Chapter 950

Most Awakeners struggled when forced to use more power than they were accustomed to. Just ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) because someone could lift a sack of rice with ease didn’t mean they could suddenly handle two with the same grace. It required enduring unfamiliar pain and exercising even finer control—something that remained difficult even after years of training.

In both his past and present lives, Yuder Aile had been asked the same question countless times.

How do you endure it?

How can you expand your strength and senses so suddenly, and still stay in control?

Yuder always gave the same answer: practice.

It wasn’t a lie. Practice might feel useless in the short term, but over time, repeated effort allowed one to suddenly summon great power and respond to it with far more precision and resilience.

But there was one secret Yuder never shared—one truth he had kept unspoken.

Since his Awakening, not once had Yuder ever found the act of rapidly expanding his power painful or difficult.

“......”

From Yuder’s body, a haze-like force seeped endlessly into the sea. Though invisible, the trembling of the surrounding water made it clear that the energy had finished aligning with his will.

All the water in this place, in the end, would flow toward land. His expanded senses followed the current’s direction and began reading its movements.

The process felt almost like forgetting oneself... and becoming the sea itself.

The sea flowed tirelessly, unbothered by whatever disturbances churned within it.

It brushed past fleeing schools of fish, small crabs hiding and crouching in crevices, and passed under the feet of Dover and the first team members waiting on the surface, standing stiff and bracing themselves.

Like a dark blue horse charging with wild abandon, the wave finally hurled itself against the breakwater Yuder had once departed from. With a crashing roar, the wave flipped and shattered into white foam.

Yuder’s consciousness scattered with the droplets of water composing that wave. One tiny droplet, briefly suspended in air, didn’t return to the sea—but instead clung to the tip of a man’s shoe, standing with his feet in the shallows.

Golden hair whipped in the wind, disheveled yet unfazed. The man stared down at the waves with unshaking crimson eyes, deep and burning like the sunset.

There was no way he could be looking at Yuder—but in that moment, Yuder’s heart, calm and one with the sea, suddenly thudded fiercely, as though it were being pumped with hot blood.

—Thump.

The droplet on the man’s shoe couldn’t hold any longer and slid off, returning to the sea.

And in that exact moment, Yuder opened his eyes.

—Fwaaaah!

His golden gaze blazed in the dark ocean like a star.

The sea, which had been trembling harder and faster, finally began to respond to Yuder’s will.

In the darkness, one of the members—relying on the bracelet’s faint glow—gritted his teeth as he unleashed yet another water blade, only to suddenly flinch and clutch the back of his neck.

Damn it!

Slicing the enormous tentacle again and again was hard, but manageable. Dodging in the dark whenever it thrashed wildly and dealing with injuries from missteps wasn’t the problem.

But the tiny, invisible creatures that had started to gather around them—biting, clawing—were something else entirely. They broke his concentration, made his skin crawl, and drew curses from his lips. At one point, distracted, he failed to fully dodge an attack and hurt his leg.

Luckily, under the sea, even limited leg movement wasn’t much of an issue.

He grabbed the creature that had been gnawing on his neck and ripped it away. His skin stung—probably bleeding.

Yuder said just attack and don’t do anything else... but how long are we supposed to keep this up?

As blood swirled into the water and his head spun, he shook it quickly to refocus.

Suddenly, the water surrounding him froze.

—......

...What the hell?

Holding his breath, he scanned the area carefully.

No... it’s not just the water...

The frenzied thrashing of the tentacles and the ominous tremors from below, which had grown stronger the more they attacked—all of it stopped.

It was as if everything had frozen.

The water that surrounded them—the entire sea—seemed to halt in place. A strange, surreal stillness.

What was this? A chill ran down his spine. He instinctively gulped and looked around.

And then... in the vast, dark sea filled with floating remnants, he saw it.

A golden light, like a lighthouse, standing tall.

Through the glow, he could clearly see the pale face of Yuder Aile.

Hair floating in the water like a black veil, face expressionless.

The member instinctively understood. Whatever this was—he didn’t know how—but it was definitely Yuder Aile’s power.

As he parted his lips in awe, the frozen sea suddenly began to move again.

...Ah.

Who could’ve imagined seeing something like this in their lifetime?

Centered around Yuder, an enormous flow of water surged outward—sweeping away everything that surrounded them. Torn seaweed, dead marine creatures, everything that had obstructed movement, and finally—

Countless pieces of shattered monsters.

All of it, swept away in a torrent that seemed less like water and more like a titanic storm made of water itself.

On land, even if one unleashed great power, the sky remained above and the ground below held firm. A person’s actions were mere ripples beneath the heavens.

But underwater? There was no sky, no ground—only water and darkness.

In that vast emptiness, a power like this made it feel as though the whole world was within reach.

Uwah...!

For a moment, he almost screamed as the storm surged toward him—but it bypassed him, pulling only the thing that had bitten his neck. When he came to his senses, the previously chaotic waters around him had been completely cleansed.

How... is this even possible?

How could a single human do something like this?

As the overwhelming sensation faded, the current swept around the world and began to disappear into the distance—following the direction Yuder had indicated.

The sea rushed forward like a massive, galloping beast, carrying all the fragmented monsters with it.

Yuder’s golden eyes burned brighter, and his face grew paler. It was easy to guess that his strength had been massively drained—but somehow, that made him seem even more godlike, not less.

Despite wielding such an unfathomable force, not a drop of blood marked him. Only after the monstrous current vanished into the distance, after it dragged the fragments far away, did the sea around them finally begin to settle—very slowly.

And in the center of it all, still... stood Yuder Aile.

His golden eyes flickered, then slowly faded beneath his eyelids, only to open again. Still golden, though no longer burning with blinding intensity—less like flame, more like human eyes again.

“......”

No one spoke.

What reaction could anyone possibly have in a moment like this?

It felt—no exaggeration—as if the entire visible world had moved under the command of one man. And that man, who had performed something none of them could even attempt, still wore an impassive face, devoid of strain.

He felt distant. Like someone not of this world.

As the member stood frozen, Yuder slowly raised his hand and spoke.

“—Focus. It’s not over yet.”

His clear, firm hand signal finally snapped them out of their trance.

Ah... right. It’s not... wait, what?

He just did that, and it’s not over?!

Of course not. Down below, far larger clumps of the monster still writhed—much more than what had just been expelled.

There was no chance it would stop here. Similar tentacles would soon emerge. It would just take a little more time.

All Yuder could do now was wait.

For a first attempt, it was fairly successful. But quite a few members were injured... I’ll need to check on them.

What the hell did you just do?! Where did all that go?!

Now fully conscious again, the members rushed to him in a flurry of questions. Yuder answered quietly.

“As you saw, I sent them. To the land.”

That’s safe?

“That’s why I sent Steber. The Commander is up there.”

Ah...!

The team finally understood completely—what they needed to do, and what had just happened.

Yuder thought of the shoreline, where the monsters he’d successfully launched were now headed.

He believed in Kishiar. If it was him, he would undoubtedly take care of everything Yuder had sent.

And now—

Yuder finally heard the words of success, delivered by Steber, who had returned.