Chapter 117

In the moment when instinct overpowered reason, the Drowned King abandoned the dignity of an angel and instead unleashed the protective instincts of an animal.

Grrrrrr!

A cloud of black ink erupted right in front of Isaac, who was charging forward. Isaac, who had been shooting forward with the ferocity to bite anything that touched his mouth, lost his direction and staggered as the ink obscured his vision.

The Drowned King did not miss this opportunity and lashed out with his tentacles.

Kwaaaaa!

Isaac could see the world flipping upside down in a frenzy. Rapid currents swirled around his body, stirred up by the Drowned King's massive tentacles. Isaac's body was swept away by them.

Even attempting to use the Red Prayer to wash it away was futile.

[Dare you oppose one who has been granted divine power, just because you managed to inflict a mere wound!]

The Drowned King was nursing a severe wound to his pride.

He had completely forgotten how to spew ink, having had no need to evade or defend for the past millennium. Instead of proper miracles and powers, he possessed a strong body and near-infinite regenerative abilities.

The flesh that Isaac had torn from his mouth was regenerated in mere seconds. Isaac's feeble tentacles leaving a mark on his leg was clearly not going to be a significant blow.

'What trickery is this...!'

Yet, he reflexively moved to avoid the tentacles.

It was fear he felt.

Instead of considering himself weakened, the Drowned King suspected Isaac of some trickery.

Isaac's power was that alien.

The tentacles constricted Isaac in an instant.

A crushing force, as if it would shatter him at any moment, emanated from all directions.

There was a sound of bones cracking and breaking.

[You, what are you! How can you use that miracle? How did you steal it?]

The Drowned King did not believe Isaac to be a disciple of the nameless god of chaos. He only thought that Isaac, being a Nephilim, must have stolen the miracle. But even as his bones broke, Isaac did not stop mocking the Drowned King.

Isaac muttered something towards him.

The Drowned King could not understand the words, but he felt something strange.

Something was happening.

'Poor thing, your intelligence has fallen to the level of an octopus...'

The Drowned King shuddered at a sudden voice. He thought it was Isaac speaking, but it was impossible for him to make a sound underwater. The Drowned King quickly checked for any presence of someone else around.

All that was in the water were Isaac, himself, and the merfolk.

'An octopus releases ink when chased by a predator, and if it still gets caught, it will sever a limb and escape. Aren't you lucky you didn't have to sever a limb and flee?'

'What is this?'

It was as if someone was whispering softly into his head. The voice was strangely sweet yet piercingly sharp, making it hard to ignore. The Drowned King felt something writhing in the sea filled with the black ink he had released.

'But I understand. If you're stuck in the deep sea for a long time, unable to converse or hear the voice of a god, it's natural to question your very existence.'

[Shut up... Shut up!]

"Is it not true that you've already been living a life akin to a beast? A thousand years. For a thousand years, you've neither heard the word of God nor gazed upon the landscapes of Urbansus."

The Drowned King thrashed wildly with his tentacles, stirring up fierce currents that could tear apart the limbs of the merfolk with a mere brush. The mud and blood brought up from the depths darkened his vision even further.

The whispering voice in the darkness continued unabated.

"It's only natural that you feel impatient. Above all, you must have felt yourself falling to the level of a beast."

The voice pierced painfully into his fearful parts, as if it could see right into his mind.

"Oh, angel cast into the abyss, were you afraid? Afraid that an angel once great has now fallen to become a mere monster of legend? Is that why you rebelled and sought to become a god of savagery?"

"Silence...!"

In an instant, the Drowned King snapped back to his senses.

He bit off one of his tentacles in a single breath. The intense pain jolted his consciousness awake. Only then did he realize that there was a strange, undulating color flowing through the water, aside from his own ink.

The unidentified voice was emanating from within that color.

"Could this be...?"

The Drowned King realized he had been tricked by a hallucination, a hallucination potent enough to bewitch an angel. He looked down at Isaac in horror.

Isaac, having freed himself from the severed tentacle, wore a bitter smile and spoke without a sound.

"You're too late."

Crack. Suddenly, something began to constrict the Drowned King's body tightly.

Only when red fissures started appearing all over his body did the Drowned King realize what he had missed.

His gaze turned upward, towards the surface.

***

Hyanis shouted as he saw the rising silhouette tinged with blood.

"Gotcha!"

Yenkos nervously bit his nails as he looked down at the sea.

The act that Hyanis was committing, and the one that Yenkos was tacitly condoning, was an irreverent transgression that could not be overlooked. However, silently witnessing and condoning the rebellion of an angel was just as blasphemous.

She could not tell which was the greater sin and which would have the greater repercussions.

"To capture an angel of the Salt Council with a relic of the Salt Council!"

"God will understand!"

The relic of the Salt Council, 'The Net of the Fisher King'.

This relic, capable of capturing anything it targeted, was one of the most treasured among the relics of the Salt Council and what Hyanis had brought to deal with the Drowned King.

It was even a relic connected to the Drowned King himself, for it was the net that had pulled up his drowned body when he was still known as 'The Fisher King'.

Resurrected from drowning in the sea, he was reborn as the Drowned King, a once-celestial angel.

It was ironic that the very relic that had once revived him was now being used to subdue him, pulling him up alive from the depths.

"Is the Grail Knight safe? Does he seem unharmed?"

Yenkos anxiously peered into the water, but Isaac was nowhere to be seen. The Drowned King himself would have to wait a while before he could surface, indicating how deep he had sunk. Everyone knew it was difficult to hope for survival after so much time had passed.

"We can only hope for a miracle."

Hyanis said, pulling on the end of the Fisher King's net.

The Fisher King's net was not really a net, but a rosary made of wood. However, within each bead of the rosary, there existed a vast net, formless and immeasurable in size, powerful enough to pull even the Drowned King's massive body above the sea.

The problem began thereafter.

The Fisher King's net could only pull up its target, not harm it.

From then on, dealing with the Drowned King would be entirely up to the Salt Council.

They would have to face the wrath of the Drowned King.

As the net rose, Yenkos became acutely aware of this fact and prayed fervently.

"I hope we're prepared."

"Well, we've done our best. It's you who are the problem."

"We've made the best preparations we could. Though not weapons to face the Drowned King."

Yenkos's fleet was equipped with weapons to face Hyanis's fleet, a formidable armament in itself.

Hyanis smirked and glanced at her sideways.

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

As soon as Isaac fell, Hyanis brought the Fisher King's net and began the ritual. Yenkos saw this but did not actively intervene.

She could have stopped Hyanis by drawing her sword and taking his head, but she did not.

In the end, she had tacitly consented to Hyanis's angel hunt. Yenkos's fleet would follow her decision as well.

Yenkos clenched her eyes shut and shouted.

"Damn it, what are we supposed to do?! 'Wait for the resurrection of God and hold out as long as possible' was the directive of our council, but that damned octopus bastard made a unilateral decision!"

Taking Eidan hostage was also a hasty decision made in a confusing situation to maintain the status quo. It was natural for the followers of the Salt Council to trust the angels of the Salt Council.

But neutrality was no longer possible after attacking the Bishop of the Codex of Light and dropping the Grail Knight into the sea. She had to abandon 'maintaining the situation' and follow the decisions already made by the council.

If the Drowned King were to be defeated here, the cause of his defeat would be 'unilateral communication'. If he had calmly persuaded the Salt Council, there would be no members who would dare refuse the opinion of an angel.

"He's coming up!"

The sea began to bubble and froth.

Hyanis could not suppress the urge to shout a phrase that could be deemed blasphemous as he watched the Drowned King's body being hauled up by the net.

"It's a big catch!"

***

The sound of the sea water pouring out resonated like a waterfall. The water held within his body cascaded down, making it seem as if a river was falling from the sky. The ships swayed and trembled like leaves in the wind, just from the sheer size of the Drowned King's body being lifted.

The crew, including Hyanis, were all speechless at the sight of the Drowned King's body, which was far larger than anticipated.

They had only ever seen parts of the Drowned King's body, and could only imagine the enormity of what lay beneath the surface. But the reality of his size instilled an instinctual fear in them all.

In the meantime, Isaac kicked his way up to the surface of the water. Once the whirlpool dissipated, escaping out of the water was easy.

"Grail Knight!"

Hyanis exclaimed with joy upon seeing him emerge. Despite having been submerged long enough to drown, Isaac appeared relatively unscathed. Instead, he gestured to Hyanis, signaling his to focus on his own task.

The opponent was an angel. Not someone to be taken lightly.

Isaac felt ridiculous looking at the Drowned King, who still had part of his body submerged even after revealing such a massive form.

'All these dozens of ships combined might still be smaller than the Drowned King.'

The sight of that gigantic body suspended in mid-air was a spectacle in itself.

Isaac thought anew that Hyanis's plan was absurd. And the Drowned King seemed to feel similarly.

[...How absurd.]

The Drowned King had naturally been wary of this relic. He had sensed that Hyanis had brought the Fisher King's net.

That's why he had tried to eliminate him first, but he got distracted and forgot about it as the situation twisted and a sudden battle ensued.

But it was not a significant problem for him. It was merely an inconvenience.

His tentacles writhed and moved. Although many were entangled in the net, his boneless, flexible body was not hindered.

Whooosh!

A tentacle that had escaped the net scraped the surface of the sea. A wave that seemed to split the ocean overturned a nearby ship. The sailors screamed as they jumped overboard.

Overwhelmed by his power, Hyanis tensed up.

[Release this at once, priest.]

It was a warning. Had he struck the ship instead of the sea, all the sailors aboard would have been annihilated instantly.

But Hyanis clenched his teeth and shouted.

"Prepare the whaling harpoons!"