The high-speed craft, which had been slicing through the nocturnal brine at maximum velocity, began to decelerate. Nothing registered on the radar, yet the atmospheric flow surrounding the vessel was shifting unnaturally. The wind died down, the waves grew eerily stagnant, and in their place, a discordant melody—vibrating as if from the very depths of the abyss—pierced through their eardrums.
"...What is that sound?"
It was an eerie yet seductive song, sounding like the collective, mournful weeping of hundreds of women.
The Kahuna, standing at the bow with a rigid expression, spoke as if reciting a passage from a forgotten scripture.
"This strait is known as the 'Tears' Shoal.' Since the dawn of time, it has been a sanctuary guarded by an ancient mistress. With the Heart of the Earth gone and her eternal nemesis showing signs of awakening... it seems she has sensed the disturbance and stirred from her millennial slumber."
His voice carried more than mere information; it held a profound, primordial dread for the mythological entity.
"Mistress...?"
"Mo'o...."
The Kahuna whispered the name as if uttering a taboo.
"A colossus in the form of a dragon that governs the waters. The ancient master of this strait who has fought an eternal war against the Mistress of Fire. One who never forgives the profanity of those who tread upon her sanctuary...."
Before the Kahuna could finish his explanation, Alessandro shouted urgently.
"Steady yourselves! This is mental-interference magecraft! Construct mental barriers and do not, under any circumstances, look at the surface of the water!"
But his warning came far too late. The song was no mere sound wave; it was a curse designed to burrow into the most vulnerable cracks of the human psyche. The eyes of a young knight in the cockpit turned glassy, and he suddenly grabbed the communication equipment, wailing.
"Mother...! Mother! I was wrong! Please!"
"Snap out of it, Marco!"
Another knight tried to restrain him, but the man was already lost in a delirium. The other knights on deck also began to hallucinate, swinging their blades at the empty air or stumbling toward the railing with hollow expressions.
"Damn it!"
While Alessandro struggled to suppress the knights, the song intensified. My own head throbbed. For a fleeting second, the image of my late grandmother flickered before my eyes. However, the essence of my Authority was the 'Curse of the Earth.' Like the unyielding bedrock, my mind possessed a natural resistance to external interference. I shook my head violently, shattering the hallucination.
Standing at the center of the ship, I spoke with a low, clear voice that resonated across the entire vessel.
"I command the ground upon which my gaze rests and every domain within my reach. Let all that breathes find eternal silence within the Garden of Stone."
With my declaration, the space around the boat distorted minutely. The incantation did not create a physical wall but established a mental territory. The song that had been rattling my brain ceased instantly. Absolute silence followed, as if the power to a blaring radio had been cut. The knights who had been wailing and seeing ghosts stumbled for a moment before regaining their senses and looking around with bewildered faces.
"...His Majesty... saved us...."
Alessandro looked at me with a face full of shock. But the moment of relief was short-lived; the sea itself began to rage. Having had her sorcery broken, the Mistress finally manifested her true Authority.
Rumble—!
It wasn't just the boat; the entire strait—the very sea—began to heave. The calm surface didn't just boil; something gargantuan was rising from the seabed like a tectonic shift. Our vessel was caught in the instantaneous swell, swept up precariously by the rising water.
"Everyone, lash yourselves to the ship! This is no ordinary wave!"
Alessandro's voice was a ragged scream. He was right. What entered our field of vision wasn't a wave. It was a portion of a 'body' as massive as a mountain range, covered in iridescent blue scales. The claim that the entire strait was her body was no metaphor.
Finally, the colossal 'head' revealed itself under the moonlight. A visage that fused the features of a crocodile and a dragon, crowned with a wreath of ancient coral. In those two eyes, which shone like shattered emeralds, lay the weight of thousands of years and a frigid, glacial fury toward the defilers of her sanctuary.
"That... is Mo'o...!"
A knight muttered in a voice thick with despair.
The dragon's massive head looked down upon us. As she opened her maw, what surged forth was not a jet of water. A blast of absolute zero cold, capable of freezing bone to the marrow, descended upon us in the form of white hoarfrost.
"Defensive formations!"
The knights desperately deployed magic shields, but the moment the frost touched them, they emitted a sharp 'crack' and froze instantly. The very structure of their mana was congealed, and the shields shattered as easily as cheap glass.
"Kuh! Magecraft isn't holding!"
"It's not just cold! It's a curse!"
"What a persistent pest."
At this rate, the entire ship was going to become an ice sculpture. I stepped to the bow. My grey domain, which I had just expanded for mental defense, now enveloped us for physical protection. The moment the absolute zero cold intended to swallow us touched that invisible boundary, it lost all momentum and scattered like lifeless grey dust. Within my Garden, Mo'o's curse was rendered impotent.
"Hoh...."
Seeing her attack evaporate into nothingness, Mo'o's emerald eyes narrowed, perceiving me as a legitimate 'enemy' for the first time.
"Fine. This could be fun."
Having finished the defense, I reached out toward the massive dragon's head to retaliate.
"Those who behold me, and all that face me. Fall into silence and turn to stone."
My will manifested as a grey pulse, lashing out at her head. However, she didn't petrify instantly like the Divine Beasts from before.
Cra-crack...!
Upon Mo'o's blue scales where my Authority landed, grey fissures would faintly appear only to vanish repeatedly. She was drawing upon the power of the ocean, her own domain, to constantly push back my curse.
"She is resisting a King's Authority...!"
Alessandro muttered, disbelieving.
I began to draw up even more power, focusing my entire will toward the floor of the strait, the place where her true body lay hidden. I was fully prepared to transmute this entire stretch of sea into solid rock.
"Your Majesty, stop! You must not kill her!"
Just then, the Kahuna's frantic voice reached me from behind. Warned that killing Mo'o would trigger a catastrophic tsunami, I reluctantly withdrew my power.
It was a dilemma. I couldn't kill her, but I couldn't retreat. Sensing my momentary hesitation, Mo'o didn't miss the opening. She gathered her strength, molding the entire sea of the strait into a gargantuan tidal wave that loomed over us.
In that exact moment—
The sea 'stopped.'
The massive wave that was about to swallow us froze unnaturally in mid-air. The seawater Mo'o had been controlling began to slip from her grasp like a hound losing its master. From deep beneath the surface, an overwhelming presence that seemed to crush the very heart rose upward.
The water surrounding the boat began to turn pitch black. It wasn't ink. Below the surface, tens of thousands of shadows were congregating, blotting out the light. It was a massive swarm of sharks. From the center, the deepest point of the abyss, something surged forth.
It was a pillar of water. But it was no ordinary column. It was a throne crafted from the ocean itself, condensed by such immense pressure that it looked as solid as diamond. And atop that throne stood a man.
A man with tanned skin, a lean, muscular physique, and a necklace of shark teeth. His eyes laughed with mirth, yet within them lay the chilling gaze of an apex predator who ruled over all life in the sea.
"I believe you've mistaken this for your domain, Mo'o."
The voice was playful, but the power contained within it weighed upon the entire space like the pressure of the trenches.
"Ka... Kamohoali'i!"
Mo'o's massive body convulsed with terror. She may have been the master of this strait for millennia, but standing before her now was the Sovereign of the entire ocean.
"Not content with running wild in my waters, you dare to obstruct interesting guests. Begone."
As Kamohoali'i, the King of Sharks, made a gesture, the thousands of sharks surrounding him bared their teeth at Mo'o in unison. After a moment's hesitation, the dragon turned her massive form and vanished into the abyss without a trace.
With the situation settled, Kamohoali'i looked down at us from his throne of water. Alessandro didn't dare draw his sword; instead, he took the stance of a knight guarding his King, paralyzed by extreme tension.
"A Heretic God...! Why would you..."
"Ease yourself, Knight. I have not come for a struggle."
Kamohoali'i's gaze moved past Alessandro and locked onto me.
"New King. I watched that skirmish with quite some interest. If you had relied solely on brute force to slay that gatekeeper, you would have made me your enemy right then and there."
He had seen right through my hesitation during the dilemma.
"I grew curious about you, the one who felled Tāwhirimātea, the God of Storms and my eternal rival. And... I wished to test the one who has become entangled with the fate of the Fire Goddess on that mountain, who happens to be my own kin. It seems you've passed—for now."
"A test?"
"Indeed. You are currently pursuing the 'thief' who caused all this calamity, are you not? I too am curious about the whereabouts of the 'Heart of the Earth' that the thief coveted. I have no desire to see my sea boil because of that short-tempered sister of mine."
Kamohoali'i grinned and jerked his chin toward a distant island.
"The thief headed for that island. From what I gather, humans call it the 'Forbidden Island.' I do not know what lies there. But if you were to stop him, it would be a favor to me as well."
He added, making it clear this wasn't just a one-sided data dump.
"Of course, this isn't for free. If you deal with that thief, recover the Heart of the Earth, and lull my sister back to her slumber, I shall provide a fitting 'reward.' I, Kamohoali'i, King of Sharks, shall grant you and your retinue passage through my seas and swear never to be your enemy. Tell me, that isn't a bad deal, is it?"
It was both a test and the first peer-level 'contract' offered by a God to a fellow King. Alessandro and the knights held their breath, witnessing a King negotiating directly with a God. Just as I was about to smirk and accept, I realized a fundamental contradiction.
"Wait."
I cut him off. Kamohoali'i's eyebrows shot up with curiosity.
"There's a flaw in your bargain, King of Sharks."
"Oh? A flaw? Speak, New King."
"You asked me to 'lull your sister back to sleep.' But what if that's impossible? What if this Fire Goddess is a complete 'Heretic God' who cannot be reasoned with or persuaded? What if the only way to save this island from destruction is to kill her?"
At my question, the air on the boat froze. Alessandro looked at me, his face pale. I had just casually mentioned the possibility of killing a God's kin right to his face.
Ignoring the tension, I looked Kamohoali'i straight in the eye and continued.
"I am a Campione. A Godslayer. As you well know, that is our very nature. If at the final moment, I have to weigh the fate of this island against your sister's life, I will not hesitate. Will our contract remain valid then? Or do you become my new enemy the moment I kill your sister?"
My question wasn't just for clarification. It was a King-to-King query that struck the heart of a contradictory contract—demanding a Godslayer not slay a God.
The mirth vanished from Kamohoali'i's face. He scrutinized me for a long moment, as if trying to peer through my soul. A heavy silence descended. It was a moment of such tension that it wouldn't have been strange if he had decided to sink us all in his fury.
Eventually, what erupted from his lips wasn't rage, but a laugh that rumbled like the depths of the ocean.
"Ha... Hahahaha! Indeed! How entertaining! You truly are interesting, Seventh King!"
He laughed heartily from his throne.
"You are correct. There is nothing more foolish than commanding a Godslayer not to slay a God. I thought you were just a fledgling with brute strength, but you understand your own essence perfectly."
Kamohoali'i stopped laughing and looked at me with a serious gaze.
"My sister... she is the Flame of Creation and the incarnation of destruction that burns all. Once she loses her reason and begins her rampage, not even I, her kin, can fully control her. If she truly awakens to end all things on this land, then that too must be her destiny."
He nodded, revising the terms of the contract.
"Very well. I amend the contract. 'Resolve this incident regarding my sister.' Whether you put her back to sleep or return her to mythology... I leave that choice to you as a King. Whatever the outcome, so long as you prevent the ruin of these islands, my oath remains valid. I simply wish to see how a new King like yourself handles that uncontrollable flame."
Beyond the intent to test me, his eyes now held a deep respect, acknowledging me as a true 'King.'
I finally nodded. This was a true contract between equals.
"Fine. I accept the deal."
At my answer, the King of Sharks smiled with satisfaction. He vanished into the waves along with his water throne. With his assistance, we finally passed through 'Tears' Shoal' safely. In the distance, the silhouette of a black volcanic island began to emerge. That damn Phantom Thief would be waiting there.
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