Legendary Monster

"What was that?"

When the enormous creature emerging from the sea revealed part of its true form, everyone felt a bone-deep chill and terror.

Its shell glimmered pale blue beneath the sunlight, with two massive crab claws extending from either side, their pincers edged with sharp serrations.

As fishermen who made their living catching fish by the sea, they had naturally seen crabs before.

But they had never seen a crab this enormous.

Even with only half its body exposed above the water, it looked like a small hill.

Amid their trembling, people immediately understood what the gigantic creature on the sea was—

It was a Sea Monster.

A monster that existed only in the mysterious depths of the ocean.

At that moment, the legend people had long forgotten finally resurfaced in their minds.

"Sea Monster!"

"That legend from hundreds, even thousands, of years ago was actually true."

"Why did it have to appear now?"

Everyone was stunned.

Why had something from legend suddenly appeared at a time like this?

The people stood frozen in place, staring blankly at the enormous creature on the sea.

For a moment, they even forgot to tighten the ropes in their hands.

The first to snap out of the fear and shock of seeing the Sea Monster was the elderly Tribe chief, Richie.

"Boer!"

Richie anxiously called his child's name and hurriedly grabbed the rope.

The usually composed chief was utterly distraught.

He threw himself to the ground.

Recklessly, desperately pulling on the thick rope.

As though he feared losing his child again, just as he had once lost his wife.

The elders immediately tossed aside their canes and rushed over to help, shouting at the stunned tribespeople on the ground.

"What are you standing around for? Help!"

"The one on that boat is the God-Chosen's son!"

Only then did everyone finally come to their senses.

One after another, they grabbed the rope and pulled with all their strength.

The Driftwood Boat quickly drifted toward the shore.

The boat drew closer and closer to land.

But the terrifying monster clearly had no intention of sparing the Driftwood Boat.

One of its massive claws merely rose, then swung.

The wooden boat was instantly overturned like a fragile leaf, then torn into pieces beneath the claw's sharp serrations.

The people cried out in terror.

"Run!"

"Jump into the water!"

"Hurry!"

The instant the boat was destroyed, the guard seated at the stern roared.

The guard seized the terrified, helpless Boer, who had been frightened senseless, and jumped into the sea.

The huge claw did not stop.

After easily shredding the boat into countless fragments, it continued toward the two people trying to swim for shore.

Within only a few breaths, it closed in on them again.

Whoosh!

At some point, Barlow had already drawn his bow on the shore.

Sweat covered the tall man's face, and even the hand holding his bow was no longer as steady as usual.

Yet the arrow he fired still struck the monster's shell with perfect accuracy, despite the great distance.

In an instant, massive electric arcs flashed across the sea.

But this time, the electric arcs that could easily paralyze any creature failed to stop the enormous Sea Monster.

After shuddering all over, it seemed to grow enraged instead. It raised its claw high and snapped off the sharp arrow embedded in its carapace.

The lightning arrow that had always been invincible fell into the sea just like that.

At the sight, despair spread across every face.

Even the arrow fired by the Tribe's strongest Warrior with that Divine Artifact could not harm this Sea Monster.

Then what could possibly stop this monster?

Filled with terror, the people could only watch helplessly as the monster approached the guard desperately trying to bring Boer back to shore.

Just as the monster's pincer was about to swing down at the two of them—

At that moment.

The sky darkened.

In the clear, cloudless sky stretching for miles,

The sun's radiance seemed to dim for an instant.

As though an immense, indistinct figure had suddenly appeared there, blocking the blazing sun's endless light.

The pincer froze in midair.

In its place, a trembling shudder spread across the creature's entire body.

Amid that shuddering, strange fragments mixed with discolored liquid like murky seawater trickled from the joints of its claws.

"Interesting."

God murmured.

The moment He descended, He sensed that the creature had immediately revealed intense fear, as though it had perceived His existence.

So He asked instinctively.

"Can you see Me?"

A hint of interest colored His voice.

But the creature did not answer.

Its dark cephalothorax made a rattling, trembling sound.

Its two claws rapidly withdrew beneath the sea.

Then, after a surge of churning waves,

It dived into the ocean.

Driven by fear and the instinct to survive, it fled toward the deep sea without looking back.

It had not seen the invisible God.

What made it flee was merely an ability carved into its bones—a keen perception of unprecedented danger.

But no matter how quickly it fled, it could not outrun time.

God merely extended His hand.

In that instant.

The people on the beach witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

Everything on the sea froze in place.

The surging waves seemed to have been frozen solid.

The clouds stopped moving, and the beam of sunlight cast down by the sun did not shift.

Even beneath the dazzling sunlight, a string of glittering water droplets could be seen suspended in midair.

The guard, swimming desperately forward through the waves with eyes wide in fury, and Boer in his arms, also froze in place.

Yet only one area had stopped.

Far away at the horizon, the waves still churned.

Some seagulls tried to fly closer to the sea.

But the moment they entered this frozen world, they instantly became part of the motionless scenery as well.

The world seemed to have been split into two.

One world continued moving.

The other had stopped.

Suddenly.

The people's vision blurred.

On the sea.

The seawater seemed to be erased.

A massive hollow in the ocean appeared out of nowhere.

The Giant Crab that had already fled beneath the sea was exposed there as well.

God retrieved the Divine Artifact.

The instant the Divine Artifact touched the crab shell, cracks appeared across the hard cephalothorax that even arrows had barely damaged.

Then all life drained from the enormous creature's body.

Until it lost every trace of color.

"Return to how it was."

God said.

And so.

The frozen world began moving again.

The waves suspended in midair fell.

The sunlight in the sky shifted once more.

The clouds slowly drifted.

The sea returned to calm.

Everything seemed as though it had never happened.

Only when the guard, gasping for breath, clutched the trembling, soaked Boer in his arms and struggled ashore, and Richie tightly embraced his child, did the people awaken as if from a dream and realize that everything that had happened was real.

Cheers, sobs, and cries of emotions spiraling out of control mingled together.

"Oh, God!"

"God saved them! Just as He saved the God-Chosen before!"

"The merciful God has finally appeared again!"

The people fell to their knees.

Among the crowd shouting and weeping in excitement, only the guard and Boer in Richie's arms wore confused expressions.

They instinctively turned their heads.

But they discovered that the Giant Monster that had been pursuing them had already vanished without a trace.

The two people saved by God had no idea what magnificent Divine Miracle had descended upon the world behind them.