Chapter 269
Chapter 269: I Choose You, Gulton!
The sky above the entire sea remained blanketed in dense, dark clouds.
The chaotic gale was cold and merciless, raking savagely across the heavy, brooding haze, churning up layer after layer of black cloud-waves.
Terrifying waves reared up into surges a hundred meters high, and the turbulent swells kept rolling and thrashing along with the howling wind.
The churning sea surface seemed on the verge of bursting apart at any moment, ready to send another wave crashing skyward.
A thick White Mist hung suspended above the sea, draping the entire dark and fathomless stretch of ocean in a hazy, gauze-like veil.
Fat raindrops plunged toward the sea surface, punching through the white vapor and hammering into the water, sending up foam-ringed ripples.
Countless vessels of every size were swept up, suspended in the air on the back of the raging hurricane.
The fat raindrops came crashing down against the hull, sending heavy, dull thudding sounds reverberating out.
The fishermen aboard huddled inside the cabin, watching the raging wind and rain outside with fear in their eyes.
Having just survived a surge that had nearly grazed the cloud layer itself, they found themselves still among the living.
In that moment, they felt an overwhelming wave of relief.
And yet this was no coincidence.
Livi stood atop the massive vessel, and the intricate, complex Magic Formation at his feet suddenly flickered into view.
In the boundless darkness, it stood out with striking clarity.
Several rotating Formation patterns spread out from beneath Livi's feet, and the multi-hued light surged wildly through the engravings.
The Magic Power within his body seemed to have been drained almost completely dry.
At his feet lay countless emptied Magic Potions.
If not for those potions crafted by the Clavena Family—2 bottles of which the Du Chloe Family purchased every single day—he feared he would have collapsed dead on the spot.
The air had grown oppressively stifling, more suffocating than it had ever been even beneath the earlier downpour.
Magic Power likewise stirred into a turbulent surge, massing ceaselessly at Livi's back, as though it possessed the force to shatter the entire churning ocean to pieces.
Arcane Runes were being carved continuously along the edges of the Formation, and Magic Power was weaving a solid connection throughout the Formation's structure.
The multi-hued Magic Power swiftly engulfed the entire vessel, and even the captain aboard felt the strangeness of it all.
He looked toward Duke Livi standing on the deck, his expression heavy with gratitude.
That hundred-meter surge from moments ago—if Duke Livi hadn't been here...
This ship wouldn't merely have capsized. It might well have been crushed to splinters by the wave!
All one could say was that there was a reason someone became a Duke.
Livi's expression was profoundly grave. Whether it was the continued drain on his Magic Power or something else, a faint sheen of cold sweat had appeared on his brow.
Just now, he had seen it.
Deep within the dense, hazy sea-fog, that enormous, indistinct creature had leapt high above the sea surface.
Then it had splashed back down into the water.
It had done nothing more than submerge itself in the sea.
It had done nothing more than shift its body ever so slightly.
And the entire ocean had instantly erupted into agitation.
Staggering waves, tsunami-like in scale, had surged outward in every direction.
Beneath that frenzied surge, all he could do was hastily use Water Magic to force the vessel against the surface of the wave.
The surrounding fishing boats—he had pushed himself to his limits, using air currents to keep them suspended in the air, preventing them from falling into the ocean and being dashed apart by the waves.
But that was all he could manage. For everyone else, he had no capacity left to spare.
If there happened to be islanders living on some nearby island, well—that had nothing to do with him.
Trying to pit human strength against a Natural Disaster was simply too much to ask...
How on earth did Viktor manage it?
Once the waves settled, Livi released the surrounding fishing boats from the air.
Coming back to himself, he looked toward Erika beside him—she had been continuously channeling Magic Power to him throughout—and felt a wave of warmth:
"Thank you, my dear."
"You were a tremendous help."
Erika returned a gentle, curved smile, though she looked somewhat worn out.
Livi turned his gaze back toward the White Mist.
Nothing could be made out. The heavy White Mist seemed to block out everything completely.
The White Mist was still expanding outward ceaselessly, as though it meant to swallow the entire surrounding sea.
This mass of White Mist—it was almost as though it were searching for someone.
Spreading ceaselessly. Searching ceaselessly.
Livi had always thought he had given the Calamities enough credit.
Yet after witnessing that creature—which had caused a staggering tsunami by doing nothing more than shifting its body—he realized he had still underestimated what these things truly were.
It's up to you from here, Viktor.
Livi gazed into the thick White Mist, his heart a tangle of conflicting thoughts.
***
The ocean remained smothered beneath a blanket of white mist, still profoundly oppressive.
Viktor stood beneath the heavy fog, his entire figure wrapped in the dense White Mist.
Nothing could be seen clearly.
Beneath Dozarel's White Mist, even his own arm was nearly impossible to distinguish.
There was not even a single patch of ground anywhere for him to stand steadily.
So, Viktor needed to create a terrain on the sea surface before Dozarel appeared.
And beyond that, he needed to find a way to dispel the thick, hazy fog hanging all around him.
But he already had a solution for all of it.
Viktor lowered his head and spoke to Weija on his shoulder:
"Where's Heni? Where is she right now?"
"She's safe."
Weija said lightly:
"The moment the White Mist rose, Laiton had already taken Heni away from here."
Bound by the demon's Contract, Viktor could sense Laiton's presence.
He could feel it—at this moment, Laiton had already put considerable distance between itself and them.
After all, this crocodile simply liked to throw tantrums; it wasn't stupid.
A Calamity was the very foundation of the world's elements.
An existence like that, made manifest and physical, was not something a Demon of its kind could afford to casually provoke.
At this moment, Viktor could feel it.
Beneath the vast, turbulent ocean, countless living creatures were trembling without cease, surging in terror into the depths of the sea.
As though hiding.
They feared Dozarel.
And yet the ocean in its entirety, every gift it had ever bestowed upon them, all of it came from Dozarel.
Whooooooom—
The enormous Whale cry rang out once more from the ocean's depths, sending its heavy reverberations spreading outward in every direction.
Sensing the overwhelming threat bearing down on him, Viktor's body turned.
There, within the White Mist, he saw it.
A pair of eyes like lightbulbs, their glow dim and indistinct within the White Mist.
The light traced out a faint silhouette of its body beneath the fog, rendering it startlingly clear.
Its towering body resembled a small mountain, rising from the sea surface.
Its blue body seemed wrapped in a layer of deep-azure haze, its great white belly swelling outward, half-concealed within the White Mist.
The enormous fins on either side stretched open to their full span, extending for well over a kilometer.
Shrouded beneath the white fog, it was an awe-inspiring, breathtaking sight.
In the ocean, it was the absolute sovereign.
Its terrifying Water-element adaptation allowed it to move through the sea as though drifting through open air, and its mastery over Water-element power let it stir up ten-thousand-foot waves at will, utterly obliterating any enemy before it.
The rain pounding down all around it seemed to embody its fury and chaos—that was its power.
【Sunken Star Sea】
The Calamity of Water—Dozarel.
The 1 and only Calamity that roamed the boundless oceans spanning the entire world.
Compared to other Calamities, Dozarel possessed none of the despairing lava of the Calamity of Fire, none of the mighty regenerative power of the Calamity of Wood, and it likewise lacked even the extreme speed of movement possessed by the Calamity of Wind.
And yet, it simultaneously possessed an array of formidable powers of a different kind.
That was—Buffs.
As long as it existed within the ocean, the Calamity of Water could draw endlessly upon power from the ocean's depths.
Over countless ages, that overflowing power had transformed into permanent Buffs on Dozarel's body.
Attack, defense, acceleration, cooldown reduction, Poise.....
Countless accumulated Buffs massed upon Dozarel's body, shaping it into a creature of absolute, extreme power.
And yet—
When the Health Bar stretching a thousand miles appeared before Viktor, and displayed the creature's level in that instant:
Calamity of Water—Dozarel
Lv60
In this battle, the victor could only be him.
Dozarel submerged back into the ocean floor. Its enormous body glided ceaselessly through the depths beneath the sea surface.
By doing nothing more than rolling its body along the seabed, it could stir up ten-thousand-foot waves, attempting to smash Viktor apart completely.
The chaotic rain hammered ceaselessly against Viktor's face.
Viktor's expression remained utterly calm, as though he was entirely indifferent to the raging waves.
He pinched a crimson Formation into existence between his hands, and Magic Power began surging rapidly into it.
Countless engravings began twisting around one another, coiling together, igniting rapidly around Viktor's body.
【4th-Tier Magic: Heaven's Inferno】
Crimson Magic Power erupted from all around Viktor, transforming into a crimson firestorm that spun at tremendous speed above the sea surface.
The scorching heat and the seawater slammed into one another, sending up a thick surge of white steam.
Riding the hurricane, it detonated in an instant in the air, the reverberations sweeping across the sea surface, sending ripples surging outward in all directions.
The towering waves were evaporated completely and utterly by the firestorm.
The flames continued to sweep across the sea surface, chasing Dozarel wherever it swam.
Dozarel dove into the ocean depths, and only then did the firestorm gradually subside, the space smothered once more beneath the White Mist.
Even beyond the White Mist, the people still aboard their fishing boats heard the tremendous roar reverberating from the ocean's depths—and were immediately thrown into panic.
From that enormous sea vessel, Duke Livi's voice came spreading outward through Magic:
"Now—notify all the survivors in the surrounding area to evacuate immediately and get clear of this place!"
Everyone's heart lurched at once, and they hurried to heed Duke Livi's command, working their oars.
Beneath the raging rain and waves, all they could do was flee as fast as they possibly could.
The sea surface was dangerous too—they might die out there on the water.
But if they stayed here any longer—
They would definitely die out here on the water!
The turbulence emanating from within that White Mist—even an ordinary person could feel the staggering power it held within.
No one dared waste a single second at a moment like this.
At the same time, the very instant the waves and flames subsided—
Viktor felt the Magic Power within him drop sharply by a portion.
Viktor looked ahead at Dozarel, hands slipped into his pockets, and spoke with the same unhurried calm:
"So as expected, the elemental attribute is still too much of a strain."
"Well then—let's use something that isn't a strain at all, and have a proper game with you."
The moment his words fell, crimson engravings spread in an instant across Viktor's entire Coat.
A terrifying aura burst forth from Viktor's body, sending ripple after ripple spreading outward across the surrounding sea surface in all directions.
The enormous surge of red Magic Power transformed into flames that swallowed Viktor whole.
At the same time, a towering, colossal body slowly, unhurriedly, rose up from the sea surface.
The overcast sky all around seemed as though some inexplicable force had pried open a thin crack within it.
Sunlight poured ceaselessly through, bathing the body of the lava giant—transformed now into a sea of fire—in its glow.
The great beast strode through the ocean, and the lava falling from its body built up layer after layer of solid obsidian ground across the sea.
Sizzle—Sizzle—
It seemed as though it would evaporate the ocean entirely. Its lower half submerged in the sea, and it sent up sheet after sheet of terrifying steam.
The next instant, the great beast let out a furious roar.
ROAAAAR—!!!
The blazing light of the sky could no longer be smothered by shadow. The staggering sunlight seemed to illuminate all things anew.
The radiance broke through the White Mist. It broke through the cloud layer.
The rain began to ease, replaced by a sky that was half clear and open.
【Scorched Earth】
The sea surface all around began to transform into surging seas of fire.
The great beast stood amid the ocean, carving out a domain for itself by sheer force—
A domain by the name of Flame.
The Calamity of Fire—Gulton.
Lv60!
Viktor stood atop Gulton's head, Staff: Ulruste in hand.
He looked at the Calamity of Water, now fully revealed with the White Mist dispersed, and the corner of his mouth curved upward.
"What I love most, and what I excel at most."
"Is exactly this—on your home ground."
"Crushing everything you have."