Chapter 755

The Skeleton King was like a Demonic Sword.

A blade sharp enough to cut through anything and lethally potent, yet one that had to remain sheathed.

A Demonic Sword that could only be drawn and wielded when absolutely necessary, far from prying human eyes.

In that sense, the deep seafloor, sunk in darkness on all sides, was the perfect place.

Whoosh!

A tidal wave of bones surged through the water.

The corpses of marine creatures piled up over hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years awoke at the breath of a single being.

As they opened their eyes and followed the command that bound their Soul Spirits like chains, countless, innumerable bones rushed toward one another.

Crunch, clatter-clatter!

They linked together, fused, and at last took shape.

A colossal bone gate blocking the entrance to the deep sea. An unyielding spectral barrier that allowed not even a single breath through.

And at the center of that wondrous phenomenon stood the king who had roused the sleeping spirits from the seabed depths.

“Halt.”

Flare!

A tremendous force swelled.

Brilliant golden hair drifted with the current. A faint silver radiance rose above his fully bared forehead and took shape.

A crown.

It was the mark bestowed upon one who had ascended the throne by his own power, a force far too dazzling to be called mere Magical Power.

“It is a Royal Decree.”

A voice full of majesty and eyes overflowing with arrogance.

As Leviathan stared at him through those shining Golden Eyes, it finally realized the true identity of the traitor who had dared betray his own kind.

‘The Skeleton King.’

King of the spirits.

One of the masters of the 72 legions who had sworn fealty to the Demon King Asmodeus, a being who had led an endlessly resurrecting legion of Immortality against humanity before meeting his end.

But he, the traitor blocking the way now with a brilliant crown upon his head, was not the Skeleton King Leviathan remembered.

‘How on earth?!’

Where there is destruction, there is also birth.

It was only natural that another would sit upon a vacant throne, but the newly enthroned king of the spirits was different. Far too different.

“How can one possess such Magical Power and still side with mere humans?!”

A roar mixed with confusion and rage.

Leviathan’s colossal body, hundreds of meters thick in girth alone, shot forward like a beam of light.

Crash!

Ferocious whirlpools swirled in from every direction.

There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in Leviathan’s movement toward the white bone wall.

No, there was simply no other choice left.

It had to break through. If it could pass the barrier blocking its path and descend even deeper, it could survive.

It was a being that had first opened its eyes in the deep sea. In that pitch-black domain where none could intrude, Leviathan believed it could guarantee victory.

At least, Leviathan had believed so.

Until the excruciating pain arrived with a quiet voice.

“Where are you hurrying off to? We haven’t settled the score yet.”

Squelch!

Graaaaaah!

In an instant, Leviathan’s colossal body, which had been shooting forward like a ray of light, writhed.

Jin Taekyung, gripping with one hand the spear shaft buried deep in the monster’s brow, whispered as if murmuring to himself while driving a sword—when had he even drawn it?—into the giant eyeball with the other.

“If we count one hit per person, it’d take three days and four nights, so let’s round it off neatly to a thousand.”

At this point, in less than a day, the number of confirmed dead had already far exceeded one hundred thousand.

Though they were strangers whose names and faces he didn’t know, Jin Taekyung’s eyes, fixed on the writhing Leviathan, burned with cold fury.

“Blood debts have to be paid back. Right?”

Monsters and humans. Humans and monsters. That was the fate sealed from the very moment the Demon King Asmodeus first set foot on this land over thirty years ago.

The youth who had once been a boy clearly remembered his father, who one day never returned.

And now he understood the pain of those who, because of this disaster, had been placed in the same situation.

‘[Inventory Open.] [Summon.]’

A spear, a sword, an axe. Anything would do.

Countless weapons, buried deep in his inventory whenever he had spare time, slipped into his hands and, in the next instant, came crashing down on the target.

Thud-thud-thud-thump! Squelch!

Scales shattered. Bone and flesh were pulverized.

His usual precise control of Internal Energy was nowhere to be seen, but that alone was enough.

The mythical monster that had ruled the sea as a living calamity its whole life writhed in an agony it had never experienced before.

Guaaaaaaaah!

Rumble!

The Magical Power bursting from Leviathan shook the sea.

Marine life swept away by the waves rolled their eyes white, unable to withstand the overwhelming Fear. Then, into that dead flesh, a quiet voice once again breathed Soul Spirits.

“Arise.”

The slowly sinking fin of a giant whale twitched. Dozens of sturgeon, their bodies torn apart only hours ago as the monster’s meal, bared their saw-like teeth.

Guuuuuung.

Geugeugeuk.

Dead, yet not dead.

Countless marine creatures, now reborn as a single legion, moved as one. And at the head of them stood the king of the spirits who had awakened them.

“Legion!”

Craaack!

At the Skeleton King’s cry, the bone barrier collapsed.

No, it transformed into a gigantic monster of bone and charged Leviathan.

Crash!

Through vision now dyed entirely in greenish blood-red, Leviathan roared at the sight of the Skeleton legion rushing at him as one.

“How dare! You wretched things!”

Boom! Bang!

In the deep sea, compressed seawater shot out like cannonballs. Hundreds of shockwaves shattered countless bones.

But even Leviathan, the calamity of the sea, could not control everything.

Because while this vast ocean belonged wholly to Leviathan, the countless deaths and spirits mingling with the waves obeyed only the owner of the crown.

“Open your eyes.”

Massive Magical Power writhed around the Skeleton King.

Within the swirling whirlpools, spirits on the verge of fading raised their heads.

“Raise Skeleton.”

Clatterrrk!

Leviathan threw open the eye that Jin Taekyung had half-crushed.

The bones swept away by the shockwaves gathered once more.

Broken joints reconnected, forms changed, and they clung to Leviathan’s colossal body.

They seeped into the cracks in the power it was forcing into motion and sucked at its still-bottomless Magical Power like leeches.

Swaaak!

‘This is insane…!’

Leviathan was stunned. Not even the Skeleton King of the past could rebuild his legion this easily or this quickly.

And that overflowing Magical Power, that absurd sovereignty that made a clearly superior monster like Leviathan attack on instinct—what was that supposed to be?

Moreover…

‘He’s completely unaffected by my Magical Power.’

The relationship between monsters is governed by nothing but the absolute logic of strength.

But the Skeleton King, that traitor who had newly ascended the throne of spirits, was different.

He might feel fear, but he was not dominated by Leviathan’s Magical Power. And once they entered the deep sea, he began rampaging completely unchecked.

‘How?’

If Leviathan had fully recovered the strength of its prime, or if it had maintained perfect composure, it might have realized it.

That the power the Skeleton King wielded was of a wholly different nature from ordinary Magical Power.

And that the Skeleton King, having defeated the Arch Lich and Behemoth—standouts even among S-Class monsters—and absorbed vast amounts of Magical Power, was not that far beneath him in raw caliber.

But the Leviathan of the present was different.

To the mythical monster, newly awakened from a long slumber only days ago, grievously wounded, and already drained, this entire situation was unbelievably chaotic.

Chaotic enough to make it forget, for the briefest instant, the reality that had befallen it.

And what jolted Leviathan’s hazy consciousness awake was the horrible burning pain that followed.

Fwoosh. Sizzle!

Leviathan clenched what remained of its teeth, with half of them already gone.

Even during the Great Cataclysm, it had fought countless battles against beings called Hunters, but it had never known pain like this.

When cut by a blade imbued with Aura, it felt only a dull ache, and its worst wounds healed quickly once it absorbed another monster’s Magical Power and rested.

But the flame even now scorching through its colossal head, reducing flesh and bone to ash, was different. That tiny human was different.

“Fifty. Fifty-one. Fifty-two. Fifty-three.”

He was on a different level from every human Leviathan had ever faced.

No, he was of a different caliber altogether.

He muttered ceaselessly while stabbing and grinding unknown weapons from who-knew-where into every part of Leviathan’s body, and even those mutterings carried a madness monsters themselves could never match.

“We’re already halfway there. Let’s push a little harder.”

“Just one more set.”

“Stop moving and stay still. Your bones are showing.”

“Though they’d show even if you didn’t move. If you want to die more painfully than this, then by all means keep thrashing. Go on.”

Graaaaaah!

Leviathan roared.

No, it wasn’t a roar. It was a scream.

The Fear that had once made continents tremble across the five oceans had become fear in the truest sense, and now it was binding Leviathan itself.

At the hands of a single human, infinitely smaller than it.

‘Die? I’m going to die? Me?’

The survival instinct it had forgotten after a lifetime as a predator awakened.

Eyes already crushed to the point that it could barely make out its surroundings, and a body drawing closer to death with every passing moment.

Through the pain, which was slowly beginning to dull, Leviathan swiftly assessed its reality.

‘Just once. I’ll seize a single chance, shake them off, and run as far away as I can.’

Fortunately, hope still remained.

Its tenacious life force and Magical Power, not even half spent. And the enemies were no longer the same as when it had first met them.

Especially that human who had dealt it an overwhelming blow with a terrifying strike the previous day.

‘If he could still use that same power, I’d already be dead. Something must have happened to him too.’

Leviathan was a high-level monster with equally high intelligence. Its judgment, cunning as it was, remained accurate, and its decision in the face of life and death was swift.

Kwauuuuuu!

Its colossal body, hundreds of meters thick in girth alone, writhed with all its might as it unleashed its Magical Power. Vast energy swelled outward, shoving away everything around it.

Craaash!

Dozens of whirlpools were born from the immense water pressure.

Leviathan threw off the Skeletons clinging like leeches and draining its Magical Power in a single motion, then charged in one direction.

Huuuuuung.

The current coursing around its massive body became a savage whirlpool and surged forward.

The Skeleton King, having missed Leviathan by a hair, cried out almost like a scream.

“Human! Dodge!”

It was already too late.

Swallowing those words, Leviathan launched itself forward with all its might.

Toward the cliff rooted deep in the seafloor for thousands of years.

To shake off this detestable human.

And then—

Rumble!

A massive shockwave shook the sea at the moment of impact.

I tried to dodge. I really could have dodged.

I had just forgotten one crucial fact in the heat of battle.

That every kind of power I possess comes with an expiration date.

Beep.

The duration of the title [Lifeguard] has ended!

The title effect of [Lifeguard] has disappeared!

[Lifeguard’s Waterwalking] has disappeared!

[Lifeguard’s Gills] has disappeared!

Re-activation possible after 6 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes!

Damn it.

Before I could even spit out that single curse, the massive rock face coated in green moss and seaweed had already filled the space behind me.

Crunch!

“Keuhek!”

A brutal impact. Pain tore through my entire body.

In my vision, which flashed white for an instant, I saw Leviathan’s back as it staggered toward the surface, unable to fully absorb the impact of the collision.

And I saw the Skeleton King pursuing it astride a half-ripped shark.

Clatterrrk!

Bone Binding.

The bone tentacle cutting across the current blocked Leviathan’s massive torso, but it couldn’t hold down the monster thrashing in desperation.

Crack!

Bone shards broke and scattered.

But it still wasn’t over.

Enduring the water pressure crushing my entire body, I tightened my grip on the spear shaft.

Krrrk.

Dark, freezing seawater seeped into my mouth and nose, but it didn’t matter.

My five senses, sharpened to their limit, were still fixed on the target.

Because at this very moment, the transparent spearblade wrapped in bluish-white karmic fire, and even the muscles bulging under strain, were all aimed at the monster’s massive body fleeing into the distance.

Sssssk.

Every sense I had was standing on edge.

The situation was the same as yesterday, but the conviction that this time would be different filled both my body and mind.

‘Not twice.’

Faith in myself.

And with the will to kill poured into it, I hurled the spear with all my strength.

Shwack!

A single streak of flame crossed the sea.

And at its end came the scream I had been waiting for.

Graaaaaaaah!

The hunt was over.