Chapter 288: The Monster Beneath the Monster

Location: Between Yuno City and Davenport Coast

Erza remained suspended high above the land, her enormous white wings spread behind her as she continued staring back toward Yuno City.

That voice still lingered in her mind.

Was that really Yuuta?

She wasn’t certain. The voice had been so faint that even her senses had barely caught it, yet there was something painfully familiar about the way her name had been called. For those few seconds, Erza had become so focused on the possibility that Yuuta was somewhere behind her that she had almost forgotten what was waiting ahead.

Then the night turned gold.

Erza’s violet eyes shifted.

A colossal pillar of golden energy tore toward her from beyond the Davenport coastline, crossing the distance with terrifying speed and ripping through the night like a river of condensed sunlight.. Clouds split apart around its path, while the sheer pressure preceding the attack swept across the land beneath it.

Erza’s eyes widened slightly.

She had actually lowered her guard.

There wasn’t enough time to draw her sword.

Erza immediately turned toward the approaching light and raised one hand.

Two fingers extended.

The Solar Beam struck them.

Golden light swallowed the sky.

The difference in scale was almost absurd. The beam was an enormous torrent of concentrated energy capable of making Erza’s body look insignificant before it, as though a tiny figure had been placed directly in the path of a moving sun.

Yet the beam didn’t continue forward.

Erza’s two fingers held against it.

The tremendous force pushed against her hand while golden energy erupted violently around her, but her body remained suspended in the sky. Her silver-white hair and clothes whipped behind her beneath the pressure as the massive attack continued pouring against those two raised fingers.

Then Erza moved them apart.

The Solar Beam split.

The colossal stream of golden energy separated directly around her fingers, dividing into two enormous currents that tore past either side of her body. One half ripped across the sky to her left while the other spread toward her right, leaving Erza untouched in the narrow space between them.

Far across the ocean, General Malakar’s eyes widened.

He had seen Leviathan’s Solar Beam before.

It wasn’t merely another attack.

That beam possessed enough destructive power to erase a city beneath its light, yet the woman standing kilometers away hadn’t blocked it with a barrier or countered it with another spell.

She had split it with two fingers.

Malakar stared at the distant figure.

"No..."

For the first time, his calm expression visibly broke.

"She’s a monster."

The golden light gradually faded around Erza.

Her raised hand lowered.

Then she smiled.

The interruption had pulled her attention away from Yuno City and returned it completely to the creature waiting beyond the coast. Instead of frightening her, the attack had only strengthened the excitement already building inside her.

Leviathan growled.

The enormous sound rolled across the Atlantic like a predator warning another predator away.

Erza’s smile widened.

Her wings moved.

BOOM!

The air exploded behind her.

Erza shot forward.

She crossed the remaining distance toward Davenport with terrifying speed, passed the coastline and continued directly over the Atlantic. The ocean rushed beneath her while her eyes remained fixed upon the enormous dark-blue creature waiting ahead.

Malakar watched her approach.

His expression hardened.

There was no longer any reason to restrain Leviathan.

The restrictions placed upon the mythical beast existed for a reason. Allowing Leviathan to release everything it possessed made the creature more violent, more unstable and far more difficult to control.

But the woman approaching them had just split its Solar Beam with two fingers.

Holding anything back now would be meaningless.

Malakar raised one hand.

The restrictions were released.

"Terry."

Something changed beneath him.

"Go wild."

Malakar immediately pushed away from Leviathan’s head and flew upward, putting distance between himself and the enormous beast.

For a brief moment, Leviathan became strangely still.

Then its golden eyes blazed.

A tremendous surge of energy erupted from its body. The ocean around Leviathan collapsed downward beneath the pressure before exploding outward in enormous waves, while the dark-blue scales covering its colossal body began leaking tremendous amounts of power into the surrounding air.

Leviathan raised its crowned head.

RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRRRRR...!!!

The Atlantic erupted.

Waves crashed outward from Leviathan in every direction, rising high enough to resemble moving walls beneath the moon. Its enormous submerged body shifted, sending violent currents through the surrounding ocean as though something ancient beneath the sea had finally awakened completely.

Above it, Malakar watched from a safer distance.

Then Erza arrived.

She stopped in the sky directly before Leviathan.

Her white wings remained spread behind her, silver hair moving in the violent wind while the enormous creature raised its crowned head toward her. From this close, the difference in their size was ridiculous. Leviathan towered before her like a living island, while Erza appeared almost insignificant beside its enormous skull.

Golden eyes met violet.

Leviathan growled.

Erza smiled.

"What a majestic creature you are."

Her violet eyes slowly traveled across the enormous beast before her. From this distance, Leviathan’s true size was even more impressive. Its crowned head alone towered above her, while the rest of its colossal body stretched across and beneath the ocean like some ancient world serpent that had risen from the deepest part of the sea.

"You almost remind me of my early days."

There was a strange fondness in Erza’s expression as she remembered a time when encountering creatures of this scale had been an opportunity to test herself. Back then, finding something enormous and powerful enough to challenge her had always been exciting.

Erza tilted her head slightly.

"Earth really is full of surprises, don’t you think?"

Leviathan’s golden eyes remained fixed upon her.

Erza studied the creature with growing curiosity. Its Solar Beam had certainly carried tremendous destructive power, but that alone wasn’t enough to tell her what the beast was truly capable of.

She wondered whether it could actually hurt her.

The answer came immediately.

The ocean exploded.

Erza’s eyes widened.

One of Leviathan’s colossal forelimbs erupted from beneath the surface with a speed completely disproportionate to its enormous size. Water cascaded from its dark-blue scales as the gigantic webbed claw swept upward like the paw of a monstrous cat.

Erza barely had time to turn.

BOOOOOOM!

The claw struck her directly.

The impact launched Erza downward so violently that the ocean beneath her burst apart before swallowing her completely. An enormous column of seawater erupted into the air while her body disappeared beneath the surface, continuing deeper into the Atlantic until even Malakar’s enhanced vision could no longer follow her.

Then everything became strangely quiet.

Malakar stared.

"What...?"

His arms remained crossed, but his expression had gone completely blank.

He had expected something else.

After watching Erza split Leviathan’s Solar Beam with two fingers and then charge directly toward the mythical beast with that excited smile, Malakar had prepared himself to witness a battle unlike anything he had seen before.

Instead, Leviathan had struck her once.

And she was gone.

Malakar continued staring at the disturbed ocean.

Leviathan slowly raised its crowned head.

Then it roared toward the night sky.

RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRRRRR....!!!

The victorious roar rolled across the Atlantic while enormous waves spread away from its body.

Malakar didn’t celebrate immediately.

His eyes remained fixed upon the water.

Ten seconds passed.

Nothing.

Twenty.

Still nothing.

Malakar’s expression gradually relaxed.

Perhaps he had overestimated her.

The woman clearly possessed extraordinary offensive power, but raw strength didn’t necessarily mean her body could withstand the same level of force. Leviathan had struck her directly while its restrictions were completely released, and the impact had driven her deep beneath the Atlantic.

Malakar waited longer.

The ocean remained empty.

No white wings emerged.

No silver-haired woman returned.

Eventually, Malakar released a quiet breath.

"So that’s it."

He glanced toward Liebus.

Smoke was beginning to rise from several distant areas of the country. Even from this far away, signs of the invasion were becoming visible as the demonic forces he had sent ahead spread deeper into populated territory.

Malakar watched the distant smoke for several seconds.

"Looks like they’ve already started spreading chaos."

He looked down at the ocean one final time.

Still nothing.

Whatever had happened beneath those dark waters, there was no sign of the Queen of Atlantis returning.

Malakar sighed.

"Whatever."

His attention shifted toward Yuno City.

"It’s better for me this way. Looks like this mission will be easier than I expected."

His orders remained unchanged.

The human with the blood-red eyes had to be captured alive.

Malakar rose higher into the sky before turning away from the Atlantic. He left Leviathan behind to continue its destruction and began flying toward Yuno City, never once imagining that the battle he believed had ended had barely even begun.

Leviathan’s victorious roar continued across the Atlantic.

Farther ahead, the Davenport coastline was no longer empty.

Agency personnel had gathered throughout the port after the evacuation orders were issued. Armored vehicles had been positioned between warehouses and shipping containers, portable missile systems faced the ocean and nearly a hundred low-ranking combat personnel stood behind hastily established defensive positions.

They could already see Leviathan in the distance.

And every one of them understood what was coming.

"Target confirmed!"

A soldier stared through the targeting system.

"Missiles locked!"

The captain raised his hand.

"FIRE!"

Several missiles launched from the port almost simultaneously.

They streaked across the dark ocean before striking Leviathan’s enormous body. Explosions erupted across its armored scales, briefly surrounding part of the creature in smoke and fire.

Leviathan’s roar stopped.

One of the missiles had managed to damage a small section between its scales.

It wasn’t much.

But it had hurt.

Leviathan slowly turned its crowned head toward Davenport Port.

The soldiers became quiet.

Even across the enormous distance, they could feel those golden eyes looking directly at them.

Then Leviathan moved.

"What the hell...?"

The captain’s expression changed.

The creature was fast.

Far too fast.

Leviathan’s colossal body twisted through the Atlantic like a serpent, disappearing partially beneath the waves before surging forward again. Every movement displaced enormous amounts of water, creating waves that spread toward the coastline while its massive silhouette rapidly grew larger.

"FIRE!"

The captain pointed toward the ocean.

"KEEP FIRING!"

More missiles launched.

Explosions struck Leviathan’s head, neck and armored body, but the mythical beast didn’t even attempt to dodge. It simply continued forward through the barrage as fire and smoke erupted across its scales.

"Again!"

Another volley launched.

"FIRE!"

The soldiers reloaded as quickly as they could.

But Leviathan kept coming.

In less than a minute, the enormous creature reached the port.

Its head emerged from the ocean.

Water cascaded from its dark-blue scales as Leviathan rose above the harbor, and only now did the soldiers truly understand how enormous the creature was. Shipping containers looked like toys beneath it, buildings barely reached portions of its body and even one of its glowing golden eyes seemed larger than the humans staring back at it.

The soldiers froze.

There were barely a hundred of them.

Leviathan stared down at them.

Then its jaws slowly opened.

Golden light appeared inside its mouth.

"No..."

The captain stared upward.

Energy began gathering between Leviathan’s enormous teeth, growing brighter with every second. Golden particles rushed toward its throat while the air around the port began vibrating, and the soldiers who had already witnessed the destruction caused by its roar understood that whatever was coming next would erase everything around them.

Several soldiers unconsciously stepped backward.

"I-I can’t..."

"My legs won’t move..."

"We’re going to die..."

The captain heard them.

He was afraid too.

His hands were trembling so badly that he could barely keep hold of his weapon, but he forced himself to look away from Leviathan and toward the people under his command.

"No!"

Nobody responded.

"Don’t you dare!"

The golden light became brighter.

Some soldiers stared at it without moving.

The captain clenched his teeth.

"Did all of you already forget what the Supreme Commander told us?!"

That reached them.

Several soldiers looked toward him.

The captain remembered the War Hall.

He remembered Erza standing before thousands of Agency personnel.

*If you ever feel like giving up, just look at me.*

Another soldier remembered.

*If you see me falling down, then you may decide everything is lost.*

The fear didn’t disappear.

But something else returned alongside it.

*But if I’m still standing, don’t you dare give up.*

One soldier slowly raised his weapon.

Then another.

The captain pointed toward Leviathan.

"We haven’t lost yet!"

The soldiers looked at the enormous creature preparing to erase them.

They were terrified.

They wanted to run.

They wanted to survive tonight and wake up tomorrow knowing their country was still there.

That desire was enough.

"FIRE!"

Missiles launched.

Then more.

Every remaining launcher across the port opened fire.

Explosions covered Leviathan’s head and neck while the soldiers emptied everything they had into the mythical beast. Smoke swallowed portions of its enormous face as missile after missile struck the same areas.

"KEEP FIRING!"

"DON’T STOP!"

"FIRE!"

The barrage continued until the launchers were nearly empty.

For several seconds, smoke covered Leviathan.

The soldiers stared.

Nobody spoke.

Then the smoke began clearing.

Leviathan was still there.

Its golden eyes remained open.

The damage across its armored scales was insignificant.

And inside its enormous jaws, the Solar Beam was almost fully charged.

The hope that had risen through the defensive line disappeared.

A soldier slowly lowered his weapon.

Another stared at his empty launcher.

The captain’s hand fell to his side.

After everything they had fired, the creature hadn’t even been forced backward.

He stared upward at the growing golden light.

"How..."

His voice trembled.

"How are we supposed to kill something like this?"

Nobody answered.

The Solar Beam continued gathering above them, its golden light growing brighter until the entire Davenport Port was illuminated beneath it. The captain looked at the soldiers around him and saw that most of them had already stopped trying to reload their weapons. They had fired everything they possessed, yet Leviathan remained before them with little more than shallow wounds across its armored scales.

"We’re done."

Before the captain could say anything else, Leviathan’s enormous golden eye suddenly shifted away from the port.

The movement confused him. Only moments earlier, the creature had been preparing to erase all of them, yet now its crowned head slowly turned toward the Atlantic as though the humans beneath it had ceased to matter. The Solar Beam remained gathered between its jaws, but Leviathan’s attention was completely fixed upon something far out across the dark ocean.

"What happened?"

"I don’t know."

"Why did it stop?"

The soldiers exchanged confused looks before following Leviathan’s gaze. They couldn’t see anything unusual out there. There were only dark waves stretching beneath the night sky, yet Leviathan remained completely focused on one particular area as a deep growl escaped its throat.

Then it fired.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Instead of striking Davenport Port, the Solar Beam tore across the Atlantic. Golden energy crashed into the distant ocean and blasted apart the water, sending an enormous wall of steam and seawater upward while the soldiers instinctively ducked behind their positions.

The captain stared toward the impact point.

"It wasn’t aiming at us..."

Leviathan continued watching the ocean.

None of the Agency soldiers understood why.

Then the mythical beast suddenly roared.

The sound crashed across Davenport hard enough to shake the surrounding buildings. Soldiers covered their ears while debris rattled across the ground, but even through the overwhelming noise, the captain noticed that Leviathan wasn’t roaring toward the port. Its golden eyes remained directed toward the ocean as though it were warning something hidden beneath the surface.

The water began to change soon afterward.

A disturbance appeared far beyond the coastline. Waves started spreading outward from one particular point, and the surrounding water gradually became more violent as something moved beneath it. The soldiers watched in confusion, unable to tell whether another creature was about to emerge.

Then the captain saw someone rising from the water.

At first, the figure was too distant to recognize. Silver-white hair emerged above the surface, followed by the upper body of a woman as seawater streamed from her clothes. Two enormous white wings gradually unfolded behind her while she continued ascending until her entire body hovered above the Atlantic.

The captain stared at her.

Those wings.

That silver-white hair.

His eyes widened.

"Wait..."

One of the soldiers beside him leaned forward, trying to see through the darkness.

"Is that...?"

Lightning flashed across the clouds.

For an instant, the distant figure became perfectly visible.

The captain’s mouth fell open.

"Supreme Commander?!"

Several soldiers immediately turned toward him before looking back at the ocean.

"What?!"

"That’s the Supreme Commander!"

"SUPREME COMMANDER ERZA!"

Shock spread through the defensive line before rapidly turning into excitement. Soldiers who had already accepted their deaths began standing again, while others pointed toward the distant figure in disbelief. They had no idea where Erza had come from or why she had suddenly emerged from the ocean, but none of that mattered to them at that moment.

Their Supreme Commander was here.

"She’s here!"

"THE SUPREME COMMANDER IS HERE!"

"We’re saved!"

The captain felt the despair that had consumed him only seconds earlier begin to disappear. He tightened his grip on his weapon and stared toward Erza, unable to stop the relief spreading across his face.

Then, little by little, the cheering began to die.

Something felt wrong.

The captain couldn’t immediately understand what had changed. Erza hadn’t attacked anyone, nor had she even looked toward the port, yet an uncomfortable sensation had begun crawling through his body.

The soldiers around him gradually felt it as well.

Their excitement became uncertainty.

Their uncertainty became silence.

Far above the ocean, Erza slowly raised her head toward Leviathan.

And smiled.

The captain’s smile disappeared.

A chill ran down his spine.

Around him, several soldiers suddenly became rigid. One man’s breathing grew shallow, while another instinctively took a step backward despite Erza being far out over the ocean.

They didn’t understand it.

Leviathan had terrified them because of its size and overwhelming destructive power.

This was different.

This fear came from Erza.

An invisible pressure began spreading from her body.

The ocean beneath her trembled.

Clouds churned above.

The soldiers had seen Erza before. They had stood beneath her command, listened to her speak and watched her enter the battlefield.

But the woman hovering above the Atlantic now felt nothing like the Supreme Commander who had addressed them.

Then her laughter reached them.

Soft at first.

Almost delighted.

Erza slowly raised her head.

She was smiling.

The captain had seen that woman standing before thousands of soldiers only hours earlier. He had listened to her speak about courage, survival and the peaceful future they were supposed to fight for.

But there was nothing reassuring about the smile on her face now.

It was the smile of someone who had finally found what she had been looking for.

Someone who had been struck harder than she expected...

and had enjoyed it.

The captain swallowed.

Far above the Atlantic, Erza’s violet eyes slowly lifted toward Leviathan.

Her smile widened.

And for the first time that night, the soldiers of Davenport Port wondered whether Leviathan was really the creature they should be afraid of.

To Be Continued...