Chapter 506 – #107_Fish Tank(6)
#506
1.
Siwoo and Deneb had settled in the eastern end of the city.
Meanwhile, the Kraken, dragging its massive body from the pier, was entering the plaza, swinging its enormous legs. The tunnel-like mouth on its head was constantly chewing on the flying fish that swarmed around it, and the relatively smaller mouths on its suckers also helped with the meal.
Its long, narrow pupils rolled around, spotting Siwoo and Deneb. It was moving slowly towards them, but it wasn’t an attack. It wasn’t particularly threatening either.
However, the act of greedily swallowing the fleeing flying fish, combined with its monstrous size, resulted in a physical force comparable to a natural disaster.
-Kugugugung!
A long tentacle, swung horizontally, struck the bell tower, tearing it from its foundation and sending it flying to the other side of the fortress. It was clear where the saying “size is everything” came from. Even Siwoo wouldn’t survive a direct hit from the octopus’s kick.
“♪ ♫~”
Meanwhile, Deneb, under Siwoo’s protection, was completing her magic.
A singing magic.
Each time the beautiful melody, like a celestial tune, created a wave, the magic’s effect amplified like an echo.
Around her, purple sparks crackled, creating a magnificent vibration.
Gemini’s original rank was 22nd.
Having shared a vessel with her twin, it was 21st.
The level Deneb could wield independently without Albireo was at the beginning of the 20th rank, the realm of a great witch.
It was only because there were so many abnormally high-ranking witches around Siwoo that it seemed otherwise, but a great witch was in the top 1% of all witches.
They were beings that defied the natural order and mysteries of the world.
And Deneb was proving the greatness of her magic without reservation.
With the melody moving towards its climax, a bundle of condensed magic was shot into the sky.
The lightning, which had been flickering and turning the night sky entirely purple, declared destruction in tune with Deneb’s dirge.
A flash incomparable to natural lightning.
With the amount of light that turned the vision white for a moment, a magic spear struck the Kraken’s head. Three of the octopus’s legs, which had belatedly detected the attack and were raised for defense, vanished without a trace.
-Kugugugugwang!!!!
A flash of light followed by a delayed explosion.
“Kieeeeeeeek!!!!”
And a beat later, the Kraken’s terrible scream. The Kraken, thrashing like an octopus thrown whole into boiling water, wildly swung its remaining legs, smashing everything around it.
“How was that? This is what I can do when I show my true skills.”
Deneb wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead and approached Siwoo.
It was nothing compared to the attack she had unleashed on Siwoo.
Back then, she had been holding back considerably.
If he had been hit directly by such an attack, even the sturdy Siwoo would have died.
But Siwoo’s expression didn’t ease.
“……”
Because in the light, as if hundreds of flashbangs had gone off at once, he had been precisely watching the process of Deneb’s strike hitting the Kraken.
The moment the sharply refined tip of the magic spear touched the octopus’s body, Siwoo witnessed it.
Transparent scales, which shouldn’t exist on a typical invertebrate, were scattering her attack.
Like rainwater flowing between stone slabs, the magic wave that should have been concentrated was flowing along the scales of its entire body.
“Siwoo?”
“Deneb, I don’t think it’s over yet.”
“What? That can’t be.”
At first, Deneb reacted suspiciously, as if it couldn’t be true.
But soon, she had a similar look on her face as Siwoo.
“Kieeeeeeeek! Kieeeeeeeek!”
The Kraken’s screams didn’t stop.
The way it writhed its large body in agony was too long and violent to be the death throes.
“It definitely hit directly…”
“Isn’t there a more powerful magic among Gemini’s spells?”
“There is, but… not without my sister…”
This shouldn’t be happening.
Although detailed records of the deep-sea witch were not available, she was a 21st rank in her lifetime, fighting while commanding five monsters.
Considering that her power was divided when she used multiple familiars, Deneb should have been able to subdue the octopus.
Especially if she had directly hit it with a large-scale spell that had been deployed with about half her magic power and a chant of nearly a minute.
Had an unexpected variable occurred?
A powerful artifact? Or was it a bad magical compatibility?
“There are scales on that thing’s body. It deflected Deneb’s magic that hit directly.”
“What? You can see that?”
Did he see something that even Deneb, the caster, hadn’t noticed in the chaos?
There were still things to be shocked about, but unfortunately, the situation wasn’t so relaxed.
“Kuoohhhhh-!!!!!!”
The Kraken roared again.
Its dark body began to change, becoming mottled like a palette with a lot of murky paint mixed in.
A roar filled with clear hostility and anger was pouring towards Siwoo and Deneb.
-Thud! Thud! Thud!
The creature, which had been moving leisurely as if invited to a banquet, was now rampaging for the hunt.
It began to crawl quickly at a speed that couldn’t be compared to before.
The impact was so great that the building Siwoo and Deneb were standing on swayed as if it would collapse at any moment.
“No way…! It’s already finished regenerating…”
As Deneb said, the legs that had vanished without a trace had regained their former glory as if nothing had happened.
Unbelievable regenerative power and strength.
And the natural disaster-level physical force coming from its massive body.
“I’ll try one more time. Please protect me again this time.”
Deneb was preparing to sing again, drawing up her magic power.
“Can we make it in time? I can’t stop that thing, let alone the small fry…”
“There’s still some distance!”
“It’s better to observe more calmly…”
“Protect me!”
Siwoo closed his mouth.
In fact, he was feeling an instinctive unease about Deneb’s plan.
The senses he had developed from going through life-and-death situations were warning him.
That now was the octopus’s turn, not theirs.
But he couldn’t leave Deneb, who had already started chanting, alone.
Just as Deneb was forcing her chant, a shadow fell over the sky.
A leg much longer than the other tentacles the creature had been swinging, a hunting leg hidden under its belly, was swung like a whip.
It was so huge that it seemed slow, but the speed at the tip, with the centrifugal force added by the same principle as a whip, was close to the speed of sound.
“Deneb!”
“Kyaa!”
Siwoo grabbed Deneb’s waist, who was still chanting, and rolled them away.
It was hardly an evasion.
It was a rapid movement closer to a grand escape.
-Kwaaaaaang!!!!
The Kraken’s leg, which had struck down from above, completely split the city in two.
Along with a deafening roar, the earth trembled as if an earthquake had occurred.
The leg, which was retracted smoothly, fell again over the heads of Siwoo and Deneb, who were fleeing.
“Bloom!”
Siwoo gritted his teeth and copied his magic, allocating all of it only for physical enhancement and his ribbons.
If he could use teleportation, he wouldn’t have to go through this hardship, but the problem was the flying fish swarming all over the city.
If the coordinates overlapped, a terrible disaster could occur, so he couldn’t use it carelessly.
-Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Meanwhile, the Kraken, which had approached even closer, unleashed a massive attack with two more legs.
He didn’t know if he could even call something that changed the terrain, let alone buildings, an ‘attack’.
No matter how excellent the durability of his spirit body was and how strong Siwoo’s armor was, he wouldn’t be able to recover his bones if he was hit directly.
The fragments created by the blows that surged from all directions were as threatening as if a bomb had exploded next to him.
“Damn it.”
“Siwoo, I can move on my own now.”
“I’ll be a little more rude. I’ll be faster.”
“…Okay.”
The little mother-in-law, who sometimes seemed quirky and clumsy, was definitely a witch.
To maintain her composure even in a situation where most people would be screaming their heads off.
Deneb recited a small song like a lullaby.
With the magic mixed in her beautiful voice, vitality and strength were imbued into her body.
Siwoo and Deneb’s deadly game of tag continued until dawn.
2.
One thing was certain.
This world only had day or night, and there was no dawn or dusk.
Just when it seemed to be getting a little brighter, the sun, which had already risen high in the sky, swept away the dense swarm of flying fish as if melting them, and the Kraken, which had finally destroyed the city, hid itself in the sea as if fleeing.
The city, which had collapsed without leaving even debris, was restored to its original state as if time had been turned back.
It was truly a closed loop, a world that repeated the same day.
“Haa…”
The two shared a long sigh after confirming that the chaos had passed.
Deneb and Siwoo were exhausted from running away from the enraged Kraken.
“Still, it’s a relief that a day isn’t 24 hours.”
“…It’s an isolated world of this scale. It’s inevitable that there are all sorts of restrictions, unless it’s Duke Keter.”
Deneb sat on a wooden box that had been carelessly strewn about.
However, after seeing an unidentified black liquid on the box seep into her nightgown, she used a cleansing spell to wash away the dust and sweat that had stuck to their bodies.
“…Shall we have a strategy meeting?”
“Yes.”
Still, the fact that they had survived and obtained various information was hopeful.
They decided to use the cleanest part of the cathedral as their base and began their strategy meeting.
