'Melusine… has been taken…'
In the midst of his fierce battle with Shirou, Leviathan suddenly faltered. Instinctively, he turned and darted upward, feet stepping on jagged ice to propel himself higher. He couldn't let the precious sample slip away…
But Shirou instantly understood where his opponent was heading. There was no way he'd let him escape. A black bow projected in his hand, and in the next instant a bronze longsword — Pseudo Shichisei Ryūen — cut through the frigid air and streaked toward Leviathan.
"You!"
Leviathan had already experienced this move. He couldn't allow that kind of explosion to tear through the facility he'd poured so many resources into. If the shockwave spread unchecked, his losses would only multiply!Ancient draconic runes flowed from his mouth as torrents of water from the surrounding world gathered into a pure white tidal wave of ice, covering everything in sight.
The freezing surge condensed, compressing into an incredibly dense and hard glacier. The great white wave sealed off the middle and lower levels of the structure and swallowed the imminent fantasy collapse, dragging it and the submerged floors downward into the depths.
Yet moments later, cracks spidered through the seemingly solid mass as solar-like heat and light erupted, searing through the outer layers of ice and seawater, sending violent waves crashing in all directions.Shirou leapt to the upper floors just before the icy wave struck, chasing Leviathan's silhouette relentlessly.
"Damn you!"
Leviathan snarled through gritted teeth as Shirou blocked his path yet again.
But truthfully, his anger wasn't at Shirou.
Using his affinity with water, Leviathan had just sensed something slip away on the outgoing currents — something that moved with an inhuman speed, undoubtedly another pureblood dragon.
Combined with his earlier feeling that Melusine had been stolen, and his suspicions about Shirou and Norton, it was clear to him now that the Zero sample had been spirited away by Shirou's teammate… Norton.
So, after all these years, Norton had become this cunning and treacherous!
Leviathan seethed with fury.
Not only were Shirou and Norton wreaking havoc, but they even worked in perfect tandem, one in the open and one in the shadows, striking precisely at the Medical Society's investments. First the Chen family was uprooted, now this — a second time! Despicable! Unforgivable!
The roaring seawater continued to pour in.
The structure, already weakened, was beginning to list and sink into the depths. If this continued it would inevitably collapse completely.
Both men knew the underwater facility was collapsing, and that the ice was only buying time. Shirou needed to buy time for Nono and Sakedo Mai; Leviathan needed to buy time for his own people — unaware that Sakedo Mai's interference had already thrown the researchers into chaos.
The two kept clashing, neither yielding. Blue flames roared like a curse, striking the ice and detonating with thunderous explosions and clouds of white steam.
Time passed in the deadlock. Above, most personnel had already evacuated in diving suits.
'Should I keep fighting… or go after Norton to reclaim the sample?'
Leviathan wavered.
'But if I give chase and leave this Shirou alive, I could end up like Odin — cornered and slain.'
Odin hadn't expected Shirou to have such bizarre strength, which had cost him his life despite his confidence.
Having seen that example, Leviathan refused to fight alone. He needed a way to crush these pests completely. As for tonight's skirmish…
He called forth a vast genjutsu, summoning water from all around. As King of the Waters, he could command every ton of seawater in the aquarium. The ocean itself answered him, forming into a mountain of glacial ice.
Across from him, Shirou raised the fully restored Duanlongtai, fire and frost howling together, composite elemental forces surging and roaring into a draconic shape.
Both made the same decision at the same time.
'It's time to end this!'
———
"Emergency announcement! Emergency announcement! Today's aquarium activities have ended! Please gather your belongings and exit the building in an orderly fashion!"
Most guests hadn't even processed what was happening when the blaring PA system broke their thoughts.
In the background of the announcement was the faint crunch of potato chips…
Some incredulous guests frowned and confronted the staff — but then the lights above began shutting off section by section, darkness spreading all around them.
Meanwhile, the fish in the tanks began thrashing wildly, crashing into the thick glass.
In the grand Kuroshio Hall, the massive whale shark turned violent, slamming the display window and shaking the sea and glass so hard it sent onlookers tumbling to the floor.
"Repeating: for emergency maintenance of safety systems, all guests must leave the building immediately!"
Finally, even the most stubborn guests began to shut up and comply. A few brawny security guards helped restore order, and before long the crowds began thinning out.
Crack… crack…
At last, the strained sound of shattering glass echoed through the hall. A few stragglers turned back just in time to see the giant whale shark bleed as it rammed through the thick glass, crimson swirling in the water as streams poured through the cracks.
A haunting, terrifying sight.
"Once again: maintenance work is in progress. All activities suspended. Please exit the building!"
Sun Xi put down the mic, flipped off the power, and glanced at the monitor as the last group left. She crumpled the chip bag and clicked her tongue. "Ignorance really is bliss for these normies."
If they knew what kind of gods were tearing up the place inside, they'd probably crawl out on their hands and knees.
She put on her headset. "Oi, Long Legs. You get our precious package out yet? I sank a whole pile of cash into buying this place. It's, what, tens of thousands of square meters? Don't tell me you came back empty-handed after all that."
"…Damn… these waves are killer," came Sakedo Mai's reply, coughing as if she'd swallowed half the ocean.
"Mission accomplished! All thanks to big bro Shirou covering us, everything went smooth. We even scooped up a bunch of extra intel. Only thing is, when we were pulling out, the other side went nuclear — thought I was trapped in some deep-sea glacier instead of an aquarium!"
She couldn't explain it clearly. If she'd been through the Secret Party's Greenland Incident, she'd have understood this was the same kind of nightmare.
"Huh? What the hell are you talking about?"
"You'll see soon enough, Chip Girl. Me and the little witch are clear. Those two gods are still duking it out inside!"
(End of Chapter)
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