Chapter 56:
The central Narrow Sea, near the Stepstones.
The night was as black as ink. A strange thin fog hung over the sea surface.
The Federal Navy's first-rate ironclad cruiser "Iron Duke" was on escort duty. Behind it were three armed merchant ships fully loaded with gold and spices from Yunkai.
"Any sonar contacts?" the captain stared intently at the crude hydrophone.
"Full of noise, sir." The sonar operator's face was pale. "It sounds like thousands of whales screaming on the seabed… or something else."
The captain frowned. Since last week, five ships had already disappeared on this route. No distress signals, no floating debris — it was as if the sea had simply swallowed them whole.
Thud!
A dull, heavy impact came from the bottom of the ship.
The several-thousand-ton ironclad shuddered violently, as if it had struck an underwater mountain.
"Did we hit a reef?"
"No! We're in deep water! Depth exceeds one thousand meters!"
Splash————!!!
The sea surface suddenly exploded.
Under the harsh white beams of the searchlights, several suffocatingly thick tentacles shot into the sky!
They were a corpse-like gray-green color. Each one was dozens of meters long, thicker than century-old oak trees, covered in barbed suction cups and constantly secreting corrosive mucus.
"What the…"
The lookout's words were cut off before he could finish.
One tentacle swept across the bridge.
Crack!
The steel bridge was smashed like a matchbox. The lookout and half the command room were flung straight into the sea.
"Open fire! Fire at the surface!"
The executive officer took command in terror.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The side guns of the "Iron Duke" roared madly.
203mm high-explosive shells slammed into the tentacles, exploding in clouds of blood mist. The monster howled in pain — a low, deep roar that seemed to come from the abyss of hell.
But it was useless.
The tentacles were only its tools. Its true body was underwater! The shells couldn't reach the depths!
Creak—!
More tentacles wrapped around the hull. The enormous squeezing force caused the special steel plates to emit a sickening creaking sound.
This proud industrial creation of Victor's was now like a tin can being crushed in a giant's hand.
At that moment, a ghostly warship with tattered black sails slowly emerged from the fog.
The "Silence".
Euron Greyjoy stood at the bow.
He had changed.
His left arm was completely gone, replaced by a writhing, semi-transparent tentacle. Half his face was covered in purple coral. His single eye glowed with an inhuman blue light.
He was no longer a pirate. He was a priest of a deep-sea cult.
"Stop struggling, mortals."
Euron's voice was not loud, but it strangely penetrated the sound of gunfire and rang directly in everyone's minds.
With his words, the sea monster (kraken) underwater stopped squeezing, but it still held the "Iron Duke" tightly, rendering it immobile.
Euron looked at the terrified Federal sailors on the deck and revealed a cruel smile.
"Tell Victor Pompey."
"His iron ships can only float on the surface, but the Drowned God's world… is bottomless."
"If he wants the sea lanes of this region?"
Euron raised his tentacle-like arm and pointed east.
"Tell him to hand over the 'Heart of the Titan' he took from Braavos."
"Otherwise, I will drag every piece of iron he has at sea to the bottom to feed the fish."
"Get lost."
Euron waved his hand.
The kraken suddenly released its tentacles, but in the process dragged away the last merchant ship.
Boom!
The ship loaded with gold was forcibly pulled into the depths. The vortex swallowed everything.
Only the heavily damaged "Iron Duke" remained, drifting alone on the sea surface.
…
The next day, King's Landing, Naval Operations Room.
The atmosphere was oppressively heavy.
Victor looked at the damage report from the "Iron Duke" and the description of the "deep-sea behemoth."
On the table was a sea chart marked with more than a dozen red crosses — the blocked shipping routes.
"Sea monster…
Kraken."
Tyrion's face was pale as he took a large gulp of wine. "I thought that was just a story from old wet nurses. How do we fight this? Our shells slow down underwater and can't reach it."
"And Euron wants the 'Heart of the Titan'."
Intelligence chief Varys said in a low voice, "He seems to know what it is. Perhaps he also wants to use ancient technology to strengthen his monsters."
"He can dream."
Victor snorted coldly and crushed his cigarette butt hard into the ashtray.
"He thinks hiding underwater means I can't touch him?"
"Physics Lesson Four: Liquids are incompressible, and that's perfect for transmitting shock waves."
Victor stood up, walked to the large blackboard, and picked up a piece of chalk. He drew something that looked like an oil barrel.
[System R&D List Updated: Anti-Submarine Warfare Module.]
"We need new weapons."
Victor wrote several large words on the blackboard:
Depth Charges.
"Load several hundred kilograms of high explosives into barrels, set water-pressure fuses. Drop them down and wait until they sink next to the monster…"
"Boom! The incompressibility of water will amplify the explosive force tenfold, directly shattering its internal organs."
Victor then drew a long, cigar-shaped object.
Sonar-Guided Torpedoes.
"Since we can't see it, we'll use sound. This thing will automatically track the sea monster's cries and explode inside its belly."
Finally, Victor drew a streamlined, fully enclosed hull.
Everyone was stunned.
"What is this? No sails, no smokestack?"
"This is the Type U Submarine."
Victor's eyes flashed with cold light.
"Since Euron says the gods are at the bottom of the sea…"
"Then we will build a steel reaper that can dive to the bottom."
"I am forming the Wolfpack Fleet."
"Tyrion, allocate the funds. Deadline: one month."
"I want that octopus-faced bastard to know — whether in the sky or underwater…"
"As long as it's on this Earth, it's within my range."
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