More than ten minutes after Odys left the Elven ruins, the seawater above them suddenly parted with a splash, revealing a passage from the seafloor to the surface.
A hurricane blew in from the sea and swiftly swept into the underwater ruins.
As the hurricane dispersed, figures appeared one after another. At their head stood a tall, burly middle-aged man with hard, deeply carved features. His hair was twice as thick as an ordinary person's, like little worms or individual tentacles.
He was Jahn Kottman, a cardinal of the Storm Church, Archbishop of the Rorsted Sea, and the Sea King.
Behind him followed many Mandated Punishers and military Beyonders, all of them examining their surroundings with both anticipation and caution.
Just then, they heard the Archbishop snort coldly. The hurricane rose again, and in an instant, they arrived at the entrance to the ruins' main hall.
The Mandated Punishers quickly discovered that everything valuable here had vanished. There were no Beyonder Characteristics left behind, only the corpse of a gigantic sea serpent and the dried-out corpses of Sea God Church clergy.
Even the blood, skin, and other materials from the Deep-sea Blue-eyed Electric Eel in the ruins beside the hall had disappeared. Someone had clearly stripped the place clean in a systematic fashion.
"Who was it?" Jahn Kottman growled, suppressing his fury.
He had fought Kalvetua for several days and had finally reached the moment to collect the spoils, only to gain nothing at all.
The Archbishop raised a hand, and a surge of seawater suddenly rushed into the hall. At the ceiling, it swiftly formed a thin layer of water like the surface of a tranquil lake.
The lake's surface reflected the scene from not long ago:
An indistinct figure floated in midair and pulled out a white short