EPISODE 44: Bake-Kujira (Part 4)

Inside the Spirit Realm that was beginning to crack and collapse, the mutated energy pillar of green light infused with gold reflected squarely back and struck the ocean lord.

"UGGGHHH!"

A deeply anguished groan thundered from the Bake-Kujira's bone jaw. The impact didn't merely shatter portions of its rib cage — it burned the core of its soul from the inside. The ancient whale was thrown backward, crashing into the boundary of its own dimension until the green reality around it began shattering like glass.

Ursilium — the true divine form of Zenoda — stood with absolute elegance at the center of the destruction. His white coat with gold tribal markings billowed gently, completely unaffected by the spiritual storm raging around him.

"So..." Ursilium's voice resonated heavily, saturated with an authority that could not be argued with. "...will you release me now?"

Feeling the absolute dominance that could erase its entire existence with a snap of fingers, the Bake-Kujira's arrogance collapsed without a trace. The ancient creature that had been the terror of the seas was now trembling in fear.

"Alright! Alright, I'll let you out of here!" the Bake-Kujira pleaded, its voice now reduced to something pitiful and desperate. "Please... don't kill me! If my soul is destroyed, the ocean will lose its balance!"

Ursilium narrowed his eyes, emitting killing intent that dropped the dimension's temperature instantly.

"HUHHHH!!!"

The shockwave from that single exhale of Ursilium's sent the Bake-Kujira into greater panic. The sea monster understood that the "ocean's balance" argument meant nothing to the King of the Universe. It needed a considerably better offer to buy back its life.

"Please! Please! Please!" the Bake-Kujira shrieked hysterically. "What about this — in exchange for my life, I'll become your Contract Monster! I'll submit to your commands and serve you across these oceans! How does that sound?!"

Ursilium paused for a moment. His golden eyes regarded the colossal skeletal whale now bowing in helpless submission before him. He analyzed the offer within his mind. Having a mount or an asset on sea routes might not be entirely useless for the expedition to the Southern Continent ahead.

"Huhhhh... Very well," Ursilium answered in a bored tone. "One never knows when something like you might prove useful later."

With the agreement settled, Ursilium pressed his hand against his own chest and slowly resealed his golden power. His white hair returned to deep black, and his eyes became dark again. The divine form faded — returning Zenoda to his mortal vessel form, now filled with wounds and the extreme exhaustion from forcing open the seals.

Zenoda's consciousness slowly dimmed as the Spirit Realm dimension collapsed and expelled him outward.

The time had reached the depths of midnight. Above the dark clouds hanging over the ocean, Valerius and Annesia rode the Flame Griffon. They were completely exhausted. Their eyes stung from continuously scanning the pitch-black sea surface in search of the whale.

At the point where despair had begun creeping into Valerius's heart and they were nearly ready to give up and return to the ship... the sea surface below them suddenly surged violently.

BWOOOOSH!

The bone whale Bake-Kujira erupted through the ocean surface, breaking through the waves with its colossal body.

"VALERIUS! THERE IT IS! ATTACK!" Annesia screamed, her voice breaking with fury.

Annesia immediately stood on the Griffon's back, channeling every last reserve of her fire mana into the tip of her staff. She prepared to unleash a high-tier Phoenix Flare. Ahead of her, Valerius ground his teeth and commanded the Griffon into a sharp dive while preparing its ultimate Inferno Blaze. They were ready to burn the whale to ash in revenge for their instructor.

But just as they were about to release those killing spells, the ancient whale did something strange.

The Bake-Kujira didn't attack the ship. Instead, the creature raised its bone snout toward the night sky and performed a Spouting.

WHOOOOSH!

Not water or steam that shot from the top of its head — but a vortex of spiritual energy. And from within that energy vortex... a human body was hurled launching high into the air.

Annesia, whose magical instincts were razor sharp, immediately cancelled her fire spell. Her focused eyes tracked the launched silhouette. She felt a residual mana signature she knew extremely well emanating from that body.

Annesia's breath caught. "That's Instructor! Valerius, catch him — now!"

"On it!"

Valerius swiftly pulled the reins. The Flame Griffon cancelled its attack and redirected its dive into a sharply rising maneuver. The fire lion-bird moved at full speed, cutting through the night wind.

With precision timing, just as Zenoda's body began falling freely back toward the ocean, Annesia leaned out and caught the collar of her instructor's coat. Valerius grabbed Zenoda as well, pulling him up onto the Griffon's saddle.

They both looked at Zenoda. He was unconscious, his breathing extremely faint.

"We have him! Get back to the Vivaldi ship now!" Annesia cried, hugging her instructor's body tightly so he wouldn't fall.

Upon reaching the Koreson ship's deck, Valerius landed the Griffon. His mana completely exhausted to zero, Valerius dismissed his Familiar — and the Flame Griffon dissolved into particles of light. The noble young man dropped to sitting, completely overwhelmed from forcing his spell limits throughout the long search flight.

Ziryal, Agru, Cedric, and Elara immediately ran toward them.

Linaya — the primary Healer — quickly stepped forward. She channeled light healing magic to stabilize Valerius's breathing first, ensuring the young man wouldn't collapse. Once Valerius was confirmed stable, Linaya moved immediately to examine Zenoda, who had been laid down on the wooden deck.

But when Linaya's healing light illuminated Zenoda's body... she went wide-eyed with horror, covering her mouth with one hand.

"W-what is this...?" Linaya whispered, trembling.

Everyone who came close reacted with equal shock. They saw Zenoda's right hand and right leg in a deeply alarming condition. The skin on both areas appeared to have blackened as though decomposing from exposure to high-tier corrosive poison. And beneath the peeling skin, the veins were visible — glowing faintly with residual golden energy — and the bones appeared severely cracked, like porcelain on the verge of shattering.

"Oh god... his arm and his leg..." Cedric swallowed, unable to look directly.

Without delay, Karham and Cedric lifted Zenoda's body with extreme care and carried him into his cabin room, followed by Linaya and the rest of the group in collective panic.

After laying Zenoda on the mattress, Linaya immediately cleared the room of everyone except Karham, who stood guard at the door. The blonde-haired healer concentrated every last reserve of her sacred mana. She applied the most powerful and most exhausting healing technique she possessed: Holy Restoration.

White-golden light illuminated the cabin without pause. One hour passed... two hours passed. Sweat soaked every part of Linaya's body, her face drained white.

After more than two and a half hours of fighting to contain the strange "decomposition" progressing through Zenoda's body, the light in Linaya's hands finally flickered and went out. The girl collapsed, her knees striking the wooden floor.

Hearing Linaya fall, Karham and the others immediately rushed in with panic.

"Linaya! Are you alright?!" Karham asked urgently, helping her sit up.

Linaya smiled weakly, panting for breath. "Yes... I'm alright, Karham. My mana is just completely gone. I can't use any healing magic for now."

Elara, standing at the doorway, gripped the fabric of her dress with both hands. "So... what is Zenoda's condition?"

The atmosphere inside the cabin instantly became very tense. Linaya bowed her head, drawing a long and heavy breath before she dared look at her companions.

"For now... his life is no longer in danger," Linaya explained, her voice saturated with guilt. "But for his right hand and right foot... the damage is very strange. It's not simply physical injury — it looks more like destruction from the inside, from an internal energy pressure of enormous force. I'll need to continue healing sessions with him regularly every day. But..."

Linaya bit her lower lip. "...for the final outcome, I honestly don't know. Whether Instructor will fully recover... or whether this becomes a permanent disability."

At that medical verdict, the room went silent.

Elara's chest felt constricted. The thought of a sword genius like Zenoda losing the use of his hand made her body tremble with overwhelming sadness. Unable to hold back the tears beginning to pool in her eyes, Elara decided to turn and walk quickly out of the cabin — seeking fresh air to calm the turmoil of her thoughts.

Once outside, on the ship's deck now lit by the moon that had emerged again, Elara leaned against the ship's railing. She breathed in deeply, wiping her eyes.

When her gaze drifted downward, she spotted a long object of deep black lying in the corner of the deck floor, not far from where Zenoda had first been brought down.

It was Zenoda's Iado sword. The gift from his mother, left behind — perhaps fallen during the landing.

Elara bent and picked up the weapon with both hands. It felt cold and very heavy, weighty as the responsibility this young man always carried on his shoulders. Without overthinking it, Elara pressed the black-sheathed sword against her chest and walked back toward Zenoda's cabin.

When she arrived at the doorway, she saw Cedric sitting in a wooden chair right beside Zenoda's bed, keeping watch over his companion while the God Wings members rested.

Hearing footsteps, Cedric looked up. "Your Highness. Why have you come back?"

Elara stepped inside with a slightly sorrowful expression, holding up the Iado. "I only came to return his sword — it was still left on the deck outside."

"Ah... I see," Cedric nodded slowly.

Elara set the black sword carefully on the small table beside the wardrobe. After that, she didn't leave immediately. Elara pulled an empty wooden chair over and sat down beside Cedric, facing the bed where Zenoda was sleeping with bandages wrapped around his right hand and right leg.

"Hey, Cedric," Elara said quietly, breaking the silence.

"Yes, Your Highness?"

Elara laced her fingers together in her lap, eyes fixed on Zenoda's pale face.

"I've just been thinking..." Elara said, her voice slightly unsteady. "Say he wakes up later, and Linaya says the prognosis for his recovery is very small. He automatically... won't be able to use a sword the way he used to anymore."

Cedric looked at Zenoda in silence, listening to the Princess's unease.

"I know why this happened — because he was inside the Bake-Kujira's body," Cedric murmured. "From what I heard from the Captain, and saw with my own eyes, that ancient monster has the ability to destroy the physical body of its victims — corroding them, melting them, causing a kind of decomposition. The fact that Zenoda survived and came out intact from inside that thing is already a miracle that defies all logic."

"Yes. I'm so grateful he's still alive," Elara answered sadly. "But even so, I keep thinking. When he comes back to the world in a condition like this... I think the arrogant nobles will mock him. They'll belittle him because he lost his strength. Especially when he has to return to the Academy, or when we arrive at the Southern Continent that worships the sword above all else. I'm terrified they'll treat him like an outcast and the refuse of society."

Hearing the Princess's fears, Cedric didn't show a flicker of doubt. The blonde young man's eyes sharpened, radiating the maturity and honor of a true Thundra Knight.

"If that happens..." Cedric said, his voice very firm, cutting through Elara's fear. "...then Agru, Valerius, and I will stand at the front to shield Zenoda from the ridicule of an entire continent. As he has repeatedly shielded our lives from death."

Elara turned, slightly surprised by Cedric's resolve.

"And also," Cedric continued, smiling quietly as he looked at someone he considered a friend and a teacher, "I am absolutely certain that Zenoda is a man whose heart is made of steel. From everything I have witnessed, he is someone who holds extremely firm to his own principles. Losing an arm will not shatter his spirit. That's why Agru, Valerius, and I follow him with pride and acknowledge him as our leader. And I'm certain... Your Highness would also do whatever is within your power to help Zenoda going forward, wouldn't you?"

At that rhetorical question, Elara smiled sincerely, her tears already dry. "Yes. Whatever it takes, I'd do it for him."

"Then Your Highness has nothing to worry about," Cedric said, closing the thought gently. "Because when Zenoda wakes up, I'm absolutely certain the first thing he asks won't be 'Am I disabled?' — it will be 'Are all of you alright?' Because Zenoda always believes we are his companions who will always stand shoulder to shoulder with him."

"You're right, Cedric," Elara laughed softly, feeling the weight in her heart lift. "Because this is the first time we've seen him in a condition this bad, sometimes we forget just how often this young man faces impossible problems and resolves them well. I really hope that miracle happens again this time."

The night grew later. The sound of waves became a lullaby. Physically and emotionally exhausted from the long sea battle, Elara and Cedric fell asleep without realizing it — their heads resting against the side of Zenoda's bed, keeping watch like loyal shields for their companion.

While his mortal body slept deeply in bandages aboard the wooden ship, Zenoda's consciousness was pulled far away — through the boundary of dimensions.

This dimension existed above all others, filled with a sprawling expanse of golden clouds, marble pillars rising to the edge of galaxies, and air that felt like absolute peace.

In the center of the heavenly hanging garden, the soul of Ursilium — now returned to the projected form of his teenage body (Zenoda) — was strolling casually around a cosmic pond, whistling to himself.

But that peace was immediately shattered by a piercing shout.

"MY LOOOOOORRRD URSILIUMMMM!"

Mincilia — the faithful attendant now in her true form, a beautiful adult woman with galaxy wings and elegant robes — came running toward Zenoda with a face saturated with maximum-level panic and fury.

Zenoda, who had been watching galaxy koi fish, turned with a flat expression. "Whattttt?"

Mincilia put both hands on her hips and pointed directly at her master's nose. "You definitely just used your true power when you were inside that whale, didn't you?!"

"Well..." Zenoda casually glanced away, scratching his cheek. "...only about 0.000000010% I'd say. I just meant to try intimidating that oversized fish a little."

Hearing that percentage — tiny yet still divine in scale — Mincilia grabbed her own hair with frustration.

"Uhhhhh! Does my Lord have any idea what the consequences are — what is happening to your mortal body down there right now?!" Mincilia scolded, in the exact tone of a mother reprimanding a misbehaving child.

Zenoda tilted his head in confusion. "Huhh? You mean my arm and leg rotting away? That's because the Bake-Kujira's spiritual acid dissolved me."

"HUHHHHHH!" Mincilia exhaled until her galaxy wings drooped.

With a snap of her fingers, Mincilia projected a floating crystal screen. Inside the crystal, the image of Zenoda's body lying on the ship's bed was clearly visible, complete with an analysis of his bone and mana structure.

"Watch carefully, my stubbornly hardheaded Lord," Mincilia said, pointing at Zenoda's right hand and right leg — visibly cracked and blackened on the crystal screen. "Your body isn't decomposing purely from the whale's poison! Your mortal vessel is currently experiencing Internal Destruction — it couldn't withstand the pressure of releasing Cosmic Energy through your soul's seals! Remember, a mortal body is not designed to channel Pure Golden Energy!"

Zenoda's eyes went wide as the reality hit him. So the cracking in his bones wasn't from the Bake-Kujira — it was from himself, from the overload.

"Be grateful you resealed it quickly," Mincilia continued with a pouty expression. "If you hadn't, it wouldn't just be the right hand and right leg that collapsed — your entire body would have exploded into stardust! So... as for the recovery process, my Lord doesn't need to worry. With my healing energy injected into your body periodically while you sleep, the restoration of your bones and nerves will take at least one week."

Hearing that his disability wasn't permanent and only required a week's rest, Zenoda immediately broke into a carefree, wide smile.

"Yeah, alright. It's fine then honestly. At least I have a reason to take a full week off from fighting!" Zenoda said in a thoroughly relaxed tone, waving his hand. "In that case, I'll head back to my body now, Mincilia. Those kids are probably crying over me."

With a light wave of his hand, Zenoda's soul faded into particles of light — pulled back into his physical vessel in the mortal world to continue his long sleep.

Left alone in the heavenly garden, Mincilia could only stare at the place her master had vanished from. Rather than being angry at being dismissed so casually, Mincilia crossed her arms over her chest. A deeply sincere and warm smile slowly spread across the goddess's face.

Mincilia murmured internally, her heart full of gratitude.

(Lord Ursilium has truly changed so much,) Mincilia thought, eyes glistening. (For billions of years in Zenith, he was so cold, so quiet, and always appeared suffocated by an unrelenting boredom. But now... after reincarnating, he can even smile broadly like that. He has companions who cry for him, and he is learning to protect mortal human beings.)

Mincilia giggled softly, covering her mouth with elegant grace. (Ehehe... watching him suffer the physical karma of his own body and react so casually about it — that was rather adorable, really. But well... at least my Lord can now genuinely have fun and find the meaning of living.)

With quiet composure, Mincilia returned to her duty. She wove threads of golden healing energy from the heavens, threading them through the boundary between dimensions, sending them directly into the body of the sleeping young man on the Koreson ship — keeping watch over him until the light of the next day arrived.