Chapter 98: The Awakening of the Nine-Headed Hydra — A Calamity Emerges from the Infinite Ocean

The human world was experiencing days unlike any it had known for thousands of years.

The banners of the Council were rising over new territories every day.

The Central Empire had fallen.

In the east, the war against the Three Sea Tribes continued.

In the north, the Council's armies were engaged in fierce battles against the Barbarian Tribe.

As for the south, the strongholds of the bandits were still resisting with everything they had.

Blood had covered the battlefields across the three continents.

Rivers of blood had mixed with the soil.

Hundreds of thousands of corpses had piled up across the land.

And the scent of death had spread through the winds, carried by storms across vast distances.

Very vast distances...

To a place no one in this world ever imagined that scent could reach.

The depths of the Infinite Ocean.

There...

Where sunlight could not reach.

Where no human had set foot since the beginning of this era.

There existed a region whose depth could not be measured.

Even the sea beasts avoided approaching it.

There were no coral reefs.

No fish.

Not even the smallest creatures.

The place was dead.

As though the ocean itself feared what lay sleeping at its bottom.

And at its deepest point...

There was something enormous.

Something that had remained motionless since ancient times.

It did not move.

It did not breathe.

It did not open its eyes.

Part of its body was buried beneath layers of ancient rock that had accumulated over it throughout the ages.

But that body...

Was not a rock.

It was the body of a creature.

A creature whose size surpassed the limits of human imagination.

Its black scales were covered in layers of moss and stone, as though the entire ocean had tried to bury it and conceal its existence.

Nine enormous necks were coiled around its body.

Each one remained completely still.

Every head had its eyes closed.

There was nothing but eternal silence.

As though the beast had entered a sleep from which it would never awaken.

But...

On that day...

Something happened that had not happened for countless thousands of years.

A scent arrived.

The scent of blood.

It was not the blood of a single creature.

It was the scent of countless lives.

It came from the surface of the ocean.

Then it spread through the water.

It seeped into the depths.

Until it reached the place where the beast lay sleeping.

For a moment...

Nothing happened.

Then...

One of its claws moved.

The rocks covering its body trembled.

Everything stopped.

Then one of its eyes opened.

An enormous eye the size of a city.

A dark glow flickered within it.

And the moment that eye opened...

The ocean floor trembled.

Sea creatures in the surrounding waters scattered in terror.

Giant whales fled.

Sea beasts rushed toward the surface.

Even creatures that considered themselves kings of the ocean began fleeing without knowing what they feared.

Then...

A second eye opened.

Then a third.

Then a fourth.

Until all nine heads opened their eyes simultaneously.

A terrifying pressure spread through the depths of the ocean.

Then a low sound emerged.

It was not yet a roar.

It was merely a breath.

But that single breath caused the waters to shift across vast distances.

Massive bubbles rose from the ocean floor.

The rocks began to crack.

Then a deep voice came from one of the heads:

"......Blood."

Silence.

Then another head moved.

"The scent of blood..."

One of the heads raised its gaze toward the surface, despite the thousands of meters of water separating it from the ocean above.

A third head spoke:

"So much..."

Then the central head spoke in a rough voice:

"How long has it been?"

No one answered.

Because the beast itself could no longer remember.

It had slept for far too long.

So long that the ages that had passed since it fell asleep seemed like mere moments.

But the scent of blood had brought it back to consciousness.

The nine heads began to move slowly.

Their enormous necks rose from the ocean floor.

The rocks covering them collapsed.

Then part of its body emerged.

And merely moving was enough to cause an earthquake across the ocean floor.

At the same time...

On the surface of the Infinite Ocean...

Ships were sailing as usual.

No one knew what was happening below.

But suddenly...

The sea became calm.

Unnaturally calm.

The wind stopped.

The waves disappeared.

One of the sailors stared at the ocean in confusion.

"What is happening?"

Another sailor approached him.

"Why has the wind stopped?"

The first sailor raised his head.

The sky was covered with clouds.

But something else caught his attention.

"Look at the sea."

The sailor stared at the water.

"What?"

"It's... receding."

The surface of the ocean began to fall slowly.

Then faster.

The waters retreated from the coastline for enormous distances.

One of the sailors screamed:

"Run!"

"Why?!"

"I don't know!"

Then an enormous sound thundered from the depths of the sea.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

The ships shook violently.

The sailors fell to the deck.

The water around them began to spin.

A massive whirlpool formed in the middle of the ocean.

Then a second.

Then a third.

The whirlpools continued expanding.

It was as though something unimaginably enormous was rising from below.

One of the sailors screamed:

"There's something down there!"

Another shouted:

"A sea monster?!"

The captain violently shook his head.

"No..."

His face had gone pale.

"That isn't a monster."

"How do you know?!"

The captain stared at the trembling sea.

"Because I've seen the monsters of the ocean before."

Then he swallowed hard.

"None of them can do this."

Suddenly...

The surface of the ocean exploded.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Water soared thousands of meters into the air.

A colossal wall of water stretched all the way to the horizon.

Ships were destroyed.

Debris was hurled in every direction.

Then something black emerged from the depths of the ocean.

At first...

Everyone thought it was a mountain.

It was so enormous that the human mind refused to believe what the eyes were seeing.

Part of its back rose above the surface.

Then higher.

And higher.

Until the people finally understood the truth.

It was not a mountain.

It was the body of a creature.

An enormous body so vast that the surface of the ocean seemed insignificant beside it.

More of its body emerged from the water.

Massive black scales rose from the ocean, each scale larger than a fortress.

Then one of its necks began to rise.

Higher.

And higher.

Until it pierced through the clouds.

Then the head appeared.

Then a second.

Then a third.

The fourth.

The fifth.

The sixth.

The seventh.

The eighth.

And the ninth.

The world froze.

The nine heads towered above the ocean, each one reaching into the heavens.

Their enormous necks twisted through the clouds.

Their nine dark eyes gazed upon the world for the first time in countless ages.

Then...

The rest of its body emerged.

Slowly.

Piece by piece.

Until the terrifying truth became clear.

An ancient Hydra had awakened.

And when its entire body finally emerged from the depths of the ocean...

Its true size became apparent.

Its body stretched for nearly 100,000 meters.

One hundred thousand meters of black scales.

One hundred thousand meters of ancient, monstrous power.

Nine heads reaching into the heavens.

Nine mouths capable of swallowing entire cities.

And nine eyes gazing upon the world as though it were nothing more than a tiny thing beneath it.

The Hydra began moving its enormous body.

BOOOOOOOM!

A colossal wave surged across the ocean.

Waves rose to unimaginable heights.

Small islands were destroyed.

Ships in its path were crushed.

Then the Hydra raised all nine heads toward the sky.

It inhaled.

Once.

Only once.

Then it stopped.

The scent of blood still filled the world.

The blood of the continents.

The blood of war.

The blood of millions.

And it seemed to be following its source.

The central head lowered slightly.

Then it looked toward the east.

Toward the Central Continent.

The other heads slowly turned in the same direction.

Then...

The Hydra moved.

One step.

BOOOOOOOM!

The Infinite Ocean trembled.

A second step.

BOOOOOOOM!

Massive waves rose behind it.

It began carving its way through the ocean.

It knew nothing of the Council.

Nothing of Azrael.

Nothing of the empires at war.

Nothing of the wars that had torn the world apart.

All it knew...

Was that the scent of blood had awakened it.

And that it wanted to reach its source.

The Central Continent.

And at that moment...

An ancient legend that the world never knew was still alive began to move.

Yet the human world...

Still did not know that something had emerged from the far western reaches of the Infinite Ocean.

Something that had slept since ancient ages.

Something that had reached the Peak of Divine Ascension...

And stood only one step away from godhood.

The Nine-Headed Hydra.

And it had begun its journey toward the Central Continent.