Deep Abyss #1
The shadow clinging to the inside of the coffin... Was that his parents?
Beltum Professor murmured softly to himself in his mind.
If so, it made sense that it was positioned closest to the [Cursed Marionette], the avatar of the unconscious. Especially considering the firepower that had utterly vaporized a human body.
It would also explain why Ricardo's creatures boasted such unusually high stats.
But the problem was this: his parents, the Bardi Count and Countess, were still very much alive and well...
That left two possibilities.
Ricardo Bardi's birth parents had perished in an attack by a monster wielding explosion magic, and the Bardi couple had adopted him afterward.
This was the more realistic hypothesis, but it left too many unexplainable gaps.
If a monster capable of evaporating humans had caused civilian casualties, even in a remote region, rumors would have spread far and wide. Yet Beltum Professor had never heard even a whisper of such a thing.
The other possibility, then...
This boy hails from another world, and somehow returned from death.
There was scant logic to support it. It was little more than a wild leap.
Yet the bizarre uniforms worn by every doll in the coffin dragged by the [Cursed Marionette]. The dolls' excessively mangled states.
And the theme shared by Ricardo's deck—machinery.
All of it was lending concrete shape to Beltum Professor's speculation.
However, the wise turtle professor did not commit the folly of voicing his thoughts aloud.
Not now, with the clear and formidable threat of [Enolla Fortress] still looming. Spouting confusing tales to the group would be tantamount to dunking his own head in the muck.
As Beltum Professor sorted through his contemplations, a strange dissonance enveloped the party.
The Chimera's words and Peanut's actions, each processed in their own ways, had birthed a silence.
For some reason, that silence grew heavier, stretching unnaturally long.
And then.
"The snow..."
Isabella muttered softly, staring at the ground.
The blizzard that had raged with the emergence of [K-2 Black Panther] was easing. The snow that had swiftly piled up to their ankles was melting away.
No, not melting—more like sinking into the floor.
At the same moment, Erhun and Peanut's noses twitched.
Before they could speak, a soft pop... punctuated the heavy quiet.
The sound came from beneath the fallen Chimera's remains. No—from its waist. No—from right beside their ears.
The next instant, as they blinked...
—The party found themselves in the lightless depths of the ocean.
The cold, clammy grip of water coiling around their limbs. The brief floaty sensation as the ground vanished, followed by the sickening plunge deeper still.
And finally, the abyss's touch clogging their noses and mouths, suffocating them.
The party was sinking soundlessly into a death that had come all too abruptly.
"Everyone—stay close to me!"
Beltum Professor shouted with uncharacteristic firmness.
A massive mana sphere in the shape of a turtle shell expanded abruptly, enveloping the group. Its light and the returning air had them coughing and gasping for breath.
The turtle professor, whose movements remained unhindered, hoisted the party onto his vast shell.
The Chimera had vanished into the darkness at some point.
In the directionless abyss, Beltum Professor raced through his thoughts.
In the previous exploration, most of Ricardo's creatures had behaved as if subservient to [Enolla Fortress].
Even the other two dragons—[Nautilus] and [Gustav Dora].
"What the hell is this...?" "What just happened?" "Where'd the wasteland go? Why's there an ocean...?"
Erhun and Adella shivered violently. The seawater's chill had infiltrated their bodies and souls in an instant.
Isabella, who wielded ice magic, and Professor Georgia, a grown man, fared slightly better, but their faces were equally pale.
A cold that whispered of oblivion, as if a moment's lapse would erase even their sense of self.
"Steady your minds."
Beltum Professor said calmly.
"This is no mere chill. 'Tis the sensation of deeply submerged psyche."
Thus, simple heat could not dispel it.
"But precisely because of that—hold fast to your core, and it shall not erode you."
The turtle professor's great eyes gazed gently upon the group.
"The lantern resides within our hearts."
Erhun clutched tightly to Beltum Professor's shell. Her small hands trembled, but did not slacken.
"Professor Beltum, this must be..." "Aye—it deemed the Chimera insufficient. Everyone—brace yourselves."
Nodding to Isabella's question, Beltum Professor narrowed his great eyes and continued.
"The first wall we must overcome."
Wooooooong...
In response, a whale-like wail echoed dully from afar.
Its direction was indeterminable—front, rear, or all around.
But one thing was certain: it bore no goodwill toward the party.
And it was drawing nearer.
A red glow flickered in the distant murk.
No one dared speak. But all knew.
They swallowed hard and blinked once.
Closer now, the red light flashed again.
Thump... thump... thump... thump...
Their heartbeats quickened, pounding like drums at their ears.
And they blinked once more.
The red light blazed at the center of their vision.
Something enormous and heavy stirred unseen, sending the deep-sea waters roiling and shoving the party aside.
And again—they closed their eyes, then opened them.
A camera eye's crimson glare filled their sight, illuminating the party like a beacon from the pit.
...In that instant of confrontation, even breathing felt pointless.
[Machinery Deep Sea Dragon - Nautilus].
The darkness sunken deepest in Ricardo's heart had at last revealed itself.
Pop...
A bubble rose before the party's eyes. Something began fogging its surface, illuminating the darkness—
Pop!
—and it burst.
Despite Beltum Professor's mana shield holding firm, the moment the bubble popped, they felt something slimy clinging to their bodies.
—Isabella quietly raised a hand to her cheek. Her pale fingers came away smeared with gore—blood and brains mingled.
—Adella clutched her ringing ears. Explosions and the crunch of mangled flesh clung to her like dying embers.
—Erhun pinched her nose shut. The reek of blood, guts, gunpowder, and steel gnawed at her sinuses, surging into her brain. Unlike the faint traces she'd smelled on Ricardo before, this was fresh enough to induce nausea...
—Georgia looked down at the sensation of something gripping his leg.
There lay a young man in the same uniform as the dolls, sprawled and staring up at him.
He looked... young. Early twenties at most. Far more boyish than Georgia himself.
The youth's waist was severed clean.
His dog tag clinked as he spoke.
"■■■ Sergeant... find my legs for me, sir..."
The tag read Kim Hyung-sik. Unfamiliar script, yet its meaning burned into him like a brand.
Pop...Pop!!
Another bubble burst.
The next instant, the party walked a dark mountain path. The air carried stale sweat and metallic blood. They were wedged among men in identical uniforms, trudging endlessly onward.
The uniforms now draped over them felt unbearably heavy.
"Fuck, I could go for a smoke."
A man spoke up. His sharp-featured face, turned toward them, brimmed with exhaustion and irritation—but one corner of his mouth quirked up, as if to lighten the mood.
"Right, ■■?"
His dog tag clinked. Choi Tae-won.
"Loosen up, kid. Tense as you are, bullets ain't gonna bounce off ya."
Choi Tae-won clapped a shoulder.
"Don't worry, yeah? Even if the commie bastards show, big bro here's gonna—"
Bang!!!!
A gunshot bit off his words. Choi Tae-won's body crumpled limply toward the party.
A neat hole pierced his forehead. Steadying his head on instinct, they felt the fist-sized crater of shattered bone and flesh at the back of his skull.
Someone screamed—or perhaps it was them.
Pop...Pop!!!
The bubble burst again.
Now they stood in a gray-walled room.
Glancing aside revealed another uniformed man, as expected.
Once burly, he was now shriveled, skin wrinkled as if starved.
"...■■, want some?"
His half-broken dog tag read Bang Tae-hoon. He pulled a packet labeled Madashi from his pocket and offered it.
"Why give away food? Heh... dieting. Diet..."
His right arm was gone. Damp blood welled ceaselessly from the stump.
"Eat it yourself? This punk to his senior... Always naggin' me to lose weight, now bitchin' when I offer..."
He sighed, muttering like a death rattle.
"So goddamn hungry..."
Bang Tae-hoon's head lolled. The Madashi packet rolled limply across the floor.
From the torn wrapper oozed something red—blood or meat juice, indistinguishable.
Pop...Pop!!!!
Click! Click!
The next instant, they realized they gripped strange weapons.
Instinctively discarding the jammed firearms, they snatched a shovel from the floor.
They strode toward a man in slightly different garb and hammered his skull relentlessly.
From their lips spilled a babble—sobs or laughter, unknowable.
The cranium caved, brains and blood erupting.
Beside him sprawled a corpse, dog tag reading Lim Hoon-sik.
Pop...Pop!!!!!
The next instant, they lay beneath ashen skies.
Heat bloomed warmly from their chests. Meanwhile, numbness crept from their extremities, like immersion in ice water, devouring them bit by bit.
Consciousness faded. Profound darkness yawned wide, slowly closing in...
Arf!!!
And then Peanut's bark slapped them awake.
Like an alarm clock.