Chapter 80: Fishmen (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 80: Fishmen (2)
Standing tall atop the frozen Blood Sea, Alon let out a soft sigh.
I guess I managed somehow.
Looking around, he saw a frozen wasteland stretching endlessly from where he stood.
Of course, this ever-expanding frozen expanse wasn't his doing; it was made possible because Penia had granted his request.
...She can go this far?
He felt a brief moment of admiration for Penia. She had frozen the surrounding sea in an instant atop the bitter cold Alon had manifested from the ship, yet she only looked slightly strained.
Alon turned his gaze toward Tertogan, who stood on the deck drenched in the blood of pirates.
Cr-crack!
The Tertogan who had held a human form until moments ago was gone.
In his place was a green egg secreting a bizarre fluid, with Tertogan’s hand resting atop it. And above that hand sat a strange object.
Despite the simplicity of the scene, Alon’s expression hardened.
He knew exactly what that egg was.
Crunch!
The moment Alon realized it and raised his arm, an unpleasant sound reached his ears.
“...”
He looked over to see the Fishmen, who had been moving beneath the surface to sink the ship, crawling up onto the ice one by one.
Their numbers swelled from dozens to hundreds in an instant.
Just as Alon clicked his tongue at the sight—
Cr-cr-crunch!
The Fishmen crawling onto the ice were pulverized in a flash.
“Brother!”
Ladan appeared.
Having surged out of the sea, Ladan didn't just crush the Fishmen trying to rush Alon.
“Hoo—!”
He stomped his foot down on the ice.
Shatter!
Ladan’s foot pierced through the ice and touched the seawater.
And then.
ROAAAAAR—!!!!!
The frozen sea turned into a glacial sea. Like a sudden explosion of sound, a massive wave rose and swept away every Fishman surging toward Alon.
“Hup—!”
As if he wasn't finished, Ladan immediately thrust his spear into the center of the sea.
Rumble—!!
A massive whirlpool formed instantly.
The swept-away Fishmen and the sunken ships began to be sucked into the vortex.
Despite being creatures more familiar with the sea than anyone, the Fishmen were caught in a current so violent they couldn't even steady themselves. They were mangled along with the debris of the sunken ships, and the whirlpool quickly turned crimson.
“A-as expected...!”
“The Boss is... different...!”
Hope began to spread among the pirates.
“...This is insane.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I don't know if I could ever win against that.”
Even among the Pirate Lords, an indescribable awe took hold.
The divine prowess Ladan displayed was truly hard to believe as the work of a single individual.
But that moment was short-lived.
Gurgle!
At the distinct sound, everyone’s eyes turned toward the center deck of the Blue Wolf.
Tertogan’s hand, which had been protruding from the green egg, had vanished as if it were a lie.
And then.
Cr-crack! Creak! Snap!
From that tiny egg,
An impossibly massive hand burst forth.
Everyone stared blankly at the hand.
It was covered in green scales and fluid.
As if to extinguish all hope, it blocked the light of the setting sun that had been shining on the pirates. It manifested into the world, pulsating as if it were alive.
And then, the thing that brought terror instead of hope to the pirates...
Struck the whirlpool.
BOOOOOM—!!
With a thunderous roar, the whirlpool that had been sucking everything in vanished.
Then, from the tiny egg,
It hatched.
Cr-cr-crunch!
The hand that had destroyed the whirlpool stepped onto one of the Sea Wolf’s ships, and the other hand pulled itself out.
The second hand emerged and gripped another ship.
The Giant that appeared from that tiny egg was a sight that devoured everyone’s hope while being eerily grotesque.
Following the arms, the head of a massive Fishman emerged from the egg, stripping away their hope.
Its body, which made the ships look like mere toys, stripped away their awe.
It crushed the ship the egg had been on and blocked the sunset, stripping away the light.
“Ah—”
It had descended.
* * *
Its size was overwhelming.
Furthermore, the monstrous strength emanating from that overwhelming size was unimaginably horrific.
BOOOOOM—!!
Only its upper body visible above the sea, the creature’s hand moved slowly and crushed a ship.
A spray of water erupted; there wasn't even time for a single scream.
Before they could even process the shock of the ship being smashed to pieces—
Craaaaaash!
With a single swing of that massive hand from left to right, more than ten ships were pulverized.
Eerie, monstrous strength born of overwhelming scale.
That wasn't all.
“God dammit—!”
The Fishmen, who had been motionless as if worshipping the birth of the Giant, resumed their activity. The pirates were instantly plunged into panic.
What on earth is this—!
Ladan also frowned as he looked at the massive Giant silhouetted against the sunset. In that moment—
“Ladan.”
He heard a voice.
It was Alon’s voice, speaking emotionlessly and apathetically even in this chaotic situation.
“I’ll leave the Fishmen to you.”
Ladan wore a blank expression for a moment before responding.
“Understood, Brother.”
With his answer, he retrieved the trident that had been submerged in the sea.
Alon checked the Fishmen rising from all directions and then looked at the creature slowly raising its massive hand.
“Hoo—”
Alon let out a low sigh as he surveyed the surroundings.
To put it mildly, the situation wasn't good.
Even though Ladan and the Pirate Lords were killing Fishmen like madmen, their numbers showed no sign of thinning.
The Fishmen were constantly climbing up and killing pirates.
And the massive hand was being raised into the sky once more, preparing to vomit despair upon the pirates.
Yet, even in this worst-case scenario, Alon did not think of defeat.
Rather, he felt relieved, thinking that the current situation wasn't the absolute worst.
After all, the thing in front of him wasn't an Outer God.
To be precise, it’s a byproduct.
The Outer God Kalak-Kul possessed the fraudulent ability to see through all creation just by opening the Eye of Truth and could drown anyone regardless of the presence of water. The moment he descended, the calamity would truly begin.
However, the thing before his eyes, ‘Gal-Gik,’ was not an Outer God.
It was merely a byproduct and a guardian carrying the Outer God’s Reincarnation Egg to protect him until his descent.
Since he could prevent the Outer God’s descent simply by dealing with it now,
Alon opened his mouth without hesitation.
“Array of Thunder—”
The conditions had been met.
Zap!
Blue sparks crackled and began to flow across the frozen Blood Sea.
“Decomposition.”
At his word, the sparks instantly turned into tiny grains and spread in all directions.
The blue grains, glowing in the dark shadows that blocked the sunset,
“Melting.”
At the next Phrase, they began to be sucked into Alon’s flickering body as if being absorbed.
Simultaneously, Alon’s form began to glow blue.
By that point, Gal-Gik had already raised its hand to crush dozens of ships.
■■■■■■■■—!
Letting out an incomprehensible, bizarre roar, it tried to bring its hand down on Alon’s head as if to eliminate an instinctive threat.
Rumble—!!!
A massive sound of rending air, as if the entire sea were being weighed down.
“All Things Flow.”
Even in that situation, Alon formed a seal by raising his index and middle fingers.
“Thunder God Form.”
The moment he uttered the final Phrase—
CRACKLE—!!!
He became lightning.
Flash!
He shot straight forward.
BOOOOM—!!!
The frozen sea where Alon had just been standing shattered as if an explosion had gone off. He was launched toward Gal-Gik.
He saw Gal-Gik’s wide-open heart.
He realized instinctively.
Simply shooting forward like this wouldn't be enough to pierce Gal-Gik’s outer hide.
Yet, the reason he could move forward without hesitation was thanks to one of the relics recently appraised by Alexion: the ‘Contract Token of the Blind One.’
Its effect was a relic that could hide a single constraint he had promised.
With it, Alon freed himself from the constraint that had been weakening his magic.
The constraint that allowed him to twist the laws of the world when facing the Great God of Duel, Uultultus, with magic.
And there was one more reason.
He himself had realized how to use the Thunder God Form.
The blue lightning shooting toward Gal-Gik changed its shape from a human form.
Centering the mana array at the tip of his trajectory, he twisted and crushed his own body, which had become mana itself, to create a form.
Thus, the clear spiral Alon had created—
Zzzzzap—!!!
It dyed the world, darkened by Gal-Gik, into a brilliant blue, shooting forward as if to segment the world itself.
Zip!
With a small sound.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■—!!!!!
Blue sparks covered the world.
* * *
It was after the blue sparks covering the world had vanished.
A massive hole had been torn through Gal-Gik’s heart.
And through that massive hole, Count Palatio came into everyone’s view.
“...Hah.”
Everyone was left speechless, unable to do anything but stare at that one man.
And Alon, standing on a broken ship under everyone’s gaze,
Don't just stare, save me...!
Was actually in a state of extreme panic.
The deck Alon was standing on was slowly sinking.
It wasn't glaringly obvious, but the deck was bit by bit submerging beneath the water.
The reason Alon remained silent on the collapsing deck was precisely because of the Thunder God Form he had used.
I was definitely more used to it than last time.
Unlike before, he hadn't made any major mistakes.
Thanks to repeated exploration and research, he had refined the Thunder God Form to a certain extent.
Because of that, he was fine, except for a very small wound between his arm and leg.
The problem was mana.
To think that in the Thunder God Form, just moving the array would consume such an absurd amount of mana.
He had guessed as much through his research, but the mana consumption of the Thunder God Form was truly ridiculous.
When he first used the Thunder God Form in the Colony, his mana had been empty, but he could still walk normally.
Now, however, just by changing the mana array, he was suffering from physical rigidity—one of the symptoms of mana depletion.
Because of that, even as the deck sank, he was stuck, unable to say a word, sinking along with the ship.
I can't swim!
Just as Alon was screaming silently without being able to open his mouth—
Splash!
Green scales surged from the sea that had been calm until a moment ago.
Grab!
Before he could react, the scales seized Ladan’s body and dragged him straight into the sea.
Alon lost the luxury of thinking.
Seeing Ladan being dragged away before his eyes, Alon threw himself from the deck into the sea.
At least, that’s how it looked to the pirates.
...In reality, the green scales had simply smashed the deck he was on.
Falling into the sea, Alon frowned.
Fortunately, the physical rigidity from mana depletion was slowly fading, so it seemed he could reach the surface before suffocating.
The problem wasn't that, but the massive eye now visible in his sight.
Kalak-Kul?!
Alon was horrified.
Even though the sky above the sea was still the twilight of dusk, the interior of the sea was as dark as the deep ocean.
And within that darkness, a massive eye was visible.
It was indeed that ‘Eye’ he had seen several times in the game—the one that drowned everyone who met its gaze.
The manifestation shouldn't have happened yet—!
He was confused.
As far as he knew, the moment Gal-Gik was killed, the manifestation of the Outer God should have been prevented.
Yet, the Outer God had descended.
He had descended perfectly and was watching him.
From down below.
In the deep sea where nothing else could be seen.
Silently and arrogantly.