{[ April 22, 102 A.A. ]}
{[ Arthime Mansion, Great City Avina ]}
After more or less recovering from his horrid awakening, Athelei carried himself towards the kitchen to grab some breakfast.
As he was walking, he caught a pair of eyes staring at him from around a corner. They shone in a starry black, looking like diamonds gazing up at a night sky.
"...Young Lady Aria?" Athelei felt compelled to call out.
"...Hi, Orien," Aria took half a step into Athelei's path, "Have you seen my mother?"
Athelei tilted his head, "No, why do you ask?"
"Well... father also went somewhere, and—"
ROAAAAAR
A bone-rattling noise shook the air, interrupting Aria's sentence as she jumped in shock.
It sounded like thunder shaking miles and miles of the sky. Athelei and Aria both shuddered when they heard it, as their hearts were wrought with a sense of doom. They felt their stomachs churn just from that sound.
Athelei met Aria's frightened gaze and they both ran towards one of the mansion's balconies. Their hurried footsteps echoed throughout the empty early morning halls. Their fair skin tones were bathed by a beautiful golden light shining through the wide windows.
"...Whoa," Athelei gasped when he laid his eyes on the roaring monster in the distance.
"What is that?" Aria also wondered despite the fright.
It was less of a monster and more of a gigantic moving body of water with limbs, bodies, and heads. It somewhat reminded Athelei of that one amalgamation of souls he had fought with Arnold and Hyeon. The monster was translucent and could have passed itself as a slime monster's distant relative.
It rose meters above the water, gliding on the sea's surface as it swirled and churned within itself.
"It's a monster, Young Lady Aria... and I think I know where Lady Karire and Sir Xiu had gone," Athelei helplessly said, rubbing his nose with narrowed eyes.
'Why do I feel weird?' He asked himself as he intently watched the rolling water monster.
ROAAAAAR
Another thunderous roar shook the morning skies. It sounded like a series of lightning strikes all playing one comprehensive tune of rage. Perhaps it could also be likened to a storm giant's bellows and growls, whatever it might be in your minds.
An assortment of different lights appeared on the shore, shooting flurries of different attacks into the monster's body. Organised volleys of attacks also joined in, shooting once every two seconds. Athelei guessed that the former lights were born from guards and random Adventurers, while the latter came from the knights deployed on the docks.
Unfortunately for the humans, the aqueous monster looked unimpressed. It continued to roll forward, threatening to plunge Avina into an artificial deep sea.
It looked to be a futile endeavour as the attacks desperately struck. Hundreds of lights fizzled out inside the monster's body each second, but it was like the humans were trying to destroy the sea itself. They could do nothing to hinder its advance.
A circle of light appeared in the middle of a city. To be visible from where Athelei watched, it was likely the work of a Rank 2 Artist.
Forked lightning spawned from that small circle. It spread out in the blink of an eye, branching out a hundred times before enveloping the aqueous monster in sparks and thunder.
The smell of ozone permeated the air and even reached Athelei and Aria's noses atop their hill. Actual thunder rang in their eardrums and rattled their bones.
'That must be Lady Karire's [Malicious Storm]. Seeing it from this angle makes it look beautiful instead of daunting,' Athelei admired the aspects of the Mystic Pattern circle created by an actual human Blessed.
When the lightning ran its course, Athelei witnessed another circle appear from where the last one was born.
WOOOOOONG
Through the condensed air molecules that formed rings in the sky, Athelei was able to watch as a column of sonic power charged into the aqueous monster. It blasted huge ripples into the monster's watery body and seemingly resulted in a larger reaction than the thousands of attacks that had already landed on it.
It also trumped Lady Karire's [Malicious Storm] when it came to fighting the monster.
Athelei observed that the monster's advance had slowed. It seemed disturbed by those sonic waves that went through its entire body.
Athelei squinted as he ran Inspect.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Mutated Water Blob
Health (In litres): 109, 998, 968/110, 000, 000
Defense: 3
- Born from the Mystic Pattern circle, [Poseidon's Domain] from the enchanted item [Tidal Tome].
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
'Oh... Oh, I see...' Athelei choked when he saw the Cosmic Interface display it so bluntly. 'It seems like I'm still not using Inspect to the fullest... I was left unaware of this phenomenon. I even supplied the book with Mystical Energy to fill up the [Mana] counter...'
Athelei recalled the item description he had built up over the week of using Inspect on the Tidal Tome,
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Enchanted Mystical Book
[ "Tidal Tome" ]
Mana: 30/30
Durability: 1203/1500
- [Active Effect: Blessed of the Storm] Greatly enhances the water attributes of one's Mana for ten seconds.
- [Passive Effect: Transformation] The Tidal Tome shrinks and grows when certain conditions are met. When Thalassa's Trident is stored inside the Tidal Tome, transformation between them is possible.
- [Bonus Effect] When supplied with enough [Mana], grants a cast of [Poseidon's Domain] while near a sufficiently large body of water.
- "This is a record of my existence. It is my pride and joy."
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Athelei chuckled as he thought to himself, 'Who knew that the [Bonus Effect] could have been triggered in this manner? And why is it a mutant? How did it mutate when it was generated by a Mystic Pattern circle?'
He then continued to watch as another blast of sound shook the Mutated Water Blob. Another roar thundered in reply as the monster barreled forward in what Athelei saw as rage. Waves upon waves of water began crashing into the shore, and a few boats were launched into the docks.
Ships were lifted out of the sea and onto the shore, causing shattered wood to fly in every direction. The docks broke under the sheer weight of the water above it, mixing with the waves and creating a blender for any living being swallowed by the waters.
Enraged, the Mutated Water Blob moved into dry land as the humans ran for their lives. None of their attacks could stop what was coming. It was a living tsunami, thundering and crashing down. Athelei watched as the monster deflated the moment it stepped out of the ocean.
ROAAAAAAR
It let a pained howl as if it was losing a part of itself, but it still continued forward.
With each meter it moved across dry land, it shrunk and weakened. The fluid of its body, however, caused chaos among those who lived by the sea. A flash flood wreaked havoc, uprooting trees and bulldozing through houses and buildings. Athelei could swear he could hear the screams from way over where he was.
Many Mystic Patterns lit up on the buildings being struck, but the sheer scale of the disaster overpowered their measly attempts.
The flood spread wide, turning not just the harbour and its docks into a mess, but a large portion of Avina's central area into a lake city as well.
The shine of thousands of Mystic Patterns finally created an effect as it restrained the raging waters, and silenced the rogue tsunami. Athelei and Aria had been watching all this unfold from their vantage point high above. They had stood in either amazement or fright.
Aria, whose mind was truly that of a child failed to truly comprehend what had just occurred. She stood in awe of the monster's defeat, unaware of the lives lost and the properties that were shattered.
She could not see it, after all. All she had seen from the distance she stood from had been a rather large blob of clear water flowing into the city. To her, it looked like a sandcastle being washed away by the waves when her playtime ended.
Athelei, on the other hand, was amazed and frightened of the power displayed by that one Mystic Pattern circle. He could imagine just how much power was in the mass of water as it enveloped a portion of Avina.
[Poseidon's Domain] might just be the type that would be absolutely useless in a different setting. Not just weakened, no, the owner of a [Poseidon's Domain] circle would be kicked down an entire rank if there was no body of water near them. They would be useless as a Rank 2, and perhaps even as a Rank 3 if you dropped them in the middle of a forest or desert.
It wasn't an exaggeration at all.
Several minutes passed as Athelei and Aria watched from a distance. After the roaring monster annihilated itself by moving towards land, the crashing waters of its body begun to calm down. The waters no longer spread violently throughout the city streets, breaking houses and submerging parks.
The flood began to trickle back into the sea, drop by drop. But it was not over yet, for Athelei could see the rising tides.
Beasts the size of ships could be seen close to the surface of the sea. Their shadows brought about a sense of foreboding to all that spotted them.
Those shadows were moving inland, occupying the waters spread by the Mutated Water Blob. With their movements, they seemed to pull the tide with them. Every beast brought with them a few thousand litres of seawater. Every mutated beast brought with it an extra million.
And those beasts numbered in the thousands. Fishes the size of humans leapt out of the waters every now and then. They flew over debris and even invaded the buildings that still stood.
Now, the flood no longer seemed to be trickling back into the sea. In fact, it looked like its water levels were rising.
The beasts were invading.
Athelei could imagine the expression on Sir Xiu's face already.
"It won't be enough..."