Chapter 20

  From The Start

  After that day, Fury realized that Casca’s nature was quite different from his own reclusive ways. She was a chatterbox, unable to stay alone for long, constantly talking as if haunted by a spirit that drilled a hole through her lips.

  She called “Fury” at least fifty times a day, yet strangely, the prince never felt irritated—not once. Looking back, perhaps being the strongest human in existence drowned out such trifles.

  Fury carried out his duties without neglect, keeping watch over her as the days ticked by. Casca became something new in his life. Not a single day was quiet.

  She even taught him human language.

  “This word means ‘toothbrush.’ Understand?”

  Casca tapped at the letters in a novel she had carried with her.

  “And this rune here means ‘thank you.’”

  “You’re not afraid that teaching me written language will give us the advantage?”

  “Advantage in what?”

  Casca closed the notebook and smiled gently.

  “Language is communication. If your people can’t communicate with humans, how can trust ever exist?”

  “But I already speak it.”

  “Better to read as well, isn’t it?”

  “…I suppose.”

  “Teach me the Diablo tongue too.”

  He didn’t know what he was thinking at that moment, but—

  “…I guess I can.”

  Two days before her living quota was to expire.

  While Casca was climbing a tree to set a trap for wild fowl in the rain,

  She suddenly heard the shriek of a massive beast from the south. The thunder couldn’t drown it out.

  “!”

  The former paladin snapped her head toward the source… She dropped her things and leapt to the highest treetop in the area.

  She saw the tail of a colossal creature—large as five galleons lashed together—sinking into the sea.

  And the landmass of Diablo bore the wound: the earth bitten away, swallowed whole. The sea surged in through the gap, collapsing the ground, and the Diablo nest there was gone.

  Casca knew this was dire. Without delay, she headed for the site.

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  From afar, it already looked enormous. Up close, Casca was reduced to a speck against a bite mark spanning kilometers… like the jaw of a shark.

  She saw mangled Diablo corpses strewn across the shore, lifeless. The tide carried limbs and chunks of flesh to be picked apart by vultures.

  And Fury was there—with his soldiers just arrived. The prince was surrounded by a heavy atmosphere. There, gasping on the ground, was a Diablo soldier, with Freya trying to heal him.

  It was a Diablo with the form of a great white shark. Casca had seen him three or four times before. She remembered his name: Benfiga.

  Benfiga was not directly under Fury but under Freya, who commanded the sea legions. His body was in ruin: armor shattered, fins torn, both legs gone, blood spilling thick across the sand.

  “What happened?”

  Casca tried to keep calm, piecing it together. That colossal tail had caused all this.

  But no Diablo would speak to her—save Fury.

  “It’s back again.”

  “What is?”

  “None of your business!”

  Freya shouted from a distance. But Fury, who trusted Casca more than anyone else there, raised his hand to silence her, then stepped aside with Casca.

  “The bane of us all.”

  “It’s massive, isn’t it?”

  As generals, they hardly needed words. One glance and she understood. It was like two gifted students communicating in a room full of lesser minds.

  “Fury. What is it? I saw its tail.”

  “You saw.”

  Fury’s eyes turned toward the crashing ocean.

  “We have no name for it. But in your human tongue… you call it Leviathan.”

  LEVIATHAN.

  Casca’s eyes widened.

  A monster of the deep, titanic in size. It was no Diablo. It was a beast, like Iskaryx, the northern dragon.

  Still—

  “I’ve heard the name… but never thought it lived here.”

  “It didn’t, at first. My soldiers’ records say Leviathan came from cold waters. But it migrated down to us long ago.”

  “Migrated? Why?”

  “Your Highness! Why waste time with this human wench!?”

  Freya stormed forward, blocking Casca from Fury.

  “Get lost, you homeless beggar! We’re busy!”

  “Homeless beggar!? What the hell!?”

  Just then, Benfiga was carried forward. The shark warrior had been stabilized, but both legs were gone. He needed to report to the prince.

  “Your Highness… it came so fast… while I was patrolling… it surged up and struck us…”

  “Struck!? What do you mean struck!? How could you not sense it? It’s not some tiny thing!”

  Freya berated him harshly. But the one to answer—unexpectedly—was Casca Saint Maximin.

  “Because it’s enormous. Too enormous to sense. This isn’t his fault.”

  “What did you say?! You insolent human!!!”

  At once, Fury raised his hand, signaling Freya to be silent.

  He wanted to hear what Casca had to say.

  “What do you mean, Casca?”

  “You wouldn’t know this. But humans have studied the seas for ages.”

  Casca tapped her ear with a finger.

  “Sound travels faster in water than air. Diablo sea-forms can’t rely on light in the depths. You must navigate by echo—or maybe magnetic fields.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “My point is this: sharks like Benfiga sense motion. They send signals, wait for them to bounce back. But what came back was stillness. Not because nothing was there—but because Leviathan was so vast it was indistinguishable from the seabed itself. Lying in wait.”

  “You dare insult my soldier’s skill?!”

  “I don’t insult. I state fact.”

  Casca stepped before the giant shark.

  “When you dove, Leviathan was right there. Lying still. It only moved when the time was right. Tell me—have you ever once detected its attack beforehand?”

  Silence.

  “No, right? Exactly. Impossible! Because for you swimmers, nature made you prey to it.”

  The words struck like lightning down the spines of every Diablo soldier present—including Freya.

  Casca turned to Fury.

  “Why haven’t you dealt with it? This shouldn’t be beyond you.”

  “Each time it attacks, I can’t arrive in time… and I can’t dive to kill it.”

  Nor were his soldiers strong enough.

  “You weren’t made for water, were you?”

  Correct.

  Fury could not swim. That was his one weakness. Born a creature of land, if thrown into the sea, he would sink. Else, Leviathan would have been gutted long ago.

  It was maddening. Leviathan attacked the Diablo isles without cause. Not often—maybe once a year. But unpredictably. One bite could erase whole chunks of land. Imagine its size.

  “If I could see it once, just once in the flesh…”

  Fury clenched his fist in rage. Casca understood the pain of a general forced to fight the unknowable.

  But now—Diablo had an X-factor. Casca.

  A human woman with knowledge Diablo lacked.

  “If you won’t think differently, you’ll never solve this plague.”

  Casca faced him.

  “Stick to the old ways, and you’ll never advance.”

  “You dare insult the prince!?”

  “Shut your mouths!!!”

  !!!

  Casca roared, her voice alone cowing the Diablo soldiers into silence.

  In serious mode, she was terrifying.

  Casca spoke only to Fury.

  “I’ll help you hunt it.”

  “You…? Help us?”

  “In return for shelter.”

  Her golden eyes glowed, the power within her body swelling. Fury could feel it.

  “I’ll tell you this, Fury.”

  In Luminus, we once did it.

  We once drove out a Leviathan.