Days passed and the group consisting of Loogam’s white class and those, who had to attend the Grand Order meeting, were on sea once more. With them was also a group of civilians who saw the perfect opportunity to cross the sea after learning about the departure of two Grand Order members.

It was actually the third day since they embarked on the ship and sailed.

However, unlike the time they were heading from Malnor to Grat, the weather was grim as the sky and sun were hidden by grey clouds.

"..."

Elsa looked ahead with a stern gaze.

"Is something the matter?" Ophelia asked, standing beside her while the rest killed their time on the main deck.

"I wonder that myself... Since I woke up today, I can’t help but feel goosebumps all over my body..." Elsa replied, narrowing her eyes further.

Fortunately, they did not encounter monsters on the sea yet, however, that fact alone made Elsa feel more uncomfortable.

"It feels weird..."

"..."

Ophelia did not know what to say and gazed at Elsa concernedly.

"Should we head back then?"

Dura walked to them from behind.

Like Elsa, she seemed nervous.

"Grandma..."

Elsa looked Dura in the eyes.

"Yeah... Maybe that’s for the better..." Elsa admitted, palming her face tiredly.

"I-I will tell the helmsman then!" Ophelia suggested.

She may have not understood why the two of them were on edge but she trusted their judgment as Grand Order members. If they said that it would be better to return, then that would most likely really be the case.

Thus, Ophelia rushed to the helmsman on the other side of where she currently was, attracting everyone’s attention.

Her students curiously watched their teacher speaking to the helmsman with a somewhat panicked expression.

"Did something happen perhaps...?" Lisa wondered.

Uneasiness began to spread across the ship and especially the civilians were affected by it.

"N-no way...!"

"Could it be?!"

Some of them even got on their knees as they lost their composure, whereas others even began to cry.

"..."

With a drop of sweat rolling down his cheek, Harik observed those people.

Belian, in turn, turned his attention to the ship which was about to make a turn.

"Everyone, we’re heading back for now!" Ophelia tensely announced to everyone on the main deck.

"W-what?"

"What’s the reason...?"

Lily and Rachel were the first ones to approach Ophelia.

But before another word could be uttered out of the mouth of anyone, Elsa attracted everyone’s attention as she walked to the center.

"Everyone, stay on your guard and watch out for your surroundings, including any weird movements in the water!" she commanded sternly.

"!"

Then, all of them flinched for a moment upon the sound of thunder roaring in the sky. Ahead of them, the clouds turned darker and a storm was emerging there.

"What are you doing there?" Elsa shouted at the helmsman due to them being far away from each other.

"I-I-I can’t wheel this ship...!" the helmsman yelled anxiously.

"What?!"

Elsa hurriedly looked at the water below the ship where she noticed the sea monsters, which were tamed for the sea travel with a ship, shaking their bodies like crazy.

Desperately, they tried to free themselves from the chains which were chaining them to the ship.

"What the hell...?"

They behaved like they were scared of something and tried to get away.

"M-Ms. Sunoma! Look!" Lily shouted nervously, pointing in the other direction.

Elsa turned around and saw that the clouds all started to turn dark. It was as if they were trapped in the sea with a storm surrounding and approaching them.

"Shit." Elsa muttered stunned as she looked at the sky.

The number of thunder strikes increased and it sounded like they struck near them.

"Grandma! Harik! Sara! Get us away from here! Quickly!" she ordered in a panic.

"Y-yes!"

The three water mages headed to the helmsman’s spot and used their magic to manipulate the water.

Dura was the water mage of the Grand Order. Harik was an S-rank mage and Sara was on the verge of reaching the A-rank.

Combined, those three managed to push the ship forward at a high speed by carrying the ship on a big wave.

The civilians were yelling loudly as they held on the rails for dear life.

"Keep goi-"

Elsa stopped midway through her sentence as she turned her to the side of the ship.

And not just her, everyone on board sensed it.

"Don’t get distracted!" the sweating Dura told Sara and Harik who were about to lose focus.

Dozens of tornado whirlpools encircled a certain spot in the already restless sea. The sea darkened in that spot or rather, something large was about to break through the water from beneath.

And it did.

"This must be a bad dream..." Elsa murmured in disbelief.

For the first time in her life, her legs were shaking in fear as she gazed at the thing that just emerged from the sea.

The ship was wavering due to the large waves coming from the side.

"Elsa, get a grip!" Dura shouted.

However, her own arms were trembling, too.

"..."

Absentminded, Elsa kept on staring with huge eyes.

She and everyone else witnessed a dark grey sea serpent emerging from the depths of the sea.

It was so big that it could take up the entire space of Youra’s palace and the space around it. It was so long that its snake-like head could almost touch the sky. The head did not possess eyes, in place of eyes, it just had hollow holes where one could see nothing but darkness. It had sharp big teeth and scales on its back which were hard and sharp. And whenever it exhaled, those scales would slightly point diagonally to the outside.

That sea serpent was the root of humanity’s common fear of the sea and the conflict between South and North Grat, who tried to regain their freedom by killing it. It was the monster who did not let anyone survive yet after seeing it.

It was one of the four transcendental beings in existence, ’The Nightmare in the Sea’.

Leviathan.

"..."

Everyone was frozen. They reached a new level of fear where they could not even cry anymore.

The sea serpent looked in their direction as it lowered its head.

Then, it retracted the head until it thrust it forward again, coupled with a deafening roar.

"Argh!"

Shutting their ears with their hands, everyone on board got down, including the water mages who, therefore, had to stop moving the ship.

The roar was so tremendous that it even caused the ship to almost flip over from the side.

"Leviathan..." Sara muttered while still being frozen in fear.

Finally, she met the target of her revenge. The one who killed her father and was responsible for letting him suffer even after his death. The one who turned Tija mad and obsessed with it, leading ultimately to her death.

All the time, she told herself that she wanted to kill Leviathan. She thought that she could kill it without hesitation as her rage was pushing her.

And yet, here she was, trembling and unable to stand properly with tears dwelling in her eyes.

Sara’s only thought at that time was to go home.

And aside from her, the others thought the same. No one of them was insane enough to think about fighting it.

"So Leviathan really exists..." Elsa whispered to herself baffled.

She looked at the people with her.

Their gazes were obviously glued to it.

"H-hold on... This does not look good...!" Harik stuttered, taking a few steps back.

Leviathan spread its mouth wide open, where in front a large amount of water gathered in the form of a water ball. That water ball increased its size until it was as big as the head.

From said water ball a water beam was shot.

"UWAH!"

That attack may have not hit the ship directly but it hit the water right beside them, causing the ship to still get destroyed and the others to fall into the water.

Many of them were able to keep themselves up by holding onto pieces of the ship.

"Is everyone alr-"

"ARRGHH!"

Elsa turned in the direction of the scream and saw a woman, who was just a civilian, in pain as a large splinter was stuck in her shoulder.

A few others were injured, too, and bled from different spots, including those of the white class. However, the students were accustomed to getting injured compared to the normal civilian.

"Elsa! Are you alright?"

Dura, who was near Elsa, was concerned and checked on her.

"I’m fine. What about you?"

Dura nodded.

The two stared at Leviathan whose gaze did not waver from them.

"What will we d-"

"I love you."

"Elsa?"

Elsa did not once avert her stern gaze from Leviathan.

"I’m telling you this because this may be the last chance I have." she explained.

"Do you mean that..."

"Yes. We will all die here."