Fekro continued telling them what he had seen.
At first, everything seemed normal enough.
Although the ritual performed by the Starfolk was disgusting, the items used in it were arranged with meticulous neatness.
However, a cavern had inexplicably appeared below them.
It was something Horn had never seen before.
Horn took a single glance downward.
Even as a battle-hardened adventurer, Horn stumbled back in horror at the sight before him.
Inside lay pile after pile of human skeletons—or rather, bones strikingly similar to human remains.
Every set of bones was frozen in a posture of desperate flight, as if frozen in terror in their final moments.
The eerie white bones extended from the cavern entrance deep into its depths, stretching beyond where the light could reach.
The bones were densely covered with bite marks.
It was as if this species allowed not a single scrap to go to waste.
Fekro was the first to crawl down into the cavern.
Before stepping inside, he reloaded his entire magazine with high-powered explosive magic rounds.
Amber's shadow magic cautiously probed ahead, scouting the cavern path.
Horn, being a warrior, certainly wasn't about to cower at the back; he unslung his axe from his spine.
After entering the cavern, the party traversed a long, pitch-black, and cramped passage.
The path was surrounded on all sides by skeletal remains resembling humans.
At last, they arrived at a spacious main hall.
The hall was vast. Off in the distance was a cliff, while the surrounding walls were adorned with immense murals.
Twisted, grotesque statues stood sentinel around the chamber.
The carvings seemed to depict the sea monsters' own history.
Fekro would have preferred not to think along those lines.
Yet the twisted glyphs carved beside the murals endlessly recounted a tale of pure atrocity.
Through slaughter. Through devourment.
They hunted humans, craved knowledge, and evolved at terrifying speeds.
Some among them had even comprehended skills and learned magic.
To them, humans were a precious food source.
Horn felt a chill crawl up his spine.
Cold to his core, nothing remained in his heart except revulsion and hatred.
In the beginning, the murals depicted nothing more than a single fish.
Beside the fish was an Abyss Rift.
Later, the fish grew plant-like root systems, after which it began to grow and multiply.
The school of fish expanded, and the plant life flourished.
They devoured.
They evolved.
They birthed a civilization.
They created written language.
Then, they embarked on a grand voyage.
The murals on the wall depicted the routes of their voyage.
Centered on a black island, their reach continually expanded outward into the surroundings.
That place was the treacherous Grey Reef.
As they stared, the murals on the wall almost seemed to come alive.
Centered on the Grey Reef, countless routes spread in all directions.
White Sand Reef was merely a single blood vessel among them.
The true heart lay at Grey Reef, and to find the source, one would have to go there.
They already possessed the most primitive form of faith and were attempting to achieve a so-called “Ascension” with the help of the Sea God Nahros.
Horn continued to decipher the murals.
They offered their burning hearts and pure souls to their deity.
Just as every species had its own guardian god, they prayed for the Sea God's protection.
Fekro felt a cold sweat break out on his back.
“Damn it, these things are serious. Looking at this gives me the creeps.”
Having said that, he delivered a hard kick to a white bone on the ground.
The eerie bones surrounding them looked less and less human the deeper they ventured.
The shapes of the skulls varied more and more drastically.
The further in they went, the more those human-like bones resembled livestock.
Those skulls, rounded like swine, could certainly not be called “human.”
They were grotesque, distorted imitations of humanity.
Amber stepped into a deeper nesting chamber.
The pungent stench of heavy floral odor wafted from inside, mingled with the decay of rotting corpses.
Pinching her nose, she cautiously drew closer.
Inside was a blue garden.
The flowers emitted a faint, eerie blue glow.
Beneath the flowers lay clutch after clutch of incubating eggs.
They drew nutrients from the flowers and pulsated rhythmically alongside them as if breathing.
This was the sea monsters' hatchery.
The warm soil was covered with “fertilizer” spread by diligent farmers.
There were magical beasts.
There were fish.
There were plants.
There were even the corpses of their own kind.
Through the thin egg membranes, the sea monsters within could be seen curled up, waiting to break their shells, waiting to sprout and grow.
They seemed capable of controlling what manner of creature they would ultimately become.
For despite originating from identical eggs, they could evolve into countless bizarre forms.
The party continued exploring by the faint light emitted by the flowers.
Suddenly, every single egg in the surrounding nests chimed in unison with a sharp cry.
And in the center of the garden grew an incomparably massive flower.
Everything before them was surreal and fantastical.
The party was still exploring, marvelling at the bizarre magic of the subterranean sea monster kingdom.
The structures.
The totems.
The prayers to their god.
Right at that moment, Amber suddenly called out in a low voice:
“Run!”
Amber's instinct was far from unfounded.
As a shadow mage, she possessed keen perception over light and shadow.
In the next instant, everything around them began to tremble violently.
A huge sea monster plummeted from above, sliding down the giant central flower.
It was the farmer of these plants.
And the nursemaid tending to the newborns.
It let out a frenzied roar, spewing the foul stench of fish from its maw.
A terrifying surge of mana instantly suppressed the three of them.
It was actually a Rank Three sea beast!
Facing this, even the well-traveled Amber couldn't help but gasp.
Fighting above their rank wasn't something they had never done before.
But challenging a monster two ranks above them? Victory was virtually impossible.
Fekro held back nothing.
An entire magazine of explosive rounds poured out.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The erupting fire elements instantly transformed the entire garden into a sea of flames.
Blue blood vaporized into mist in the air.
At the same time, this startled the developing sea monsters within the eggs.
Without waiting to complete their development, they burst straight out of their shells.
It was as if they were born specifically for this battle.
And so, for the first time, the trio faced a tide-like surge of sea monsters.
Naturally, the three turned and fled for their lives.
What a sick joke!
That creature was Rank Three!
Fekro firing all twelve explosive rounds was never meant to kill it—it was only to buy them a few precious seconds.
Screeeeee—
Piercing screeches echoed through the cavern once more.
The sound bounced repeatedly off the stone walls, reverberating along the narrow tunnels.
Damn it!
These sea monsters have hollowed out the entire island!
This was their city.
The cradle of their civilization!
Fekro screamed frantically in his mind.
Behind them, sea monsters dropped from their eggs one after another.
Dragging underdeveloped bodies, as though having undergone some specialized mutation, they took only a few stumbling steps before joining the tidal horde.
Alongside kin they had never met before, they joined the pursuit of their enemies.
It was as if these creatures shared a single mind.
No matter where the three ran, if a single individual spotted them, an entire army would follow immediately on its heels.
Wave after wave of sea monsters surged forward.
The trio fled in utter panic.
But something even more terrifying was yet to come.
Opening their maws in unison, the sea monsters produced a terrifying, suffocating noise.
Made by creatures that were neither plant nor animal, the sound lacked any aesthetic quality whatsoever, leaving behind only sickening disgust and nausea.
That bizarre sound nearly knocked Fekro unconscious.
His mental resistance was simply far too low.
And right at that critical moment, the Rank Three nursemaid caught up with them.
A massive crab claw slammed violently against the stone wall.
Rumble!
Huge boulders rained down from the cavern ceiling.
One of them plummeted straight toward Fekro's head.
Had Horn not lunged forward to tackle Fekro out of the way—breaking two of his own ribs in the process—Fekro would likely have died right then and there.
Rate on N.U.
