After leaving his wives with smiles on their flushed faces and Saria with a frustrated expression in the kitchen, Lucien heads to the deck. Amid that familiar but also sinful atmosphere, his power kept growing along with the girls', especially his sisters.
When he arrives on the deck, everyone looks at him with different expressions. Most of his sisters have extremely jealous expressions, especially Amelia and Claire.
Eve looks a little upset but also proud and shocked; the Sins seem the same. They wanted to be in Wrath's shoes, but they're more focused on what to do with Lucien next; everyone wants a piece of him after all.
As he walks to the table, Daisy pours a glass of wine then hands it to him. "Looks like you were the only one who managed to help Donna deal with all that tension."
"Anger," Eve comments as she drinks wine too. "There's no reason to make it look any different than it really is, repressed anger, so much anger..."
"Anyway, she's relaxed now, and I hope this lasts for at least a full day." Lucien comments.
"Really?!" Maya can't help but think that's crazy due to how much stronger Lucien looks after making his sister scream like that. "Did you expect to do something like this tomorrow???"
Before he can respond, she continues. "I've lived a lot longer than you can imagine, and I've seen all sorts of things across the universe, but it... I've never seen anyone advance a..."
"A..." She thought Lucien had advanced one layer, but when she analyzes his strength close, she notices that he is already in the third layer of the Sky Realm. "Two?? Are you kidding me?!!?"
"You're not wrong, old bird." Pride materializes her body beside them and comments. "He advanced two layers of the Sky Realm in less than two hours, using only his own abilities."
"Bullshit!!" Maya has heard about the incredible abilities of the seven deadly sins and how they could help their hosts advance power Realms in a few years and even months without special resources, but what Lucien has done is far superior to her best expectations.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"..." Eve sighs and bangs her head against the table. She is very happy for Lucien, but the fact that he is getting stronger than her extremely fast makes her feel somehow bad.
Lucien knows how his unrestrained accession affects Eve and Pride negatively, so he tries to look less impressive. "I couldn't do that without Donna, Lust, and Wrath… I couldn't do anything without the women standing by my side."
"Come on!" Pride rolls her eyes. "You don't have to be humble, you know..."
Eve can't help but smile at Lucien for trying not to make her look like a failure compared to him.
And even though that was one of his intentions, he was serious about giving all the credit to the women beside him, and Maya wants to believe in that. [Is this real gratitude?? If he goes on like this, all these women will follow him forever...]
Lust also materializes her body beside them. "Also, he was already halfway through the first layer, so it wasn't an advance of two full layers but one and a half."
"And Donna was the most benefited in the end." She completes.
"And which layer is she in now?" Amelia asks.
"Eighth." Lust smiles.
"Eighth?!?" Naomi can't help but exclaim in shock. She was so happy to be stronger than Donna, but now her sister has reached the same power level as her that easily.
Even Sloth materializes her body and looks at Lucien with a thoughtful and expectant expression. "Four layers straight... it looks like you got even more amazing in the few weeks we were apart."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Lust can't help but proudly smile as if Sloth were praising her. "And these four layers don't represent all the improvisation in her power, you know. Also... the best part is that Lucien already knows how to help her open her next soul gate."
Everyone is even more shocked by that revelation, and Pride can't help but ask. "Really??"
The other Sins are equally shocked, and even Maya gets curious. "Is it about the power of the Dragon Queen??"
"Not quite…" Lucien sighs as he can't really be upset with Lust for talking so much. "I just have a good hunch on how to help her understand more about it."
"Hmmm..." Maya knows he has no reason to tell her his secrets, but she can't contain her curiosity. "What exactly do you mean?"
"..." He looks at her inquisitively, but as she keeps waiting for an answer, he replies in a neutral tone. "This is about her feelings, so I don't think she would want me to say something like that to someone else, let alone random people..."
"Oh..." Maya realizes she has gone too far and quickly regrets it. "Forgive me; I didn't mean to... I was just curious; Aylin was very famous for her mysterious powers, and..."
The Sins are confused by Lucien's way of acting. They expect he can seduce Maya to get her magic core, but he seems to be being rather cold to her.
Maya, on the other hand, admires Lucien for acting that way. She would doubt his intentions if he told her a secret of his sister to her in order to obtain her friendship. And due to him keeping himself neutral and not telling her anything also makes her more curious about that.
"No problem." Lucien smiles at Maya as he realizes she has no bad intentions when asking about that. It's weird that he doesn't think she has any dark feelings in her heart, but due to her character so far, he can only think that way.
While Maya is embarrassed for being so curious about Lucien, the mood gets weird. So Naomi quickly tries to make a joke. "Why are these women taking so long to bring the food? I bet their dishes turned out so good they don't want to share it with anyone!"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Do you think they are all like you?" Eve asks sarcastically, embarrassing Naomi and making Lucien laugh.
Claire also laughs as she points to Naomi. "Wasn't it because of you that the girls stopped bringing trays to the table?!?"
*Bam*
Amelia hits her with a pillow from the sofa. "Don't talk like you didn't attack the last tray of food too!"
A few months ago, Claire wouldn't react to such a provocation, but the new Claire is furious at Amelia's actions and quickly grabs the pillow before trying to hit her with that.
*Whoosh*
*Blink*
"No!" Due to the benefits of Lucien's demonic energy, Amelia ignores the power level differences between her and Claire, seeing her move in slow motion and dodging the pillow hit with her teleport ability.
But as Claire started that blow with too much force, she couldn't stop it before hitting the face of Sophia, who was sleeping on the sofa.
*BAM*
Sophia is thrown off the sofa while Little Ko jumps out of her arms in the air and complains. "Roar!!!"
"Damn!!!" Claire curses as Sophia rolls over the deck, and Amelia laughs.
Although that seems like an innocent prank between sisters, Lucien is scared and quickly flies towards Sophia to prevent her from getting hurt. Their sisters sometimes forget she's pregnant, but he doesn't. And despite Sophia's incredible strength and theoretically nothing could harm the child due to the Royal Dragon Barrier around her uterus, he still gets concerned.
"Sophia!" He catches her before she hits the deck wall. Agility is definitely not her best attribute.
"Ahh... what is..." Sophia takes a while to wake up and realize what's going on.
She first notices Lucien's face so close to hers and can't resist kissing his lips as she smiles. But then she notices they are on the floor and sees little Ko roaring at Claire, who is holding a pillow with a sorry expression on her face.
"I'm sorry, Sophia." Amelia is the first to speak as she didn't realize that by dodging Claire's attack, the pillow would hit Sophia.
"It's alright..." Lucien comments as he strokes Sophia's face and belly. "Sometimes, I forget how strong you are."
Sophia smiles at Lucien too, but something isn't right inside her. She feels a wave of uncontrollable anger growing in her heart due to the lack of care her sisters have towards her baby.
Her maternal protective instinct is activated to the fullest, and she feels the need to teach her careless sisters a lesson so that incidents like that don't happen again.
While Sophia's expression goes from a gentle smile to an angry look, everyone on the deck feels the atmosphere quickly getting cold.
"Huh???" Naomi is the first to notice dark clouds appearing out of nowhere.
The others begin to notice the sea getting rough, and even the Mermaids closest to the ship feel the water getting strangely cold. They are used to very low temperatures, but that coldness not only affects their bodies but also their souls.
The influence of that mysterious cold reaches even the giant turtle of Saria. The creature starts to shake as Nea gazes at the ship with a shocked expression.
"It..." Nea feels a mixture of conflicting feelings such as anger, affection, and a desire to protect.
It was already sunset, but the sun seems to disappear completely as even the moonlight is blocked by those dark clouds, causing darkness to cover the entire Mermaids camp.
On the deck of the Sea Devil, everyone looks at Sophia with shocked expressions. Even though most of them know about her illusion abilities, they are not sure if that is real or not.
For Maya, who doesn't know about her abilities, that seems even crazier. She feels a mysterious and powerful aura coming from Sophia's body, which makes her really scared.
"This isn't real, right?!?" That aura also affects Claire, making her very sorry for hitting Sophia with the pillow.
"It shouldn't…" Envy comments.
"But why does this aura feel so real??" Lust comments as she is surprised by Sophia's power.
"Because of the child..." Pride's eyes glow bright white as she looks at Sophia's belly. She is the second to understand that powerful aura, while Lucien was the first to realize that it is the same draconic aura inside him.
One of the main characteristics of the Royal Draconic aura is that it makes people feel both respect and fear of the Royal Dragons, and that added to Sloth's illusory powers can result in something genuinely powerful.
And since Sophia's intention is to make her sisters regret not being careful around her, she really wants to make them fearful.
"Apologize, apologize quickly!!" Naomi begs Claire.
Claire wants to apologize, but like everyone else, she is very shocked by the incredible power of that sinister aura.
*WHOOOOOOSH*
They hear strong winds move the clouds above the ship, drawing everyone's attention. They look up and notice lightning flashes behind the clouds, illuminating the gigantic shadow of a horned creature.
No one can actually see the creature's body as the lightning flashes are very fast and only illuminates a large head with long horns, which is enough to scare thousands of Mermaids.
"MASTER, MASTER, MASTER, HELP ME!!!" Valencia truly believes they are being attacked by a sinister demon and runs towards Lucien, but that isn't the real Lucien, and she ends up falling into the sea.
The girls on the deck are also scared, especially Claire. Her legs instinctively start to shake as she tries to tell herself that it's not real.
"I'm sorry, please, forgive me!!!" She quickly begs Sophia.
And as if that were nothing but a dream, all the dark clouds disappear along with the sinister horned creature.
"Just be more careful with my baby." Sophia gently smiles.
"..." Her sisters and the other girls on the deck are speechless due to how Sophia's mood changes so quickly.
"What the hell just happened???" Maya is perplexed because, despite understanding that the creature was an illusion, she is sure that the Royal Draconic aura coming from Sophia was authentic.
Sloth smiles. "Don't mind; her mood is unstable because of the pregnancy."
