Otherworld Adventure

Cecil was just about to head towards the center of the underwater city when he felt an ominous gaze eyeing him.

He immediately stiffened at the gaze and he couldn't help but flinch in surprise.

"S-Strong...what the hell is this?"

Cecil quickly activated his Mana Eyes and sent his Mana Sense out of the city and towards the direction of the ominous gaze's source. He immediately noticed that two purple 'lamps' were glaring at him from afar.

Those 'lamps' weren't actual lamps but the eyes of a humongous sea monster. It was as if the monster knew that Cecil was staring at it and turned its attention to him. The size of this monster easily trumps the Sea Behemoth that he squared off against on the second floor.

This monster was in the form of a large whale, but instead of a tail on its rear end, it had numerous tentacles. If any of Cecil's disciples were present, they would be able to find that these tentacles were similar to the things that had pulled Angelia, Kira, and Gabriel into the ruins.

Cecil was paralyzed under the monster's gaze and this was an unfamiliar feeling to him. There hadn't been a single moment in his life where he was forced to submit under the overwhelming presence of any sort of being ever since he came to this world.

This was a first and he didn't like it. This monster was above any other monster he had ever faced but he didn't want to cower under its pressure so he began circulating his energy and was able to alleviate the pressure that was crushing down on him.

When the monster saw this, it immediately cried out with a melodious roar. The sound was beautiful, but Cecil felt a threatening force behind it. He quickly covered his body with aura but the sound wave bypassed his defenses and struck his body.

Blood began dripping from his ears and nose. After the sound wave passed, Cecil released his aura and immediately began coughing up blood. Even with his upgraded body, he had been injured by the monster's melodious cry. He couldn't help but be fearful of the powerful entity that easily injured him.

He immediately became worried about the others who were caught unaware by the monster's sound attack. If the monster was able to easily injure him then it would be much worse for the other people in his group who were much weaker than him.

He quickly spread his senses and it was as he feared, everyone else in the city had all fainted and a few were even killed by the sound wave attack. The non-combatants in his party had all perished while the weaker cultivators in his kingdom's group had sustained life-threatening internal injuries.

Cecil quickly used his Nature's Shift and quickly arrived at the place where his kingdom's group was resting.

He quickly found his disciple collapsed on the ground with blood bleeding out of his orifices. Cecil quickly used his Healing Arts and channeled his Ki into Ren's body, performing first aid on his injuries.

"Ren, get up! We have to go!"

"...Urk... M-Master...w-we...we were attacked..." Ren struggled to say. His cultivation was low and he had received some injuries to his internals.

Thanks to Cecil's healing, color quickly returned to Ren's pale face and he was no longer in danger. After a few more seconds, Cecil stopped the healing and began tending to the others.

Thankfully, Xin, Marylyn, and Robin were okay. Cecil wouldn't know how to face his little sister if he informed her that her friends were killed under his watch.

After Ren was able to get up properly, Cecil immediately ordered him to grab all of the injured and quickly make his way towards the city's transfer gate.

Ren eyed the other people who were silently strewn about on the floor without a hint of life in them and he couldn't help but ask, "Master...what about—"

"They're all dead. I can't heal dead people..."

"!"

Cecil had already spread his Mana Sense around and quickly identified those who were still alive and those that were already killed.

He quickly helped those that were still alive while ignoring those who were already dead. It was a bit cold of him, but he didn't really know the other people who had come and although they had all participated in the trials together for so long, Cecil was rather indifferent to them since they were, in all honesty, a burden to him.

It was already great that he had brought them along with him through the trial. It was only their own misfortune that they were weak and that such an absurd monster was waiting for them on the fourth floor's trial.

Ren looked slightly dismayed by his master's answer and Cecil quickly noticed this.

"The attack from earlier even injured me so there's nothing I can do for them. The sound wave completely disintegrated their unprotected organs, killing them instantly..."

"I-It injured Master...?"

"Yes, apparently, everyone below the mana sea stage died in that attack. We can't stay here any longer! If that monster attacks a second time, not even those at the Mana Sea stage would be spared!"

"I-I'll go gather the others—"

"Wake those 3 up and have them help!" Cecil cut him off and urgently said as he felt some movement from the monster that had attacked them. He couldn't identify what this monster was exactly so he could only deduce that it was yet again an Ancient species.

The abilities of the ancient monsters were unpredictable and unknown to him so it was better for their entire group to quickly head to the trial's transfer gate and get out of this stage before the monster attacked them again.

"Y-yes, Master!" Ren hastily replied. He quickly went over to wake Marylyn, Robin, and Xin up.

"Quickly gather the ones still alive and injured. My clone will heal them while I'll go search for the others! Just follow after the clone to the transfer and pick up anyone you find on your way!"

After leaving those words behind, Cecil quickly used Nature's Shift again and arrived at where Cecilia and her group was resting at. Cecil found the high priestess and a few of her priests protected behind a barrier and was administering aid to the holy knights in their group.

Cecilia immediately noticed him and cried out, "Sir Cecil! Please help! My sister—my sister is dying!"

"Move aside!" Cecil rushed forward in the next instant after hearing her words.

Cecil quickly saw his pale-faced sister-in-law lying on the ground, seemingly lifeless. He placed a hand on her chest and immediately began channeling his Ki into her body.

"...What happened? How many of your people died?"

"N-none...my sister was able to protect everyone in time so we had no casualties..." Cecilia replied tearfully while looking down on her lifeless sister.

Thankfully, there was still some life in Celestina so Cecil was confident that he would be able to save her.

"How did—"

"My sister's always been sensitive to mana. So, when she felt the pulse of mana heading in our direction, she quickly put up a protective barrier around us, but—"

"She couldn't put one around herself in time...tch, so reckless..."

Cecilia nodded tearfully at his words, but she quickly composed herself and began tending to the injured in her party.

Cecil still had one more group to check on so he left the healing and guidance to another one of his clones. After his recent upgrade, creating another clone was no longer a burden to him. As for splitting his consciousness in 3, it was easier since he had his hypersensitivity and his body's upgrade had also included an increase in his brain's overall capacity.

He quickly used Blink and arrived at Karen's location. Unlike the other two groups who were resting, Karen and her knights were out exploring the area so their people were dispersed throughout the city.

Cecil had kept his Mana Sense on the monster and continued monitoring its movements. He noticed that although it wasn't moving from its position, magic circles had suddenly appeared on the tips of its numerous tentacles.

"Karen, dodge!" Cecil cried out. Even though he told her to dodge, he was already pushing away the girl who had just unstably gotten up.

"Wh—Argh!"

A black spike shot out of the magic circle that had suddenly appeared above Karen's previous location. Similar magic circles had appeared behind Cecil, but he had long since noticed it and had defended against the black spike that shot out of it.

This attack wasn't only aimed at them. Gray magic circles had appeared in the air and on the ground all around the city and similar black spikes shot out of them and attacked every human present in the city.

When Cecil took a closer look at the black spike that was connected to the gray magic circle, he noticed that the spike was actually the tips of the monster's tentacles.

"Spatial magic?" Cecil exclaimed in shock.

The black tentacle began wriggling and was about to strike out at him again, but Cecil quickly took action and cut the tentacles into pieces.

He didn't forget to pull out his other swords and he sent them flying towards the other tentacle which was aimed at Karen.

The young princess was still disorientated from the previous sound wave attack so she wasn't in any condition to fight back.

Cecil saw that the tentacle immediately began to regenerate so he quickly flashed next to Karen and pulled her away from the area.

"L-Lord Cecil... w-what happened?"

"We were attacked by a monster. It's not something I can deal with so we should quickly head towards the transfer gate to the next floor!"

Karen knew that her injuries were heavy so she didn't even struggle within Cecil's arms and just limply laid there.

"Lord Cecil...my men...what about my—"

"...I can't save them all..."

"..."

Karen had an anguished look on her face after Cecil's reply. Time was short and with the monster's black tentacles threatening them, he didn't have enough time or capacity to worry about anyone else.

It was already fortunate and caring enough that he went out of his way to retrieve Karen and the girl herself knew this so she couldn't demand any more from him. She was already thankful that he rescued her.

"We can try and save as many as we can while we move. I'll heal you so get ready to start running."

"...thank you..."

Cecil poured his Ki into Karen's body and began healing her injuries while at the same time he manipulated his 6 weapons to defend against the monster's attacks.

"This is bad...that monster can use spatial magic...if he floods this city with water..."

Cecil grimaced at the thought so he quickly hastened his healing technique and soon after, Karen was able to stand on her own two feet again.

"Follow me. We'll head straight to the transfer gate. The other groups are already headed that way. If we find anyone on the way, we'll rescue them."

Karen nodded and said, "Alright."

"Watch your back. I can only do so much to protect you."

"You don't have to worry about me, Lord Cecil."

"Hm."