"What is this?"
Everyone standing at the bow of the Freedom stared in shock at the pitch-black abyss ahead, which looked like a sheer cliff.
Here, the thick fog formed a sharply defined boundary, as though something barred its way and prevented it from advancing another inch, leaving a gaping hole that stretched from sea to sky.
What lay before them was the white of drifting mist, but behind that white was a striking expanse of black.
The seawater plunged straight down here, as though this were its ultimate destination. Yet no matter how much water poured down, there was not the slightest roar of it striking bottom.
The abyss gave them the eerie impression that it connected to another world, one that could never be filled no matter how much seawater flooded into it.
Just then, everyone aboard turned to look ahead and to the right.
A Sea King dozens of times larger than the Freedom emerged from the thick fog, its face blank as the current carried it swiftly toward the Dark Abyss ahead.
It neither roared nor struggled, as though its mind had been bewitched.
Everyone froze at the sight of the Sea King, then turned to stare back at the thick fog in astonishment.
"Does this fog bewitch people's minds?"
With both hands resting on the railing, Robin gazed at the fog behind them, a glint flashing through her eyes. "Maybe we were spared because we didn't spend enough time inside," she ventured.
"Captain, can you sense what's in there?"
Turning, Robin looked at the silver-haired figure standing in front of the windmill figurehead.
"No."
Kuta shook his head and glanced at the Sea King ahead to the right, then asked Robin, "This stretch of sea must have existed for a long time. Have you ever