Reincarnated Hero System

[Huh, a siren’s descendant? And here I thought there weren’t any of you left on this planet.]

Kayla’s voice sounded detached, as though she regarded Zara like some kind of lesser life form.

That tone caused Zara’s expression to slowly darken, but the woman continued speaking without concern. [I was told to offer you assistance even though you refused Master’s offer earlier. You should be grateful.]

Looking downward, she continued, [I’ve weakened these oversized octopuses, so kill them yourself.]

She then looked toward the swirling whirlpool that was the entrance to the Solen Underwater Dungeon and said, [I’ll hunt the last one myself.]

Before Zara could speak, Kayla’s body elementalized, becoming a bolt of pure lightning that streaked across the sky and shot toward the whirlpool just as the last and most powerful of the krakens emerged from the dungeon.

The instant it appeared, Kayla resolidified her physical body, raising a hand to command the elements and creating a massive vortex of water and wind that lifted the kraken’s entire body out of the dungeon.

[Thunderclap,] she said softly, clapping her hands and summoning two massive walls of golden lightning blocks that materialised on either side of the kraken.

The lightning block walls slammed into it with tremendous force, crushing its body with both raw physical pressure and powerful lightning that electrocuted it.

Kayla then raised her hand and conjured a six-ringed magic circle, the giant Tier 6 spell drawing the attention of anyone looking up to the skies after seeing her lightning rain down.

She flicked the spell circle, and a beam of golden light descended from the heavens, striking the kraken and sending it crashing back into the dungeon’s whirlpool entrance as nothing more than a charred piece of squid.

[My work here is done,] Kayla said, appearing beside Zara in a flash. [Handle the rest yourself.]

With those words, she elementalized and vanished again, leaving Zara to face the remaining two krakens, who roared and attacked her with both fear and rage.

Weakened by Kayla and Leoniel’s magic, the two krakens fell quickly to Zara, and she expended far less energy than she normally would have in dealing with them.

With the death of the last kraken, the fleets erupted in cheers. Morale soared as the ships closed the perimeter around the dungeon, cutting down more of the aquatic monsters that had emerged during the breach.

Special ships moved in to tow the kraken bodies out of the way, and as they handled the one that had attacked Zara’s flagship, one of the crewmen noticed something unusual and immediately called out to Varek.

“Lord Varek! There’s something off here!”

Varek quickly rushed to the back of the ship, leaping onto the kraken’s massive body. He used magic to maintain his balance as he landed, then walked toward the man who had called him over and asked, “What is it?”

The man pointed at a section of the kraken’s large head that had been gouged out.

The gouge looked uneven, with jagged sections that made it appear as though something had bitten into the kraken.

Zara’s magic had blown a hole through the kraken’s head, so this other wound was definitely not her doing. Additionally, the wound did not look fresh, as there was not a single trace of the kraken’s oily black blood around it.

Just as Varek prepared to report this to Zara, who had already returned to the flagship, his body shivered instinctively as something tore through his perception field like a shark tearing a hole through a fishing net.

Simultaneously, Zara, who had just taken a seat in the ship’s bridge, shot upright as she sensed an entity radiating an enormous amount of condensed magic power, a presence that sent a chill crawling down her spine.

Whatever it was, its magic power was no less than her own, and it was rushing directly from the whirlpool that served as the entrance to the underwater dungeon.

“Something—!”

Before Zara could finish the word, an ominous cry pierced the air, a shrill screech immediately followed by a massive wave of magic power and law energy so intense that even Zara grimaced at the sheer force of it.

Half of the crewmen scattered across the fleet collapsed where they stood, overwhelmed by the oppressive pressure of that energy. Some vomited, and many more curled into themselves in desperate attempts to protect against the invisible force, their skins paling as instinctive existential dread washed over them.

“What…the hell?” Varek murmured, barely managing to remain upright.

Another shrill cry cut through the air, and the creature with that terrifying presence finally revealed itself.

A being of monstrous size leapt from the water and hovered in the air, its presence radiating a power that pressed down on every ship in the vicinity.

It was a whale, a colossal whale large enough to fit dozens of elephants across its back with room remaining. Its enormous fins were tipped with feathers that flapped through the air like wings, allowing it to soar through the sky with its massive body as if it were still swimming through the water.

Its immense size was impossible to overlook, even from the distant islands, and even harder to ignore was the overwhelming presence it radiated, a force that could be felt by people across the ocean on both the Alpha and Beta continents.

The creature’s glowing crimson eyes moved around, magic circles appearing within them as it scanned and analysed everything in its surroundings before quickly locking onto Zara’s flagship, identifying her within the vessel as the greatest nearby threat.

The massive skywhale released another terrifying cry, accompanied by an immense wave of magic power, its energy rushing straight toward Zara’s flagship.

Zara instinctively responded, unleashing a wave of magic of her own, and when the two forces collided above the water, the air warped and groaned across the ocean in response to the confrontation.

The Pirate Queen poured more magic into her attack, and after a short standoff that lasted about three seconds but felt far longer, she emerged victorious.

The skywhale’s wave of magic shattered in the air as Zara’s energy continued forward, slamming directly into the monstrous creature.

Varek saw the attack succeed and immediately tried to use it to lift the morale of the crewmen and adventurers who had collapsed under the pressure of the monster’s presence.

However, Zara knew that she had not truly won that clash. Her instincts told her that the monster had allowed her to claim victory.

But why? Why would the creature allow her to win that exchange?

The moment Zara met the crimson eyes and noticed the magic circles appearing and vanishing within them, sensing the intelligence behind that gaze, she immediately understood.

‘It’s analysing my magic power!’

The monster had let her win and allowed her attack to hit so it could study her magic power, identify the elements within it, determine the elements she was vulnerable to, and instantly adapt based on that information.

Zara immediately activated her Ocean’s Fury and created hundreds of spears of pressurised water, launching them toward the monster at hypersonic speed.

They collided with its massive body, which did not even attempt to dodge, almost instantly, but despite impacts powerful enough to devastate Zeraxes’ major islands multiple times over, the skywhale was still floating in the air completely unharmed.

“Impossible…!” Several Pirate Lords cried out when they saw the monster remain untouched after taking a direct hit from Zara.

Far away, Leoniel’s expression darkened as well.

Neither of them could believe that Zara’s attack had accomplished nothing, and even Zara herself had not expected the skywhale to remain entirely unaffected by her attack.

She conjured another giant pressurised spear of water, one carrying far more power than the hundreds she had fired earlier combined, and launched it directly at the skywhale’s eyes.

However, just before the attack reached the creature, a translucent membrane appeared and blocked it.

Even after the powerful blast collided with that barrier, erupting in a bright flash of magic, the monster was still completely unscathed.

Zara immediately realised that this translucent membrane had been what had blocked her earlier attacks.

“Is that a magic barrier?” she muttered.

Creating magic barriers was not unusual, but the defensive strength of the barrier used by this strange monster was astonishing.

Zara was certain that even her own magic barriers would not have protected her from the attack she had just unleashed, but that barrier had absorbed the blow without cracking or even flickering.

“No, wait. That’s not even magic…!” Zara said, her eyes widening as the realisation struck.

The energy forming the barrier around the skywhale’s body was not magic power. It was closer to the energy she sensed from the Bishops of the Church of Artemisia.

“Divinity!?”

The energy wielded by those with the divine factor, most notably the gods.

The whale roared loudly, causing the water’s surface to tremble. The magic power infused within its sound forced the remaining aquatic monsters to burst from the ocean and leap onto the decks of the gathered ships, attacking the adventurers, soldiers, and sailors on them.

The monsters’ eyes glowed bright red, identical to the skywhale’s, and it couldn’t be any more obvious that the creature had sent them and was responsible for their loss of sanity.

Zara immediately began issuing orders, using the hypnotic effects of the Voice of the Drowned Unique Skill to rouse the fighters.

At the same time, waves of green light spread outward in every direction repeatedly as Eliza cast mass serenity-inducing spells, attempting to bring as many fighters back to their senses as possible.

But just as the fleets began responding, the whale in the sky opened its mouth, revealing rows of fangs as particles of white light gathered in front of it.

It was clear that the creature was preparing a breath-type attack.

Although the energy it gathered appeared white like light, it was not only light elemental law energy but also fire elemental law energy, adjusted to counter the darkness and water/ice affinity it had sensed from Zara.

Zara’s instincts screamed danger.

Every part of her body screamed in alarm, warning her that the attack was extraordinarily dangerous, and she reacted immediately to defend herself.

She seized the buckle on her belt, tearing it free and fusing it with magic power while activating several skills and spells simultaneously.

“Tempest Wall!!”

A massive wall of raging wind and water erupted from the ocean in front of her ship, enhanced by the power of the defensive artifact in her hand, deploying several layers of the Tempest Wall just as the skywhale unleashed its terrifying, searing beam of divinity, glowing with blinding white light.

Zara’s Tempest Walls groaned under the force of the white beam of divinity. Even as she poured more magic power into the defence, it felt like adding a single drop into a massive bucket.

The walls held for only a few seconds before the beam tore through them as if they were paper, continuing forward directly toward her flagship.

Several terrified cries echoed across the ships as Zara’s vision was consumed by white, while light and heat engulfed everything around her in an instant.