Something enormous rose out of the seawater. Kroya initially thought his singing had awakened something terrifying.
But when it emerged completely from the sea, he realized it wasn't a living creature, but...
A tree.
A tree formed from gentle, pure moonlight. It was immense, as though it held up the ocean and the heavens, yet its branches and leaves looked slender and delicate.
It had a crystalline, fragile beauty.
Honestly, a mere tree wouldn't have left Kroya so shocked. What astonished him was the indescribable sense of order in its branches and leaves.
The spacing between every leaf, the length of every branch, even their angles and curves seemed perfectly identical.
This convinced Kroya that the tree couldn't possibly have formed naturally. It was a magical construct.
An enormous magical construct.
His singing still echoed, each note drifting along the tree's branches. After passing through something like a magical mechanism, it transformed into more harmonious notes powerful enough to subdue the surrounding waters.
"Not just a magical construct, but an instrument too?"
As Kroya pondered this, he altered his singing slightly, adding a melody drawn from his own understanding of Quiet Little Serenade.
But the moment his voice rang out...
The strange, tree-shaped instrument responded.
Just as the singing infused with Quiet Little Serenade was about to spread, he suddenly felt as though a knife had been driven into his brain.
Excruciating pain struck, and his vision went black.
Then he lost consciousness.
After he passed out, the silvery waters swiftly turned a dull, lightless gray. Everything vanished, leaving not even a trace of moonlight.
Meanwhile, in the merfolk city on the seabed.
Still kneeling in worship, King Mihail glanced in puzzlement at the tree held by the goddess statue before him. One of its tiny branches had dimmed.