Sea Monster

Seeing that the mood was just right, Tris pushed aside the clutter blocking the door and unlatched the bolt.

Dagger in hand, he was the first to rush out.

Behind Tris came the captain of the Clover, holding a revolver.

Most of the ship's firearms had been taken by the rioting thugs, and they had not left the crew with many cold weapons either.

Encouraged by Tris, the crew had gradually lost their senses and most of their fear of the thugs' weapons.

Morien, flooded with Wish Power, rose to his feet and followed everyone out of the lower decks.

His feet felt light, as if he were drunk.

In the various rooms of the ship, thugs who heard the commotion outside also rushed out with guns and blades.

The two groups met in the corridor.

Before long, the corridors, rooms, dining hall, and deck had all descended into chaos.

Gunshots, shouts, and the sounds of fighting.

Morien moved much more slowly. He was the last to leave the room, after everyone else had rushed out.

He took a few unsteady steps into the battlefield without looking for cover or using his ability to reduce his presence.

Immediately, someone set their sights on him.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out.

A bullet flew toward Morien, who was completely exposed.

He grinned. His spirituality suddenly stirred, making him instinctively turn his head toward the bullet flying toward him.

An ordinary person's spirituality should not have been capable of this, yet he had truly done it.

For an instant, the bullet slowed in Morien's eyes, and he could see it spinning as it approached.

He saw it clearly!

He had actually seen it clearly!

Morien raised one hand and reached for the bullet.

Whoosh!

Blue "flames" ignited in his palm.

Calling them flames was not entirely accurate. Their form was difficult to describe. They were somewhat like wind dyed blue, more like the feeling of an "aura" given color.

This was the manifestation of released Cursed Energy.

Pfft!

He caught the bullet firmly.

"Huh?"

Even Morien froze for a moment.

What he had just done had been entirely instinctive.

He had never imagined that he would catch a bullet with his bare hand, much less that he would actually succeed.

Morien's act of catching a bullet barehanded startled the thugs nearby.

A hail of bullets immediately poured toward him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

At the same time, the "flames" in Morien's palm spread across his entire body, setting him ablaze.

Recalling the manga he had once read, Morien covered the surface of his body with Cursed Energy.

The bullets struck him in a rapid clatter, but all of them were deflected.

Originally, with the total amount of Cursed Energy he possessed, covering his entire body should have been impossible.

Even covering both hands would have been difficult.

Yet this time, Morien discovered that he could do it effortlessly.

Feeling the Cursed Energy covering his body, Morien suddenly noticed something.

His Cursed Energy was quite different from the Cursed Energy of Jujutsu Morien in his memories.

Both in quality and quantity.

"Wow," Morien murmured.

In the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, there were five grades.

Grade 4, Grade 3, Grade 2, Grade 1, and Special Grade.

Assuming ordinary weapons could harm Cursed Spirits:

A Grade 4 Cursed Spirit was something an ordinary person might be able to deal with using a wooden stick.

A Grade 3 Cursed Spirit was roughly something that could be handled with a modern handgun.

A Grade 2 Cursed Spirit could barely be killed after being hit multiple times by a shotgun.

A Grade 1 Cursed Spirit might not die even after taking a shell from a tank.

Finally came Special Grade, beings that could not be harmed even by carpet bombing.

Jujutsu Sorcerers, meanwhile, were graded based on being able to routinely defeat Cursed Spirits one grade higher.

For example, a Grade 3 Jujutsu Sorcerer could usually fight a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit alone.

Before entering the space, Jujutsu Morien had been at the level of a Grade 4 Jujutsu Sorcerer, perhaps even worse.

After all, Morien had never received systematic training, and his physical condition had been absurdly poor.

Most importantly, in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, even ordinary people possessed Cursed Energy. Before crossing over, Jujutsu Morien had possessed no Cursed Energy at all, and his body had never undergone even the slightest enhancement from Cursed Energy itself.

Other people were Grade 4 Jujutsu Sorcerers because Grade 4 was all they were capable of.

Morien was a Grade 4 Jujutsu Sorcerer because Grade 4 was the lowest grade.

The title of the most bottom-rung Jujutsu Sorcerer in history truly suited him.

What did Reggie, whom netizens called the most bottom-rung Jujutsu Sorcerer in history, have to compare with him?

But now, after synchronizing with his other selves, Jujutsu Morien seemed to have been strengthened.

Synchronization was comprehensive.

It included physical fitness, mastered abilities, the energy within his body, and even his body's innate talent.

It seemed that he had stacked the Cursed Energy from the Jujutsu world, the spirituality from the Lord of Mysteries world, and the Path Power from the Honkai: Star Rail world together. The three could transform into one another, and each carried some of the others' characteristics.

An ordinary person would not have much spirituality, and the Path Power of someone who had just stepped onto a Path would not be particularly high either.

But Morien already had the mask's enhancement, and he had single-handedly swallowed all the Wish Power generated over a week by every crew member aboard the ship.

The outdated pistols of this era could no longer harm him at all.

Kill them...

Morien raised both hands. A large amount of spirituality, Cursed Energy, and Path Power gathered in his hands alongside Wish Power.

I want to go home... I want to live... I want to see my family...

His movements froze.

The next instant, those complicated energies rapidly shifted downward to his legs.

Boom!

The strange masked man who had been standing in the middle of the area, covered in "flames," suddenly vanished, while a hole appeared in the ceiling above.

On the roof of the ship, Morien had smashed through the ceiling and jumped up.

He forced himself to sit down on the spot and patted his head, feeling that his emotions were extremely unstable.

Someone who had just become a Pathstrider had absorbed the extreme emotions and extreme Wish Power accumulated over a week by nearly a hundred people aboard a ship.

Morien felt that he could not quite handle it.

He had been contaminated by Wish Power.

Drip.

A drop of water fell.

It began to rain.

Just as Morien had guessed, there would be a torrential downpour today.

On the roof, he touched his mask and fell into thought.

As he thought, Morien came up with a new idea.

Tris, who had originally been the first to rush out, had somehow retreated into a corner. He hid in the darkness using an Assassin's ability, a smile on his lips.

It began to rain, and a fierce wind rose.

Looks like there'll be a storm today. It really suits the current situation.

Tris thought silently.

Soon, rain began to fall.

It started as a drizzle, then quickly turned into a downpour.

The smile on Tris's face grew increasingly pleased.

He felt that his potion had been completely digested.

This instigation had been the final step in digesting his potion.

But...

Isn't this too bland?

He heard a voice arise from the depths of his heart.

No, it's enough.

Tris happily tilted his head back.

I can already feel that the potion has been completely digested.

No. I'm saying it isn't enough.

He heard that voice again.

This time, Tris finally sensed that something was wrong.

At first, he had thought it was his own thought, that he was questioning himself.

But how could he possibly refute himself?

He forced his eyes open and quickly looked around.

Was there another Beyonder aboard this ship?

Who was it?

Where were they?

"Who..."

He had only spoken one word.

Boom!

Suddenly, the ship's hull shook violently.

Splash!

The surface of the water split apart.

Amid violent waves, an enormous tentacle emerged from beneath the sea.

Tris's pupils suddenly contracted.

He braced himself against a nearby pillar with one hand and steadied his body.

"What are you afraid of? It's all fake." That smiling voice continued to sound in his heart.

Fake? What was fake?

Was it saying that the tentacle before him was fake? An illusion?

Just as Tris was about to say something, he saw the tentacle slam down hard, smashing a crater into the deck.

The tentacle embedded itself in the crater.

More and more tentacles emerged from beneath the water, one after another striking the ship and winding around its hull.

The ship suddenly sank downward.

You said this was fake?

"Who exactly are you?"

Tris forced himself to calm down.

Since the other party was willing to communicate, there was room for negotiation.

He wanted to instigate others, but he had never intended to die here.

Guided by his spiritual intuition, Tris raised his head sharply and looked toward the top of the ship's cabin.

He saw a sneering mask.

He had also noticed the disturbance from earlier, but if Morien could merely withstand bullets, Tris had been somewhat wary, so he had hidden himself amid the chaos.

"Morien?" Tris asked in confusion.

Unusual clothing, a strange mask, fluorescent patterns covering his body...

Everything about him, inside and out, radiated abnormality, yet Tris would always unconsciously overlook those abnormalities.

"Who exactly are you..." Tris's pupils shrank sharply.

It was not as though he had never seen a Sequence 7, nor had he never seen methods similar to invisibility.

But he did not believe a Sequence 7 could accomplish something like this.

Morien was clearly standing right before him, clearly full of abnormalities. Yet as long as he did not take the initiative to speak, Tris noticed nothing at all.

This was at least a Sequence 6!

"What do you want?" Tris gripped his dagger tightly.

If he was a Sequence 6...

Boom!

The Clover shook violently once more.

But Morien was not worried in the slightest.

Perched atop the cabin, he swayed to a rhythm Tris could not hear, looking to be in an especially good mood.

"I told you, it's fake." Morien sat casually on the cabin roof and said with a grin, "I'm not capable of creating a real sea monster this huge."

He held the mask on his face and communicated with Tris through the "Resonance Curse Technique."

It could not be helped; he truly did not know how to speak Loenese.

Fortunately, the "Resonance Curse Technique" directly sent what Morien wished to say into the target's mind.

"Relax, calm yourself, and feel it carefully." Morien raised one finger and swayed his head.

"As long as you believe it doesn't exist, it won't be able to harm you."

Hearing this, Tris forced himself to calm down through meditation.

After all, faced with a Mid-Sequence powerhouse two sequences above him, he could only comply.

Then, he looked again at the tentacles surrounding him and discovered that they had actually become faint and indistinct.

One tentacle swept past his feet, brushing his calf, yet it passed straight through...

Then it tore down the railing.

"But it's tearing apart the ship!" Tris blurted out.

This sea monster could not hurt him, but it could hurt the ship!

If the ship sank, he would have no chance of surviving aboard it.

"Yes." Morien tilted his head and made a helpless gesture. "Because plenty of people on this ship believe it exists."

"You are the ones who created it." Morien spoke with amusement in his voice.

"I merely helped gather your wishes together."

He made a gathering gesture.

"This is a sea monster... that can only harm this ship and the people on it."

Morien held his mask, lifted his head, and looked toward the sky, toward the Wish Power spreading above the entire ship.

"A whole week..."

"An enormous amount of emotion has gathered on this ship, lingering without dispersing."

"On the Path of [Elation], humor and malice possess equal power. In the end, whether it manifests as fear or smiles does not matter." Morien sat atop the cabin, his voice entering Tris's ears.

Tris did not understand what a Path was.

But instinctively, he felt that something was wrong.

"The desire to survive, the instinct for bloodshed, humanity unleashed without restraint, the willingness to do anything to stay alive..." Morien placed a hand on his mask.

"Thank you so much for helping me 'incite' these emotions. If it were only me, I definitely couldn't have done it."

He lowered his head again.

He sat relaxed at the edge of the cabin roof, his left leg folded beneath him and his right leg hanging loosely down.

"I can tell you right now how to easily kill this sea monster. What do you say?" He held a finger before his lips, his tone brimming with amusement.

He had originally wanted to call this kind of creation a "Phantom Construct."

Unfortunately, the name "Phantom Construct" had already been registered.

What a pity.

Tris was not stupid.

On the contrary, he was very clever.

When Morien had first reminded him that "this sea monster does not exist," he had already thought of the solution.

But what use was knowing the solution?

There was nothing he could do.

Morien continued speaking.

"Go on and try it. If you can incite everyone into believing that this sea monster does not exist."

"Then it will vanish immediately."

Morien's voice grew increasingly delighted.

As an inciter himself, Tris immediately judged that Morien had not lied from beginning to end.

But... but...

He instinctively turned his head and happened to see a sea monster tentacle lash out, snapping a mast in two.

How was he supposed to make everyone else believe this was fake?!

He turned back once more and looked at Morien.

Morien lightly spread his hands.

"Good luck."

Add Bookmark

Return to Table of Contents

Report Chapter Error

Share with Friends: