The Great Black Sea
黒海
Arthaex
Chapter 6: The Realm's Judgment
6/6/1542
The Realm of the Great Sea existed outside time, beyond space, a reflection of the infinite ocean itself. Waves suspended in midair, frozen like statues of liquid, shimmered with impossible colors. Currents twisted into spirals that defied logic. Storms hung still, massive walls of water and energy, each droplet pulsating with consciousness. The Realm itself breathed, alive and eternal, aware of the coming clash.
At its center, the most formidable entities in the oceans faced one another.
Umi No Omi, wielder of the Staff of the Sea, stood atop an impossibly high wave, black water spiraling beneath him, rising like towers of darkness. His eyes were black oceans, infinite and merciless. The Staff pulsed faintly, rippling with power older than men, older than kingdoms. Every movement he made bent the currents to his will, every heartbeat shifted the tides, every exhale rippled the boundaries of reality.
Opposite him, Kaigan no Shugosha, Guardian of the Depths, stepped onto a wave as though it were solid land. His scales shimmered in hues of deep blue and silver, and his eyes held centuries of wisdom. Where Umi No Omi radiated ambition and chaos, Kaigan radiated control and serenity. He did not lift the sea with force. He commanded it through purpose.
The silence between them was deafening.
Then Umi No Omi moved.
The Staff of the Sea struck downward, sending a column of black water crashing toward Kaigan. The wave's surface shimmered with a life of its own, forming teeth, tentacles, and jagged spikes. It was not just water, it was a weapon, a manifestation of his will. The currents attempted to wrap around Kaigan, crush him beneath their combined weight, erase him from existence.
Kaigan did not dodge. He flowed.
In a single fluid motion, he twisted with the current, guiding it past him, allowing the momentum to carry the black water harmlessly around him. His claws pierced the air, not striking the Staff, but slicing the currents themselves. The black tower of water shattered into thousands of fragments that vanished into the void.
"You rely on force," Kaigan said quietly, his voice echoing across the impossible horizon, "but the sea is not brute. It is eternal. Its currents do not bend to ambition alone."
Umi No Omi's lips curved into a smirk, though his eyes burned with malice. "Ambition is life. The sea obeys the strongest, and I am its master. You are simply in the way, Guardian. Step aside or be swept away."
The Staff swung again, faster this time. Tendrils of black water lashed outward, striking with precision. Currents collided in the Realm like jagged glass. Mountains of water rose, then fell, attempting to crush Kaigan beneath the weight of the Black Sea itself.
Kaigan responded with elegance. Each strike was met with a redirection, a flow, a bending of forces. He did not attack the enemy directly. He attacked intention. Every movement of his claws, every shift of his weight, altered the trajectory of Umi No Omi's assaults, dissipating their destructive potential. The Realm itself began to react to him, currents stabilizing wherever he passed, tides folding into order.
"You fight blindly," Kaigan said, "but the sea is not blind. It watches, it remembers. It will not obey those who cannot respect it."
Umi No Omi roared, and the sky of the Realm fractured. Black lightning arced across the frozen waves, igniting impossible fires on the suspended waters. Giant tendrils lashed out, twisting the currents into razor-sharp whips, seeking to strike Kaigan.
Kaigan moved with impossible speed. He twisted through the currents, his form multiplying into semi-corporeal avatars that intercepted attacks. Where one tendril struck, another was already there, redirecting it into harmless spirals of water. He did not resist with strength, but with understanding, anticipating, calculating, controlling. Every strike of Umi No Omi became a message, every movement a test.
The Guardian spoke again, his voice calm, unwavering. "You mistake chaos for strength. You see power and assume dominion. But true strength lies in balance."
Umi No Omi's frustration grew. His strikes became reckless, fueled by anger rather than skill. Tentacles of black water whipped with unpredictable speed. Towers of current surged like mountains. Yet Kaigan's forms intercepted each strike with uncanny precision. Every time the Staff of the Sea clashed with the Guardian, it was not the Staff that dominated, but the principle behind it. Kaigan no Shugosha was not merely a fighter. He was the embodiment of the ocean's judgment.
"You wield the sea like a weapon," Kaigan said, "but you cannot wield its laws. You forget what binds this world. You cannot dominate what you do not understand."
Umi No Omi screamed, a sound that shook the infinite waters. The Staff of the Sea pulsed violently, creating a shockwave that split reality itself. Currents reached impossible heights, waves rose into frozen towers, and gravity twisted. Kaigan moved fluidly, merging with the current. The strike missed its mark entirely, exploding harmlessly against the void, dissipating like smoke.
But Umi No Omi was not finished. He gathered all of his remaining power, drawing from the black ocean of the Realm itself. Currents converged into a single pillar of unstoppable force. Tentacles, waves, and whirlpools of black water combined, forming a spiraling vortex of annihilation. The air and water screamed together as the vortex descended upon Kaigan.
Kaigan tried to flow with it, tried to redirect it. He spun, split, moved through projections, but the force was too great. Every attempt to control the tide was countered by Umi No Omi's mastery of the Staff. The vortex crushed him, ripping through his avatars, shredding his projections. The Realm shook. Currents screamed. The very fabric of the ocean trembled under the black pillar of domination.
Kaigan's voice rang out, calm despite the destruction. "You may dominate the surface, but eternity watches."
The Staff struck with finality. Kaigan no Shugosha was swallowed, broken, absorbed by the black maelstrom. The Guardian of the Depths collapsed within the vortex. His form dissolved into the currents, his power scattered and contained.
Umi No Omi lowered the Staff of the Sea. The Realm bent entirely to his will. The waves, the suspended storms, the very fabric of the infinite ocean, the Black Sea now answered only to him. The seas beyond the Realm trembled in response. Tides twisted. Currents reversed. Oceans darkened as the shadow of Umi No Omi stretched outward. The world itself whispered of the danger.
Kaigan no Shugosha, the only being who had ever resisted Umi No Omi in the spiritual domain, was defeated. The balance shattered. The oceans quivered, aware of a new, unchallenged power rising.
Umi No Omi raised the Staff high. Black lightning coiled along its length. His voice echoed across the infinite waves. "The Black Sea is mine. No guardian can stand in its way. Every current, every storm, every tide belongs to me. The oceans will kneel."
The Realm pulsed with his power. Tides rippled outward, blackening seas across the world. Islands felt tremors. Ships rocked violently in distant waters. Storms manifested where none had existed before. Life beneath the waves recoiled. Every creature felt the pulse of dominance, and none could resist.
Umi No Omi smiled. His victory was absolute. Kaigan no Shugosha's lesson, his restraint, his balance, all were gone. Only the unrelenting, unstoppable shadow of the Black Sea remained.
Far beyond the Realm, Kurohane and Ryukai sailed, unaware. The oceans churned strangely beneath their ship, whispers of a darkness they could not yet see. Ryuyaiba watched from his vessel, sensing unease, but could not perceive the true scale of the catastrophe. The battle had occurred outside perception, in a domain invisible to mortal and pirate alike.
Umi No Omi's eyes burned across the Realm. His triumph was not just a victory. It was a warning. All seas were in peril. Every wave, every island, every sailor, every creature that called the oceans home was now subject to his will. The Black Sea had risen in full, and no one would be able to stop it.
The Realm of the Great Sea quaked with his laughter, a sound that reverberated across time, space, and consciousness itself.
Umi No Omi turned, surveying the infinite tides under his dominion. He whispered, almost to himself, "Let the world remember that the Black Tide answers to me. The seas shall drown in obedience. Let the storm rise. Let the currents bow. Let no one forget."
The oceans darkened. The winds stilled. The Black Sea waited, patient, eternal, and undefeated.
Kaigan no Shugosha was gone, and the shadow of Umi No Omi stretched across the world, a warning to all who might challenge the King of the Black Sea.
The seas themselves shivered. The age of unchecked darkness had begun.