"Luvia, what's wrong? If you can't bear it, let Dorothy take your place temporarily."
Holding the princess, Shade hurriedly gave advice in the rain.
"No, our souls are connected. Even if I go to Tobesk, the curse will still..."
She was clearly holding onto Xia De's arm to steady herself, but at this moment she actually took a step forward. Xia De immediately tightened the fishing line on the fishing rod, and then she actually felt a strong force pulling him forward.
This didn't seem like the power of Lecia. She moved forward very slowly. It was as if the fishing line was not only connecting Lecia, but also connecting to something invisible.
"What's going on?"
Xia De pressed his shoes against the soft sand, stretched out his right hand, and pressed the top of the princess's wet long hair:
"Silver Moon!"
The silver light spilled out from the palm of his hand, not dazzling. But when the holy silver light shone on Leicia's face, black smoke actually came out of the swollen fishman tattoo:
"Lecia, hurry up, remove the curse stone!"
The staggering people passed by the two of them, and after bumping into Xia De, they took the initiative to take a detour.
Xia De hurriedly reminded the princess, who had become slightly more awake, and raised her hand to touch the ruby on her right ear. As she pulled out the thin red ribbon, the ugly fish-man tattoo actually moved.
"oh!"
Leicia felt the pain, but she just grunted. She guided the red ribbon on her fingertips and tried to wrap it around the fish-man tattoo on her skin. But the tattoo was very flexible and actually moved along the skin of her face, through her neck and toward her heart.
Xia De was shocked. If the tattoo went from his face to the front of his heart, he wouldn't be able to touch it.
"What am I thinking about?"
Cursing himself in his heart, Shade took the initiative to untie the fishing line wrapped around Leicia's wrist:
"Lecia, I'm sorry."
The hand shining with silver moonlight grabbed Leicia's neck, forcing the tattoo to not pass through. The left hand held a metal fishhook and pierced Leicia's right cheek, piercing through the fishman tattoo.
"oh!"
The red-haired girl grabbed Shad's arm hard. Shad gritted his teeth and held the fishing rod with both hands:
"Lecia, hold on."
"It's okay, just hurry up... Oh!"
Before she finished speaking, Shade had already raised the fishing rod, and the fishing line drove the hook away from Leicia's face. What was peeled off was not only blood and flesh, but also the blood-red fish-man tattoo.
It was not flat. After absorbing the blood from Lecia's face, it had gained thickness.
After being "hooked" out by the fishhook, the small blood-red fishman fell on the beach, struggling up and down constantly, but because it did not take the initiative to take the bait, it was unable to trigger the characteristics of the fishing rod.
Leicia swung out the red ribbon on her fingertips, trapping the tattoo firmly on the fishhook, and finally couldn't help sobbing.
"It's okay. It's okay."
He reached into his pocket with his left hand and took out a test tube of water. After giving the water the power of gluttony, Shade gently dripped the water on Lecia's face.
Just as Leicia's face had just healed, Shade felt the pulling sensation from the fishing rod again. Looking up, the fishman tattoo, which was struggling on the ground, actually flew up and pointed directly at the huge mermaid corpse fighting with the church and the academy ring magicians on the distant coastline.
"Is there such a good thing?"
Xia De had originally planned to return to the sea to approach the corpse. Now that he had an object to guide him, and this thing even actively provided strength to pull him forward, he could even save some energy.
"Lecia, how do you feel now?"
Shad held the fishing rod with both hands, leaning back slightly to resist the pull of the tattoo on the hook.
"I... ... "
The red-haired girl covered her right cheek and gently touched it a few times:
"My face is really..."
"... There really is no trace at all. It is still so beautiful. I use Mia to guarantee it. I am asking, can you still feel the curse now?"
"No."
She immediately shook her head. Although she was still standing in the blood rain, the curse spread by the rain had little effect on the ring warlock.
"Okay, go back to the mansion first."
"Okay, where are you going?"
She looked at Shad in the rain. There were obviously many people around, passing by them and heading towards the ocean, but at this moment, there was only Shad in her eyes.
"I have things to do."
Shade looked towards the distant coastline, with an excited expression on his face that Lecia could not understand at all. What he longed for was most likely there:
"I never do anything risky, don't worry about that. Just wait for me to come back. I want to put an end to the mermaid curse once and for all, so you don't have to worry. When the matter of Coldwater Harbor is settled, I think we can finally meet in Tobesk. Maybe we can spend an afternoon talking about politics, or you can put on makeup and disguise yourself, and go for a cat walk with me on the boulevard in the university district. The sunset there in the evening is very beautiful."
The red rain made his clothes and face look strange, but Xia De still smiled and spoke, tightening and loosening the fishing line in his hand to control the tattoo's struggling strength:
"How can I say such things before I do something big?"
He made his own joke.
"Xade, you...be careful."
In the end, he was unable to say anything to stop Shade, who pulled the fishing rod hard and smiled at the princess for the last time:
"Go back quickly."
"You must be careful."
"Of course... If I can't come back, let Dorothy take care of Mia and write to Miss Gold. The ruby ring your mother gave me will belong to you, and all my remaining property will be divided equally between the four of us in the group and Mia."
Although he still had a drop of divinity in him, Shade still wanted to prepare for the worst outcome.
He did not feel pessimistic, but was happy about the moment.
As a stranger without family, the young student Zack Har died alone in a rented apartment. If it were not for Shad's appearance, no one would be able to inherit his estate. But Shad, whose hometown was farther away and whom he could never return to, was able to find friends who could inherit his estate.
"Shad, you..."
Before Leicia finished speaking, the fishman Tattoo dragged Shade forward. He followed Tattoo in a very funny way, staggering forward, passing those who were staggering towards the sea in front of him, and then screamed, as if he was tripped, and plunged into the sea. After surfacing from the water several times, he never appeared again.
It didn't seem like Shad was following the tattoo, but rather like he was being dragged into the sea.
The bloody rain dyed the princess's clothes red. She wanted to laugh, but she felt a little sad:
"Shad Suren Hamilton."
She turned around and picked up the umbrella, whispering Shade's name. With her back to the blood-red sea, she walked towards the house of Aurora Manor. At this moment, no one could see the princess's expression:
"How many secrets do you have?"
Shad in the sea had no idea what Lecia was thinking. In fact, he was not swimming at all, but was simply being dragged forward in the water.
The flesh and blood of desire allowed Shad to maintain a good vision underwater. Not long after entering the water, he saw the people who entered the sea because of the sea return.
They were "suspended" in the water in a strange posture. Their eyes were wide open, in a prayer posture. The sea water flowed through the bodies, making a buzzing sound inside them, but they clearly did not open their mouths. This was the ritual formation of the large-scale "sea return" ceremony in the ocean. Every person who voluntarily returned themselves to the sea was a part of the formation.
When Shade passed by them, they would try to capture him. Therefore, Shade saw that most of the corpses had traces similar to those of fishmen. This made him have more speculations:
"The mermaid curse is more serious than I thought, not only because rain can spread the curse, but also because most of the original inhabitants of this city actually have the blood of mermen... ...Send them back to the sea, to the ocean where their ancestors lived."
Holding the fishing rod, he moved forward quickly in the sea. Five minutes later, when Xia De vaguely saw the color of the sea water in front of him suddenly become darker, he realized that the huge mermaid corpse was right in front of him.
"How big is this thing?"
Just the part that Shad could see underwater, the space occupied by the mermaid's lower body on the seabed was larger than the largest sea monster Shad could imagine.
He always thought that he didn't have the so-called gigantic fear or deep-sea fear, but when he was underwater and saw himself getting closer and closer to the huge monster lurking in the ocean and still wriggling, Shade couldn't help but feel uncontrollable fear in his heart.
At first, he could close his eyes and imagine the cute cat at home to relieve the growing fear. But as he got closer and closer to the giant mermaid corpse summoned from the abyss by the Scarlet Cult, even with his eyes closed, Shade felt that he could clearly "see" the more specific appearance of that thing.
The body had already decayed, and the part on the seafloor was flowing with the ocean currents, with green and black pus constantly flowing into the water, forming a thin stream of water that merged into the seawater. On the lightless seafloor, the lines on the surface of the body were vaguely visible. The raised scales were rotten, but the patterns were unusually clear.
Then, with a faint light, I could see spirals, spirals connected to each other. Small spirals formed large spirals, and large spirals formed even larger spirals.
Along with strange sounds from the bottom of the sea, those spirals on the lightless bottom of the sea emitted scarlet light, like open eyes, with a strange power that attracted souls. Xia De closed his eyes and only sensed those patterns with his mind, but he actually had the illusion that he couldn't control his body.
"Just the lines on a corpse can actually have this kind of power?"
Fortunately, Shade didn't have to endure it for too long. He didn't get close to the deep-sea giant corpse underwater, but rushed directly above the water with the blood-red tattoo hooked by the fishhook.