Above the Sea -4

Tougen quickly closed the distance to the keep, reaching out to embrace it. However, a membrane of water formed around the keep, blocking his advance.

Tougen was unable to get closer, and the frozen membrane suddenly exploded, sending shards of ice slicing into Tougen's skin.

Unable to stop his momentum, he was slammed against the ship.

A massive amount of water came crashing down onto the vessel.

Receiving such a force directly would surely sink the ship.

Heat the compressed air bullet in my hand with electricity.

The consumption of mana is intense, but there's no time to hesitate.

Impact the thoroughly heated air into the massive amount of water.

The water and air collide, generating a vast amount of steam.

Yet the overwhelming volume of water narrowly avoids the ship as it falls.

The view becomes obscured by water and darkens.

"Water, bloom."

The moment visibility cleared, the words rang out clearly—water clinging to the ship instantly reacted.

The water froze, blossoming into ice arrows scattered across the surroundings.

They pierced the ship, shattering it.

No way, this can't be happening!?

Instinctively, I pulled Rina close and used the fire crystal to warm the air.

I melted the ice around myself, avoiding the attack.

The other crew members were no slouches, having brought along veterans. Each managed to dodge using their own methods, avoiding fatal blows.

Tougen shattered the ice with his blade.

"Nothing to it."

Even as he was wounded, Tougen stubbornly pressed forward toward the main keep.

That won't get us anywhere.

I have to clear a path to the main keep somehow...

I fixed my gaze on the main keep.

Not a single enemy or ally was spared—everything in sight was attacked.

I made up my mind.

I'll protect this ship, even if I have to kill the opponent.

I instantly seized control of the surrounding magical energy.

First, I heated the air, making it difficult to form ice.

Everyone except the Demon King instantly broke out in sweat, their throats parched, swallowing hard.

All the ice around the ship melted completely.

Next, I gathered moisture from the surroundings into my right hand.

We're above the sea. In an instant, I gathered a massive amount of moisture.

I launched the collected moisture as an ultra-high-pressure water cannon directly at the turrets.

The turrets attempted to form an ice barrier, but the temperature was too high for ice to form—instead, it became a water membrane.

An ultra-high-pressure water cannon.

I thought the pressure difference would easily pierce through such a water membrane, but this is, after all, the turrets.

Even though the surrounding magical energy was under the control of the Demon King, she managed to gather an enormous amount of water from the sea, forming an extremely thick membrane that neutralized the water cannon.

Everyone looked on in despair at the sight.

No attack could reach her.

Only the Demon King smiled, his expression shifting slightly.

Mid-attack, he tossed in a single magical stone—one crafted using insights gained from treating the magical stone disease.

A magic stone that had degraded to the point of being dry and brittle, restored to its original state by channeling the mana generated within my body.

Normally, transferring one's internal mana into a degraded magic stone is impossible due to the stone's intense resistance.

However, thanks to the advanced control over my mana and the time I've invested in cultivating it, I can now restore it to normal.

The unique characteristic of this magic stone is its exceptionally high responsiveness to my mana.

I threw the magic stone into the water membrane created by the Heavenly Guardian.

I raised my right hand toward the water membrane, dispersing the magical essence within the stone into the membrane.

Good, it's spread sufficiently.

Now, like this!

Using the magical essence now spread across the water membrane, I seized control of the water the Heavenly Guardian had been manipulating.

The water membrane instantly dispersed, as if shattered by the Demon King, revealing the Heavenly Guardian's true form.

His form, covered in demonic stones, bore an expression that could be read as either rage or sorrow, his arms raised high.

"Shade of the Blade, hurry! Bring the Heavenly Guardian down onto this ship!"

Before my words had even finished, he soared forward, approaching the Heavenly Guardian and embracing it. Then, in one swift motion, he descended onto the ship.

"Good. Now, proceed with treatment. Shade of the Blade, place the Heavenly Guardian at the center of the circle, and connect it to this liquid."

I toss the small bottle containing the liquid gemstone to Tengushu.

I place the Heavenly Guardian at the center of the circle, drawn with liquid gemstone.

I check on the other personnel and begin the treatment.

The Heavenly Guardian struggles, letting out incoherent cries as it tries to push Tengushu aside.

Sharp protrusions of the gemstone cut into Tengushu, but Tengushu does not loosen its grip.

Confirming that it is firmly restrained, he focuses entirely on the treatment.

The procedure is simple.

He will move the demonic stone consuming her body through liquid demonstone.

The destination is this ship.

All matter contains spiritual energy.

Naturally, this ship also contains spiritual energy.

It is possible to bond that spiritual energy with the demonic stone ravaging her body.

However, there is resistance—making it extremely difficult to achieve a complete fusion.

That would be impossible for an ordinary person.

But I can do it. Since coming to this world, I've dedicated my life to studying the demon stone.

I'll show you just how much I can accomplish.

With the force to control all the spiritual energy in this space, I access the demon stone within Tenjū's body and channel it through a path made of liquid demon stone, distributing it throughout the ship's various sections.

Moving with precision, yet boldness.

Tenjū begins coughing up blood.

"Eh? What should I do?"

Though Tōgen is flustered, there's no time to worry.

Tenjū's body has been largely replaced with demon stones—so much so that one could say even her bones are made of them.

This was confirmed through magical essence detection.

In other words, if we treat her condition and remove the demon stones from her body, her tissues will vanish.

Therefore, her cells must rapidly regenerate.

We'll be using a large quantity of healing crystals.

While converting the spiritual energy within her body into crystals would erode her body, keeping the spiritual energy in its natural state has already been confirmed to cause no erosion.

However, the biggest challenge is maintaining the spiritual energy in its natural state—it's extremely difficult.

That's where this ship comes in.

Using crystals transferred from the keep, we'll supply spiritual energy from this vessel. I'll be in control of regulating the spiritual energy.

Convert the magic stones taken from the keep into spiritual energy, then channel them through recovery stones back into the keep.

Any bodily parts lost as magic stones will be temporarily compensated for by me using spiritual energy.

This is the strategy: to restore the body during that interval.

Though I devised this method out of a desire to achieve advanced human healing without relying on special body magic stones,

it proved far too difficult, requiring an excessive amount of spiritual energy and magic stones—so impractical that I had long abandoned it.

Precisely, it can only be used within the keep.

The ship slowly advanced toward the imperial shore.

Suddenly, the mouth of the keep opened, and words formed.

"Blood...