Chapter 174 : Frozen Sea (3)
Frozen Sea (3)
― KUUUUUUNG!
The ship rocked violently.
It felt like the entire sea was overturning from the impact.
"U-aaaah!?"
"What was that? A reef!?"
The mercenaries on deck lost their balance and tumbled across the boards.
Ian gripped the rail tightly, his eyes fixed on the massive shadows surging up from beneath the dark blue sea.
'They're here.'
― KWAAAAANG!!
The thick sheet of ice surrounding the ship shattered explosively.
From the cracks, grotesque shapes sprang forth.
They were monstrous, half-human, half-fish creatures, their entire bodies covered in chilling blue ice spikes.
"KIEEEEEEKK!!"
"KRRRRRRRRR!!"
Their eyes were bloodshot, consumed by furious demonic energy.
They were sahagin—ferocious demonic beasts imbued by the Cult of Fury's support to Albrecht.
"Attack! We're under attack!"
"Everyone, get ready for battle! Draw your weapons! More of them are coming up!"
Battle erupted amidst the shouting.
― PABABABAT!
Dozens—no, hundreds—of sahagin swarmed up onto the colossal deck like a training ground, swinging hooked claws as they climbed.
"You fish-headed bastards, where do you think you're going!?"
The mercenaries slashed back with axes and swords.
But these were no ordinary monsters.
Marinated in demonic energy, they felt no pain, and charged without any fear of death.
"A-aaah! What the hell are these things? My sword isn't piercing them— Aaaagh!!"
"Help! My arm! Ahh! My arm!"
The deck was instantly plunged into chaos, screams and roars of the allied forces erupting from every direction.
"You useless fools! Out of the way!"
At that moment, a sharp shout cut through the din, and a golden flash crossed the deck.
― PAAAT!
Where the flash had passed.
The heads of the charging sahagin all shot into the air, spraying blood.
"P-princess!"
"Aah! I'm saved!"
Mercenaries who had thought death inevitable collapsed to the deck in relief.
Veronica looked down upon them with scornful eyes.
"To think you're cowering before such pathetic creatures. Utterly disgraceful. Mercenaries, honestly..."
Veronica withdrew her gaze with a sigh and swung her blade even more sharply.
― CHACHACHAK!
With every sweep of her sword, golden beams surged forth, ripping and bursting through the sahagin.
Such overwhelming might truly befitting one of Hisperion's direct lineage.
However—
"KIEEEEEK!!"
"KRRRRRR!!"
Despite Veronica's fierce efforts, the number of monsters crawling up from beneath the sea showed no sign of decreasing.
In fact, it seemed even more were being drawn by the scent of blood.
"Wh-what is this...!"
Veronica's lips trembled slightly.
Even in Black Ice territory, where monsters frequently appeared, it was unnatural for this many demonic beasts to swarm all at once.
"Imperial army! Knights! Where...!"
She turned her head, scanning around.
Something was off.
The imperial army officers and her loyal guard knights, who had boarded with her, were nowhere to be seen.
On the deck, there were only panicked mercenaries and herself fighting alone.
"Where the hell is everyone! Damn it! Jochen! Eilie!"
Veronica called out her knights' names, but only the monsters' howls answered.
That's when–
― KUAAAAAA!!
A monstrous wave surged, threatening to capsize the ship.
"Aaaahhh!"
"W-What now!?"
Beside the ship, the sea rose like a mountain.
― KWAAANG!!
From atop the rising swell, eight massive, writhing tentacles reared up hideously.
Slick, mucous-covered hide, suction cups lined with razor-sharp teeth.
"Kr-Kraken!!"
"It's the kraken!!!"
Veronica's eyes went wide.
"Wh-what... Why is the kraken here...?!"
This shouldn't have been the kraken's habitat.
― HOOOOOOOOO!!
The kraken's enormous tentacles slammed into the bow.
― KWAZIK! UJIKKUN!
"Aaahh!"
"Hold on! It's tilting!!"
― KWAAAANG!!
The steel-reinforced hull crumpled like paper and shuddered.
They were at risk of sinking before even reaching the Whale of the Frozen Sea, let alone hunting it.
"Ugh...!"
The kraken was every bit as powerful as a sea ogre, if not more so.
If they didn't deal with it immediately, the ship would sink. Veronica had no choice but to act.
She grit her teeth and gathered her aura.
"Veronica! You're here!"
A familiar, welcome voice called out from behind.
Veronica quickly turned.
An old man clad in a white priest's robe: Archbishop Albrecht.
"Archbishop Albrecht! Where were you until now!?"
Veronica cried out desperately.
"And the others? Where are the imperial soldiers and knights?!"
"Ah, you mean them?"
Albrecht smiled benevolently as he flicked red liquid from his staff.
"They're all... dead."
"...... What?"
Veronica tilted her head in confusion.
What did he just say?
Dead? No... killed?
Huh?
"Archbishop. Did you just... What did you say?"
"Ah, it's rather noisy here. Perhaps you didn't hear me clearly."
Albrecht's lips curled up into a grotesque smile, reaching nearly to his ears.
"I said, I killed them. All of them. With my own hands."
"...?"
"The more sacrifices, the better. The blood of the imperial generals and your knights will make for an excellent catalyst to bring the Grand Duke's advent."
Veronica blinked in shock.
What the archbishop was saying made no sense.
The highly respected high priest of the empire, suddenly claiming to have killed all their allies.
"I really don't understand what you're saying... Is this some bad joke at a time like this? It isn't funny, archbishop."
"Heh heh."
Albrecht, the Archbishop of Pride, clicked his tongue loudly.
"Tsk, tsk. You've failed to grasp the situation even now. I must have done a splendid job acting as a priest, to fool even the noble daughter of Hisperion like you."
― PAAT!
The archbishop leveled his staff at Veronica.
"Wha...!"
Veronica reflexively raised her guard, but...
She was too late.
Not from the tip of his staff, but from within Veronica's own shadow, a crimson beam shot out.
― PUUK!
"... Uhk!?"
― CHAAAK!
"Kuh, huh...!"
The red, wedge-shaped ray pierced her solar plexus with perfect precision.
― KKWADEUK!
With a jagged sound, the main mana circuit linking her dantian and heart—the danjung point—was destroyed.
― CHENGGRANG...!
Veronica's rapier slipped helplessly from her grasp.
"A-ahh...!"
She clutched her solar plexus and dropped to her knees.
She couldn't breathe.
The aura that had filled her body now collapsed uncontrollably as if a dam had burst.
"Y-you...! You...!"
"Hehehe. Now you're starting to understand, Princess. That's a very nice expression."
Albrecht looked down upon the fallen Veronica with a twisted, fishy smile.
"To think it would go this smoothly... I suppose that means my plan was perfect."
Albrecht spread his arms wide.
― KWAAAAANG!!
Behind him, the kraken's massive tentacle wrapped around the ship, bone-crushing sounds thundering like background music.
"Isn't it a truly perfect stage? Now you'll die here, torn apart and eaten by the kraken. Or at least, that's how the world will know it."
Albrecht grabbed Veronica's chin roughly and lifted it.
"In reality, you'll suffer for a while in my laboratory before finally being sacrificed to bring the Grand Duke's advent."
"Y-you...!"
Veronica tried to spit blood in his face, but had no strength left.
A crisis with no escape.
The ship was sinking, her allies were all dead, and her mana circuit destroyed—she was crippled in an instant.
'Is... Is it really over like this...?'
Her ambition to become the Heavenly Sword Lord, all her efforts to make her name known throughout the continent—
Would it all come to nothing atop this cold frozen sea?
'N-no... I can't...!'
Despair and terror surged in Veronica's eyes.
"Your laboratory, you say..."
From behind Albrecht—
A voice as cold as death echoed.
"... Hmm?"
Albrecht began to turn.
"I have something similar myself."
― PUUK!!
A massive, rough greatsword pierced through Albrecht's chest from behind.
"Kuh, kuhuk...!?"
Albrecht's eyes bulged as if about to pop from their sockets.
Coughing up blood, he barely managed to turn his head enough to look behind.
There stood a hulking man in a black hooded robe—Ian.
"... Ah?"
Ian's icy gaze appeared in Veronica's fading, blood- and aura-blurred vision.
― CHUK!
"GYAAAAAH!!"
Ian raised the impaled Albrecht like a flag and spoke coldly.
"Let me show you—my laboratory."
"Kuh, kuk!"
Albrecht glared as blood frothed from his lips.
His eyes shook violently, as if from an earthquake.
The pain was terrible, but confusion dominated his mind.
'What is this guy...!?'
But Ian gave him no time to think.
― UDOODEUK!
"GAHHHH!!"
With a rough twist of his greatsword, Ian crushed Albrecht's mana circuit completely.
Albrecht collapsed, not comprehending the cause of his own defeat.
― CHULPEODEOK!
Ian swung his greatsword, flinging Albrecht's body to the floor like a soaked rag.
― KUOOOOOOOO!!
He'd taken down the archbishop, but there was no time to catch his breath.
The entire sea boomed as if overturning, a massive shadow fell across the bridge.
A tentacle, big as a house: the kraken.
― KWAAAAANG!!
Through the shattered hull, its monstrous suction cups and teeth surged and writhed.
"Ahh..."
Veronica's face turned pale.
'It's hopeless...'
The mercenary before her looked strong and experienced, but not even he could handle the kraken on his own.
Overpowering a priest by surprise and facing a monstrous calamity of the deep were on completely different scales.
To take on a kraken head-on required at least intermediate-rank master level.
There was no way an unnamed mercenary could stand up to such a foe.
'I—I have to help...!'
Veronica bit her lip and forced herself upright.
Suppressing the agony of her shattered dantian, she squeezed out what little aura she had left.
Even if she could only create a distraction to give the man a proper opening—
But then—
― TOK.
The man's large hand pressed down on Veronica's shoulder.
"Eh!?"
She sank back down without even a hint of resistance.
"Remain still. You're a patient."
He firmly pinned Veronica down and strode forward with utter indifference.
Veronica stared at his back in confusion.
'J-just now, what...'
He'd only touched her shoulder, yet it felt like a mountain had come to rest upon her.
As Veronica trembled in shock, Ian gripped his greatsword once more.
― FLAP! FLAP!
His robe whipped violently in the harsh ocean wind.
His exposed forearm swelled with muscular power.
'Frenzied Insight Style.'
Ian held his greatsword horizontally.
At that instant—
― WUUUUUUUNG!!
The air itself screamed.
An overwhelming aura burst from Ian's body, swirling around his greatsword.
With all that power, Ian cut an extremely simple and crude path with his blade.
"First Path."
― BUUUUUUNG!!
A single horizontal slash.
But its might was that of a natural disaster.
― KWAAAAANG!!
Sound itself vanished.
Before the blade even touched, a monstrous pressure wave exploded, bursting every one of the kraken's tentacles, and slicing its massive body into pieces like tofu.
The shockwave didn't stop there—it even sliced through the iceberg towering behind, cleaving it like a carrot all the way up toward the sky.
"KIIIIIIIIEEEEK!!"
The sea's apex predator shrieked in death throes, its flesh scattering in all directions.
"Wha..."
Amid the torrent of blood and flesh, Veronica stared blankly at the man's back.
It all felt utterly unreal—like a dream.
That peerless swordsmanship—on a level she herself couldn't even conceive...
"Just... who are you...?"
She reached out to Ian.
But that was her limit.
Blood pouring from her stabbed solar plexus, her depleted aura—weakness overwhelmed her.
'Ah... no...'
The hand reaching for Ian fell limply.
― TUK.
Her consciousness sank deeply into darkness.