Beings of the Deep Sea (1)
"Kkik?!"
I had just entered the forest near the coastline, hunting for prey.
Adhai lay unconscious back in the nest, and Mother of the Sky was keeping watch over her.
Honestly, hunting would have been better left to Mother of the Sky, but I'd taken it on myself because I couldn't bear to sit still.
The more I tried to piece together what had happened to Adhai and Number 26, the deeper the anxiety burrowed into me.
Adhai returning alone—what did that mean?
Don't tell me Number 26 was already…
Thud.
'Ah, damn it.'
I splayed my fingers. The force I'd unconsciously squeezed out had left the Wood Devil completely pulped.
There was no way Adhai could eat this.
'…Calm down. Nothing is confirmed yet. Getting this worked up isn't like me.'
I discarded the Wood Devil—now reduced to something resembling a crushed dumpling—and set off in search of other prey, all the while turning over in my mind what kind of situation Number 26 and Adhai could have found themselves in.
'There are two plausible scenarios.'
The first hypothesis was that remnants of the Humanity Cartel had attacked them.
The data stored on the cruiser showed no encampments along the coast or on the islands near the continent, but I couldn't rule it out entirely—my assault might have driven their inland camps to relocate.
The problem was whether those remnants could actually have captured Number 26 at sea.
Growth incomplete or not, she was a Sea Demon. Muriel might have managed it, but for mere remnants, capturing her would be all but impossible.
If Adhai—the one who could only survive on land—had been taken, I might have understood. But Number 26 being captured while Adhai alone escaped made no sense at all.
'The other hypothesis: an attack by beings I know nothing about.'
This was game knowledge, granted, but PH-101 was classified as a high-difficulty planet—hazardous environmental conditions, ferocious predators, and natives hostile to outsiders.
I used to visit this planet frequently to collect rare Genetic Essences. Thanks to that, I knew exactly which regions were dangerous and which creatures to watch out for.
But all of that was from inside the game.
There was no telling what dangers this planet might hold that I'd never learned about.
After gathering several kinds of prey, I returned to the nest. Mother of the Sky had been following my instructions, watching for any pursuers trailing behind Adhai.
I approached the amber eyes glinting in the darkness and asked.
[Zz Zuzz (Any other enemies?)]
｢No one's following. Nothing else moving in the water either.｣
The auxiliary organ beneath my jaw reported the same conclusion.
I looked down at the unconscious Adhai.
The wounds were bad enough, but more striking was her tail—the same tail that had been plump and healthy when we parted was now noticeably thinner. The flight membranes of her wings bore tears in several places, and the joints where wings met back were swollen tight.
Looking at the sorry state of her wings, she hadn't been flying for just a day or two.
[Zuzuzu Zuzuzuzu Zu (Are there any Dangerous Organisms around here?)]
｢Dangerous Organisms? There are plenty of creatures stronger than a Green Gallagon around these parts.｣
[Zuzuzu Zu Zuzuzu Zuzuzuzu Zuzu (Setting Gallagons aside—what could threaten a Sea Demon?)]
｢A Sea Demon? Wait, hold on—a Sea Demon? Don't tell me you've got more than one companion like that?｣
[Zu (Yes.)]
Her gaze wavered as she absorbed my words.
Frankly, seeing her react like that in this situation made my irritation spike, but I held it in. Venting at her would accomplish nothing except making things worse.
Still, she was sharp, and she quickly sensed how foul my mood was.
The griffin hurried to answer.
｢There is an archipelago out in the sea where a tribe of Fishrians lives, but…｣
[Zuzu Zuzuzu Zuzu Zuzuzu (Fishrians? Fishrians live here?)]
Fishrians were fishfolk who chiefly inhabited ocean planets.
Their appearance was close to what most people would imagine when they pictured merfolk—men with fish heads or women with fish lower bodies, their entire forms covered in scales.
The distinctive thing about them was their intensely fanatical nature, stemming from the fact that they'd been modeled on the evil-god worshippers of classic horror fiction.
'Fishrians revere powerful marine creatures like Sea Demons.'
Since Sea Demons and other quasi-boss-tier marine life lived on ocean planets, Fishrians likewise made their homes there.
[Zz Zuzuzu Zuzu Zuzuzu Zu (Are there quasi-boss-tier creatures in these waters too?)]
｢Never seen one myself, but there's a legend passed down among the Wolfs. They say a demon lives in the sea—the kind that eats gods.｣
Only one thing came to mind at the words demon of the sea.
'A Sea Demon in the deep.'
For a moment I wondered if Number 26 and Adhai had crossed paths with a Sea Demon, but I shook my head.
If they had fought one, their injuries would never have ended at this. Given the creature's sheer size, something as small as Adhai would have been shredded to ribbons the instant those Sawtooth Tentacles touched her.
I examined Adhai's wounds again.
'These wounds weren't made by a Sea Demon.'
They'd partially healed and changed since I first saw her, but the marks were unmistakably punctures and lacerations. A Sea Demon wouldn't bother with something as trivial as plasma weapons or blades.
In other words—these were wounds dealt by someone else.
'Fishrians don't use firearms.'
For religious reasons they clung stubbornly to a primitive way of life, so futuristic weaponry like laser rifles was out. At most they'd use conventional weapons built around gunpowder.
[Zuzu Zuzuzuzu Zu Zuzuzu Zuzuzuzu (These marks look like they came from Fishrian harpoons. What do you think?)]
｢Let me see.｣
Mother of the Sky's keen eyes swept methodically across every wound on Adhai's body.
She nodded and shared her assessment.
｢You're right. This part here, and this one—the wounds torn in a spiral pattern—are from Fishrian harpoons.｣
The griffin then stretched out a forepaw and pointed to other injuries.
｢But these weren't made by harpoons. Looks like burns—laser weapons, or maybe plasma.｣
That matched my own read.
Adhai's injuries included damage that Fishrian weaponry alone could never have inflicted.
'Humans are working alongside the Fishrians.'
Fishrians were extremely hostile to outsiders.
The moment they laid eyes on a human, they would invariably try to offer it up as a sacrifice to the marine creatures they worshipped. Unlike predators that hunted out of hunger, theirs was a species that actively attacked humans for the sole purpose of sacrifice.
And yet somehow, those very creatures were cooperating with humans.
I was mulling over what could have caused it when Adhai's eyes suddenly snapped open.
Her oval, amethyst-like pupils darted around restlessly for a moment—then fixed on me, and life flooded back into them.
｢Elder!｣｢Glad!｣
Despite the pain she must have been in, her spirited thought-waves rang out at the tip of my Monster's Tentacles. I gently stroked her with my combat arm.
[Zuzu Zuzu Zuzuzu Zuzuzu (Tell me what happened)]
｢Elder｣｢Me｣｢Sorry｣
[Zuzu (It's all right)]
Adhai trembled, but as I stroked her softly, she steadied little by little.
｢…….｣
I felt Mother of the Sky's bewildered stare from behind us and ignored it.
｢Little Elder｣｢Big trouble｣｢Dwarfs｣｢Fish｣｢Little Elder｣｢Attack｣
[Zuzuzu Zuzuzuzu Zu Zuzuzuzu (Humans and Fishrians attacked together?)]
｢Fish｣｢God｣｢Dying｣｢Replace｣｢Need｣｢Dwarf｣｢God｣｢Learn｣｢Two｣｢Cooperate｣
Adhai's speech was built from words and concepts, which made much of it hard to parse.
Still, I could piece together roughly what she meant.
'The "god" is almost certainly the Sea Demon. The Fishrians' god is dying, so they're trying to secure a new one.'
But as far as I knew, Fishrians deified Sea Demons to an extreme degree—their faith was so absolute that if the being they served died, they might as well abandon life itself.
Those fanatics, seeking a new god the moment their old one perished?
The odds that a sane Fishrian would come up with that idea on his own were vanishingly small.
The one who intervened here was the being Adhai called the dwarf—in other words, a human.
'The humans who came here must want to study Sea Demons.'
They'd have persuaded the Fishrians to smooth the way for their research—dangling the promise of creating a new Sea Demon as justification.
'In that case, their research base should be on the archipelago where the Fishrian tribe lives.'
Whether on the land above or in the deep below.
Even as I thought it through, Adhai's thought-waves kept coming.
｢Dwarf｣｢Little Elder｣｢Me｣｢Attack｣｢Captured｣｢Little Elder｣｢Me｣｢Freed｣｢Me｣｢Alone｣｢Fled｣
'So the two of them fought, were captured together, and Number 26 somehow freed only Adhai.'
And then Adhai had come under attack from the Fishrians and humans during her escape, sustaining these wounds.
｢Me｣｢Upset｣｢Upset｣｢Upset｣
[Zuzu Zuzu Zuzu Zuzu (It's all right. Eat this and rest)]
｢Me｣｢Did wrong｣｢Me｣｢Should be punished｣｢Meal｣｢Impossible｣
[Zuzu Zu Zuzuzu Zuzuzuzu (You need to eat and recover fast, or we can't go rescue her)]
While consoling the self-reproaching Adhai, I offered her the prey I'd brought. She tried to refuse, but when I kept pressing, she reluctantly extended a tentacle.
Once I saw her eating, I slowly rose to my feet.
Adhai was carrying guilt over leaving Number 26 behind alone. She seemed unable to eat properly with me watching, so she shifted her body a short distance away from the nest.
'The one silver lining is that Number 26 is almost certainly still alive.'
Given that she'd been taken prisoner, the research base's humans had to possess considerable military strength.
They would have long surpassed the level of pirate remnants—force on par with the elite troops of a Prime Capital family of Mega Corp, most likely.
'Egerton, or the Zhao family, then.'
I'd crossed blades with Egerton once in the space city, and the Zhao family had been a persistent thorn in my side back in the game.
Now add a savage tribe of Fishrians to the mix.
Truthfully, neither Prime Capital forces nor Fishrians posed much of a challenge to me as a Young Adult. The real problem was if the research base lay in the deep sea.
If Sea Demons existed down there, there was no reason other threatening marine life couldn't. Of all the traits I currently possessed, only a handful were effective for underwater combat.
'If a fight breaks out down there, it won't be easy by any stretch.'
The battle's difficulty would hinge largely on Number 26's condition—her power in the water was immense. If she were badly hurt, I'd have to fight while shielding her, and the challenge would climb sharply.
I was staring out over the black sea, turning over ways to rescue her, when Mother of the Sky came over.
｢So it was true. About you having companions. I thought it was a bad joke.｣
[Zuzuzu Zu Zuzuzu Zuzuzu Zuzuzuzu (I'm not in a good mood. Don't be a nuisance)]
Unbothered by my growl, she settled down beside me. Her amber eyes turned, like mine, toward the distant black horizon.
｢If you'd only allow it, I'd like to help.｣
[Zz Zuzuzu Zu (Help me? Why?)]
｢Because I know what it is to lose family.｣
She said it in passing, as if it cost her nothing—but the emotion beneath the casual tone was anything but small.
'Mother of the Sky, helping me, huh.'
She was formidable in combat on land, but I had no idea how she'd fare underwater.
Her transformation forms were griffins—unless one of them happened to relate to aquatic creatures, that was.
The higher one's deification rank, the more the body could be reshaped to fight across varied environments, but stepping far outside one's base transformation form remained difficult. In shallow water her combat power wouldn't drop much, but the deep sea was another matter entirely.
'No. Things are bad enough that I should use every tool available.'
In the game, when fighting Sea Demons and other marine bosses, the standard strategy was to lure them up onto land.
A Young Adult Amorph struggled to fight underwater, but swimming wasn't significantly slow for it. Even facing a Dangerous Organism, all I needed to do was somehow get Number 26 up onto an island. From there, I could bring Adhai and Mother of the Sky and fight it out.
[Zuuuu Zuzuzu Zuzuzu Zuzuzuzu (We depart once Adhai regains her strength)]
｢Adhai, then. And that Sea Demon? What's her name?｣
[Zuu (Number 26)]
｢…Truly a Morph-fucker through and through.｣
The griffin shook her head slowly.
Ignoring her reaction, I kept chewing over how to rescue Number 26.
That deliberation continued until Adhai finished every scrap of prey and her strength returned.
"Acting Team Leader Wei! Comms are finally restored!"
"Really? Why all of a sudden?"
"No idea, sir! But we checked the superluminal comm network, and it looks like a Garmelda family military satellite has been deployed nearby!"
"Ohh, thank goodness! I thought we'd be stuck here another few years!"
The Mega Corp research base, located in the deep sea of PH-101.
It had been established half a year ago by researchers dispatched from the Prime Capital Zhao family.
This world was officially designated sacred ground by the Cult, off-limits to all outsiders—but at some point, the Zhao family had detected that its surveillance net was periodically slackening.
Wei Zhao, patriarch of House Zhao, had learned through spies embedded within Cult society that all manner of rare lifeforms inhabited this planet. Judging it a golden opportunity, he had secretly dispatched his researchers.
Their objective: to study the ecology of the dangerous deep-sea predators and harvest their genes. Since the base stood on the ocean floor itself, their location remained hidden even after the planet's surveillance net came back online.
Ordinarily they conducted their research at the deep-sea base, slipping up to the islands to procure food and supplies only during the windows when the surveillance net weakened.
But some time ago, the surveillance net had simply stopped dropping—and then a massive spacecraft had come under attack from a Cult cruiser and crashed.
By the time they realized how serious the situation had become and tried to contact House Zhao, the communications network had already been cut off entirely.
They were shipwrecked—stranded in the middle of a dangerous planet's deep sea.
"The Fishrians' attitude was getting worse and worse too. I was dreading every trip up there. Good riddance."
"Tell me about it. A few more days and those fish bastards would've tried offering us up as sacrifices."
"Team Leader, the family's going to be stunned when they hear we captured a mutant Sea Demon, right?"
"Stunned doesn't cover it. You're all Third Capital, aren't you? When I get back, I'll pull every string I have to raise every one of you to Prime Capital."
"Ohh!"
"Thank you, sir!"
"Once the family's rescue team arrives, we can go after the Gallagon that got away, too."
"Naturally. And honestly—a Gallagon living on a planet like this. The academic world is going to be turned completely upside down."
The researchers strolled down the corridor, their conversation warm and easy.
Not far from them stood a special prison.
Built from blacksilver alloy, it was a cell within which psychic power simply could not be used.
Inside the cold, hard prison, a pink creature like a deflating balloon lay sprawled limply across the floor.
｢■■■■….｣
It was endlessly broadcasting some unknowable wavelength—but not a single one of the researchers had any idea.