Amid cries of alarm, countless residents of the island nation's coastal cities stared in despair at the waves surging toward them. Streets dissolved into chaos; cars and pedestrians alike were seized by terror, their minds fixed on a single thought—run!
Run from this city.
Run from the wall of water about to swallow it whole.
Run from that colossal silhouette rising from the sea.
"ROAR!!"
With that bellow, the already-churning sea boiled over again. It was as if the waters bridged heaven and earth, blotting out the sky.
Rrrrrumble…
With a shattering detonation, a monstrous breaker came crashing down, submerging half the city in an instant. Innumerable citizens—without even time to react—were swallowed by the sea, despair their only companion.
Houses and high-rises around them splintered and sank in the surging flood.
This was the ocean's power, and against it people had no resistance at all. Before that power they could only feel fear, panic, hopelessness.
As for the true culprit behind it all—the massive shape out upon the water—those who lived through it found they could not even summon anger.
"ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!!"
Apparently satisfied with the scene before it, the giant mutated sea beast swung its arms again, heaving up the ocean and sending one mountainous surge after another rolling toward the city.
Rumble!
Rumble!
Rrrrrumble…
The ground itself trembled beneath the endless thunder of waves. Under each successive onslaught, the city fell silent—no voices left to raise.
Compared with Huaxia, with the "Lighthouse," and other nations, the island country had faced countless dangers since the resurgence of spiritual energy.
Ringed on all sides by sea, and with unnumbered mutated sea beasts lurking in those waters, it had faced marine incursions while other nations were still battling beast tides on land.
If not for human kinetic weapons and a handful of powerful ability users holding the line, the island nation would likely have lost many more cities already.
This time, though, it faced the greatest threat yet—
Yamata-no-Orochi of the open sea.
Power so terrifying it drove people to despair.
Worst of all, no matter what attacks it faced, the mutated leviathan refused to set a single limb on land, choosing instead to roil the water from offshore.
A sea beast of this caliber lay beyond what present-day technology could handle. They would have to rely on high-level ability users. But, unfortunately, the island nation had no one capable of dealing with this particular monster.
If they chose not to seek aid, then there was only one option left—
Gather every capable ability user and divide them into teams: one unit to bind Yamata-no-Orochi and keep it from escaping.
This was the hardest part—because a Yamata-no-Orochi in its element, out on the ocean, possessed strength past imagining.
In the past they would have had many ways to proceed. They wouldn't even have needed to ask; there would always be people intrigued by Yamata-no-Orochi who would volunteer to help.
But now, with spiritual energy revived, the sea and the sky had become human no-go zones.
Compared to the free exploration of old, travel was now limited to short hops.
So this catastrophe would have to be handled by their own hands.
Wasn't that what they had always wanted before?
"Binding it will be far too difficult," one figure said with a sigh. "Even if we manage it, many will likely die."
"Earlier mutated sea beasts were strong, but not unmanageable. This one we've dubbed 'Yamata-no-Orochi,' though… it's beyond us."
"It doesn't just command the ocean—it's highly intelligent. It senses danger and slips away from our bombardments beforehand. On top of that, it's cautious to the extreme, always keeping a certain distance from us—never drawing close, never straying far."
"No matter how we choose to attack, it always has time to prepare."
The others could only choke on their frustration. Its strength alone would have been bad enough; its wits made it worse. It camped offshore, controlling the waters to attack, and the coastal cities were already being devoured by the sea.
And they had no way to stop it.
Online, citizens were already in an uproar—demanding protective measures, demanding they eliminate the monster.
But how were they to do that?
Were they supposed to transform into Ultraman?
There was no such thing in the real world!
"Hard or not, we have to act. Leaving it there does us no good at all."
"Better decisiveness than dithering!"
Someone ground the words out between their teeth.
"It isn't completely impossible."
A new voice drew every eye.
"The Shenying family has a young girl with extraordinary talent in swordsmanship. At a very young age she can already spar her father to a draw—truly gifted."
"After the resurgence, she obtained a divine artifact with a very particular power."
"By the information I've received, any mutated sea beast injured by that artifact has its life erased in an instant—without exception."
"If we can create an opening, and let that artifact wound Yamata-no-Orochi, then no matter how powerful it is, it cannot resist the power of a divine artifact."
"After all, 'Yamata-no-Orochi' is only our label for it. In the end it's just a very strong mutated sea beast. The artifact, however, is a true artifact."
"An artifact?!"
They couldn't help trading odd looks at the word—but given the speaker's identity and the circumstances, there was no reason to suspect a lie.
"In this era—even angels have appeared. What's left that's impossible?"
At that, they all nodded, deeply moved.
When they'd first seen the video, they'd thought it a prank. Turned out it had been real.
The resurgence of spiritual energy had affected every country, though whether for good or ill could not yet be judged.
But if humanity endured into the future, the outcome would surely be good.
Longevity—long sight—these would pose no problem then.
Once, that had been the dream of uncounted people.
Compared to them, though, Huaxia had become even stronger now.
White Emperor, Dragon Emperor, Ice Emperor, Flame Emperor.
Their profiles hadn't been concealed, so even they could read them.
Naturally, they had seen their terrifying power as well.
Especially the Ice Emperor, who had frozen an entire city.
And not a city of their island nation's size—but a city on Huaxia's scale.
Power that terrible was godlike.
No wonder people called her the Ice Emperor.
Truly worthy of the name!
And the Dragon Emperor, clad in armor—he could conjure crimson dragons with a wave of the hand; hardly any mutated creature could withstand him.
If he went all out, the mind balked at imagining it.
The Flame Emperor's power was likewise fearsome. She alone could summon an army's worth of summoned beasts—practically a one-woman legion.
Most unfathomable of all was the White Emperor. Though there was little information, there was no doubt he was the strongest among the four.
If the Net was to be believed, even the other three combined would still fall short of him.
Within Huaxia, his strength stood in a class of its own.
(End of this chapter)