"Woooaahh!"
The monster roars loudly, raising its blue trident, which could be seen as a symbol of the Sea God.
With an estimated size easily exceeding 10 ters, the sight of such a huge creature wielding an equally imposing weapon sends chills down my spine. Just imagining the impact of that weapon coming down is terrifying. If one were to fail to dodge, the outco would be predictably dire.
"Huuaah!"
However, despite its massive size, its movents are notably slow. Even in the unfamiliar waters, it was easy to evade.
Kwaang!!
But with every slow movent, its powerful strike causes waves to erupt from the point of impact.
"Keeuk!"
Once again, the turbulent waves push us farther from the shore.
"Herol-!"
"——!"
In an instant, I find myself distanced from Erina and Mir. Their desperate shouts quickly fade as the distance between us grows.
"Woooaahh!"
Relic Ta, screaming needlessly again, glares at with eyes so red that they seem to be glowing.
Relic Ta, the forsaken child of the Sea God.
As the title suggests, he was originally the Sea God's direct offspring. However, due to so unknown reasons, he was abandoned by his father, transforming him into this monstrous form. Although his history has been erased, there were tales that he once had a unique na before becoming Relic Ta.
According to the lore, he wasn't always like this. In the past, he was a handso man, loved by many won irrespective of their species. Due to his divine bloodline, he possessed incredible power over the seas and was a proud individual, believing everything in the world sided with him.
However, his arrogance eventually led to his downfall. He challenged his own father to a duel, and as expected, suffered a humiliating defeat. The Sea God, in his wrath, took away Relic Ta's beauty, transforming him into a grotesque creature—half-man, half-octopus. He also stripped him of his mories and intellect, replacing them with insatiable desires and violent tendencies. Finally, the Sea God renad him "Relic Ta", which ans "forsaken", and cast him into the depths of the ocean.
As a result, the once-beloved son of the sea beca a dreaded monster, known only for his ambushes on unsuspecting victims. His tragic end was a far cry from his glorious past. Despite his impressive physique and strength, he could only attack the unguarded, making him both fearso and pitiable.
Relic Ta, once revered by all, now beca an object of disdain. Despite his human-like actions, like using weapons, his monstrous screams and brute force made him seem devoid of any real intellect.
"Woooaahh!"
Let's pause the ga's backstory here and return to the present. We are now face-to-face with Relic Ta, the very objective of our quest.
"Haaah!!"
The giant, Relic Ta, roars and throws his trident towards . However, due to his sheer brute-force approach in combat, it was surprisingly difficult for his attacks to land on target. The trident that landed near created another massive wave, closing the distance between us.
It felt as if I was in a swimming pool with wave machines, with my body being tossed around. The dizziness made it hard to focus.
"Focus...!"
Determined to bring him down, I fixate my gaze on him with the intent of landing at least one blow.
I reach out towards Relic Ta, gradually gathering my magic power and concentrating my energy to aim at him.
But the continuous waves made aiming difficult.
If I were to miss with a spell that can only be used once, it would be a dire situation. Already incapacitated, and without the girls by my side, I'd be utterly defenseless. Without protection, I would be vulnerable.
The risk of using my magic without certainty of success made hesitate.
"This should do it...!"
After much struggle, I was finally able to aim, and began to cast my spell...
"Woooaahh!"
Suddenly, Relic Ta dove underwater.
"Where the hell did he go?!"
His sudden disappearance forced to halt my magic, and fear began to creep in.
In the middle of the sea, this was an advantageous location for Relic Ta and a disadvantage for us.
"...?!"
The sudden thought of him pulling under made my skin crawl. I quickly tried to move away, but before I could...
"Uuuuaaahh!"
Thankfully, the horrifying event I imagined did not occur. Relic Ta resurfaced, holding the trident he had thrown earlier.
Seeing him erge so close was both alarming and unsettling.
However, being this close increased the probability of my magic hitting its mark. I didn't know where the girls were, but I had to do what needed to be done.
"Land Termination!"
I cast an earth-based spell, known to be effective against such beings.
"Uuuh?!"
Noticing the large-scale spell being cast beneath him, Relic Ta instinctively recognized the danger, even in his dim-witted state. The huge magical circle emitted tendrils of brown energy, twisting and swirling the surrounding air.
As the energy drained rapidly, I felt my head spin, barely able to keep my eyes open from the exhaustion.
Next ti I et with Elle or Ona, I should ask if there's a less draining spell...
Even powerful spells have their limits, especially in complex situations.
"Wooah!"
Enraged, Relic Ta attempted to counter my magic with his trident.
However, the supre magic worked. Starting from the arm holding the trident, Relic Ta began to turn into wood.
"Wha-? Ugh!"
Realizing his impending doom, he struggled. But already, half his arm had transford into wood.
If things continued this way, the battle would end, and he'd be turned into a massive tree.
"Phew..."
I sighed in relief, but...
"009!"
Huh?
In a sudden move, as if he had made a decision, Relic Ta cleanly severed his wooden arm.
Did he have so self-regulation ability?
The unexpected developnt left stunned.
Deciding that the arm was a lost cause, Relic Ta sacrificed it to prevent the further spread of the transformation.
"I didn't expect that...!"
In the end, after pouring all my power into it, I had only managed to remove one of his arms.
Despite his lack of intellect, perhaps his past as a divine being made him a formidable opponent. In hindsight, maybe I underestimated him, basing my expectations on the ga's difficulty level.
Both Mir and the in-ga version appeared early on, allowing players to combat them with lower stats due to ga chanics...
But this isn't a ga. This is harsh reality. It wasn’t just about making judgnts based on the appearance reflected beyond the computer screen. One had to consider the strength set by the developer and the world's lore.
"Grroowll!"
Angered by my attack, Relic Ta growled like a beast, grinding his teeth and raised several tentacles, resembling legs, above the water, aiming at .
Right now, I'm incapacitated. This isn't an environnt where I can move freely.
This ant I had to bear his attack directly.
But I doubted whether I could withstand an attack from such a monstrous creature.
Despair crept into a corner of my heart, possibly due to my bad habit of pessimism that I never corrected. This led to a bitter feeling.
Perhaps it was my complacency in thinking that what I knew was everything that led to this downfall. The situation in front of with Relic Ta felt eerily familiar yet different.
"Woooaahh!"
With what might be his last roar, his intact tentacles ca crashing down towards .
"Ugh!"
I tightly closed my eyes in the face of this sight, bracing for the impact...
"Harold!"
I felt a sensation of floating, accompanied by a familiar voice.
The sound of sothing colliding with the water reached my ears. I opened my eyes to see...
"Are you okay?!"
Erina, who had seemingly co out of nowhere, had saved from Relic Ta's attack.
"Erina?"
Whispering her na, she reassured with a confident smile.
"Thankfully, even though I'm not good at swimming, I managed to move fast enough to get here on ti."
Setting aside the relief of understanding what had just transpired, we discussed our next move.
"How do we deal with that monster?"
Facing my question, Erina's expression beca troubled, revealing her concerns.
"The problem right now is the environnt, not our abilities. As we discussed earlier, fighting in the middle of the sea is at a disadvantage for us. We need to find a way to land. But considering the distance, it doesn't seem likely that he'd let us move to the shore easily."
Then an idea struck .
"Can we possibly lure that creature to land?"
Before I could even finish pondering on how we could get such a massive creature to land...
Suddenly, the sky was covered by a dark shadow.
"Roaarrr!"
A familiar roar echoed, and a giant dragon appeared, lunging at Relic Ta.
"It's Mir..."
Having mostly seen her in human form recently, I had forgotten that she had another form.
Her original form, a huge black dragon, was several tis larger than Relic Ta. She ruthlessly bit into him.
"Aaargh?!"
The Morione reject let out a pained and surprised scream.
"Unbelievable..."
The sight of two gigantic creatures clashing was so surreal, it was captivating.
Soon, Mir, with her fangs firmly clenching onto him, lifted him as if uprooting a plant.
"Uuurgh!"
She took off into the air, flying towards land.
"Erina, let's head to the shore."
At my command, Erina nodded and quickly moved. As we reached the land, we were greeted by the sowhat unpleasant sounds of combat.
After a largely one-sided battle, Mir, without rcy, bit into Relic Ta's neck, ending his life.
After we arrived and after Mir ensured Relic Ta was dead, she ceased her biting and growled softly.
Then, her huge body gradually shrank, and before long, she transford back into the human form I knew.
"Phew..."
Wiping the sweat from her brow, she let out a sigh of exhaustion.
"Thank you, Mir. Because of you, we were able to complete the quest."
In response to my brief expression of gratitude, she nonchalantly shook her head. "There's no need to thank . That monster, Relic Ta, was also my target."
So, Mir was also after Relic Ta?
If that's the case, was she here because her goal aligned with ours?
"What was your goal?"
When I asked, she looked slightly embarrassed but soon confidently said while pointing at the corpse of the monster,
"I've been searching for ingredients for an alchemy I'm interested in. This creature had one of them."
Alchemy? It seed like an unusual goal for her.
Regardless, since she ntioned it herself, I just accepted it without further questions.
"You ca here for the quest, right? Once you get the confirmation, get permission from the quest issuer and hand over the corpse to ."
It seed like the best approach. After all, Mir contributed the most to this endeavor, and it was a win-win for both of us.
"Understood. We'll head to the tourist agency that assigned this task for confirmation. We might need to show the body again, so please try not to damage it too much."
She nodded with a cheerful smile.
"Yes, the parts I need are vital to the creature but won't damage its appearance much. Go on without worries."
Feeling assured by the cooperative Mir, I set off with Erina.
Although I still felt dizzy from the magic exhaustion, the situation seed to be wrapping up nicely, filling with joy.
After Harold and Erina left, the now alone Mir gently touched the chest of the deceased Relic Ta and her gaze beca sharp.
"Is it here?"
With a swift motion, even in human form, she used her sharp nails to tear the skin lightly, revealing the still organ inside.
"This is it..."
In a more serious tone than when she was with Harold, she looked at Relic Ta's heart and effortlessly tore it out. Despite its size, she removed the heart, a grotesque sound echoing.
"A heart forsaken by the gods... I finally have it."
With a sinister smile, she lifted the heart.
"Now I only need one more ingredient. I'm almost there."
What exactly is this alchemy that she's so interested in?
To understand that, we'd have to go back to the ti she visited the temple of Morione.
Back then, she had heard about the possibility of acquiring Harold.
"To connect with Harold, you need the ability to follow him wherever he goes. Even if, as per my prophecy, he disappears as if he's not from this world, you alone should be able to find him. I'll tell you how."
With that, Morione revealed to Mir a forbidden magic unknown to anyone in the world, also explaining the alchemy and its ingredients.
"Are you sure?"
Mir had been skeptical when she first heard about the bizarre and possibly nonexistent magic.
"While I can't say it's 100% after you've discovered it, this thod seems to have the highest probability."
Since it was advice from the goddess of fate, she reluctantly accepted.
Back in the present, Mir, having acquired the heart of the Morione deity's forsaken child, stared at the bloody lump for a while and then murmured,
"Harold... I'm not sure where you disappeared to in the future Morione spoke of, perhaps not even in this world."
She continued with a monologue that would have been shocking if Harold had heard,
"But if I complete this magic, then no one but will remain by your side."
What exactly was the magic Mir learned from Morione? The truth remained unknown.
She seed lost in deep thought, her eyes narrowing as she continued murmuring her purpose.
"Once that happens, you'll never be able to escape from . By the ti you co to your senses, it'll be an environnt where you won't want to and can't leave."
Still visualizing his figure, she was certain of her destiny and smirked with a sinister smile.
"Look forward to it. I'll definitely make you mine."
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