.
But, why?
What in the world had happened to them?
Such questions were...
"......Hey."
Elvira said with a trembling voice.
"I'm not, the only one, seeing that. Right."
Her normally confident voice quivered.
And everyone in Oceanus was looking at it.
The sum of all the negative emotions they had been feeling.
The source. Everything, of negativity.
Something looking at them from far away. But its eyes were closed.
A round disaster. A massive Sphere.
What Kang Yuri was looking at.
What was looking at Kang Yuri.
It.
It, its eyes.
Opened.
"Gasp!! Cough!! Hah......!!"
Parang gasped for breath.
Just now, what, was that.
"Ugh......!"
"Ugh......just now, what......."
It seemed everyone, not just Parang, had experienced that phenomenon just now. Voices complaining of Headaches and dizziness could be heard from all over.
It was still looking this way from far away.
Eyes.
It was an eye.
"It opened, its eyes......."
Parang whispered softly without realizing it.
She didn't know who she was talking to.
It could have been to herself, to that thing, or just empty nonsense spat out into the void.
That was the living thing the Status Window spoke of, the thing not on the ground.
That thing killed the Slayers.
That thing possessed Marianne.
That thing is the final enemy we must fight.
She thought.
It rolled its pupils around.
Roll, roll, roll.
For that moment at least, no one moved.
Nothing moved.
Han Siwoo, Kang Yuri, and even Marianne.
Everyone was standing still, watching the Eyeball roll around.
Then, abruptly.
It glared straight at Kang Yuri.
A Notification Window popped up in front of Kang Yuri.
[ Skill, 'Wa■proo■ Sani■ty' has been activated. ]
[ Warning: An exces■ive load is applied to the sys■em. If addi■ional burden is applied, perman■nt dam■ge may fol■ow. ]
Kang Yuri painfully gripped her Lance.
"Siwoo, I'm sorry......."
Her hands were trembling violently.
"I'll go first......."
She calmly activated the Warp Device.
"I love you."
With her fading vision and the white light filling her view to the end.
Kang Yuri's Ritual was cut off.