Being determined to help the woman in the glass coffin and knowing that she is likely the Water Spirit, as well as a better understanding of everything she can represent, Lucien doesn't want to waste another second before going to her.
"Can we use this portal??" He asks the Sins.
"Yes." Lust quickly responds before pointing to the black roots. "You can absorb that dark mana, although I don't recommend it because your dark affinity isn't that powerful yet, or you can just destroy it like Nea was about to do."
Lucien looks at Nea, and she nods at him; then, he summons his golden naginata, and Its light leaves both the Mermaids impressed. Then he just brings the naginata's blade closer to the dark roots, and Its powerful energy burns the dark mana quickly.
"Let's go!" He comments before entering the Mermaid Fortress again and heading to the portal room.
Now that the dark roots are gone, the portal is clean again, but more magic residue is slowly coming through the water due to Tanu's dark spell.
Nea and Saria follow Lucien after closing the hole in the fortress floor with a powerful magical barrier. And both can't help but take one last look at the skeletons of the Mermaids who died from magical poisoning.
Lucien also feels that loss and a murderous fury burns inside his heart, making him want to kill Tanu, and especially Tyrion, who ordered that.
"We're going after them next." He speaks to the mother and daughter pair.
"Mm." Saria just nods because it's not part of her being to be so angry. She feels sadder than anything else and is very happy that Lucien can be some kind of avenger for her, holding all those raging feelings in his heart.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Nea was like her daughter in the first thousand years of her life, but after seeing so much shit and evil in the world, she learned to strengthen her heart. She understood that to be a good leader for her people, she would have to carry evil feelings for them and use anger as a weapon.
Yet, her nature is still kind, which makes her a unique creature, someone who is always on the edge of good and evil, acting in contradictory ways often.
"I'll come back here to give them a dignified funeral..." She comments in a sad tone, but then she looks at Lucien determinedly. "But now we have to help the Water Spirit."
"Alright." He nods, then looks ahead. Lust tells him the portal is ready and safe, so he enters it, followed by Nea and Saria as the Sins return to his soul.
The continuous tunnel is a simple portal that takes people to an area not so far away, in this case, several thousand miles, until the border of the Mermaid Kingdom with the Central Region.
The journey just takes a few seconds, and Lucien notices that it looks a lot like the portal he came to Blue Star, as well as the one he used the first time to go to Argerim. Either way, both of those portals are uncomfortable and make people dizzy and nauseous, which is quite different from the comfortable way he and his wives travel through the Purple World portal.
Once they arrive on the other side of the portal, Lucien is the first to step out of it; and his energies quickly eliminate any discomfort he may feel.
But Saria, who comes right behind him, looks dizzy and sickly. She almost falls, but he quickly catches her before that. "Are you okay??"
"I... I hate portals..." She complains as there is a bitter smile on her face. But Lucien's energies quickly flow into her body instinctively, making her feel really good, so her smile gets brighter as she looks at him. "Thank you."
"Oh, come on!!" Nea leaves the portal and rolls her eyes when she sees Lucien and Saria's romantic scene. "Can you please stop flirting for a while? The future of our whole world is at stake here."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Lucien understands how Nea feels because he's also very apprehensive of what's going on. Yet, it's not like he's always willing to flirt, but it happens naturally, especially when he's around girls as lovely as Saria.
Lust quickly materializes her body and looks at Nea with a sorry expression. "I'm sorry, the water here is even more poisoned with dark mana..."
Nea sighs. "I don't feel anyone alive in this place, so my people must have died too… But we have to keep going for the sake of all the Mermaids."
Lucien nods, but Saria makes a thoughtful expression. "But wouldn't it be better if we eliminate the source of that dark mana first?"
"We have to purify the Water Spirit's surroundings first before our world collapses," Nea explains. "Then we'll go after Tyson and his damn Siren."
Saria doesn't know if her mother or Lucien is more excited to get to Water Spirit, but she understands that nothing will stop them from doing that.
"This way." Lucien wastes no time before heading out of that building. Saria and Nea follow him, and they see many Mermaid skeletons along the way.
It's strange that they died like that so recently, but Lust explains that the dark mana residues took a few days to get there, but when they did, it was a very intense amount of dark mana, which poisoned the Mermaids before they could understand what was happening.
The group wastes no time in that before heading towards the Central Region barrier. An hour ago, it was Lucien who followed Nea, but now she is the one who follows him because he knows exactly where the supposed Water Spirit is, while Nea never found such a place even after exploring the Central Region for many years.
They don't have time to talk as they swim at full speed towards their goal. And since the place Lucien found the woman in the glass coffin is many thousands of miles below the surface, he will only use his wings for swimming from now on.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Even though his speed is incredible and his water affinity is improving due to his wives, he still has to use the rare fish-herb to improve his movement and to breathe underwater; yet, Nea and Saria have more advantages than him, mainly due to the anatomy of their tails.
Anyway, the journey is not comfortable for Lucien, and it gets worse when the group crosses the barrier of sea currents. When he was there with only his vision and conscience, he had no idea how strong those currents were, and now he has to use all his strength to enter the Central Region.
Behind the barrier, everything is worse as the sea currents come from different directions and push the group with extreme brutality. Even Nea has to use a lot of her power just to keep from being pushed away by the force of the water, let alone Saria and Lucien.
"Are you guys alright??" Nea asks them.
Lucien nods while using all of his water affinity to keep himself stable, but Saria looks annoyed. "I had forgotten how hostile this place is."
Nea looks around with a thoughtful expression. "Actually, the sea currents are more brutal than the last time I was here... I think it's because the whole sea is furious due to Tanu's dark spell."
*RRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHMMMMM*
A loud rumble sound comes above the group, making the whole place seem to vibrate; they look up and see a giant whale swimming calmly amidst the brutal sea currents.
The mighty giant creatures that live in that place have even greater strength than their high power level due to their size, and therefore they have no difficulty swimming amid those powerful currents.
However, Saria is almost pushed away due to force waves generated by the sound of the giant whale and the strong sea currents.
Nea tries to help her, but Lucien acts faster and grabs her arm. Their bodies' energies quickly communicate, and his original demonic energy makes Saria's water energy stronger, which makes both her and Lucien more stable.
He looks at their hands before smiling at her. "I think we'd better keep this way."
She smiles at him, too, as she feels much more powerful holding his hand. "Yeah, I couldn't disagree."
Even Nea can't disagree with that and contains her complaints for now. "We have to move on before things get worse, and please be careful."
Lucien nods before leading the way down along with Saria; thanks to the cooperation of their energies, they can swim even faster than Nea, and she is impressed with that while constantly keeping alert for the dangers around.
Thanks to Nea and the Sins' mystic sense powers, the party can feel hostile creatures from a far away, but many of those creatures also feel their presence, resulting in inevitable conflicts.
Most creatures in that region, despite being very powerful, are somewhat passive, but there are many hostile creatures in the shadows, mainly Krakens and Giant Sharks.
Most of those Krakens are even stronger than those out of the Central Region, and the Sharks of Deeps are boosted by the dark mana in the water, so the group has a hard time fighting them.
But now, Nea doesn't try to keep Lucien and Saria away, allowing them to fight alongside her. They skillfully cooperate and, together with the Sins, crush the powerful monsters.
Nea can't help but find it very weird to see Lucien and Saria fighting hand in hand. Still, while one wields an incredibly powerful draconic soul weapon, the other provides support with water spells, making the couple easily defeat creatures that can kill a whole troop of powerful Immortals Realm Mermaids.
The group continues making way with blood from the monsters that try to attack them, and even Lucien's sisters, including Donna, sometimes come to fight their enemies, showing how much their strength has evolved recently.
They don't notice time passing while only fighting and swimming are what matters. After so many hours, Lucien says that they are close to the gigantic shell that houses the woman in the glass coffin, then the group realizes that it has been more than two days since they started to descend.
Nea is already completely exhausted, and anyone would be that way after using their powers to the fullest so many times in a row to face such powerful creatures.
But Lucien and Saria look full of energy as they continue fighting excitedly; in fact, they can't stop smiling as they split sharks and Krakens in half, which makes Nea doubt her own sanity.
[I think that's what it means to reach the limit...] She thinks that the difference between them is her latent talent that has long since reached the limit.
[Or is that his special abilities?] But she also can't deny that neither Saira nor Lucien should be keeping the pace that way, so she understands that they can only continue that way because of his abilities, which allows for a kind of cooperation that no one else can.
Nea begins to understand more about Lucien's powers and how he needs strong women to be more powerful, and that clearly makes such women more powerful too.
Even she starts wondering how far beyond her limits he could take her. [Or are there no limits with him?]
"Nea??" She hears Lucien's voice as there is only him in her thoughts.
"Huh???" She thinks that there is an enemy close by, and she quickly becomes alarmed. But she only notices Lucien and Saria looking at her with curious expressions.
Lucien points down, especially behind some rocks, where a mystical blue glow reflects the beautiful light of Nea and Saria's eyes. "It's there, that woman in the glass coffin..."
