The Central Clock Tower, the symbol of the Imperial Capital.
The Central Clock Tower, which is considered the second tallest building after the Imperial Palace, was flooded almost to the top.
The great ship on which Vikir rode parted the raging waters to pass alongside the clock tower.
Suddenly, Vikir muttered to himself.
"I think we've been through this once before."
Beside him, Camus nodded.
"Yes, it has."
"..., right?"
"Yeah. When we were eight years old, we got into a fight and my clothes came off, and I was in a lot of trouble, and you...."
"No. Not that."
"Oh yeah, like at the festival, when we were fighting all over the place here in the Imperial Capital, and we wore masks. Oh, come to think of it, that was also the time I think my clothes came off at the end...."
"Not that, either. I'm talking about the smell of demons."
Vikir was feeling the increasingly intense demonic energy directly on his skin.
Then.
"Is that the Imperial Palace? I can see something."
He hears Aiyen shout from the watchtower.
Then he saw a flash of golden light on the horizon.
A radiance that shimmers like the aurora in the night sky. It was clearly like a symbol of the Imperial Palace.
The tallest staircase in the world, and the golden palace built atop it.
It looks like a replica of the castle on the clouds where the gods in mythology reside.
What had truly been a celestial castle in the clouds before the Great Flood now towered like a solitary castle on the sea.
"The Imperial Palace. It's really here, I didn't think there would be a demon in there...."
Dolores said with concern in her voice.
She sounded quite nervous, but there was no hint of skepticism or guilt in her tone for turning against the Emperor.
Perhaps it was because life after knowing Vikir felt so much longer and more complete than life before knowing him.
And it was the same for Sinclair, a classmate at the same academy.
"Wow, is that all gold? What a waste of a building, I'll have to strip it all off."
Sinclair's eyes sparkle as she examines the palace's exterior.
The Rich Hat atop her head was already rattling.
Meanwhile.
"...That's the Imperial Palace. Where the Emperor lives."
Kirko gazed at the Imperial Palace on the horizon with complicated feelings.
Even the guards of the Nouvelle Vague in the deepest depths had always been taught to be loyal to the Emperor.
However, the Emperor in the palace above and the guards in the prison below never actually see the Emperor.
For the Emperor, the Nouvelle Vague is a quarantine zone that exists only on paper, and he never sees it with his own eyes.
They could live a lifetime and never see each other.
So Kirko had only vaguely imagined what the Emperor was like in his daydreams, never imagining that she would ever meet him in person.
But now. They stood in front of the palace.
The rain was pouring down in torrents and the waves were crashing fiercely, but the palace was getting closer and closer.
...Just then.
"It's another tsunami! It's bigger this time! And there are more of them!"
CindyWendy warned.
Scanning ahead with her telescope, she warned all the ships behind her.
"Another tsunami? For an unusual weather change, it is strangely frequent.."
"Pushishishi- look at the magnitude. Who's creating this?"
Orca and Sade both frowned as they watched the massive masses of water rising and falling before them.
A series of waves of that magnitude would capsize any ship before it even reached the palace.
But.
"Hahaha, is this the place for this body great hero to step out!"
Despite his youth, Tudor's eyes shone as he skillfully led the Invincible Armada, not fazed in the slightest.
His eyes sparkle as blue as the vast expanse of the sea, guiding all in the darkness.
"One outskirts! Divide!"
Tudor's command came through the storm, clear to all ships.
And then.
… Pakang! … Pakang! … Pakang! … Pakang!
The sound of breaking chains could be heard everywhere.
The large sailing ships on the outskirts of the fleet fell out of the annular system.
"...?"
Everyone's heads turned.
Tudor shouted out loud.
"The outermost ships consist of nothing but abandoned ships! There are no sailors aboard, only gunpowder and breakwaters!"
And now that they were out of the way, the fleet's forward speed increased by leaps and bounds.
Now that the heavy obstacles have been removed, the speed has increased.
"But won't the lighter weight make it unstable? The waves are so strong."
"Why do you think I dragged all this stuff up here in the first place?"
Bianca said uneasily, but Tudor remained confident.
And then.
Tudor raised his spear Gungnir and gave the signal.
And then.
kwakwakwakwang!
Flames and explosions erupted from the wrecks on the left and right wings of the fleet.
Heavy abandoned ships sink to the bottom of the water and scatter hot flames.
The heavy breakwaters they were filled with were slowly sinking toward the bottom.
Then a remarkable change occurred.
"The waves are gone!"
Orca, sensitive to changes in water currents, was the first to notice the change.
Not only had the abandoned ships on the left and right wings of the fleet exploded, stopping the waves, but the sinking breakwaters were also pressing down on the incoming tide from below.
The sea was safe for a moment. It opened a straight path to the Imperial Palace.
The Invincible Armada, which had become lighter and faster after removing the abandoned ships, was heading straight for the imperial palace along that straight path.
"It's a bold plan. My friend."
"Haha- I'm the patriarch of the Don Quixote, this is the least I can do!"
Tudor chuckled as Sancho patted him on the shoulder.
The raging tsunami moved out of the armada's path.
The Armada advanced, meandering through waves less than half the size of the others.
Then.
something else happened.
[K-Aaaaaaaaagh!]
[Kkieeeeeg!]
[Hiss! Hiss!]
Just when everything seemed to be calming down, all sorts of creatures started poking their heads above the surface.
Crabs so huge that they could stand on the bottom with their legs, ancient placoderms with solid iron armor, sea serpents so long you could see the end of them, and deep-sea fish so hideous and grotesque that it's hard to describe them all were attacking the ships.
"Well, this is a monster that has been released openly."
Faced with such creatures, Bianca simply clicked her tongue.
"God Killing Squad, prepare to fire!"
At Bianca's command, the knights of Usher took up positions at the front of the ship.
Even on the rocking deck, they didn't move an inch, bows and arrows raised and aimed at the large targets in front of them.
"Open fire from the ready shooter! Fire!"
Bianca gave the final command.
At the same time, countless iron bolts imbued with a gray aura flew out and began to pierce the sea monsters.
Each arrow was like an artillery barrage.
Whether they hid under the water or dodged behind the waves, the arrows followed them as if they had eyes.
Peopeopeopeopeog! Kwakwang! Kwakwakwang!
The sea was running red with the blood of the monsters.
Not a single one of them could break through Usher's fire net.
"The demon is showing its true colors openly."
"You don't even bother to hide your identity anymore."
"It was said that His Majesty the Emperor passed away, so the First Prince must be the demon."
"With the fall of his supporters, the House of Leviathan, he no longer needs to conceal his identity."
"Darkness and chaos itself. Such is the nature of centers of power."
Camus, Aiyen, Dolores, Sinclair, and Kirko.
They, too, drew their weapons, preparing for the great battle against the monsters to come.
Then.
bugeulbugeulbugeulbugeulbugeulbugeulbugeulbugeulbugeulbugeulbugeulbugeul...
Things started to look a little different.
The swarming sea creatures suddenly scattered to the left and right.
The tsunami that had been raging steadily up until now had finally subsided.
A strange silence that came out of nowhere.
And in the middle of it all, a huge pool of water was rising.
Ku-leuleuleuleuleuleug!
Despite the sniper fire of Usher's knights, the water mass rising from the center of the sea lane, and the huge, dark shadow beneath it, did not flinch.
"...Could it be 'that guy'?"
The sight was enough to make even the mighty Major General Orca grunt and groan.
Behind him, the Nouvelle Vague's all-stars, including D'Ordume, Souare, BDISSEM, and Flubber, were also showing signs of discomfort.
"Did they follow us here?"
"No. It looks like the demon brought them here."
"Well, it's bad luck in many ways."
[....]
A being that originally lived somewhere else, completely unrelated to the Imperial Capital.
The most feared enemy of Nouvelle Vague's guards.
They battled for supremacy of the deepest ocean.
Now that the Nouvelle Vague is gone, 'it' seems to have made the Imperial Capital its new territory.
Chwaaaaaak-
Eventually, the last gatekeeper of the imperial palace pulled its body completely out of the water.
Eight tentacles surrounded the surface of the ocean like a mountain range.
In the chaos, where sky and sea were indistinguishable, two eyeballs glowed as yellow as the sun in the inky darkness.
Kraken.
One of the two monsters said to have been born together when light and darkness were created.
At this point, the worst creature you could ever hope to encounter.