Soon after, the moment Alucard had been dreading finally arrived.
The stone giant loomed over them, its massive, headless body shifting with dreadful purpose. They had a single heartbeat to act — to leap onto the creature's neck or be crushed beneath it.
Alucard jumped.
By some miracle, he managed to land atop the giant's broad, jagged shoulders, fingers digging into cracks in the ancient stone. The instant he stabilized himself, he noticed something was wrong.
Earlier, in an effort to ignore the searing agony of Nephis's flames, he had bitten his tongue.
He had bitten far too much off seemingly.
"Gahs daymit—"
The curse came out mangled and wet.
He nearly tripped as the giant lurched forward, forcing him to cling to the stone for dear life.
'Gluttony… please heal my tongue.'
The Arch Sin responded sluggishly, knitting torn flesh back together, but not before another violent jolt sent waves crashing against him. Water struck his face relentlessly, blinding and choking.
No one else was in better condition. Nephis had long since extinguished her flames, and now they were swallowed by absolute darkness.
Only Sunny could see.
As a child of shadows, Sunny's eyes pierced the black abyss, making him the cohort's only guide. That did little to comfort Alucard—especially when he felt the water rising far faster than expected.
"Thunnny! What ith going on?!" Alucard shouted, his half-healed tongue betraying him.
Sunny lingered for a brief moment, clearly fighting the urge to laugh.
Then he yelled, his voice sharp and urgent:
"Prepare yourselves! We're going underwater for a couple of minutes — at least!"
A chorus of curses answered him.
The next moment, freezing saltwater crashed into Alucard's face and swallowed the world whole.
Darkness turned suffocating. Pressure crushed down from every direction as the giant continued its steady march beneath the waves. The cohort clung desperately to cracks and ridges in the stone, knowing that if even one of them slipped, no one would be able to save them.
Despite the nightmare unfolding around him, Alucard had anticipated this possibility.
The odds of them never submerging had always been slim.
So he had prepared.
The plan?
BLOOD!
Blood was the answer to nearly every problem—if one thought creatively enough.
And this problem required very little creativity.
Blood carried oxygen.
Earlier, he had commanded Gluttony to separate and condense a portion of his blood—rich with oxygen—and preserve it for this exact scenario.
Now, he summoned it.
Thick, crimson masses formed in the water and pressed against each cohort member's face, sealing over their mouths and noses like grotesque masks. He did the same for himself.
In truth, he could probably endure longer than the others. His stamina was monstrous, second to none in the cohort. His body withstood punishment that would cripple most Awakened.
Though… it had one flaw. (Under exaggeration of the century)
Without consuming blood, his body would shut down within a day.
A small price.
The oxygen-rich blood would last roughly five minutes.
Five minutes—without activating the emergency protocol he had planned.
The real threat was the pressure. The stone giant moved relentlessly through the depths, and the crushing force strained their bodies to the limit.
Alucard endured.
But he worried about the others.
Kai and Cassie were the physically weakest among them.
Especially Cassie.
So when Kai was the first to lose his grip, Alucard's heart lurched.
Kai's hand slipped.
His body began to tear away from the statue, dragged by the merciless current.
The only thing keeping him from vanishing into the abyss was Cassie.
And somehow—
Cassie was holding on better then him.
The blind girl, fragile in appearance, was the only thing anchoring him to survival.
The logical choice would have been to cut Kai loose.
Save one instead of losing two.
Unfortunately, Alucard had never been particularly logical.
Backup plan number two.
He forced blood down their throats.
Why?
Gluttony.
Not the Arch Sin.
The lineage.
His blood possessed a rejuvenating quality. It could slightly heal, restore stamina, and even enhance physical strength for a brief period.
The oxygen masks dissolved as the empowered blood flooded their systems.
Kai and Cassie felt it instantly—a surge of strength, energy restored, muscles reinforced.
The cost?
No oxygen supply.
Alucard gambled that they were close enough to the surface.
He sensed Kai climbing back up, regaining his grip on the statue's neck.
Moments later—
They breached the surface.
All six members of the cohort.
Wait.
Six?
Sunny performed a quick headcount.
Alucard was missing.
When Sunny looked down, he immediately saw why.
Below the waterline, something writhed.
It resembled a grotesque fusion between a translucent jellyfish and a massive eel. Within its gelatinous, transparent flesh, the deformed skeleton of a giant humanoid floated—trapped like a macabre ornament inside the abomination's body.
And Alucard—
Was fighting it.
Well.
In reality, he was desperately trying not to fight it.
The only reason he wasn't already dead was the Mantle of the Underworld—his Ascended armor. In any other scenario, the creature would have devoured him whole.
Though, judging by the way the eel thrashed, it still intended to.
Thankfully, he remained anchored to the stone giant.
Unfortunately—
His foot was trapped in the creature's mouth.
"Let go, damn it!"
He kicked at its slick, glassy eye. The impact did nothing.
The eel was entirely focused on him.
Then, faintly, he heard something.
Sunny's voice.
Yelling from far away.
At a volume Sunny himself should not have been capable of.
But the eel did not care.
Damn it.
Alucard remembered something.
Some fish were attracted to blood.
He summoned a large mass of it and hurled it behind the giant.
For a split second—
The eel's eyes shifted.
That was enough.
Alucard ripped his leg free.
He glanced down.
The boot of his Mantle of the Underworld was melting.
Not ideal.
He began climbing, but the eel lunged again, maddened and relentless.
Then he heard it.
A sound.
From the creature.
"En… Bast… Trait…"
The syllables were warped, forced through alien flesh, as if the nightmare creature were attempting human speech.
What the hell?
There was no time to think.
The eel surged toward him.
So he made a decision.
A costly one.
He anchored his feet to the statue with hardened blood, then activated the sigil on his arm.
The transcended blood he had been saving manifested—dense, radiant, and heavy with power.
He hated wasting it on something so pathetic.
But survival took precedence over pride.
When the eel drew close enough—
He fired.
The impact tore through the water in a violent shockwave of crimson energy.
Then came three sounds.
The first—
The creature's massive body collapsing into the sea.
The second—
Sunny's voice, strained as he grabbed Alucard and hauled him upward.
"Careful! You were about to join that eel!"
Never in his life had Alucard thought he would be so relieved to hear a midget's voice.
Yet here he was.
And the third sound—
The Spell.
Cold. Impartial. Absolute.
[You have slain a Fallen Devil: the Translucent Eel.]
[You have received a Memory.]