Chapter 385 - -

Chapter 385: Chapter 382 - "Because You Are on the Side of Justice, Su Rin As the sky darkened, the prolonged offensive and defensive struggle had nearly reached nightfall. The people looked toward the small boat.

It was progressing through the waves towards the infinite expanse of a pale blue Sea Monster Group, as if a single person were battling against an endless natural disaster.

"... I say, that guy, is he really going to kill the King of Sea Monsters?" Ye Changtian had already wiped the blood off his face as he approached his teammate Wang Chaoze.

"Probably," Wang Chaoze said, sprinkling Blood Bottle onto his injured arm. "But truthfully, Su Rin from sixty years ago and Su Ming’an really don’t have much to do with each other. It’s true that Su Rin saved Pulaya, but it’s also true that Su Ming’an triggered this disaster. However, as they say, the Number One Player can push forward the plot however he wants, not to mention he’s gone off to find the King of Sea Monsters himself, and there’s nothing to blame for that."

"I’m not blaming him," Ye Changtian quickly defended himself. "I just asked, how dare I blame him. I’m just curious, can the King of Sea Monsters really be killed? Even if he is the Number One Player..."

He was cut off mid-sentence by a sudden cry from atop the city wall.

There were many people moving on the wall, carrying stretchers, transporting materials, cleaning up remnants, collecting spoils of war, making the not-so-wide city wall seem somewhat crowded.

But at this moment, all the people in motion simultaneously stopped their actions.

They straightened their bodies, craning their necks, their eyes wide with fear, looking into the distance.

Ye Changtian quickly turned his head back.

Then, he saw it.

Above the small boat charging towards the barrier, a crimson figure surrounded by Sea Monsters suddenly appeared.

Her talons were as sharp as swords, her form immensely huge, with spiritual bodies of Sea Monsters behind her like wild beasts emitting sharp, piercing cries.

The spiritual body of that Sea Monster was different from ordinary ones; it was blood red.

It was as if endless malice was brimming, swirling within that soul, floating behind her, her body’s blood red seeming filled with fresh blood and life.

The blood-red eyes of that figure were firmly locked onto the humans below who were slaughtering her kin, locked onto that incredibly tiny boat on the sea.

"...King of Sea Monsters," someone muttered to themselves.

The moment they saw that figure, they recognized what it was.

Only the king among Sea Monsters could possess such a gigantic spiritual body, and only upon her appearance would she be surrounded by infinite Sea Monsters dependent on her.

They widened their eyes and noticed that the red King of Sea Monsters, covered in scales, was also dragging some fragmented, golden long strips of cloth, trailing behind her like a tail, resembling a noblewoman’s long dress worn at a court banquet.

Her form appeared supremely elegant, maintaining a dignified posture like a human even when stretching out her talons, as if a princess at a court feast reaching for a cake with a silver fork.

Her blue Sea Monster companions merely swam by, sweeping like endless waves, making the people shrouded by the barrier appear incredibly tiny, potentially overwhelmed at any moment.

Noel walked to the middle of the south city wall.

The view was best here; from this position, he could clearly see the dense calamity of Sea Monsters, and with his sharp observation, he could even distinguish their different facial expressions.

Each face, whether beautiful, young, or mature, showcased a pair of blood-thirsty, blood-red eyes, like fierce wolves.

Their shrill roaring cut through the heavy snowstorm, fiercely piercing over.

Besides that sound, at that moment, the city wall was deathly silent.

Facing a disaster akin to a tsunami, everyone felt their insignificance.

Before... faced with zombies, faced with androids, faced with shadows in the hospital... facing these things, they had only felt eeriness, disgust, but never before—like now—had they felt true helplessness.

No matter how powerful a Player, in the end, he is just an individual.

In the face of such an unending, sweeping disaster, they were as insignificant as ants sheltering behind the Barrier.

The cries of the injured echoed off the quiet city walls, where once passionate youths who clamored to exterminate the sea monsters were now utterly silent.

"Can we really defeat that thing...?"

Someone gazed at the giant sea monster, crimson as blood, and muttered to themselves.

The scene was too shocking, even for the Soul Hunters who had fought the Soul Clan all night, giving rise to thoughts of not daring to confront it.

Looking at this scene sparked a thought in their minds.

—This was a disaster beyond human resistance, an absolute disaster.

So, where did this disaster come from? Was it really just a coincidence?

"Did we make some mistake?" Beside them, a young Soul Hunter whispered, "Did one of us... betray the deity and anger Him, causing this calamity to occur?"

His words received no response.

Behind the barrier, people fell into a strange silence.

The giant sea monster had already extended its chilling claws toward the little boat that was seen as their hope.

The contrast between the immense and the minute, the harsh cold wind swooping from the sky, could easily tear apart that wooden boat, akin to the deity in the clouds meting out divine retribution to the humans who angered Him.

Watching this scene, even the players could not think of any outrageous skills to kill this calamitous, giant sea monster.

...But just then,

The incredibly tiny, almost invisible dark shadow standing on the boat, also reached out a hand.

As the sea monster’s sword-like claws came down, he likewise extended his hand toward the sea monster.

At that moment, the rampant, spreading crimson bizarrely halted its expansion.

The red color at the edge of the sky suddenly stilled, as if swept aside by an invisible hand, revealing a beautiful, clear blue.

A transparent spiritual body rose from the person on the boat.

As if to contend with the nearly horizon-spanning crimson spiritual body, in front of him was an even more beautiful, more lifelike sea monster resembling a human.

She shielded in front of Su Rin like a blue shield, firmly protecting the exceedingly minute boat.

However, this sea monster was sky-blue in color.

The blue sea monster, staring at the princess sea monster tainted by the color of blood, silently extended her hand.

In her eyes, there was profound, sorrowful grief.

At that moment,

The deep blue color emerged amidst the crimson.

Like a wildfire, the color started as mere specks of blue light but soon flared up, spreading rapidly, pushing back the overwhelming red.

"Boom—!"

Like a long sword piercing through the fog of chaos, swirling blasts of air surged upward, accompanied by almost bridge-like waves, rising higher and higher with the raising of the suddenly appearing blue sea monster’s arm...

"...What is that?"

People looked up, watching this event, their gaze vacant, as if they were witnessing two Godzillas battling in the human world.

And they... were just a group of ants that could only watch this battle of gods.

All they could see was the tumbling droplets and the vivid red and blue colors. The sword-like clash of forces made them dare not come closer.

"My... God..." the players witnessed a scene as shocking as an epic movie.

They widened their eyes and opened their mouths, as if they were looking at one of the world’s wonders.

"Is this Su Ming’an’s doing? Is that blue sea monster his summoned creature? How did he manage it?"

"What exactly did he do, God, I feel like the walls beneath my feet are trembling..."

"Say, shouldn’t we be running now? I have a feeling that even if we hide behind the barrier, we’ll still get caught in the crossfire of this battle of deities..."

"I trust Number One Player, he definitely won’t be harmed."

Some had already retreated from the city walls, heading towards the safer direction of the Royal City Barrier.

However, more people chose to stay. After all, this extremely shocking scene, the collision of the red and blue sea monsters, and whether Number One Player would fail... they still wanted to witness it.

The waves surged fiercely.

With a wave of the enormous sea monster’s hand, the tide surged, and the boundary between sky and sea was instantly muddled by the violent storm.

The waves surged layer by layer, like thousands upon thousands of horses roaring.

A "rumbling" sound came from afar, like rolling thunder. At this moment, tens of thousands of sea monsters sang out loud.

Unlike the previous screams that almost burst eardrums and disturbed the mind, this chorus was like a choir singing in unison in a sanctuary. Graceful, tranquil, beautiful, and even somewhat eerily enticing, it made one can’t help but want to step forward and run towards the ocean.

"Ling——"

"Ling——"

"Ling——"

They stretched their necks, singing loudly, indulging in a song against the suddenly fierce waves, while the tides, like a charging army, clamored and desperately tried to push onto the land.

People could not help but cover their ears, hoping this collision would end soon.

On the distant sea, in front of the barrier close to shattering.

One red, one blue, two souls, like two armies facing off, appeared to be evenly matched.

The red and blue colors rose on that patch of sea, as if they were about to flip the entire sea over. They collided, screamed, roared—each strike carried the destructive power that could darken the skies and the earth, and even a random fall on the ground could cause inconceivable disasters. Even the dense sea monsters, which people consider catastrophic disasters, could only serve as their backdrop.

Like Prometheus casting down celestial fire, the scene was filled with a grandeur that words could not express.

The opposing sea monsters seemed to be fighting a life-or-death battle for some unavoidable reason, staking each other’s lives in the most primal and beastly manner on the sea surface.

Watching this scene, Sherrod, who was still standing on the city walls, wore a pained expression on his face.

"Princess," he whispered, "Captain."

He looked at the palm of his own right hand.

Wrapped in a bandage, the palm now showed a patch of dark black poisoned blood.

A bright red value hung in the upper left corner of his vision.

Standing in a small boat, Su Ming’an’s mana was completely depleted.

The sea monster’s soul rose behind him, her appearance, as gorgeous and young as Su Rin remembered.

She was confronting the other half of the princess’s blood-red soul in front of her, the clash of vivid blue and bright red hues, her expression somewhat weary.

"My dear guest," she whispered, "my other half has given the princess a false soul, which has revived its strength through her years of life and blood, even though I am a complete soul, I find it difficult to kill her directly."

"What do you want?" Su Ming’an asked.

"I was already dead in the past years. However, the source you carry, named ’Yate Stone’, has awakened me," the sea monster gazed at his face, "But this is still not enough... far from enough. The energy of dead matter is far inferior to the true source of my power..."

"You need, like her, life, blood," Su Ming’an said.

The sea monster smiled.

In front of the barrier on the verge of shattering, her gaze meticulously traced his features, smiling gently and nostalgically.

"—Do you want to ’punish’ this thief who stole my soul?" the sea monster asked him, "Under the guise of ’justice’?"

Su Ming’an looked back at her.

"What kind of life do you need?" he asked.

"Divinity," the sea monster whispered softly.

She had already turned around.

Behind her, the blood-red slowly surged forward, the princess’s claws approaching her body, that fierce and fanged face becoming vaguely visible.

"—Su Rin!"

Behind her, the princess roared furiously, nearly losing her rationality.

Bone spikes stabbed swiftly, the sea monster making her last stand.

Her appearance was already beginning to fade.

"Dear guest, I need..." the sea monster whispered, "a life full of divinity... Such humans have always been the food we sea monsters dream of, the most able to trigger our abilities. As for that soul behind me, her power is but a simple accumulation of numbers, once I obtain the energy, she won’t be able to beat me—and moreover, as long as I kill her here, she will never be reborn, nor will she metamorphose, Pulaya will achieve eternal peace."

"—And after that, you will replace her, becoming the immortal ruler."

"What’s the matter, guest?" the eyes of the sea monster showed confusion, "What are you hesitating about? Isn’t the land you rule lacking such lives?

—For this land you love, for the people you cherish. Nobody can avoid becoming the sacrifice of this ’justice’, right? You are the hero of Pulaya, the king that governs this land, for the happiness of the majority, you can choose who to sacrifice, who to balance, can’t you?"

"Then what’s the difference between me and that princess behind you?" Su Ming’an casually asked.

The sea monster laughed.

A fine spray of silver light twinkled at the corner of her eyes, like beautiful, starry scales.

Her eyebrows curved up, and the light in her eyes was squeezed into a shimmer.

She smiled gorgeously, seemingly unaware of what she was saying.

"The difference is huge."

"—Because you are on the ’righteous’ side, Su Rin."