Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 156: Night of Wind and Tide (6)

Dragon Raja 3

The phones were ringing off the hook, with two liaison officers each holding a handset behind the admiral.

“It’s calls from the Pentagon and the Japanese Prime Minister, isn’t it?” The admiral looked up at the sky and sighed softly. “Let me finish watching the fireworks before I answer. What’s the point of listening to their yelling now? No matter what we say or do, the outcome is already inevitable… God bless America.”

The surface of Yokosuka Harbor trembled as streaks of blazing fire ascended into the black sky. The missiles flew in formation above the sea, like countless fireflies, their tails lighting up the ocean below in a fiery glow.

Hundreds of fire streaks fell upon the sea, the red arcs they left in the night forming beautiful concentric circles.

The ocean blazed, and the sky above Sagami Bay was as bright as day. The floating platform slowly sank into the burning sea, taking thousands of mermaids with it. The cries of the mermaids echoed between the sky and sea—not cries of sadness, but of anger at being sent back to hell when they were just a step away from devouring flesh. Su Enxi took the tea offered by Kimura and sipped it gently before turning to look down at the battlefield. In the storm, the silk robe clung to her slender figure, her posture graceful yet unyielding.

“It’s over,” Su Enxi said softly.

Kimura bowed respectfully and placed the phone back on the tray.

“The bells of the Gion Monastery ring out the impermanence of all things;

The blossoms of the sala trees reveal the truth that the prosperous must decline.

The proud do not endure, like a dream on a spring night;

The mighty will eventually perish, like dust before the wind.”

Su Enxi recited the opening lines of The Tale of the Heike slowly. “Once seated on the throne, now driven to the edge of the cliff like a pack of wolves.”

“Now that you’ve seen all this with your own eyes, you’re part of our team. I’ve read your resume. As one of the world’s finest butlers, you won’t be revealing our secrets, will you?” Su Enxi gazed out at the sea.

“I am prepared. All the maids have been locked inside, and they know nothing of this,” Kimura bowed deeply.

“Buy me some barbecue-flavored chips tomorrow,” Su Enxi turned with a gentle smile, as if the recent hunt had nothing to do with her.

“Understood. Barbecue flavor,” Kimura said respectfully.

Su Enxi was just about to descend the steps at the edge of the cliff when a sharp cry suddenly sounded behind her. A gray-blue claw emerged from below, grabbing her ankle. Su Enxi’s expression changed; she grabbed the railing with one hand while drawing a small handgun from the holster on her thigh with the other. The serpentine figure leaped into the air, its form resembling a giant python, but its upper body was muscular, like that of a tiger! It was a mermaid that had slipped through the net. While Su Enxi was focused on the floating platform, this lone mermaid had stealthily climbed up the cliff.

The mermaid lunged at Su Enxi, its long tail coiling around her slender waist while its sharp claws reached for her throat. Su Enxi fired at its face, emptying all seven rounds from the magazine into its head. The mermaid’s head snapped back, but a moment later, its face—with seven bullet holes oozing blood—came right back in front of Su Enxi. It seemed to feel nothing, its supposedly soft, boneless body swaying before Su Enxi, and its long tail slowly tightening. The sound of Su Enxi’s bones cracking was almost audible. Only now did Kimura clearly see the mermaid’s true form. Its body was withered like a mummy, its pale skin rock-hard, tightly wrapping around its bony frame. Its facial features were more than twice the size of a human’s, with bulging, golden-red eyes and an enormous mouth that extended all the way to the jawline, sewn shut with something resembling fish sinew. It swayed its head of dried white hair, slowly opening its mouth, and the fish sinew snapped strand by strand, revealing row upon row of elongated teeth. Eventually, its mouth opened wide enough to swallow a calf whole. No human could have a mouth like that—only snakes could. Snakes’ lower jaws and skulls are connected solely by ligaments, allowing pythons to open their mouths several times larger than their heads to swallow prey much bigger than themselves.

It was only up close that one could truly grasp its horror. Kimura felt as though his soul was being sucked away, his only action being to shiver. From the cliff, the mermaid swarm, being torn apart by the St. Louis’ firepower, didn’t look particularly frightening. But in close proximity, it was clear: these were massive creatures, five meters long and several times the weight of an adult man. Their long tails had the power to snap steel pipes as thick as a human arm in one sweep, which explained why tuna weighing hundreds of kilograms couldn’t struggle under their claws—even a rhinoceros would likely be tortured to death by them!

At that moment, the only one facing it was Su Enxi. She wore a light, thin robe and held a small, empty handgun. The mermaid was about to devour her, and no one could stop it.

“Mr. Kimura, press ‘0’,” Su Enxi said calmly, looking at the mermaid’s gaping maw.

Finally, the will of the master overcame the fear of the ace butler. Kimura dove forward, knocking over the tray and grabbing the phone, pressing the ‘0’ key with all his might.

A bright light illuminated the cliff from below, enveloping both Su Enxi and the mermaid. A muffled gunshot came from beneath the cliff, and suddenly, the mermaid’s head exploded, black ichor splattering all over Su Enxi.

Just like a decapitated python can still strangle a person, the mermaid’s muscles contracted with full force in its final moments, its long tail constricting Su Enxi’s already slender waist tightly—enough force to snap her spine instantly. But gunshots rang out repeatedly from below, more bullets punching into the mermaid’s spine—each “nail” traveling at twice the speed of sound! The mermaid’s bones were tough, able to withstand Su Enxi’s handgun, but they cracked like porcelain under the fire of a high-caliber sniper rifle.

Su Enxi stared impassively at the corpse entwined around her, watching as it twitched, wavered, and finally fell away, plunging off the hundred-meter-high cliff.

The mermaid landed on the black stone reef, still writhing and twitching. People dressed in black waterproof suits converged from all directions to clean up the scene. The tides had carried away most of the bodies, leaving only a few mermaids wedged in the cracks of the reef and this headless one. The men in black used sharp harpoons to skewer the corpses and throw them into plastic barrels, pouring some kind of chemical into the barrels. Thick white smoke immediately billowed out. Moments later, they emptied the barrels into the sea—the mermaid corpses had already dissolved into a thick liquid.

Su Enxi slowly walked down the steps and placed the teacup on the tray. It was only then that Hiroshi Kimura realized that even when facing such a terrifying creature of death, Su Enxi had not let go of the teacup.

She had prepared for everything before arriving at the Kuroishi Residence, even having a plan for if the mermaids attacked the cliff. That’s why she was fearless. She also had absolute confidence in her subordinates, trusting that they wouldn’t accidentally harm her when they fired. Kimura wasn’t wrong about her—she was a seasoned power broker and as precise as a chess player. Once her plans were set, her opponent could only fall to her. Facing someone like her, the mermaids had met the scythe of death.

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