American Horror Story, Starting from Falls Town

Chapter 289 Escape
"Roy, who exactly are you?"

As they climbed up, Serena couldn't help but ask the question. In fact, not only her, but Charles and Trilling also had the same question.

Heather answered Serena's question for Roy.

"Roy is a hybrid of angel and demon."

The well-informed Charles immediately realized what was going on.

"The Nephilim? The legend of the Nephilim is actually true?"

"Haven't you seen it now?"

Roy's answer silenced the three of them. Seeing is believing, and even if they didn't believe the legends of the Nephilim, they had no choice but to believe them now.

The sea monster has fully invaded the Santiago, with terrifying tentacles visible everywhere. However, thanks to Roy's protection, the group successfully made their way from the upper deck to the lower deck of the cruise ship.

Heather and Penny also helped a lot in this, as the two of them, wielding the cursed dagger, were able to inflict great damage on the sea monster's tentacles.

The only downside is that the Cursed Dagger is a bit short, and its damage against large units is never as good as the Executioner's Blade.

"Roy, I'm a bit too tired to run anymore, let's take a break!"

Dalia, who had been holding her daughter Ceci the whole time, finally couldn't hold on any longer. Roy looked at the others and saw that, apart from Heather and Penny, who were both women with the blood of the Ghost Wolf, everyone else was covered in sweat and pale-faced.

Clearly, the continuous climbing of stairs had brought everyone's physical strength to its limit.

"It's best not to stop; the sooner we reach the bottom of the ship, the safer we'll be!"

As the Santiago continued to sink, the superstructure of the luxury cruise ship could not withstand the water pressure, resulting in numerous breaches and causing seawater to flood in at an even faster rate.

The bottom of a ship is the most solid part, so only when you reach the bottom can you be considered temporarily safe.

"But we really can't walk anymore!"

Charles was not young anymore, and his physical strength was not as good as that of a young man. His condition was similar to that of Dalia, who ran away with her child.

After a moment's thought, Roy transformed into his angel form and unleashed his aura.

After becoming a six-winged angel, Roy also gained a new aura ability, namely the Vitality Aura.

This aura allows teammates within its range to quickly recover stamina and heal from injuries, which is perfect for the current situation.

With the added power and morale provided by the Courage Aura, and the defensive capabilities and resistance to dark creatures brought by the Guardian Aura, Dalia and her companions quickly recovered.

"Let's continue!"

Roy simply maintained his angelic state and took Ceci from Dalia to reduce her burden.

Stimulated by the angelic halo, everyone's speed suddenly increased to a new level.
After climbing several more floors, Roy and his group arrived at the cabins where ordinary passengers stayed. There were more rooms here, and most passengers lived in these cabins.

Strangely, there was no one there, and it was very quiet all around.

"Strange, where did everyone go?"

Charles found it very strange. The lower decks housed at least 3000 ordinary passengers. Even if all 3000 chickens were killed, it would take a long time, right?

"Charles, forget about all that! Let's find our way!"

"Follow me. Just past one restaurant, we'll find an employee elevator that goes straight to the bottom of the San Diego!"

Led by Charles, the group arrived at a huge restaurant, where they finally understood why they couldn't see anyone on this floor.

It turns out that the sea monster first attacked the two lower floors, where the most people lived, and this huge restaurant was also the sea monster's restaurant.

Half-digested corpses were everywhere, making the entire restaurant resemble a hellish, devilish kitchen. Serena and others with relatively low tolerance for vomiting vomited on the spot.

The sound of vomiting seemed to attract the attention of some tentacles, which began to wriggle towards Roy.

These tentacles seem to be very sensitive to sound, and have some snake-like habits, which is quite strange.

"Charles, could we bypass this restaurant?"

"This is the shortest route; taking a detour will waste a lot more time!"

Roy nodded, then unfurled his wings of light.

"Then let's charge in!"

With one hand, he held the executioner's knife, which emitted a dazzling white light and easily sliced ​​through several tentacles.

Roy inexplicably felt that the sea monster seemed to be very afraid of the power of the holy light, as the cuts made by the holy light were all scorched marks.

This situation usually only occurs with high-level dark creatures.

Is this sea monster a creature of darkness?
A creature of darkness, with tentacles that resemble those of a snake... could it be...?

Roy suddenly remembered the strange incantation that the female version of Nailhead had uttered before she died. Nothing happened at the time, but now that he thought about it, could it have been to summon this sea monster?
Of the seven demon kings of hell, only Leviathan, the king of envy, has the widest range of tastes, daring to eat anything, regardless of whether it's raw or cold.

The other demon lords at most created human offspring, but Leviathan created many monster offspring, monsters that are well-documented in human history, such as the Kraken.

However, considering that Leviathan was the first serpent born in hell, it's not surprising that it likes to associate with monsters.

Relying on the restraining effect of the Holy Light, and with the assistance of the three halos of the angel form, Roy and his group successfully passed through the restaurant and arrived at the staff elevator that Charles had mentioned.

However, the employee elevator appeared to be malfunctioning, and Roy, losing patience, forced the elevator door open.

"Let's climb up!"

Halfway down the elevator shaft, the Santiago began to shake violently again.

Serena lost her grip and nearly fell off the ladder, but luckily Heather below her reacted quickly and grabbed her arm.

Meanwhile, the steel cable of the employee elevator snapped due to the violent shaking, and the elevator, which was originally stopped at the bottom floor, fell directly downwards.

Roy quickly flapped his angel wings and flew up to catch the elevator.

"You guys continue, I'll push the elevator back!"

In the end, everyone arrived safely at the bottom deck of the San Diego, where the San Diego's propulsion system was located.

But that's not enough, because there are watertight compartments below the bottom layer.

The purpose of watertight compartments is to prevent a ship from sinking directly if it accidentally runs aground on a reef, providing a buffer.

For a massive ship like the Santiago, which weighs tens of thousands of tons, the watertight compartments must be even larger.

Roy looked at Charles.

"Why are you looking at me? How would I possibly know where the entrance to the watertight compartment is? I'm not a shipbuilder!"

That's true. Charles was just the owner of the USS San Diego, not the engineer who designed it. Even if he had seen the structural drawings, he probably wouldn't know where the maintenance access to the watertight compartments was.

"Okay, we'll just have to search slowly."

Inside the watertight compartment of the USS San Diego.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck! How did things turn out like this?"

Joey couldn't help but swear. Things had completely gone beyond his imagination. He now deeply regretted listening to Catherine's instigation and returning to the Santiago to find Roland.

Now, things are even worse; they haven't found the Rolanders, and he's stuck on the ship. Joey's rambling only made Finnegan feel worse, and he couldn't help but curse at his friend.

"Shut up, Joey! Aren't you annoying enough? The most important thing now is to get off this ship! Isn't your cutting machine ready yet?"

"Cutting down a ship's hull is no easy task! This is a 10,000-ton behemoth; the thickness of its hull alone is thicker than your life. You can't expect any results without several hours of cutting, and that's assuming everything goes smoothly!"

Catherine, standing to the side, looked utterly defeated, her eyes filled with despair.

"Now, perhaps only God can save us!"

The three men entered the Santiago through the yacht hangar, which was already quite low, so they quickly reached the bottom of the ship after the sea monster began its attack.

However, those mercenaries were quickly killed off. Finnegan, Joey, and Catherine really relied entirely on luck to safely reach the watertight compartment.

As Catherine silently prayed, she suddenly saw a figure with a halo and wings of light, resembling an angel from legend, climbing up a ladder. She immediately began rubbing her eyes, thinking she was hallucinating.

At this moment, Finnigan was helping Joey cut open the bottom of the San Diego, and the noise and fire made them completely unaware of Roy and his group's arrival.

"Captain Finnegan, look! I think I've seen an angel!"

"Catherine, have you gone mad?"

Finnigan turned his head and saw Roy, and was immediately stunned.

"Are there really angels in this world?"

Roy was somewhat surprised to see the three men cutting through the bottom of the ship. It would be impossible to escape here without some skill. There were nearly 10,000 passengers and staff on board, and only these three managed to escape.

Roy wouldn't believe it if it weren't for the protagonist's halo.

Then, Roy felt that the two men looked very familiar and that they must be the male protagonists in "Deep Rising".

"who are you?"

The three of them knelt down on the ground and made a wish to Roy.

"Your Excellency, we are devout believers, please save us!"

Roy's face darkened; he hadn't expected things to turn out this way.

These three claim to be devout believers, but Roy certainly doesn't believe them. They don't even wear crucifix necklaces, which shows they're not as devout as Roy.

At least Roy had shown proper respect to the Archangel.

"Stop talking nonsense! Tell us who you are!"

The three of them found Roy's tone rather odd; he didn't seem like a dignified angel, but rather quite worldly. Nevertheless, they explained their identities.

Sure enough, Finnegan and Joey are the captain and mechanic in the movie, both important characters.

Roy was somewhat surprised by Catherine's identity; she was Roland Gordon's secretary. It seemed that Roland Gordon had boarded the Santiago via Finnegan's ship.

This is good news; if Finnigan's ship is nearby, it will greatly improve Roy and his crew's chances of survival.

"Is your ship nearby?"

Finnigan nodded quickly.

"Yes, it's just a few nautical miles away. If we can open an opening in the bottom of the ship, we can be rescued once we swim across!"

Sure enough!

Upon hearing this news, everyone's eyes lit up with hope; it truly was a miraculous escape from a desperate situation!
"Get out of the way, you're too slow, let me do it!"

With that, Roy exited his angel form and entered his Nephilim form.

Perhaps giving the executioner's blade a skin in Demon form would be nice, but Roy feels that using Philias's Chaos Ray might be better.

Chaos Ray is a new ability in Roy's Nephilim form after Roy's Rebel ability is upgraded to Ashbringer. He first used it when fighting against the Wrathful King.

While this ability may not be as versatile as the materialization of energy, it is certainly unparalleled in terms of destructive power.

Suddenly, Roy's eyes emitted a gray light, followed by two beams of light shooting out from his eyes and beginning to cut through the bottom of the Columbia.

In no time, it successfully penetrated the thick hull of the ship, and seawater seeped in.

"Everyone hold on tight to me! Once the bottom of the ship opens, a lot of seawater will rush in. Don't let the seawater wash you away!"

At Roy's prompting, everyone grabbed Roy's arm and waited for the moment the bottom of the boat would be cut open.

"Just a little bit more! Hold your breath!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the pressure of the seawater broke through the nearly cut bottom of the ship, and the huge steel plate shot towards Roy like a cannonball under the push of the seawater.

However, Roy was prepared and immediately used his energy materialization ability to transform into a pair of giant hands to catch the steel plate and throw it aside.

"go!"

With the hull breached, Roy flapped his wings and swam quickly out of the Santiago with the others.

A small portion of the Santiago was still afloat, so Roy and his crew, who had escaped from the bottom of the ship, quickly flew out of the water.

It was almost noon by then. The storm had long since subsided, but the dark clouds had not yet dispersed.

In the dim light, everyone could see what the monster that had been attacking the Santiago looked like. It was an octopus-like sea monster about the size of a 10,000-ton ship, with its head alone being a third the size of the Santiago.

The tentacles Roy cut off earlier were just the tips of the octopus sea monster's tentacles!

(Image of a sea monster)
This body is much bigger than it appears in the movie!

In the original Deep Rising, the sea monster wasn't actually that big. After all, it could squeeze into the banquet hall of a cruise ship. Even if an octopus is good at squeezing through holes, it wouldn't be that big.

Surprisingly, not only is the Santiago larger than in the movie, but the sea monster is also much bigger.

However, being big has its advantages. Compared to the San Diego, Roy and his crew, flying in the sky, were as tiny as flies and mosquitoes, and the sea monster didn't even notice them.

Seeing the sea monster wreaking havoc on the massive ship, Roy felt it was best to get the others away safely first.

"Fenigan, where's the speedboat you mentioned?"

"Maybe it was washed far away by the waves? Keep looking!"

Roy continued to ascend, and sure enough, the speedboat was dozens of nautical miles away.

"Wait a minute, what's wrong with the speedboat?"

Finnigan paused for a moment before answering.

"I understand. The two mercenaries who stayed on the speedboat were so scared when they saw the sea monster that they wanted to run away!"

Roy's face darkened.

Boats aren't so easy to sail. Those two mercenaries clearly didn't know how to sail, otherwise it wouldn't have taken them several hours to get that far.

"Hold on tight, I'm going to speed up."

(End of this chapter)