It looked as if an abyssal existence from a rift in the world was gazing at Kabila. Squirming lumps of flesh filled the room. Eyeballs moved bizarrely between the bulging pieces of meat. Tentacles squeezing through the gaps writhed.
Fear comes from learning. Humans fear tigers because they have learned it through history and experience. Therefore, those who saw that existence for the first time furrowed their faces in bewilderment, awe, and gruesome dread.
It was the same for the opponent. A brief silence. The pupils exposed between the lumps of flesh moved rapidly.
Kabila muttered as she looked at the giant eye.
"Octopus. Kraken-class."
As the house it had taken as a hideout was destroyed, the octopus flew into a rage and swung its legs. Legs with suckers extending through the windows, the gaps in the roof, and the cracks in the walls flew at Kabila, targeting her.
The heavy and tough legs were weapons and deadly instruments in themselves. Just brushing past them caused the stone walls to collapse with a crash. Kabila threw a bone needle and muttered.
"It's a sea beast that lives in rocky crevices. Because of its size, it's only occasionally seen on Whale Island and hardly ever appears on the coast. I don't even remember how long it's been since I last saw one."
The Dragon Tooth Soldiers that grew from the bone needle rushed in to protect Kabila. Bone knives and bone saws were swung targeting the octopus's legs. However, the tough, sticky, mucous-covered legs did not yield to the bladed weapons. While the Dragon Tooth Soldiers hesitated for a moment, the octopus squeezed and crushed them with its sucker-covered legs. Having shaken off the obstacle, the octopus snatched Kabila with another leg.
*Crack.* The octopus's leg tightened as if to burst Kabila by squeezing her. If she were a normal human, that alone would have crushed her. However, Kabila was calm even as her body was being crushed.
"Since it came up on land, it's not a threat, though."
*Chop.* A giant claw popped out from somewhere and crushed the octopus's leg. It was Kabila's puppet, the lobster. The octopus's tough leg maintained its shape even under the claw's attack, but as the claw, receiving Kabila's command, persistently closed and opened its pincers, the flesh of the octopus's leg was sliced off. When the Dragon Tooth Soldiers' bone knives were added to this, the octopus's leg was finally severed and fell.
Kabila, who fell to the ground, manipulated her blood energy. The severed leg tried to move on its own and attach itself to the body, but Kabila's blood energy seeped into the cross-section and hindered the leg's movement. As the impurities invaded the body, the octopus's leg convulsed and shrank. Then, at some point, red blood seeped in, and the octopus's leg became Kabila's faithful servant.
Baldamir watched Kabila fight quietly and then asked back.
"The conclusion?"
The moment it took its place on land, the octopus's end was already decided. While the Dragon Tooth Soldiers and the lobster dismembered the octopus trying to escape, Kabila turned to look at Baldamir with a fed-up face and answered.
"...There was a collision between the Island Whale and the Cloud Stingray. Otherwise, a tsunami of this scale wouldn't strike during the ebbing season."
"I see."
"I see? Is that all? You're not my older sister! You need to produce results as much as I give you! You keep making me do work as if it's a matter of course, but don't forget that you and I are equals!"
Of course, Kabila knew even as she spoke that it wasn't true. Baldamir was more powerful than her and was the hero who even thwarted the rebellion against the Progenitor. Baldamir was the de facto second-in-command of the principality, standing above all but one.
If Tirkanjaka's mood had been just a little worse... No, if it weren't for her knowledge of the Human King, Kabila might have become a single bite for the Shadow. Realizing her position, Kabila asked in a much more subdued voice.
"So. How about you confess now? How did you know the tsunami was coming and evacuated the humans in advance?"
"There was information."
"Information? About what happens in the deep sea? Who, how, and why?"
Baldamir chose his words for a moment.
He knew who. But he didn't know how or why.
No, he couldn't even be sure of 'who'.
He had encountered them once in Claudia. But 'that' which came to find Baldamir was something different. Like the deep-sea existence he had just seen, it was a class of human entirely different from any kind of entity he had known so far.
While Baldamir was organizing his thoughts, Kabila spoke.
"Surely not. It wouldn't be a Saintess. Floating Castle? The 'Observer' of the Magic Kingdom?"
It was a natural deduction. The Saintess is the nemesis of vampires. As much as vampires hate the Holy Imperial Church, the Holy Imperial Church despises vampires. They would never give a helpful prophecy from their side.
Well, there wasn't zero possibility if it ultimately benefited the Holy Imperial Church. Because a benefit to the Holy Imperial Church meant the extinction of vampires.
"I don't know."
"You don't know? You wouldn't lie, so that means you really don't know. And you ordered the evacuation based on those words?"
"Since I didn't know, it was hard to just brush it off. As you said, I was also busy with the Progenitor's matter at the time. For now, there's no harm in granting a request made by an unknown entity."
Kabila found it strange.
Baldamir is cold and rational. If that unknown entity hadn't been trustworthy, he would have captured and imprisoned it to extract information.
In other words, the fact that he couldn't use that 'rational' solution means...
"The great Red Blood Duke couldn't decide the match?"
Baldamir answered Kabila's doubt honestly.
"I didn't fight."
"Haa? The Red Blood Duke Baldamir, who looks down on all Elders and lives admiring himself, got scared? Your temper has really died down. What were you going to do if the opponent was a Saintess trying to put us in danger?"
Come to think of it, the possibility of it being a Saintess was the highest, but Baldamir nodded and answered.
"I suppose so."
"You suppose so? You act like you can do anything with words, but when it comes down to it, you're irresponsible..."
Ignoring the resentful criticism that went in one ear and out the other, Baldamir moved his greatsword. The sea beasts pushed in from the Abyssal Sea were powerful and dangerous, but they were no match for Baldamir. Leaving only the carcasses for the humans to clean up, Baldamir advanced, clearing the coastline.
As he approached the original coastline... something, a heterogeneous terrain feature, came into his sight.
"What is that?"
"Am I your talking manual? I'm not going to tell you, so figure it out yourse—What is that?"
Even Kabila couldn't close her mouth upon seeing 'that'. The dark mage who had watched over the Abyssal Sea longer than anyone else knew the sea better than anyone else in the world. Of course, one had to take into account that the world knew too little about that vast sea, but anyway, Kabila's knowledge was quite deep and diverse.
Even she was seeing the structure before her eyes for the first time.
It was a size so massive that it made one's sense of reality vanish. Although there were still a few kilometers left to the coast, 'that' with its dark blue spots looked as if someone had thinly sliced a piece of land from somewhere and placed it there. It was too big to say it had drifted in with the tsunami.
"Blood?"
...If they hadn't seen dark red blood flowing from the cross-section, both Kabila and Baldamir would have mistaken it for an island swept in by the tsunami. Kabila sensed the heterogeneous blood energy and said.
"That's a living creature? No, a piece of a creature? Then that means..."
"It's an Abyssal Beast. Is that the fin of the Cloud Stingray?"
A massive size enough to fill the coastline. Meanwhile, the blood flowing from the cross-section supports the fact that it was part of a living creature. It was hard to believe, but that was the only possibility. The dark bluish spots and the vertically extending cartilage also proved that it belonged to the Cloud Stingray.
What could have happened to the Abyssal Beast that was so gigantic and majestic. Kabila muttered.
"Did it really fight with the Island Whale? Sea beasts are beasts for a reason, they're stupid. The size difference is on another level from the start..."
"No. That cross-section is not the mark of a beast."
Baldamir fearlessly walked towards the fin. Kabila hastily followed behind him.
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It was originally a tidal flat, but after the tsunami struck, the seawater rose up to their thighs. The boundary between land and sea was burdensome even for Elders, but Baldamir didn't care and pushed through the current. In the area where neither humans nor Ains could set foot, only Kabila riding the lobster could follow behind him.
"Do you want to die? There's seawater here! I know you're high and mighty right now, but threats approaching from under the water are dangerous even for me or you!"
Baldamir eventually reached the remains of the Abyssal Beast, rendering Kabila's sincere warning meaningless.
The remains of the Abyssal Beast were a disaster for humans, but a festival for someone. Thousands and tens of thousands of fish were tearing at the remains of the Abyssal Beast and filling their bellies. And predators that came to hunt them snatched their prey from the outside from time to time. Hundreds of seagulls circled in the sky, and hundreds of remoras attached to the fin also enjoyed the bountiful feast.
Teeming densely as tens of thousands of beasts devoured it, the cross-section was in an indescribable state. There were even fish that burrowed into the skin and lived inside. It would be nearly impossible to find a clue here.
However. Baldamir, a swordsman, felt the trace of a sword in this massive carnage. Looking at the cross-section that stretched out in a straight line, Baldamir muttered.
"A single strike?"
"Baldamir! Be careful!"
Kabila's sharp warning echoed.
Something approached, parting the water. A sea beast that mistook Baldamir for prey flew like a projectile and targeted him. Because it was in the seawater, he couldn't detect it with his Blood Control Art, but he read the flow of the current and swung his greatsword below the surface. *Clang*, the sea beast's maw clashed with the greatsword from the bottom of the sea.
Incredibly, the one being pushed back was Baldamir. Unable to properly unleash his Qiankun in the water, he was pushed back as if he had clashed in mid-air. The predator aiming for unfamiliar prey continuously churned its tail and drove the greatsword even harder.
*Screech, screech.* The fierce teeth scratched the greatsword. It was a tremendous bite force. Roughly gauging the predator's strength, Baldamir spun his body. After planting one leg firmly on the ground, he slightly twisted his shoulder and waist to gather power. Unleashing the rotation of his body in an instant, he fiercely swung his greatsword.
Sword energy parted the sea and left a large wound. The extended sword energy disappeared, and a pitiful sea beast, having failed to properly grasp its opponent, was split in half. The fish aiming for a delicacy became a delicacy themselves, becoming food for other fish.
Although he performed the feat of slaying a sea beast in the water... Baldamir's expression was still dark. It was because even the sword energy he had unleashed with all his might was nothing more than a speck of dust compared to the single strike that severed the fin of the Abyssal Beast.
Let alone, the Abyssal Beast was of a colossal size. Even a fish slightly larger than a human possessed immense strength in the water, so the primordial Abyssal Beast would be beyond comparison. To sever a perfectly fine fin that had caused a tsunami in a single strike?
It was not a realm reachable with strength and skill alone. It either reached the Principle, or was close to a Demon God. Only existences like the Sword Saint or the Demon King could even discuss the possibility of such a feat.
But... would it really be them? Baldamir couldn't easily come to a conclusion.
"Something is happening."
The Shadow of Tirkanjaka. The Human King. And even the 'something' that attacked the Abyssal Beast. From the series of anomalous events, Baldamir felt a massive flow.
The world changes. The vampires living in the world also have no choice but to change. No matter how much they want to stay the same, the ruthlessly flowing world will not let them go. Baldamir confirmed once again that his choice was not wrong.