January 26, 2001
A massive fog abruptly blanketed the waters near the port of Philadelphia.
All electronic communication devices within the fog-shrouded area lost functionality.
About half an hour later, the fog dissipated on its own. Yet everyone—humans and animals—within the covered section of the docks had fallen unconscious, without exception.
Within a single day, all 348 security personnel and dockworkers—after lying comatose for an entire day—died one by one.
Cause of death… suspected drowning.
Drowning?
Seeing that word, Eren's brows furrowed as he scrolled faster.
Along with the text, the folder contained about a dozen washed-out photos and multiple short video clips showing different scenarios.
A quick glance revealed images of several waterlogged corpses, their skin bleached white as if they'd been soaking in seawater for a long time.
Eren then opened one of the videos.
It seemed to have been shot in a hospital ward, with three beds lined up. Lying in those beds were three middle-aged men with weathered skin.
For the first few seconds, everything appeared normal.
Then, the Latino man on the center bed suddenly started convulsing violently. Next, water—seawater—began gushing from his mouth and nose, soaking the sheets…
Very soon…
He became still.
No more water flowed from his mouth or nose.
"Is… he dead?"
Even through the screen, Eren could sense the finality in this man's actions. Clearly, the man was gone.
Right after the center patient expired, the men on the other two beds displayed similar symptoms.
Ultimately…
They both died on their beds, "drowned" by the seawater spewing from their mouths and noses.
Wait!
Why am I so certain—just by looking—that the liquid gushing out of their faces was "seawater"?
That immediate conclusion, formed before any testing or confirmation, might hint at some kind of "informational contamination," akin to how Eren had instinctively perceived a rotting odor from the mutant Kingpin earlier.
Could this be another "Kingpin-like" anomaly, or something else entirely?
Whether the incident had occurred just days ago or involved too many victims for S.H.I.E.L.D. to thoroughly track, this folder held a vast array of documents and footage.
After watching a few similar videos, Eren's attention landed on one final photograph in the folder—a shot of an almost fog-devoured ghost ship.
He stared at that photo for several seconds, then was suddenly hit by a wave of drowsiness.
"Huh…"
He yawned reflexively, and it felt as though his eyelids were weighted with lead—threatening to drag him into a deep slumber.
Half-asleep, half-awake…
Eren seemed to sink into an endless stretch of dark ocean water. He was plunging ever deeper—down and down…
The moment he opened his mouth, glug, glug, briny seawater rushed in, filling his throat.
Bubbles rose and burst, drifting upward. From all directions came a crushing pressure that built steadily in the darkness, fueling a growing sense of suffocation, despair, and fear.
The oppressive gloom…
The powerless struggle…
The mounting pressure…
All of it stirred up an array of negativity—despair at its darkest depths.
Suddenly, amid that despair, a faint greenish glow appeared before him.
In the glow, an enormous sunken vessel loomed into view—a massive cruise ship. Under that eerie green light, the entire ship gleamed a strange hue, encrusted with algae and barnacles…
And in the murky, sickly green water behind it, Eren could just make out the silhouette of a colossal entity…
As Eren locked onto that huge silhouette, whatever lay behind the ship seemed to notice his "gaze."
In the next moment…
A giant tentacle, resembling that of an octopus, extended from behind the sunken ship, churning the water as it surged toward Eren.
"What the—?"
As the tentacle approached, Eren realized that the ring-like shapes along it weren't suction cups—they were enormous eyeballs.
And the moment Eren caught sight of those bulging, eerie eyes, hundreds—if not thousands—of them turned to fix upon him.
A creeping horror seized Eren's heart, as if those countless eyes were devouring him.
"I… see… you…"
A barely perceptible whisper echoed in Eren's mind. The massive entity behind the ship emerged from the darkness with a slowness that paradoxically felt far too fast.
It was a terror beyond human comprehension, impossible to describe. An abomination from the depths beyond all imagination.
"Aah!"
At the very moment that horrifying behemoth was fully revealed…
Eren's "Clown Intuition," usually lying dormant, sounded a frantic warning—like an internal alarm on the verge of mutiny. Galvanized by a rush of survival instincts, Eren tore himself out of that "deep-sea dream" in the nick of time.
"Huff… huff…"
Sitting at his computer, Eren gasped for breath, his entire body drenched in cold sweat.
Droplets of sweat slid down his face, dripping onto the desk.
Drip… drip…
"What… was that?"
As a professional hypnotist and a skilled diviner, Eren quickly recognized what he had just gone through.
A lucid dream. Or more specifically, the moment he saw that ghostly ship's photo—and by virtue of his heightened psychic sensitivity—he unwittingly established a link with some unknown entity.
In that moment…
Through his dream, he made contact with the phantom ship—and with the terrible being lurking behind it.
Breathing heavily and trying to steady his nerves, Eren frowned deeply.
"What is that thing behind the sunken ship…?"
Had it not been for the Clown Intuition's frantic alarm—and the deathly terror that awakened Eren's survival instincts—he might have been forced to face that monstrous entity in full.
He felt a strong hunch:
If he had missed that fleeting chance to wake up, returning to reality might have been far from guaranteed.
"That was too close. Curiosity really can kill…"
Eren exhaled a shaky breath, newly aware of how risky it was for someone with his level of spiritual sensitivity to poke around so carelessly.
Especially with materials involving the supernatural.
"Slurp… slurp…"
Sensing its master's alarm and unease, Little Oddball—the bizarre pet Eren had taken in—licked Eren's palm with its large, wet tongue, as if to soothe him.
Feeling that warm, damp touch against his hand eased Eren's tension slightly. He patted Little Oddball's head softly.
"I'm fine. Don't worry."
Though the strange vision had been chilling, Eren wasn't about to be permanently rattled by one "nightmare."
Still…
It drove home the point that these S.H.I.E.L.D. documents couldn't be casually browsed. Ordinary supernatural incidents or weird mutants might be fine. But if he ran into something like that ghost ship again—an encounter with an even more horrifying being—then next time…
He might not escape unscathed.
"From now on, I'll be more careful going through these files."
"Yeah, I'll do a quick divination before opening each folder. With my current level of psychic strength, plus the help of the proper ritual, even higher-level entities shouldn't be able to block my detection…"
Having decided on a "warning mechanism" for sifting through the data, Eren recalled that unsettling line whispered in his dream when that tentacle's many eyes fixed upon him:
"I… see… you…"
The memory made him frown.
That feeling… wasn't normal. Could it have left some kind of brand or curse on me when it made contact?
He tried using his Paper Effigy technique—hoping to shift any malevolent imprint that might be on him to a decoy. But…
Nothing happened.
"No response… Did I imagine it?"
Seeing no reaction from his paper effigy, Eren was momentarily suspicious of his own paranoia. Yet that doubt was quickly dismissed.
"No… Or it might be that curse or mark is beyond the Paper Effigy's ability to remove."
With that in mind…
Eren cleared his thoughts, closed his eyes, and—through an intangible channel—summoned his own spiritual power, entering the balance space.
What Eren didn't notice was:
The moment he began shifting into that dimension, a translucent, phantom-like shape clung to his spirit form.
It looked like an octopus—its twisted body radiating a disturbing aura. Dozens of tentacles encircled Eren's spirit, as though marking him.
Yet it seemed in no hurry to harm him, merely coiling around Eren's soul as if placing a tag. Then…
When Eren's spirit—guided by that mysterious link—crossed into the balance space, the realm itself seemed to sense the presence of a foreign intruder and trembled slightly.
In an instant…
That mercury-like white mist around the River of Fate flared with brilliance, surging downward in waves.
Like a waterfall of milky-white light from the heavens, it cascaded around Eren's arriving spirit.
As if commanded by some esoteric force, the mist rushed toward Eren in an unstoppable flood, swallowing him whole.
Under the cleansing of this fate-charged white mist, Eren's spirit sparkled with starry flecks of silver.
"Mmm…"
Though Eren was initially startled by the deluge of white mist, it immediately turned into a deep, almost sensual comfort that made him want to sigh with relief.
Within that soft glow…
He could vaguely see the phantom latched onto his spirit.
So there really is something…
But before he could succumb to alarm…
That eerie shape melted away like ice under a blazing sun, undone by the raging torrent of mist. It vanished without a trace, unable to put up the slightest resistance.
At the same moment…
Somewhere in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, inside a colossal underwater trench…
A being beyond human description suddenly let out a terrible wail, as though gravely wounded.
(End of Chapter)
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