Northern shot his eyes wide open and flung himself off the king-sized bed he was sleeping
Even though he had been active in the Limitless Void, he felt he had regained a little bit of his stamina from before, as if he had just had a great sleep and everything was a dream. Although it was a different story if he decided to enter the Limitless Void with his actual body.
He hurried out of the room, scaling the stairs to the control room. As soon as he entered, Jeci also rushed in.
The wall of the control room was crystalline and seemed almost transparent. Northern could see everything clearly from the inside; however, from the outside, all that could be seen was a cemented edifice.
Northern frowned attentively with narrowed eyes as he observed what exactly was happening.
'Are we being attacked by a monster?'
It wasn't news that monsters that thrived in waters dwelled in the sea, and Northern had even expected to come across something like the one in the river between Lotheliwan and Sloria. However, he wasn't expecting one this early, which echoed worry in his mind again.
'What exactly is going on?'
From the room, Northern could not observe any abnormality with the sea or with the ship itself. However, he was still worried.
The ship was enormous; whatever had caused it to tremble so much had to be equally enormous. A monster of such size might be comparable to the might of the Spawn of Chaos that dwelt in the sleeping mountains.
And the one thing Northern had always hated about his battle with that monster was that it wasn't really a battle at all. There were many factors on his side for the first time, including the very rare element of luck, which he lacked in his life.
If he were to face another monster like that again...
Northern suddenly cut off the progression of thoughts in his head and clenched his fist hard. He breathed and commanded the floor he was standing on to move.
There was no verbal communication, but immediately Northern looked down, the platform- rectangular-cut out of the ground and took him to the roof, which opened as he approached.
Then the platform merged with the roof as it closed back. Northern stood with his arms at his sides, carefully turning his head around.
All he could see was the calm and translucent surface of the sea; the daylight star was beginning to rise into the sky.
The air outside was warm and fair, even though he was casually wearing the Twilight Dawn. The puissant armor had lost its sheen whiteness from the early days; now it looked almost brown. The actual brown leather breastplate had several cuts here and there.
Items couldn't repair themselves after all. And to make things worse, "low" was an understatement for Northern's drop rate of items.
However, it didn't surprise him. He did cut away from Ul and considered it one of the consequences of not having access to Ul. He didn't really hate it.
There were still many more potential sources of power that he hadn't even explored.
Northern stylishly enjoyed the fresh and warm air for a few moments more before looking into the sky and letting out a sigh of relief as he brought down his head.
"Looks like there's nothing..." he mumbled and turned away.
The moment Northern turned, a large portion of the sea surged upward behind him like a wave. But it was more defined and looked more like a water tentacle than an actual wave.
Northern stopped. Just as the sea tentacle snapped forward, he slowly turned, caring little for the onslaught.
The tentacle stopped right in front of Northern's eyes, unable to go any further.
Another tentacle rose, even mightier and fatter than the former one, then shot at Northern with so much force that his body was propelled backward.
But the result was still the same. It didn't matter the force and might of the attack; all of them could not reach Northern.
Northern smiled, slowly revealing Chaos Eyes and using them to inspect what exactly was going on with the water.
His eyes widened, and his mouth softly mumbled with confusion, "What? How's this possible?"
Northern's white brows slowly furrowed together. 'I thought I killed the Kirithon?'
He was very sure the Kirithon had died in his hands. He even gained twenty talent fragments for it.
So, why exactly was he seeing the same thing he had seen in the forest of the apex trees? Why was every single strand of the sea contaminated? Why did everything look infected?
Northern knew he didn't have to use Soul Eyes, now Spectra Vision, but he did anyway.
Attributes: [Force of water], [Apex in the sea]
Force of Water: [The entire force of the water body is within control, serving as limbs of the Apex monster - the Kirithon]
Apex in the Sea: [Lord over all the creatures in this sea. All the monsters in this sea can be controlled by the apex monster-the Kirithon]
Northern raised a brow as he read through it all, then mused, 'It really is the Kirithon. Okay, this could be real trouble.'
In that moment, the water tentacle pulsated, growing larger with more force, then released an outburst of water that blasted in all directions but still did not touch Northern. Not even a strand of his hair was wet.
But Northern wasn't entirely pleased with this situation. If the Kirithon had inhabited the water bodies, then he would have to once again start that dreadful experience of unlinking- maybe this time—millions of ligatures?
Because one could not even give a number to the ligatures present in a water body as large as this sea, a sea parting two continents. Even a drop of water can contain hundreds of ligatures because water is a complex structure and its liquid nature adds to its difficulty.
This was not speculation; Northern's knowledge of the ligatures had grown over time, and that was why he could say with so much certainty.
"Ah... crap, I guess I'm just going to have to beat the shit out of it again..."
He mumbled and then summoned, "Aerisyles."
Almost resembling the form of a long-necked wyvern, the creature swirled out of the darkness and spread its terribly long wings, screeching as it made an entrance to the scene.
Northern grinned as more water tentacles rose from the surface of the sea. He mused aloud:
"Oh well, let's dance."