What happened after the monster fell was simpler than expected.
The enormous corpse lay half-submerged in the sea, unmoving. Blood, chunks of flesh, and severed tentacles scattered across the water drifted away with the current.
The soldiers lowered their weapons with trembling hands, and even the mercenaries sank to the deck, gasping for breath.
“We’re alive… We really did it.”
Someone’s hoarse voice slipped away, buried beneath the sound of the waves.
But harsh reality soon followed.
The ship had already split in several places from the impact and was taking on water, and those who had fallen lay sprawled across the deck.
Half the soldiers who had joined the battle had not returned.
With the commander gone, there was no chain of command. In the end, actual command had no choice but to fall to Sergeant Jackson.
“Recover the dead, and let the monster’s corpse drift into the sea. We have no time to waste. We’re turning this ship around and returning to the island.”
With his face set stiffly, Jackson gave the order.
The soldiers silently threw the corpses into the sea.
Before they even touched the air, the sound of something snatching them from beneath the water could be heard.
Small deep-sea anglerfish, or perhaps other fish, swarmed in, and in an instant only blood-red foam remained.
“Everyone’s too exhausted to search now.”
“Damn it… In the end, we never even made it to their lair.”
Valdik grumbled and threw his broken spear shaft to the floor.
It was true that we had killed the monster, but the problem still remained.
Was this the end, or had we merely caught one of them?
Above all, how would the kingdom take this matter?
On the ship returning to the island, the stench of blood mixed with the sea wind and dug into my nose.
And though no one said it aloud, the same question circled in all our minds.
‘Is it really over?’
***
After we returned to the island, the harbor was already thick with the air of war.
The soldiers and residents waiting atop the walls welcomed us with cheers, but the expressions of those who disembarked from the ship were only heavy.
Their cheers did not last long. Once the list of the dead was quickly compiled, the faces of those left behind all turned solemn.
“…Can we really call this a victory?”
Sailun muttered quietly.
The kingdom’s administrator immediately prepared a report to send to the royal capital.
But with the military commander dead, it was uncertain who would bear the responsibility.
Sergeant Jackson said he would handle the report himself, but even he could not hide his unease.
Meanwhile, I lay down at the inn with my companions, but I couldn’t properly close my eyes.
“Still, we should be able to cross tomorrow.”
“Yeah. It would’ve been better if we could’ve crossed today.”
“It can’t be helped. They said the checkpoint won’t reopen until a report goes to the kingdom.”
At first, I’d thought we would be able to cross right away, but it wasn’t such a simple matter.
I didn’t know what system they operated under, but at the very least, it seemed we couldn’t pass through as we pleased.
If we still couldn’t pass tomorrow, Sergeant Jackson had promised to secretly turn a blind eye.
So now, at last, we really could leave.
“What do you think those monsters were?”
Sailun asked, looking to the side.
“I don’t know either. If someone like Chad were still around, we could’ve asked him, but he’s gone now.”
“Hmm… I’m sure that monster was the mother that gave birth to the deep-sea anglerfish.”
Sailun nodded as if in thought and continued.
“Well, I suppose the name doesn’t matter. From what I heard, attacks by sea monsters have happened before, but this was the first time one that lives in the deep sea came up directly.”
Valdik muttered with his eyes closed.
Why did something like this have to happen precisely when we came to this island?
The cause seemed to lie with the earthquake, but in our current state, we had no energy left to dig any deeper.
Had that earthquake truly been a natural phenomenon, or had someone deliberately caused it?
If it was natural, then our luck had simply been atrocious.
But if it was man-made…
‘Why on earth are they targeting us…?’
Nothing was certain.
Perhaps it was only paranoia.
But at the very least, the fact that we had survived for now was clear.
“Do you think he’ll be all right?”
“Who knows.”
Ranson’s servant had been carried to a physician as soon as the operation ended.
He had collapsed with his entire body stiff from the price of using the relic, so in truth, leaving him with a physician probably wouldn’t change much.
Even so, they must have felt desperate enough to grasp at straws.
That was how formidable this enemy had been.
We still didn’t even know his name.
We weren’t exactly close enough to exchange greetings, and we were going to part ways once we reached the kingdom anyway, so that was understandable.
Still, Valdik had gotten along fairly well with Ranson and his servant, yet even he didn’t know, which said enough.
When I asked, Valdik answered like this.
“His name? He says he doesn’t have one.”
“What? Isn’t he a servant, not a slave?”
“That’s not what I mean. Apparently, he literally doesn’t have a name at all.”
When I first heard it, I was dumbfounded. A person with no name?
But Valdik added calmly.
“It’s probably some relic penalty. I said I’d give him a name, but by the next day, I couldn’t remember a single thing.”
“…Hmm.”
What kind of relic demanded such a great price?
From what I had seen myself, depending on how intensely he used it, his body became paralyzed; normally, he could barely even speak; and he had even lost his name.
The name [Chains of Resolve] certainly suited that penalty.
Without that much resolve, one probably wouldn’t be able to wield it in the first place.
If all relics were monstrous objects like that, then I probably wouldn’t be able to handle one for the rest of my life.
“I’m a bit hungry. Shall we go down and eat something?”
“No, I don’t have an appetite.”
“Hmm… Then how about a drink—”
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble—
Before Valdik could finish, the ground shook.
A cup rattled and rolled off onto the floor.
“A-an earthquake?”
The walls creaked, and dust rained down.
Outside the window, the sea heaved, black waves surging, and screams burst out from the direction of the harbor.
I instinctively sprang up from my seat and found my balance.
This time, too, it was not a simple aftershock.
It was the same as what I had felt before, a vibration that seemed to echo up from the depths of the abyssal sea.
‘Don’t tell me, again?’
I hurriedly gathered my equipment and ran out to the shore, where soldiers who had gathered first were staring at the sea with puzzled expressions.
What was there that had frozen them like that?
“…A person?”
The first thing to appear as it cut through the waves was someone in a long, trailing robe, their face hidden behind a silver mask.
There were no patterns or ornaments on the mask, only a cold silver sheen glittering under the moonlight.
I could tell even from afar.
Whoever it was, they were suspicious—no, threatening.
The soldiers all leveled their spears at once.
The silver-masked figure walked out, drenched in seawater, and gave off an overwhelming pressure simply by existing.
“Halt! Come any closer and we’ll attack!”
Sergeant Jackson shouted, but the end of his voice trembled.
The silver mask slowly raised its head.
Beyond the smooth mask, which did not even have holes bored into it, no emotion could be read.
Then a low voice flowed out, cutting through the sound of the waves.
“…It fell to the likes of you?”
At those words, a cold tension spread among the soldiers.
‘Fell? Who is he talking about?’
The only thing we had taken down recently was…
Belatedly, the soldiers and I both realized who those words were directed at.
The giant deep-sea anglerfish.
He was talking about the monster we had barely managed to bring down.
Cold sweat ran down my spine.
“You, what the hell are you!”
Sergeant Jackson raised his voice, but the silver mask gave no answer.
Instead, he slowly lifted both hands high.
‘What… Is he surrendering at this point?’
For an instant, that mistaken thought crossed my mind.
Just as several soldiers began to edge closer toward the silver mask with his hands raised—
Sploosh!
A massive column of water surged up, splitting the sea.
“Th-that’s…!”
“Impossible! It was definitely dead!”
What emerged from the darkness was clearly the giant deep-sea anglerfish we had just felled.
But I realized it soon enough.
The wounds we had inflicted remained all over the anglerfish’s body, and even the blood that had gushed from it was still flowing.
Above all, there was no life in its eyes.
It was an unnatural sight, as if a corpse had been forcibly dragged out and made to move.
When the silver mask finished his gesture, the monster’s jaws creaked and slowly opened.
As though vomiting something up, more small forms began crawling out together with foul-smelling foam.
‘Did he revive the dead?’
A chill poured down my spine.
The man, clad in the might of a legion of monsters, lowered both hands and spoke.
“Even trash like this should have some small value as sacrifices.”
“Sacrifices…?”
In that instant, my spine went cold. Sacrifices?
Was he trying to conduct some ritual? Could it be a group of black mages?
All kinds of guesses flashed through my head, but the silver mask calmly continued.
“Those who surrender even now, I will allow to meet death peacefully.”
His voice was low and indifferent, but that made it even more chilling.
He wasn’t saying he would spare us. He meant he would kill us without pain.
The soldiers’ faces on the deck hardened to an ashen gray.
It was so quiet I could clearly hear someone swallow.
I felt it instinctively.
That masked man was far more dangerous than any monster we had faced until now.
“No one? As expected, pathetic—”
Boom!
A water bomb that flew straight at the silver mask exploded like a crashing wave.
For an instant, the masked man’s body was hidden within the mist.
“Now!”
At my shout, the soldiers let out roars as if releasing their tension and raised their weapons.
Bang!
The silver mask emerged through the water mist, standing exactly where he had been without budging.
The hem of his robe was wet, but his body had not moved even an inch.
“Magic…?”
What enveloped his body was a black hemispherical barrier.
Steam hissed as though melting against the surface of the barrier, but in the end, the barrier did not disappear in the slightest.
A low voice carried over the waves.
“Well, now. It seems a truly usable sacrifice was mixed in after all…”
At those words, the surrounding sea churned, and black shapes rose, bobbing up from the water.
“…Bring him to me.”
Thudududududu!
The monsters began charging onto the shore all at once.
“Form ranks!”
“Hold them back!”
The soldiers hastily reorganized their lines, but with their exhausted bodies, it was not enough.
In the chaos, several monsters forced their way between the shields and tangled with the soldiers.
Spear tips drove in, and blood splattered.
Screams, monstrous cries, the clang of steel, and the sound of waves mixed together and filled the shore.
‘Shit, my mana hasn’t even fully recovered yet.’
How long had it even been since the battle ended…?
Right now, simply standing on the battlefield made me feel as if I were drying up.
And it wasn’t just me. Everyone was still gasping for breath.
“You damn bastards!”
“Kugh!”
Valdik gritted his teeth and swung his sword, while Sailun, unable to properly draw his bowstring, kicked away a monster that had come too close.
The soldiers, too, braced themselves and fought, but all they could do was hold on.
And then.
At the center of the swirling waves, the silver mask calmly watched the scene.
As though he were merely observing the massacre he had set loose.
‘He’s definitely the one controlling them.’
I didn’t know what method he was using. But it was certain that the monsters swarming here were the silver mask’s doing.
Then—if we could somehow take him down.
My gaze instinctively shifted beside the mask.
There, the giant deep-sea anglerfish still loomed.
Its appearance was already no different from that of a dead corpse, but its sheer mass alone was overwhelming.
Each time its rotting flesh swayed with the waves, it radiated a wall-like pressure.
‘If I want to target him… I have to get past that monster first.’
My breathing quickened.
On one side, soldiers were screaming and collapsing; on the other, monsters were rushing in to tear through the formation.
Even amid all that, the silver mask did not so much as twitch.
He simply turned his head toward me in a strange way—as if he were waiting for me.
‘If it’s now.’
I gathered up every last scrap of mana I had left.
A trembling blue light formed at my fingertips, and the compressed sphere pulsed like a heartbeat pounding against my chest.
I fired it straight at him.
Silver Mask looked at it and tilted his head back as if sneering, then spread out that black barrier again as though this were all familiar.
He must have thought it would scatter and vanish like a wave once more.
But this time was different.
The blue sphere did not burst the moment it touched the barrier. Instead, it spread across its surface.
In an instant, a massive stream of water enveloped the barrier, then covered and coiled around Silver Mask’s entire body.
Swaaaaaash!
[Water Prison]
The sphere of water swelled as if surging up from the sea, completely swallowing Silver Mask.
Cut off on all sides, he had no choice but to flounder inside the prison of water.
The monsters charging across the shore all shuddered as if convulsing, then came to a halt.
Their screeches stopped as well, and the footsteps that had been rushing in like a wave were cut off all at once.
“They… they stopped!”
Hope flashed across the soldiers’ faces.
Sailleon lowered his trembling bow and shouted.
“He’s trapped! For real this time!”
My breath came in ragged gasps.
My whole body swayed as if it had been hollowed out, but I gritted my teeth.
I couldn’t let this chance slip by.
However, inside the Water Prison, Silver Mask slowly lifted his head.
His robe was soaked through, but that bizarre silver mask did not so much as waver.
Then, a low voice seeped out from within the sphere.
“…How ridiculous.”
Crack— crackle—
Spiderweb-like fractures spread across the surface of the water sphere.
I tried to wring out more mana as if screaming, but my fingertips were already empty.
My body trembled, and my vision shook.
Boom!
The Water Prison burst apart.
Scattered droplets of water fell like rain, and Silver Mask slowly revealed himself.
There was not the slightest tremor in his steps, and the monsters that had stopped around him began to shriek and charge again all at once.
The soldiers’ cheers turned to despair in an instant.
Thud.
My knees buckled, and I planted a hand on the ground.
The hope I had grasped for a single moment slipped through my fingers like sand.
If only I had slept today and leveled up, I would have been better off than this.
But it was already too late for regrets.
All that remained was to accept the result.
Watching the monsters approach, I pulled out the mace at my waist.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
At that moment, an unfamiliar sound rang out in succession, cutting through the sea.
At that strange noise, everyone’s gaze turned toward the water.
Something was swimming toward us from beneath the deep, dark surface.
A silver-shining figure was slicing through the sea with his bare body, splitting the waves apart.
Amid the suffocating tension, that unknown something drew closer and closer.
The closer it came, the more a strange yet oddly familiar sense of déjà vu washed over me.
“…A helmet?”
Swaaaaaash!
Step, step, step.
Breaking through the violent spray, he emerged wearing a silver helmet and set foot on the sand.
Then, receiving everyone’s stares all at once, he opened his mouth without even bothering to take off the helmet.
“Oh, I finally made it. By any chance, do you have something to eat?”
It was Chad.
The identity of the madman who had appeared by splitting the sea was none other than Sir Chad.
He calmly spoke to Silver Mask, who stood before him.
“Why aren’t you answering? If you don’t have any, just say so.”
Silver Mask merely stared at him in silence, as if observing prey.
Feeling that gaze, Chad tilted his head and muttered.
“What, can’t you talk?”
Guuuuuuuuuuuu—
Just then, the vast surface of the water split open beside him, and a deep-sea anglerfish poked out its head.
With empty eyes, it opened its maw wide and lunged to swallow Chad whole.
Chad’s eyes widened for a moment, then he spoke as if delighted.
“So there was something to eat.”
Kwaaaaaang!
The instant the colossal anglerfish’s jaws snapped shut with enough force to shake the ground, waves and sand erupted in every direction.