After swimming for a few tens of miles, the group arrives at the Mermaid Fortress in that area. The place is a set of stone buildings that float inside the water by magic, similar to the other fortress that Lucien saw on the border of the Naga territory.
But unlike that fortress, where Lucien saw thousands of Nagas swimming around, there isn't a living soul within miles around, which creates a very strange atmosphere.
The Sins expand their magic sense through the area and discover various things like magic devices, weapons, high mana foods, and even the portal that Nea mentioned, but there is no person or creature around.
The group heads towards what appears to be the main building, then Lust feels something strange and exclaims in Lucien's mind. 'Dark mana!!'
'Another shark???' He quickly asks as he goes into a state of alert, drawing Nea and Saria's attention.
Lust focuses on that dark energy to report to Lucien. 'No... its aura is weak... but pure...'
'What does that mean?' He asks.
'It could be a dark crystal.' Envy responds, and Lust agrees.
'That would explain why those Krakens and the Shark of the Deeps are near here.' Sloth comments in her usual slow tone.
"Lucien?" Saria asks him as Nea looks at him with a thoughtful and concerned expression. "Did you find something?"
He nods and points in the direction of the main building. "The Sins felt dark mana in that place, probably dark crystals or another similar source."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Dark crystals??" Saria makes a shocked expression. "It doesn't make sense; our people don't mess with dark magic..."
"Maybe it wasn't their intention." Nea comments. "But it would explain why two Krakens and a Shark of the Deeps seemed to come this way."
"Yeah." Lucien agrees.
"Show us where it is." Nea asks him.
Lucien nods before swimming towards the bottom of the big main building. "This way."
Nea and Saria follow him with apprehensive expressions. Once they enter the building, Nea gets very sad to see many skeletons everywhere. All of those skeletons are the same, made of thin bones and with only a vertical bone line below the waist, making it clear that they are all Mermaids, the guardians of that fortress.
Saria is so saddened to see so many dead Mermaids that Lucien can even see tears in her eyes. "There are dozens of corpses in the other buildings, too, all in the same way..."
"Could they have been attacked by some creature?" Lucien thinks aloud.
"I don't know..." Nea looks at the skeletons with a thoughtful expression. "I don't know of any creature that leaves skeletons whole so perfectly after an attack; this is so bizarre."
Envy makes her voice sounds out loud around the group without even materializing her body. "A giant slime or swamp creep could do it by melting their flesh and leaving only bones behind..."
Saria can't help but make an expression of disgust and indignation, while Nea looks calm but is very saddened by the loss of so many Mermaids.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"There are no such creatures in the sea, you fool!" Lust quickly scolds Envy, who doesn't even care about making Nea and Saria feel even worse.
Lucien ignores the tantrums between the Sins and looks at Nea and Saria with a sorry and loving expression. "Do you want to have a funeral for them?"
Saria smiles at him because she knows his intentions are honest, and he really cares about the Mermaids' well-being. But Nea sighs. "They deserve a proper funeral, but we have to find out what happened here first and solve it."
"Alright." He responds and then walks deeper into the building. As in most Mermaid buildings, there are enchantments that keep water outside, they can slide over surfaces like the Nagas or float, in the case of those above the Sky Realm, of course.
Lucien heads in the direction Lust says there is the source of dark magic, and the girls follow him. The further into the building they go, the closer they get to the portal, and more Mermaid skeletons appear, indicating that the dark mana is related to their death.
And the more dead Mermaids they see, the more sad and upset Nea and Saria get. Lucien is sorry for them because he understands how they feel. If it were the members of his troops killed, he would be furious and wouldn't rest before the culprits paid in blood.
Even now, he can't help but get angry because all Mermaids look like such lovely and kind creatures, so their death seems like a wicked transgression. He not only shares Nea and Saria's pain but also their desire to prevent something like that from happening again.
The group finally arrives in front of large double doors that are closed and sealed with various magic barriers. In that place, there are more skeletons than any other, and one of them is inside a beautiful shining armor that differs from the others.
"She was the leader..." Nea comments as she bends down and touches that death Mermaid's armor. "Rest in peace, my friend..."
Saria is also sorry for that Mermaid's death, but she can't help but wonder about something. "Why didn't the scouts report anything about it? I mean, look at how their bodies are… this doesn't look like something that happened recently but several weeks ago.
"Maybe not." Lust makes her voice sounds loud for everyone to hear. "Dark energy has the ability to absorb the life out of healthy creatures very quickly depending on the circumstances, so it could have happened a short time ago, even hours."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"And these magical barriers were made quite recently, not less than ten hours ago." Sloth comments.
Nea looks at the double doors. "Were they trying to seal something in this room? The portal is behind those doors, so something might have come... perhaps followed the group of scouts."
Before Lucien can ask Lust anything, she already reports. "I don't feel any creatures inside this room, just the source of dark mana."
"That's what it looks like..." Sloth also comments. "But we must be careful; dark magic is very dangerous, even for our immortal souls."
"Bullshit!" Envy materializes her body and attacks the barriers on the door. "Let's see what's inside."
*BAM*
The barriers try to repel Envy's double daggers, but her power is pretty high due to all Lucien and Amelia's hard work, so even those barriers made by a powerful Immortal Realm Mermaid can't withstand more than a few attacks from her. Still, they need to break the barrier as it even blocks Sins' energy bodies.
As Envy destroys the door's magic barriers, Lust talks to Lucien. "Try to use Maggie's vision ability; you've been able to control it better recently."
Lucien wastes no time and channels Maggie's special mana, activating her vision ability and causing his eyes to turn white. That surprises Nea and Saria as they didn't know he had such an ability.
His already extraordinary vision gets even better, and he can see through the magic barriers and the door. Inside the room is a large circular portal that creates a cone of blue energy that fades as it approaches the wall, heading west.
"Hmmm..." Lucien doesn't see any skeleton or furniture inside the room, except for the portal. Then he notices something strange on the floor below the portal arch. "There's something on the floor... it looks like black roots coming from below the floor."
"It is the source of dark mana." Lust quickly comments.
"What the hell..." Nea exclaims as Envy finishes breaking down the magic barriers and doors. The group sees the black roots that Lucien mentioned, and that makes shivers run through the Mermaids' bodies.
"This..." Saria gets very uncomfortable when gazing at the strange roots because, as Mermaids are such good creatures, they have a natural aversion to dark magic. Seeing that makes her approach Lucien instinctively, seeking the comfort that only his touch can give her.
However, The Ghost Lady in her hand vibrates with attraction to that small source of dark mana, making Saria get scared as she holds the sword tightly. "Kaisa???"
Nea immediately looks at her daughters, but the Ghost Lady manages to free herself from Saria's hand and quickly flies towards the black roots.
*Whoosh*
The sword's speed is too high, but Lucien grabs it by the hilt while Lust quickly warns him. "Don't let her touch the dark roots; her dark affinity results from a curse, so dark mana won't do her any good."
"Tell her that!" Lucien exclaims as the sword tries to break free and fly towards the source of dark mana.
Nea and Saria are apprehensive as they want to help Kaisa but can't do anything. So Lust quickly gives Lucien a solution. "Give more of your energy to her; it will have to satisfy her hungry."
Lucien wastes no time before channeling more energy into the sword, calming it down. However, that increases the sword's dependence on his energy, and as that way of giving energy to her is far inferior to the way he gives energy to his wives, at some time, it will not be enough to satisfy Kaise's soul any further.
Saria is happy that Lucien can help Kaisa, but Nea feels worse because while he is the only one who can help her beloved daughter, he is also the devil who wants the loyalty of all her people and kill her dear friend.
As the mood turns awkward, Sloth materializes her body and looks at the black roots before speaking to Nea. "What's under that floor?"
"Only water; we are on the lowest floor of the fortress." She quickly responds.
Before Sloth can say anything, Nea understands why she asked that. Then she quickly punches the floor below, creating a hole in the surface, through which seawater begins to enter.
Nea seals the hole with a simple barrier that blocks only water before diving into the sea to see the underside of the fortress, specifically below the portal room.
Lucien and Saria follow Nea, and they see a cluster of black dots creating a thick mass of black goo below the black roots.
"What's going on here??" Nea doesn't understand why that disgusting goo is accumulating in that place.
"That looks like magic residue..." Lust comments as she looks at the mass of dark energy.
Slot nods. "Indeed, it seems that these residues are all over the seawater in almost imperceptible amounts and that they are flowing towards the portal."
"Why??" Nea quickly asks. "Our portals don't use dark mana; my people don't use dark mana on anything except..."
It's clear she's talking about Kaisa's sacrifice a thousand years ago. But whatever is causing that problem, it is something new.
"Someone must be doing some great dark spell, something that's messing with the whole sea..." Sloth explains.
"And the residues of that dark spell are being drawn to this portal?" Nea thinks out loud.
"Maybe not for the portal..." Lust makes a thoughtful expression. "I mean, maybe not something on this side of the portal."
"On the other side?" Lucien also makes a thoughtful expression. "What's on the other side of the portal?"
"Another fortress like this." Nea quickly responds and then makes a concerned expression. "It's near the Central Region..."
"So probably what's attracting the dark energy is there." Lust comments. "And that dark mana is flowing to the portal as it is the shortest way there."
Slot nods. "That dark mana is poisoning all the water around the portal, which must have resulted in the death of these Mermaids."
Nea doesn't have time to be sorry for those Mermaids as she gets worried about Saria and Lucien's current state, so she quickly checks their bodies with her energy. "Could this poison us???"
She doesn't see anything wrong with their bodies but is only relieved when Lust responds. "Don't worry; it looks like your water mana is so powerful that it is naturally repelling this dark energy."
"Our water mana?" Nea looks at Lucien with a curious expression. "What about you?"
Lucien doesn't feel any different, and Lust also explains why. "He has a bit of a dark affinity due to his connection to Olivia, so he's been absorbing the small amount of dark mana in the water with no side effects."
Saria can't help but be impressed by Lucien again, while even Nea can't hide that. "How many elementary affinities do you have after all???"
