"Can you really... hold that back?" Neptunia asked quietly. "Because if not, we’re really in trouble."
Maria looked out at the horizon again. The endless swarm of monstrous silhouettes so large enough to rival towers, others small but countless were tearing through the water toward them. Their roars and screeches echoed through the sea, shaking the currents themselves.
Her expression didn’t change.
"I don’t know," she said calmly. "But I can try."
Her voice wasn’t trembling. There was no fear in it.. just certainty. Cold and unshaken.
"I can feel sothing inside ," she added softly, almost as if thinking aloud. "A vast amount of mana... very very vast. It’s almost overflowing."
Neptunia blinked in surprise. "Mana? whats that?
Maria just shrugged again rembering this girl isn’t that knowledgeable ofcourse.. Guess atlantians have lower iq still she lowered her gaze to ground as explained only whatever she wants. "It’s strange. I can feel it flowing through powerful, but... calm. Controlled. Like it’s waiting for to command it."
She crouched down slightly, reaching for her bow the one with the intricate glowing disk attached near the center. The weapon had been lying beside her since before she fainted. As her fingers wrapped around it, a small spark of energy danced through the air.
Her grip tightened.
The bow felt... different in her hands now. Lighter. More natural.
She could sense every detail the faint hum of mana running through the weapon from that disk, the rhythm of the disk pulsing with her own heartbeat.
But stranger than all of that she felt calm. Completely calm.
If this had been the old Maria, she would’ve been panicking, pacing, probably yelling at Neptunia and cursing Razeal for dragging her into another suicidal situation. But right now? She didn’t even feel fear.
Instead.. Well weirdly enough she was feeling.. excitent. Like very very weirdly excited.
Her chest rose and fell slowly, rhythmically. Her eyes glowed faintly blue and red, both shimring faintly in the dim light.
Her left hand trembled not from anxiety, but from sothing else entirely.
Excitent.
The rush of power inside her, the sense of invincibility coursing through her veins it made her heart race, her lips curl into a faint smirk she didn’t even notice forming.
"This feeling..." she whispered under her breath, clenching her fingers around the bowstring. "It’s like... my blood is on fire."
She tilted her head, her crimson eye glinting faintly as she looked toward the monstrous wave again.
Maria looked down at her hand’s.. They were trembling. But It wasn’t from fear. It was trembling because she was thrilled.
"Just what actually happened... to my body?" Maria whispered softly, her voice almost lost under the distant roar of the ocean. Her brows furrowed, her mismatched eyes glowing faintly in the dim light one the familiar calm aqua blue, the other burning with a deep, sinister red. She could still feel it that alien thrum of energy pulsing through her veins, steady, intoxicating, alive.
But her thoughts were cut short.
A deep rumble tore through the silence the sound of thousands upon thousands of sea creatures charging through the water. Maria turned sharply, her gaze up toward the horizon.
The monstrous wave of beasts was close now. Too close. Barely half a kiloter separated them. The sea itself shook as the massive forms plowed forward, scales glimring, eyes gleaming with hunger and rage.
A strange weird smile curved over Maria’s lips slow, devilishly beautiful, dangerous.
"What an absolute honor it would be for you deplorable specins..." she murmured, her voice dripping with venom and elegance. "To be killed by ."
Her left eye glowed faintly, that demonic red deepening with each word, lighting up her face in a way that was both srizing and terrifying. The corners of her lips tilted higher as her expression softened into sothing almost serene a charming, devilishly beautiful smile, the kind of smile that promised death with grace.
She raised her bow slowly, the movent fluid and practiced. The water around her stirred instantly, as though answering her unspoken call.
Neptunia, standing a few steps behind her, felt the change in pressure. The currents were trembling. The mana in the water was responding bending toward Maria, drawn to her presence like tal to a magnet.
The bow in Maria’s hands quivered faintly, the crystalline disk embedded at its center beginning to flicker with a pulsing blue glow. It was reacting to her. To what she had beco.
The tremor intensified. The water surrounding them rippled, rising in twisting strands that danced through the air, bending toward the bow.
Within seconds, the moisture condensed into form a gleaming, translucent arrow began to take shape between the drawn string and bow handle, swirling and spinning with violent energy.
The glow from the disk grew brighter, the deep blue flashing rapidly like a heartbeat. It was as if the weapon was recognizing her even as if already acknowledged her as its rightful wielder for the first ti.
The arrow swelled, the water around it spinning faster and faster, forming a sharp, spiraling vortex. Its tip spun with deadly speed, the current tightening until the sound of rushing water was replaced by a sharp, shrill whine.
Neptunia’s eyes widened as she instinctively took a step back. She could feel it.. the imnse pressure radiating from the arrow alone. The energy gathering in that small, condensed form could easily level a small fleet.
Maria’s face remained calm, serene, utterly unbothered by the raging power in her hands.
Behind her, Neptunia felt strength from her. She couldn’t help it.. her eyes briefly trailed from the glowing bow to Maria’s face, and for a brief mont, she thought sothing maybe only a girl will think even in a dangerous mont like this: Did she just beco... more beautiful?
Her features were sharper now, her expression both regal and terrifying, her mismatched eyes glimring with an unholy kind of allure. Even her voice earlier those chilling, elegant words she spoke to the monsters carried a confidence and darkness that wasn’t entirely human.
Neptunia shook her head quickly, snapping herself out of it. "Get it together," she muttered under her breath. "This is not the ti to admire anyone’s face."
anwhile, Maria’s bowstring was drawn tight so tight it trembled under the pressure.
"Let’s see..." Maria murmured, her voice dropping low, almost teasing.
And then she released.
The arrow launched forward with a soundless, terrifying force.
The air ..or rather, the water itself exploded.
A thunderous shockwave rippled outward, pushing both Maria and Neptunia back several steps. The recoil was so strong that even the dense seawater vibrated violently.
The arrow streaked through the depths like a cot, its rotation forming a spiraling tunnel of water in its wake. The vortex grew as it traveled the further it went, the wider it beca, feeding off the mana Maria had poured into it.
By the ti it reached the approaching wave of monsters, it had expanded into a massive spinning column nearly a hundred ters wide.
It struck with a force that could only be described as catastrophic.
The impact shattered the sea.
The creatures in the arrow’s path didn’t even have the chance to scream they were pulverized instantly, torn apart by the violent whirl of pressure and rotation. Flesh, scales, bones, and armor were ground into fine mist within seconds. Blood erupted in plus, staining the water a dark crimson that spread like ink...
Neptunia just closed her lips.. Speachless
The spinning torrent kept going.. endlessly slicing straight through the wave like a drill through butter. It pierced deeper and deeper, carving a clear path through the massive army before it finally faded several hundred ters into the distance.
The ocean was left trembling. The sound of the impact echoed faintly, swallowed by the depths.
Maria stood silently for a few seconds, lowering her bow, her crimson eye glowing faintly under the dim blue hue of her magic.
A small smirk tugged at her lips.
"Well," she said softly, her tone rich with satisfaction, "that was... beautiful."
Neptunia turned toward her in astonishnt. "Beautiful?! From what angle?"
But Maria wasn’t listening. She was admiring the aftermath the crimson trail in the water, the drifting remains of the monsters that had once charged toward her with such arrogance.
Her tongue brushed over her lips unconsciously as she let out a small, dark chuckle. "The strength behind that..." she said slowly, almost purring. "That was at least the level of a fifth rank no, maybe even touching sixth rank."
Her voice dripped with confidence and sothing more that dangerous, predatory thrill.
She looked down at her hand, flexing her fingers, the faint hum of power still tingling along her skin.
"I could definitely never do that before," she added softly.
The glow in her demonic eye pulsed again, brighter this ti. The faint dark demonic red aura surrounding her deepened, swirling faintly as her lips curved into another smile dark, alluring, and hungry.
"Ohh, but how sad," she said suddenly, her tone dipping into mock disappointnt. "It’s still too little." Obviously that arrow just killed just so thousand monster’s at most.. But there was still tsunami of wave left afterall.
Neptunia blinked, taken aback. "Too... little? You just obliterated half a kiloter’s worth of sea monsters but yeah.. Small in comparison to this deep shit we are in!"
But Maria didn’t even look at her. Her gaze remained fixed forward, her smile widening.
"Let try..." she whispered, almost lovingly, "one of my mother’s favorite moves."
Maria said as she extended her right hand out to her side.
The water around her responded instantly.
It twisted and rose, drawn together by an invisible force, coalescing into a long, glistening strand that shimred faintly under the light.
Within seconds, that strand thickened forming a whip.
A long, coiling whip of pure, flowing water.
Neptunia stared in disbelief. She’s... controlling water directly and at this level? she thought frowningly. That’s impossible. One shouldn’t even be..?
But Maria ofcourse couldn’t hear her thoughts. The whip in her hand glowed faintly as more and more water rushed toward it, feeding it.
And it grew.
Longer. Thicker and Stronger.
The length stretched behind her, curling and extending until it disappeared into the distance. The surface of the sea trembled as the enormous whip continued to form, sucking up entire streams of water into itself.
Neptunia’s yellow eyes widened further with each passing second.
"Just how long... is that thing?" she whispered, following its trail as far as she could see. It stretched beyond her sight kiloters, maybe even more.
Maria turned her wrist slightly, the whip moving with her like a living serpent. The sheer weight of it created waves that splashed violently around them.
"I’ve never felt power like this before," Maria murmured, her voice soft but full of awe. "It’s like the ocean itself listens to now."
She tightened her grip on the whip’s handle, her demonic eye flashing brightly. The water around her began to vibrate again, responding to her will. She shook the whip
But then, sothing unexpected happened sothing that made Neptunia’s raise her eyes a little.
There was a glint in her eyes, as she watched the long thread of water in Maria’s hand begin to twist and move.
At first, it was subtle a light ripple along the surface of the massive, kiloters-long stream of water. But then, slowly, the entire formation began to swirl and coil like a living creature.
The water whip in Maria’s grasp wasn’t still anymore.
It moved.
Iike as if it was living snake.
From the base near Maria’s hand, the enormous current began to writhe, shifting and rolling upon itself like a serpent awakening from slumber. The motion was srizing smooth, liquid grace mixed with monstrous power.
The further the whip extended into the sea, the larger it beca. The motion at first small and fluid near Maria’s arm, but the further it reached, the more violent and magnificent the twisting grew.
The imnse water current began pulling at the sea around it, drawing streams of water into its flow. Waves curved toward it, dragged helplessly into the whirl of its creation. It was like watching the ocean itself bow to her command.
Neptunia’s watched this..
No... it couldn’t be.
"Is she..." Neptunia whispered, her words trembling as realization dawned in her yellow eyes. "No way..."
Her mind raced as she pieced together the shape, the movent, the building energy.
But before she could even thoughts more about what be result of these kinds of movents, Maria moved.
A slow, beautiful, deadly smile curled across her lips.. a smile that could have belonged to an angel or a demon, no one could tell which. Her eyes shimred with two colors the left glowing like molten ruby, the right as calm and blue as the sea before a storm.
Her lips parted slightly as she whispered, her voice soft but resonant, carrying a weight that felt divine and damning at once:
"Water Whip of Graves."
The words rolled off her tongue with an eerie, powerful cadence. The mont she spoke them, the water itself seed to shudder in response.
Neptunia didn’t even have ti to breathe before Maria’s expression hardened.
In one swift motion, Maria snapped her arm forward.
"Shoom!"
The whip followed.
The massive, kiloters-long current of water lashed forward like a living serpent unleashed. Its motion tore through the ocean, the surface splitting apart as the pressure ripped across the sea.
The sound was indescribable a mix of roaring water, slicing air, and thunder cracking through the deep. The entire sea seed to convulse under the sheer power.
The whip accelerated with each passing instant. Every mile of its length doubled in speed, tripled even, the energy traveling down its body like a chain reaction faster, sharper, deadlier.
By the ti the motion reached the far end of the whip, its velocity had surpassed the speed of sound hundreds of tis itself. The sea around it howled, the pressure collapsing into a single violent streak of force.
The imnse lash of water tore through the deep, pushing the entire ocean in front of it. The impact created a vacuum so strong it montarily pulled everything nearby sand, stone, and even smaller bones rock’s and old weapon’s scattered on ground toward it before the shockwave hurled them outward in every direction.
The whip, once thin and graceful, now swelled into a massive serpent of pure liquid power. It had thickened into sothing monstrous like an ocean-sized blade.
Maria’s hand shot forward fully, her expression filled with dominance, her hair flicking wildly in the surge of wind and spray.
"DIEEEEEEEEE, YOU MALFORD TRIVIALITIES!" she roared, her voice echoing with both fury and elegance. The very sound of her command seed to rge with the whip’s motion, as if her will was carved into every drop of water that moved.
And then impact.
Crack WOOSHHHHHH!
A blinding explosion of movent.
The massive whip connected with the oncoming wave of creatures.
The result was instant annihilation.
The sea erupted.
The very front lines of the monstrous horde millions upon millions of creatures were obliterated in the blink of an eye. The whip didn’t just cut it shredded, ground, and pulverized everything in its path.
The mont it struck, the water turned red.
The entire ocean for miles trembled from the force of the blow. The shockwave that followed sent geysers of crimson spray shooting into the sky. The corpses of sea beasts, once massive enough to shake the seabed with their drifting alone, were reduced to nothing but scattered remains and swirling blood.
The whip didn’t stop.
Its motion carried through, circling outward in a massive arc, cutting through the entire wave as though carving a great circle into the sea itself.
Neptunia could barely stand; she stumbled backward, her jaw slack, eyes wide with horror and awe as the enormous vortex consud the battlefield.
The sound was deafening. The water roared, hissing and shrieking as if alive and in agony. The monstrous whip twisted again, this ti spiraling, slicing the army in circular patterns each motion wiping out millions more.
From her position, Neptunia could only watch in stunned silence as the ocean itself obeyed Maria’s just one flick of the wrist.
The creatures scread.
Their roars were drowned beneath the sound of crashing waves and breaking bodies.
The sheer radius of her attack was colossal. With her at the center, the whip stretched out in an imnse circle, cutting down every creature caught within it.
The sight was terrifyingly beautiful like a goddess of the sea unleashing her wrath.
And then silence.
For a mont, all that was left was the faint echo of crashing waves, the bubbling hiss of displaced water, and the faint red shimr of blood dispersing into the ocean.
Neptunia slowly lowered them from where she’d been shielding her face.
Her yellow eyes blinked once. Twice.
"What... the actual fuck..." she whispered.. Her mouth hung open in disbelief.
She stared at Maria this woman who, minutes ago, had been fragile, confused, trembling in fear and now stood there radiating raw power.
Maria stood with her arm still extended forward, her hand slightly trembling from the force she had unleashed. The air around her shimred faintly with mana, her mismatched eyes burning with otherworldly energy.
Her hair was soaked, clinging to her skin, her chest rising and falling slowly as the remnants of the storm she had summoned finally cald.
She didn’t even look at the destruction she had caused.
Instead, she tilted her head slightly, a faint smile returning to her lips.
"Now that fells... good. No wonder mother is so obsessed with this move of hers," she whispered to herself.
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Yooo guys, 5k words today! A bit less than usual since sothing ca up, but hey.. no regrets 🤣. Got a call from my old school friend today we literally talked after six years since he moved abroad 💀🤣. Man, it was so nice catching up! eting old friends just hits different 😂. Ahh, I’m starting to feel like an old man already.
Thanks for reading.. Love ya all ❣️❣️
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