Chapter 1036: The Sea That Came for Asgard

The sea of Asgard had never truly been calm.

Even on its quietest days, the waters washing against the coast carried a force of their own, throwing heavy waves against the rocky formations and filling the air with the constant scent of salt. Fishermen who lived in the region had learned from an early age to respect that unpredictable nature, especially when the winds changed and the ocean currents began to grow more aggressive.

That morning, however, there was not enough wind to justify the ocean’s behavior.

Krissia noticed it before she even opened her eyes.

She was alone on a beach far from the areas used by fishermen, seated atop a layer of ice created by her own magic. Several crystalline structures were scattered around her, some resembling small spears, others forming translucent pillars that reflected the sunlight. She had chosen that place precisely because she could train without worrying about accidentally hitting someone.

For the past several minutes, Krissia had been trying to condense her energy into increasingly smaller volumes of ice, increasing their resistance without simply increasing the size of the structures. It was a tedious, repetitive exercise that demanded far more concentration than brute force.

That was why she immediately noticed when something interfered with that concentration.

A deep vibration ran through the ice beneath her body.

Krissia opened her eyes.

For several seconds, she remained completely still, waiting to feel it again.

She didn’t have to wait long.

Another vibration crossed the beach, this time strong enough to make tiny grains of sand jump across the frozen surface.

She frowned and slowly stood up.

"What’s happening?"

No answer came, naturally, but her body began giving her signs that worried her far more than any answer could have.

Pressure.

An absurd amount of it.

Krissia brought one hand to her chest as her breathing involuntarily grew heavier.

It wasn’t merely mana being released somewhere in the distance.

That sensation seemed to occupy the entire horizon, a colossal presence pressing against the whole coastline at once.

And it was coming from the sea.

Krissia immediately turned toward the ocean.

The first thing she noticed was the silence.

The waves had stopped reaching the beach.

The water was receding.

Not a few meters, as would happen with an ordinary change in the tide.

The ocean was being pulled backward rapidly and continuously, revealing rocks, seaweed, struggling fish, and vast stretches of seabed that normally remained completely submerged.

Krissia felt her stomach drop.

"No..."

She knew enough about the sea to understand what that could mean.

Then she realized the horizon had disappeared.

Krissia narrowed her eyes, trying to understand the strange dark line that was beginning to occupy an increasingly larger stretch in the distance.

For several seconds, her brain refused to correctly interpret what her eyes were seeing.

It wasn’t a line.

It was water.

An entire wall of water.

And there was more behind it.

Gigantic waves advanced over one another, forming masses of ocean so immense that they seemed to alter the horizon itself. Some crashed together as they advanced, throwing columns of foam to absurd heights, while others simply continued growing as they were pushed forward by some invisible force.

Krissia froze.

She had faced dangerous creatures before.

She had witnessed magic capable of destroying vast regions.

But this was different.

There was no enemy standing before her.

There was an entire ocean advancing against Asgard.

"This isn’t natural."

Another wave of pressure struck her body.

This time, Krissia nearly lost her balance.

Her attention left the first waves and instinctively searched beyond them for something, some colossal creature that might be causing the anomaly.

She found nothing.

Only raging water, foam, and a dark mass advancing from far beyond the limit of her sight.

Then she understood the true scale of the problem.

That beach wasn’t the target.

Behind her was Asgard.

The farming regions.

The roads.

The houses.

The districts closest to the coast.

Even if the first wave lost some of its strength when it struck the continent, there was enough water coming behind it to travel for kilometers.

Asgard would be submerged.

Krissia immediately reached for a small pouch attached to her waist and pulled out a communication crystal.

Her energy entered the object violently.

"EMERGENCY!"

The sheer force of her voice nearly distorted the transmission.

Krissia breathed quickly as she stared at the horizon.

"All forces of Asgard, respond! Emergency on the coast!"

For several seconds, there was only static.

Then a voice came from the crystal.

"Krissia? What happened?"

"The seas are attacking Asgard!"

Silence.

The sentence was absurd.

Krissia knew that.

She herself would have demanded an explanation if she had heard it from someone else.

"Repeat that."

"The entire ocean is advancing against the city! There are gigantic waves coming from the coast and I can’t even see where they end!"

Another voice entered the communication.

"How large?"

Krissia looked again.

The first massive wave was much closer now.

And growing.

"Too large."

She gripped the crystal.

"We don’t have time to argue about this! Warn Monica! Alert the guards, the Guild, everyone! Evacuate the low-lying areas immediately and move the population to higher ground!"

Krissia began running backward as she spoke.

"Get everyone away from the coast! Fishermen, workers, anyone near the ports! Send flying creatures to retrieve anyone who can’t escape on their own!"

The voice on the other side became more serious.

"How much time do we have?"

Krissia looked toward the sea.

Then stopped.

The crystal nearly slipped from her hand.

Until that moment, she had been watching the distant waves.

She hadn’t noticed what was forming closer to shore.

All the water that had receded from the coast seemed to have been pulled into a single growing mass.

The wave rose higher and higher, swallowing the smaller waves in front of it as it advanced.

Ten meters.

Twenty.

Fifty.

Krissia had to tilt her head back.

The thing kept growing.

The sun began disappearing behind it.

"Krissia?"

She didn’t answer.

"Krissia!"

The woman finally tightened her grip on the crystal.

"We don’t have time."

The voice on the other side hesitated.

"What?"

"Begin the evacuation now."

Krissia put the crystal away.

The wave continued advancing.

She could run.

That was the first rational conclusion that crossed her mind.

If she used all of her speed, she could leave the beach before impact.

Maybe she could reach higher ground.

Maybe she could personally warn the others and help with the evacuation.

But the wave wouldn’t stop at that beach.

Krissia turned her head slightly.

Far beyond her was Asgard.

Thousands of people didn’t even know what was happening yet.

Even with every available soldier, evacuating an entire city required time.

Time that wave would not give them.

Krissia took a deep breath.

"What a stupid idea..."

She slowly exhaled.

"Really stupid."

Then she planted her feet firmly in the sand.

The temperature dropped.

Not gradually.

In a single instant, all the moisture around Krissia crystallized.

The sand beneath her boots froze first.

Ice spread in every direction, covering dozens of meters of beach before moving across the shallow water still remaining near the coast.

Krissia raised both hands.

Her energy exploded.

The ice responded.

A wall rose before her.

It began small, only a few meters high, but Krissia continued pouring energy into it.

New layers grew over the previous ones, expanding sideways while frozen roots penetrated deep into the sand and rocky formations along the coast.

Fifty meters.

One hundred.

The wall kept growing.

Krissia clenched her teeth.

It wouldn’t be enough.

The wave was much larger.

"More."

The ice groaned.

The entire beach began to freeze.

Water was drawn from the moisture in the air and incorporated into the structure.

The surface of the barrier thickened, transforming from a simple wall into a multilayered fortification, each layer supporting the next.

Krissia felt a sharp pain tear through her arms.

She ignored it.

"MORE!"

The ice responded again.

The wall grew until it completely blocked the horizon in front of her.

Krissia began to tremble.

Not from the cold.

Her energy reserves were disappearing far too quickly.

Creating ice was easy.

Creating that much ice was something else entirely.

And creating ice strong enough to withstand the impact of millions of tons of water was almost absurd.

But she didn’t need to stop the ocean forever.

She only needed to delay it.

One minute.

Two.

Maybe five.

Every second could mean hundreds of people reaching higher ground.

Krissia opened her eyes.

The enormous translucent wall stood before her.

On the other side...

the world roared.

The wave was coming.

Krissia could see it through the ice.

A dark mass rose before the barrier, growing until it towered above it.

For one terrible instant, Krissia understood that even this might not be enough.

She placed both hands against the frozen surface.

All of her remaining energy began flowing into the wall.

"You will not pass."

The sea answered with a deafening roar.

The wave struck.

The impact made the entire coastline tremble.

Krissia was pushed backward even without directly touching the water.

Cracks instantly spread across the wall, stretching like enormous white webs for hundreds of meters.

Her eyes widened.

"No!"

Krissia poured in more energy.

The cracks froze shut again.

Another wave crashed into the first from behind.

The pressure increased.

The ice groaned.

Parts of the wall exploded into enormous fragments, hurled across the beach like projectiles.

Krissia did not retreat.

Blood began running from her nose as she kept her hands raised.

"Stay..."

Another crack.

She sealed it.

"...together..."

The sea pressed forward again.

The wall bent.

Krissia felt her knees buckle.

The wall bent even farther.

For an instant, Krissia was certain it was over.

The pressure exerted by the ocean had already surpassed anything she could compensate for with magic.

Every crack she sealed was replaced by three more, and every new layer of ice she created vanished beneath the tons of water pressing against the structure from the other side.

Her arms were barely responding anymore, her fingers were numb, and her legs trembled so violently that simply remaining standing had become an effort separate from the one required to sustain the barrier.

Even so, she did not release the spell.

"Just a few more seconds..."

Her voice came out weak, nearly inaudible beneath the ocean’s relentless roar.

Krissia struggled to breathe and tried to draw another portion of mana from within her body.

Almost nothing answered.

The reserve she normally felt as a cold, constant presence inside herself had become a painful emptiness, and forcing out any more energy felt as though something inside her was being torn apart.

Another crack spread across the wall.

This time, Krissia couldn’t close it.

The fissure began near the top and raced downward at terrifying speed, branching until it reached the base.

Water burst through tiny openings under such tremendous pressure that it became jets capable of piercing the rocks along the beach.

Krissia’s eyes widened.

"No..."