Chapter 94 : Irregular
Chapter 94. Irregular
“Demon, it’s a deeemooon!”
A musketeer who had lost an arm shrieked like a madman.
“Juan! Get a hold of yourself!”
Norn shouted, but it was useless. The figure that looked as though it had crawled up from the Deep Sea raised its bizarre arm and simply snatched up the one-armed musketeer, devouring him whole.
“Save me! Gwaaaaaagh!”
Gulp.
The musketeer, seized by an arm belonging to a monster whose form could not be described as hand, foot, tentacle, or maw-something beyond any of those-was sucked inside. He writhed as though resisting within the thin arm, but in the end, the movement ceased from within.
-Worship.
The resonance spread once more, and soon strange phenomena began to appear. The fabric of reality warped, and it seemed as though a form from some distant beyond was crashing into the present world.
The horizon was made of blood, and at the end of a path embroidered with maple leaves, the faint shapes of distant spires and a city shimmered.
“Worship… we must worship.”
While watching from afar, Yul heard the sailors aboard the ship begin to chant those words.
When he turned his head, they were all vacant-eyed. Bloody tears streamed from their eyes, and they muttered words he could not understand.
“Worship… the Deep Sea…”
“Worship… Him…”
“Let us all become prey.”
One sailor who looked especially frail suddenly plunged into the sea with a splash and never resurfaced.
Yul frowned at the sense of dissonance.
‘A Seaborn that devoured another Seaborn changes this much? There’s something more here that I don’t know.’
No matter how he looked at it, this was not a natural phenomenon.
The minds of ordinary people were being corrupted, and the surrounding scenery was twisting into something unnatural.
The moment Yul saw the musketeers being devoured one by one, he immediately reverted to his original form through Polymorph.
‘I see it.’
Within Yul’s six pairs of eyes, the scenery beyond came into view.
It was no illusion. Nor was it something created by that grotesque aberration. That was a truly existing ancient city, not here, but far below-deep, deep beneath.
From afar, an orchestra began to sound, as though countless screams were performing in unison.
‘That doesn't belong to our sea.’
Yul instinctively knew that the colossal city of spires did not exist within Phantaratsa.
Its origin lay somewhere unimaginably distant.
Perhaps it existed within another hierarchy of the Cake World.
That airspace, drawn ever closer by the call of the aberration once called Padur, seemed as though it were descending into reality itself.
As the otherworld and reality began to draw near, Yul immediately activated the power of his Demon Eye.
Sea-Sync Demon Eye.
The waves swayed according to Yul’s will. The surrounding horizon began to distort, and the blood-dyed sea heaved violently.
As the flow of the sea reversed, he felt the otherworld momentarily recede. And at that very instant, the aberration recognized him.
-Existence of the Moon!!!
The aberration, which had been toying with the musketeer unit, stopped and stretched its arm toward Yul.
-Get your arm off me.
Terrifying telekinesis erupted and crushed the arm midair.
Then Yul’s body moved. Finishing an explosive acceleration flight in an instant, he completed a partial evolution into blade-like fins.
Swinging his elongated arm like a weapon, he cut straight across the aberration’s body.
The aberration, which could not compare to Yul in sheer size, was split cleanly in half in a single stroke, yet it did not die.
Its body had divided into upper and lower halves, but they are reattached.
Then it curled in on itself and began to writhe. Its interior churned for a long while before giving birth to a new form.
Its upper body resembled that of a human, but countless eyes surfaced across its exterior. Its lower half manifested as ragged fins with tattered tentacles attached.
-O impious clan, who dare not worship the Deep Sea!
-What exactly are you?
-Become His prey and render your worship!
It was sending magic signals, yet no true communication was possible.
The writhing tentacles from its lower body surged upward like blood and stabbed toward Yul. He lightly evaded and widened the distance, circling through the air.
‘The musketeer unit and the ship have fled.’
The musketeer unit, having regained their senses after Yul’s attack, had returned to the ship, turned it around, and escaped.
All the better. He no longer had to fight while worrying about them.
From an unfathomable distance… the sound of reverent chants in countless languages echoed.
The aberration below was not the real concern. The problem was something drawing closer behind it.
‘Is what lies beyond an Outer God?’
A chill ran down Yul’s spine. It felt like something outside the laws of their world.
The moment his divine authority glimpsed a fragment of that distant being, a shudder ran through him.
‘It’ was watching Yul.
Not a Sea God, nor a Lord of the Abyss—something more fundamentally wrong was approaching.
Yul immediately descended and charged toward the aberration.
He took the incoming tentacles head-on. A chunk of flesh was torn away, but he ignored the damage and closed in.
A conventional slash or thrust would not work against that monster.
-Die.
Unleashing his telekinesis skill to its absolute limit, he began crushing the aberration at once.
Crack. Craaack.
Just as the aberration had crushed the musketeer unit, Yul crushed the aberration in turn.
An inefficient attack, but with overwhelming magical output, he forced it through with raw power.
There was some resistance, but unable to maintain its form, the creature’s body began to compress under omnidirectional pressure.
At the same time, Yul used the Sea-Sync Demon Eye to spread the surrounding seawater far and wide.
Simply dispersing the magic-contaminated sea caused the otherworldly vision to recede.
‘Was the condition to summon the otherworld this monster’s bleeding?’
At the end, the aberration had torn its own body apart, pouring out an immense quantity of blood.
As the corrupted blood spread far across the Great Azure Ocean, the encroachment of the otherworld vanished.
-Wor... ship.
And the aberration was compressed down to the shape of a sphere before being completely annihilated.
‘Is it over?’
Yul realized that the eerie orchestra from the otherworld was no longer audible.
It was completely over. The otherworld had failed to descend, and the corrupted magic power of what had once been Padur spread widely throughout the entire Great Azure Ocean.
‘This wasn’t just a simple subjugation.’
Did Lui know? Probably not. If he had, he wouldn’t have sent only the Marsh Musketeer Unit.
Yul stared at the crushed corpse of the aberration—his eyes widened.
From within it, a single Sea Horror crawled out.
-What?
It wasn’t just any Sea Horror. It was a Sea Horror with a completely white body. Yul immediately seized it with telekinesis, preventing it from slipping back into the sea.
Unlike other Sea Horrors, this one wasn’t black and didn’t ooze tar. It looked like smooth white porcelain.
He was about to eliminate it on the spot when it emitted a magic signal.
-Ah. Hehe. Th-this is shameless of me, but please spare my life.
-What?
This was absurd. A parasite had intelligence?
-I’m just a humble fellow parasitizing this Seaborn, sir.
-How are you even speaking? And why is a parasite…?
A Sea Horror parasite was a Seaborn that parasitized other lifeforms.
For it to crawl out of that monstrous aberration’s body and act like this didn’t add up.
-Did you create that monster to summon the otherworld?
-Absolutely not, sir. I was living comfortably as a parasite, but at some point, I got dragged along by that fellow called Padur, I tell you.
-Explain.
It had neither eyes nor a nose, yet somehow it felt as though it were watching Yul, like it possessed a sense of awareness.
-Well, you see. First, um, I should introduce myself. I’m a good parasite who escaped the evil rule of the Mother Nest. My name’s Puyo, sir.
-……?
Could this even be possible?
-So I ignored all the Mother Nest’s orders and ran away. I just parasitized some random Seaborn and kept quiet, but wouldn’t you know it, the Seaborn I attached to started eating other Seaborns and seemed to realize something.
-Realize something?
-I don’t know what kind it ate, but after devouring a Seaborn that looked like a plesiosaur, it got ‘corrupted’ by something. So even when I tried to control it, it slipped out of my control, you see?
-And then?
-Since my control didn’t work, I tried to abandon ship and escape, but it forcibly prevented me from leaving. Then it ate its own Sinker, stored him in its belly, and committed the cruel act of keeping it alive just to force-feed it nutrients. After that, it started devouring both Seaborn and humans alike.
Yul fell into thought over whether he should trust the white Sea Horror parasite’s words.
To begin with, his only perception of parasites was that they were biological weapons of the Mother Nest.
They had never displayed self-awareness or sent magic signals like this before.
-Even if swallowing its Sinker was to use skills, why did it eat humans and Seaborns in the first place?
-I'm not sure about that either, sir. After eating that plesiosaur-looking Seaborn, it kept muttering about worship to the deep sea and went on doing that sort of thing. I tried to stop it because causing such a ruckus would attract attention and ruin my comfortable parasitic life, but my control just wouldn’t work.
After listening, Yul spoke.
-Or perhaps you’re lying about everything. Maybe you controlled that Seaborn called Padur, made it devour Seaborns and humans, and tried to summon an Outer God from the otherworld. You certainly look the part.
That explanation was far more plausible than the creature’s excuses.
-Th-that can’t be! Please spare me! I’m a weak little parasite who couldn’t do such things. Just one body and four tentacles, born a pathetic creature, that’s me!
-Even if that’s true, why should I spare a talking parasite? Die.
-W-wait a moment! I'll give you useful information! Please spare me!
As Yul reached out to crush it with telekinesis, Puyo shrieked in terror. Yul paused the pressure for a moment, signaling for it to speak.
-W-what would you like to know…?
Craaaack.
-Gwaaaaagh!! No, no! W-wouldn’t you be curious about Sea Horrors? I-I know the location of the Mother Nest!
Yul halted.
-You truly know?
-Yes! If you wish, I’ll guide you there! This Puyo will reveal the location of that vile Mother Nest, so please just spare my life!
-Hmm.
If it truly knew the Mother Nest’s location, that would help with the Sea Horror subjugation planned for winter break.
But what if it was lying and planning to summon an Outer God again from the otherworld?
-I’ll spare your life. But you’ll be kept under control.
-Spare me, and I shall serve you loyally, sir.
Yul retrieved the corpse of the aberration he had compressed into a sphere and picked up the talking parasite, Puyo, as well.
With a brief flight, he located the subjugation unit that had fled earlier.
Most of them were not in their right minds.
“Y-you are… Count Provence?”
Seeing Yul’s true form, the haggard Norn looked shocked.
Yul immediately used Polymorph to return to human form. He retrieved the clothes he had left on the ground and dressed himself.
“G-good heavens, your form really changed—”
“How are the others?”
“They’re not in their right minds. The musketeer unit has two dead and one severely wounded.”
Norn herself was injured in several places, and of the crocodile Seaborn, one had died while the rest were badly hurt.
They had suffered tremendous damage in a brief clash. Retreating had been the wise choice.
“I’ve subjugated it.”
“Y-you defeated that monster?”
Norn looked at Yul with awe, fear, and reverence mingled in her eyes.
“Do you have a glass bottle?”
“Ah, yes. We have one that used to hold preserves, but….”
Yul took the glass bottle from the captain, grabbed the wriggling Puyo, and placed it inside for storage.
-I, Puyo, will not run away!
-How could I trust you? Stay in there for now.
-Understood, sir.
First, he needed to speak with Lui.
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(T/N): Why is Puyo somehow cute? LOL
M-O-T-I-V-A-T-I-O-N *back flip* *cheers with pom-poms*