The Hollow God - 13 Greetings!

They realized the changes in their bodies were much bigger than they thought. It felt like if as long as they had mana, their bodies didn’t need anything else! Which was very convenient since they were no longer restricted to being in the water!

‘Hmmm …It probably has something to do with this golden core, but even after trying every one of my skills other than the power, speed, distance, and control everything seems the same. What i’m actually curious about is this purple mana though’

The little crab had fallen asleep on his back some time ago. Their bodies also no longer needed sleep either but it did feel good to get some shuteye once in a while.

The large manta took this time to study the mysterious purple mana that he had gotten from the whale. He hadn’t told the little crab about it yet since he knew she would definitely sulk for days if she found out he had gained the whales ability and she didn’t, so he decided to hide it from her for now.

‘Well thinking won’t really get me anywhere so i might as well try it out and see what it does.”

He started to slowly control a small amount of the purple mana outside of his body. As it moved along the water, the water seemed to move with it as well.

‘Is this the element of water? … no it feels a bit different..’

As he was deliberating what it could be he found there was a large school of fish nearby so he decided to experiment a bit more. Taking another bit of the mana, he controlled it like a net and moved it to surround the whole school of fish.

‘Help this manta with his experiment little friends, i’ll let you go after we are done’

He gently surrounded the alarmed fish with the net however, something quickly changed when the net finally closed! It was as if a large power suddenly acted from the purple mana itself which instantly crushed all the fish into one perfectly tiny red bead!

‘….cough …’

Making a promise that he will definitely help out the next fish he sees as repayment for taking their lives he decided to go back to his experiments.

‘No wait! It can’t be!!’ After another look at the red sphere sinking in the water an idea suddenly came to him!

The large manta once again resumed his experiments and quickly found out that his suspicions were indeed correct!

In front of a large manta in the middle of the ocean a large amount of water suddenly started slowly rising into the air, it would then move around strange patterns before falling back down into the sea.

‘Hahahah! The whale didn’t have the ability over water! He had the ability over gravity! .. wait does that mean that i could potentially….’ as a new idea suddenly sprouted he stopped everything he was doing and tried to see if it was possible.

By moving a large amount of mana at once he completely covered his body. He was being extra careful as he remembered exactly what happened to those fish.

Even though he could control hundreds of small clones at once this was still a bit tricky. The large manta had to find the exact amount of strength that the planet’s gravity was acting upon his large body and by using the same amount towards the opposite direction theoretically he should be able to fly!

He practiced for hours but still wasn’t able to get very far. Everyday from then he would wait until the little crab fell asleep and practiced for as long as he could, fortunately his new large and powerful body had such large reserves of mana that it practically felt endless. It took him over one month to finally succeed for the first time.

If someone was watching a certain place in the ocean at this moment they would be shocked. An incredibly large pitch black manta suddenly started rising slowly into the air from inside the ocean water.

“Finally!! Hahaha i can fly!!!” his excitement surged as he got higher and higher into the air. The strong cold wind that started to blow onto his body made him feel like there was no place in the world where he couldn’t go!

“Are we in the air?! How are we flying?” a shocked voice suddenly sounded from his back.

‘Oh no! She woke up! She’s going to sulk! She’s definitely going to sulk!’

“Uhh .. you see… this ….” He tried to explain as he could feel that her competitive spirit was ignited.

“Did you keep this a secret from me because you thought i wouldn’t be able to?! Hmph! I have a golden core just like you! If you can do it, so can i!” The angry little crab suddenly started moving large amounts of her golden mana.

“Sighs* little gold it’s not like that … you wouldn’t be able to do it even if you wanted to..” seeing the little crab turning slightly red from her normal golden color from trying so hard the large manta was speechless.

“Ok look the truth is tha-….” he suddenly stopped talking in shock as he felt the feeling of the tiny crab disappear off his back!

‘Did she throw herself off!?’

“Little gold suicide isn’t the answer!!” the large manta shouted as he started looking around for a falling speck of gold. The strange thing was that even though his bottom face was always looking down he never saw her fall down at all! As he was thinking of whether he should jump into the water to look for her he heard a sweet voice sounding out from over him.

“hehehe told you i could do it! It wasn’t even that hard!” the little crab was hovering in the air with a golden aura surrounding her body, she looked like a crab god that had descended from the heavens!

“This ….. …. Impossible!”

“Hmph! What? Do you think i’m not as good as you???” hearing the anger in that usually pleasant voice made the large manta shiver slightly.

“No no! It’s not that .. it’s … it’s just..”

“Isn’t it just surrounding your body with the golden mana? What’s so hard about that? Do you really think so little of me?” her tone had quickly changed from anger to sadness

“No of course not! I was just … it was a surprise! Yes I just wanted to give you a surprise! It actually took me days to learn how to fly but you learned in less than a minute! Little gold is much more talented than me!”

Hearing the sudden praise her mood once again flipped almost instantly

“Of course i am! See, even after growing so much you still aren’t as talented in magic as this little crab! You are lucky that you have such a powerful person willing to follow you!” The happiness in her voice was easy to see. The little crab then slowly lowered herself back onto the back of the large manta.

‘Looks like she was starting to feel insecure because of how strong and big i had gotten… well at least she’s happy’ His two large mouths breaking out into a smile, he decided it was time to go and was about to speed off into the distance when he saw something in the horizon!

“It’s! It’s land!! Little gold look!” He called out excitedly.

By manipulating the gravity his body started to quickly move. From the height he was sure it was actually land this time! He could see the sand and trees! He could even see all those little creatures on the shore!

“…. Wait, those were humans! There are hundreds of them! Little gold are they here to welcome us? Wait but how did they know i was coming?”

The tiny crab poked its head out from the back of the manta and looked curiously at those humans that the manta always told her about

“Little gold my body is too big now so I don’t want to scare them. I’ll cover us in a big black cloud and try to communicate with them first. Hmm, I’ll try to show them my good side..”

———————-

“Quickly put down the injured and start treating their wounds! The ocean is the territory of the sea god so they won’t get too close.” the old man with white hair and brown eyes shouted out directions as he also joined in to help.

This large group of people consisted mostly of the old, women, and young and all the injured however were men.

“Village head what about the people that stayed behind? Are we going to let them die???!” a group of older kids went up to the old man and started shouting.

“Hmm and what can you do huh?! Can you fight against those things?! They are holding them back so we could escape, are you telling me you want to go back and get yourself killed and make their sacrifices be in vain!??” the old man shouted out in anger, you could see his blood vessels popping up from his neck

A tall kid with teary brown eyes and hair that was leading the group started squeezing his fist so hard that his skin tore and started to bleed.

“Sighs* look little Jino, I know you are frustrated but he stayed behind so you and your mother could survive. Your father, my son is out there now fighting for us right now, how could i not know what you are thinking? I’m sure he will survive and come back to us so help me take care of the injured villagers for now”

Throwing out the thoughts of going out the kids spread out and started to help out wherever they were needed. As the old chief looked around he started to wonder what they would have to do once this was over.

‘If none of the men come back we are going to have to migrate and look for another village to join with and hope they will take us….. Huh? Is it going to rain? ‘ the old man looked up confused at the sky that was perfectly sunny just a moment ago.

A large black cloud had come from the ocean and completely covered the shore where the villagers were in a dark shadow. The disappearance of the light made the temperature suddenly drop. Every villager felt a chill pass through their body as they also looked up in confusion.

The dark clouds slowly parted at the center showing a giant smiling face as big as a large castle. The lifeless eyes looking down at everyone from above seemed to peer into all of their souls. Before anyone could react a powerful voice sounded in their minds. It seems to be speaking a language they didn’t know but they could fully understand it for some reason.

“Ahem,ahem! Greetings fellow humans!”

The villagers that had just barely escaped death were suddenly thrown into despair once again. Children burst into tears as the women started to scream in fear. Everything was thrown into chaos as everyone ran into different directions like headless flies.

“Huh? Why?! Why are you running?!”