Puwaaaagh!!!
“Huuuurgh!!!”
Splashing water everywhere, Parang suddenly sat up in the tank.
“Huff… huff…”
As if waking from a long nightmare, she breathed heavily.
Her colleagues, who had been waiting for her to wake up, approached and surrounded Parang, asking if she was alright, but she couldn’t give any answer.
“Nnnngh…”
Her head felt like it was about to split open.
The living Alice, the Kraken’s tentacles, severed forms, Atlantis, and countless other scenes.
With so much information crammed into her brain at once, she literally fainted. The headache was so severe that she felt like she might lose consciousness and collapse again.
Looking at the clock, not even 30 minutes had passed since she fell asleep.
Parang tried to explain what she had seen to her colleagues around her, but she felt her words getting stuck in her throat.
She couldn’t figure out where to start or what to explain to them.
So, the only words she could manage to utter through her trembling lips were:
“…See for yourself. I, I need to rest a bit.”
The sounds around her were muffled, as if she were hearing them underwater.
She lay back down in the tank, almost collapsing.
She tried to organize her thoughts, but it wasn’t easy.
Perhaps it was because she was so dizzy and tired. The more she tried to think, the more those thoughts disappeared like a hazy fog, rather than becoming clearer.
Eventually, as her consciousness became drowsy, her awareness sank lower and lower.
#
“…She seems to be asleep.”
“Yeah. Looks like it.”
Outside of Parang’s consciousness, the gathered Oceanos members were anxiously checking on her condition as they surrounded the tank where she lay.
Since entering the memories contained in the artifact, her state could hardly be described as good, even jokingly.
The color had drained from her face, her hands and feet were trembling, and her limbs and face were stiff as stone, showing no signs of movement.
Given Parang’s condition, it was only natural that reproachful glances were directed at Vertea, who had suddenly burst in and made Parang enter the memories.
But ironically, the most flustered among those surrounding Parang was also her, Vertea.
“I, I didn’t know this would happen. When I looked, there was clearly no problem at all. I only did it because the inner memories were the most important information for Parang. Of course, suddenly thrusting the artifact at her was wrong, but I had no other intention! Really!”
Her hurriedly delivered words seemed to be accepted for now.
The ‘inner memories of the artifact’ that Vertea described were indeed something that Parang needed to know before anyone else among them.
Moreover, when the other Oceanos members checked the memories, they didn’t show any of the abnormal symptoms that Parang did.
Well, what’s done is done, and considering that Vertea also experienced considerable confusion after viewing the memories, it was decided that her responsibility wouldn’t be questioned if Parang woke up safely.
They decided to sit around the tank for a while, both to talk about what they had experienced and to keep an eye on Parang’s condition.
Everyone cast worried glances at Parang, who slept quietly like a being detached from the world.
“Both during the last dive and this time, it seems like Parang is the only one taking severe mental damage.”
“Yeah. It could be just a mental issue…”
“That can’t be.”
Parang was known for her strong mentality, certainly not on the weak side.
“Well, maybe she wasn’t in good condition. Considering the work Parang’s been doing lately, it’s understandable.”
This wasn’t a particularly satisfying deduction, but it was at least partially correct.
Parang’s life recently had indeed been so busy with various matters that she barely had time to breathe.
However, Parang was also known for her good physical condition, and in reality, she had never shown any signs of struggle while managing that tremendous schedule.
“If it’s not that, then there’s only one possibility, isn’t there?”
Elvira said, resting her chin on her hand.
Right. If there was one thing that set Parang apart from everyone else gathered here, it was just one thing.
“The Kraken.”
She was the only one directly connected to a transcendent being, after all.
“Could it be that Parang really…”
“Hey. We agreed not to talk about that.”
After that, a suffocating silence fell over the group.
In fact, there was a point of doubt they had felt since first seeing Parang.
Almost all hunters can perfectly control their skills with just a little effort.
For them, the status window is literally like a third arm.
Except for special cases where control is impossible due to penalties, it’s possible to adjust and utilize all elements of that skill freely. Just like bending or swinging an arm.
Of course, just as delicate tasks like sewing or playing an instrument require a lot of training, using all these elements in combat is another story.
Anyway, that’s how it is.
However, Parang’s Kraken is far removed from this concept.
From the moment it’s summoned, it unleashes a wide-area mental attack on both enemies and allies.
In a world where it’s possible to create fire that’s not hot for specific people, failing to control a mere mental attack is quite ironic.
It was an extremely ironic aspect.
If it can’t be controlled, it’s natural to think that it might not be a skill.
If it’s not a skill, it means it’s a ‘unique characteristic’ of the entity known as Yu Parang.
Ultimately, this leads to the question of whether Parang is really human…
In the past, when Oceanos raised this question, they decided to stop thinking about it.
They believed that the very act of raising such an insulting question about their dear friend was wrong.
And that conclusion, at least so far, hasn’t changed.
“Let’s put aside that shitty curiosity and talk about Alice for a bit.”
“Right… Where should we start?”
And so, their conversation took a sharp turn, changing direction and proceeding somewhat bumpily.
#
Tap, tap.
Parang walked through a space of complete darkness.
She didn’t know where this place was, why she could walk, or why she was walking.
She had been walking for some time now, and she just kept on walking.
Tap, tap.
As if echoing through a cave, the entire space was filled with the sound of Parang’s footsteps.
After a moment, Parang came to a stop.
Before her was a throne.
A throne made of something sticky and black.
The slime forming the throne would swell and burst, gurgle as if something was crawling inside, and weakly drip down to the floor.
And on that throne sat Parang herself.
It was her exact likeness, but somehow looking gloomy.
Dressed in an elegant all-black dress, she sat with her legs crossed and her chin resting on her hand, eyes closed, looking both arrogant and noble.
For some reason, Parang couldn’t utter a word in front of her.
The Parang on the throne had opened her eyes and was now staring at her.
Those eyes were endlessly black, impure, and ugly.
Looking into those eyes, Parang felt ‘terror’.
The Parang on the throne seemed to notice this and grinned widely, baring her teeth.
It was the smile of a predator that had found its prey.
Parang suddenly realized that she had reached right in front of the throne.
She didn’t know when she had moved her legs.
The Parang on the throne, still maintaining that unpleasant smile, reached out her hand and grabbed Parang’s chin, pulling her closer.
As she stared into those empty eyes, Parang was so terrified she wanted to run away immediately, but she couldn’t.
The Black-eyed Parang spoke.
“You think you can defeat me, don’t you? How foolish.”
Parang couldn’t quite understand what she meant.
“Pfft, hahaha…”
But without caring about Parang’s confusion, the Black Parang continued speaking without changing her expression.
“How amusing. You seem to think you’re human.”
The moment she heard those words, it was as if Parang’s blocked mouth had opened, and she was able to make a sound.
“Mmph!!! Uumph!! Uuumph!!!”
But the words just swirled around in her tightly closed mouth before disappearing. Even she couldn’t understand what she wanted to say.
“Ahahahahaha!! Kyahahahahahaha!!!!”
Seeing her like this, the Black Parang laughed maniacally, and that laughter was so clear it seemed to strike directly into Parang’s brain, and it was also terrifying.
“Kyahahahahahaha…”
And so, Parang’s consciousness faded away.
Splash!!
“Ugh, aah…”
Just when she thought her consciousness had completely faded, Parang’s eyes opened.
Parang’s brain, refreshed from just waking up, started spinning rapidly, and soon understood the situation she had just been in.
‘A dream…’
It was a nightmare if there ever was one. What kind of dream was that…
‘How long was I asleep…’
As she got up from the tank and looked around, the room was completely dark.
Looking at the clock on the wall, it was 10 PM.
She had been sleeping for half a day.
Around the tank where she had woken up, she could see the Oceanos in various sleeping postures.
Xiao was sleeping sitting up against the tank, Russell was sprawled out on the floor, Diego was leaning back in a chair…
They were all surrounding Parang.
‘Don’t tell me, they were waiting for me to wake up…’
Her heart suddenly swelled with emotion.
No matter what, they really were good friends.
Just as she was about to get out of the tank to cover them with blankets, she heard Vertea’s voice from beside her.
“Feeling better?”
With an undisguisable tired look on her face, she spoke in a languid voice.
“Vertea, did you all…”
“Yeah. You looked really unwell. We all waited together and ended up falling asleep.”
Unable to find the right words, Parang remained silent for a moment before finally managing to utter a word.
“…Thank you.”
“No, well, there’s nothing to thank us for… If it had been anyone else in your position, you would have done the same thing.”
Vertea said, looking around at the sleeping Oceanos scattered here and there.
“We just did what needed to be done. As for the memory stuff, well. You have something important tomorrow, right? Let’s talk after that’s over. I’m going to get some sleep now too. I’m exhausted…”
It was a bit early to go to sleep, but Parang couldn’t bring herself to complain.
“And, I’m sorry about thoughtlessly bringing out the artifact earlier. I should have been more careful…”
With those words, Vertea’s head drooped, and she fell asleep with soft breathing sounds.
“No way…”
Parang couldn’t bring herself to ask if Vertea had stayed awake until the end just to say that.
It was a quiet night.
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