I stared at the blood-soaked Taeheo, my eyes widening for a moment. Was it dead? Had everything just ended with that single strike?
[It would be wise to understand.]
"...!"
It was not. I flinched, glancing around, but nothing was visible. Yet the voice of Taeheo, which I had torn apart before my very eyes, echoed like a lingering resonance, clear and distinct.
[What it is you live beneath.]
Hearing sounds I could comprehend meant it had to be nearby. But the creature was nowhere to be seen. At least, not within reach of my Tide Sense.
And with the entire world submerged under the Deep Sea, for it to be beyond the reach of my Tide Sense... Without thinking, I tilted my head up toward the sky.
"...This is absurd..."
I had witnessed all manner of grotesque spectacles by now. But this—something even I could never have imagined—was unfolding across the sky I had swallowed whole. In ancient times, people would gaze up at the night sky, tracing the few scattered stars and imagining them as a scorpion or a water-bearer.
Now, imagination was unnecessary. The connected stars formed a vivid, unmistakable shape that any seeing eye could perceive. Taeheo existed in the sky, composed of stars.
'Is this an illusion?' A thought bordering on certainty struck me. Whatever it had done, I was convinced it had manipulated my senses.