Magical Girl's Knight Brother

Chapter 696 The Lord Sleeping in the Deep Sea!

cold.

Bone-chilling cold.

The icy touch instantly enveloped my entire body; it wasn't low temperature in the physical sense, but an absolute chill that pierced my soul and froze my will.

Even Tang Zijun, who was immune to heat and cold, couldn't help but shiver. The chill was like millions of invisible ice needles that pierced through the wolf riders' thick armor, ignored the barrier of flesh and blood, and stabbed into his mind. Countless distorted phantoms seemed to flicker before his eyes, and countless resentful words rang in his ears, trying to drag his reason into an eternal frozen abyss.

Tang Zijun groaned, forcefully dispelling the pervasive mental invasion. He immediately realized that the chill did not come from the water temperature, but from the filthy sea itself, thoroughly tainted by the will of the sleeping lord of the deep sea. It was repelling and eroding him.

In an attempt to assimilate all intruders.

What made his heart sink even more was the strange sensation coming from his body.

The mobile war wolf form, transformed from Langya, was emitting a low, painful, and exhausted electronic wail.

The massive body, covered in hard armor, struggled to move forward in the viscous, blood-red seawater. Each stroke was unusually sluggish, and the energy glow that had flowed on the surface of the armor became extremely dim. Even fine, twisted ripples, as if corroded by strong acid, appeared. The precise hydraulic transmission devices at the joints emitted a piercing friction noise, as if they were about to collapse at any moment.

Tang Zijun could clearly feel the signal coming from the core of Langya—a mournful cry on the verge of its limit.

It is being ravaged by the power of this filthy sea. The extradimensional core of the greedy is now enduring terrifying pollution from the ancient rulers, far exceeding its limits. It is as if billions of filthy tentacles are relentlessly drilling into its energy circuits, gnawing at the very foundation of its existence.

Ultimately, Langya was merely a creation of a greedy official at the bureaucratic level.

It could accompany Tang Zijun through countless dangers, tear through steel torrents, and burn monster lairs, but it was too low-level to face this abyss sea that nurtured the ultimate evil god and contained the cosmic level of filth. This place was already a forbidden zone for its life.

Another, clearer, weaker sob followed, this time transmitted directly to Tang Zijun's consciousness through the mental link.

Tang Zijun's eyes beneath the wolf-head helmet became complicated. He suddenly stopped, his body abruptly halting in the deep sea, stirring up the viscous, blood-red water and creating a turbid whirlpool.

"Enough, Langya." Tang Zijun's deep, gentle electronic voice rang out, piercing the deathly silence and water pressure of the deep sea. "You've done enough."

With a thought, the core of the Time-Space Driver at his waist lit up slightly.

hum!

A soft light instantly enveloped the massive mobile war wolf form, and its heavy armor, huge spear, and surging power core rapidly disintegrated in the light as if time had reversed.

The massive metal component transformed back into a pure flow of energy, eventually condensing into a card that shimmered with a stable silver-gray metallic luster. On the card, the once roaring motorcycle wolf image now appeared unusually quiet, even carrying a hint of weariness.

Tang Zijun carefully caught the card that carried the life of her companion and gently put it into the innermost part of the card box at her waist, close to the card that emitted a warm golden light, the Trident of the Sea God.

"Thanks, old friend," Tang Zijun's voice whispered in her mind. "Get some rest. Leave the rest to me."

He raised his head, his scarlet electronic eyes piercing through the viscous, dark red seawater, gazing down into the seemingly endless, even deeper abyss of darkness. His gaze instantly hardened to the hardest ice.

Without the support of Langya, Tang Zijun's massive steel body immediately felt the terrifying water pressure of the deep sea. The viscous, blood-like seawater seemed to have transformed into a massive, heavy substance, squeezing in from all directions.

But Tang Zijun's figure remained as immovable as a pillar stabilizing the sea. He adjusted his posture, like a nimble yet heavy steel mermaid, and began to rely on his own strength to dive deeper into the abyss.

Without the roar of the engine, the deep sea became deathly silent, with only the faint sound of water pressure squeezing the armor and the heavy, powerful thumping of his own heart under the thick metal.

Dive, keep diving.

The surrounding light had long since vanished, leaving only eternal darkness.

Only the crimson electronic eyes of the wolf riders and the faint golden light emanating from the Trident of the Sea God card, like two stubborn stars, tenaciously illuminated this small area in absolute darkness.

The viscous, dark red seawater turned into pure inky black, within which countless indescribable shadows seemed to writhe and peer, their bone-chilling, soul-corroding coldness like maggots clinging to the bone, constantly trying to break through Tang Zijun's willpower.

In absolute darkness, the scarlet electronic eye flickered like a candle in the wind, its field of vision compressed to its limit, barely able to make out the viscous darkness a few meters in front of it.

The oppressive feeling brought by the slowly writhing, terrifying shadows deep within, like the abyss itself, and the slowly opening eyes containing endless madness, was almost suffocating.

"This can't go on..." Tang Zijun forcibly suppressed the nausea churning within him, his consciousness sinking into the card box. A card radiating a deep, eerie light, seemingly capable of absorbing all light, instantly appeared in his palm—[Dark Radiance Hermit].

"Transform!"

hum!

The silver-gray wolf rider armor instantly reformed, its heavy metallic texture replaced by a flowing shadow and solidified dark yellow earth elemental magic.

Tang Zijun's figure became more slender and supple, as if merging into the darkness of the deep sea itself. The armor presented a deep shadow color, and the surface was covered with dark yellow energy patterns like the veins of the earth. The wolf head feature on the helmet disappeared, replaced by a streamlined helmet covered with shadow armor and two points of ghostly green light flashing in the eyes.

This form endowed him with exceptional dark vision, environmental integration, and powerful earth elemental defense. A calm, weighty, and earth-rooted sense of power replaced the wolf rider's ferocity, helping him better resist the erosion on the spiritual level.

In Dark Shadow Hermit form, his vision instantly pierced through the viscous darkness, and his eerie green vision acted like night vision goggles, clearly outlining the surrounding environment.

However, the moment Tang Zijun saw the scene around him, he froze on the spot.

As far as the eye can see...

It is not an empty deep sea, nor a rugged underwater mountain range, but... the ocean, a boundless, slowly writhing living ocean made up of living things.

The deep-sea divers number in the tens of thousands, no, hundreds of thousands, millions, or even more, impossible to count. They are densely packed, layer upon layer, like the most frenzied sardine school, yet a billion times more terrifying than a sardine school.

They are hunched over, covered with slippery scales that shimmer with a dark green or grayish-black sheen.

Webbed fingers and sharp claws at the ends of hands and feet.

The head resembled a terrifying combination of a human and a deep-sea monster, with protruding, murky fish eyes without eyelids now tightly closed, and a huge mouth gaping open to reveal crisscrossing, razor-sharp teeth, with thick saliva dripping from the corners of its mouth.

Their bodies are twisted and deformed; some have extra limbs, some have long, eel-like tails, and some have backs covered with wriggling tumors or sharp bone spurs.

Without exception, all the deep-diving beings were suspended in the viscous, blood-red seawater, maintaining an eerie and devout stillness. Their hands were crossed over their chests, like the most fervent believers, silently praying towards the terrifying shadow in the depths of the abyss below.

Endless, in all directions.

Tang Zijun felt like a pebble thrown into a living swamp composed of countless twisted, rotting, and praying fish-men. The dense, scalp-splitting sight instantly ignited the deep-sea fear and trypophobia deep within his soul. In his eerie green vision, the writhing, scaly, layered limbs and torsos formed a maddening, living hellscape that he hadn't noticed at all during his deep dive!

"This is... the Deep Ones..." Tang Zijun's icy voice rang out from beneath the visor, tinged with solemnity. "The lowest and most numerous of the Great Old Ones' corrupted kin..."

His gaze pierced through the layers of deep-diving fish, like a living curtain, locking onto the direction of their collective prayer. It was in the abyss below, where a terrifying shadow, slowly crawling and exuding an aura of despair, lay, and where a chaotic light, like the eye of the abyss, had just opened a crack.

"Then, that's where..." A resolute glint flashed in Tang Zijun's eerie green eyes. "The core of the altar, its slumbering throne."

Without the slightest hesitation.

Tang Zijun controlled the Dark Radiance Hermit form, his body moving like the most agile shadow in the deep sea, silently beginning to descend. He carefully avoided the floating, praying deep-sea creatures, trying not to disturb this lifeless ocean composed of living beings.

The magic of the earth element formed a weak repulsive field on his body, allowing him to move more smoothly in the viscous seawater, while also isolating him from the foul odor emanating from the Deepsea scales to the greatest extent possible.

As they continued to descend, the number of deep-sea divers around them not only did not decrease, but actually became more and more dense.

Their bodies seemed to grow larger and more distorted, and their prayer postures appeared more fanatical and sacrificial. The concentration of spiritual pollution permeating the seawater reached a terrifying level, and even the earth elemental shield of the Darkshield began to emit a faint hissing sound, as if it were being corroded by invisible acid.

Just as Tang Zijun felt she was about to be buried alive by the endless Deep Ones, and about to have her reason torn apart by the crazy singing, a huge, unnatural gap suddenly appeared in the dense swarm of Deep Ones in front of her, which was like a living curtain.

It was as if there was something that even these lowest-ranking, crazed members of the clan dared not approach.

Tang Zijun's spirits lifted, and she immediately accelerated towards the empty area.

When he passed through the final layer of Deep Ones barrier, which resembled a wall of corpses, the sight before him filled him with an unprecedented sense of awe and insignificance, even in his Dark Shimmer Hermit form.

It was a relatively open sea area.

But this emptiness is only relative to the suffocating deep-sea ocean outside.

With his ethereal green vision piercing through the layers of deep-sea fish that writhed like living curtains, Tang Zijun surveyed the vast ocean, trying to find the figure of the sleeping master of the deep sea.

But soon, an indescribable, bone-chilling sense of being watched, like billions of invisible ice needles, instantly pierced through the shield of his Dark Shimmer Hermit form and plunged deep into the depths of his soul.

This doesn't come from the front, but from under your feet.

"From that dark ground that he thought was just ordinary seabed silt."

Tang Zijun's body stiffened abruptly. He subconsciously looked down, his Dark Radiance Hermit's dark vision enhanced to its extreme, piercing through the viscous, bubbling, filthy seawater beneath his feet. What he saw... was not reefs, not silt, not the seabed.

It was a vast landmass that exceeded the limits of his vision and even his spatial perception.

It has a dark, dull texture, like a mixture of cooled lava and rotting flesh. Its surface is covered with huge folds and ridges, like mountain ranges and ravines. Between these "mountains and ravines" flow, no, pulsate, countless thick, meandering veins, like rivers. Each pulsation of these veins makes the surrounding seawater tremble, emitting a nauseating stench of blood and deep-sea silt.

In the central area of ​​this land, directly below Tang Zijun.

A... indescribably huge depression... is... slowly... opening!

No, that's not a dent.

That was an eye.

A gigantic eye covered by a translucent, thick, grayish-white eyelid, as heavy as an ancient glacier!

At this moment, those grayish-white eyelids, like two ancient continental plates covered in moss separating, rose upwards with a terrifying, slow, suffocating yet unstoppable force.

As the eyelids lift, what is first revealed is a deep, viscous, pure blackness below.

That blackness was not nothingness, but contained endless chaos and coldness. Just by looking at it, Tang Zijun felt her reason was like glass exposed to strong acid, groaning under the unbearable pressure.

Then, in the depths of that pure black abyss, a chaotic light, indescribable by any known color, slowly shone. The light did not illuminate the darkness; instead, it made everything around it appear even more profound and insane.

This giant eye, which is opening, is embedded in the vast and incomprehensible land below, like the largest crater on the moon's surface, or it could be said that it is the most essential sensory organ of this land.

A terrifying, overwhelming pressure, hundreds or even thousands of times stronger than before and originating from the very essence of life, descended with the weight of the entire planet, directly impacting every cell and every wisp of Tang Zijun's soul.

Click click click!

The earth elemental shield of the Dark Shimmer Hermit form was like a fragile eggshell, instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks. Tang Zijun felt as if he had been thrown into the core of a neutron star. His body, soul, and even his ability to think seemed to be imprisoned by this irresistible power.

He didn't move a finger, staring wide-eyed at the earth beneath him, as the terrifying giant eye slowly and irresistibly opened completely.

The next moment, the Eye of Chaos locked onto him completely.

Tang Zijun's lips twitched, unsure of how to respond to the other person's gaze.

It turns out, it wasn't me who found it.

I had already stood on it.

So this entire seabed is part of its body.