Chapter 1125: You've Been Watching Me All Along
In the sky.
One after another, ominous withered hands, like a woven spiderweb, closed in on the Storm Border from all directions—above, below, left, and right!
Each cursed hand was more than ten times longer than the submarine. From a distance, it looked as though countless hands had gathered to swat a mosquito!
Not only that, but the cursed hands were even faster than the submarine!
At that moment, Captain Nemo was nearly consumed by despair!
"Come forth! First Familiar, Mesarthim Adamas (Divine Goat of Diamond)!"
But just then.
A giant goat, over ten meters tall and seemingly composed entirely of diamond, appeared on the deck of the submarine.
The familiar's immense weight caused the submarine to lurch heavily.
Immediately after, before Captain Nemo could even process his shock, layer upon layer of gemstone shields enveloped the entire vessel!
With a sharp crack, the cursed hands slammed down.
The gemstone shields trembled violently, riddled with countless fissures, yet they did not shatter instantly.
The power of a single cursed hand still fell short of Albion's dragon breath!
Seizing this brief respite.
"Unknown magical energy has corroded the entire ship!"
"Waaah, we've been completely taken over!"
Several Nemo sailors tearfully reported.
At the same time.
Eiji placed his hand on the ship's floor.
Channeling his magical energy into it in one burst, he activated his unique ability!
Boom!
In an instant, without waiting for the engines to respond, the submarine's speed skyrocketed!
It immediately broke free from the grasp of the cursed hands!
As if unwilling to concede, the cursed hands accelerated, swarming toward the submarine once more.
But their speed only served as fuel for the submarine's acceleration. The vessel's velocity surged again, completely breaking through the encirclement of the cursed hands!
Only after putting over ten kilometers between themselves and the Great Pit, leaving the cursed hands far behind, did the submarine gradually slow down.
"W-we're saved!"
In the command room.
It took a while for the technicians, having narrowly escaped death, to slump into their chairs like limp rags, each wearing expressions of lingering fear and relief.
"It seems that because the Cursed God hasn't fully emerged from the Great Pit, the cursed hands can't reach too far."
Seeing all the data return to normal, Holmes let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"Thank you for your help, Eiji. Without you, we might have been completely wiped out just now."
Anyone who recalled the earlier scene couldn't help but shudder with fear.
If they had truly been dragged away by the cursed hands, they would have faced instant, utter annihilation!
At this thought, everyone turned grateful eyes toward Eiji.
"I accept your gratitude, but now is not the time for that."
Eiji said with a grave expression.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Da Vinci-chan, can you still detect the surroundings of the Great Pit?"
Gudako approached the control panel.
"Yes, as long as it's just the vicinity, no problem!"
After some adjustments, Little Da Vinci nodded with delight.
As she performed a series of operations, the translucent image reappeared in mid-air.
Everyone's expressions darkened as they watched the scene within the image.
"The curse… is overflowing?!"
Focusing their gaze, they saw countless black mud surging out from the great chasm, corroding the surrounding grass and trees in an instant, and spreading slowly but relentlessly in all directions.
That black mud was the materialization of an infinite curse!
Just a single glance made one feel as if they had been struck by a neurotoxin, with their entire body showing signs of losing control.
Fortunately, everyone present was exceptional, resisting the curse's erosion with their strong willpower.
"…Ms. Da Vinci?"
"Measuring now… Preliminary estimates indicate that the curse weighs at least 640 million tons—enough to cover the entirety of Britain!"
The data provided by Da Vinci left everyone feeling dizzy.
And this was only the surface portion.
It was already vast enough to submerge the entire Fairy Kingdom!
"I recall Ms. Cnoc na Riabh once said that the curse within the great chasm is enough to cover the entire surface of the Earth…"
Mash fell silent as she spoke.
A heavy pressure weighed on everyone's hearts.
No.
It was no longer pressure, but utter despair!
The thought of such a massive curse overturning the entire surface of the Earth left everyone feeling powerless.
"We can't win anymore."
Artoria lowered her head, murmuring to herself.
"At this point, we can't win anymore…"
Despite her earlier high spirits when she asked Eiji to seek the Queen's assistance, she was now the first to succumb to despair.
In truth, she wasn't the only one.
Others, like Muramasa, Habenyan, and Tristan, also hung their heads.
Fujimaru Ritsuka remained silent, but she was merely holding on through sheer force of will.
Grimm and Peperoncino fell into silence as well.
At this moment, no matter what thoughts they harbored, they could no longer voice them.
In the face of Earth's survival, even the grandest ideals and regrets seemed insignificant.
"We were just a little too late…"
Holmes closed his eyes.
Indeed.
He could deduce it.
They had arrived just a little too late, allowing the Cursed God to emerge from the great chasm with the curse.
Had they been a step faster and managed to strike it down before it crawled out, there might have been a glimmer of hope.
But now, it was too late.
No one on Earth could oppose such an immense curse!
Everything was already set in stone.
"To say it's too late now might not be entirely accurate."
Yet at that moment, a confident voice suddenly spoke up.
Everyone was taken aback, then turned to the speaker with expressions of disbelief and hope.
"What insight do you have, Mr. Eiji?"
Holmes couldn't resist asking curiously.
"As you know, I possess the authority of dreams, allowing me to rewind time for certain things."
Eiji stroked his chin as he explained.
"Could it be… you can even rewind the Cursed God's time?"
Holmes was astonished.
Was this ability truly that powerful?
"No, I haven't planted a dream seed on the Cursed God."
"A dream seed?"
"Yes. For things marked with a dream seed, I can rewind them to the moment the seed was planted with a single thought."
Eiji explained as concisely as possible.
"So, the reason you didn't plant a seed on the Curse God is because you couldn't reverse its time?"
Sherlock Holmes deduced bit by bit.
"On the contrary, I could reverse the Curse God's time, though it would drain me considerably."
Eiji shook his head instead.
"Then why didn't you plant the seed in advance?"
Little Da Vinci couldn't help but speak up.
Judging by his usual behavioral logic, Eiji was undoubtedly a very cautious person who considered problems comprehensively—how could he not have thought of planting a dream seed on the Curse God in advance?
Planting it was one matter; using it was another.
Planting a seed shouldn't be too strenuous, right?
"That's naturally because someone else had already done so beforehand."
Eiji lifted his head.
A somewhat twisted smile spread across his face.
"You've been watching me all along, haven't you, you white-haired scammer!"