When the enormous shadow beneath the sea spread wide enough to envelop even the Mary Jane, the white creatures surrounding the cruise ship scattered.
Like loyal guards protecting a throne, they withdrew from the shadow’s reach and waited respectfully and fearfully at its outer edge, as if anticipating the great Father God to pass judgnt upon the ignorant and reckless humans.
Inside the bridge, the underwater sonar had already detected the approaching behemoth before Everly did. People watched helplessly as it moved closer—from a tiny black dot at the bottom of the display, no bigger than a needlepoint, to sothing that filled half the screen in just a few seconds. As the shadow drew nearer and nearer to the ship, cold sweat began to bead on everyone’s foreheads.
“Retreat! Retreat now! Full speed astern!”
The captain roared himself hoarse, urging them on. The crew scrambled about the bridge and deck, doing everything they could to get the ship moving. But with the propeller damaged, no matter how hard they tried, the vessel remained completely motionless in the sea.
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
Under the crowd’s despairing gaze, the shadow finally closed in and seized the Mary Jane.
At the sa ti, everyone on board felt the ship suddenly lurch violently to the left.
Everly grabbed the railing, staring down at the deck below in terror.
Just monts ago, an enormous blue-green hand had risen from the sea. It was unimaginably huge and powerful—its open palm alone was comparable in size to a basketball court.
Covered in fish-like scales, the hand burst through the waves. In the blink of an eye, it shot straight upward and grabbed the front-left section of the Mary Jane. The sharp nails at its fingertips pierced into the tal deck as easily as tearing through fragile paper.
Creak… creak…
Under the force of that downward pull, the entire cruise ship tilted uncontrollably. One crew mber working on the deck lost his footing and slipped through the gap in the railing, falling overboard.
“Ahhhhhh!”
The crewman scread in terror as he fell from a height of seven or eight stories. After a long mont, Everly finally heard the splash of him hitting the water.
Seeing this, the white creatures drifting nearby reacted like fish being fed in a pond. Kicking their legs, their bloated bodies pressing and jostling against one another, they all surged toward the spot where the crewman had fallen.
Before long, the churning white foam turned pink. Without even having ti to leave behind any last words, the crewman had already beco a al in the monsters’ bellies.
“ROAR—!”
There was no ti to grieve his fate. From beneath the sea, the giant creature suddenly let out a long, drawn-out bellow. The low, murky vibration was like countless massive drums pounding against Everly’s eardrums, making her head feel as if it were splitting apart, her ears ringing uncontrollably.
Crash!
Accompanied by the monster’s roar, the sea tore apart as an enormous creature rose from the depths, revealing its full form before all the passengers of the Mary Jane.
It was a gigantic humanoid fish monster, its entire body a bluish-white and covered in scales.
Its head resembled that of a fish. Its yellow eyes could not close, bulging outward in a grotesque stare. Its mouth stretched wide into a long horizontal slit, filled with countless sharp, spike-like teeth that jutted outward, preventing its lips from ever closing. Long gills spread across its neck, extending back and disappearing beneath the thick spines along its back.
Just looking into those yellow eyes filled one’s mind with indescribable whispers and chaotic noise, as if a rod had been thrust deep into the skull and stirred violently, leaving thoughts in utter disarray and nausea surging up the throat.
Although it had a fish’s head, everything below the neck resembled a human body. Its skin was covered in blue-green scales, each one as large as a car, encrusted with barnacles, seaweed, mussels, and other marine growth. It looked filthy beyond asure, and the stench of rot and brine was so strong it made one want to vomit.
It stood towering before them—taller than a skyscraper, more imposing than a mountain. The shadow it cast was like a colossal serpent swallowing the heavens and the earth.
In front of that monster, the Mary Jane looked as small as a model ship. With one webbed forelimb, it grabbed the front of the cruise ship, while its other hand closed around the stern. Amid the cracking sounds of steel warping, Everly felt a powerful sense of weightlessness.
The world spun violently. To keep herself from being thrown off, she could only tighten her grip on the railing with all her strength.
When the violent motion finally stopped, Everly realized her legs were dangling in the air—she was hanging from the ship’s railing. Above her was the cruise ship, completely flipped upside down.
—Like a cruel child playing with a toy, the monster had effortlessly overturned the Mary Jane and lifted it into the air.
Perhaps curious about what was inside, it casually gave the ship a shake.
“Ahhh!”
What was just a casual flick to the monster felt like the world collapsing for those aboard. They were tossed about helplessly with the ship, tumbling through rooms, smashed against heavy, solid furniture until their skin split and blood flowed. So unfortunate crew mbers, too close to doors or windows, were flung out during the shaking, screaming as they were hurled off the ship.
Waiting for them in the sea below were the white creatures—mouths wide open, starving, packed together as densely as tadpoles, covering the entire surface of the water.
One person after another fell, quickly turning into churning bursts of blood that blossod across the sea.
The brutal scene below made Everly’s eyes feel as though they were tearing apart.
Is this how it ends…? No—she was still so young. She didn’t want to die. She refused to accept it!
Driven by an overwhelming will to survive, Everly clenched her teeth. Her grip on the railing tightened even more as she engaged her core muscles, lifting her legs upward, trying to hook them over the railing to reduce the strain on her arms.
However, at that very mont, the giant fish monster seed to grow bored of its toy. Gripping the front of the cruise ship with one hand, it flung the vessel forward into the sea—
Everly didn’t even have ti to react. Beside her, a sunshade stand fixed to the deck gave way first—the fabric tore, the fra snapped, and with an overloaded crack, it ca crashing straight toward the back of her head.
Bang!
Everly’s vision went black. For a few seconds, she even lost consciousness.
Her grip on the railing loosened. Like a seabird with broken wings, the blonde girl fell from the airborne ship, plunging ahead of it toward the raging sea below.
Splash!
Her back slamd into the surface of the water like hitting a solid wall. The imnse resistance turned into pain and shockwaves that struck her body, forcing a muffled groan from her lips. Bubbles churned around her as her body broke through the surface and sank like a weight. Cold, salty seawater rushed into her ears and nose, and she couldn’t help but release a large stream of bubbles.
Air… she needed air…
Enduring the dizziness and pain, she struggled to steady herself and tried to swim upward toward the surface.
Whoosh!
At that mont, a bloated white figure darted in from the side, opening its tooth-filled mouth and lunging toward her shoulder.
The white monsters—they had followed her!
Everly was actually a decent swimr, but after being struck on the head and thrown into the sea, both her mind and body were already at their limits. She kicked frantically, trying to rise and evade the attack, but underwater, the creature moved far faster than she could.
A sharp pain tore through her shoulder. Turning her head, she saw that in the instant they passed each other, the monster’s claws had gouged out a large chunk of flesh.
A cloud of blood spread through the water like a signal, drawing the surrounding creatures.
When Everly lifted her head, she found herself completely surrounded—white, corpse-like monsters closing in on her from every direction.
Overwhelming.
Nowhere to hide.
Was this the end…?
The white monsters opened their gaping, blood-filled mouths, revealing rows of pale, jagged fangs. With a powerful kick of their webbed legs—whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!—countless white bodies shot forward like torpedoes, rushing straight toward Everly.
In despair, Everly closed her eyes.
At that mont, the small pouch hanging from her chest slipped loose. A vividly colored red eyeball floated out, hovering before her.
Everly felt as though she had “seen” the sun.
That blinding light pierced through her eyelids, shining directly into her eyes and leaving a brilliant afterimage on her vision.
Her heavy body suddenly beca incredibly light. For a few seconds, Everly thought she had died—that her soul was slowly rising, ascending toward the heaven of legend.
But soon, the pain in her shoulder pulled her back to reality.
She wasn’t dead. A pair of cold hands had caught her. Long, rope-like—almost blanket-like—things wrapped around her legs, shielding her from the encircling monsters. Just before she could suffocate, they lifted her body above the surface of the sea.
The mont fresh air rushed into her lungs, Everly opened her eyes.
She saw a familiar figure.
A human upper body with a serpent’s tail. Long hair falling to the hips. Swollen, bluish skin covered in centipede-like scars. And a pair of crimson eyes, like the most beautiful gemstones, filled with tenderness and love as they gazed down at her.
“Mom… Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom!”
Reunited after so long, having survived the brink of death, Everly’s tears burst forth uncontrollably.
“…#&￥.”
The siren gently lowered her head and placed a soft kiss on Everly’s forehead.
This ti, having studied Greek with great effort, Everly finally understood—
What the siren said was: “Wait for .”
She froze for a mont, her gaze following the siren’s eyes. Together with her mother, she looked toward the white monsters rising one after another from the water—and beyond them, the colossal, sky-blocking, hideous humanoid fish creature surrounded by its swarm.
Drawn by the disturbance here, it was also staring back, its murky yellow fish eyes fixed intently on Lamia.
[Mom… no—don’t!]
Just eting its gaze sent a violent ntal shock through Everly. A chill crept up her spine, her body nearly freezing stiff. Disturbing, chaotic whispers echoed in her ears, making her head feel as if it would split apart. Strange, incomprehensible fragnts flickered before her eyes, her fragile mind on the verge of collapse.
A being this powerful was sothing a siren could never hope to fight against.
Lamia had only just awakened from her slumber!
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