Chapter 70: There Is No Salvation Here (2)
Chapter 70: There Is No Salvation Here (2)
Deep Sea Fish Hunting Specialty Broadcast – 70
EP.70 There Is No Salvation Here (2)
Author Note: (We recommend viewing this in page viewer mode rather than scrolling.)
Author Note: (It might strain your eyes a bit. Please view it in a well-lit area.)
Boom-!!!
“Argh!! Damn it! What is this?!”
“Why are you suddenly screaming and freaking out?”
Elvira asked curtly in response to Russell’s shout.
It wasn’t hard to understand Russell’s reaction.
Anyone would be startled if they opened their eyes to see flames bursting out with a fierce explosion right in front of them.Indeed, the first memory Parang and Oceanos witnessed after diving was an explosion.
Flames erupting before their eyes, a blast that seemed to shake the entire sea.
And there was someone calmly watching the torrent of heat that seemed intent on burning everything in its path.
A knight clad in brilliantly shining white plate armor, holding a shield in the left hand and a lance over 2 meters long in the right.
With long brown hair flowing, she stood nobly, watching the explosion.
It was Slayer, Kang Yuri.
“…How long ago is this footage?”
“…Forty minutes ago.”
Parang asked, a bit surprised.
“Forty minutes? Why is it so short?”
Forty minutes was extremely short. Although her body had many wounds, there were no severed limbs or major head injuries.
Considering the case of Matilda, who was absorbed by the Gorgon and left in a miserable state with only her head barely intact, which they saw at the South China Sea Hive, this was an unusually short time.
“I don’t know either. She might look fine on the outside but could be full of internal injuries.”
“Let’s just keep watching. I don’t understand this situation at all. What’s with the sudden explosion?”
This part was equally puzzling.
Among the thousands of monster fish Oceanos had captured so far, not a single one had ever exploded while spewing fire.
“Alright. I’ll play it back.”
The paused memory began to flow again.
The flames subsided.
There was nothing in front of Kang Yuri.
Just an empty space filled with water, as always.
‘A self-destructing monster fish?’
Many thoughts crossed Parang’s mind, but they soon vanished.
Because shortly after, they could directly see the cause of the explosion.
Naturally, it wasn’t an explosion caused by a monster fish.
Rumble—
Crash—!!
What Oceanos had thought was an empty space began to slowly collapse.
It wasn’t that there was nothing in front of Kang Yuri.
It was a large hole in something.
A gigantic humanoid mecha about 300 meters in size.
Marian’s ultimate and strongest, most fearsome machine, created with her life on the line.
The Great War Machine Goliath.
A giant of steel that seemed barely capable of supporting its own weight.
In its chest.
Kang Yuri had made a hole.
A very large hole.
Goliath slowly toppled backward,
Rumble—!!!!
It lay on the ground.
A colossal roar that shook the entire area.
Anyone could tell.
Kang Yuri had destroyed Goliath.
Marian’s ultimate weapon, with her own hands.
Parang recalled Marian attacking her recklessly.
‘Was she already possessed at this point?’
And as if to prove Parang’s thought correct, a shout was heard from afar.
“…Rian!! Snap… out of it!!”
It was Hunter Han Siwoo’s voice.
Fortunately for Oceanos, despite her injured body, Kang Yuri headed towards Han Siwoo to help him.
And the scene everyone expected unfolded before their eyes.
With her eyes glowing purple, Marian was unleashing all her weapons at Han Siwoo,
And Han Siwoo was blocking all of them while shouting at Marian.
“Please, please come to your senses!! Damn it!!!”
Even as dozens of railguns targeted him and fired lasers, he deflected all the attacks.
It seemed that only these three were left.
The battered Kang Yuri, Han Siwoo, and Marian.
There was nothing else.
Leaving behind that lonely, strange, and also sad scene, Oceanos finally had the chance to look around.
Kang Yuri was the second to last. In other words, she transferred to the hive just before Marian did.
Considering her death was 40 minutes ago, the battle was already nearing its end.
The surroundings were definitely different from Alexandra’s case.
First of all, there was something that all of Oceanos, including Parang, had felt since the dive began.
“Am I the only one feeling extremely weird right now?”
Russell spoke in a voice that was unusually subdued and utterly gloomy.
“…I feel the same.”
Voices of agreement erupted from various places.
Parang, of course, felt it too.
Depressed. Gloomy. Anxious. Scared. Sad.
Whether it was because they were witnessing the Slayers’ final moments or due to some other factor.
The vast, deep, dark sea surrounding them now seemed particularly, endlessly somber and gloomy.
It was unpleasant.
For the first time in her life, Parang felt ‘dislike’ towards the sea.
The surrounding atmosphere was so creepy that it sent shivers down her spine.
Endless emptiness, futility, despondency, and all sorts of negative emotions were flooding in.
Secondly, the swarms of monster fish that had been covering the surroundings in black had completely disappeared.
They quickly found out where they had gone.
Upwards and downwards.
Numerous monster fish, presumed to have been sliced by the Slayers, were floating above them,
And the remains of statues, presumed to have been destroyed by them, were piled up like a mountain below.
“Could it be that they… killed them all?”
“…It seems so.”
Parang swallowed hard and spoke.
There was no other entity around that could have massacred the monster fish, and more importantly, Kang Yuri’s condition clearly showed she had gone through intense combat.
First, the state of her armor.
She hadn’t noticed earlier due to the explosion, but its condition was quite miserable.
The left shoulder guard was completely destroyed and missing, revealing a burnt mark on her shoulder.
Not just the shoulder, but her legs, arms, and chest—all parts were either broken or damaged without a single intact area.
“Huff… huff… ugh…”
Kang Yuri panted heavily, clutching her left shoulder.
It was where the burn mark was.
“It’s a burn wound. Most likely…”
“Marian’s doing.”
“Did they really… kill them all… all of them…?”
Verteia muttered in disbelief.
Parang also found it hard to believe.
She had seen it in Alexandra’s last memory.
The sight of countless monsters moving with terrifying precision.
Even after sweeping away thousands, tens of thousands of monster fish at once, the endless army showed no signs of diminishing.
They had all seen it.
But the Slayers had done it.
They had swept them all away and stood there.
And such a sight only brought more questions to Oceanos.
“…How many minutes before death?”
“Thirty minutes.”
“Unbelievable.”
Parang spoke with difficulty.
The wave of negative emotions she had been feeling since earlier was now almost unbearable.
The Slayers had, in any case, won.
Marian’s condition was abnormal, and Kang Yuri and Han Siwoo were in shambles, but they were still standing there.
But why?
What exactly had happened to them?
The question lingered.
“…Hey.”
Elvira spoke in a trembling voice.
“That thing, I’m not the only one seeing it, right?”
Her voice, usually so confident, was now quivering.
And all of Oceanos was seeing it.
The culmination of all the negative emotions they had been feeling.
The source. The embodiment of all corruption.
Something far away, watching them. But its eyes were closed.
A round catastrophe. A large, spherical entity.
What Kang Yuri was looking at.
What was looking at Kang Yuri.
It.
Its eyes.
Opened.
“Ugh!! Gah!! Huff…!!”
Parang panted heavily.
What was that just now?
“Ugh…!”
“Ugh… What just…?”
Not only Parang, but everyone seemed to have experienced the phenomenon just now. Voices complaining of headaches and dizziness were heard from all around.
It was still watching them from afar.
Eyes.
Eyes.
“It opened its eyes…”
Parang whispered unconsciously.
Who she was speaking to was unclear.
It could have been to herself, to that thing, or just mindless babble thrown into the void.
That thing is what the status window referred to as the living entity that is not on the ground.
That thing killed the Slayers.
That thing bewitched Marian.
That thing is the ultimate enemy we must fight.
So, it said.
The thing rolled its eyeballs grotesquely.
Wobbling, wobbling around.
For that moment, no one moved.
Nothing moved.
Not Han Siwoo, not Kang Yuri, and not Marian.
Everyone just watched the eyeball wobble.
Then, abruptly.
The thing stared straight at Kang Yuri.
A notification window appeared in front of her.
[ Skill ‘War■pro■ Sa■ty’ has been activated. ]
[ Warning: Excessive strain is being placed on the sy■tem. Additional strain may result in permanent da■age. ]
Kang Yuri struggled to grip her lance.
“Siwoo, I’m sorry…”
Her hand was trembling violently.
“I’ll go ahead…”
She calmly activated the warp device.
“I love you.”
With her vision blurring and a white light filling her view as the last thing she saw.
Kang Yuri’s consciousness faded.