Chapter 586: The Monster That Devours Everything (1)
As Wendy’s ship emerged from the fog, the first thing that greeted them was a towering mountain rising from the sea.
But, upon closer inspection, it was not a mountain but an enormous arm, covered in scales that sparkled jade green, like ancient stone slabs tightly bound together.
The atmosphere was stifling, the kind where even a single breeze couldn’t slip through. It looked almost otherworldly.
Yet, the most unreal aspect was its sheer size, a scale so overwhelming it stretched from the sea’s surface all the way to the heavens.
Simply seeing it took one’s breath away; even mythical heroes would shrink back in awe.
Proof of its power lay in the unbridled winds, the churning currents, and the countless creatures that didn’t deter Hook from steering the helm — until he faltered, mid-sentence, unable even to remember to breathe.
Even the usually ferocious creatures were subdued, their fighting spirit dissipating as they raised their heads, mouths agape, and did nothing but stare.
For a moment, every thought halted.
Only Oliver managed to maintain his composure.
He had seen something like this once before in Gallos and recalled the ringing in his ears and a faint echo in his mind.
“Leviathan. Strike it down.”
He was back on that fateful day when Jane had been abducted, and as soon as the hallucination spoke, the sea monster’s colossal arm, which he’d mistaken for a mountain, twitched and then descended upon Wendy’s ship.
Air shattered, crushed, and ripped as the jade-hued arm of the sea monster crashed down toward the sea’s surface.
━━━━KOOAAAKH-HAAAAAHH!!!!
The sea split as if the earth itself had been torn asunder.
"······!!"
The one small mercy was that the arm missed a direct hit on Wendy’s ship, narrowly sweeping by instead. Two reasons accounted for this.
The first was that, like when Oliver had been attacked initially, the sea monster’s arm hadn’t moved with full control.
The monster’s movements were unnatural, slow, and imprecise as though manipulated by someone else.
Seizing this opening, Oliver extracted a vast amount of emotions and cast Bless over Wendy, maneuvering the entire ship to evade the assault.
It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.
KUHUHUHUH-HONG!!!!
As the divided sea reunited, massive waves surged, and Wendy’s ship, unable to withstand the impact, was launched into the air, flipping over before crashing back onto the sea.
Some crew members plunged into the water with droplets scattering in all directions. First and Second clung to Wendy’s ship, using their blood and physical forms to hold on, while Oliver tried to shield the ship with Bless but was ultimately lifted off the deck himself.
It was then that Hook, snapping back to his senses, drew his rapier and issued a command to Wendy.
“Hold on!”
In response, the ship’s ropes came alive like serpents, fastening Hook and Oliver to the deck.
Hook shouted, “Leave this to me and carry on as you were!”
It seemed that Wendy responded, perhaps out of respect for her captain’s wish to cede control, or maybe Oliver’s reluctance faded. Either way, he exerted even stronger control, causing Wendy to move with greater precision than before.
The ship, which had been tumbling down from the giant wave, abruptly halted mid-air, righted itself, and settled on the undulating waves as if guided by an unseen, protective hand.
Hook looked at Oliver in disbelief, still shaken by what he had witnessed.
This wasn’t just ordinary black magic.
But Hook refrained from asking what it was, understanding through his turbulent childhood and the vast ocean that there were countless inexplicable things in this world.
Sometimes, it was better for one’s sanity to accept them rather than attempt to understand.
After all, there were more pressing matters at hand.
“Oh, dear God······.”
The moment he narrowly escaped going down with Wendy, Hook sought divine intervention, something he hadn’t done since becoming a pirate.
His conscience was still there, somewhere.
But as he stared out at the sight before him, he instinctively called out again.
Along the horizon, white foam erupted as something colossal rose from the sea.
Its mere movements stirred the currents, toppled small islands, and churned the waters.
Even Wendy, a ship carrying over a hundred crew members, rocked like a mere dinghy.
On the vast ocean, whether large or small, all vessels were equal in the face of such enormity.
As everyone stared in stunned silence, First shouted.
“Is that land rising up?!”
Hook replied.
“Something similar, yes.”
“Similar?!”
“Yes. A sea monster...one as massive as land itself.”
“Sea monster.”
The moment Oliver repeated its name, a torrent of seawater cascaded down as the beast revealed itself.
Or rather, only a fraction of it.
What rose above the waves was merely its eyes and the crown of its head.
“Uhhh...”
“Aaah…”
“G-gugh…”
Yet even this was enough to leave Wendy’s crew, as well as First and Second, in utter shock.
Just its eyes and head were as large as an island.
It was no exaggeration to think that the full size of the sea monster might rival a small continent.
“Did Pan make that?”
“Yes...though it looks even bigger now.”
Sweating in terror, Hook responded with difficulty to Oliver’s question, clutching his hook-arm in pain.
The sea monster, its head as large as an island, glared at Wendy with fierce, unblinking eyes.
Just one of its eyeballs dwarfed Wendy, and the sight alone could drain one’s willpower.
It wasn’t due to any supernatural power.
It was the kind of primal fear all living beings feel when faced with something towering above them.
The kind of terror that needed no logical explanation, a deep, instinctive dread.
Neither Hook, a human, nor the artificial creatures could resist this petrifying terror.
Their bodies began to stiffen into stone.
Until Oliver spoke.
“Everyone, stay alert.”
The invisible hand of fear loosened its grip as Hook and the creatures snapped back to attention with just that single command.
Even the sea monster appeared surprised, its reptilian pupils narrowing in response.
“Or rather, it’s the creature controlling the sea monster that was startled,” Oliver thought, sensing the faint presence of "The Burnt One" within the sea monster, along with the vacant look in its eyes, prompting him to shout to Hook to flee.
Though unsure if escape was even possible, Hook took the helm without further question and began steering the ship.
Meanwhile, Oliver combined Ptah's Assistant with his Black Suit, forming a massive black hand.
He then utilized the extracted resentment and desperate clinging to life from the passing mist, filling his hand with power.
The immense black hand, wielding Oliver’s emotions, summoned a mighty force, ready to face the towering sea monster, whose slightest movement felt menacing.
Sensing Oliver’s intent, the sea monster shifted.
Its eyes and the crown of its head, which had been above the water, slowly submerged.
KWAHAAAHNG!!
Even with its relatively gentle descent, the enormous size and weight of the creature sent towering sprays of white mist as it submerged, causing rain-like droplets and massive waves to follow.
Watching the waves, Hook shouted.
“Hold on tight!”
Oliver braced Wendy with the black hand, and First and Second clung to him tightly.
“...”
“What? What’s wrong?”
When Oliver looked back silently, First asked, and soon, a massive wave rolled forward, propelling Wendy onward.
CRACKLE! CRACKLE!
Wendy let out a cry as it rode the colossal wave forward.
“Is it really safe?” Oliver asked, feeling the vibrations through the ship, to which Hook shouted back.
“It’s manageable! At least better than facing that sea monster!!”
Hook was sincere. No matter how rough the waves, they were nothing compared to the sea monster.
“This is the lesser evil! Fortunately, it seems Pan still hasn’t fully controlled the sea monster yet.”
“What?”
“Yes, the sea monster... Leviathan! While it’s true that Pan created it, he hasn’t fully tamed it! I was worried when it reappeared, but clearly, he’s still struggling to control it!”
Hook sighed in genuine relief.
Leviathan was a monster among monsters created by Pan, one that even its master couldn’t fully control.
He had neither anticipated nor wanted to encounter it here.
Meeting it only meant despair, and knowing about it offered no solution.
Thankfully, it seemed Pan couldn’t yet fully control it.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been allowed to escape so easily.
Hook shared this welcome revelation with Oliver.
But Oliver dampened his spirits.
“It seems the sea monster has no intention of letting us go.”
“What?!”
Hook, who’d lost one hand to Leviathan while stealing Pan’s treasure, was shocked at Oliver’s words, but he quickly understood as eight towering columns of water rose directly ahead, aimed at Wendy.
An unmistakable sign of malice.
The gigantic water columns were so powerful that even a slight contact would shatter Wendy. Oliver gathered all the emotions he had extracted from the mist and activated black magic.
[Human-Faced Serpent]
Using creation-type black magic, Oliver formed multiple creatures with women’s faces and snake-like bodies from the immense resentment and intense clinging to life that the mist had contained.
These creatures, born of twisted emotions, launched themselves at the incoming water columns, aiming to intercept them before they could strike Wendy.
PABABABAK!!
However, the massive water columns tore through Oliver’s creatures with ease, ripping them apart almost mockingly.
POWAHHH!!
Despite their sacrifice, the only effect was a slight alteration in the water columns' trajectory, allowing Wendy to narrowly avoid a direct hit.
Instead, the deflected water columns smashed into the enormous wave carrying Wendy, destabilizing it and sending the ship airborne once more.
Bless
Oliver invoked Bless again, manipulating the ship's direction and guiding it back down to the sea’s surface.
As Wendy touched down, Oliver considered joining forces with Hook to flee at full speed, but just as the thought crossed his mind, a massive whirlpool began forming in the sea beneath them, dragging Wendy toward its center.
It was like pulling the plug from a tub filled to the brim with water.
At the heart of the whirlpool, the sea monster had surfaced once more, its enormous eye glaring as it waited.
In a sinister show of strategy, it had seemingly planned all along to pull them in, whether to prevent escape or out of sheer malice.
Trapped in the whirlpool, Oliver and Hook struggled to break free, but the overwhelming force of the ocean’s currents continued to pull Wendy closer to the center.
Perhaps they had been fated to meet this end from the beginning.
Just then, the sea monster raised its head and opened its colossal jaws.
Rows of endless, razor-sharp teeth lined its mouth, forming a cavernous maw.
It was as terrifying as the stories Armand had shared. Now, Oliver understood why this creature was called "The Monster That Devours Everything."
“Tick, tick... The clock starts as a great hole forms at the world’s end. A black sun rises from the earth, and in the western sea, the monster that devours all awakens, bringing the key from the False Gatekeeper, and the wandering child becomes a boy.”
Oliver recalled the mysterious phrase scrawled on a paper he had found in the Cannibal Chef’s vault.
A great hole at the world’s end...
‘Land of Ice...’
A black sun rising from the earth...
‘The Cannibal Chef...’
And now, the sea monster that devours all, stirring in the western sea...
‘The sea monster...’
A chill ran through Oliver as he processed these disturbing coincidences.
It almost seemed as if fate was sending him a message, insisting these were no coincidences.
As if to compound his anxiety, Oliver’s shadow began to writhe, and his burnt right arm throbbed as if beckoning him to use their power.
Meanwhile, Wendy and the sea monster were drawing ever closer. It felt like they might collide at any moment.
With a faintly sorrowful voice, Oliver muttered, “I’m still afraid.”
From within his clothes, he withdrew a small rod.
It was a distress flare that Merlin had given him. With a single powerful squeeze, Oliver crushed the rod in his left hand, releasing a vast amount of magic stored within it, which quickly expanded outward in a delicate, glowing array.
The complex, luminous formula spread in the air, and a radiant sphere of magic swelled around them, pushing against the sea monster’s jaws, as well as the whirlpool that seemed ready to devour even islands.
KA-WA-KA-WAAAAAGH!!!
The sea monster recoiled from the sudden surge of magic, trying to crush it with its monstrous mouth and whirlpool.
Its gaping maw, steaming with hot vapor, attempted to bite down on the magic sphere, while the whirlpool attacked from every angle, like a drill piercing into the sphere’s defenses.
The magic sphere, filled with Oliver’s intricate spells, wavered, contracting momentarily before erupting in an intense flash of magical light.
SSSSSHAAAAAAAH!!!
The blinding light overwhelmed both the naked eye and even the vision of a black magician.
When Oliver finally opened his eyes again, the whirlpool had disappeared, and instead, rain was falling, formed from seawater dispersed into the sky by the magic explosion.
And within that downpour stood a single figure.
It was Merlin.
“Did you miss me?”
Merlin quipped with a smirk.
Oliver responded sincerely, “Yes... Sorry, but I have to ask for your help again.”
He was repeating the request he had made before setting out for Bin City: to battle the sea monster on his behalf.
Though it was an enormous favor, Merlin waved his hand nonchalantly as if it were nothing.
“Go on.”
Merlin’s casual response was all the reassurance Oliver needed.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he turned to Hook and asked him to steer Wendy forward.
The sea monster, seeing this, seemed to turn its attention toward Oliver, but just then, a low rumble echoed as the vast, magical power spread over the sky and split the ocean in two.
It was as though the monster was following someone’s command rather than using raw power alone.
In this way, the sea monster finally emerged fully from the water.
Momentarily caught off guard, the sea monster halted, and Merlin approached.
“Hey, why don’t you play with me, you oversized salamander?”
As Merlin ran his hand from his chin up to his head, his wrinkles smoothed out, and his hair began to grow anew...