Chapter 129
Chapter 129
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 129
Chapter Title: Oceanis (5)
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Excluding the Family Head lying on his sickbed, the Oceanis Family still boasted eight Gold-rank powerhouses.
It was a transitional period where the old generation's Golds on the verge of retirement overlapped with the new generation's fledgling Golds. To be cold and realistic, the old guard had passed their prime, and the newcomers weren't fully matured yet.
Even so, a Gold was still a Gold. With eight gathered in one place, there was nothing to fear.
And that's exactly how things were unfolding.
Five more large ships had joined, making a total of ten unleashing a barrage of strong bolts and iron spears in rotation, while the medium-sized ship just silently took the hits. What crisis could there possibly be?
The water barrier was holding up surprisingly well, but Rius had no doubt it would reach its mana limit soon enough.
Tzzzzing—
That conviction held until a chilling, alien sensation abruptly pierced his spine without any warning.
"Gasp!"
A horrific feeling like his soul was being crushed made Rius involuntarily suck in a sharp breath.
The visible landscape hadn't changed at all.
But the world as seen through a mage's senses had shifted unmistakably.
It was like a giant so vast it touched the heavens had suddenly appeared. That was the closest comparison.
Just beholding it brought an overwhelming sense of futility, squeezing his heart with transcendent presence.
"Ugh……."
"Wha…… what the hell is this……."
Even Tarina, who was always on edge, showed rare panic, and Raven had lost all his usual flippancy, left only with raw fear.
It wasn't just the three siblings. Every mage on the flagship was trembling equally.
The Silvers didn't even know what was happening but instinctively sensed the vast gap in power and froze in terror.
The Golds had some inkling of what it was—and that made the disparity hit even harder, sapping their will to fight.
"Ha, hahaha."
Cled let out a hollow laugh.
He was one of the few on board who could stay relatively calm, having experienced this sensation recently alongside Irwin.
But he wasn't just flustered—he was despairing for an entirely different reason.
"So that's how it was…… It really was just a taste back then……."
"Uncle?"
Rius, nearby enough to catch the mutter, finally managed to speak.
"Do you know something about this?"
"This sensation?"
"Yes."
"It's a Gem World."
"Pardon?"
"Something exclusive to Gem mages."
"Gem…… you mean?"
"Yes. The miracle of not just altering parts of the world's laws, but dyeing the entire world in one's own color— that's permitted only to Gems."
Seeing Rius's dumbfounded expression, Cled chuckled and added,
"I don't know why you're so surprised now. I did tell you plainly."
"You don't mean…… this is……."
Rius trailed off. A possibility he'd never seriously considered had leaped into reality, short-circuiting his brain for a moment.
"Whoa!"
Chaos erupted inside the ship.
Rius, already on edge, was about to bellow what was going on when he realized the cause.
The flagship was moving.
"What?"
Sure, the sea was always in motion, so ships floating on it naturally moved too.
But until moments ago, the flagship had been holding position as best it could. Why move the command ship first when the enemy was obligingly staying put and taking hits?
Now it was suddenly surging forward at full speed. Who wouldn't panic?
"What are you lot doing?!"
"W-We didn't do anything!"
The crew shouted in panic.
Rius knew that too. The flagship's handpicked crew wouldn't act on their own, and they were indeed standing still.
The ship was quite literally moving on its own.
"Focus your senses," Cled said quietly.
"You'll feel the flow beneath the hull."
Only then did Rius pull himself together and refocus his senses.
He detected a massive hand of water gripping the flagship from below the waterline, dragging the entire vessel along.
"With magic…… who the hell……?!"
"You think we'd do that to our own ship? Even if ordered, we wouldn't."
True enough. Small ships rocked in minor waves, but large ones weathered storms thanks to their size and weight.
A Gold could interfere, but efficiency-wise, it was insane.
Like that water barrier, exactly.
But there was a crucial difference from the barrier, which at least made some sense.
"Not their own ships…… but moving ours? From that far away?"
"I told you not to judge Gems by common sense."
Cled sneered at Rius, whose voice trembled as he repeated it.
"Just like you said. Even if it's a Gem, we can't avoid the fight? Well, now we're being forced right into it."
The other nine ships not in the encirclement were around the flagship.
Those ahead swiftly sidestepped, clearing a path for the charging flagship.
But it wasn't voluntary.
No one had adjusted sails, turned the prow, or slid sideways like on ice. That wasn't possible.
"Look on the bright side, at least."
Cled tossed the words at Rius, whose despair deepened at multiple ships being manipulated simultaneously.
"If we're forced to fight anyway, and they're wasting mana like that, isn't it good for us? Conserve ours, and there might be a way out."
Of course, they wouldn't be foolish enough to run dry before combat, but Cled didn't say it aloud—and Rius knew exactly what was left unsaid.
Not just the flagship—other ships began forced repositioning too, putting the entire Oceanis fleet on high alert.
Signal flags reporting anomalies fluttered everywhere, and the flagship responded frantically.
But with the flagship itself being dragged like a magnet, the chaos didn't subside.
Galen watched it all silently.
Lilia, no longer needing to scout for the flagship, returned to his side and quipped,
"You're awfully restrained today?"
He'd been trying to set a serious mood, but she shattered it. Galen coughed, choking a bit, then replied,
"Restrained? Who'd think I'm some troublemaker?"
"During new moon…… restrained?"
"Well…… not exactly."
"So yeah, restrained it is."
Water mages couldn't fully protect ships due to their nature, so they targeted crew and hulls with arrows and spears?
To Lilia, that tactic was one Galen could counter far better.
Water doused fire, but couldn't stop explosions. A few prideful blasts would cleave large ships in two—how could they block that?
Yet today, Galen felt unusually restrained.
At her genuine curiosity, Galen whispered something far from genuine.
"Building one of those large ships new costs about three or four thousand gold coins."
"Eek?!"
"Now you know why I'm holding back?"
"Got it!"
Lilia, who still feared big money despite having it, nodded vigorously.
Elisa, overhearing, gave a wistful smile tinged with apology.
"Don't hold back on my account, Galen. The battle comes first."
"The outcome's already set, so post-battle matters more. The ships and crew will all be yours anyway. Wouldn't want to wreck them."
Galen said it casually.
"And I'm only doing what's feasible, so no worries."
"The fact that this is 'feasible' makes me wonder what 'infeasible' even looks like……."
Terti shook his head. He accepted Galen as a Gem now, but the raw power of Gems still felt unreal.
"They're feeling it even worse. Never dreamed they'd lose at sea."
As they talked, the flagship drew close enough for Galen to make out people on deck.
"That's why I stuck to water magic on purpose. No excuses for them later. Get ready, miss."
"……Yes."
Elisa, conflicted, soon steeled herself and nodded.
The arrow and spear barrages had ceased long ago. With ships moving on their own and the flagship entering the encirclement, they couldn't keep firing blindly.
Galen erected a wall of water. From beneath the melting wall, a transparent cat leaped up and dashed over.
As the cat on his left arm morphed into a bracelet and coiled around smoothly,
"Rius……!"
Elisa gritted her teeth, eyes on the flagship's deck.
In a slow parallel approach impossible for normal ships, facing side-by-side,
Four figures led at the railings.
Rius, Tarina, and two cousin brothers of the same rank.
Young Golds in their thirties and forties.
"All gathered on the flagship, huh. Makes sense—no need to split forces against one ship."
Before Galen's mutter finished, massive water pillars erupted simultaneously between the still-distant ships.
Shwaaaaa!
Four pillars, each infused with distinct mana. Four people casting at once.
The pillars, rising like inverted waterfalls, twisted serpentine midair to target the medium ship as they fell.
Immediately, four new pillars surged from the sea—but this time with unified mana.
Papapapang!
The eight pillars collided midway, shattering into a spray that scattered everywhere.
Droplets in the air swiftly coalesced.
Some formed spheres, others spears, arrows. Each reshaped into preferred weapons and hurled back at the medium ship.
Shwaaaaa!
Yet hundreds of projectiles couldn't breach a single wall. Galen's raised sea wall swallowed every attack effortlessly.
The wall then splintered into hundreds of fragments, streaking toward the large ship like a meteor shower.
The panicked Oceanis Golds hastily summoned mana. Their coordination slipped slightly—and that proved a blessing.
Whirrr!
The tangled mana streams pushed and pulled at the same point and target, forming a vortex-like phenomenon.
A bit clumsy, but it blocked the meteor shower.
The vortex swelled, sucking up seawater, and advanced on Galen.
Paaaaang!
It burst before getting far, clashing with a massive sword Galen conjured from seawater and shattering. The sword exploded too, of course.
Boom! Boomboom! Boom boom boom!
With near-infinite water in the battlefield, the four Golds unleashed full-power spells without restraint. Water whipped in every direction toward the enemy.
The problem? That advantage applied equally to Galen.
"Damn it, damn it……!"
Tarina, the youngest and weakest of the four, was the first whose reason began to evaporate.
When Galen manipulated water from afar to drag their flagship, terror had gripped her.
But steeling herself for battle, surprisingly, it seemed manageable?
No special Gem techniques in sight.
Couldn't use them? Wouldn't?
Either way, both sides were just weaponizing water identically.
Maybe, just maybe, they could win.
Tarina thought that for a fleeting moment.
……A thoroughly idiotic notion.
Four pouring attacks simultaneously—yet one man blocked them all and counterattacked. Casually, without obsession. Leisurely.
Four against one, and it was even? Absurd.
If it'd been some exotic technique, they'd have excuses. But pure overwhelming spell power and speed terrified them more.
All the young Golds shared the thought.
"Hurry up! Please!"
Tarina screamed desperately.
Luckily for her, before her sanity fully burned out, the response came.
Not to her ears, but her eyes.
Shwaaaaaaaa!
Not between the ships—but from behind the medium ship.
A colossal tsunami arose, vast enough to engulf both medium and large ships with ease.
The four elders, lagging slightly behind, pooling every ounce of mana, dividing roles in secret preparation—a single, ultimate strike.
A joint spell infused with four Golds' full might blotted out even the sun.
"Grab hold!"
Rius shouted, retreating.
A direct hit would doom even the flagship, but it'd swamp the medium ship first—they could endure what followed.
They'd sacrifice bones to claim the enemy's—a desperate resolve embracing kamikaze.
"Hm."
Under the tsunami's shadow draping the medium ship, Galen glanced back.
As even Lilia paled, he flicked his hand dismissively, like shooing a bothersome fly.
And that was it.
The tsunami halted in place.