Chapter 62: SUN EATER
The impact was devastating. The spear of lightning, shrapnel, and superheated water punched through the pale flesh like a blade through wet paper. The wound split wide, tearing open in a burst of steam and charred tissue. Foul, dark fluid gushed into the stomach, and for a moment, Gray saw something beyond the hole—open water, cold and dark and free.
Then the monster screamed.
It was a deep, resonant roar that vibrated through every inch of Gray’s body. The stomach walls convulsed, the acid churning violently as the creature thrashed in pain. The entire cavern shook, the shipwreck groaning beneath them, and Gray felt the vibration of that sound in his very core.
Cindy’s voice came sharp and urgent. "Your attack worked! Impressive for a jellyfish. Now GO!!!"
Gray launched himself toward the wound. But the hole was too narrow. His bell scraped against the torn edges, his crystalline armor catching on the ragged tissue. He pushed, straining against the gap, but the monster’s flesh was already beginning to knit itself back together. Tiny, writhing tendrils of muscle reached across the wound like grasping fingers, trying to seal it shut.
"REGENERATION!" Cindy snapped. "This thing heals fast. Move, Gray!"
’It’s not that easy, damn it!’ Gray thought back, his bell compressing as he shoved harder. ’You try squeezing through a hole this size with a body like mine!’
He lashed out with his tentacles, firing Neurotoxic Drift directly into the wound. The venom seeped into the exposed tissue, and the regenerating muscle fibers shuddered, their growth slowing.
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 18 DAMAGE]
[NEUROTOXIC DRIFT — 19 DAMAGE]
The monster roared again, a sound like grinding stone and rushing water. The stomach walls convulsed, and the wound tore slightly wider—but it was still not enough.
The tiny muscle tendrils were regrowing faster now, even through the venom. They stretched toward each other across the gap, pale and glistening, already beginning to fuse.
"Now, Gray! It’s closing!" Cindy’s voice was frantic.
’I know!’
He gathered what was left of his power and activated Cavitation Pulse point-blank into the wound. The blast of superheated water and crystal shrapnel tore through the regenerating tissue, widening the hole by another few inches.
[CAVITATION PULSE — 52 DAMAGE]
The monster screamed again, the sound shaking the very water around them. The wound gaped wider, dark fluid spilling into the open sea beyond. This time, the opening was just enough.
Gray squeezed through.
His bell compressed, his armor scraping against the torn edges of the wound. His tentacles pulled him forward, inch by agonizing inch. The monster’s flesh pressed in from all sides, wet and burning, trying to crush him, trying to drag him back. But he pushed on, his body sliding through the last of the wound and into the cold, open water beyond.
He was out.
The barrier of the Aegis Pearl flickered and began to fade.
’We made it...’
Cindy’s voice rang through his mind, electric with victory.
"Yesss!!! We did it!!"
Gray barely had a moment to breathe before Predator’s Instinct screamed through his nerves like a blade of ice.
He twisted sideways on pure reflex. A massive current tore past him, close enough that the displaced water sent him tumbling through the dark. His crystalline armor groaned. His tentacles flailed.
’What—?!’
"Run, Gray!" Cindy’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp and urgent. "It sees you! Go now!"
Gray turned. And for the second time in less than a minute, his world became eyes.
The creature was impossible. Its body was massive—easily the size of a whale, but sleeker, longer, built for pursuit. Its skin was a pale, luminous blue-white, marked with patterns that shimmered like sunlight through water. Two enormous fins extended from its flanks, not like a fish’s fins, but like wings—vast and translucent, beating with slow, powerful strokes that churned the abyssal water into spiraling currents.
And its eyes. Those eyes were locked onto him now. Massive, dark, and depthless, they reflected his own faint glow like mirrors in a lightless void. He felt utterly exposed and utterly small.
The system flickered weakly in the corner of his vision.
[SUN EATER — Level: ???]
HP: ??? / ???
Threat Level: EXTREME — BEYOND MEASUREMENT
« Analysis »
?????????????????????????????
???DO NOT ENGAGE???
???DEATH IS CERTAIN???
?????????????????????????????
Gray’s entire body went cold.
’No... not another one...’
The Sun Eater’s fins swept forward. The water around it seemed to bend, currents twisting as the creature began to move.
"Move, Gray!" Cindy shouted. "It’s marking you as prey!"
Gray didn’t need to be told twice.
He drove himself downward, away from the monster and the lightless void above. The Sun Eater’s massive form turned to follow, its wing-like fins propelling it through the water with terrifying speed. The gap between them shrank with every second.
’If that thing hits me, I’m done!’
The Sun Eater attacked. A wave of crushing pressure tore through the water behind him—a blast of force that shattered volcanic rock and sent debris spiraling into the dark. Gray dove harder, angling behind a jagged outcropping as the attack passed overhead.
The shockwave clipped him.
[-22 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 31 / 690]
’Fuck!’
Cindy’s voice rose. "Why are you going deeper?! We need to go up! I need to reach the surface!"
’Are you stupid?’ Gray snapped, his mental voice sharp with fear and pain. ’If I go up, that thing will catch me in seconds! And I’m in no shape to survive one more hit!’
The Sun Eater’s cry echoed through the water—a deep, resonant wail that made Gray’s bell vibrate like a struck gong. Its massive body was already maneuvering for another attack.
Gray’s thoughts churned desperately.
’EMP Shroud... It’s my only shot.’
[EMP SHROUD — ACTIVATED]
[WARNING: Target’s level significantly exceeds current threshold.]
[Effect: INEFFECTIVE. The Sun Eater’s sensory organs are too advanced to be disrupted.]
’Ah... damn iiittt!!!!!!’
The system’s words hit like a blow. The Sun Eater didn’t even pause. Its massive eyes still tracked him through the darkness, unbothered by the pulse.
The second attack came.
A spiraling current of energy and force tore through the water toward him. Gray tried to dodge, but his body was too slow and broken.
Then Cindy’s voice cut through.
"I’m taking some of your mana."
Before Gray could respond, the system flared.
[WARNING: External entity requesting permission to drain mana.]
[Allow?] [Yes] [No]
Gray hesitated for only a moment.
’...Allow it.’
[Drain authorized.]
Gray felt it immediately—a sudden pull from deep inside him, like water being siphoned from a well. His MP bar dropped in a sharp, jagged line, and Cindy’s presence surged.
A shimmering barrier flickered into existence around him, thin and fragile, thrown together from borrowed power in a desperate instant. The Sun Eater’s attack slammed into it.
The barrier held for a single heartbeat.
Then it shattered.
The shockwave crashed through, clipping Gray’s broken body and sending him spinning through the water. His vision blurred into white, his bell throbbing as his HP sank to nearly nothing.
[HP: 2 / 690]
[CRITICAL CONDITION — IMMEDIATE RECOVERY REQUIRED]
Gray floated there limply, his tentacles refusing to move, his bell too weak to pulse, every part of him aching with exhaustion
"Hey!! don’t you dare give up here!" Cindy’s voice was sharp, but there was fear beneath it now. "Get up! We’re going to die!"
’You...’ Gray’s thoughts were sluggish, barely forming. ’...you’ve been screaming nonsense since the start. It’s making me sick.’
"Now is not the time!"
He forced his body to move. His bell contracted weakly, once, twice. Pain screamed through every nerve, but he pushed it down. The Sun Eater was already gathering energy for another attack—its massive fins spreading wide, the water around it bending and warping.
And then Gray noticed it, a narrow crevice in the volcanic rock below, faint against the dark, yet just large enough for him to enter.
With the last of his strength, Gray dove toward the narrow gap.
Cindy’s voice rose, frantic. "It’s preparing to fire again! Hurry!HURRY!!!"
Gray pushed himself harder than he ever had. The water streamed past him as he shot toward the opening. The Sun Eater’s attack charged, the pressure building behind him, the water itself beginning to hum with destructive energy.
"FASTER!!!"
The attack fired.
Gray threw himself into the hole and dug straight down. His tentacles clawed at the rock, his barbs scraping against the stone as he burrowed as deep as he could go. The force of the blast slammed into the seabed behind him, shattering rock and collapsing the tunnel as the world erupted into a storm of debris and crushing pressure.
When the dust settled, Gray lay at the bottom of a crushed hollow, buried in rubble and darkness. The attack had missed—barely. A few more inches, and he would have been vaporized.
He let out a weak, trembling pulse.
’...Fuck... I’m alive...’
"Don’t relax yet. That monster is probably still looking for us."
And she was right.
Above them, through the broken rock and collapsed tunnel, Gray could feel it—the Sun Eater’s massive presence lingering, its blind, depthless eyes scanning the seafloor, searching. The water trembled with its nearness.
"I didn’t expect it to be this big," Cindy murmured. "This is beyond any normal creature... it’s on the level of a mythical monster now."
They stayed frozen, pressed deep in the rubble, and after what felt like an eternity, the pressure above them eased. The Sun Eater’s massive form turned away, its dark, depthless eyes still scanning the seafloor as its wing-like fins beat slow, steady strokes. Then, with a final sweep of its colossal body, it drifted back into the abyss.
Gray let out a sigh that ached through his whole body.
’This day... has been a complete disaster.’
Cindy gave a soft, breathless laugh. "True. I didn’t think I’d ever get out of that thing’s stomach. Thank you, Gray."
’Thank you too,’ Gray replied. ’I survived because of you. But...’
His thoughts sharpened, a question rising through the exhaustion.
’Earlier, you used my mana to make a barrier. If you could do that all along, why did we bother with the Aegis Pearl?’
Then Cindy replied. "Because the locket has energy stored inside it. Energy I can use to absorb mana from the person I intend to possess."
A cold thread of danger slithered down Gray’s spine.
"That’s what I was saving it for. In case I chose to possess you."
The air around them seemed to still.
"But it seems I’ve already used that stored energy. It will take a long time to recover." Her voice grew quieter. "And with your condition now... you’re in no shape to resist, are you?"
The system flared.
[WARNING: EXTERNAL ENTITY ATTEMPTING POSSESSION]
[WARNING: PSYCHIC INTRUSION DETECTED]
[WARNING: RESISTANCE REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY]