Spell Card: Star Ice

When everything returned to calm once more, a long while passed.

Only then did some passengers cautiously poke their heads out of the cabins to look outside... but they could see nothing, only a silence amid the commotion.

The nearly ruined deck was brightly lit, while the battered captain directed the mostly injured—but not seriously so—sailors in tidying up. The sounds of gathering things and cleaning, accompanied by the occasional painful groan, made the place unexpectedly noisy.

Yet above the surface of the sea, there was nothing but silence. No lingering smoke, no scattered body parts, and no visible remnants of Path Power.

The sea, growing even darker beneath the lamplight, now looked like an abyss that swallowed life.

--It looked as though a earth-shaking battle had taken place, yet strangely, the ship's structural framework had not been damaged.

"Everyone, go back!"

Seeing the passengers poking their heads out, the captain advised them in a rough voice, "The problem's been resolved. The enemy's been eliminated—we're safe!"

"Was it a sea monster?"

someone asked.

"It was a Sea Bride!"

The captain did not hide the truth and answered directly, "But the problem's been resolved—the sea monster's been killed!"

"A Sea Bride!"

"That was... the Sea God!"

Some of the passengers lived in fishing regions and knew sea monsters well. They reacted with unease, fear, or relief.

Only after hearing their explanations could everyone truly confirm that they had indeed encountered a sea monster.

In some relatively backward coastal regions, people had no way to deal with sea monsters. These ancient creatures were older than many Pillar Gods and required a Fifth Level transcendent to hunt down alone. For most races, the only solution was to nourish them with blood sacrifices.

Based on a belief resembling a primitive religion, those villages often