Saiki was covered in dust.
He had just dealt with one volcanic eruption, successfully transferring the lava inside the volcano out into outer space.
He'd thought that was the end of it.
He hadn't expected his precognition to show him an even more terrifying disaster. A submarine volcano in the middle of the Atlantic was about to erupt. And this time, the catastrophe was enough to destroy the entire world.
Right now, he floated in midair above the spot where the Atlantic volcano would blow.
To ordinary eyes, the endless blue ocean was calm.
In his eyes, it was a ticking apocalyptic bomb.
"Hah…" He let out a long breath.
This time, he couldn't handle it. Spreading his fingers, Saiki prepared to rewind time again.
"Saiki, no need to rewind this time." Tatsuki suddenly appeared and pressed his hand down.
Saiki froze for a moment, then relaxed when he saw it was Tatsuki.
"You triggered an Apocalypse Journey here, so I came over. You probably didn't notice."
After a quick explanation, Tatsuki tipped his head back and glanced up at the sky.
A human shape appeared and promptly dropped straight down.
Ch'en was panicking.
The moment she arrived, she was already high in the sky, and below her was nothing but endless water.
She was a Lung, but that didn't mean she could fly!
Newton was very pleased. Someone was finally losing to gravity fair and square.
Before Ch'en even had time to flail in midair, a pair of solid arms caught her.
"Tsk, this drop-in location's really something. If you can't fly or swim, you'd just get dumped into the drink and drown." Tatsuki grumbled as he caught her.
"Thanks."
Realizing what had happened, Ch'en thanked him—although being carried princess-style like this made her feel wildly awkward.
Tatsuki smiled lightly. "Mm. I'm Tatsuki."
"Ch'en Hui-chieh. Just call me Ch'en."
"Saiki."
After a brief round of introductions, Tatsuki asked, "You want to get down?"
Ch'en eyed the water below. "This…"
She could swim, but that didn't mean she could keep herself alive in that much water.
Ch'en didn't even know this was an ocean.
The only sea she'd ever seen was Siesta's artificial inland sea—and even that wasn't much bigger than a lake.
Honestly, most people on Terra had never seen a true ocean.
"Well, if you want it this way, I'll just keep holding you. You're not heavy anyway."
As he spoke, Tatsuki bounced her up a bit in his arms. The only annoying part were the two sword scabbards at her waist jabbing at him.
"…"
Ch'en let it slide.
In truth, Tatsuki wanted to say that even if she stepped down, she wouldn't fall but a scumbag like him wasn't about to pass up such free benefits.
Compared to the usual scowling, bristling Ch'en, this mildly confused and helpless version was much easier on the eyes.
Saiki said calmly, "I dealt with the volcano over there. I can't handle this undersea one."
Tatsuki nodded. "Leave it to me. That's the objective for this Apocalypse Journey."
He glanced down past Ch'en to the ocean's surface, which had just started to swell.
The submarine volcano was somewhere in the depths below.
Tatsuki looked over at Ch'en. "We should change positions. Hard to move like this."
"Okay."
She didn't understand what he needed to move for, exactly, but with both his hands occupied holding her, he definitely couldn't do much.
Seeing her agree, Tatsuki shifted her up with his left arm, sliding his forearm under her hips so she was perched on it like a seat.
As her body was lifted higher, Ch'en instinctively looped her arms around his neck for balance.
"…"
Now she was stiff as a board. This pose felt even weirder than the last one. From the outside, it looked like Tatsuki was one-arming a giant baby.
With his right hand free, Tatsuki reminded her, "You can start a livestream, you know."
"Livestream?"
The first close physical contact she'd ever had with a man had her so tense she could barely think.
"Yeah. The group has a livestream function. You can broadcast what you're seeing to everyone."
With Tatsuki's explanation, she quickly found the feature.
[Ding! Group member Ch'en has started a livestream!]
[Exusiai has joined the livestream!]
…
Everyone who entered the livestream was greeted by an ultra-close-up of Tatsuki's face, especially his golden eyes, where the focus lingered again and again.
Exusiai: "Uh… Ch'en-sir, why's your POV so, uh… intimate-looking?"
Furina: "From the angle, it almost looks like she's being carried."
Exusiai: "Wooow! Ch'en-sir and Tatsuki-kun are—"
Ch'en's face went crimson in an instant. Nobody could tell if it was anger or embarrassment.
Ch'en: "What [Lungmen swearing] are you talking about! You don't see the water under me? I [Lungmen swearing] can't fly!"
She hurriedly swung the view downward, showing the endless, rippling blue beneath them.
Exusiai: "That's a lot of water!"
Nami: "That's the ocean."
Vivi: "It has to be. Only the sea could be that vast and that blue."
Exusiai: "So this is the sea, huh? It's beautiful!"
Furina: "Anywhere there is water, people can't help but feel at ease."
Nami: "Exactly. That's the charm of the ocean."
Tendou Kisara: "Can we get back to the apocalypse, maybe? Where's the apocalypse?"
Kurumi: "Ah-la, I want to see what an apocalypse from another world looks like too."
Saiki: "It's on the seafloor."
On the distant horizon, sea and sky merged into one, like a natural painting. Sunlight spilled down onto the surface, making it shimmer with countless points of light.
Tatsuki didn't waste words.
"Open." He spread the fingers of his right hand.
Sky and sea shuddered in unison.
Suddenly—some mysterious power surged up from the center of the ocean, and the water began to churn, forming a massive whirlpool.
"What is that…" Saiki narrowed his eyes.
He could feel something controlling the sea, but it definitely wasn't telekinesis.
Splash!
As the whirlpool grew wider and wider, the water in its center started to be forced aside.
With the vortex as its heart, the ocean split open in a straight line, perpendicular to the horizon.
Leaning against Tatsuki, Ch'en's eyes went wide.
[Shiretsu: Keigai Kaihou]
That phrase inexplicably echoed in her mind like an auditory hallucination.
On both sides of the rupture, the sea was shoved aside by an overwhelming force, rising into sky-piercing walls of water.
The higher the water walls rose, the more it felt like they were going to tear the sky itself.
Sunlight lanced through the gaps between those walls, casting intricate patterns of light and shadow across the exposed channel below.
The corridor of water between them grew wider and wider, still pushing outwards on both sides.
Amid this majestic sight, seabirds took off one after another, circling the water walls and crying out.
Dolphins breached from the remaining waters, curiously peeking at the impossible scene.
In just a few seconds, the height of the water walls stabilized, and the channel stopped widening.
Finally, the sea calmed once more.
Furina: "Th-th-this! Is Tatsuki-kun a Hydro Archon?!"
Aqua: "Why's a water goddess even surprised by this?"
Furina: "B-but Tatsuki-kun isn't a Hydro Archon!"
Saeko Busujima: "Tatsuki-kun's power is far greater than you think."
Kurumi: "Power from another world… if it can surpass that of Spirits, then…"
Watching the stream, Kurumi felt like she could almost feel Tatsuki's strength through the screen.
And from how relaxed he looked, this clearly wasn't his limit.
If someone in this group could kill the Spirit of Origin…
....
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