"This is... an Oceanid?!"
Furina cried out in shock. As the "god of water," she was all too familiar with Oceanids.
But this one before her was filled with such intense negative emotions... she had never seen an Oceanid like this!
"No..."
Furina's face suddenly turned pale, and her heterochromatic eyes trembled violently: "These faces... I've seen them! In the archive portraits of those missing girls!"
She suddenly covered her mouth, her body taking an involuntary step back, her voice trembling with disbelief and deep sorrow:
"It's them... those missing girls... they were..."
Furina didn't finish her sentence, but everyone understood.
The Serial Disappearances of Young Women.
Those young girls who had mysteriously vanished inside and outside of Fontaine.
They had been dissolved by the primordial seawater!
They had turned into the... no, this "swarm" of Oceanids filled with pain, anger, and sadness!
The Oceanid before them was not a single individual, but an aggregate forced together and twisted by the primordial seawater from the thoughts, remnant souls, and purest Hydro Element of countless dissolved girls!
Every flickering face represented an innocent soul stripped of life and form!
"How could this be..."
Clorinde clenched her fists, her nails digging deep into her palms.
She had always thought the disappearances were the work of some perverted criminal, but she never expected the truth to be so horrific, involving Fontaine's oldest and most taboo prophecy—that everyone would be dissolved by the sea.
Lynette silently lowered her head, her cat ears drooping weakly. Even with her usually stoic expression, her face was now filled with sadness.
Lumine and Paimon were even more furious!
Paimon covered her small mouth, her large eyes brimming with tears: "They're so pitiful..."
The Oceanid, or rather, the aggregate of the girls.
They seemed to sense everyone's emotions and wanted to say something, but could only let out wave after wave of wails.
They were trapped.
Trapped in the seawater, trapped between endless dissolution and recombination, enduring a pain more prolonged than death.
Furina looked sadly at the faces of those girls, water shimmering in her eyes as her voice suddenly rose:
"Who did this? Who turned you into..."
Before she could finish, the faces of the girls on the Oceanid seemed to be provoked by something. They fluctuated violently at the same time, flickering more urgently, and their silent wails turned into a physical tide that struck everyone's hearts.
At the same time, that small blue vortex began to spin again, carrying a stubborn malice that wanted to drag everything around it into boundless pain.
But no one was affected.
It was simply too weak.
After King's devastating punch, maintaining this tiny existence was already its limit.
The emperor engine had long since stopped, and the sea was silent.
King looked silently at this suffering Oceanid.
His face didn't show any exaggerated expression of grief; it remained that slightly fierce-looking calm.
But at this moment, on that face, Furina, Lumine, Clorinde... everyone saw a look that had never appeared before.
It wasn't the indifference when facing a strong enemy, nor the annoyance of dealing with trivial matters.
It was a kind of anger toward suffering.
"I see it."
King spoke again to the Oceanid, or rather, to the thoughts of the countless girls within it.
"Your pain, your anger, your desire for revenge—I see it all."
The Oceanid paused slightly, the flickering faces on it seemed to freeze for a moment, and they all "looked" toward King.
"But continuing like this is meaningless."
"Venting your anger on the innocent will only create more victims like yourselves."
King paused for a moment, seemingly weighing his words.
After all, he wasn't good at long speeches, nor was he used to playing a spiritual mentor; he was just an otaku.
But he knew some things had to be said.
"Hatred and pain cannot solve the problem."
"I will make the culprit responsible for all of this pay the price, and I will make sure your pain is seen and remembered."
"Give your pain to me."
He reached out his hand, not in a posture of attack, but with his palm facing up, issuing a silent invitation and a heavy promise.
"I, King, the Guardian of Fontaine, hereby promise—I will find the root cause of all this, and I will make the culprit face the most severe judgment in the world."
"So..."
"Please rest in peace."
The moment King's words fell, even the sea breeze became a bit gentler.
The speed at which that dark blue little vortex rotated slowed down visibly to the naked eye.
Inside the Oceanid, the countless painfully twisted and rapidly flickering faces of the girls also gradually stopped their frantic changing.
Face after face, tired faces "looked" at King.
They looked at this man who had calmed the raging sea with a single punch and was now reaching out to them, making a promise.
His gaze was fierce and his expression indifferent, but in those deep eyes, there was no pity or charity, only an almost heavy sincerity.
The Oceanid's body, that pure stream of water, began to tremble slightly, and the internal undercurrents of conflict gradually subsided.
It, or rather they, slowly and tentatively extended a thread of light as thin as a tentacle, gently touching King's upturned palm.
It was a faint coolness, like that of a tear.
Countless thoughts of sadness and pain flooded into King's perception.
That was their final obsession, their final thoughts, their final... trust.
Then, under everyone's silent gaze, this abnormal Oceanid, condensed from the sadness and anger of countless girls, began to dissipate.
Its form was no longer stable; like morning dew under the sun, a soft halo began to appear at its edges, and dots of blue light dust drifted away from it, rising toward the clear sky and merging with the sunlight.
The faces of those girls surfaced one last time.
This time, there was no more pain or distortion on their faces, only peace and a faint, almost imperceptible smile of liberation.
Their figures grew fainter and more transparent along with the light dust.
Finally, they turned into countless shimmering blue points of light, like a river of stars flowing backward, slowly sinking into the small vortex below, which had gradually stopped spinning and returned to a clear, azure color.
The vortex stopped.
Only gentle waves remained on the sea surface.
In the air, a hint of saltiness remained, like the taste of tears, reminding everyone that what had just happened was so cruel.
King slowly withdrew his hand and looked silently at the sea that had returned to peace, wondering what he was thinking.
[Ding! Detected extreme anger, extreme sadness, and extreme killing intent from Furina, Emotion Points +15,000.]
[Ding! Detected sorrow and strong anger from Lumine, Emotion Points +10,000.]
[Ding! Detected super sadness and super anger from Paimon, Emotion Points +150,000.]
[Ding! Detected ultimate killing intent and ultimate anger from Clorinde, Emotion Points +20,000.]
[Ding! Detected deep sadness from Lynette, Emotion Points +10,000.]