Guardian of the Abyssal Sea —A Sakamata Chloe Side Story— - Feast of the Vortex Spawn

The red warning lights seared the deep-sea coffin. *Wooooooooop—* The echo of the alarm would not stop ringing in the depths of her ears. The faint vibrations traveling through the steel floor grew stronger with each passing second, until they became a deep, rumbling bass like the heartbeat of some colossal beast. *Gogogogogo…* Chloe, strapped to the operating table, lifted her eyelids a fraction. Her vision was blurred, everything doubled. The Tidal Core Suppressor embedded in the nape of her neck was heating up, searing the scale-like patterns on her skin. Her thoughts wouldn't connect properly. (*Kaito… Naruse… and then…*) The floor groaned loudly. *—Gyariririri—* The shriek of tearing metal pierced the entire base. It was not a sound meant to be heard in the deep sea. The steel coffin, three hundred and forty meters long, was being torn apart from the inside by something. "Wha—what is…!?" Someone's voice leaked from the sector speakers. The PA system was still active. Confused shouts of anger, the sound of something collapsing. And then— *Doon.* A deep, heavy impact in the distance—a pressure bulkhead giving way. Immediately after. "「「Uwaaaaaaaaaa—!!」」" A chorus of death throes began streaming through the PA. It didn't sound human. Throat-rending screams, layered upon each other, shook the speakers. Sector Five, the residential block. Staff who had been sleeping were being swallowed whole, beds and all, by something. A wet sound followed. Flesh and bone corroding, compressing, being sucked into something. It resembled the sound of chewing, but it was more mechanical, far faster. "H-Hel—" *Bzzt.* The broadcast cut off one voice mid-syllable. Silence. The next moment, the same screams rose from another sector. The sound of fleeing footsteps. Fists pounding on pressure doors. And then—that wet sound again. On the operating table, Chloe couldn't move a single finger. The needles of the Tidal Core Suppressor burrowed deeper between the scales on her neck. The silver disc glowed red-hot, and the stench of her own scorched skin filled her nostrils. It hurt. But more than that— "…Ah…" She couldn't do anything. As a Guardian, she couldn't protect her kin, and now she couldn't even save the humans being slaughtered before her eyes. Her grandmother's lies. Kaito's betrayal. Naruse's mockery. It all swirled in her head, a vortex with no exit. Tears traced paths down her dried scales. *—Dogon.* A closer bulkhead was destroyed. From beyond the walls of the sealed sector, the sickening sound of slime melting steel drew nearer. Spawn of the Maelstrom. Fragments of the evil god. That black vortex was closing in on this sector too. Chloe gritted her teeth. (*Move… move, damn you, my body…*) Her fingertips spasmed, barely. But the Tidal Core Suppressor wouldn't allow it. Countless needles obstructed and suppressed the pulse of her Tidal Core—the source of the Sea Folk's power—with every beat. —————— Sector One — Command Center. Naruse Souichirou watched the destruction of the base unfold on the wall monitors with cold detachment. His salt-and-pepper hair was slicked back without a single strand out of place, and the burn scar on his forehead deepened in color under the red warning lights, an old wound made vivid. The monitors displayed the real-time status of all twelve sectors. Sector Five — Annihilated. Sector Three — Bulkhead breached, flooding expanding. Sector Seven — Dr. Kaito's control room had ceased responding. "Report the situation." Naruse's voice cut clearly through the command center despite the blaring alarms. The vice-commander, a man in his mid-fifties, a veteran of the base who had served as Naruse's aide for nearly a decade, operated the console with trembling fingers. "Y-Yes, sir… The Tide-Lock Stones in the sealed domain have been completely shattered. From the Voltear Rift, three large entities, approximately fifteen meters in diameter. Followed by over a hundred smaller entities, now infiltrating the base interior. Currently, pressure hull breaches are expanding to Sectors Seven, Nine… no, Sector Twelve as well." "Status of the escape pods." "The general-use pods in Sectors Three and Eight are unable to launch. The base's power supply is—" "I see." With just that, Naruse shifted his gaze to a photograph hanging on the wall. A picture of his wife. She had died in this very sea, twenty years ago. He stared at the photo and issued his orders dispassionately. "Instruct all personnel to evacuate on their own. Evacuation routes are at each individual's discretion." "But, sir, the casualties would be—" "Casualties. Vice-Commander." Naruse turned and looked the man straight in the eye. The light of the red warning lamps flickered in his hawk-like, light-brown irises. A faint smile even played on his lips. "They are necessary for human progress. Don't you agree?" The color drained from the vice-commander's face. "N-Naruse-san…?" Naruse didn't answer. He touched a hidden panel on the wall. Biometric authentication completed in an instant, and a steel door concealed at the back of the command center slid open silently. A hidden passage, for the CEO's exclusive use. "W-Wait, please! We still have countermeasures to—" "I appreciate your loyalty. However, I am short on time." The door closed. The vice-commander was left alone in the command center. On the monitor before him, footage showed the black vortex cascading from Sector Five into Sector Four. The staff were dissolving. It was the final sight of the subordinates he had spent ten years cultivating. Naruse Souichirou walked through the hidden passage. His footsteps echoed off the cold metal walls. Emergency lights lined the walls at regular intervals, casting his long shadow onto the floor. His stride was utterly unwavering. Despite the base collapsing around him, he was as composed as if walking down a corporate hallway. (*Project Abyssal has ended in failure. However—*) His thoughts were already turning to what he needed to do next. Send a zero-survivor report to headquarters. Erase all data. And then, disguise this incident as an act of sabotage by Sea Folk terrorists. The necessary procedures organized themselves in his mind. (*All evidence will vanish along with this base.*) It was as he turned a corner in the passage. "…P-Please… help…" Something was crawling on the floor. It had been human. A young female technician. Twenty-seven years old—Naruse knew her face. A newcomer assigned to the Sector Five analysis team just last month. She was talented. Always handed him her reports with a nervous expression. But now, her right leg was gone from the knee down. Bone was exposed at the severed end, the surrounding flesh corroded black, dripping a dark, viscous slime. She had been touched by the Spawn of the Maelstrom. The erosion was ongoing; with every crawl across the floor, fresh putrid flesh stuck to the steel plating. She raised her head. A bloodless face. Clouded eyes barely managed to focus on Naruse. "N-Naruse-shachou… please… the pod… let me too…" Her trembling hand reached for Naruse's shoe. Naruse merely glanced at it and pulled his foot back. "My apologies. There is no seat for you." "Please… my daughter, she's only three… if I'm not there…!" Crying, she clutched the hem of his trousers with fumbling fingers. From her corroded palm, black slime seeped into the expensive fabric. Naruse kicked her. "Let go." Her hand fell away. Rolled onto the floor, she still tried to crawl after him. But Naruse did not look back. He opened the pressure door to the pod hangar. *Tethys Zero* — an escape pod developed in utmost secrecy by SeaVerse Corporation, exclusively for the CEO. A white ellipsoid, eight meters in length. It featured a unique pressure-resistant design enabling rapid ascent from the deep sea, and was equipped with a week's worth of life support. Naruse opened the hatch and slipped inside. The console booted up, bathing the cockpit in pale blue light. The glow cast shadows across his face. "Initiate escape sequence. Erase all Project Abyssal data. Physically delete backups from the headquarters server as well." The pod's main computer dispassionately executed his commands. "Zero survivors. Cause of accident — sabotage by Sea Folk terrorists. Draft report and transmit to HQ Public Relations via the emergency line." The pod entered its launch sequence. "Launch." A roar. The pod detached and was ejected from the base. Through the window, he could see Station Leviathan in flames. The pale lights were all stained red, and bubbles gushed from breaches across the sectors. The massive steel coffin was beginning its slow descent toward the ocean floor. Over fifty staff members still remained inside. Gazing out the window, Naruse quietly monologued. "Everything is for the national interest. For the future of humanity. It was a necessary sacrifice." On the ring finger of his right hand, his wife's keepsake ring glinted faintly. —————— Sector Seven — Resonance Drill Control Room. Kaito clung to the console, desperately hammering at the keyboard. The engagement ring pendant on its chain swayed from the ring finger of his left hand. His golden prosthetic right eye flickered, its brightness changing at an abnormal rate. "Why… why can't I control it…!" The data on the monitor far exceeded his projections. The seal was not a mere physical barrier—it was a mental restraint that suppressed the evil god's very consciousness, and the cage he had broken was that restraint. The evil god was heading toward a full awakening. "Damn it…!" He pressed a hand to his own chest. His deep-sea-colored hair clung to his forehead with sweat, and his tied-back locks had come undone, spilling over his shoulders. Deep in his chest, his Tidal Core pulsed at an abnormal rate. If he connected this to the control device and reversed the energy flow—in theory, it should be possible to reconstruct the seal. He inserted his fingers into the gaps between the scales on his chest. Tearing the skin, he accessed the Tidal Core directly. He was accustomed to pain. Ever since he lost his right eye, pain had been nothing but information. He exposed his Tidal Core and reached for the control panel's connection terminal— In that instant. His vision inverted. "—!?" The scenery of the control room vanished. In its place spread the blood-soaked deck of a fishing boat. A raging sea. Thunder. And there, lying fallen, was Igarashi Genzou, covered in blood. "What you tried to protect…" Genzou's mouth moved. The eyes of the old man, who should have been dead, looked straight up at Kaito. Those pupils were stained with the color of Kaito's own guilt. "…was nothing." "Shut up… shut up!" Kaito slammed his head against the control panel. Even knowing that the evil god's consciousness was showing him illusions, the images it conjured precisely gouged out the deepest wounds of his heart. He saw himself as a boy. Genzou rescuing him from drowning in the sea. Sending him to school. Teaching him to read and write. Teaching him how to live in the human world—teaching him what love was. And then—. The sea at night. A collision with a poaching vessel. Genzou shielding him, getting caught in the propeller. "You killed him." The evil god's voice whispered in his own voice. "You killed your benefactor. You threw away the pride of the Sea Folk. You betrayed your promise to Chloe. From the very beginning, there was nothing for you to protect—" "Shut uuuuuuup!!" Kaito screamed and slammed his fist against the control panel. His prosthetic right eye glowed gold with an unprecedented intensity, and then—*crack*—a fissure ran through its interior. The hallucinations vanished. He fell to his knees on the floor, breathing raggedly. A single tear traced a path from his deep-green left eye. It was the first time he had shed tears in fifteen years. "I was… wrong

日本語

What is Novelia? →

Episode 5

Name: Guardian of the Abyssal Sea —A Sakamata Chloe Side Story—
Author: Novelia

What is Novelia?

Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.

Learn more about Novelia →New sign-ups get 5,000pt