Chapter 594: The Monster That Devours Everything

Gr··u··gh···grrr···gr.

The sea monster Leviathan, resembling a giant crocodile.

Its massive body, entirely covered in jade green, had been torn into head, upper body, and lower body, emitting deflating sounds.

Each part was held by colossal beings made from clouds, air, ocean, and deep-sea rocks.

The sea where the giants submerged was stained in a dreadful, vivid crimson.

Even though Leviathan was an extraordinary creature beyond common sense, this was an incomprehensible phenomenon.

Creatures were not real living things but pseudo-lifeforms created by humans, based on emotions.

They may look like living beings, but they aren’t truly alive.

One example is that, when they fulfill their purpose, they vanish like smoke.

However, instead of disappearing like smoke, Leviathan bled profusely, staining the sea red with blood and entrails, while its corpse still remained in the hands of the giant created by Merlin.

As if it were a real living creature.

“Is this the power of demons?”

Merlin, recalling his master’s speculation that the demon’s power might have been involved in Leviathan’s birth, and the aura of the shadow-creature that controlled it, guessed.

It was a plausible story.

The power of demons was more than what the Pater Church spoke of.

So, Merlin, instead of being shocked or confused, pulled a book out of thin air.

It was his own book.

Flap flap flap.

As Merlin grasped the book, it flipped its pages on its own, stopping at a blank page.

A history that Merlin had to fill.

Merlin commanded the sky giant, the sea giant, and the earth giant, who respectively held Leviathan’s remains, to present them to him.

The sky giant presented Leviathan’s head, impaled on the thundercloud spear.

The sea giant presented Leviathan’s upper body, impaled on the trident.

The earth giant presented Leviathan’s lower body, impaled on the rocky spear.

Leviathan, now resembling a skewered dish, had lost the sparkle in its eyes, the tongue hung out, and blood and intestines poured out like a waterfall.

Even centuries wouldn’t be enough to handle it in a normal way.

Merlin took control of the entire space that held Leviathan’s corpse and exercised command, encasing it in the book he held.

Seeing Leviathan’s impossibly huge corpse stretch like cheese and get sucked into the small book was a scene that seemed unbelievable even in this age of magic. But it was nothing compared to what would unfold next.

As if tidying up a troublesome task in one go, Merlin gathered the blood of Leviathan spreading out to the horizon with his magic and put it, along with the blood-tainted seawater, into the book.

It was more like a miracle than magic. Yet, Merlin felt no satisfaction, joy, or sense of superiority from what he did.

Because compared to what was happening far away, this was just a nuisance.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━!

Merlin looked far into the distance. Almost at the horizon, an island.

An island at the center of the Sea of Oblivion.

On that island, something Merlin couldn’t describe was happening.

A colonial city once used as a bypass by the unified kingdom had turned into a gigantic maw, like the Seven-Star Lamprey.

Inside, white fire, returning all colors around it to nothingness, and a black shadow, which endured the flames, raged.

The Seven-Star Lamprey, with multiple jaws like flower buds, resisted the White Flame and shadow, trying to devour whatever was inside, using the sinister aura of The Burned One residing within its body and countless children’s souls as its fuel.

Merlin felt like he knew what it was.

“······.”

Too well. So much that he wished he didn’t.

The jaws of the Seven-Star Lamprey, which was as massive as Leviathan, gradually started to close, but then a huge shadow speared through the jaws and coiled around it like a serpent, ripping it apart.

[Ga·····r!·······gaar······rgh!]

The Seven-Star Lamprey’s maw screamed a telepathic cry, and simultaneously, the sea split and twisted, forming black clouds in the sky.

It was neither a simple natural phenomenon nor a result of physical force.

It was a phenomenon far more difficult to explain, something of a higher dimension.

Even the Archive, with a thousand years of knowledge and wisdom, couldn’t easily judge it.

Crackcrackcrackcrackcrack!!!

The sound of breaking earth echoed as the Seven-Star Lamprey’s mouth was torn off again.

The massive shadow devoured the ripped parts along with the white flame, eagerly consuming them as its nutrients.

As if it could never have enough.

Watching this unworldly sight, Merlin glanced at the old clock in his hand.

The clock found inside Leviathan’s belly, which had been stopped until just now, slowly started ticking again.

Tick······. Tock······. Tick······.

“Heh······.”

Seeing the clock slowly move, Merlin subconsciously let out a laugh.

It was so terrifying and hopeless that he ended up laughing.

The human body is truly amazingly, yet horribly designed.

Laughter slightly eased his tension, but on the other hand, it made him feel even more despair.

There was nothing else he could do but laugh.

He had gone out of his way thinking he could somehow avoid and twist the apocalypse, but it was all in vain.

No, rather, all his struggles just became part of the apparatus and came back to mock him.

As if sneering, saying, ‘Did you think your sins were so easily escapable?’

“······Ha.”

With that, Merlin completely gave up the small hope that maybe.

That maybe it wouldn’t be in his time.

That maybe the apocalypse could be twisted or avoided.

He gave up even the less than one percent chance of hope.

Indeed, it was neither preventable nor escapable.

There was nothing to do but wait for it to come.

Acknowledging this fact made Merlin feel a quiet and calm fear.

The fear that had plunged all the Archive into despair.

He thought he had accepted it, and steeled his resolve, but.

When he finally faced it, those emotions disappeared, replaced by two new feelings.

One was resentment. He thought he knew everything and had resigned himself, but why did such a childish and irresponsible emotion, like ‘Why does it have to be during my time,’ arise?

The second was foolish hope. What if······. What if, by eliminating the core of the apocalypse, I could erase or at least delay the apocalypse?

Surprisingly, Merlin, even aware of his own foolishness, found himself leaning more towards that second emotion. Quite seriously.

Logically and emotionally, he knew it wasn’t right, but could not overcome his fear which was beyond comprehension, thus forcing him towards a foolish and comfortable choice.

Just like most ordinary people.

He thought he had surpassed human thoughts and emotions by accumulating a thousand years of knowledge and wisdom, yet in the end, even the Archive couldn’t surpass human limitations.

“Haa······.”

Merlin organized his thoughts with a deep breath.

Merlin tucked the clock into his chest and then stretched his neck. Then-

“-Elder?!!”

He quickly turned his head to one side.

A voice from the middle of the Sea of Oblivion called out for an elder.

He wondered if it was his old ears deceiving him, but no. A flying lizard was approaching from afar, and soon, a woman became visible.

A woman riding a crimson-black flying lizard.

The sky giant, sea giant, and earth giant moved in response to the unusual aura, but.

Merlin raised his hand, stopping them, and sent them back to where they belonged.

The sea giant turned into foam and disappeared into the sea.

The sky giant divided into clouds and air, then returned to the sky.

The earth giant’s body, made of massive rocks, disintegrated and sank to the deep sea.

The sight of each giant returning to their place was enough to drive an ordinary person mad, but the pink-haired woman didn’t blink, keeping her gaze solely on Merlin.

Perhaps it was because she was riding a dragon, she was unafraid······. Or, she had steeled herself that much. Well, he’d soon know.

“You’re the elder, right?!! The one Dave brought?!!”

As soon as the crimson-black dragon stopped in front of Merlin, the woman shouted loudly.

She seemed to be a well-educated woman, but even so, her body was that of an ordinary person.

Yet, instead of being frightened by the Merlin who defeated the sea monster, she observed whether he was dangerous or not.

“Hmm······. Indeed. Miss Jane.”

Jane greeted him courteously while standing on the dragon.

Despite standing on an unstable platform in strong winds, her posture reflected etiquette and resolve.

Not the absence of fear, but the resolve to overcome it.

Merlin was curious about what she would say, or more precisely, what Oliver’s second friend would say.

“Greetings. It is an immense honor to meet the great Archive.”

“You know of me?”

“Through the Sisterhood, I have heard news from the Tower of Magic······. And there’s only one being in this world who could defeat a sea monster alone.”

Her body might be ordinary, but her heart was made of steel, as she calmly and respectfully suppressed her fear and said.

“I’m sorry, but could you help us?”

“······What help do you need?”

Jane, without hesitation, pointed towards Neverland.

The Seven-Star Lamprey’s maw was half-devoured, replaced by an even larger shadow filling the gap.

Just like Leviathan, it was a scene that would drive any ordinary person mad.

Jane pointed there and requested.

“Please help Dave.”

“······Is the lady willing to help in return?”

“Of course.”

Jane responded without a moment of hesitation.

***

“······Grr.”

In the midst of the raging white flame and shadow as black as pitch.

Oliver was, with cold sweat on his brows, desperately struggling.

Trying to somehow regain control of the shadow.

“Grr······!”

But all his efforts were futile.

Neither directly controlling the shadow nor the flame in his right arm worked.

It was as if someone else was controlling it, the shadow escaped Oliver’s control, endlessly extending its size, devouring what Neverland had become, like the Seven-Star Lamprey.

The shadow and Fen, consuming countless children that made up Neverland.

The situation Oliver dreaded the most.

Oliver had tried attacking the shadow with the White Flame to stop it, but instead of taking damage, the shadow devoured the White Flame.

“······.”

This was something beyond reason.

Even though the shadow contained the emotions, life force, and magic of the Flesh Cook, combined with Oliver’s skills and had consumed quite a bit of Fen’s creatures, Oliver’s shadow was ultimately only a creature.

Then, how could it ignore and devour the flame of The Burned One? It was incomprehensible.

No matter how powerful the force within the shadow, the flame of The Burned One was of a clearly higher order.

No matter how much he thought, it was an inexplicable anomaly······. There was only one way to rationalize it.

The shadow itself was-

“No, that’s not it.”

Oliver halted his own thoughts. Because it wasn’t. Because he had decided it wasn’t.

So, denying the phenomenon unfolding before his eyes, Oliver believed there must be some unknown reason and kept trying to regain control of the shadow.

Just like before, it was futile.

“Obey my command······.”

Looking at the shadow that had escaped his control, Oliver tasted the helplessness he had felt when he first faced The Burned One.

The helplessness of being able to do nothing.

Adding despair, fear, anger, and resentment to that helplessness, he thought of the absurdity of a situation he could never avoid, no matter how hard he tried. The only solace was that no one was witnessing this······. Ah.

Oliver let out a gasp.

In that desperate situation, he only now remembered Merlin’s presence nearby.

There’s no way Merlin could have been killed by the sea monster, so he must be watching all of this.

Realizing this made Oliver curious.

What was Merlin thinking as he watched this? And what would that thinking make him do?

As soon as he thought that, suddenly, he felt a massive and complex magic circle forming in the sky.

An alien force he had experienced before, once.

Looking up at the sky, Oliver saw that the shadow that was stretching up high to devour Neverland had frozen in place, as if suspended in a painting.

Beyond the shadow, high in the sky, Merlin was visible.

Merlin, who had opened ten books in the air, holding the shadow locked with the entire space.

Even though he was so far away that Merlin appeared as a dot, Oliver could hear his voice clearly.

“Excuse me.”

“····Please.”

As Oliver responded, he shifted his focus from the shadow to his right arm, extinguishing the White Flame that was recklessly spreading.

It would only get in the way now.

Fortunately, his right arm responded to his will.

Twitch.

Just as he was calming his charred right arm, Oliver felt an ominous sensation.

The shadow bound by Merlin’s power was moving, ever so slightly.

Surprisingly, as it had endured The Burned One’s flame, Oliver’s shadow began to resist even Merlin’s force, which bound it and the entire space.

Not all of it, but a few strands started to twitch, gradually regaining freedom and lunging at Merlin.

Click.

Watching this, Merlin didn’t move from his spot but simply snapped his fingers.

In sync with that sound, the space containing Oliver’s shadow and Neverland, which had turned into the maw of the Seven-Star Lamprey, shattered like glass, scattering into dust in the air.

The power of the shadow was significantly reduced, and Neverland, in the form of the Seven-Star Lamprey, disintegrated into nothingness in midair.

Oliver finally felt relieved. Although he hardly had the chance to revel in that emotion as the remaining shadow began to tremble violently again.

The enraged shadow, after being thwarted, once again reached out towards Merlin, but a lightning strike from one of Merlin’s books struck the shadow down.

The shadow, having withstood the White Flame, emitted smoke as it retreated.

Its power was clearly weakened.

‘But why isn’t it obeying me?’

Oliver wondered as he looked at his shadow, which had escaped his control.

Though the great crisis was averted, fundamentally, nothing was resolved.

If things continued like this, it would just turn into a war of attrition.

Oliver had to regain control over the shadow. If he couldn’t······.

“Dave!!”

As Oliver stared downward, trying to gain control over the shadow, a voice called out from the sky.

A voice so familiar.

When he looked up, he saw Jane. The Jane who had jumped down from the sky.

“Dave!!”

Jane called out to him again.

‘No.’

Oliver said to himself.

With its power reduced and Neverland gone, the shadow was seeking new nourishment.

Unfortunately, his ominous thoughts proved correct, as the shadow, weakened by Merlin’s power, turned its focus toward Jane.

In that moment, Oliver felt a strange sensation, as if time had stopped. As if he had stepped out of the world’s time and entered his own.

The shadow reached out slowly from all directions to engulf Jane, and even as she stared directly at that sight, Jane never took her eyes off Oliver as she fell.

Her resolve shining, as she risked her life.

In the slowly flowing time, the distance between the shadow and Jane narrowed, and Oliver realized one thing.

If he didn’t regain control of the shadow, Jane would be devoured.

His second friend.

“······Obey my command!!”

***

The words leaped out of him instinctively, without passing through his brain.

As those words came out, Oliver’s time synchronized with the world again.

The split and twisted sea regained its calm, and the black clouds in the sky dissipated.

As the clouds parted, sunlight streamed down from the sky, and it fell on both Oliver and Jane.

“Are you okay?”

“······Yes. I think so.”

“That’s a relief.”

Jane responded, smiling with tears in her eyes.

“We’re really fortunate.”