The Chase

The beach,

Several investigators were examining the chunks of flesh scattered here, along with the crater William had made by throwing someone over his shoulder,

One of them held a compass-like detector, trying to find any Divinity Aura remaining here, but found nothing.

Their final conclusion was that an individual without divinity had caused this disturbance through sheer brute force. The conclusion was so outrageous that they did not even dare write it in their records.

One of the investigators, who had only recently joined and was relatively young and timid, immediately thought of something.

"The whole city has been screening for disease carriers lately, but they haven't announced what kind of disease it is. Could it be possible that..."

He had only gotten halfway through his sentence.

Gurgle, gurgle~ The surface of the lake began bubbling violently, and something unusual was rising from below.

The investigators' nerves tightened one after another as they assumed their respective combat stances.

The first thing to emerge was a bald human face covered in wrinkles, wearing an extremely exaggerated smile.

The pressure of the smile made the facial wrinkles appear even more numerous and densely packed. It was easy to tell that its owner was at least over ninety years old.

But the body that emerged next looked nothing like that of a ninety-year-old, or even that of a human.

It was half a body taller than the tallest investigator present, lean and robust, without a trace of excess flesh. Every ounce of meat clung to the bones, serving its greatest possible purpose.

The old man who rose from the bottom of the sea carried an oppressive air that made all the investigators from the city take a step back,

They had met before, however. When the investigators first arrived at Flower Sea