"Hahahaha—old woman, you're dead! Fusing with a sea monster? This is the price you have to pay!"
The sea monster was an essential part of Bella's plan. She had spent a long time observing it through the Cauldron of the Cosmos, examining it from the perspectives of time, causality, the mind, and more. Her conclusion was that Calypso had risen because of the sea monster—and she would fall because of it as well.
Bella pointed forward and played her greatest trump card.
Smaug separated from the ghost ship and faced the severely weakened Sea Goddess at full strength.
The Frost Dragon clung to Calypso's body, his claws gripping her shoulders. He raised his head and released a vast stream of Undead Frost Breath against the back and side of the Sea Goddess's skull.
The Sea Goddess could also control ice and the ocean, but her ice and the ice of the undead were entirely different things.
His Dragon Breath never ceased. Smaug held the Sea Goddess from behind, and from a distance, the two almost looked like intimate lovers.
Calypso had consumed enormous amounts of divine power. Combined with the effects of the gamma-ray bullets, her defenses were growing weaker and weaker.
Her divine body was damaged in many places, most of them caused by Smaug's claws, Dragon Breath, and tail.
She whipped her head around. The killing intent in her eyes became almost tangible, and a god's mental power stabbed like a sword toward the undead flame inside the Frost Dragon's skull.
Smaug shielded his face with the wing Kong had gnawed on. In less than five seconds, the enraged Calypso bit the wing clean off. Not a trace of a goddess's bearing remained in her now. She roared desperately like a wild beast.
One wing had been bitten off, and one claw was trapped. Smaug struggled fiercely. Below them, the ghost ship fired without pause, while the undead attached to the vessel raised their weapons and attacked as well.
At this point, Bella had no particularly good solution. She had played nearly every card in her hand. All she could do was act like a Pokémon trainer and shout, "Dodge!" "I believe in you!" "Don't give up!" "Hang in there!"...
The helper she had anticipated finally appeared. The sea monster's consciousness awakened completely, breaking free of Calypso's control and even achieving a degree of reverse control.
A mass of black-brown slime emerged from deep within the sea monster's stomach sac and directly corroded the Nun away. The sea monster then seized control of Calypso's body, grabbed the Flying Dutchman with one hand, and ignored the thick blood oozing from the wound. Like pulling out a dagger, it ripped the ghost ship free and casually hurled it into the distance.
After disposing of the external enemy, the sea monster began resisting its old friend, Calypso.
Its frenzied, chaotic mind regarded Calypso as an enemy as well. It controlled numerous pitch-black tentacles and tore at the wounds across its chest and abdomen, trying to separate their two bodies again.
"No! We have a contract! You belong to me! You're mine!" Calypso did not even know what she was feeling anymore. Regret, certainly. Had she known this would happen, she would never have fused with the sea monster. In battle, the creature was nothing but dead weight.
Smaug, who was beginning to lose, gained a chance to breathe. He began gathering necromantic power throughout the surrounding waters to restore himself. Calypso was forced to abandon the external enemy and focus on suppressing the sea monster's consciousness.
Relying on the suppressive quality of divine power, the Sea Goddess regained control of her arm and forced the body, which had nearly split apart, back together.
She was genuinely formidable. After barely suppressing the sea monster with divine authority, she gathered the divine power around her body and formed a blade from the essence of water and sent it slashing toward Smaug behind her.
Faced with the Sea Goddess's full-powered attack, Bella had no choice but to surrender part of her earlier advantage. Whatever happened, Smaug had to survive.
She switched the positions of Jason, who was happily chopping Deep Ones to pieces on the deck, and Smaug...
"Hm?" Calypso did not see the Frost Dragon cut in half. When the water blade passed, only a head wearing a hockey mask remained on the ocean floor. Jason had suffered terribly this time. Against a god's full-powered strike, everything below his neck had been erased.
Who was that? This human seemed to have been killed by her twice—perhaps three times. What purpose did the enemy have in moving him over here? The Sea Goddess fell into deep confusion.
"You're unbelievably stupid! Have you never fought in your entire life?" Bella pointed forward. Smaug drew more necromantic power from the ghost ship and repaired seventy to eighty percent of his body. He beat his wings and charged at the Sea Goddess again.
"You dare toy with me? An insect like you dares toy with me?" The Sea Goddess was so furious she could explode. Her emotions ran out of control, allowing the sea monster's recently suppressed consciousness to show signs of recovering.
Beset by enemies within and without, Calypso no longer knew what to do. She could only shriek madly. A wave of sound filled with frenzy, eeriness, and malice swept in every direction.
As the only living person present, Bella bore the brunt of it. Her sight, hearing, and sense of smell were all severely impaired, while enormous waves surged across her Mind Lake, the source of her power.
"Of course I'm toying with you!" She forcibly suppressed the turmoil in her mind and hurled a barrage of spells at Calypso.
Reduce physical defense: immune.
Reduce magical resistance: immune.
Reduce mental defenses: lowered slightly.
Reduce strength: immune.
Dispel magical shields: one layer removed.
Bella bombarded Calypso with spell after spell, then resurrected the Nun and O'Rin of the Water. The Nun also knew many spells, while O'Rin of the Water's Funeral Dirge had at least some effect.
They began fighting with everything they had.
Smaug seized the opportunity and bit into the Sea Goddess's shoulder. The Frost Dragon jerked his head back and tore away a massive chunk of flesh. Not a drop of blood flowed from the wound. Instead, several tentacles more than a meter long crawled out. They were covered in fine hair, with eyelids growing at their tips.
The eyelids seemed half open and half closed. The tentacles looked frail enough to tear apart with one hand, yet Calypso's expression changed drastically. The sea monster. Again, the sea monster. At this moment, the Sea Goddess hated it beyond measure.
This time, the sea monster did not try to separate from her. Smaug's tearing had apparently revealed the Sea Goddess's weakness. It was now corrupting her divine body. Once that body was occupied and the divine portfolios belonging to the Sea Goddess were seized, the sea monster would become the new god of the ocean—and Calypso would die.
The Sea Goddess, who treasured her life, resisted with all her might. The countless Deep Ones that should have aided her now turned around and gnawed at her body. Against her hundred-meter frame, they were not even parasites, but their numbers were overwhelming.
Calypso unleashed shrieks, waves, water blades, waterspouts, and countless other water spells. Four enormous sea serpents emerged from Calypso's back, devouring the Deep Ones wildly and converting their meager magic through the serpents' bodies into divine power for the Sea Goddess.
The two had been fused for more than a century, so the sea monster was familiar with all her methods. It now attacked Calypso frantically, regardless of the cost.