---

The hole moved like in a movie, shifting the camera.

It showed the inside of the abandoned hospital, gradually changing the view as if zooming out.

And just as the perspective began to pierce through the roof of the hospital and ascend high into the sky, it finally stopped moving, calmly displaying that landscape.

A scene that was both horrifying and grotesque, yet fearsome and fantastical.

It was the true visage of the “abandoned hospital” that Ella had once witnessed.

It was a fragment born from the fantasies of dreams.

The abandoned hospital stood amidst a vast, endless sea.

It appeared like a solitary hospital rising from the center of the ocean, or perhaps as if the sea had poured in where land once was, leaving the building behind as everything else sank below the water.

But whichever interpretation, its appearance was truly bleak, eerie, and strangely evocative of human emotions.

Pitch-black windows.

A façade peeling away and looking ugly.

The first floor’s walls were filled with barnacles and appeared repulsive.

Stone stairs that seemed slick with filth.

Metal emergency exit stairs that rusted red from sea breezes.

A tightly shut iron door.

And the revolting curses and drawings that uninvited guests presumably had painted.

It looked like a scene from a horror movie.

Moreover, there was another element accentuating this hospital’s fearful aspect.

It was the sound of a song coming from the depths of the surrounding sea.

“A long, long time ago, when clams had legs and whales soared to the sky, beating down the gods of the neighboring village! I asked for a drink at the tavern!”

“Sour liquor about to turn into vinegar! A drink that makes you feel nauseous instead of tipsy! And pairing it with dried cabbage and half-rotten smoked lamb heads couldn’t be more perfect!”

“Isn’t this the feast of the Sea Man!”

From the gaping hole, the song flowed out.

A noise so raucous that calling it a song felt like an exaggeration.

But to dismiss it as mere noise was unsettling.

It was as if, with water filling their throats, the singers produced a bubbling ‘glugging’ noise mixed throughout the song. Imagining corpses bloated in water, pushing out the liquid from their throats and lungs as they sang, was all too natural.

“Raise your glass, brothers! Raise the glass and let it flow down your throats!”

“Shouting as we gulp down the foul drink! A toast to the ‘children’s great friend,’ who lets the brats live another day!”

“A toast!”

“Pouring the awful drink with a woman’s eyeball and shouting! A toast to the women spread beneath me!”

“A toast!”

“Pouring the entire foul drink down in one go! A toast to the food providers and the toys that became the dead!”

“A toast!”

The terrifying sound grew louder.

As if those deep in the sea were approaching the surface, shouting.

“Fill the horn with the repugnant drink!”

“Clash the horns so that the drink spills over!”

“When placing the horn down, do it so not a single drop falls!”

“Good! Good! A feast with magnificent liquor!”

“This is the joy of the sea people!”

Splash-splash!

Splash-splash!

Splash!

Finally, they emerged above the surface.

They wore conical helmets and armor made of leather and chains. Perhaps to protect their faces, they donned metal masks engraved with bizarre patterns, and their tattered and warped armor was adorned with strange designs galore.

In one hand, they held a horn drink, and in the other, a small hatchet for throwing.

They resembled the Vikings of yore who once roamed the seas.

At least, from the waist up.

Unfortunately, these Vikings were not in their prime.

It was as if their bodies had been precisely halved, for they had no lower halves, floating above the water, nostalgically screaming songs of the past. Furthermore, their bellies bore long chains, rusted and connected to a heavy anchor resting deep in the ocean.

Indeed.

Those singing while straining were all, bound to an anchor, nothing more than pitiable existences serving as ‘buoys.’

In death, they were shackled to the sea, reduced to a wretched state, eternally recalling their past as warriors without the might to display it….

Just helpless beings, tormented and regretting, waiting for the day they would cease to exist.

“I am the great warrior, the great Sea Man!”

“Under the guidance of the gods, a great man who crushes everything!”

They sang with a disgusted grimace.

The only action permitted to them.

The bloody battles and peaceful, eternal rest….

None of those were things they could partake in, which is why they sang.

To forget their pitiful condition bound to the anchor.

To escape the chill of the deep sea conveyed through the chains binding their innards.

And for the dreadful beings that made them so.

Ro———-o!

The whale’s call.

A sinister wail that rattles the human psyche.

A horrifying sound that, merely by listening, conjured an illusion of blood filling one’s nostrils and mouth.

Splash-splash!

Crash!

It was the sounds of buoys that echoed as they swam through the sea towards the abandoned hospital’s front.

With its red plume bobbing on the surface, it waved and thrashed its great tail, creating a spray with explosive sounds. Each time it let out its ominous wail, it generated a tremendous amount of bubbles, covering the sea in foam, while it devoured the floating “buoys,” who sang, as if plucking fruit from a tree.

Crunch!

[Aaaah!]

The beings devoured by the whale with a red plume let out terrifying screams.

Unlike the songs they sang with disdain, their wails were filled with desperation and pain.

Screaming as they were bitten by colossal fangs that tore them in half, they whimpered like cowards, pleading with the red-plumed whale not to make them suffer any longer.

They begged to be free.

To not suffer any more.

But the wicked whale ignored their pleas.

And henceforth, their cries would continue to be dismissed.

The souls drenched in the smell of blood from countless killings… were simply delicious snacks for this evil whale that craved flesh and slaughter.

Splash-splash!

Thus, the evil whale devoured all the Vikings.

Yet, was that not enough to satisfy it?

The whale grew irritated that there was nothing left to chew on, spewing out thick, bloody foam in anger. It repeated this a few times, then began to circle the surface, moving around the hospital that rose from the sea.

Eventually, it started whipping its tail like a whip.

Crash!

Boom!

The tail moved like a whip, striking the building like a hammer.

The force was so great that merely moving its tail splashed water everywhere, reverberating with a tremendous sound, and with each strike against the building, a colossal vibration shook the world. The crashing waves seemed to lose direction, wandering around like lost souls, while the foamy sea was sent soaring into the sky, repeating a cycle of rising and crashing like a fountain.

Boo—oo—oo—

But alas, there was little effect from the whale’s tail-whipping.

The hospital, which should have crumbled like a house of cards, remained standing stubbornly in its place as though protected by some force, and not a single tiny crack marred its weathered walls.

Instead, perhaps due to the impact or as a sign of allowance, the main door creaked open a little.

Boo—oo—

The whale let out a sinister wail, licking its lips.

It showed no hint of hiding its disappointment that it couldn’t break down that building, and it raged against not being able to directly bite into the delicacy surely hidden deep inside that hospital.

Splash!

Crash!

Yet, no amount of rage could change the fact.

Rather than getting stuck on what could not be done, the evil whale contemplated a wicked plan to lure out the delicacy inside.

Boo—oo—-

It decided to summon small whales that followed it.

The loud chember summoned the small whales that had been hiding among the bubbles, beckoning them to swim near. Using the fairy curse flowing through its body, it cast wicked magic to alter their forms. Suddenly, the tiniest hidden whale sprouted limbs.

It followed the loud chember’s command, wading through the foamy waters, stepping onto the hospital’s stairs, crawling in on all fours.

And just as the whale’s body half-entered….

Puh-wook!

Szzzzzz.

Psshhh!

Arms surged up from within the whale’s body.

The thin arms tore the whale apart, creating a gaping hole.

[Will-yum.]

[We have come for you.]

[This time, there will be no escape.]

 

---