Chapter 133 Watchers of the depth

Chapter 133: Chapter 133 Watchers of the depth

Back at sea, the group of survivors hurried back toward the amphibious vehicle with Kai now resurrected and alive. Nobody wanted to take any chances. After everything they had just endured, especially after dealing with almost four leviathans beneath the sea, the thought of remaining in the water any longer made everyone uneasy. They had already pushed their luck far enough. The safest thing they could do now was stay inside the vehicle and leave as quickly as possible.

Luna, however, still looked stunned. Her eyes remained fixed on Ethan. She couldn’t get over what she had just witnessed. Of course, she knew Ethan was a healer. She had seen him heal injuries before, watched him use his abilities during battles, and knew he possessed incredible healing energy. But what he had just done? That was completely different.

He had brought Kai back from death. Not just stabilized him. Not just repaired his wounds. He had literally restored his body after the zombie infection had already begun corrupting it. Who would have thought Ethan could reach such a ridiculous level of power?

Luna leaned against the side of the vehicle, still processing everything. Her system had always given her information about her men, but apparently there were still things even it hadn’t revealed. And that bothered her. A lot.

Meanwhile, Kai was having an entirely different problem. He sat in the front seat with his back against the cushion, looking like the world was spinning around him. His eyes moved slowly from one side to another. Everything seemed blurry. His stomach churned, and he swallowed hard as nausea climbed up his throat. "Ugh..." He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. "What happened?" His voice sounded weak. "How did I get here?"

Ethan had helped him into the front seat alongside Rowan, making sure he was comfortable. Both of them were still ecstatic. Kai was alive. That was all that mattered. Only a short while ago, they had been certain he was gone for good. They had watched him sacrifice himself, watched the sea swallow him, and thought they had lost him. But somehow, impossibly, Kai was sitting right there with them. Alive. Breathing. Complaining. Which, honestly, was enough proof that he was truly back.

There was only one person who had no idea what was happening. Adrian. He was lying in the back seat of the amphibious vehicle, completely unconscious. His breathing was steady enough to show that he was alive, but he hadn’t woken up yet. The battle had taken too much from him.

Luna looked toward him briefly before turning her attention back to Kai. "Well, all I can say is that you survived." She leaned closer to him until her face was almost touching his forehead.

Kai blinked at her, looking confused. "That’s your explanation?"

"Yes."

"That’s terrible."

Luna smiled. "You’re alive. Stop complaining."

Kai slowly raised his hands and began feeling his arms. His fingers moved over his skin, then he checked his legs. His expression gradually changed. The wounds were gone. The deep cuts he remembered were nowhere to be found. The damage from the leviathan attack had completely disappeared. Then his fingers moved toward the place where the zombie had bitten him. Nothing. There wasn’t even a scar.

Kai’s eyes almost bulged out of his head. "Wait." He touched the spot again. "Where is it?" He checked his arm, then his leg, then his stomach. "Where the hell is the bite?" He looked at everyone. "I was bitten by zombies!" His voice rose. "I was supposed to become one by now!"

Nobody answered immediately.

Kai stared at them. "How did this turn out like this?"

Luna moved toward the driver’s seat. "It’s all thanks to Ethan." She placed her hands on the controls. "He was amazing."

Ethan’s face immediately became awkward.

Luna glanced back at him. "His powers are on another level." She smiled. "I had my doubts, for real, but he made me proud." Then she added casually, "Now I can’t help but want to kiss him."

Ethan’s entire face turned red. Luna immediately caught it and giggled. "Oh my God."

Ethan quickly turned away. "I didn’t mean it like that."

"You definitely reacted like I meant it."

"I..." He couldn’t finish. Instead, Ethan moved toward the back of the vehicle and crouched beside Adrian. He placed a hand on Adrian’s shoulder and gently massaged it, checking whether he was recovering.

Luna watched him for a moment. "He is okay."

Ethan looked up.

"He just needs sleep to recover." Luna gestured toward Adrian. "He almost died under the sea. We literally fought for his life, so it’s expected that his body would need time to recover."

Ethan nodded, looking relieved. Then he turned toward Luna. "And about what you said earlier..."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"It’s not just me." He pointed toward her. "Look at her. She’s the one who gave me the crystals." He shook his head. "Without your support and the energy source, I don’t know if I would have been able to heal him."

Luna shook her head. "Don’t give me too much credit." She leaned back into the elevated foam armchair, her mind already working.

There was something she had been thinking about ever since they first began fighting together. Her men weren’t ordinary F-rank awakened. At least, she didn’t believe they were. Initially, she had assumed their low rankings meant they were genuinely weak. But even when they were supposedly F-rank, each of them possessed abilities that should have belonged to much higher-ranked awakened. That meant there was another possibility. They weren’t truly powerless. They could have been dormant awakened whose abilities had simply not fully developed. That would explain why their powers seemed so strange.

But even that theory had problems. Earlier, most of them had been almost useless when fighting stronger enemies. Only Ethan and Kai had shown enough power to stand out consistently. That made Luna reconsider everything. Perhaps those two had once possessed the potential of S-rank awakened before their powers eventually developed toward SSS rank. The others might have started from a much lower level before gradually awakening. That could explain the obvious difference in their abilities. It could also explain why some of them reached higher levels much faster when facing overwhelming enemies.

And Ethan had just proven the theory. His healing ability had gone beyond anything she had witnessed before. He had reached a level that Luna hadn’t even known was possible. She frowned. How had her system missed something this important? Was the problem with the system, or was it with her? Luna didn’t know. For now, she pushed the thought aside. There were more important things to deal with.

"We’ve gathered too much attention." Everyone became quiet. Luna looked through the windshield at the endless sea. "This hoarding mission is done." She paused. "It’s time to return to the base."

Kai looked at her. "Already?"

"Yes." Luna’s tone left no room for argument. "We’ll hide there until something changes." She glanced toward Ethan. "I can already see that Ethan’s power has gotten significantly stronger." Ethan lowered his gaze. "If the government discovers what he can do, we’ll have an even bigger problem."

Nobody argued with that. Fighting monsters was one thing. Fighting natural disasters was another. But fighting other humans was different. And fighting the government itself? That was a completely different level of danger.

Luna had no intention of underestimating them. Especially after Astrid had mentioned the scientist. That man was experimenting on awakened humans. Who knew what kind of abominations he was creating? Maybe they had already created monsters capable of destroying them in seconds.

Luna wasn’t going to gamble with her men’s lives anymore. Not after what had just happened to Kai. She had thought having a system beside her meant she could control everything. She had been wrong. Even with a cheat code, there was no guarantee of safety. Her plans could fail. Her calculations could be wrong. And her men could still die. That was something she had finally understood.

"This was our last mission." Luna looked at all of them. "I’m not coming out again after this." She sighed. "We’ll stay at the base." She paused before adding, "And the stockpiling is on hold until further notice."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Yes." Luna leaned back. "We have enough."

She had collected more than enough supplies from the supermarket. Food. Weapons. Medical equipment. Resources. Everything they needed for the moment was already in her space. Instead of risking another mission, she wanted to improve the base. She wanted to make their home more secure, more comfortable, more livable. They didn’t need to keep running around the apocalypse looking for things when they already had enough to survive for a long time. She wanted to develop their home and make it feel more like an actual place to live instead of a heavily fortified bunker.

Ethan understood. In a world plagued by a virus that could mutate humans, someone with his healing ability was extremely valuable. If the government discovered what he could do, they wouldn’t simply ask him to help. They would hunt him. They would experiment on him. And after seeing what Astrid had gone through, Ethan knew he wanted no part of that. He didn’t want to become another experiment.

"I hope none of you are angry." Luna looked at them. "As I said, this is our last mission." She sighed. "I’m done taking unnecessary risks."

For a moment, nobody said anything. Then Kai suddenly broke into a handsome grin. His dimples appeared. "I thought you’d never say that." He leaned back into his seat. "Whew!" He let out a dramatic breath. "At least we finally changed your mind."

Rowan chuckled softly. Ethan simply smiled. Even Luna couldn’t help but feel a little relieved. She didn’t answer Kai. Instead, she gave him a small wink.

Kai’s grin widened.

Luna turned toward the controls. "Now shut up and let me drive." She activated the ignition. The amphibious vehicle hummed to life. Its engine roared softly as it began moving across the surface of the water.

The vehicle slowly moved farther away from the destroyed area. But beneath them, the water remained strangely still. Too still.

At that moment, a massive shadow moved underneath them. Nobody noticed it at first. The creature didn’t attack. It simply followed.

Deep beneath the dark water, something enormous opened its eyes. It had been watching them. Waiting.

The leviathans they had fought weren’t the only horrors beneath the sea. Luna had thought they had escaped. She was wrong.

The horrors beneath the sea weren’t done with them yet.