"Behind me stands a world."
The world of Demon Slayer!
On the deck, with his hand as a sword, the Gaze of "Water Breathing," Razor, just performed a "Shizuku Ripple Stabbing" to disperse the roaring sea breeze. His ears twitched, and he glanced at the young boy... the shock in his eyes was no less than Ging's!
"You sure have a big heart!" Still claiming he hasn't been to the Dark Continent... Ging tilted his head, staring at Roy for a while, then spat out these words through clenched teeth.
Over the years, he has traveled vast lands, traversed the sky and earth, often wandering among ruins and lost civilizations, questioning himself — with the abundance of experiences and a broad vision, he feels he's no lesser than anyone. But... claiming a world... other than that land of desire, Ging could think of nothing else.
Moreover, a person... no matter how strong, without being informed, truly cannot imagine things beyond their understanding...
Roy offered no explanation, nor would he explain to Ging, allowing him to remain mistaken. With a single motion, he plunged his Staff Blade into the bow of the ship and lay back on the deck, letting the sunlight pour over him, spreading his arms wide in a grand gesture: "It's not my heart that's big; it's the sun."
The Hunter has the sun... Demon Slayer has the sun... even in his past life, as a corporate drone existing amidst the steel and concrete jungle, he couldn't escape the sunlight.....
The boy covered his face with his hand, watching the sky through the gap between his fingers as the sun lavishly spilled its light.
Silence surrounded them for a moment, then Ging's suppressed laughter echoed, growing from small to boisterous... startling flocks of seabirds....
"Ho ho ho... now I believe it's not the Zoldyck being formidable; it's you, this person... too unexpected!"
Isn't it...? A completely unfamiliar world, isn't it unexpected?
After a set of "Water Breathing," Razor exhaled lightly, sitting next to Roy. The three of them basked in the sun, each in different postures, until suddenly, the woman poked her head out of the captain's room and said, "We've arrived."
"Buzz... halt...." The engine ceased immediately,
The momentum carried the ship a few meters further, swaying with the waves until it stopped on the sea.
"Let's go." Ging packed up the fishing rod, hoisting it onto his shoulder. He extended a hand, and Alena leaned over, immediately grasping his hand. The two enveloped themselves in a small blue ball of "Nen," perfectly wrapping them inside.
Ging looked at the others and said, "Don't you need my help?"
Roy said nothing, just extended a hand to grab the Staff Blade with [Magnetic Force · Attachment], leaping out with trails of shadows, then consolidating to leap again, diving straight into the sea, swiftly plunging toward the seabed!
"Master, wait for me." With an infinite handgun in hand, Wutong quickly stepped forward, flashing past the ship's side, diving straight into the water. As soon as he touched the surface, he transformed from "human" to "fish," bounding with merged legs, kicking upward like a fish's tail, splashing waves elegantly!
"Such speed!" Alena used Nenryoku [Control Everything], radiating "En," marking everyone, including Ging, Roy, Wutong, Razor, and herself, concentrating on the small screen in front... visible to the naked eye....
Roy and Wutong, once underwater, swam faster and fiercer than the so-called "rocket of the sea," the sailfish, plunging straight to the bottom, as if... "They're truly unaffected by water pressure and lack of oxygen!"
It must be the prowess of that... "Water Breathing" ....
"Step... step...." On deck, except for the captain and sailors, five people had already left in two moments.
Ging shouted to Razor: "Follow me, no need to consume Nen."
Razor, wearing a white vest, with muscles vaguely visible around his shoulder pads, jumped into the sea without looking back at Ging and Alena, saying, "I have no fondness for being a landlubber."
"Splash~" Entering the water,
He swiftly chased Wutong and Roy. Although initially awkward, once submerged, he wasn't too accustomed. Forcing himself to calm down, he attempted to change his breathing rhythm, leaning toward "Water Breathing," gradually finding a sense of "merging with the water"...
Using "hands" as "fins," "legs" as "tails," a gentle wave downwards propelled him five meters. Clearly... he became acclimated to underwater conditions or lifestyle more and more.....
"Whoosh... Whoosh... Whoosh....." On Alena's small blue screen, the three white spots symbolizing Roy, Wutong, and Razor shot out like arrows, about to breach the screen borders in the blink of an eye.
Ging pressed his hat brim, pretending not to hear the veiled mockery in Razor's words, turning to Alena and said, "Let's go."
Exchanging glances, they followed Razor, jumping into the sea together, wrapped in that blue water ball, displacing the water with ample oxygen inside the ball, overcoming low or no oxygen conditions, pursuing Razor, Wutong, and Roy.
Five lines of water divided into front, middle, back, and further back, after about half an hour, finally reached the bottom... Eyes met a towering Gothic cathedral-like building, as a vast mountain, blocking their path, craning their necks couldn't see the top, just a fleeting glimpse while diving, emotions surged, indescribably awe-inspiring!
"Who could imagine such a structure existing at the seabed?" Wutong stood before the cathedral with Roy.
Logically speaking, ten thousand meters underwater, there's no way for light to penetrate. Mostly it should be a domain of darkness and desolation. But the Gothic architecture before them emanated a gentle halo, with tiles and walls crafted from unknown materials or perhaps engraved with some [Illumination] Divine Characters... Not only radiating outward, providing light, but repelling seawater, creating a spherical space filled with fresh air, almost indistinguishable from the outside world, leaving people stunned.
"This is the place my ancestors mentioned, where the象貘 once appeared."
"Step~" Following Razor, Roy, and Wutong landed, Ging and Alena arrived soon after, the layer of "water ball" surrounding them popping with a "bloop," revealing their forms.
"Without precise coordinates, it's hard to find." Razor removed his vest, revealing a well-defined physique, squeezing out seawater with a sharp look, glancing at Ging.
Ging laughed and said, "That's why we must explore."
The man chuckled and said, "This is the essence of adventure."
Hunters must have prey to hunt, and Ging's prey is... the ruins!
He passed by Razor's shoulder, pacing to stand alongside Roy, and looked up at the cathedral door, embossed with various reliefs — an officer with a broad sword, a woman with severed arms, revealing her chest, a girl with a flower crown, holding her mother's right hand, a preacher holding scriptures, shouting among the crowd... A thousand faces varied infinitely... fleetingly... captivating....
Transporting people back to an unknown era of epic history....
"Haven't you been here before?" Roy marveled at the door's sculptures, finding them vaguely familiar for some reason.
He frowned in thought, carefully tracing the source of that familiarity.
Ging replied, "No."
"Only glimpsed a part in ancestral records."
Roy pondered, the sense of familiarity growing stronger.
"Master, did you discover something?" Wutong adjusted his glasses on his nose, perceptively noticing Roy's anomaly.
Ging, Razor, and Alena all looked over,
The boy said nothing for a moment, then spoke, "Maybe, we'll know inside."
His gaze circled around, exchanging glances with Ging, Razor, and together, they approached the door, each extending a hand, pushing with all their might....
"Booming~" The long-sealed cathedral doors suddenly opened a crack, drawing the three inside.....
At the same time, far away in the third underground floor of the Transit Hall, amidst laboratories housing those twisted into various monsters due to [Disasters]... at the innermost corner sticking to the southern wall....
A jar-contained, rope-like monster, split open revealing an eye,
The eye blinked...
From the depths of the pupil beamed images, startling the laboratory's on-duty personnel, who hurriedly notified their superiors!
"It's broken, disaster has manifested...."