Furina let go of her grip on the ship's railing, her body swaying slightly. Her heterochromatic eyes were misty with tears as she looked at King in the sunlight... A massive sense of relief instantly flooded her heart.
It's so good.
The hero she chose had saved everything in the most shocking way at the moment when everyone was in despair.
The longsword in Clorinde's hand fell onto the deck with a 'clatter,' but she was completely oblivious to it.
Lynette silently picked up the medical kit she had dropped earlier out of shock, patted off the water stains, and put it back on her back.
She looked at King, and something flickered slightly in her pale violet cat-like pupils, but it quickly returned to calm.
At this moment, King, who appeared like a god, was internally a mess.
'Holy crap... I used too much force...'
He looked at the sea surface before him, which had been 'combed' far too flat, and the massive rift in the clouds between the sea and sky in the distance, feeling a bit guilty.
The power of the Explosive Heart Release Fist combined with the Superalloy Blacklight Body was a bit beyond his estimation.
He originally just wanted to disperse that giant wave and save the people. Who knew that with one light punch, he almost formatted this entire sea area.
I hope I didn't cause some undersea ecological disaster... Probably not, right?
He had held back seventy percent of his strength.
King slowly withdrew his fist. At the knuckles, the force field that had distorted space quietly dissipated.
"Whatever, I'll go check on Paimon and the others first."
With a thought, a spray of water exploded under King's feet, and his figure blurred again. In the next instant, he landed as lightly as a feather on the deck of the tilted fishing boat.
*Creak.*
The groan of old wooden planks came from beneath his feet.
"King!"
Paimon was the first to react, rushing over like a small cannonball, only to slam on the brakes a meter away from King.
She clutched her chest with her small hands, her big eyes full of shock and lingering fear: "J-just now... was so scary! That wave! And you... you just... with one punch..."
She was incoherent, looking at the calm sea and then at King. Her small head couldn't process this overwhelming information.
Lumine also stood up and put away her dull blade. She looked at King, her amber eyes filled with complex emotions—
Shock, gratitude, and a lingering sense of strangeness.
She opened her mouth, but in the end, she only said solemnly, "Thank you, Mr. King."
King nodded slightly to her, his gaze sweeping over the few fishermen who were slumped on the deck, still trembling.
The way they looked at King was like looking up at a deity in the clouds, filled with the ecstasy of surviving a disaster and unspeakable reverence.
"Are you hurt?"
King asked in a flat tone, but after experiencing everything that just happened, this flat voice carried a certain reassuring power.
"N-no! Thank you, Lord Su Ze! Thank you, Lord Su Ze, for saving our lives!"
The fishermen struggled to kneel and kowtow.
King waved his hand to stop them.
His attention was drawn to the edge of the fishing boat, where a tiny vortex, barely a meter in diameter and almost imperceptible, was spinning with abnormal persistence.
This vortex was completely different from the other massive ones he had dispersed with his punch.
It was very small and spun slowly, but its color was a deep, almost viscous dark blue, its center seemingly connected to a lightless abyss.
Even stranger, King could sense emotional fluctuations full of sadness and anger from this tiny vortex, along with many faint, noisy, and pain-filled murmurs.
King frowned slightly, walked to the ship's railing, and stared closely at this small vortex.
The fast boat from the Opera Epiclese also cautiously approached at this time.
Furina was the first to rush onto the fishing boat impatiently, not even bothering to maintain her elegant divine poise.
"Mr. King! Lumine! Paimon! Are you all okay? Is anyone hurt?"
Her heterochromatic eyes quickly scanned everyone, and after confirming that everyone was safe, she breathed a long sigh of relief. She then looked at King with incredibly bright eyes, a mix of admiration and excitement.
The brilliance of that punch just now was deeply etched into her heart.
"Furina, we're fine," Paimon waved her hand and replied.
Clorinde and Lynette followed Furina onto the boat.
Clorinde directed the Equitable Judgment to check the condition of the fishing boat, comfort the fishermen, and had the ship's doctor prepare to give preliminary treatment to anyone who might be injured.
She herself stood a bit further away, looking steadfastly at King's back. That "plain" punch had brought a shock far exceeding any flashy martial technique.
After handing the medical kit to a female member of the Equitable Judgment, Lynette walked silently to King's side, her cat ears twitching slightly as she looked at the small vortex with him.
Everything seemed to be over.
The sun was bright, and the sea breeze was gentle. If not for the cloud rift across the sky in the distance, the raging waves just now would have seemed like a nightmare.
But King still stood there, quietly watching the small, stubbornly spinning vortex on the sea surface.
"Mr. King, what are you looking at?"
Following King's gaze, Furina also noticed that inconspicuous small vortex: "Eh? Why is there still one here that hasn't dispersed?"
Everyone gathered around, looking at the quietly spinning dark blue vortex.
King didn't answer Furina immediately, nor did he pay attention to the gazes gathering around him.
He just stood there in silence, as if listening, or as if conversing with some invisible existence.
The sea breeze blew softly, carrying the salty scent of survival.
Sunlight fell on the side of King's face, outlining his stern features.
He reached out a finger, his fingertip not touching the water, but hovering just above that dark blue vortex.
Suddenly, King spoke. His voice lacked its previous majesty and indifference, instead filled with a completely different tenderness: "You all... must be in a lot of pain."
This sentence came out of nowhere, making Furina, Lumine, Paimon, and even Clorinde and Lynette freeze for a moment.
"King, who are you talking to?"
Paimon flew a bit closer out of curiosity, looking at the small vortex.
In the next moment, as if in response to King's words, the spinning speed of that dark blue vortex suddenly quickened slightly!
Then, under everyone's astonished gaze, the water in the center of the vortex was no longer turbid, but became exceptionally clear and transparent, like the purest crystal.
The clear water spread upward and condensed, gradually outlining a blurred, constantly shifting silhouette.
The silhouette finally stabilized, turning into an... elemental.
It was made of the purest water, with a tranquil blue glow flowing through it. Its form was elegant and ethereal, like a living drop of water.
However, unlike the serene and noble posture of a typical Oceanid, inside this Oceanid's body, countless tiny undercurrents seemed to be colliding and tearing at each other. At its 'face,' the light constantly distorted and shifted—
The face of a young girl about to cry appeared, with water droplets hanging from the corners of her eyes;
Then it changed into another face full of fear and despair;
Followed by a third, filled with anger and resentment;
A fourth, a fifth... countless faces belonging to different young girls flashed, overlapped, and wailed within that pure body of water!
Their expressions varied, but without exception, they were all filled with sorrow and pain.