Alpha of the Sea
Grrrrrrrk!
White foam churned and filled the sea.
A whale undead, its body made of smooth, seamless bone, swam with a fluid sweep of its tail fin. And right on its heels came the Gwaegong, the colossal monster, chasing it down without a moment's pause.
Something that huge can swim this fast?!
“Young master! One more breath coming in from behind!”
Simon rolled his eyes to check behind him and ducked instantly. The Gwaegong's breath skimmed just over the top of the Deimos's head, like a blue flash tearing the ocean in half.
Ah.
In that moment, Simon realized something.
The breath is coming in slower.
Of course, the breath hadn't actually slowed — it was Simon, watching it fly toward him, who perceived it that way. Time and again he'd brushed past death, and now his nerves had pulled taut to their absolute limit. Extreme focus was taking hold.
The world was flowing in slow motion.
It's been a while.
His condition wasn't bad at all.
Simon directed the Deimos to turn its head. The moment the whale, which had been fleeing with its tail between its legs, changed course, the Gwaegong seemed startled and eased its speed.
Well, since it's come to this.
Simon's eyes turned cold.
Let's give it a proper fight.
The Deimos flung its jaws wide open, and inside, a sphere of compressed mana swirled together with the seawater.
Ocean Current Cannon!
With a thunderous roar, the Deimos's cannon blasted out and slammed into one section of the Gwaegong's face, exploding on impact. The monster let out an anguished cry and writhed, then charged in with even greater fury.
Simon didn't retreat either. He drove the Deimos forward and sent refined Jet-Black flooding through it.
The dark energy raced along the whale's skeletal frame and converged on the bones of its pectoral fin — which Simon had honed to a razor edge, sharp as a blade.
Now!
Just before the two titans collided, the Deimos dove sharply, dropping beneath the Gwaegong's belly, and drove its sword-sharp fin up into that pale underside.
And then—
Shaaaaaaaash!
It surged forward in a straight line. A long gash opened across the Gwaegong's belly, and a torrent of blood spewed out into the water.
—Grrrraaaargh!
As the Gwaegong thrashed in agony, Simon and the Deimos slipped swiftly out of the way.
Simon clicked his tongue, looking dissatisfied.
It's just too massive — hard to land a proper blow!
The Deimos cleaved through the water in a quick burst of speed. The Gwaegong hauled its enormous body after them, determined not to lose its prey.
While fleeing, the Deimos fired off short bursts of the Ocean Current Cannon behind it. Each shot flashed brilliantly around its jaws, scattering black spray — but the Gwaegong simply absorbed every attack with its own body and kept barreling forward.
Soon the Gwaegong flung its own jaws wide open.
Dive!
The Deimos dropped hard, and a colossal breath passed just above it, punching a hole in the sea itself. The mere thought of what would happen if that thing connected — protective suit or not, he'd be toast — made Simon's head spin.
Now there's really only one way left.
He decided to entrust evasion entirely to the Deimos.
Closing his eyes, Simon covered the whale's head with his palm. He could feel the summoning circle bound tightly to his mind — the one Diego had fought so hard to preserve.
The very thing Senior Diego tried desperately to save.
The Deimos's power wasn't limited to the Ocean Current Cannon.
The true reason it was called the 'Lord of the Sea'.
Simon activated a formula tucked into one corner of the summoning circle — one whose nodes were not yet fully powered.
Thump!
He could feel the Deimos's consciousness expanding. His mind boiled hot, and every nerve in his body stood on end.
Thump! Thump!
“Kuooooh!”
A groan escaped his lips under the crushing pressure flooding in through his mind. The whole world warped and shattered like an incomprehensible painting.
……Focus!
The breath flying in from behind was none of his concern.
He poured everything into this single moment, into drawing out every last thing the Deimos had to give.
Simon's Jet-Black and the Deimos's surged and boiled up together at once.
“Young master! Push any further and your mind will overload!”
No — I can go further.
He wouldn't question it. He wouldn't draw a line, wouldn't set a limit.
He believed, fiercely and absolutely, that he could.
I am……!
Electric current crackled through his skull — sss-crack, sss-crack.
His eyes took in all of creation.
His consciousness expanded without end, until he felt as though the world itself — everything in heaven and earth — lay beneath his soles.
Simon's pupils blazed into brilliant gold.
Omnipotence.
Thud.
He felt it — a hole punched through the black ceiling above, sunlight pouring down through it.
—Kreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
The sound swelled through the summoning circle, and the Deimos roared.
Something visible — a thought-form, an image, an ultrasound, or something beyond all of them — rippled out across the entire sea.
Wriggle. Wriggle.
From the seafloor.
From the surface.
From undersea caverns.
From beneath the rocks.
Countless living things reacted to that sound and began to rise. Fish and monsters alike converged on the source of the call.
“What— what is that?!”
Students hunting in the open sea recoiled in shock. Endless schools of fish streamed right past them.
“H-hey, where are you all going?!”
Meilin, who'd been hunting Pulpa, went pale when the very monsters that had been fighting her suddenly fled backward as if possessed by something.
Every other monster was the same.
The emptied sea, hushed into silence by the appearance of the colossal Gwaegong, was now pulsing with life, filling with brilliant colors and patterns as far as the eye could see.
Murmur murmur murmur!
The spectators watching through the Observer screens were thrown into an uproar too.
“D-do you— do you see it, everyone?! Keep both eyes fixed on your screens!!”
The commentator, more excited than he'd ever been, shouted until his throat flushed red.
“What on earth is happening?! The fish and monsters of this entire sea have begun a mass migration — as if they'd all made a pact beforehand!”
As the commentator turned his head, Jane — until that moment the picture of composure — had already risen from her seat, staring at the screen.
“Professor Jane! What could possibly be—”
“The Deimos.”
“Yes?”
“The Deimos is the Alpha.”
“The, the Alpha? I'm afraid I don't quite follow! Is that a technical term? For the benefit of our viewers—”
“It means an individual that holds dominion over all marine life!”
Jane's voice rose sharply.
The reason the Deimos was called the 'Lord of the Sea' was not its fearsome strength or its colossal size. It was the countless marine creatures that trailed after it like an honor guard.
But.
The 'Alpha' power that commanded the ocean was the Deimos's unique innate ability — and it was understood that when a dead Deimos was remade into the undead Nether Whale, the Alpha ability was lost in the process.
How on earth did he recreate that power?
—Kreeee!
—Glub glub!
—Brrrrrrrrrrr!
Marine creatures of every shape and size swam freely, gathering toward Simon and the Deimos.
It was as if a massive, magnificent rainbow were spiraling through the water.
Resplendent. Overwhelming.
Even the Gwaegong faltered, unable to close the distance. This 'swarm' — the congealed mass of ocean life — was larger than the monster itself.
Good.
Feeling the presence of tens of thousands of lives, Simon activated the Deimos's magic circle.
There was only one command.
[Follow me.]
Glublublublublub!
At once, every marine creature kicked up foam and surged toward the Deimos. Simon led them in a charge and drove the entire swarm headlong into the Gwaegong.
The fish tore at the Gwaegong's flesh; monsters like the Wulpes and the Gamban sank their razor teeth deep. Swarms of Pulpa, squid monsters oozing toxin, dumped their poison into the wound.
The Gwaegong writhed in agony as every minute part of its body was being gnawed away.
But the Gwaegong was no passive victim either.
Pores opened all across its body like sores, and white, earthworm-like parasites burst out and began fighting the monsters and fish.
Meanwhile, the Gwaegong itself rolled its eyes, spotted Simon and the Deimos, and lunged toward them, jaws agape.
Dive!
Simon dropped downward — and the sight of the Gwaegong descending after him, jaws stretched wide, with hundreds of thousands of fish and monsters clinging to its body, was a spectacle that made mouths fall open.
“Kuooooh!”
The water deepened, and his body was beginning to struggle against the pressure. He held on as long as he could by activating the Jet-Black within him.
At the same time, the Deimos, Ocean Current Cannon primed, wheeled around — then charged straight at the Gwaegong, whose jaws were wide open and closing in.
Shwaaaang!
Shwaaaang!
Shwaaaang!
Three Ocean Current Cannon blasts burst one after another inside the Gwaegong's gaping mouth, raising clouds of black smoke.
Simon's eyes gleamed.
Cloud!
He activated the magic circle he'd been preparing at his back. Emerald-green vapor flowed out and wrapped around the Deimos.
In the dark sea, the skeleton of white whale bone shimmered like a magnificent emerald.
Like a work of art wrought from gemstones, it lit up the murky depths around it.
Now — straight in!
Simon and the Deimos plunged into the Gwaegong's gaping maw.
Forward!
Gripping his fading consciousness, Simon gave the charge command.
It was an act beyond reason — something no sane mind could have done — but they simply pushed ahead.
The view ahead was crimson, nothing but crimson flesh.
Where there was an opening, they bored through; where a wall of flesh blocked the way, they tore it apart and forced their way in. Burrowing relentlessly through the dark, deep interior of the beast, the Deimos blasted its organs with the Ocean Current Cannon again and again.
Simon smashed and shredded everything that obstructed their path — and then, far ahead, he spotted a single thread of light.
There!
At last, bursting clean through a corner of the monster's hide, Simon and the Deimos seized the light.
Gurrrrk!
Open water again.
Simon shook his head as if shaking off every scrap of filth clinging to his body, then looked back.
They had escaped through a tiny puncture in the monster's spine.
And then—
Kuguuuuuguuuu!
The Gwaegong's mighty bulk, drained of all strength, collapsed and sank toward the black seafloor.
Haah! Whew!
Only now did his mind return, and Simon trembled all over. He had no idea what he had just done — couldn't even tell whether it had been real, or some dream he'd dreamed.
Slowly, he looked down at his Tongue Pad.
The number did not lie.
I did it!
His body shuddered with an enormous rush of euphoria.
But Simon wasn't satisfied yet.
He and the Deimos rose to the surface together — and the countless marine monsters and fish followed in their wake.
The sea turned rainbow-colored.
A solitary island in the open sea.
SPLASH!
Chap-chap. Chap-chap.
Onto this tiny island dense with palm trees, Hector — scales of the Sea Dragon clamped over his arms — dragged himself out of the ocean, soaked to the bone.
I'm dead tired.
Thank goodness he'd spotted an island halfway. Letting out a long breath, he peeled off the Sea Dragon scales to dry them in the sun, then raised his Tongue Pad to check the rankings.
This much should be more than enough to take back first place.
He scrolled up from the bottom of the list.
4th — Chatel : 7,980 P
3rd — Elisa : 8,100 P
2nd — Hector : 8,240 P
Hector clicked his tongue.
That punk looked like he couldn't do anything in the water, and yet there he was in the top ranks again.
Elisa of the Ghost Ship. A woman who built ships out of Spirit Magic — of course she'd be a terror at sea. Nothing to be done about it.
But wait — why was he in second? Someone was above him? Again?
Hector checked the top of the list with an irritated scowl. And then.
“GRAAAAAAAAAAGH!!”
He spewed pure fury and hurled the Tongue Pad strapped to his arm down onto the sand.