"Help meeeee!!"
Paimon's screams were drowned out by the roar of the towering tsunami.
Beneath the giant wave.
Lumine felt like she was reaching her limit.
She knelt on one knee on the violently rocking deck of the fishing boat, her dull blade thrust deep into the wooden planks to steady herself.
Powerful Anemo Element power circulated around the fishing boat, forming a thick shield that resisted the impact of Hydro Element splashing from all directions.
"Lumine! Hang in there!"
Paimon gripped her shoulder tightly, her small face covered in tears of worry. "We'll be fine! We definitely will!"
On the fishing boat, the trapped fishermen had already huddled together in despair, offering their final prayers.
The shadow of the giant wave loomed over everything, and the sound of the back-flowing seawater was like billions of beasts roaring simultaneously.
Lumine looked up, her amber eyes reflecting the destructive wall of water.
"I won't die, but... I can't stop this."
The thought flashed through Lumine's mind.
She already knew the outcome, yet her hands still struggled to maintain the Anemo Element shield, even if it could only hold for one more second.
Just as the destructive wall of water was about to crash down.
A blue figure, like a meteor tearing through the sky, crashed down!
In less than a breath's time, King had crossed an seemingly unreachable distance, standing before the sky-collapsing giant wave that was crashing toward Lumine and Paimon.
Compared to the giant wave that connected the sky and the sea, his figure in the blue windbreaker appeared so small.
The hem of the windbreaker was pulled straight by the fierce airflow, snapping loudly like an unyielding flag.
"Su... King?!"
Lumine's eyes widened, looking at that back in disbelief.
Paimon was also stunned, even forgetting to cry, just staring blankly at the man who had suddenly appeared.
On the fishing boat, the desperate fishermen looked up and saw the figure standing between them and death.
"It's... it's that lord! Lord King from the Opera Epiclese!!"
Someone recognized King and let out a cry like a survivor of a catastrophe.
King did not look back; his back was to the crowd, facing the giant wave.
The whirlpools roared as the king looked upon the vast sea.
The giant waves were like mountains, and despair loomed.
King's gaze pierced through the roaring waves, falling into the depths of the whirlpools, onto those twisted, struggling light-blue figures.
He could "see" the pained faces of young girls; they were wailing, crying, and questioning why the world treated them this way.
"..."
The roar of the emperor engine reached its peak at this moment!
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump——!!!
King slowly raised his right fist.
No flashy opening stance, no world-shaking gathering of energy.
Just the simplest clenching of a fist, pulling the arm back, and slightly lowering the body.
The power-delivery techniques of the Explosive Heart Release Fist, driven by the Superalloy Blacklight Body, operated with unprecedented efficiency.
All the power—from the muscles, the bones, the rushing blood, and even the anger born from the pain of the girls before him—was precisely retracted, compressed, and twisted into a single strand, then converged toward the point of his fist!
The air around his fist began to twist and blur unnaturally, emitting a low hum like the buzzing of a million bees.
It wasn't elemental power, but pure, ultimate "force" squeezing the space!
The giant wave crashed down, shadow enveloping everything, salty moisture hitting the face, mixed with the endless sorrow and anger of the Oceanids.
The fishermen on the boat let out desperate cries, Lumine pushed her Anemo Element shield to the limit, tightly holding the stunned Paimon.
In the thousandth of a second before the wave could touch the tips of King's hair—
He punched.
It wasn't so much a strike as it was a "release" of that extremely compressed power.
The movement was concise, clean, and even possessed a sort of casual beauty.
The fist gently pushed forward—
"Explosive Heart... Release Fist."
No roar, no shout.
King simply, calmly, and clearly spoke those four words.
"Puff~"
A slight sound, almost negligible, like a bubble bursting.
Then, the world went silent for a moment.
Time was stretched thin at this moment.
The sky-blotting giant wave, the churning billows, the lead-gray clouds... everything came to a sudden halt the moment King's fist struck out.
Then, in the eyes of Lumine, Paimon, the fishermen, and everyone on the distant speedboat, they saw a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.
BOOM————————!!!!!!
A massive sound that defied description exploded a beat late!
That wasn't a sound; it was the wail of space, the vibration of the laws of reality!
Starting from King's fist, a translucent, invisible shockwave composed purely of "force" erupted forward in a massive fan shape!
Wherever it passed, the giant waves weren't pushed away; they were completely dismantled, crushed, and annihilated from their most basic "molecular structure"! They turned into the finest Hydro Element!
The shockwave advanced unstoppably, not only crushing the giant wave but also slamming directly into the densest whirlpool zone behind it!
Boom, boom, boom, boom——!!!
A series of even more muffled and terrifying explosions came from the seabed, and the entire sea surface jolted and vibrated violently. Everyone on the speedboat was tossed about, clutching onto fixed objects for dear life.
The crazily spinning whirlpools, under this unreasonably brutal impact, were like tops forcibly pressed down by an invisible giant hand; their rotation speed plummeted, and their size visibly shrank and collapsed!
The shockwave continued forward, finally slamming hard into the distant horizon, even tearing a massive gap several kilometers long through the low-hanging, heavy lead clouds!
Golden sunlight, like a pillar of light cast from heaven, shone straight down through that gap, perfectly enveloping King, making him look like a god!
One punch.
Just one punch.
The dark clouds dispersed, the weather cleared, and the world brightened.
The sea surface calmed down at an astonishing speed.
The remaining small whirlpools gradually disappeared, and the restless seawater returned to gentle undulations.
Sunlight spilled onto the shimmering water, reflecting light like crushed gold.
The chaotic and sorrowful Hydro power in the air also seemed to have been cleansed by this punch, leaving only a refreshing sea breeze and a faint salty scent.
Dead silence.
On the speedboat and the fishing boat, all the survivors were like clay sculptures, staring blankly at the figure standing beneath the pillar of light, slowly retracting his fist.
He stood on the gradually calming sea, with slight ripples at his feet. His blue windbreaker swayed gently in the sunlight and sea breeze, his back straight as a pine, yet carrying an indescribable loneliness... "Is it... resolved?"
A member of the Equitable Judgment murmured as if in a dream.
"One punch, he used only one punch. He's simply a superman..."
Another female member's voice went soft, whether out of admiration or something else.
"Is this... a Descender from beyond the world?"