The seawater that had soared into the sky soon poured down towards the port facilities.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang—
The warning bell rang fiercely, but it was useless.
The sailors left on the ships somehow tried to hold their balance to endure, and the steamboat porters desperately struggled to tie down the cargo ropes.
In this situation, even if they shouted to get off the ships, there was no way the people trying to protect the cargo would step aside.
The port was filled to its capacity limit, and every docked ship was packed with people and cargo. It was impossible to evacuate everyone within a few minutes.
Finally, a ferry that had gone out to the farthest place was swept up in the beast's layered wings.
Kukukukung!
Crash!
The collision produced a roaring sound that rang the heavens and earth and a flash of light.
Due to the reverse surge of seawater, three or four small boats nearby completely flipped over and began to sink.
The porters who had been standing on the boats spilled out onto the water's surface. The people nearby trying to save them also couldn't get close due to the beast's rampage.
Cleo opened his eyes wide.
'We must not let that beast come all the way inside the port!'
Cleo himself was level 5, and Arthur was level 6.
His own circle range was 80m, and Arthur's attack range was 200m.
On the water, it was a terribly disadvantageous condition.
To dispatch the beast at once, the magic Cleo usually used or Arthur's normal skills wouldn't do.
'There must be a way. Think...!'
No matter how mysterious and wonderful a swordsman was, one could not fight on top of the water's surface.
Cleo, who was leaning half his body out towards the sea while gripping his wand in one hand and the balcony railing in the other, finally realized that his hands were trembling uncontrollably.
Now, even [Separation] was not a perfect defense.
Was he afraid of the beast?
No.
He was suddenly afraid of the water the beast was moving. That black substance that no longer even looked like the sea.
The remaining evidence that he was not fully 'Cleo Asser' caught the wizard's ankle.
Cleo forced out a few breaths that didn't come easily.
He consciously recalled the warm rain in the circular theater and the water that hadn't threatened him.
Then, his mother Lee Myung-hwa's soft and gentle voice also followed in his thoughts. It was the word that soothed him as a child when he was afraid of typhoons.
'It's okay, not all great waters will harm you.'
Miraculously, the trembling subsided.
Cleo stretched out his wand and deployed the clear forms of [Leap] and [Deceleration] magic formulas.
Then, he jumped down toward the cargo ship's deck in a single breath.
The distance between the cargo ship's deck and the balcony was close to 80m, fully packing Cleo's circle range.
Thud!
Cleo, who lost his balance upon landing on the deck, stumbled and ended up falling outside the circle.
Isiel quickly caught him as he lost the support of the magic and was about to collapse face-first.
The ship swayed and rocked due to the waves caused by the beast. Hanging onto Isiel's arm, Cleo barely managed to stand.
It was a funny sight, but there was no time to delay, so Cleo urgently relayed the plan he had formulated.
"That beast's weakness is the only non-transparent part right around the peak of its cloth-like tent. If we don't dispatch it with a single deadly strike, all the ships in this port will capsize!"
Isiel, who had thoroughly read the "Encyclopedia of Demonic Beasts" just like Cleo, nodded her head.
"As expected, it is the Octavo of Submergence."
Arthur, who had raised a fierce momentum as if he had never been joking around, stared at the beast without moving a single muscle and responded.
"You're saying I have to catch it with a single sword strike?"
"Yeah."
Looking down briefly at his sword, Arthur nodded as if he had made a resolution.
"Got it. I'll do it. By any means necessary."
Cleo could tell that if it was Arthur, he would definitely carry out his declaration.
For instance, even if he were to reach the point of suffocation right away, he would scrape all the ether from the bottom of his vessel and put it into one strike.
'No, that's not it...!'
Splash!
Crash!
However, the gunwale shook so much that he couldn't speak quickly for fear of biting his tongue. Cleo could only continue his words after clinging to Isiel like a cicada.
"I'm not telling you to use all your strength to the point of dying. I will help you. We will go out together. Can you hold onto me, jump across those steamboats lined up over there, and get as close to the beast as possible?"
Arthur answered immediately.
"It's possible. But what are you going to do?"
A combination of flight magic to fly a long distance was impossible. Even if he floated the body temporarily, they would crash straight down once they went outside the circle range.
However, if it was a short distance, the story was different.
"When the beast comes into my circle range, I will levitate your body with [Levitation]. Follow closely and cut its core. A direct cut is more powerful than [Circle of Advance], right?"
It was a highly dangerous plan.
It was rare for a wizard to step up to the absolute front line, and even if they did, instances where a knight and wizard perfectly synchronized were extremely rare.
Knights and wizards had a serious difference in reaction speeds, and their ways of understanding combat were different.
In a dangerous situation, it was not an easy task for a wizard to protect their own body while assisting a knight.
The knight also needed proficiency to effectively receive magical assistance.
But where could they have learned such skills?
Unless they had formed a team with peers at the Capital Defense Force Academy, trained together constantly, and the friend they saw every day commanded the exceptionally rare combat magic.
However, Arthur and Cleo were different.
Perhaps because they had fought together when Arthur advanced to level 6, the efficiency of their collaboration was surprisingly high.
Even so, it was a plan that was too dangerous for a wizard. Arthur's handsome brow furrowed.
After reviewing all those factors in a short time, Arthur had no choice but to nod at Cleo's second proposal as well. Because he simply couldn't think of any better move.
"Okay. Let's go right away."
"I will guard the rear."
"Thanks, Isiel. I trust you. Then Ray."
"Yeah."
Arthur quickly reached out an arm and folded Cleo up, carrying him.
Experiencing the crisscrossing movements of a level 6 swordsman with his body folded in half made his stomach churn, but Cleo opened his eyes wide and endured it.
Arthur moved his body as if he were clad in magic, even without [Leap] magic. Every time he jumped across gunwales, the distance to the beast narrowed rapidly.
Arthur, who stepped on the deck of the ferry moored farthest away, soon jumped down onto the debris of a ship floating at the entrance of the port.
The outcries of the steamboat sailors could be heard.
"What's that!"
"You can't suddenly jump down from here!"
Above the sea that seemed to be blowing a storm, Arthur hardly swayed at all despite standing relying only on the remains of a broken ship's deck.
It was the product of exquisite [Enhancement] and sense of balance.
Kaboom!
Swaaaash!
Did it notice that they were trying to attack it?
The Octavo instantly folded up its eight layers of individual sheets that had been laid low on the bottom to form a defensive shield.
The sea turned over violently and thrashed about.
Cleo, whose spine stiffened and who gritted his teeth to endure even as seawater entered his eyes, finally recognized that the beast had entered his circle range.
Arthur also noticed it quickly.
A sword aura as tall as Arthur extended out from Beg's sword.
A brilliant sword aura that seemed capable of vaporizing water and fading fire bloomed like a torch above the night sea.
"Now!"
Paaaah—!
Illuminating the entire range of the circle, a five-layered magic formula of [Leap], [Levitation], and [Tracking], [Acceleration], [Amplification] rose above the water's surface.
The circle that ascended over the water was solid enough to feel material, enough to evoke an illusion of a kingdom that had disappeared to the seabed.
The sailors on the cargo ships who were desperately struggling to protect their vessels, and the passengers of the ferry who were holding onto capsized rescue boats, also forgot their situations and simply lost their souls to the wonder of that magic.
Strength also entered Arthur's arm that was holding Cleo. The wizard opened his tightly constricted throat and drew out a mantra.
His spirit was washed away by the cold seawater, and it felt as if the phrases came to mind even more clearly.
"We shall plunge to explore the snow-white abyss,
Past the eyes of the starry sky,
So that death and chaos and night
Shall flee from the sound of our soaring
Like mist chased by the power of the storm." 1)
Swaaaaash!
A fierce ether storm arose from Cleo's magic circle, pushing the dark blue seawater far away.
As if reacting to the intense ether movement that revealed the seabed, the beast's tattered side wings fluttered and tore apart.
"Go! Arthur!"
Arthur's body floated up into the air.
He escaped from the debris of the sinking ferry and felt a lightness of being momentarily freed from gravity.
'It feels like I've attached wings to my ankles.'
Extreme concentration, a bizarre sense of stability as ether that was not his own wrapped around his entire body, the storm of brilliant light clusters seemed to blow for him alone, and an omnipotence that escaped all the restrictions of this world felt like his own.
Shwaaaaash! Shashashat! Flutter, flutter, flutter!
Sensing the ether reaction, the Octavo whipped up an increasingly terrifying wind. Cleo struggled to hold on. The arm holding the steamboat debris felt like it was being torn off.
Vwooom!
Arthur's extended sword aura instantly lengthened like a spear of light.
All the ether rotating around Cleo's magic formula was sucked into Arthur's sword all at once.
Thus, the wizard placed a shining sword into Arthur's hand once again.
Time slowed down like one-thousandth of a second.
Arthur felt a hallucination as if he were seeing this moment from multiple viewpoints simultaneously. The extremely expanded vision granted Arthur a sensation almost akin to omnipotence.
The beast's core was seen clearly like a target right under his nose, and Cleo's back, pale blue and trembling violently, was also seen just as clearly.
While looking down at the entire port, the anchors and shadows of the ships floating beneath the sea came into his eyes.
Therefore, he could know.
'The only thing possible is one strike.'
If they received a counterattack, Cleo would not be able to withstand it. Arthur moved calmly.
Not a single person among the onlookers captured Arthur's movement.
The power of a level 6 swordsman and an unprecedented magic combined on his sword, constituting an alacrity that humans could not produce.
Swooooosh.
The sword aura, overlapping several layers of light to the point of looking white, cleaved the Octavo's core in a single stroke.
To the beast that tried to slip its body to avoid the blade, the sword aura curved in an arc and stuck to it as if it were a living creature.
Like paper being cut by a sharp paper knife, the beast disassembled into individual sheets without a sound.
The beast, scattered layer by layer, became tattered from the edges and then soon began to be torn apart.
Swish swish swish swish!
Dyeing the early evening sky with an aurora, the beast vanished.
Swaaaaash!
The beast's fragments fluttered and scattered here and there.
The sea soon darkened, but the afterimages of Arthur's sword aura and Cleo's magic still sparkled dazzlingly.
'It's done. I did it properly....'
All magic formulas completely faded away.
Cleo, who hadn't left a single drop of ether, lost all his strength and plopped down. He tasted the unpleasant flavor of blood in his mouth.
Kaboooom!
The sound arrived later than the movement.
The remains of the fading beast caused a violent explosion as soon as they touched the water. The aftermath soon gathered into a tsunami-like wave.
Overwhelmed by the massive wall of water, Cleo's body stiffened, and he ended up letting go of the hand that was holding the mast.
'Ah, damn it!'
The howling seawater of the bay swallowed Arthur, who fell to the water's surface, and Cleo, who had let go of the mast debris.
Into the waves, the blood overflowing from his throat spread like ink.
Arthur's body also stiffened. As the magic was released right after he had drawn out all his ether at once, he couldn't move his limbs for a moment.
As soon as the few seconds of rigidity wore off, Arthur hurriedly reached out his hand.
However, Cleo's strengthless body brushed past Arthur's fingertips and was dragged deeper into the sea.
"Ray...!"
1) Prometheus Unbound Act IV, Percy Bysshe Shelley.