The Pacific Ocean suddenly fell silent.
Not calm.
Not peaceful.
Silent, like a living creature holding its breath before death.
The waves that had been raging moments ago froze in place.
The wind vanished.
The clouds hung motionless in the sky.
The entire ocean seemed to have stopped breathing.
Aboard the research vessel, everyone felt it.
Something was coming.
The ship's lights flickered, then went out.
Darkness swallowed the deck.
Only the emergency radar continued to glow.
Farhan stared at the screen, his face pale.
"All systems are down..."
He struck the control panel. Nothing happened.
"No... come on, work..."
He pulled out the main cable and connected it directly by hand. Electrical sparks snapped across his skin.
He winced.
But he kept working.
Beside him, Lila stared at the last remaining figures on the display.
The energy graph was no longer rising.
It wasn't falling, either.
Every line had gone flat.
Then a new line appeared.
Its magnitude was too great to calculate.
Her eyes widened.
"Farhan..."
"What?"
Lila swallowed hard.
"That isn't an ordinary creature."
On deck, the emergency sirens blared again.
The seawater beside the vessel suddenly receded by several meters.
The crew panicked and scattered.
One crewman slipped on the cracked deck and slid toward the edge.
Bimo ran without hesitation.
He lunged across the broken railing, throwing himself onto the slick deck as he caught the crewman's hand just before he fell into the sea.
A wave of freezing water crashed over them.
Bimo gritted his teeth.
"Hold on tight!"
The crewman trembled violently.
Bimo hauled him back up, breathing hard.
"If we survive this," he said, "you're buying me two meals."
Even in the face of terror—
he still knew how to make someone smile again.
On the other side of the vessel, the engine room door began to collapse.
Twisted metal blocked the escape route for several crew members.
Dika stepped forward.
He braced the steel door with both hands.
The muscles in his arms tightened. His knees shook under the strain.
"GET OUT!" he shouted.
One by one, the crew members rushed past him.
Blood ran from his palms where the sharp metal edges had cut into his skin.
He refused to let go.
Sinta stood amid the chaos.
Her face was pale.
Her hands trembled around the radio.
She was afraid.
But her voice cut through the panic.
"ALL UNITS, MOVE TO THE SAFE ZONE!"
"MEDICAL TEAM, TO THE CENTER DECK!"
"NOBODY GOES OFF ALONE!"
People moved because they heard her voice.
Not because they weren't afraid.
But because she kept standing, even when she was afraid.
Arga watched them all.
Bimo, drenched from head to toe.
Dika, bleeding from his hands.
Farhan, still typing with trembling fingers.
Lila, analyzing data in the middle of what felt like the end of the world.
Sinta, leading them while fighting to keep her own panic under control.
His team was exhausted.
Wounded.
Yet not a single one of them had backed down.
Kai stood near the front of the deck.
His eyes were fixed on the dark sky.
For the first time since Arga had met him, Kai's face was clouded by the shadows of the past.
"Kai..." Arga called softly.
Kai didn't turn.
"I've seen a sky like this before."
The wind remained dead.
The ocean remained silent.
Kai continued in a low voice.
"On another world. Far beyond Earth."
Everyone turned toward him.
"There were oceans there. Cities. People who believed they would live forever."
His hand curled into a fist.
"Then that creature came."
A chill crept down Arga's spine.
Kai closed his eyes for a moment.
"I failed to stop it."
When he opened them again, the golden light within his eyes flickered.
"And that world died."
Silence swallowed the deck.
No one made a joke.
No one spoke.
Even the ocean seemed to be listening.
Lila stared at the screen and whispered, "The object is entering the atmosphere..."
Farhan looked at the final readings.
His voice broke.
"Its energy... there's no measurable limit."
The sky split open.
CRAAAAACK!
A crimson fissure appeared among the clouds.
Then it widened.
It didn't look like a meteor falling from space.
It looked like a wound being forcibly torn open across Earth's sky.
Violet light spilled across the ocean.
Aethernox turned toward the heavens.
The Ancient Guardian of the Ocean, the very being that had just shaken the seas with its power—
took a step backward.
Leviathan Thalassa lowered its head.
Thalorion froze.
Even the Void Kraken retreated deeper into the abyss.
The colossal creatures all understood one thing.
The true predator had arrived.
WHOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
Something tore through the atmosphere.
Its shadow swallowed the moon.
Its shadow swallowed the sea.
Its shadow swallowed hope itself.
It crashed into the ocean far ahead of the vessel.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A towering explosion of water erupted, rising as high as a mountain.
A colossal tsunami surged outward in every direction.
"BRACE YOURSELVES!" Sinta shouted.
The wave slammed into the ship.
The entire hull lurched upward.
Farhan was thrown from his chair.
His laptop nearly flew overboard.
Arga caught it with one hand.
Dika grabbed a broken support beam before it could fall.
Bimo dragged two crew members to the deck at once.
Lila clung to the radar console, keeping it from being ripped loose.
The ship groaned under the impact—
but held together.
At last, the water receded.
And through the ocean mist—
something stood.
Larger than Oblivion Rex.
Longer than a mountain.
Its body resembled a cosmic dragon forged from an endless night.
Glowing violet fissures ran along its scales, like shattered galaxies bleeding light.
Four eyes slowly opened.
Cold.
Calm.
Hungry.
Kai's voice was barely audible.
"...Eclipse Devourer."
The creature didn't roar.
It didn't need to.
Its mere presence was enough to make the world tremble.
Oblivion Rex turned toward it.
The creature that had seemed invincible only moments ago—
now retreated.
Eclipse Devourer opened its jaws.
There was no explosion.
No scream.
Only a pull.
WHOOMMMMM!
Space itself warped around it.
Seawater was dragged toward its gaping maw.
Clouds twisted and streamed in its direction.
Oblivion Rex let out a terrible shriek as its massive body was pulled forward.
It fought back.
It tried to resist.
It failed.
With a single bite—
Eclipse Devourer swallowed Oblivion Rex whole.
Alive.
Silence followed.
The Cosmic Leviadon fled toward the sky.
The Void Kraken plunged into the depths as fast as it could.
Aethernox remained motionless.
But Arga saw something he had never imagined possible.
The Ancient Guardian of the Ocean...
was afraid.
The Eclipse Devourer slowly closed its jaws.
Then it turned its head.
Not toward the Heart of the Ocean.
Not toward Aethernox.
Not toward the sky.
Toward the tiny vessel in the distance.
Toward Arga.
The MBG Lunchbox in Arga's hand shook violently.
Twenty-six glowing grains spun wildly inside it.
At their center, a faint twenty-seventh grain flickered, unstable and incomplete.
The creature tilted its head.
As though it recognized something.
Kai stirred beside Arga, his weakened body barely held upright by the golden light still lingering around him.
He forced himself forward, placing himself between Arga and the colossal creature.
"No."
But it was already too late.
All four violet eyes blazed at once.
Farhan stared at the radar, the color draining from his face.
"It's locked onto a target..."
Lila whispered, "Not the ship..."
Sinta tightened her grip on the radio.
Bimo fell silent.
Dika stared at the creature without a word.
Kai's body stiffened.
Arga slowly raised his head.
On the radar screen, a single target designation appeared.
ARGA.
And beneath the dead sky—
Eclipse Devourer opened its jaws.