Beyond the Deep Sea (1)

'I meant to see who was responsible for this.'

On my way here, every single blast door in the corridors had been sealed shut. To find out who had gone to all this tedious trouble, I pressed my face against the reinforced glass, and the survivors on the other side had absolutely doubled over with laughter.

The moment the door on their side opened, those trapped in the quarantine zone had scrambled out, tripping over each other in their rush to escape.

I watched their fleeing backs for a moment, then pulled my head away from the glass.

｢Eeek!｣

As I turned my head, a survivor still caught in my grip met my eyes. He made a sound like a chicken with its windpipe crushed.

The helmet he wore hid his expression, but it was easy enough to guess what he was feeling.

It seemed I ought to put an end to his fear quickly.

I tensed my combat arm and crushed his body in my fist.

｢Agakagakag!｣

As the reinforced suit crumpled along with its occupant, an incomprehensible gurgle escaped from inside his helmet. With that final rattle, the man went limp in my hand.

I peeled his reinforced suit off with my claws and stuffed the pieces of flesh into my mouth.

'I could just chew it all down whole, suit and all, but—'

The reinforced suits these humans wore were built with nothing but the wearer's survival in mind, which made them exceptionally tough.

In short: unbearably chewy. Not that I couldn't eat them—it was just that gnawing through them kept getting stuck between my teeth. Annoying.

While crunching through the humans I'd caught, I leisurely smashed open the door to the quarantine zone. The seawater flooding the section I occupied poured out into the C-section corridor.

'Shall we try another section, then?'

I drifted slowly along with the current—then, instead of heading where the survivors had fled, I turned toward the next section: D.

'Their every move is already in the palm of my hand, after all.'

I knew exactly what the survivors were thinking. They might believe their speed had left me in the dust, but they were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dead wrong.

Did they really think I was simply slow, or that breaking through blast doors was beyond me?

No.

I had taken my time for one reason only: to deliver despair to those who had tormented No. 26 and Adhai.

'Hope can be the engine that drives a life forward...'

But it can just as easily become an instrument of torment.

What awaited them at the end of their flight would be no salvation.

The one craving vengeance on these 'bad humans' would be waiting there instead.

'I'd love to watch him hunt them down, but—'

Plenty of living things remained in this base. I needed to squeeze information out of them, so there was no time to linger.

By the time the water had risen high enough to barely submerge my prone body, I felt something odd moving nearby.

'Hm?'

The thing carried a metallic scent utterly unlike the salty tang of brine.

Five great masses of metal in total, each roughly four meters across.

I only pondered for a moment before their identity clicked into place.

Similar to a Star Union walker, but different—construction machines built exclusively for the Mega Corp. MCAEs: Multipurpose Construction Auxiliary Equipment.

The MCAE was a construction machine inspired by humanity's resource-mining units from classic space-age strategy simulations. Easiest to think of it as a space-rated loader with a suite of construction functions and a flight unit bolted on.

'Why are MCAEs here?'

The only reason I hadn't recognized them instantly was how absurd the sight was.

MCAEs were equipment deployed mainly for mega-projects like building orbital cities. A machine meant for the vacuum of space had no business existing this deep underwater.

Curious, I headed toward the smell.

Past the narrow corridor, the passage opened ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into a wide space that looked like a warehouse—and there I saw five active MCAEs and three Fishrians.

"...Heee says. He says he smells a demonnn."

｢Damn it, so it got out after all.｣

｢We need to get out of this base. Now.｣

"We must flee before Father awakensss."

｢The elevator's straight ahead this way.｣

Since they were indoors, the MCAEs had their flight units powered down; they were moving on wheels retracted into their bodies. Their two arms, mounted beside the cockpit in the upper torso, were fitted with the heavy torches used for sealing doors and the metal injectors used for structural repair.

These Fishrians, unlike the ones I'd encountered earlier, carried harpoons in their hands. The overall shape resembled a pilum, but with one distinctive feature: the spearhead was grooved into a spiral.

The traditional weapon of the Fishrians—the very harpoons that had wounded Adhai.

Ordinary Fishrian harpoons were crude things hammered out of common metal, but the ones these creatures carried were black as obsidian. They were almost certainly forged from metal laced with blacksilver.

'So these are the ones who attacked Adhai?'

Harpoons made of blacksilver couldn't be common, which meant these three were the ones who had hurt her.

'Then there's no way I'm letting them go.'

Holding my submerged posture, I drifted slowly toward the MCAE group. That was when one of the fish-men—a human shape with sucker-studded spines running from head to back—turned its gaze in my direction.

It cocked its head, sensing my presence, then let out a great bellow.

"Smell! There's a smeeell!"

The other two Fishrians joined in with shrill squawks.

"The smell of blooood!"

"One who slew its own kinnn!"

Judging there was no point in hiding any longer, I rose to my full height. When the Fishrians saw me, red-lit by the emergency lamps, their eyes bulged wide.

｢What is that thing!｣

"Monster! A monster that kills its own kin!"

I cut through the current and charged. From my back, my erosion tentacles plunged down toward the Fishrians like vipers that had scented prey.

"Krruk! Dieee!"

"Offer it as a sacrificcee!"

Unlike the ones I'd met before, these three Fishrians seemed to be older, seasoned specimens. They dodged my erosion tentacles with nimble movements and latched onto my back.

"Krruk? So haaard!"

They gnawed at my carapace with venomous claws and teeth, but it did nothing. Their frail bodies could never shatter a shell that shrugged off direct hits from a plasma launcher.

Apparently deciding their bare hands were useless, they began stabbing at me wildly with their harpoons. Blacksilver implements—had I been Adhai or No. 26, they would have done real damage. But they had chosen very much the wrong opponent.

All six of my erosion tentacles shot out from my back at once and lashed the Fishrians. Two managed to twist away, but the third took the blow full on and went tumbling through the water.

｢Eat this!｣

An MCAE fired the liquefied metal from its injector straight at me.

The metal clinging to my half-submerged body hardened in an instant, and the combat arm it was glued to grew abruptly heavy.

'Trying to drag down my mobility, are they?'

Judging that my movements had slowed, the MCAE began jamming its heavy torch toward my eyes.

An industrial torch couldn't actually hurt me, but the heat blasting at my eyes was thoroughly irritating.

I swung my combat arm, cold hardened metal and all, in a wide arc.

My target: the MCAE's cockpit. The single-occupant cockpit caved in with a great crunch against my arm.

｢Kk—!｣

Unless the pilot was built a third the size of an ordinary person, surviving that was unlikely. The MCAE's two arms went slack, and the machine powered down.

Having silenced one construction machine, I batted away a Fishrian diving at my head with my combat arm. It made a sound like cracking a walnut with a hammer, and the creature's head burst apart.

Meanwhile, another one charged in from the opposite side and clambered onto my tail. It wedged its harpoon between my carapace plates, trying to use it as a lever to pry me apart.

I whipped my tail—Fishrian and all—up above the surface and spun my whole body in a great rotation. The creature clung to my tail's carapace to keep from being thrown off. That was its mistake.

｢Uh... uhhh?｣

｢Get clear!｣

My tail carved through the water, gunning for two MCAEs. The machines, which had been circling me to seize an opening, recoiled in horror and tried to fall back—but I was one beat faster. My massive tail swept clean through the four-meter machines.

"Khek—!"

The Fishrian clinging to my tail collided with those solid metal machines and burst into a cloud of blood in an instant. The machine that took my attack head-on lost its entire upper half, cockpit included, while the other went spinning through the water, skimmed across the surface, and slammed into the wall.

｢R-run! Run!｣

Two remained. Having lost their companions in the blink of an eye, the MCAEs fell back in rapid retreat.

'Maybe I'll leave both of them alive.'

My original plan had been to leave only one, but I'd changed my mind. I paddled lazily after the fleeing machines.

The murder of the Sea Demon. The Fishrians' collaborative relationship with humans. And MCAEs, of all things, in a deep-sea research base.

I had a great many questions for them.

｢Hah, hah, hah, hah.｣

｢Hik—hik—it's stopped following us! Hah, hah.｣

｢Hah, hah—you idiots! Keep running!｣

This corridor connected C-section to the central section, where the underwater elevator waited.

Black water, dark as pitch against the crimson glow of the emergency lights—and inside it, a straggling line of figures.

Dressed in thick reinforced suits resembling spacesuits, they were the survivor group led by Team Leader Ren An. Sixteen men, worn down in both body and mind to their very limits, forced themselves through the water.

｢It's entered C-section! Hah, hah—we have to move before it catches up!｣

They knew all too well what the slow but steady rise of the water meant.

Somewhere in that invisible deep, the thing was coming.

Every time that thought took hold, the team members found the strength to keep running, like racehorses flogged by the whip.

｢I can see the door to the central section!｣

｢Check whether the inside is flooded!｣

While one researcher confirmed the far side through a terminal that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still worked, Ren An and the others kept watch on the approach behind them.

The eerie glow of emergency lamps. The water's surface trembling, soft and slow. The irregular patter of falling droplets.

｢Hah, hah, hah.｣

｢Hik, hik, hik.｣

And the ragged gasping of teammates bleeding through their comm units.

Every element in that space was gnawing away at their sanity.

Then, unbidden, a thought came to Ren An.

What if all of this was its design?

What if every escape route was already sealed by the creature, and the remaining survivors were meant to be toyed with and slaughtered like mice before a cat?

'Me? Die? Don't make me laugh!'

Ren An, a colonial from Ganymede, Jupiter's frozen moon, had clawed his way to becoming a Prime Capital on Mars—and it had taken everything he had. To win the heart of the governor's aide dispatched from the Zhao family, there was nothing he hadn't done.

As a result, he had married the aide—a Zhao by blood—and claimed the qualification of Prime Capital.

'Do you have any idea what it cost to earn this position?!'

Ren An hadn't even begun to properly enjoy the life of the Mega Corp's upper crust. If he died here, the injustice of it would keep his eyes open in the grave.

"We've confirmed partial damage inside, but it hasn't flooded!"

The shout from his subordinate jolted Ren An out of his brooding.

Thankfully, the central section was intact.

Ren An and his team hurried into the airlock. Once the drainage cycle finished, they entered the central section proper.

Five submersibles, shaped much like escape pods, were docked along the walls—and at the center stood a great cylinder fitted with a gate.

The cylinder was the underwater elevator. Boarding a submersible into that cylinder, they could ride the elevator up to near the surface.

｢Interior pressure stable!｣

｢Thank god.｣

"Kkh—khek, huuuuh..."

"Uwaaargh!"

Perhaps the safe haven finally let the tension drain out of them. Some of the team members who pulled off their helmets doubled over and vomited.

"We recharge our oxygen here, then take the submersibles up."

"When will the rescue team get here?"

"We've already sent the distress call. It won't be long."

"Yes, sir."

So they were going about their separate tasks—recharging oxygen and the like—when one of the team members let out a scream.

"The submersibles are wrecked!"

"What?"

Every survivor who heard those words felt their face go rigid. Ren An rushed to inspect the other submersibles.

'No. No, no—?!'

Three of the five he examined were already destroyed.

A single submersible held a maximum of three. And there were sixteen survivors in this room. Even if the remaining two were undamaged, they were already far over capacity.

"This is impossible! We're all going to die!"

"W-wait! If we can just repair them somehow—"

"You're a damn idiot! If we botch even a little of that repair, we'll be slaughtered halfway up the elevator!"

"Then what the hell else is there?"

"What about cramming into the elevator and holding out in the reinforced suits?"

"Maybe in space, but this is the deep sea. No suit is tough enough to withstand that pressure."

"Goddammit, all you're doing is saying it won't work! Then what do you want to do?"

"You little—!"

With their last hope in ruins, the team members couldn't hold themselves together any longer.

Some grabbed each other by the collar and traded blows. Some simply collapsed where they stood and wept like children. Some stabbed their fingers at empty air, spitting curses at nothing.

Amid the chaos, Ren An alone clung to his composure and made his mind work.

'Two submersibles left. The one beside me looks perfectly intact—at least from the outside.'

The moment he reached to open its hatch and check the interior, one of his team pointed a finger straight at him.

"You backstabbing bastard, Ren An! Get away from there, now!"

"Goddamn dog! The sub's in one piece, so you were going ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to ride it out alone, weren't you?"

"Ahem. Wh-what is that supposed to mean?"

The eyes of the feuding team members swung toward Ren An all at once.

'You bastards...!'

Swearing inwardly, Ren An fingered the gauss rifle in his hands.

Excluding himself, there were fifteen men. Ren An was a researcher, not a soldier—subduing that many with a single gun would be no easy feat.

He might kill a few, but if the rest attacked him in the gap, it would all be over.

In the end, he chose a different path.

"Enough!"

Ren An roared with every ounce of strength he had. His cry rang through the vast space of the central section. Even the team members glaring at him with hostility flinched and shrank back.

"Li Yuan! Da Jing! Do you know me so little? That I would try to flee alone?"

"Right! Like we're supposed to trust—"

"Nonsense! Even as we squabble like this, that thing is drawing closer! And we're wasting time on this garbage—are you all out of your minds?!"

"W-well..."

At Ren An's words, the eyes of the team members wavered. Sensing his plan taking shape, Ren An pressed on.

"Yes. In life, you can fall into despair. Things you thought couldn't possibly get worse get worse still. A monster out there hunting us, and the deep sea itself—nature—pressing down on us. I know it as well as any of you."

As he poured out his speech, Ren An took a single step.

"But! Hardship like this is nothing compared to the brutal life on Ganymede! On Ganymede, when the temperature regulators fail, hundreds freeze to death at a time—it happens constantly! And do you know who survives in those conditions?"

"......"

Ren An met each team member's eyes in turn—all while keeping careful count of his distance to the submersible.

'Good.'

He was now close enough that one lunge would let him throw open the hatch.

"Only those who join forces and overcome the ordeal together survive! Do you understand? Do you want to die here, wailing like children? Or do you want to pool your strength and live?"

"Th-that's..."

"Look at the faces of the comrades beside you! Because your way out is standing right there!"

Hearing this, the team members turned to study one another's faces. And while their attention was fixed elsewhere, Ren An seized the submersible's hatch handle.

'Now!'

Open the hatch, climb in, power it up immediately.

With nothing in his head but that single thought, Ren An opened the hatch.

And then.

"Ah?"

Instead of the machinery that should have greeted him, there was something pink and soft. Then pink tendrils erupted at terrible speed and seized Ren An's limbs.

Before he could even scream, the tendrils yanked his entire body into the submersible.

Crack. Crunch. Squelch.

Horrid sounds drifted out from inside the submersible. No screaming. No moans of agony. Nothing of the kind.

Presently, red blood began seeping out from beneath the submersible's hatch.

"Wh... what? C-Captain?"

The team members murmured, dumbfounded, unable to believe what they were witnessing. In answer—if it could be called that—a bundle of long tentacles burst out from inside the hatch.

"Hiiiii—!"

Screeeech. Crunch.

"Uwaaargh! It's got me! Aaaaahhh!"

Crack. Squelch. Smash.

"Ruuuuun!"

The tentacles seized the nearby team members one after another and dragged them into the submersible. What came from within afterward was nothing but the sickening sounds of snapping bone and tearing flesh.

The central section—the survivors' last hope of escape.

It was filled now with nothing but silent screams.