Do Your Best and Await Heaven's Will

Beyond the radar, a black tide of demonic beasts was surging closer.

Inside the bridge, the crew moved with frantic urgency, scrambling to answer the oncoming swarm.

"Position of the beast cluster...!"

"Approaching fast from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ten o'clock direction! Drones put the range at roughly four thousand meters—impact in under five minutes!"

"Damn it all...! Get the passengers ready for evacuation first! Any naval support nearby?"

"The Novastia-class cruiser and Regisphere-class destroyer in the area have answered the distress call, but the destroyer will take four hours and the cruiser eight."

"Four hours... four hours..."

In the middle of an empty ocean, receiving destroyer support in only four hours could almost be called lucky. The real problem was that the wave of beasts rolling toward them was far beyond anything a single destroyer could handle.

"How many heroes do we have contracted to this ship?"

"The entire Ninth Team of the Dangun Guild's First Division, plus fifty PMC security personnel. And..."

"And?"

"...approximately five thousand Sirius Academy enrollees are aboard. Of those, about twenty-five hundred are aspiring hero-department students..."

"What?"

So the suggestion was to throw the hero department's prospective freshmen into the fight as combat assets?

"Ghk...!"

"We'll talk when you wake up."

The captain drove a fist into the gut of the man who had proposed using the academy students as forces, dropping him cold.

"I don't expect anyone else to make a suggestion as stupid as the one we just heard."

"..."

"This is an emergency, so I want my orders followed as fast as possible. You—didn't you say you had a wedding coming up?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Take the new hands and keep the passengers under control. And you—your wife's pregnant, right? Prepare the escape boats just in case and get the students aboard first."

"Then what about you, Captain...?"

"Where else would a captain be but on the bridge? Stop wasting breath and move."

"...Understood. Sorry."

Once the junior crew and a few others had left, only the captain and a handful of sailors remained on the bridge.

"I'm sorry to ask this of you, but I'll need a little help. Seems I've grown too old to handle everything alone."

"Not at all, Captain."

"Thank you... for standing with me."

He unwound the bandages wrapped around his hands and bound them to the magitech helm. The devices recognized his biometric data and sprang to life, projecting the ship's status into the air around them.

He had no way of knowing how badly the vessel he had sailed with for years would be wrecked, but one truth was already clear: whether he liked it or not, he would share this ship's fate.

"Beast legion detected five hundred meters ahead. Impact in twenty seconds."

The barrier's output climbed as the ship finished preparing for the collision.

Kuuuuung—!

Two hundred meters... one hundred... fifty...

Watching the distance shrink on the screens, the crew braced for impact. The instant the swarming marine beasts slammed into the stern, the camera froze solid.

"Huh...?"

"W-what just happened..."

They snapped their gazes to the remaining cameras that had not yet iced over. On those feeds, blue frost was blooming across the entire frame, swallowing the beast legion whole.

"Hup...!"

Tadak—!

Power overflowed. An omnipotent rush that felt strong enough to slay a god flooded every vein and poured fresh vitality through her body.

Not enough time. Finish this as fast as possible.

The pocket watch ran backward, scattering a savage arctic cold in every direction. The air temperature plummeted as if they had been dropped into the heart of Siberia; frost even began to form on the seawater itself.

Kieeek—!

Naturally, the beasts that had lived their entire lives near the equator and never once known cold suffered a catastrophic drop in physical ability and floated helplessly to the surface. Even so, some species that migrated between the poles and the equator possessed genuine resistance to the cold. Most of the larger beasts endured the freezing onslaught and kept moving.

She carved through their ranks without pause, her blade a blur. Every time the hwando traced a golden thread of light, another beast's head left its shoulders. With her body pushed to the absolute limit of enhancement, monsters of this caliber could not even buy her time.

The real problem, however, was only beginning.

Kuuuuung—!

A sound like the ocean floor collapsing rose from the depths, and a colossal octopus tentacle heaved itself upward from the abyss. It had not yet revealed its true form, so its full appearance remained hidden—but she remembered exactly what this entity was.

"The One Who Sleeps in R'lyeh."

For reasons she still did not fully understand, from this day forward the creature would begin its activity in the Pacific. The cruise ship carrying academy examinees would become its first sacrifice, and the Pacific would sink one step deeper into a hellish sea.

And Seo-hyun as well...

She clenched her teeth hard enough to ache. In this cycle she would make certain that never happened.

Kwa-kwang—!

The explosives she had planted earlier detonated, blasting the nearest tentacle aside. While the creature reeled, she kicked off the cruise ship's deck and leapt onto a tentacle that looked at least several dozen meters thick. Instead of suckers, bone hooks jutted from its flesh, already chewing through the ship's barrier at terrifying speed.

If this continues, we sink.

Once the barrier failed, the unarmed cruise ship would be left completely exposed to the beasts. She could not allow that.

Wooong—

The pocket watch spun into reverse at high speed, converting the heat of the surrounding air into pure energy. That energy poured into the hwando, lighting the Chinese characters engraved along the blade.

The jet-black characters blazed with light, and the sky itself split open. A pillar of gold descended from the heavens and illuminated the sea; in a single heartbeat the golden waves subsided. Then judgment fell.

It happened without warning.

I had been about to climb onto the deck to stop Yeona from planting more explosives when the beast-raid sirens began to wail. Through Laplace I could grasp the overall situation almost instantly, yet the crisis was already spiraling far beyond control. Leaving the ship's contracted heroes behind as they scrambled into combat readiness, I reached the deck—only to find no sign of the person I was looking for.

Where in the world...

"Huh?"

Only then did I catch ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sight of her locked in battle with the tentacles that had crawled up from the deep. I was already preparing to charge out after her when a brilliant flash erupted from her sword.

A dazzling mass of light filled my entire field of vision. When I opened my eyes again, the sea held nothing but the burning wreckage of demonic beasts and the screaming abyssal monster.

What in the world just...

I stared blankly at the ruined landscape. Flames danced across the floating corpses that choked the water, and the smoke rising from them was thick enough to blot out the sky.

"Kh...!"

I used Darwin's power to shield my respiratory tract and pushed through the smoke. At last I found a woman lying motionless on the deck as if she had simply fallen asleep.

"Ugh..."

She had abandoned her usual male disguise and lay trembling on the planks. She seemed unconscious; even when I approached she gave ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no reaction. I sighed and hoisted her onto my back.

"Haa... What the hell just happened?"

A peaceful voyage interrupted by a beast raid, and now this woman whose identity I still ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did not know. My long-awaited trip was thoroughly ruined and my mood was foul, yet the circumstances made it clear she had saved the ship. For the moment I decided I would look after her.

"Mmngh..."

"Looks like you're pretty comfortable."

I started down from the deck with her on my back—then spotted a pocket watch lying on the floor and tilted my head.

"A pocket watch?"

This wasn't the nineteenth century; I never expected to see one here. Assuming it was hers, I picked it up and turned it over in my hands. The gold-plated case bore Roman numerals up to twelve, and a smaller inset circle marked the days of the month up to thirty.

Do pocket watches that show the date even exist?

An unusual design. Thinking that, I checked the reverse side and could not hide my surprise. Tiny letters in a strangely familiar cursive were engraved on the back.