Leviathan:Volume 4 Chapter 4
Chapter 4 - Monsters and the Night at the Remote Island
Part 1
Naturally, the brief battle at the open-air bath plunged the inn into chaos.
No wonder. After all, not only were screams and gunshots heard, there were also the shredded remains of eerie white tentacles and countless scattered scraps of flesh all around the open-air bath.
Leaving the confounded inn staff, Hal and company made contact with SAURU's Tokai branch and important members at Tokyo New Town. Using their connections to the police and authorities in the Izu and Shimoda area, they swiftly cleaned up the mess in secret.
Finally, after getting embroiled in unnecessary trouble, the group welcomed dawn the next day.
Hal and company went out to sea from the Sagaminada coast.
Naturally, this was part of their search for the Dragon Palace. What they borrowed was a multi-purpose support vessel from the JMSDF base at Irouzaki, the SDF facility closest to their accommodations. It was a small ship roughly seventy meters in length, normally used for transportation, supplies and rescue operations.
This time, it had set sail to aid witches and "serpents."
That being said, there was no specific destination for this voyage. Inside the ship, enough to carry forty passengers, a cabin had been set up as a "witches' prep room." Hal and company were holding a meeting in there currently.
"The shrine worshiping Goddess Hinokagutsuchi apparently holds a ceremony to pay respects to the Dragon Palace once every few years," said Hal while looking at his usual laptop.
Asya, Orihime, Hazumi and Luna Francois&mash;The witches were all gathered in one room too.
"It's said that an exceptionally good-looking shrine maiden had to set sail with the signpost in her hand. 'If a shrine maiden sets sail together with this stone, a messenger will greet her as a guide to reach the Dragon Palace...' Hinokagutsuchi seems to be the type to issue divine decrees, I guess."
The laptop was displaying the shrine information he described. In addition, Hal had talked at length with the local priest to obtain all kinds of information.
"According to records, they apparently held thiis ceremony during the century from 1602 in the late Sengoku era until the Kyouhou Reforms."
After listening to Hal's report, the reserved but inquisitive Hazumi asked incredulously, "May I ask why the ceremony was later discontinued?"
"Probably because of decreasing magical power in successive generations of shrine maidens in charge of carrying out the ceremony, thus preventing them from using the signpost successfully. In fact, shortly after the stone came into Asya's possession, those slimy tentacles that showed up probably came to greet us."
"But weren't we on land the whole time yesterday? We didn't set sail at all."
Equally incredulous, Orihime spoke up too.
"Why did it come all the way ashore?"
"I'm thinking it might be because Asya's magical power is too strong. Those capable enough to be certified as master-class are extremely rare in both ancient and medieval times."
"About that signpost stone..."
Pensively, Asya murmured.
"I tried many times to pour magical power into it. Perhaps that's why it activated a little. Look, like this."
Asya pointed to the black stone on the table in the cabin.
The stone's surface was black with a slight tinge of green. After merely seconds, this blackness began to glow with faint golden light. After settling down for two minutes, the stone turned golden again for roughly two seconds. Two minutes later, it glowed for two seconds again.
This golden blinking persisted after this in repetition.
Seeing that, Luna Francois commented with interest, "It's almost like a slowly beating heart."
Yesterday at the open-air bath, Hal and the others had definite witnessed it. The always elegant American girl had trembled in rage for the first time—But after that, Luna Francois quickly resumed her facade of "the elegant, intelligent and scheming beauty."
Ultimately, Luna was seen in anger for only an instant.
Glancing at the blonde beauty's indifferent face, Hal said, "To verify the hypothesis step by step, our only choice is to set sail on a ship to imitate the legend. Let's see if we come across anything by circling randomly in nearby waters."
"However, Harry—"
Luna Francois picked up the signpost stone.
"Perhaps contrary to expectations, we might make contact straight away? Based on the timing yesterday, we should be 'greeted' very soon."
The current time was slightly before noon. More than two hours had elapsed since setting out to sea.
It was a perfect sunny day yesterday while today's cloud cover was rather thick.
On this overcast day, Luna would be proven correct seven minutes later.
A large creature was rapidly approaching the ship.
Prior to the ship announcement, Luna Francois had already made a further prediction.
"Glinda's bloodlust has risen slightly... It seems that some kind of hostile entity with a certain level of combat ability is currently closing in on us."
Glinda, the "Good Witch of the South," was Luna's partner.
As a safety precaution, she had materialized on the deck as the "sailor on lookout duty."
"Luna, I'll be in charge of attacking, so I'm leaving defense to you. Orihime-san and Hazumi-san, please standby, ready to take action as necessary!"
Asya swiftly moved to the deck and issued orders.
Less experienced in battle, Orihime and Hazumi nodded obediently. Her equal, Luna Francois, did not raise any objections either. Although the two of them were master-class witches and had fought side by side many times before as well, perhaps they had reached a consensus beforehand that Asya would take command on the front lines.
Then on the deck—
Under the gray sky covered with dark clouds, the four witches and Hal arrived in haste.
The wind was very strong today. The support vessel sailed forward, slicing through tall waves. The enemy caught on marine radar and detected by Glinda had yet to come into sight.
In a certain corner on the deck was a three-meter-long magic beast.
A maned lion with orange fur, except with a dragon head connected to the right shoulder and a black goat head on the left—This was Glinda.
Normally speaking, leviathans should be around ten-odd meters in body length.
However, materializing a leviathan at her original size would cause continuous strain on the witch. When a witch reached her limit, she would experience symptoms akin to anemia. Hence, Luna had shrunk Glinda to the smallest size in order to minimize the burden of sustaining the manifestation.
In addition to powerful moves as befitted a Shootdown Ace, she was also adept in performing intricate techniques of this sort.
After showing off skills as befitted a master-class witch, Luna Francois commanded quietly, "Glinda, we shall protect this ship together. Gravity Wall!"
Ruoooooooooo!
Responding to her partner's instructions, Glinda's three heads roared simultaneously.
Immediately, the pseudo-divinity of Gravity was invoked. The transparent force field surrounding the seventy-meter-long support vessel was a supergravitational barrier capable of deflecting all objects daring to trespass its interior.
A minute or two later...
Close to a hundred writhing tentacles shot out from the sea.
The tentacles were white and slightly translucent like the ones at the open-air bath.
However, they were blocked by Glinda's gravity barrier this time, unable to invade anywhere within ten meters of the support vessel. Seizing this opportunity, Asya chanted loudly, "I pray to the ancient divine seal of purity! Send the transient blue dragon to the ground! Let the star of purification manifest over our heads!"
Directly above the support vessel, a pentagram of light manifested in the sky over the sea.
The pentagram immediately changed to a "∞" sign before turning into a blue wyvern.
"Rushalka, melee combat."
Standing with arms crossed on the deck, Asya calmly issued orders.
In the sky, Rushalka immediately spread her wings and dashed towards the sea surface. Like a seabird hunting a school of fish, she dipped her resilient hind legs into the water then ascended rapidly.
Rushalka kept rising.
Caught in the sharp triple claws of her extended hind legs was a squid roughly seven meters long.
However, unlike normal squid, it had almost a hundred tentacles instead of ten. Blocked by the gravity barrier and unable to approach the support vessel, the vast number of tentacles all belonged to this massive squid.
Nauseatingly long with frighteningly numerous tentacles—What a bizarre monster.
"A relative of the giant squid huh..."
While Hal watched, Rushalka continued to ascend.
Carrying a large squid with an astounding number of tentacles, she flew high in the sky.
"Rushalka, Laser Breath!"
Hearing Asya's command, the blue wyvern released the massive squid's body.
Dropped from the sky, the squid spread itself out in free fall towards the sea. As a marine creature after all, it was not equipped with flight capability.
After locking on the target, Rushalka fired a blue-white heat beam from her mouth.
Direct hit. The massive squid's head and mantle were instantly blown apart, leaving the hundred or so tentacles to fall into the sea with successive splashes.
However, at the moment of victory, Luna Francois whispered, "Looks like the visitors don't intend to leave yet. Glinda, show everyone your true power!"
Glinda had been shrunk to her minimum size at a body length of roughly three meters.
The orange three-headed lion suddenly expanded, turning back into her original form within the blink of an eye—A magic beast ten-odd meters long.
Glinda released her entire body's magical power to strengthen the gravity barrier.
In the next second, a new monster appeared from the sea. Unbelievably, it was even bigger than the previous one.
"Th-That thing would be an octopus... Right? Nee-sama!?"
"If anything, it seems more like a hybrid offspring between an octopus and a dragon..."
One could hardly blame Hazumi and Orihime for whispering to each other while on standby.
The head of the monster surfacing from the sea was very similar to that of an octopus.
But apart from that, it closely resembled an elite dragon in both body shape and size.
Ten-odd meters in length, its entire body was covered with dark green scales with a pair of bat-like wings on its back. The two forelimbs serving as arms looked resilient yet agile. Dozens of tentacles sprouted around the beak of its octopus-like head.
Each of those tentacles was wriggling like a snake.
Cthhhhhhhhlllsh!
The octopus-headed dragon subspecies roared. Immediately, the dozens of tentacles around its beak extended simultaneously towards the support vessel protected by the gravity barrier, moving as carnivorous snakes would to strike prey.
The barrier deployed by Glinda kept the attacking tentacles at bay for now.
"This strength and magical power feels as though it could rival an elite..."
Luna Francois frowned.
However, almost simultaneously with her murmur, someone counterattacked decisively—Asya.
The other Shootdown Ace called out sonorously while moving to the deck's far point—The prow. Presumably, she wanted to send commands and magical power to her partner from as near a distance as possible.
"Rushalka, use pseudo-divinity to restrain the enemy. Ice Prison!"
This was a command to turn her blue partner into a pseudo-god of water.
In response, Rushalka spread her wide wings and started to glide. Countless small white orbs of light were released successively from around her wings.
The numerous light orbs resembled scales more than snow, drifting down to the sea surface.
The octopus-headed dragon subspecies was bathed in them—
The monster was half-submerged with the lower half of its body in the sea.
As a result, the sea targeted by Rushalka instantly froze into ice. Transformed into something akin to an antarctic ice shelf, the sea trapped the dragon subspecies, immobilizing it.
Cthhhhhhhhlllsh!
Immediately, six runes of Ruruk Soun appeared above the octopus head. Hal was shocked as soon as he read its meaning. This arrangement signified "dispel magic"!
The newly frozen sea surface turned back to ordinary seawater within the blink of an eye.
"I can't believe that octopus head can even use runes of Ruruk Soun...!"
Hal could not help but click his tongue. However, that was not all.
The sea surface was suddenly split open to reveal another octopus-headed dragon subspecies.
The second one spread the wings on its back and flew into the air. At the same time, it extended the dozens of tentacles around its beak to attack Rushalka in the sky above!
The blue wyvern flew diagonally upwards nimbly, dodging spectacularly.
Finally recovered just last month, Europe's strongest "serpent" was in command of excellent reaction speed. Meanwhile, on the deck of the support vessel carrying Hal and company, the Trans-Pacific region's strongest "serpent" was growling.
Glinda's three heads—The lion, the black goat and the dragon.
While roaring simultaneously in warning, the three heads glared at the other octopus-headed dragon next to the ship.
"Even though the enemy can use Ruruk Soun magic, Glinda and I will guard here... Harry and Orihime-san, you two attack and take down the enemy as quickly as possible!"
"Understood!"
Hearing Luna Francois' quick shout, Orihime responded firmly.
Compared to the gentle Hazumi and Minadzuki, Orihime and Akuro-Ou were more suited to attacking. While nodding at the correct choice of candidate, Hal also shouted to the underclassman who was showing a stiff expression.
"Standby farther back. Best to pick somewhere that allows you to get back inside the ship any time!"
"Y-Yes. I understand!"
The honest Hazumi immediately moved. Presumably, she was either aware that she was not good at combat or had noticed that her presence on the front line would only be a hindrance.
However, something unexpected happened no sooner had Hazumi taken a couple steps.
All fired up to fight, Glinda suddenly stopped howling.
"What's the matter, Glinda?"
"Eh, no way!? Haruga-kun, look at that..."
"Don't tell me—it's a dragonslaying rune!?"
Hal and company saw it. A pictograph similar to the "巳" kanji had appeared on the forehead of the octopus head—the dragon subspecies near the support vessel.
It was most likely the fourth dragonslaying rune to appear after the Bow, the Sword and the Arrow—
Hal understood this instinctively while standing next to Orihime and Luna Francois.
Immediately, the octopus-headed dragon subspecies extended dozens of tentacles again to assault the deck. Unlike the previous time, a "巳"-like rune appeared successively on the tip of each tentacle!
Imbued with the power of dragonbane, the tentacles broke through the gravity barrier this time, rushing at the group.
Hal immediately deployed imperishable protection. The pearly radiance proceeded to spread in his surroundings to protect Luna and Orihime in addition to its user.
While enduring the tentacles' mighty force, Hal was attacked by a sharp pain in his heart.
Fortunately, no one was hurt at all. But unexpectedly, in the next instant, five tentacles wrapped around the sphere of imperishable protection, picking up Hal and the two witches together with the pearly radiance, pulling them away from the deck with astounding strength!
...Towards the sea where this bizarre monster was located, towards the octopus head's giant beak.
Part 2
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Part 3
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Part 4
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