It seed as though an abyssal entity from the cracks of the world was staring at Kabilla. The room was filled with wriggling masses of flesh. Between the bursting pieces of at, eyes moved grotesquely. Tentacles squird, erging through the gaps.
Fear arises from learning. Humans fear tigers because it is learned through history and experience. So, those seeing that presence for the first ti felt confusion, awe, and disgust, scrunching their faces.
The entity, too, seed to feel the sa. After a brief silence, the eye that had been exposed between the flesh began to move quickly.
Kabilla muttered as she stared into the giant eye.
"Octopus. Kraken size."
When the shelter she had made collapsed, the octopus, enraged, swung its massive tentacles. Tentacles, equipped with suckers, shot ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ out through the windows, roof cracks, and wall seams, flying toward Kabilla.
The heavy, tough limbs were weapons in themselves. Even a re brush against them caused stone walls to collapse. Kabilla threw a bone needle and muttered.
"These sea beasts live in rock crevices. Due to their size, they're mostly seen around Whale Island and rarely appear near the shore. I can't even rember the last ti I saw one."
The dragon-like creatures born from the bone needles rushed to protect Kabilla, swinging their bone swords and saws at the octopus's tentacles. But the tough, slimy, sticky limbs weren’t easily hard by blades. As the dragon-like creatures hesitated, the octopus squeezed them with its sucker-covered limbs, crushing them. Shaking off the interference, the octopus grabbed Kabilla with another tentacle.
Crunch. The octopus’s tentacle squeezed so tightly that it seed ready to crush Kabilla. If she were a normal human, that alone would have been enough to break her. However, Kabilla, despite her body being crushed, remained calm.
"Once on land, it’s no longer a threat, though."
Snap. From sowhere, a massive claw erged, crushing the octopus’s tentacle. It was Kabilla’s lobster puppet. The octopus's tough limbs held their shape even under the claw's attack, but every ti the claw opened and closed, bits of the octopus’s flesh were severed. With the added force of the dragon-like creatures' bone swords, the octopus’s tentacle was eventually severed.
Falling to the ground, Kabilla manipulated her blood. The severed tentacle tried to move and attach itself to her, but Kabilla's blood interfered with its movent, preventing it from functioning. As impurities seeped into her body, the octopus's tentacle spasd and shriveled. Eventually, red blood seeped out, and the octopus's tentacle beca Kabilla's loyal servant.
Vladimir, watching Kabilla's fight, asked.
"And the conclusion?"
The mont the octopus was on land, its fate was sealed. While the dragon-like creatures and lobster were dismantling the retreating octopus, Kabilla, with a disgusted face, looked back at Vladimir and answered.
"...There was a clash between the island whale and the cloud ray. Without that, a tsunami of this size wouldn’t have occurred during low tide."
"I see."
"Is that all? Is that it? You’re not my sister! You have to give results as much as I do! You keep ordering as if it’s obvious, but don’t forget we’re equals!"
Of course, Kabilla knew that wasn’t the case. Vladimir was stronger than her and had stopped a rebellion against the patriarch. He was, without a doubt, the highest authority under the Duke of the Duchy.
If Kabilla had known the patriarch’s feelings were just a little worse... No, if she didn’t have any knowledge of the human king, she might have beco a al for the shadows. Realizing her position, Kabilla asked with a quieter voice.
"So. Now, it's ti for you to confess, isn’t it? How did you know the tsunami was coming and evacuated the humans in advance?"
"I had information."
"Information? What happened in the far sea? Who, how, and why?"
Vladimir paused, carefully choosing his words.
He knew who. But how and why were unknown.
No, even the "who" was uncertain.
He had t them once in Claudia. However, when "it" ca to find him, sothing about it felt different. It wasn’t like any other human he had encountered before, not like the strange abyssal entity he had just seen.
As Vladimir was organizing his thoughts, Kabilla spoke.
"Could it be? Not a Saintess. A floating city? The ‘Observer’ from the Magic Kingdom?"
It was a logical conclusion. Saintesses were the enemies of vampires. Just as vampires despised the Holy Crown Church, the Church despised vampires. They wouldn’t give prophecies that could help them.
Well, they might do so if it benefited the Church, but for the Church, that ant the extermination of vampires.
"I don’t know."
"You don’t know? You wouldn’t be lying, so you really don’t know? And you believed it and bit soone?"
"I didn’t know, so it was difficult to dismiss it outright. At the ti, I was busy with the patriarch's issues. For now, the unknown entity did make a request that helped, so there’s no harm."
Kabilla was puzzled.
Vladimir was cold and rational. If the unknown entity wasn’t reliable, he would have captured it, imprisoned it, and extracted the information.
In other words, the fact that he didn’t use that “rational” solution ant...
"The great Blood Duke couldn’t decide the outco?"
Vladimir answered honestly to Kabilla's suspicion.
"We didn’t fight."
"Huh? All the Elders, and the great Blood Duke Vladimir, scared? Losing your temper now? What would you do if the Saintess was trying to put us in danger?"
Thinking about it, the possibility of it being a Saintess was the most likely. Vladimir nodded and responded.
"Right."
"Right? You act like you can say anything with your mouth, but in reality, you’re irresponsibly—"
Kabilla's accusatory words, filled with bitterness, fell on deaf ears as Vladimir moved his greatsword. The sea beasts pushed ashore by the disastrous sea were powerful and dangerous, but they were nothing compared to Vladimir. Leaving only the carcasses for the humans to clear, Vladimir made his way along the coast.
As he neared the original shoreline, sothing unfamiliar caught his eye.
"What’s that?"
"Am I your personal guide? Figure it out yourself... What’s that?"
Even Kabilla, upon seeing "it," couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Having watched the disastrous seas longer than anyone, the dark sorceress knew the sea better than anyone else. Of course, she was also aware that the world knew far too little about that vast ocean, but regardless, her knowledge was deep and varied.
Yet, even she had never seen the structure before.
Its size was so imnse that it seed unreal. The shore was still several kiloters away, but the dark, bluish stain that "it" bore looked like a thin piece of land torn off and placed there. It was too large to have been swept ashore with the tsunami.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
"Blood?"
If not for the blood flowing from the cross-section, both Kabilla and Vladimir might have mistaken it for an island swept in by the tsunami. Kabilla sensed an unusual blood energy and spoke.
"Is that a creature? No, pieces of a creature? That ans..."
"Disaster. Could it be the fin of a cloud ray?"
The enormous size nearly filled the coast. The blood flowing from the cross-section supported the fact that it was part of a creature. It was hard to believe, but there seed to be no other explanation. The dark blue stain and the vertical cartilage structure proved that it was indeed part of a cloud ray.
What could have happened to such a grand and formidable creature? Kabilla muttered.
"Did it really fight the island whale? Sea beasts can be foolish, but their size is on a whole different level..."
"No. That cross-section is not from a beast."
Without hesitation, Vladimir walked toward the fin. Kabilla hurriedly followed behind him.
The shore was originally a mudflat, but after the tsunami, the seawater had risen up to their thighs. The boundary between land and sea was difficult even for an elder to cross, but Vladimir didn’t care and cut through the current. Only Kabilla, riding on the lobster, followed behind him, unable to walk where even humans or Ain could step.
"Do you want to die? There's seawater here! I know your pride is high, but the threats coming from below the water are dangerous for both of us!"
Ignoring Kabilla's heartfelt warning, Vladimir pushed forward, reaching the wreckage of the sea beast.
The wreckage of the sea beast was a disaster for humans, but to so, it was a feast. Thousands, tens of thousands of fish were devouring the remains of the sea beast, gorging themselves. And predators, drawn by the commotion, swooped in to snatch prey from the outer edges. Hundreds of seagulls circled above, and hundreds of sucker sharks clung to the fins, taking advantage of the leftovers.
The thousands of beasts devouring the carcass made the cross-section unreadable. So fish had even burrowed into the flesh and lived inside. Finding a clue here was nearly impossible.
However, Vladimir, the swordsman, felt the trace of a sword within this imnse devastation. Seeing the straight line of the cross-section, he muttered.
"A single strike?"
"Vladimir! Be careful!"
Kabilla's sharp warning echoed.
Sothing approached through the water. A sea beast, mistaking Vladimir for prey, lunged at him like a bullet. In the water, where he couldn't use his blood art to sense the movent, Vladimir read the flow of the water and swung his greatsword beneath the surface. With a crash, the sea beast’s jaw collided with the sword beneath the water.
Unbelievably, Vladimir was the one being pushed back. In the water, unable to fully extend his sword, he was pushed back as though he had collided in midair. The predator, aiming for unfamiliar prey, whipped its tail and relentlessly pressured the greatsword.
Crunch, crunch. The fierce teeth scraped across the sword. The strength of the predator was imnse. Assessing the predator’s power, Vladimir twisted his body. He firmly planted one foot into the ground, twisted his shoulder and waist to gather strength, then unleashed his full force with a powerful swing of his greatsword.
The sword energy cut through the sea, leaving a large wound. The sword energy, which extended far, vanished, and the unfortunate sea beast, who had failed to assess its opponent properly, was cleaved in two. The fish, which had aid for a treat, beca a treat itself, now food for another fish.
Vladimir had made an incredible strike, cutting through the sea beast, but his expression remained grim. The sword energy he unleashed was nothing compared to the strike that severed the fin of the sea beast.
And the size of that beast—imnse as it was—was nothing compared to the primal sea beasts. A fish, slightly larger than a human, still had incredible power underwater, so the primal sea beast was in a completely different realm. To cut off a fin still intact after creating a tsunami in one strike?
It wasn’t sothing that could be achieved through strength or technique alone. It was an area only touched by logic, or sothing approaching the demon lord’s level. Only beings like a sword master or demon king could even begin to discuss the possibility.
But... could it really be them? Vladimir couldn’t draw conclusions so hastily.
"Sothing’s happening."
The shadow of Tyrkanzyaka. The human king. And that ‘sothing’ that attacked the sea beast. In the chain of unusual events, Vladimir sensed a massive shift.
The world is changing. Vampires living within it must inevitably change too. No matter how much they want to stay the sa, the unrelenting flow of the world won’t let them remain as they are. Vladimir confird once more that his choice was not wrong.
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