Chapter 274: Surprise Appearance!

“HELP!”

The word tore through the wind like a blade. Albedo’s relaxed visage was immediately replaced, and his eyes snapped open instantly as he looked around for the direction where that cry for help came from.

The ocean had been calm only seconds ago. Now the air itself felt distorted, mana rippling outward in uneven pulses. The wind carried more than salt.

It carried a special kind of corrosive rot. Abyssal rot, which he had experienced multiple times during his cross-ups against the Abyss.

His expression flattened as he realized this. It seemed like even when training, he always ran into issues like this.

Still, Albedo vanished, the cliff face blurred past him in streaks of stone and spray. He descended in controlled bursts, boots barely touching rock before launching again. The crashing waves grew louder, deeper, heavier. Another cry echoed, weaker this time.

“HELP!”

Another cry for help echoed, closer this time as Albedo closed in on their location, and after another minute, he reached the final ledge and saw who was calling for assistance.

Two figures on a fractured black-rock shelf just above the tide line.

One lay partially submerged in a shallow tidal basin, silver-blue tail curled awkwardly, scales dulled and streaked with blood. Long pink hair plastered against her shoulders. A faint crown-like crest shimmered at her temples, dim but unmistakable.

She was a Mermaid, an absolutely beautiful one at that, and one Albedo recognized from the Novel.

The second figure stood in front of her, tall, broad-shouldered, golden hair whipping violently in the ocean wind. Even compressed into a human-sized form, she radiated density. Her stance was wrong, favoring one leg. Blood streaked down her side.

Albedo recognized this woman as someone from the Titan Race, due to her tribal tattoos, though she had shrunk her size probably to move comfortably alongside this Mermaid.

Albedo recognized her from the Novel too, though he had no time to pay attention to them, as advancing from the Sea was Three Colossal Silhouettes rising from the dark water.

The first was a serpentine sea beast, plated in blackened chitin and coral-like protrusions. Crimson fissures pulsed along its length like exposed veins. Its head split open vertically, revealing layered teeth rotating inward.

The second resembled a grotesque crustacean, massive armored claws dripping viscous abyssal sludge that hissed where it struck the rock.

The third was a swollen mass of flesh and cartilage, supported by thick tentacles lined with serrated hooks. Multiple eyes blinked out of sync across its surface, each glowing sickly violet.

All of them were Peak Amethyst Rank, and they all had their eyes on the two women below. The ocean recoiled around them, black streaks spidering across the waves before dissolving.

The two women tried to flee, but they were too injured. The Titan stepped forward despite her legs tremoring.

“Stay back,” she growled, golden irises sharpening, but the Beasts ignored her warning, and the Serpentine Beast struck first.

A beam of compressed abyssal seawater tore through the air toward them.

Thankfully for those two, it never landed.

~BANG!~

Infernal light split the beam in half. Steam exploded outward in a blinding cloud. Albedo stepped through it calmly, Havoc glowing crimson in his right hand, Ruin shimmering with cold abyssal-blue in his left.

“Bit early for a swim,” he said flatly.

The Mermaid and the Titan looked at him, curious as to who this Human was, but as they saw Havoc and Ruin in his hands, recognition flickered as they’d heard about a Human around their age wielding these style of weapons.

“…Albedo?” The Mermaid called out, but he didn’t look back.

“Later.”

The crustacean beast lunged, both claws slamming down with enough force to shatter the rock shelf entirely.

Albedo moved before impact. He blurred upward, boots skimming air hardened by mana. Mid-flight, Ruin shifted into Graviton Mode.

~BOOM!~

A compressed slug struck the crab’s right claw at the joint. For a fraction of a second, it folded inward.

Then violently rebounded. The joint shattered in a spray of ichor and bone fragments. The beast screeched, rearing back as its mana quickly began to work to heal its injuries.

The tentacled mass surged forward next, half its limbs latching onto nearby rock faces to launch itself.

Albedo landed lightly, cloak snapping in the wind.

“Stay behind me,” he said without turning.

The serpent’s massive body coiled around a jagged outcropping and struck again, jaws wide enough to swallow him whole.

He stepped forward, shooting off another Infernal Mode round from Havoc.

~BANG!~

The shot entered the creature’s open maw. Flames detonated inward. The serpent’s head bulged grotesquely, and then split, but it didn’t die.

The tentacled beast’s limbs shot forward in a barrage, serrated tips aiming to skewer him from every angle.

Fractal Casting activated instantly.

Six micro-circles bloomed around his hands. Six shots. Three Infernal rounds incinerated incoming limbs mid-flight.

Two Graviton slugs collapsed others into themselves. One Mana-Drain round embedded into the creature’s core mass.

Violet siphon lines erupted.

Abyssal energy surged into him, violent and corrosive, but Albedo filtered it instantly, Perfect Adaptation stabilizing the influx.

He redirected it outward.

~BOOOOM!~

A pillar of crimson fire erupted point-blank from his palm into the creature’s center.

It screamed.

The crustacean recovered, charging with its remaining claw, legs cracking the rock shelf apart as it advanced.

The Titan saw this and moved. She expanded slightly, muscles thickening, golden veins lighting faintly beneath her skin.

She caught the descending claw. The impact shattered stone beneath her feet. She gritted her teeth as she felt the weight.

“Finish it!” She roared.

Albedo pivoted.

Ruin shifted to Abyssal Mode.

~BANG!~

The shot tore through the crab’s armored shell like paper.

Abyssal against Abyssal.

The creature convulsed violently, its own corruption turning unstable.

He followed with Havoc.

~BANG!~

Crimson Apocalypse Flames erupted inside its fractured shell.

The explosion tore the beast apart from within.

Chunks rained into the sea.

One down.

The serpent lunged again, this time coiling its body around the rock shelf entirely, attempting to crush them all in a single constriction.

The pressure spiked.

The stone cracked.

The Mermaid cried out weakly.

Albedo inhaled slowly.

Execution Mode.

Havoc and Ruin interlocked mid-motion, merging into the sleek sniper configuration. Six glyphs rotated around the barrel.

The serpent tightened. The rock shelf began to crumble. He raised the rifle calmly and fired.

~BANG!~

First shot blew off a segment of its coiled body.

~BANG!~

The second shot pierced through a glowing crimson fissure near its spine.

The serpent shrieked, thrashing violently.

He repositioned mid-collapse, landing atop a broken slab of stone suspended briefly in air by his mana.

~BANG!~

Third shot, entered its skull, causing the Serpentine Beast to stagger, but it still moved.

~BANG!~

The forth shot sliced through the Serpentine Beasts attack and struck it on the tail, a massive amount of blood shooting out.

The Fifth Glyph ignited for the fifth shot, and landed once more, preparing Albedo for the Sixth and Final Execution Shot.

Mana from the sea itself seemed to warp inward toward the barrel. The tentacled mass lunged simultaneously from the side, dozens of limbs converging.

“Sayonara,”

~BANG!~

The sixth Execution shot released.

A beam of converged flame, gravity distortion, and refined void-energy tore through both monsters in a single line.

The serpent froze mid-motion, then imploded inward. The tentacled mass, caught in the same trajectory, collapsed in on itself as if reality had briefly rejected it.

A thunderous shockwave rippled across the ocean surface. Water rose in a circular wall before crashing back down.

Silence followed.

Only the waves remained.

Execution Mode dissolved back into twin pistols.

Albedo lowered them slowly and then turned to the two women, “So, gonna thank me?”

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