Renji Kurogane, a completely normal high school student, was on his way back from a convenience store late one night when he was suddenly enveloped in a blinding light and lost consciousness.
When he awoke, he found himself in a decaying ocean world ruled by 'Hakos Baelz.' The sky was shrouded in murky clouds, and the sea was black and polluted. The world was slowly being devoured by colossal monsters known as 'Kegareshin' (Corrupted Gods).
Renji manages to reach an underwater 'Safe House,' wh
Elpis of the Corrupted Sea -A God's Despair Game- - Awakening in the Black Sea
Cold.
That was the very first sensation.
The feel of wet metal against his back. And a cold wind that bit into his skin.
"...Uh, what?"
Kurogane Renji slowly sat up.
His slightly drooping brown eyes blinked several times. His blurred vision gradually sharpened. His unruly black hair swayed in the damp wind.
The first thing that leaped into view was the sky.
Lead-gray clouds hung low and heavy. No sunlight reached through at all. He couldn't even tell if it was day or night.
"Where... am I?"
His voice trembled.
He looked around.
He was standing on top of what looked like a crumbling concrete structure. Cracks ran everywhere underfoot, with rusted rebar exposed. The space was about half the size of a classroom. And just beyond it—
A black sea stretched out before him.
"What the hell is this..."
Renji swallowed hard.
Was this... a sea?
No, it was far too bizarre to call it that. The water was murky and black, like spilled ink. The wind carried not the smell of the shore, but a sickly-sweet stench, like something rotting. The sound of the waves was wrong, too. Not the regular *shhh-shhh* of water. Instead, there was a viscous, unsettling *squelch, squelch*.
He looked down at his own clothes.
A white shirt and a navy blazer. His school uniform. His phone was in his pocket. For a brief moment, he felt relief—but the screen was black and wouldn't turn on. No matter how many times he pressed the button, it didn't respond.
"Dammit."
He cursed under his breath.
Then, he desperately tried to retrace his memories.
Right. I stopped by the convenience store, then I was walking home along the night road...
And then, suddenly, a pale blue light flashed right in front of me—
"Teleportation... or something? You've gotta be kidding me."
Even he thought he'd been reading too many light novels and watching too much anime. But he couldn't think of any other explanation.
He tried to stand, nearly losing his balance. He had a slender build and no confidence in his physical strength. He straightened his slightly hunched back and carefully planted his feet.
The cold wind blasted him again.
Renji shivered violently. His uniform alone wasn't enough against this chill.
Without thinking, he traced the small scar on his left temple with his finger. A scar from a fall when he was little. He always touched it when he felt anxious. A habit from childhood.
Even at a time like this, his body moved honestly.
"I wonder if Mom's worried..."
He pulled his phone from his pocket. It was broken and useless, but he still couldn't let it go.
It frustrated him that he couldn't even open the photo folder.
Inside those photos was the starry sky from the camping trip he'd taken with his mom. That was one of his favorites.
He looked around once more.
This seemed to be part of a ruined structure. Looking closely, he could see old machinery and heavily corroded metal fragments clinging to the walls. Traces of human habitation. But now, there was no sign of people at all.
It was like a ruin.
No, it was as if this entire world was dying.
"Isn't anyone here...?"
His voice was swallowed by the black sea.
No answer came. Only the sound of the wind and those eerie waves.
Renji approached the edge of the structure.
He peered down into the sea.
"...!"
Far, far beneath the black surface, something squirmed.
A massive shadow.
In the darkness, like the deep sea, he could have sworn he saw it move, slowly.
A chill ran down his spine.
(*No good. I can't stay here.*)
His instincts screamed at him.
Renji stepped back and spotted a collapsed passageway leading deeper into the structure. It was a small entrance, barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through.
"I need to find somewhere safe."
He muttered it as if to convince himself, then stepped into the dark passage.
It was slightly warmer inside than outside. Just being out of the wind made a huge difference.
Fragments like broken glass and corroded metal scraps littered the floor. Pressing the sleeve of his uniform over his mouth, Renji advanced cautiously.
On the walls of the passage were faded letters and symbols.
He couldn't tell what they said. But they were probably some kind of sign. A remnant from when this place was once a normal building.
He emerged into a slightly more open space, like a room.
The wreckage of desks and broken monitor-like machines lay scattered about. Everything was rusted and decayed.
"What kind of place was this...?"
Renji touched a hand to the wall.
It was cold. But someone had definitely been here, once.
They had lived here.
It felt like that was ages ago.
Suddenly, a small *clatter* came from his pants pocket.
"Huh?"
His phone. The one that was supposed to be broken.
He hurriedly pulled it out. The screen was still pitch black. But a moment ago, it had been completely dead.
He held it and stared intently.
Then, for just an instant, the edge of the screen flickered.
"...No way."
It was the kind of light a device gives off right before the battery dies completely—a final, desperate gasp.
And then, something faintly appeared on the screen.
A photo.
The star-filled sky he had gazed at with his mom.
Above the leaden clouds of this world, a starry sky like that existed. Renji stared at the photo as if in prayer.
(*I want to go home.*)
He felt it from the bottom of his heart.
(*I will definitely return to my own world.*)
It was a vow.
The phone's light vanished immediately. It would never shine again. But a small flame had been lit in Renji's heart.
That was when it happened.
*Scratch.*
A grating sound came from directly behind him.
Renji's body went rigid.
A chill, incomparable to before, shot down his spine.
*Scratch-scratch-scratch-scratch!*
Something was clawing at the floor of the passageway where he'd just been standing.
Fearfully, he turned around.
"Ah..."
A voiceless sound leaked from his throat.
From the darkness of the passage, it emerged.
The first thing he saw was countless legs. Black, knobby, insect-like legs. They scraped against the metal walls and floor—*scratch, scratch*—as it crept closer.
The number of legs was beyond counting.
"What, what, what...!"
Renji stumbled backward. His feet tangled.
The monster revealed its full form.
It was about three meters long. Its entire body was covered in a black carapace. On the part that could be called its head, countless tiny eyes glinted, and in the center grew multiple fangs for crushing its prey.
A Crawler.
Renji didn't know its name. But he understood instinctively what it was.
"Stay back, stay away from me!"
Screaming, Renji broke into a run, back the way he'd come.
From behind, a repulsive clicking sound chased him. *Click-click-click-click*—like bones cracking.
His heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst.
His lungs ached.
He couldn't breathe properly.
"Hah, hah, haaah...!"
Dammit, I'm way too out of shape!
At a time like this!
Renji had always been hopeless at any kind of exercise. He practically wanted to sit out every P.E. class. And now, in this desperate moment, it was dragging him down.
*Scratch-scratch-scratch!*
Right behind him, the sound of metal being torn apart.
He had no time to look back. He just had to get back to that place where he'd seen the sea—
"Whoa!"
With a *boom*, Renji's body was flung into the air.
No, to be precise, the floor beneath his feet vanished.
The Crawler had destroyed the floor of the structure.
Renji's vision spun.
The black surface of the sea rushed up at him all at once.
*SPLASH!!!*
A tremendous sound of water.
The cold, far too cold liquid enveloped his entire body.
"Glub...!"
A bitter fluid poured into his mouth.
It was like drinking ink.
He couldn't even open his eyes.
He desperately thrashed his limbs, but his uniform had soaked up water and was heavy. His body sank into the sea, into the depths, like lead.
(*I'm going to die.*)
That's what he thought.
The oxygen drained steadily from his lungs. In its place, the bitter water rushed in.
His consciousness began to fade.
Far away, the Crawler's triumphant clicking echoed through the water.
That was when it happened.
—♪—
He heard something.
A song.
Through the water, it reached Renji's ears clearly. There were no words. Just a melody. But it was a truly beautiful singing voice, carrying a strange warmth.
And then—what happened?
The Crawler, which had been trying to drag Renji down just moments before, suddenly began to thrash in agony.
*GYASHAaaaaaa!!!*
An ear-splitting death cry reverberated through the water. The monster seemed to claw at its own body as it fled into the abyss of the black sea.
But Renji was already past the point of caring.
His consciousness was about to be swallowed by darkness.
(*Ah, it's no good...*)
In his fading awareness, he felt someone's hand grasp his arm.
It was a warm hand.
It was the first—and only—warmth he had felt in this world.
Renji's vision was slowly enveloped in complete darkness.
Only the sound of life faded away.
At the bottom of the black, silent sea, just the lingering echo of the song resonated on and on.
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