"No—way—seriously—?" The first mate on a distant ocean-going fishing vessel stared in shock, his mouth agape. His pipe fell to the deck with a sharp crack.
"Is—this—for—real—?" The captain, who had been slouched in his seat, snapped to attention, eyes wide. The bottle in his hand crashed onto his foot. The pain shooting through his toe was intense, but he didn’t care anymore. He just slowly stood up, dumbfounded, staring ahead.
Right in front of the fishing boat, a gigantic column of water shot up toward the sky, defying all logic.
The massive water column, carrying endless amounts of seawater, blasted straight up into the heavens. It wasn’t like those slow-motion movie scenes—it was a mad rush, accelerating skyward as if racing to get ahead. It looked like a colossal, upside-down waterfall dropping from the Pacific Ocean all the way to the stars. In the blink of an eye, this infinite torrent broke past three thousand meters, five thousand meters, ten thousand meters, and kept surging higher.
The clouds overhead were instantly blasted open, leaving a gaping hole.
The ocean currents below went haywire in an instant.
Endless seawater kept filling the void left by the water column, only to become part of it the moment it entered the zone. Huge whirlpools formed around the column, greedily swallowing up the Pacific’s reserves. Even out here, the fishing boat was shaking violently, getting dragged toward the gigantic pillar whether it wanted to or not.
"Reverse! Turn! Get us out of here—now!"
The captain shouted in panic, the first mate howled in terror. The fishing boat trembled, and every crew member scrambled into action. The engine roared, fighting the raging currents, but then a sailor cried out in despair: "It’s no use, Captain! We don’t have enough power—we’re still getting sucked in!"
"Throw out the fish! Dump the cargo! Toss anything you can—money’s worthless now!" the captain roared. Suddenly—ring ring ring—the emergency phone on board started ringing.
The captain ignored it, but the emergency phone kept ringing, louder and shriller than ever.
Who the heck is calling at a time like this?!
"Hello? Who is this? I'm kinda busy here!"
A deep voice came through the phone: "This is the US Pacific Fleet Commander. Satellite imagery shows a serious incident in your area. Report what you see immediately."
"FUCK you—!"
The commander's voice grew cold: "It seems you didn’t catch who I am."
The captain spat furiously: "I don’t care who the hell you are—I’m about to die here!"
"If you cooperate, I’ll send the Air Force to rescue you right away. Now, do you know who I am?"
"...Daddy! You’re my daddy!" The captain dropped to his knees in an instant. Staring at the raging sea and the torn sky, his voice shook: "I—I see a water column, a super thick water column! Holy crap, the closer I get, the thicker it looks! Oh my god, look—there are a couple of sperm whales flying up! Can you believe it? Sperm whales got blasted into the sky by that water column!"
Eastern Pacific, US Navy Command Center, aboard the massive aircraft carrier Cambridge—the bearded Fleet Commander slammed down the phone, face dark as thunder.
On the satellite map, the currents in that part of the ocean grew wilder and wilder—already reaching disaster level.
"How soon can our planes get there? I don’t want to hear another word from that lunatic." An aide quickly took over the call with the captain, handling communications while the commander’s deputy checked the stats and spoke softly: "Our closest drone is on its way at full speed, but it’ll take at least fifty minutes to send back footage."
"Fifty minutes?" This time, it wasn’t the commander speaking, but the President’s Office, patched in on a secure line. The President’s face appeared on the screen, jabbing a finger at the commander: "In fifty minutes, the shockwaves from whatever’s happening there could wipe out the whole Pacific Rim! Why so long?"
"Our forces are stretched thin—most of them are gathered here. Our Pacific-wide deployment is down, no way around it." The commander stared at the distant battlefield, nerves fraying: "Damn it, it’s always one thing after another. Can’t we catch a break?"
The only good news was, the Black Death Emperor still hadn’t fought back. But his slow, steady pace was enough to make the entire Pacific Navy feel like they couldn’t breathe.
Just then, a staffer shouted excitedly: "Commander, the ship’s captain says the water column is collapsing!"
"Huh?"
Back to the captain.
"Oh—my—god—!" The captain and first mate clung desperately to anything bolted down, while the rest of the crew wailed in unison. The water column shooting skyward was terrifying enough—but when it suddenly collapsed and all that water came crashing down, it was even scarier.
The whole ocean had officially gone off the rails.
Unimaginable water pressure slammed from the surface all the way down to the ocean floor, leaving a massive ring-shaped crater at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean—forever changing the local currents. On the surface, monstrous waves soared sky-high—three hundred meters tall, making every tsunami in history look like a kiddie pool.
Three hundred meters—blocking out the sun, absolutely terrifying. The captain felt the little boat was swallowed by darkness. At this point, it wasn’t about survival anymore—it was the end of the world. Forget fifty minutes; in less than five, doomsday was already brewing.
This wasn’t the Natural Master’s doing; this was the power of Tiberius Hyperspace. The Natural Master was just riding the wave.
Luckily, these mega-waves wouldn’t last long.
Rumble rumble rumble—no amount of bombs could match the sound when the giant wave crashed down. The first world-ending wave hit, then countless fifty- or sixty-meter super waves surged in all directions. It was clear: the Pacific coastline was in for a tsunami nightmare.
But right now, the Fleet Commander had zero bandwidth for future disasters.
Because right in front of him, on this war-torn ocean, a few figures suddenly burst out from beneath the waves.
Bang bang bang—one after another, geysers exploded, and figures of all shapes and sizes shot out of the water, skimming across the sea at insane speed like skipping stones.
"Intercept them!" Radar locked on instantly—one was a twenty-five-meter giant, the other an even taller, Japanese-style mech, King Titan, both standing out. But before the ship’s weapons could react, those skipping stones blasted across the battlefield and slammed straight into the Pacific Fleet’s ships.
Boom boom—two cruisers were hit head-on by the super giant and King Titan. The one hit by the giant shuddered violently, its hull caving in. The one hit by King Titan was even worse—the heavy mech smashed straight through it. Among the flying machine parts, King Titan reached its mechanical limit.
In a flash of light, King Titan vanished, the mechanical fatso tumbled and splashed into the sea. Flame Tide shot out of the wreck and zipped back to its owner.