Don Quixote's Invincible Armada.
As far as sea battles go, it is the Empire's most powerful force.
Darkness loomed ahead of the countless ships as they sailed across the blue waters of the large expanse of sea.
Vikir, at the bow of the foremost ship, was lost in thought as he faced the strong sea breeze.
'Infinite darkness, enveloping the world. This must have been one of the First Corpse's abilities.'
The normally clear Imperial Capital sky was now shows neither moonlight nor starlight.
Only.
…Kwakwang! Splash-
There is nothing but a tidal wave of enormous height.
"We're going to capsize!"
Bianca says worriedly.
But Tudor, standing beside her, merely snorted.
"Don Quixote's ship would capsize in a tidal wave of this magnitude? No way!"
It was true.
The Invincible Armada lived up to its name and sailed through the tidal wave without a single ship running aground.
The massive ships were linked together by thick chains so that the whole was one, and one was the whole.
Yeonhwangye (連環計). A tactic of connecting ships with chains.
Vikir's strategy had multiplied the Invincible Armada's breakthrough power.
Seeing it, Camus nodded in admiration.
"It's a good method as long as you watch out for fire attacks."
"With the rain pouring down like this, there's no need to worry about being attacked by fire."
"Exactly. It's the best we have at the moment. You are my boyfriend after all!"
At Vikir's reply, Camus smirked and punched Vikir in the arm.
Just then.
"...!"
Vikir's expression changed as soon as Camus got closer.
"The smell."
"...?"
Camus was greatly embarrassed by Vikir's unexpected remark.
She quickly sniffed the scent on her body.
"W-what is it? what? Do I smell? I wash every day? Hey, I just finished brushing my teeth! I'm meeting my boyfriend, but I don't know... Oh, or should I have at least sprayed some perfume? I was already worried because it didn't seem like it would be a good idea to carry perfume into the battlefield... Hey, maybe I was sweating when I did gymnastics in the morning...?"
"Not that smell."
Vikir dismissed Camus, who blushed bright red.
"The smell of a demon."
"...!"
"Half a unique, faint smell."
Then Camus' expression hardened.
"That's strange. Right now, Seere only accounts for a very small amount of my body, so it shouldn't smell that much, right?"
"It's not coming from you."
Vikir replied in a low voice.
In the past, Camus had shared half of her body with Seere during her reign as the Corpse Queen.
Vikir had smelled the scent of the other half of the demon once before, and had it imprinted on his nose.
And now. A similar scent was being carried on the sea breeze.
Straight ahead, from the direction of the imperial palace, which is considered a key area in the imperial capital, the center of the empire.
"...!"
Camus too could soon smell what Vikir was talking about.
Indeed, it was a thick, intense scent that could be felt even from a distance.
"It's an anomaly, not the usual demonic scent."
Aiyen said, jumping down from the watchtower.
She had spent so much time in the Hell Tree, slaying countless demons, monsters, and fairies that she had become accustomed to smelling this type of scent.
"It's definitely... A different aura than I'm used to, much more ominous, but just as unstable. Different from the level of strength."
Dolores, who had emerged from her cabin below deck, was equally grim.
"It's similar to what I felt with Camus, but it's also different. Where Camus felt like she was half human, half demon..., this feels like there's only half demon left."
Sinclair, who was organizing the anchor lines, agreed with everyone.
After being bathed in demonic dragon blood in the Hell Tree, she too had a feeling.
Buzz buzz-
Vikir heard Beelzebub's cry as it slumbered on the inside of his wrist.
And the exact same cry was coming from behind the deck.
Kirko.
Asmodeus, the magic sword, was emitting the same cries as Beelzebub from the strap around her waist as she stared at Vikir wordlessly.
Vikir turned to the Dekaravia clinging to her breastplate.
"Do you know anything about the First Corpse?"
[...Am I a knowledge vending machine? Don't treat me like that saint over there].
Dolores, who was next to him, became angry at Decarabia's words, but was stopped by Camus and Aiyen's dissuasion.
"Calm down. It's not wrong."
"Haha- In the Tochka Siege, you were practically a holy water vending machine."
"You, that's too much! I worked hard to protect yourself from behind! This is why healers lose money! If I do well, it won't be noticeable, but if I don't, it will be noticeable...."
"Calm down. If it weren't for you, Tochka would have fallen long ago."
"That's right. Holy power is a strange thing. I've never seen it before."
Dolores, Sinclair, and Kirko also chimed in.
But all the while, Vikir was focused on Decarabia's answer.
[Ahem! The First Corpse is. He's a heteromorph. Normal creatures divide individuals based on their bodies, but that concept doesn't work for him].
"...What does that mean?"
[I mean. you will divide and define human entities based on you. You, the human being, are one. and if there are other human beings who meet the same criteria, they are two. And three. Four. Five.... But not once. Two may be one, and one may be two. Since the criterion for separating the 'a' and the 'non' is outside the human concept, it is impossible to cut them according to conventional wisdom.]
"I have no idea what you're talking about. So, I guess it means he has a unique body structure like you?"
Dekarabia is an object-type demon, which is a fairly unusual category among demons.
In that case, First Corpse could also be difficult to deal with.
[Anyway. I don't know much about him either, he's a secretive creature, but....]
Decarabia's voice tightened as if he were about to reveal a very important secret.
[I only heard that the roles of 'those who close the door' and 'those who open the door' are separate. This is all I know.]
Vikir furrowed his brow at the increasingly confusing answer.
He's been a straight and upright man all his life, and he doesn't like this kind of back-and-forth conversation.
Just when Vikir was about to ask another question.
"Emergency! Tsunami up ahead!"
CindyWendy shouts from the watchtower of the next ship over.
Everyone quickly grabbed onto the railing and fixed their gaze forward.
Koo-oooooooooo!
The water surged with tremendous momentum.
One moment it looked like a distant hill was rising, and the next, a wave that seemed to reach the sky.
It felt like watching the entire skin of the sea surface peel off.
"...Eueum!"
Tudor was getting pretty nervous, too.
In the face of a tsunami of that magnitude, even the most powerful ships would be in danger.
But.
"Pushishishi- Fools, what are you so worried about?"
Marquis de Sade, who was sitting in front of the bow and holding a fishing rod, looked completely carefree.
He tilted his head sharply and turned to Tudor and Don Quixote's knights.
"Have you forgotten who you are with?"
...?
They all shook their heads.
At that moment.
kwa-kwang!
A tremendous boom erupted from the front, and the tsunami in front of them tore apart in an instant.
The tsunami lying helplessly in a gaping hole.
And everyone on the ship saw it.
Just as the tsunami rose to engulf the armada, a hand grabs the back of the tsunami with tremendous force and pulls it down.
…peopeong!
The next thing they knew, the hand clutching the line of Marquis de Sade's fishing pole shot out of the water.
It was a killer whale with white spots on its grayish skin that landed on the deck of the ship.
"Sometimes you have to warm up like this."
Orca, in his killer whale form, puffed on a damp cigarette that Lieutenant Colonel Bastille lit for him.
peopeopeopeopeong!
The tsunami debris that Orca crushed in the water was disposed of by the heads of each family.
Even though they were fragments, each and every piece of water was of considerable size and was flying in all directions.
…teog!
It was Osiris, the Bizarre Bird, his black hair flowing and perched on the railing in front of Vikir.
He had just slashed through a giant tsunami and suddenly felt Vikir's gaze on him and turned his head.
Is it because he's his brother? Osiris quickly read the emotion in Vikir's eyes.
"Are you worried about your father's affairs?"
Vikir didn't bother to answer.
And Osiris didn't ask.
Instead, Osiris turned and added.
"I, too, could not understand his actions."
"...."
"But I can sympathize."
"...!"
Unable to understand, but able to empathize. The opposite is true, but it is extremely rare.
Osiris turned his head.
His gaze was fixed on CindyWendy on the watchtower of the nearby ship.
"Perhaps one day you will understand."
Osiris muttered, 'It's not necessary to understand,' and vanished as quickly as he had appeared.
"...."
Vikir was lost in thought.
The women following him, his father's white-oxidized body, the Gate of Destruction that had cooled, the final battle with the last of the Tens.
His stomach churned wildly, and his mind raced.
Vikir breathed deeply.
The ship may be shaking, but the heart must not be shaken.
Especially not at a moment like this.
Vikir shook his head to clear his thoughts.
There is no need to think about the future.
Only one thing.
"Demons kill."
All we need to do is go all in on the head-to-head battle against First Corpse, which is just around the corner.
And then.
There was something visible in the center of the world, which at first glance seemed to be a vast chaos, with the blackened sky and water.
A pointed building pierced the horizon, rising up.
Kirko stood on the railing and shouted.
"That's the Central Clock Tower! I've seen it in the books!"
The symbol of the Imperial Capital, which overshadowed the passage of time, was seen standing tall, showing off its unchanging majesty.
The center of the metropolis, where everything, including the Colosseo Academy, was submerged in water.
The armada advancing over a city that was once a symbol of prosperity and fashion.
It was a full-fledged yet somewhat bitter entry into the Imperial Capital.