Chapter 43: When the Abyss Gazes Back at You (1)

Chapter 43: When the Abyss Gazes Back at You (1)Deep Sea Fish Hunting Specialty Broadcast – 43

Splash-!

What appeared before them as they dived into Alexandra’s memories were the Slayers in the midst of a fierce battle.

“Tsk. We can’t see the memories from her ascension. What a pity.”

“Russell. Xiao said we could only see up to four hours before her death. What were you doing, not listening?”

Elvira’s curt rebuke was a common occurrence among the Oceanos, but this time, Xiao’s reaction was a bit different.

“Quiet. Focus.”

Her unusually heavy and serious tone was enough to make everyone, including Parang, feel slightly intimidated.

Small talk was set aside. They focused on the Slayers’ battle scene.

But… something felt off.

“What are they fighting?”

No matter how they looked around, there was no apparent enemy, only a massive number of minor monsters, including Bellua, swimming around. It was almost like a sea of water and fish. Even Han Siwoo and the Slayers were firing various skills downward.

Curious about what it was, they looked down and saw a pit, as if a sinkhole had formed.

“Xiao. Pause for a moment and explain. We can’t understand anything just by watching this.”

“Alright.”

With the viewpoint directed downward, Xiao paused the playback.

“What’s in that pit? Are they fighting that?”

Impatient Russell couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked Xiao.

“No. They’re fighting the pit itself.”

“…What?”

“Look closely. That’s not a sinkhole. It’s a mouth.”

At Xiao’s words, the entire Oceanos team stiffened as they closely examined the pit.

It was true. They had thought it was a geological feature, a sinkhole, because it was so massive, but now they saw teeth-like structures around the circular pit.

They were fighting a gigantic mouth.

A mouth with a radius of several kilometers.

Its existence made them question whether such a thing should even exist in the world.

Moreover, the mouth wasn’t just sitting there, passively taking the attacks.

Shuaaaa-!!!

The enormous mouth, which had been withstanding the Slayers’ attacks, suddenly opened even wider and began to suck in water at an incredible speed.

Rumble, rumble, rumble–!!

The ground in the area shook violently, and everything around was seen being sucked into the giant mouth.

“Crazy, what kind of water flow….”

“It seems to be about 25 meters per second,” Elvira said, watching the Bellua being helplessly dragged down.

A speed of 25 meters per second is roughly 100 kilometers per hour.

The speed of a military high-speed boat is about 50 knots, which translates to approximately 92 kilometers per hour.

In other words, even a military high-speed boat couldn’t escape this vortex.

A vortex created by a hole with a radius of several kilometers was causing a catastrophe in the area.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of monsters swimming around were all being sucked into the pit without any resistance.

The water flow was already fast, but with the current forming a whirlpool, there was no way to escape.

It was indeed powerful.

Shuaaaa……

Just when they thought the vortex, which had lasted for several minutes, had subsided, another attack came.

Gurgle- gurgle-

The pit, which had sucked in all the water, began to writhe violently.

There is an eternal truth in the world: if something goes in, something must come out.

However, what came out of this pit was far more horrific than what had gone in.

Kuaaaaa-!!!!

A dark purple, ominous-looking liquid, unimaginable as something that could be expelled after sucking in water, erupted from the pit like a volcanic explosion.

If liquid were ejected at that speed, even if it were just water, the physical impact would be fatal upon contact.

But this demonic pit took it a step further by spewing out a highly toxic substance.

■■■■-!!

■■■■…….

The monsters that managed to avoid the liquid from the pit suddenly began to drop dead.

As if possessed by Sakis, they flipped belly-up and floated.

And after a while, their bodies started to decay.

Their flesh turned into blackish powder, scattering in the water, leaving only skeletal remains.

All the monsters in the vicinity, regardless of type, died in this manner.

The poison didn’t stop there; it spread.

And it spread quickly. Within less than a minute of the poison being released, the entire area was so filled with it that visibility was almost zero.

Other bizarre attacks continued.

Tentacles the size of buildings burst through the ground, or countless eyes inside the pit stared straight up, launching mental attacks.

Parang thought.

Did the Slayers get annihilated fighting something like that?

Annihilated…?

She felt something was off.

Indeed, the pit felt like a final boss. Its size and impact were overwhelming.

Even if all six members of Oceanos attacked together, it wouldn’t be easy to achieve a complete victory.

Details would only be known after fighting, but a decisive victory was clearly impossible. If things went awry, there was even a risk of losing two or three members.

Even though Parang was there, and eventually Kraken would absorb it, it would take a considerable amount of time to absorb a monster of that size, even for Kraken.

If anyone were to take a direct hit from the pit’s attacks during that time….

‘Hmm.’

She erased the horrific thoughts from her mind.

But…

There was no way it could annihilate all 16 Slayers who possessed the bodies of gods.

In fact, it seemed more likely that the Slayers could achieve a complete victory without any casualties.

Of course, if Oceanos had sixteen members, the result would undoubtedly be a complete victory.

Anyway, it didn’t seem like the Slayers would have been defeated and annihilated here.

In fact, the Slayers were already gaining the upper hand.

The fact that Oceanos could observe the series of attacks from the pit meant that Alexandra had to be alive.

“Everyone, hold on tight!!!”

“Thanks, Siwoo!!”

When the pit sucked in water, Hunter Han Siwoo raised a massive steel beam from the ground, allowing everyone to hold on and survive.

“Yuri!!”

“Let there be light!!!”

When the pit spewed poison, everyone was safe thanks to the protective shield cast by Kang Yuri’s skill.

“Dieeeee!!!!”

“Disappear! You filthy thing!!”

Even after that, the Slayers continued to counter the bizarre techniques pouring out of the pit by skillfully using their abilities at the right moments.

If one member was using a powerful skill and facing a penalty, the other members would step in to protect them.

As expected of the protagonist party, their individual combat prowess and combination were outstanding.

And time passed. Two hours before Alexandra’s death.

■■■■■………!!!

The Slayers had defeated the pit.

The result was the survival of all 16 Slayers, including Alexandra.

“What the….”

“Quiet. From now on, it’s really important.”

Xiao interrupted again, her voice even more serious than before.

Grumbling, Russell began to focus again.

“Looks like we won, right?”

Hunter Han Siwoo turned to look at the Slayers.

As expected of the protagonist, he was handsome. With a bright halo behind him, he truly looked like the main character.

Looking back, there were many beauties. As female protagonists in a novel, they all had sculpted appearances.

Some were completely exhausted from the fierce battle, but ultimately, everyone survived.

“It seems so. But where exactly are we? Weren’t we supposed to ascend?”

From here, everyone started to pay attention. This was indeed an important conversation.

“I have no idea. To begin with, I don’t even know why we went out into space. We were supposed to stop much lower. We shouldn’t have come down into this water in the first place.”

A woman in a researcher’s coat and horn-rimmed glasses spoke curtly.

Charlotte Aira.

The scientist and researcher of the Slayers. She was the one who discovered and designed the ‘Ascension Ritual.’

“Was there a miscalculation?”

“I checked the calculations dozens of times. Of course, given the outcome, I’m not denying the possibility of my mistake.”

“Even so, how could the Ascension Ritual lead directly into that damned pit? It was clearly a trap. We were like fish caught on a hook.”

“Well, it ended up with the fish eating the fisherman….”

“Alright, alright, this isn’t going to get us anywhere right now. Let’s head up first. Maybe we’ll see something once we’re out of the water.”

In the midst of the commotion, Hunter Han Siwoo mediated the situation with a friendly smile.

Parang felt a strange emotion watching this.

Even though she hadn’t paid much attention to them after her reincarnation, these were still key characters from the novel she loved.

Seeing them laughing and chatting in reality made her feel somewhat emotional.

“Wait, Siwoo. There’s one last thing I need to say.”

“Huh?”

“No matter how I look at it, this place is Earth.” Sёarch* The Nôvel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“What?!”

“Is that really true?!”

“Among the strange creatures circling the pit earlier, there was one I recognized.”

“What was it?”

“It was a Bellua Maria, a creature from Earth. A monster said to come from a gate in the ocean.”

“So you’re saying this is Earth?!”

“Most likely, yes.”

“No, no, no! Hold on!! We were in space. How did we suddenly teleport to Earth’s ocean? Does that even make sense?! Maybe we entered a giant space gate or something like that?!”

“Marie. First, given that the Ascension Ritual already had an error, it’s not that unnatural for something like this to happen. Second, it’s ridiculous to think this vast space is inside a gate.”

“Well, maybe space gates are different….”

“I always feel this, but your imagination is something else, Marie….”

“Oh, come on!!”

“Alright, alright, let’s stop. If this really is Earth, it’s better to go up and figure out the cause. Let’s get out of the water first and think.”

But they never made it out of the water.

“Siwoo. Over there.”

“…Yeah. I see it too.”

“What… what is that…?”

From a distance, something was approaching.

At first, Parang thought it was a cloud.

Despite being underwater, she thought so because it genuinely looked like a cloud. There was even a dark shadow beneath it.

However, it didn’t take long for Oceanos to realize what it was.

An enormous number of underwater monsters.

Countless monsters were swimming toward them, enough to darken the entire field of vision.

There seemed to be millions, perhaps even tens of millions of them.

It was as if every monster in the world had gathered to fight the Slayers.

What Parang had thought was a shadow was actually a multitude of statues walking along the seabed.

Yes, those statues.

Countless statues were marching in rows and columns toward the Slayers.

It was truly an army of monsters.

The footage was from 90 minutes before Alexandra’s death.ss