BDISSEM. She revealed her true form in the thick salt water.
"Hohoho- surprise."
She winked at Vikir with a smirk, her rosy cheeks gone from the corners of her mouth.
What took her place was a flower in full bloom.
Vikir exclaimed in pure amazement.
"...A seaweed-based Ent? I didn't realize such a thing existed."
He has heard many tales of forest-dwelling Ents during his time living in the jungle of the Red and Black Mountains.
So naturally, he had the preconceived notion that they only lived in forests.
However, they also live in seaweed forests deep beneath the ocean floor.
Just as the Beastman descended from various animal families, the Ent descended from various plant families, and in the case of BDISSEM, she was descended from the seaweed family of kelp and wakame.
"Hmmm. This isn't going as well as I thought."
Dragging BDISSEM into the water was proved to be a deadly move, as it grabbed Vikir's ankle.
Ordinary plants would have their leaves burned to a crisp by the salt, but seaweed actually revitalizes itself.
…Pow!
Vikir kicked out the flying chains of seaweed.
The rounded, hard spikes on the seaweed felt like they were kicked by a bowling ball full force.
'...This is troublesome.'
Vikir brushed off the leaves that clung to his arms and tried to rise to the surface.
But BDISSEM wouldn't let him escape the water.
"Hoho- where do you think you're going, you've only just come in, why don't you play some more~"
Chewy stalks of seaweed swooped in like sea serpents.
Kiriririk-
The black seaweed that sprouted from the bottom of the gulper eel farm moved like BDISSEM's limbs and grabbed Vikir's ankles.
Chararararak- Kwak…
Above it, the long, giant leaves of the seaweed grew diagonally and horizontally, forming a grid-like encirclement.
Snake net, fishing net, square net, gill net, drift net, cast net, drag net, trawl net....All kinds of nets were spread out targeting just one Vikir.
They were terrifying restraints, designed not only to trap but to imprison.
Spears of dried seaweed with pointed tips pierced the immobilized Vikir's body.
Bind him with nets, impale him with spears, and drain his mana and strength once they're in contact.
It was a must-win pattern that turned BDISSEM into an invincible monster.
Puff-puff-puck!
Blood, flesh, and guts exploded like firecrackers. The water instantly turned black.
"...hmm."
But BDISSEM narrowed her eyes, not liking the situation.
Countless spears of seaweed failed to reach Vikir in the end.
At a crucial moment, Vikir yanked the tail of a passing gulper eel and used it as a shield.
peopeog! peog! peoeog!
The seaweed spears that followed were also blocked by the gulper eels that Vikir was pulling, causing a series of misfires.
"Ugh! It takes me years to grow one of these gulper eels! If D'Ordume and Souaré find out, there will be an uproar!"
Bubbles began to boil from the angry BDISSEM's entire body.
Bubbling, bubbling, bubbling...
True to its form, the plant was pumping out tons of oxygen from its body.
Seeing this, Vikir nodded.
'I see why everyone was so overprotective of her.'
In addition to crafting the BDISSEM restraints that bind prisoners' mana and power, BDISSEM has a very important role.
She provides oxygen to the prison.
In addition to her ability to block mana and physical force, she has the uncanny ability to eat things like sulfur and toxic vapors and turn them into oxygen.
So without BDISSEM, there is no Nouvelle Vague.
There's nowhere else to get oxygen from inside the fluffy dome of mucus.
'I like you even more now. You'll be useful in many ways.'
Vikir dropped the gulper eel he was using as a shield and climbed onto the next one.
Boom!
A spear of seaweed swooped down from below, piercing both the upper and lower jaws of gulper eel.
…Thud!
Vikir threw off the gulper eel and landed on the bottom of the tank.
"Hohohoho~ You're going deeper, that is suicidal."
BDISSEM had spread out long strands of seaweed like a net, blocking his path to the surface.
Now Vikir was trapped at the bottom of the pool, unable to move.
Getting out was one thing, but breathing was the immediate problem.
But.
Shrrrrrrrr.
Even at an overwhelmingly vantage point, BDISSEM could not help but cringe at the strange phenomenon taking place in Vikir's right hand.
A stream of water flowing in a strange direction. It was slowly being sucked towards Vikir's right hand.
'What is it? Is there a hole over there?'
Unless there was a leak, there was no reason for the water to be flowing that way.
Suddenly, BDISSEM realized that something was wrong.
Kurrrrrr!
The strength of the current suddenly increased.
It's as if there was a leak somewhere, and the water was being sucked in at a tremendous speed.
Not only the seaweed around him, but also BDISSEM was almost dragged away by the current.
"What, what!"
An ominous foreboding flashed through her mind.
She realized she shouldn't be caught in Vikir's outstretched right hand. Her instinct screamed a desperate warning.
'Starvation drought.'
A trait possessed by the Blood Tree Daylily. The power to dry out anything with moisture.
Vikir was going to dry up all the moisture in the pool.
And as the water dried up and disappeared, the empty space was filled with new water, which dried up and disappeared again, creating a turbulent current.
Vikir emitted aura through Beelzebub.
Like a flame that travels forward through pouring oil, Vikir's aura shot forward through the swirling water currents.
The target was, of course, BDISSEM.
"Huh!"
BDISSEM was stunned by the eight flying teeth that split the water-filled space.
Black Sun. A small but dense and heavy black sun was rising at the bottom of the sea.
Kurrrrrr!
The black sun grew in size with an incredible speed, sucking in everything around it.
This black sheep, which was essentially Vikir's special move, was destructive, but it didn't have the power to pull in anything around it.
However, the fact that it was underwater, and that Vikir knew how to use the power of the Blood Daylily's Starvation Drought, made it work.
'That guy! He was aiming for this in the first place, trying to get underwater...!'
BDISSEM realized that she was completely caught up in Vikir's plan.
The black orb was a collection of countless teeth, and she knew what would happen to her if she was dragged into its center.
Her entire body would be disintegrated, leaving not even a scrap of flesh behind.
"kkyaaaaaghhhh!"
BDISSEM struggled to break free of the current somehow.
She pulled up all the available seaweed and shot it out, but all of it was sucked into the center of the black sun and turned into fuel for the fire.
The seaweed was torn to shreds and pulverized, and not even a leaf could be salvaged.
Strangely enough, the aura emitted by that monster-like thing did not fade even when it touched BDISSEM's seaweed.
If the people of Nouvelle Vague saw BDISSEM's seaweed, which nullifies all mana and physical power, being torn apart so helplessly, like a cheap piece of paper, they would probably be horrified.
But it wasn't all for nothing.
kuleuleuleug... kuleug! kkuleuleug!
As a large amount of water plants were hit by the black sun, the water flow became a little looser.
BDISSEM managed to break free from the current and rise to the surface.
"Puh-ha!"
After breaking the surface, BDISSEM looked back with a white face.
"Okay, I need to get out of here quickly, I have to tell D'Ordume and Souaré about this...."
But… she hadn't taken more than seven steps before she felt her body shake.
"...?"
Her vision spun. She'd thought she'd taken a straight path, but somehow her foot had twisted.
…Thud!
BDISSEM fell to the ground.
'?'
'Why?
'Why am I like this?'
'Why won't my body listen to me?'
'What's going to happen to me now?'
'What's going on?'
'Quick, I need to get away now...'
Unanswered questions only filled her head.
And then.
chwaag-
Vikir broke the surface of the water and climbed out.
"You drink a lot of water for a seaweed."
Vikir spoke in a dry voice to BDISSEM, his fingertips dripping with black blood.
Madame's poison.
Vikir had sneakily released his own blood into the water once, when BDISSEM had slaughtered the gulper eels, creating a spray of blood.
Afterwards, as a vortex was formed due to the water current, BDISSEM unknowingly inhaled a large amount of poison throughout its body.
The poison was diluted by the water, so the impact was delayed, but once the symptoms appeared, the outcome was obvious.
"...heog! heoeog! keog!"
BDISSEM crawled on the ground with one hand on her throat and the other on her chest.
syuuuuug-
Her body temperature rose rapidly due to the poison, and water evaporated from her body.
Dark spots, the marks of death, began to appear all over her body.
BDISSEM, who had changed from a girl to an adult woman, was now turning into a shriveled up old woman.
"Oh, no, no, no... if I die... the restraints and cages of the prisoners... will all lose their strength... that... that...."
And her forward in agony.
jeobeog- jeobeog- jeobeog-
Night Hound, or rather of the Nouvelle Vague Hound, began to take steps.
Even in the deep sea, where not a single light shines, the shadow of death seemed to be cast.