Owen Dyson watched the stone bed silently, watching the monster in black robe turn into a pool of dirty sea water, flowing around along the stone bed.
When the dirty seawater flowed to the ground, he took a half step back with a blank expression, to prevent the liquid from contaminating his boots.
A stench mixed with seaweed and silt wafted from the secret room.
"Can you trace his soul?" Earl Owen turned his head and said to the mage in charge.
"The soul has disappeared," the mage wearing the moon pattern robe outlined a complex rune on his chest, his eyes were slightly silvery, and after scanning the entire secret room, he shook his head, "but it didn't disappear instantly— There is no remaining spirit here, the soul is more like being taken away by something."
"...the soul that has been taken away is more interesting..." Earl Owen frowned slightly, but slowly stretched it out again, "Don't spread the news about this monster to prevent panic. Master Petori, trouble later You thoroughly purify this place, including this black robe and that half of the amulet, to prevent them from remaining cursed power from the deep sea."
The mage lowered his head and responded respectfully: "Yes, my lord."
Owen Dyson nodded, looked away from the stone bed, and exhaled lightly.
The strong sea smell in the air seemed to dissipate a little.
"In short, those sons of the storm who once betrayed the Dyson family seem to be in some trouble this time... It's ironic that they threw themselves into the deep sea, but the deep sea doesn't seem to treat them very kindly," said the ruler of Port Mobius The reporter suddenly laughed, "This is quite in line with the fate of cultists."
"My lord," the mage named Petori asked aloud, "Our route exploration plan..."
The strange state of the black-robed monster is frightening. Even a knowledgeable mage will feel extremely afraid when facing the inexplicable power from the deep sea. Those fine scales, webbed palms, and the monster finally turned into The scene of the sea was deeply imprinted in the minds of everyone at the scene, and at this moment, thinking of the ocean exploration plan that Port Mobius was actively preparing under the order of the emperor, Master Petori couldn't help but feel a little worried.
"Still proceeding according to the original plan," said Owen. In the blue pupils of the border earl, there was a fearless and challenger's light. plan."
"But the dangers lurking in the deep sea cannot be ignored..."
"The ocean is never safe," Owen Dyson looked at the mage calmly, "but we can't stay on land forever just because the land is safe—I will tell His Majesty and give him a full report on the situation of this monster , but the preparations for opening up routes cannot be stopped for a moment.”
"Yes, my lord."
…
The time at sea is seldom peaceful, most violent, and always dangerous.
In the eastern sea of the Endless Sea, an unnamed archipelago is being surrounded by storms and magical turbulence.
It seems that the never-ending thunder and lightning are raging in the dark sky. Every strike of lightning will illuminate the turbulent and violent sea. The huge cyclone forms a terrible structure like an inverted funnel above the island. The clouds dominated by the cyclone It connects the sea surface around the island, and forms a circle of storm barriers between the sky and the sea that seem to surround the wall.
This terrifying celestial phenomenon formed by strong winds, huge waves, lightning, and magical turbulence is like a cage that covers the entire archipelago without any dead ends. Looking out from any point in the archipelago is like looking up in a cage, which is desperate. endless walls.
But this terrifying sight is actually the norm on the endless ocean.
Only priests who follow the way of the storm know how to find a safe route from this violent and seemingly seamless blockade.
A ship bumped through the storm, avoiding all the magic turbulence and deadly waves as if dancing in the blade forest. The light of magic power shone around the ship, and huge runes shone on both sides of the ship, making this ship The speed of the ship was astonishingly fast. Like a bird flying close to the surface of the sea, it crossed the most dangerous sea area and quickly approached the largest island in the center of the archipelago.
A striking, pyramid-like large temple built with blue boulders stands on the top of the mountain in the center of the island, overlooking the entire sea area. There are huge runes representing storms and gods floating above the temple. Withstood the storm, most of the archipelago maintained the most basic peace and security, allowing the residents on the island to survive in this terrible sea.
The ship slowed down on one side of the island, sailed smoothly into an artificial port, and moored close to the trestle bridge.
Many people were already waiting at the port, some of them were wearing ordinary fishermen's attire, some were wearing black or blue robes and short robes with storm runes on them.
A long gangway protruded from the side of the ship, and some people wearing storm robes appeared on the side of the ship and stepped onto the trestle along the gangway.
Behind these people wearing storm robes are warriors wearing enchanted leather armor or mail armor, covering their faces with oak masks, and marching silently. These soldiers belonging to the Son of the Storm are carrying several stretchers. On those stretchers , is firmly fixed with rune chains and strong ropes, and is wrapped in black cloth like a mummy-like human body.
The crowd on the pier became a little agitated.
An old man wearing a dark gold storm robe, wearing a three-fold storm crown, and holding a heavy sea emperor scepter came out of the crowd. Respect whispered: "The Pope has come down...", "It's His Majesty Saul..."
Under the gaze of countless pairs of eyes, Pope Saul Storm, the Son of the Storm, walked up the trestle and came to the storm priests who got off the boat. His gaze swept over the soldiers carrying stretchers behind the priests, and swept The bodies that were pinned to stretchers.
The sea breeze rolled up the cloth that wrapped the body, and under the black cloth, there were fine blue-green scales.
A storm priest who seemed to have the highest status took a step forward, and saluted the Pope holding the scepter of the Sea Emperor respectfully: "Your Majesty."
Pope Saul Storm nodded slightly, and said softly: "It seems that Hurricane Island has also returned to the deep sea..."
"Yes, the compatriots on Hurricane Island and the two subsidiary islands next to Hurricane Island have all returned to the deep sea. So far, the seven islands that have lost contact have all been determined to fall," the Storm Priest said in a heavy tone, with a serious expression on his face. Deeply ashamed, "I am very sorry, Your Majesty, I have not been able to bring any good news."
"There is no need to feel guilty, there is a limit to manpower," Pope Saul shook his head, his eyes fell on those stretchers, "Then, these are the transformed compatriots..."
"Strictly speaking, they are half-transformed compatriots. Their minds are in a chaotic state and are currently controlled by strong anesthetics, but their bodies are still constantly mutating," said the storm priest. "When we first caught them , they still only have very few scales on their bodies, but now their body surface has covered more than 60% of their scales, and... all of them have grown webs, the most mutated one, the legs have become between the sea snake and the fish tail status."
"And...the reason is still not found?"
"Yes, no reason has been found. There are no signs of attack on the fallen islands. We suspected that the sea monsters were spreading the curse, but they never appeared near there—unless the extraordinary power of those sea monsters is already strong. It is possible to cast a curse on hundreds or thousands of people across hundreds or even thousands of nautical miles, but based on what we know about siren, this is basically impossible."
The storm priest said, suddenly fell silent, and his expression became more serious.
"In addition, Your Majesty, we also discovered something this time..."
"Let's just say it here."
"I'm afraid there are completely mutated compatriots," the storm priest lowered his voice, "on the eve before we left Hurricane Island, a night soldier said that he saw several figures moving on the coast, their bodies covered with scales, With fins on its back and arms, it seems to have gills, it glides on the sand with a tail that is somewhere between a sea snake and a fish, and quickly jumps into the sea - since only one soldier witnessed it, I'm not sure if that is too much Hallucinations caused by nervousness or the influence of magical turbulence."
Listening to the description of the storm priest, Pope Sol couldn't help but glanced at the bodies on the stretchers again.
"Sounds like the result of further deepening of this terrible mutation."
"Yes."
"Those completely mutated compatriots jumped into the sea directly, did not communicate with you, and did not attack anyone?"
"Yes, that's what the night soldier reported."
"... I see," Pope Saul said softly after a few seconds of silence, "Everyone has worked hard, go and rest first, and the follow-up things... we will talk about it after you have rested."
"Yes, thank you for your concern."
The storm priest lowered his head and said, and twisted his neck a little unnaturally.
He suddenly felt a little itchy on the skin around his neck.
It's like... scales are going to grow there.
…
On this endless ocean, raging storms are a norm, but a calm safe zone still exists. The colony starship Antavien and the Io continent where the starship crashed are one of such safe zones.
In the Antaveen crash zone and the surrounding sea area, storms seldom raged. Most of the days were clear skies or mild wind and light rain, and deadly magic turbulence almost never appeared.
This abnormal phenomenon once made the Krakens very curious. After a long period of research and exploration, the deep-water technicians put forward a conjecture——in ancient times, Antaveen started almost all engines during the crash process. Emergency recoil, the powerful energy released by the engine melted almost a quarter of the Io continent at that time, and penetrated a part of the continental shelf, permanently changing the seabed structure near the coastline. Perhaps it was during this process that the local magnetic field generated It caused a permanent change, and indirectly led to a change in the magic environment, which opened up such a large-scale safety zone in the storm-ravaged endless sea.
As far as the sea monsters are concerned, the good weather in the waters near the Antavien is the biggest benefit for them—they can bask in the sun to their heart's content in this place where the sky is often clear.
It's just that some accidents always happen in good days.
In the Antaveen crash zone, on the western coastline of the Io continent, on the sunbathing area of the Krakens, Petya frowned slightly, watching the uninvited guests occupying the beach.
Creatures that looked like humans but had the obvious features of deep-sea dwellers ran (or rather slid around with smooth, scaled tails) on the sand, uninvited and cheerful.
Petiya turned slightly to the side, and asked in a low voice to her personal maid: "Rosalia, what are the origins of these... guys?"
"I haven't found out yet, they are all too excited right now, and I can't find anyone who can communicate calmly," Rosalia, the maid of the deep sea, responded, paddling back and forth on the beach with her long tail, looking not very happy—because She saw that her usual place to bask in the sun was also occupied, "But Master Hathaway said that this excitement should gradually recede, and they should be able to calm down and communicate with us."
"That's what the witch said... Then wait for these guys to calm down. Don't start a conflict with them, so as not to deal with it in the future, and talk about it after the establishment of communication," Petya rubbed her forehead, "By the way, she has Didn't say how to call these guys? There should be a racial name or code name, right?"
"I can't find a matching name in the existing database," Rosalia said, while the tail was already poking holes in the sand quickly - she saw the guy occupying her own special bunker for sunbathing She had already started to sleep with her tail curled up inside, which made her extremely annoyed, but she didn't dare to vent it in front of the Queen, "So Master Hathaway gave them a name..."
"Oh? What name?"
"The masters call them 'naga'."
(Mom!)