Chapter 59: Falling Moon House Beam (2)
Chapter 59: Falling Moon House Beam (2)
Deep Sea Fish Hunting Specialty Broadcast – 59
EP.59 Falling Moon House Beam (2)
After Oceanos exchanged glances, Parang stood up.
She was going to get what they needed to find the Titan.
“…I’ll get it. Just wait a moment.”
Parang quietly headed to the most secluded room on the first floor.
When she opened the door, a long staircase leading to the basement appeared, with another door at the end.
Parang descended and grabbed the doorknob.
From beyond, the sound of rushing water could be heard.
When she opened the door, the smell of seawater wafted from the dark basement room.Simultaneously, the sound of rushing water grew louder.
She fumbled along the wall and clicked the switch, revealing a massive tank.
It was designed to continuously draw in and circulate seawater.
While Parang personally purified all the other tanks in the house, this one was an exception.
Parang hated this space. The mere existence of such a place in her home filled her with discomfort, so she had stashed it away in the most secluded and inconspicuous corner.
She plunged into the tank.
Inside were eight human-sized statues, with their heads, arms, and legs broken off, leaving only the torsos, securely bound.
Parang hoisted one onto her shoulder and came back out.
When she returned to the living room, all of Oceanos had finished preparing for entry.
They stepped outside and stood in a line at the dock right in front of Parang’s house.
“…Let’s go.”
The six of them simultaneously dove into the sea with identical movements.
It was a perfect dive, with barely a drop of water splashing.
Today, more than ever, the face of a cherished comrade who used to dive with them always seemed to linger before their eyes.
#
Splash-! Shuaa…
The cool touch of seawater enveloped Parang’s entire body.
The sensation of her body, which had been walking through the air, now submerged in water.
The refreshing and exhilarating rush.
This was why Parang loved diving.
However, she couldn’t fully enjoy this sensation at the moment.
Partly because she was carrying a human-sized statue on her back, and partly because of the complex emotions clouding her mind.
Parang blankly watched as Diego’s entire body was covered by a decompression diving suit.
It was like a nano-suit from a movie. Out of nowhere, a black mass formed underwater, transforming into the thick diving suit that covered his entire body.
After about 30 seconds, Diego’s usual underwater appearance came into view.
“…Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
They dived deeper and deeper.
Their destination was the toothpaste tube object where Parang first sighted the Titan.
Given the gravity of the situation, they swam downward in silence.
“Ah, there it is.”
Before long, the toothpaste tube object appeared before them.
Current depth, 2.1 km below sea level.
A glowing light shone vividly from within.
It was likely that some mediocre monster had made its nest inside.
With a snap of Elvira’s fingers, a grand explosion erupted from within the object.
Inside, the monster’s flesh would be splattered everywhere along with the explosives.
Oceanos didn’t care.
They continued to dive deeper and deeper.
If there was a difference from before, it was that they were now descending vertically, looking straight down.
2.7 km below the sea.
The deep blue void that had filled their vision began to fade, replaced by darkness.
It was the bottom of the East Sea.
There were footprints there.
Footprints carved into the bedrock by something unimaginably huge and heavy.
Centered around the largest footprint were four distinctly smaller ones.
That’s what could be seen from above.
Descending further and looking closely, one would likely find even smaller footprints, and then those the size of a human, closely packed together.
Yes.
Statues, they travel in groups.
Typically, a ‘Magnus’ with a height of around 100 meters takes the lead, followed by ‘Medius’ of about 10 meters in height and human-sized ‘Parvum’ forming a group.
And a Titan, reaching about 1 km in height, would lead several Magnus.
This meant that under the Titan Parang saw that day, there would have been hundreds of smaller Statues.
The direction of the footprints pointed west.
That’s where the Titan was.
Oceanos moved again.
#
How much time had passed?
The trail of footprints that had continued westward came to an abrupt end.
Where there should have been footprints, there was only a round, bizarre pattern. It was reminiscent of a crop circle.
It meant they had arrived.
Parang set down the headless statue she had been carrying on her back onto the ocean floor.
Thud, crack.
The floor cracked slightly.
As expected, it was a neutralized ‘Parvum’ statue.
Neutralized was an understatement; it had simply been crudely bound after having its limbs and head severed.
It had struggled so much on the way here that Parang’s shoulder ached.
Through various trials and errors, Oceanos had learned that when a Statue is destroyed, it summons other Statues nearby.
A more precise term might be ‘awakens’ them.
“…I’ll start.”
“…Okay.”
Parang had already activated her Personal and transformed.
Summoning the Kraken would be useless, but the power of her other skills would be greatly enhanced.
She wrapped water around her hand to create a bubble bomb and placed it against Parvum’s solar plexus.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!!!!
In less than a second, about ten explosions occurred in rapid succession.
Parvum’s body scattered instantly, spreading everywhere.
Flesh, or rather, shards.
Sharp fragments flew in all directions, scattering towards Oceanos, but they didn’t even blink, simply watching Parang.
Thunk- Thud- Tang-
The shards, which seemed capable of slicing and piercing human flesh into pieces, bounced off their bodies as if hitting resilient, tough rubber, without causing any harm.
Then, with a final explosion, a red wave burst from Parvum.
In Parang’s hand was a blood-red magic stone.
The surrounding fragments had long since disappeared.
Parang casually tossed the magic stone onto the ground, and a skeletal figure emerged from the earth, took the stone, and vanished somewhere.
And as soon as it disappeared with the stone, the ground began to tremble.
Rumble. Rumble.
Of course, it wasn’t an earthquake.
It was the sound of them crawling up.
From down below.
From the depths of the abyss.
Parang’s expression hardened.
Everyone’s expression hardened.
The Titan they were about to destroy would be their ninth Titan.
The sense of futility was something they had already felt with their entire being after destroying eight Titans before.
They had shattered them, crushed them, and even melted them.
But they never found even a shadow of their precious comrade who had been dragged to the bottom of the sea by a Titan.
One after another.
Each time a Titan fell, they were overwhelmed by terrible pain.
Emptiness, disappointment, futility, despondency, sadness.
And a longing that pierced their bones.
They knew it was pointless to hope.
So, they wrapped their hopes in anger.
‘Even if we destroy this Titan, Alice won’t come back.’
‘I came down here for revenge.’
‘The emotions making my heart race now are anger and determination.’
But no matter how much they tried to wrap their emotions, no matter how deeply they tried to bury and seal them,
Standing on this trembling ground, a single sentence would crawl up from the depths of their consciousness and reveal itself.
‘This time, maybe.’
Maybe they could find a trace of her.
So once again, they would bring down the Titan.
And once again, they would writhe in the emptiness and longing that followed.
And when the next Titan appeared, they would dive into the sea to chase it.
None of them were unaware that this was a futile act.
They all knew it was an act that would bring no reward, only pain.
But the option of ‘giving up’ had long been erased from their minds.
From the moment Alice left their side in such a manner, they had only one choice left.
To cry out mournfully and scour this damnedly vast ocean.
This was why none of them hesitated to dive into the perilous sea,
And why all of Oceanos could be so tightly bound together.
So, this time too, with invisible tears, they dove into the sea.
If they destroyed that monster again, maybe this time.
Maybe the trace of their dear comrade would appear.
They couldn’t erase that hope.
Creak- Creak-
Crack!!
A white arm burst through the ground behind Parang.
Smooth, hard, and heavy white rock.
It crawled up, gripping the ground like in the prologue of a zombie movie.
The sight of an expressionless plaster statue rising with such a sinister motion was truly bizarre.
Parang placed her hand on the chest of the Parvum, which had only its upper body above ground and was trying to pull out its lower body.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!!!
It exploded in the same way and vanished into light.
The ground began to shake with even more ferocity than before.
This was just the beginning.
Fwoosh, crackle, creak, creak.
Countless statues began to crawl up from the ground.
Some were large, some were small, and some were so enormous they couldn’t be taken in at a glance.
Oceanos quietly glared at those cursed things.
They couldn’t see each other’s eyes, but they knew.
The gaze of the comrade standing next to them was exactly the same as their own.
…The battle had begun.