Chapter 116
Predators live in the sea.
The most familiar examples were sharks, crocodiles, whales, monkfish, and so on. There were far too many beings that kept themselves alive by eating creatures weaker than themselves. The Outer Sea was no different.
Predators.
The monsters that stood just below the apex of the food chain were far more numerous in the Outer Sea than in Earth's oceans, and they swarmed in numbers beyond comparison. Broadly speaking, Watchers and Producers also counted as predators of the Outer Sea.
But there were beings even stronger than them.
“Harvester, Destroyer, Walker.”
Ian called out their names.
“Watcher, and Producer.”
The magic circle trembled. Using a method he'd never tried before—simultaneous spellcasting—he summoned some of the strongest monsters in the Outer Sea onto Earth.
He invited those things, swimming the black sea in eternal hunger—creatures whose appetites he couldn't even begin to fathom—to the feast.
“As His proxy, I command you: come here.”
He omitted every spell needed to summon a single entity.
A spell was like a passage linking the Outer Sea and Earth. But now that five of them had been created, there was no need to painstakingly open one by focusing. One opening alone was enough for them to crawl through.
“And thus, chew up and swallow my enemies.”
Clack.
The instant the spell ended, Ian closed the grimoire. At that moment, the magic circles engraved into the table began to surge. Ian instinctively realized that something was on its way.
The Moon seemed to sense something similar too, because all the electronic devices around them burst into little stars and siren sounds.
[Twinkle twinkle, waaaahhh, little star—so beautifuuul, waaaahhh!! shining like—]
A sound that was hard to endure battered his ears. Every device in the living room that could make sound—the TV, radio, speaker, headset, earbuds, and so on—had been corrupted and fallen under the Moon's dominion.
He ignored it. Psychic attacks didn't bother him anyway.
They're coming.
Ian squeezed his eyes shut and sat in the chair, sensing something drawing ever closer.
Just then, a black head stretched down from the roof above.
[Daddy?]
He wasn't sure whether calling it a head was even correct, but since he had no better word, it was a head.
It had no facial features. The sharp black spikes radiating around its head covered the head and neck like a cloak or crown. Where a body should have been, only rigid tentacles stretched out like legs. Every one of those joints had a head attached.
Also known as the Harvester.
[It's Daddy.]
It smiled brightly at Ian's face.
It felt that way. Ian stared at the creature's black body, then smiled softly and pointed at the Moon residents drawing closer.
“Eat them.”
[Yeah! I like Daddy!]
The Harvester rubbed its cheek against Ian's shoulder, then leaped at once and dropped onto the swarming residents. At the same time, skyscraper-sized spikes unfurled from its entire body.
Fwoaaah!
With a tremendous boom, everything around them shattered.
As if they were skewers, the spikes were studded with corpses in all sorts of forms—human, beast, and Mystery alike.
That was the beginning. Chewing on the corpses with teeth sprouted from its spikes, the Harvester moved as if in delight. Buildings collapsed and a blood mist spread along its path.
[Its mental age seems to be young.]
As he quietly watched, a familiar voice came from beside him. Ian turned only his eyes and looked toward the voice's owner.
A huge, round body.
The Producer, with red eyes planted all over its body, looked at him and closed a few of them.
[It's good to see you again, Proxy. This is our second meeting since the cruise.]
“……Same one?”
[That's right. Since we've already met once, it seems I'll keep being summoned as long as I don't die. If you dislike that, I'll kill myself. You have the right to decide, Proxy.]
“No, there's no need for that.”
Ian gave a bitter smile and turned back to the Harvester.
“As you can see, this isn't the time for conversation. Go and kill them all.”
[As you command.]
The Producer bowed slightly, then slowly moved back down to the road and began chewing the charging humans and Mysteries alive. The seawater flowing from its entire body dissolved everything organic and inorganic nearby.
“…….”
In the sky, the Watcher was floating. Something like a giant jellyfish waved its tentacles at Ian as if greeting him, then immediately began attacking the ground. The bundles of tentacles shot out in a booming barrage, collapsing the earth.
That alone made all the intact buildings and patches of ground disappear from Ian's view. And that was the result of only three of them.
[Thank you for summoning me, Father.]
Beneath the Watcher stood something grotesque.
Its back bore red petals, and its body was covered in black scales. Right at the center was a gaping maw lined with sharp teeth. It had no eyes, and its nose, bizarrely shifted to the side, opened and closed like gills.
[I, your humble servant, the Walker, will walk for Father from now on.]
Its soft voice burrowed into Ian's head. The Walker bowed to Ian and slowly began walking down the road.
Red flowers bloomed with every step it took. The Moon residents who had charged the Walker without fear suddenly rushed at the flowers and tore them apart to swallow them.
Crunch!
And then their heads popped, and red petals bloomed where they had been. The humans whose heads vanished hesitated for a moment, then followed right behind the Walker and walked with it.
‘A mind-control-type creature…….’
Ian let out a breath as he stared at the procession of red flowers trailing behind the Walker. The blood stench was no joke.
‘The Destroyer…… there it is.’
A being made only of red hair and black spikes.
About the same size as the Harvester, it seemed to have instinct ahead of reason, swallowing humans and Mysteries whole while bubbling with delighted laughter. It offered neither greeting nor telepathy toward Ian.
A mass of pure violence. That was everything the Destroyer was made of. Truly a fitting name.
“……Haaah.”
Ian leaned back and reflexively rummaged inside his coat. But all he found was an empty cigarette pack. A pure-white empty pack printed with someone's surgery photo slipped through his fingers.
“Tsk.”
He carelessly tossed the cigarette pack aside and looked up at the sky.
A bright Moon. A being even higher than a mere aberration was staring straight at him.
He couldn't read the will contained in that gaze, but Ian decided to take it however he liked. Whatever it was, if it made the Moon pissed off, that was satisfying enough.
“……Let's go.”
A funeral held not under the sun, but beneath the Moon. Humanity's final requiem.
Ian briefly went back inside and brought out the speaker that was singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Then he set it on the table and struck it with the grimoire several times.
Bang! Bang!
The foreign god's grimoire looked soft, but its toughness was no different from a steel plate. Thanks to that, the speaker returned to normal. Or maybe it was because he'd hammered it with the grimoire.
Either way, good is good.
A crackling noise interfered with the speaker, but it was still more than possible to play another song.
“……Hmm.”
Ian fiddled with the Bluetooth music device connected to the speaker and found a suitable song to play.
Fly Me to the Moon.
It wasn't the original, but Frank Sinatra's remake.
Maybe because the original was already a masterpiece, the remake was excellent too. Ian cranked the speaker to maximum volume and smiled at the sky.
He knew he was being ridiculous. He also knew it was unnecessary, pointless, and downright stupid.
But what did that matter? Since he'd been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to choose his own funeral, chasing romance was only natural for a man.
Thinking that, Ian took out the grimoire and opened it. The gentle touch of Re-Creation slowly turned the page.
Of course, Ian didn't even consider summoning the master of the Outer Sea. Why would he trust a foreign god that would grab him and lock him away in the Outer Sea?
It might help in the current situation, but its ending wouldn't be pleasant.
So he chose the Reconstruction of All Things. The fact that it could interfere with timelines also helped make the choice.
“My God.”
Ian began reciting the spell written in the grimoire.
Boom.
The earth trembled. The pure white paint spreading from the grimoire used the world as its canvas, dyeing it pure white.
“I pray to you. I will sacrifice everything to you, so please grant me salvation.”
The world turned white, centered on the place where Ian stood.
From somewhere, the sweet scent of hyacinths drifted over.
“And so I shall live as your eternal servant, your consort, and your proxy.”
Something soft touched his shoulder. When he glanced sideways, he saw pure white hands slowly covering his body.
“Do not doubt my faith in you.”
Hands reached out. The world dyed pure white. Through it, another equally white hand reached in and blocked Ian's vision. Yet the world remained white.
Ian stared at the Moon, left alone in the pure white world, and curled his lips.
The hyacinth scent grew stronger.
“And also, my eternal love for you.”
Setting the final spell aside, Ian took a moment to catch his breath.
And then.
“Please make me swear it.”
Fwoooooosh!!
Color returned to the world. But nothing moved.
The rampaging Outer Sea creatures, and the Moon residents being shredded.
As if time had stopped, they were frozen in place. Only Ian remained fine. He wasn't dead, and he didn't feel pain on the same level either.
“……Failed? No way?”
He muttered that uneasily and looked up at the sky.
“……Cough.”
At the same time, blood gushed from his mouth. All strength drained from his body, and his staggering frame toppled toward the terrace floor.
But he didn't hit the floor.
Because someone was supporting him.
“Stay still.”
“…….”
Ian turned his eyes to check the face of the being embracing him. But in his blurred vision, the other person's face didn't show clearly. He could only make out a pure white dress, eyes, and hair.
“Rest for a bit.”
She said.
She settled Ian's head on her thighs and slowly sat down. Then she stroked his hair.
“When you wake up, everything will be fine.”
Little by little.
What he could see was the giant Moon, and behind it, four enormous pairs of arms.
“Don't look.”
When Ian's gaze naturally drifted toward the arms, the woman who had laid him down covered his eyes.
“The main body isn't very beautiful by human aesthetic standards.”
Crack, grind-grind-grind!
The sound of something breaking and being crushed came from the sky. Through it, a thin yet soothing voice seeped through.
“It's okay. It's okay.”
Hyacinth.
The scent of hyacinths filled his nose.
“Sleep soundly. When you wake up, everything will be fine.”
“……You...”
Ian barely managed to open his mouth. But he couldn't continue speaking.
The woman lovingly stroked him and kissed his forehead.
“I won't do anything you dislike.”
“…….”
“See you at home.”
Those were her last words. Ian's eyes slowly closed, and before long his heart stopped.
*
“Gasp!”
Ian's eyes flew open again. He sprang upright and felt around his body.
Missing parts? None.
Internal injuries? None either.
Consciousness? Fine. His mind was fine too. There were no visible external injuries, and there wasn't even any pain.
‘Memory damage?’
Ian quickly ran through his memories, checking for anything strange or any sense of mismatch.
Just then.
“You're awake.”
A voice came from beside him. Ian's thoughts cut off abruptly, and his head slowly turned.
“Hello.”
The voice's owner.
A mysterious woman in a pure white dress, lying on the bed, looked at Ian and waved. Only then did Ian realize he had been lying next to her.
“This is the first time we've seen each other's faces.”
She looked at Ian from where she lay, moving only her eyes.
“You...”
The woman's cheeks and ears flushed red in an instant.
+
Below are images of Outer Sea creatures.
Harvester.
Walker.
Destroyer.
That's all.