Outside the Saltwind City cathedral, torrential rain poured down like a waterfall, accompanied by a strong draft that swept into the church.
The great fire in the church had been extinguished, and even the originally glowing candles had gone out. The air was left with only the smell of the sea near Aegir and a heavy scent of blood.
However, this did not mean the room was completely dark; on the contrary, a faint white light was shining there.
"Wow… Goki, he can glow too? No wonder he didn't find Specter strange before."
Still vigilantly checking her surroundings like an Abyssal Hunter, Skadi carried her mechanical sword and curiously looked at the two people sitting on the ground in front of her.
Less than half a minute had passed since Goki cupped Specter's face, and both fell silent, their eyes emitting a pale white glow.
But in this short time, Skadi witnessed different and wondrous changes happening to Goki.
The damaged flesh on his arm began to heal rapidly, but where his hand touched Specter's, jagged black crystalline particles started to emerge, falling like sand. At the same time, scale-like structures grew out, precipitating tiny salt crystal particles.
Skadi wasn't entirely sure what the former was, but she, as an Abyssal Hunter, knew the latter very well—it was a sign of Seaborn assimilation.
Terrorfish do not have scale structures, but among the Seaborn, Terrorfish are merely the weakest and most rudimentary life forms. The Seaborn that Abyssal Hunters usually deal with have scales so hard that Aegirian blades often slip off them.
Although she was somewhat worried that Goki might also be experiencing problems, for some reason, the white light emanating from their open eyes made Skadi feel surprisingly at ease, as if there wouldn't be any issues.
"Will it be alright…?"
Looking at Goki, who was intimately face-to-face with Specter, their noses almost touching, Skadi couldn't suppress her curiosity.
Compared to the unchanging Aegir, the people on land had already shown Skadi many novel things.
But Goki was clearly more interesting; no matter when or where, he always came up with something new for Skadi.
"Will you succeed…?"
Looking at Specter, then at Goki, Skadi was full of anticipation.
Since joining the Abyssal Hunters, the theory Skadi had accepted was that Abyssal Hunters were more susceptible to "assimilation" by the Seaborn than other Aegirians, and the assimilation process was irreversible. Once transformed into a Seaborn, they had to be eliminated quickly, with no possibility of a cure.
However, Goki said that the current frenzied Specter could be saved… Skadi didn't know how he planned to do it, but she instinctively felt that Goki's words were very credible.
Can a little over a week establish trust between two strangers who didn't know each other?
Skadi didn't know. She had few friends, and if it weren't for that scoundrel priest from the Abyssal Church, she wouldn't even know Specter's codename.
But she still wanted to trust Goki this one time.
"But… separate a bit, too close, too close."
After watching the two for a short while, Skadi suddenly felt that Specter and Goki's faces seemed a bit too close, so she immediately cupped his face and pushed him back twice.
"Hmm, that's better."
Only when the two were thirty centimeters apart and no longer so close did Skadi purse her lips and nod in satisfaction.
Although she didn't know why, she felt that doing this would make her a little happier.
And just after she had quietly separated the two, Goki and Specter's eyes, which had been glowing white like small desk lamps, suddenly extinguished as if out of power, and they no longer remained still.
"Hah—"
Goki shook his head, woke up, and saw the Nona nun in front of him.
He was already used to letting his thoughts, spirit, or rather, his Soul, detach from his body and move through various dreams.
After arriving in Terra, he, who controlled the Hunter's Dream, had never tried this power, nor did he have an object to use it on. But when facing Specter, he finally had a chance to try it.
"Cough cough—whew."
Opposite him, Specter coughed sharply a few times, as if someone waking up after nearly drowning. She slowly opened her eyes, and her blood-red pupils finally regained clarity.
"It's good that you're awake—ah, sorry."
Goki breathed a sigh of relief, noticing Specter looking at his hands cupping her face, and immediately released her, feeling embarrassed.
However, before Goki could withdraw his hand, Specter's fair little hand gently grasped his newly healed arm.
"Just now I felt like I smelled something delicious. How strange."
Extending the tip of her pink tongue, Specter gently licked clean the bloodstains remaining on Goki's wrist, her eyes somewhat hazy, as if she were savoring some delicacy.
Only after consuming the last drop of blood did Specter suddenly snap back to her senses and immediately let go of his hand.
"Hey, hello there, young man. Was it you who pulled me out of that awful place—hey, that felt great!"
Her mind was unexpectedly clear, as if she had just finished hunting Seaborn, returned to her dorm covered in blood, showered, and put on fresh underwear—that refreshing!
Specter hadn't felt such exhilaration since she woke up.
Although the man in the black trench coat who appeared before her startled Specter, she immediately remembered that it was he who had pulled her out of the deep sea of consciousness.
"Thanks, young man, well done. Which division are you from? The Abyssal Hunters don't have you, sniff, sniff."
Shaking her long white hair, tossing her nun's hat behind her, Specter savored her rare freedom and flashed a brilliant smile at the rather handsome young man in front of her, revealing a row of sharp teeth. Then she sniffed Goki twice.
"You don't seem like an Aegirian, how strange—but, you still smell a bit fragrant… That's not important. That seaweed-head, daring to use that broken thing to turn me into a lunatic, I need to cut him into more pieces."
Although Specter used foul language in front of Quintus, she was exceptionally polite to her savior.
"I'm also a Hunter, but not an Aegirian, nor an Abyssal Hunter—how do you feel? Is your consciousness clear?"
Seeing Specter regain consciousness, Goki finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The Hunter's methods had worked; this was good news, proving that Goki could indeed re-enter the depths of others' consciousness through the Hunter's Dream.
However, Goki also knew that this method could only keep Specter conscious for a certain period.
In the depths of her consciousness, those two giant monsters were merely temporarily dormant.
"What exactly were those two things…?"
Gods? Clearly not. If they were truly Great One-level beings, Goki would surely have to endure a fierce battle, even risking his life.
Those two things were at most kin-level monsters, not particularly strong.
But Goki could guarantee that the aura emanating from those two things was definitely related to the Seaborn and Originium!
"Terra's waters are not shallow either… I'll consider it later."
Thinking of this, Goki nodded at Specter opposite him, then looked at Skadi beside him.
"This is just a temporary emergency measure; it won't work forever—your colleague is here, Miss Specter, Skadi—she's the one who asked me to save you."
Upon hearing Goki's words, Specter didn't mind, patting his shoulder with exceptional openness. Guided by her Bloodline perception, she looked at Skadi beside her.
"It's fine, thank you both for bringing me back to my senses. Even for a short while, it's enough for me to hack that seaweed-head to death."
Seeing the figure propped on a greatsword beside her, she immediately showed a joyful smile and waved enthusiastically.
"Ah, aren't you that—from the First Squad's… Whale! Is your name Skadi? I even saw you at a ball! That scoundrel from the Abyssal Church mentioned you to me before—I knew they were no match for the Abyssal Hunters!"
Hearing this, Skadi immediately felt a bit awkward.
"Ah, well… Actually, Goki was the main one who saved you. You should thank him most."
After all, Skadi had thought for a long time but couldn't recall Specter's name.
And just now, Skadi had indeed considered killing her directly. If Goki hadn't insisted, Specter might have been cut down by now.
Also… the worst part was that Skadi thought she was the last Abyssal Hunter, feeling tragic in front of Goki for a week, only to find out that other Abyssal Hunters were still alive.
With Specter, there might be other survivors!
"Ugh… So embarrassing."
Skadi tried hard to reduce her presence, her toes in her white boots instinctively curling, temporarily forgetting the joy of finding a fellow kind.
These past few days, Skadi had learned a term from Goki—"social death." Before, she never understood what it meant.
Now, Skadi could deeply understand it.
"But this is not the time to talk about this! That Quintus guy just controlled you, stalled us, and then fled underground. We need to pursue him immediately—Shark, can you still fight?"
Shaking her head, trying to forget her embarrassment, Skadi picked up the Aegirian-made dark circular saw and threw it to Specter.
"Hey, I don't know what you guys did to me, but I feel exceptionally good right now."
Leaping up from the ground, Specter reached out and firmly grasped the handle of her circular saw—even if they weren't intimately familiar, Abyssal Hunters, connected by Bloodline, possessed extraordinary tacit understanding, allowing them to quickly join the same hunt.
"Then I thank you both even more for leaving the best prey for me to slowly tear him apart."
Revealing her little tongue stained red with Goki's blood, and activating the rapidly spinning circular saw, Specter's gaze became sharp and terrifying.
"Young man, your name is Goki, right? It's a good name. With Skadi and me, we are three Hunters. There's no better hunt than this—I remember the passage to his underwater secret room. Let's go, we'll blow him to smithereens!"
And just as Specter was about to lead the other two Hunters on a killing spree, the ground beneath their feet suddenly shook.
Boom—
A deafening, thunderous sound came, but it wasn't thunder from the sky. Instead, it was the roar of massive waves caused by the shattered mountain plunging into the sea.
"Outside! Go!"
Goki was the first to react, grabbing his weapon and being the first to climb out of the window… He chose to bypass the door.
Old Hunters weren't very good at overcoming obstacles.
Arriving at the edge of the cliff outside the church, Goki looked down at the huge, twisted, and deformed creature that had smashed through the mountain wall and was rolling out on the waves, and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
"That's not right. What happened to the twin sunflowers? Quintus can't transform into this shape. What is this—"
Then, he decisively called out to the Nona puppet in his mind.
"Nona puppet, blood echoes can't be saved anymore—this is what they were saved for, spend them all, start upgrading! All attributes!"
And immediately following, Skadi and Specter, who arrived beside Goki, looked at the familiar presence before them and couldn't help but smile—they were ecstatic.
"It seems you really aren't an Aegirian, young man Goki. This is a Seaborn, the enemy of the Abyssal Hunters."
"I told you, Terrorfish are just the lowest form of Seaborn. Our enemies are usually this big—didn't you say you often deal with these big guys? Goki, let's go together!"
Looking down at the twisted creation, as tall as a three or four-story building, tens of meters long, with scales but not a fish, with tentacles but not an octopus, growing various limbs, carapaces, and corals, the two Abyssal Hunters gripped their weapons.
This was the daily work of an Abyssal Hunter.
At this moment, the Abyssal Hunters' true hunt had just begun!
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