Chapter 90

At Turan's response, the hopeful expression on Armania’s face turned into one of confusion.

As the previously relaxed atmosphere tensed up again, the young merboy, unable to understand, asked,

"Why...?"

"There are several reasons, but first of all, I don't trust you. How do I know you're not just making excuses to take it? Besides, if it's something equivalent to this, it must be the mirror you use underwater, and there's no way you'd part with that."

"Th-that's true, but-"

"Armania!"

It was his sister, Rowena, who suddenly yanked Armania by the back of his neck, cutting him off.

Suppressing her younger brother, she frowned at Turan and spoke.

"So what do you plan to do? Are you just going to let that monster continue roaming the sea? It wouldn’t be good for us, nor for you humans. Even if you've been lucky so far, if that thing keeps swimming around these waters, sooner or later, your coastal cities will be completely devastated. And if it crosses beyond the mirror, then even the South Sea won’t be safe anymore."

That was certainly not a pleasant thought for Turan either.

If the Mimic Relic had effectively sealed the great sea serpent, then by taking it away, he could not claim to be completely without responsibility for the resulting disaster.

However, he did not like that the proposed solution demanded a one-sided sacrifice, especially when there was no certainty that it would even work.

Moreover, losing the Sacred Relic would mean a significant reduction in power, which would be a severe disadvantage when facing those formidable gods in the future.

On the other hand, another method had the potential, if successful, to not only prevent a decline in power but actually bring about a tremendous increase.

"How strong is that resurrected great sea serpent?"

"What?"

"You mentioned earlier that it hasn’t been fully revived. So I’m asking, what’s its current state?"

"…Why are you asking that? Don’t tell me you plan on hunting it?"

"If it seems doable. As you said, sealing it again would just be a temporary measure, so eliminating it entirely would be the safer option."

Hearing Turan’s words, Solif let out a whistle and an exclamation of admiration.

"Are you really going to do it?"

"As long as it's not ridiculously strong. If you're scared, you can back out, I won't hold it against you."

"Talk some sense, will you? Have you ever seen me back out of something like this?"

Answering like that, Solif glanced toward Meisa. She, too, nodded without hesitation, signaling her support for Turan’s decision.

Seeing this, Rowena looked at him as if he were insane and asked,

"Do you even know what the great sea serpent is? It was once a being that stood on equal footing with your gods!"

"I know enough. I've seen its corpse before. If you’re not going to answer my question, then we'll be on our way. We’ll handle it on our end."

Of course, if the great sea serpent's power truly proved overwhelming, he was prepared to retreat, build his strength, and challenge it again later.

Thanks to his connection with the Sacred Relic, he could roughly gauge how powerful the opponent was.

In the meantime, more people would fall victim to the storm, but that didn’t justify taking a major hit to their own power and exposing themselves to numerous risks.

Right now, his foremost responsibility was not to the faceless people of the coastal lands, but to his friends.

As he finished speaking, Rowena's expression turned icy cold.

She looked as if she might lunge at him at any moment, and Turan found himself contemplating just how much he would need to beat up this mermaid princess to drive her away.

At the very least, he wasn’t planning to kill her unless absolutely necessary.

In the past, when he was ignorant, it might have been different, but now he knew that the merfolk were aligned with the god behind Carmine.

Since he had already made enemies of the Aravion-Nagin Alliance and the Zahar-Varaha Alliance by extracting the successors bodies, he had no desire to add another faction of dangerous foes to the list.

Of course, if they continued to stubbornly insist on taking the Sacred Relic, then things would take a different turn…

However, contrary to expectations, Rowena did not lash out in anger but instead stared at them intently before asking a question.

"How strong are you?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm asking just how powerful you are to act so arrogantly. Are you perhaps the head of one of those great noble houses that humans worship on land?"

"Well, I do have a decent amount of strength."

If the merfolk were to attack in an attempt to steal the Sacred Relic, they would become enemies at that point, and there was no reason for him to reveal his true abilities so easily.

Perhaps understanding his intent, Rowena raised both palms upward in a gesture of non-hostility and shrugged.

"If you are strong enough, I will speak to my father myself. What if we hunt the great sea serpent together?"

"You lot?"

"Yes. Surely you realize how much of a difference our help would make? Not just in terms of strength, we also know that you would struggle even to track the great sea serpent on your own."

It was a tempting offer on the surface.

Since the great sea serpent primarily moved underwater, having the merfolk, who lived in the sea, as allies would make a significant difference in the hunt.

After all, they had no idea where their prey even was at the moment.

However, there was something that bothered him…

"Your attitude has changed too much in just a moment. Earlier, you acted like you were ready to take it by force."

"If you’re bold enough to declare that you’ll hunt the great sea serpent, you must not be some half-baked weakling. If your companions are on a similar level, then not only would I be unable to take the artifact alone, but even if our entire race joined forces, it wouldn’t be easy to steal it. In the process, many would be injured or even killed. That is not what I want."

Her surprisingly honest answer made Turan reassess his opinion of the mermaid princess before him.

At first glance, she had seemed like nothing more than an arrogant fool, but at the very least, she had the awareness to gauge the strength of her opponents.

Or perhaps, in the beginning, she had merely been trying to intimidate him into surrendering the Sacred Relic without a fight, and this was her true nature.

"So, are you actually in a position to persuade the merfolk king?"

"More than enough."

Turan glanced at Armania, who nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Sister Rowena is one of the strongest and wisest among us, and Father favors her greatly!"

He had not thought highly of her before simply because of her lineage, but it seemed she was indeed quite powerful among the merfolk.

Turan inwardly revised his estimation of their overall combat capabilities downward.

‘That means I don’t have to worry as much about them betraying us, but at the same time, they won’t be as much help in the hunt. I suppose it’s a trade-off.’

In truth, most surviving non-human races in the modern era were only around that level.

Even the Dark Elf King, who had once been the most powerful necromancer, had not been stronger than Meisa, despite her frail and weakened state at the time.

While they might be able to trample over a few ordinary wizard houses, if a great noble house were to move in full force, they would be crushed without resistance. The dwarves, who had degenerated into something closer to wild beasts, were in an even more pitiful state.

By comparison, Rowena standing before him was at least on par with the strongest Dark Elf necromancers he had fought in the past. Among non-human races, she could certainly be considered one of the top-tier warriors.

This raised an interesting question, how had the merfolk managed to maintain an equal partnership with the god backing Carmine?

Just as he was growing lost in thought, Rowena spoke to Turan.

"However, I need to confirm whether you truly have the strength to back up your claims. There’s no guarantee that you’re not just bluffing."

"And how do you plan to confirm that?"

"There is a secluded clearing in the northern part of this island."

It was not hard to guess that she was suggesting a duel to test each other's skills.

Turan glanced downward briefly before asking,

"It’s not underwater but on land. Are you fine with that?"

Rowena responded with a faint smile.

"If necessary, I was prepared to fight here as well."

*

As they walked northward for about thirty minutes from the alley they had confronted each other in, Turan asked the merfolk siblings several casual questions.

From the basic ecology of the merfolk to their social structure and customs.

Unlike Armania, Rowena, being an older mermaid, was much more knowledgeable, making it quite an informative conversation.

"So, you’re saying that eating humans isn’t something that can be solved through education?"

"That’s right. If they’re full enough, they won’t actively seek out humans, but there aren’t many prey in the sea that are as easy to catch as humans who enter the water or linger near the coast. The lower-class merfolk have even less self-control than ordinary beasts, so unless you beat them senseless right beside them, you can’t stop them."

"And what about you?"

"Our royal family used to eat humans quite often, but ever since your gods arrived, we no longer do. Not really for ethical reasons, it's just to avoid giving an excuse for us to be hunted down…"

That was how Turan ended up learning, in passing, the secret about the merfolk's cannibalistic tendencies that Armania had previously been unaware of.

After chatting for a while, Turan smoothly shifted the topic of conversation.

"Now that I think about it, what happened to that corpse?"

"Which one?"

"Our god. Is it still there? If it had come back to life as well, I’d expect to have heard something about it by now, but there hasn’t been any news."

Back when Turan had taken the Sacred Relic, the drowned god's body had not decayed or crumbled on the spot. But whether that was still the case, he did not know.

Rowena answered nonchalantly.

"I’ve only heard that it’s still intact in the same place. Are you thinking of going to see it?"

"I don’t really care, but there's someone who wants to."

Hearing that made him curious again.

Why had the great sea serpent been resurrected while the drowned god had not?

What was the difference between the two?

Before he could dwell on it further, they arrived at the clearing Rowena had mentioned earlier.

It was surrounded by a fairly dense forest, making it an ideal battleground with no need to worry about being seen by others.

Turan handed Bije, who was hanging at his side, to Meisa before loosening up his hands.

"One representative should be enough, right? The two behind me are stronger than I am, anyway."

At Turan’s words, Meisa and Solif glanced at each other before exchanging awkward smiles.

In truth, the three of them had different strengths and weaknesses.

Turan had the best combat instincts and magical techniques overall, but his Bloodline Magic was non-combative, and his Magic Power was the weakest.

Solif had vast battle experience and wielded powerful fusion magic, but he was the least sharp when it came to instincts.

Meisa excelled in Magic Power, magical perception, and bloodline abilities, but her physical conditioning was weaker, and her combat instincts were lacking.

By general standards, Magic Power was the most crucial factor in a wizard’s skill, so what Turan had said was not entirely wrong. However, in an actual battle, it was difficult to predict who would truly come out on top.

Of course, if Turan were to awaken the Lightning Bloodline of Aravion in the future, there would be no question about who would be the strongest among them.

"Alright, just to be clear, you need to be strong enough to take me down with ease. If you barely manage to win, you won’t stand a chance against the great sea serpent."

"That goes without saying."

"You sure have a lot of confidence. I hope your skills match your words."

The mermaid princess scoffed, took a deep breath, and immediately began to transform.

Just like when Armania had turned into a young shark in the past, the change happened in an instant.

Her entire form blurred as if melting, then, with a series of sharp creaking sounds, her body became encased in a hard exoskeleton.

As Turan found himself face to face with a giant crab over three meters tall, he let out a short laugh.

"I see… so that’s how merfolk manage to move on land."

Unlike sharks or fish, crabs could breathe and move efficiently on land.

He had simply never imagined that they could transform into something like this.

At that moment, Rowena opened her crab-like mouth sideways and spoke.

"You're not scared, are you?"

"Not a chance-"

Just as he was about to respond, Rowena suddenly thrust her massive pincer forward in an attack.

The speed was surprisingly fast, not at all hindered by her massive body.

Turan immediately dodged backward, stomping lightly on the ground to summon several sharp pillars from the earth.

"Ugh!"

The spikes pierced into the crab’s underbelly, but with a cracking sound, they all shattered. However, the slight flinch and pause in her movement indicated that the attack was not entirely ineffective.

Following up, Turan sent a small amount of the Spirit of Fire forward and detonated it. A thunderous explosion rang out as flames scorched the crab’s carapace.

"Did I kill her?"

"Don't be ridiculous!"

Staggering from the blast, Rowena shouted and immediately used her multiple legs with impressive agility, charging toward Turan, who had moved deeper into the forest.

Due to her massive size, she got caught on the nearby trees, but her thick crustacean limbs easily crushed them, clearing a path.

‘Strength, speed, durability… she’s far stronger than a noble of equivalent rank. She's on par with those specialized in close combat. Stronger than I expected.’

As he assessed his opponent's abilities, Turan quickly used Wind Magic to lift himself into the air, widening the distance.

Rowena immediately tilted her head upward, opening her mouth wide and firing a brilliant blue energy beam.

"Oh."

Since when were crabs biologically capable of looking up at the sky?

And what was that beam attack?

Even as he marveled at the absurdity of it, the beam was already closing in on him.

If not for Thought Acceleration, he might not have reacted in time and would have been struck head-on.

Activating his defensive Magic Artifact immediately, the Green Shield emerged from his pouch and intercepted the blast.

From the amount of Magic Power it consumed, he could gauge the attack's strength.

‘Her physical abilities alone rival high-ranking nobles specialized in close combat, and on top of that, she has ranged attack capabilities… Most nobles wouldn’t stand a chance. She’s even stronger than I expected.’

Having roughly assessed her strength, Turan decided it was time to stop playing around.

He briefly fiddled with the Slingshot in his pouch before deciding against using it.

If he miscalculated and the impact shattered her carapace, instantly killing her, it would be troublesome.

Instead, he chose to draw power from the sky.

Perhaps due to the presence of the great sea serpent, which had merged with the Storm Spirit, the sky above was thick with clouds, making it an ideal setting for Lightning Magic.

"If you think you might die, say so in advance."

After giving that warning, Turan pulled lightning from the sky and struck Rowena with it.

Since he had not yet fully awakened the Storm Bloodline, his Lightning Magic was not particularly accurate. However, hitting a massive three-meter-tall crab was not difficult.

One strike. Two strikes. Three strikes.

Rowena held firm at first, but by the time the seventh bolt of lightning struck, she could no longer endure and collapsed to her knees.

"Urgh…."

"Stop! Stop! Please, stop, kind devil! The fight is already decided!"

As Armania hurriedly moved to shield his fallen sister with his body, Rowena's form shrank, reverting to her mermaid appearance.

Landing on the ground, Turan looked at Armania with an exasperated expression.

"I don’t understand why you’re acting like I bullied her. This was a sparring match we both agreed to."

"That’s true, but-"

"Enough, Armania. Don’t embarrass yourself. The more you act like this, the more disgrace you bring upon me."

"S-sorry, sister…."

Pushing Armania aside, Rowena forced herself to her feet, struggling to catch her breath.

The repeated lightning strikes must have dealt significant damage, yet she was recovering quickly, proof that her species was far more resilient than humans.

"I’ve seen enough of your strength. With you, your two even stronger companions, and our assistance, hunting the great sea serpent may not be impossible after all."

"Is that so?"

"That’s what I believe. We once revered them as lords of calamity and great gods, but the current great sea serpent is merely an empty shell."

She would need her father’s approval, but as for herself, Rowena declared that she was willing to cooperate.

*

After reaching a simple agreement, the merfolk siblings disappeared, saying they would speak with their father, the king, and return.

They came back exactly one week later, in the evening.

"Our father has agreed."

"Is that so?"

"The conditions are simple. We have no means to make use of the great sea serpent’s Magic Power, so we will leave that to you. However, its corpse will belong to us. In return, we will fully cooperate in luring it to the battlefield and fighting alongside you."

"Do you plan to craft something from its remains?"

As far as Turan recalled, the horns and scales of the great sea serpent in the past did not seem to possess any particularly mystical power. However, now that it had become an Undead Spirit, things might be different.

Yet the answer he received was so dull that he could not tell whether it was true or not.

"It was once a being we worshiped as a god. We plan to use it as a decoration for the royal court."

Turan could not understand why they would turn something they once revered as a god into mere decoration, but trying to comprehend the customs of a non-human race seemed like a foolish endeavor.

"Fine. So where is the great sea serpent now?"

"It remains at the center of the storm roaming this North Sea."

That meant that when Turan’s group had been caught in the storm not long ago, the great sea serpent had not been far away.

Of course, since the Sacred Relic had not detected it, the creature had likely been at least several kilometers away at the time.

Rowena stated that in about ten days, the great sea serpent would move to a location near an island approximately one thousand kilometers north of here.

With land nearby, Turan and his group would have a solid footing to rest if necessary.

The core of the plan was to join forces with the merfolk to hunt it down there.

Indeed, working with the merfolk made things much more convenient.

With the hunting grounds and schedule settled in an instant, everything was progressing smoothly.

"But besides you merfolk, do you have any other allies? For example, human wizards like us?"

Turan subtly probed for information, aiming to gather intel on the House Carmine.

He was already aware of the connection between their god and the merfolk.

Given that the coastal cities were the ones suffering the most from the storms, it was suspicious that the Carmine faction had not made their presence known at all.

At his question, Rowena answered as if it were nothing of concern.

"Hmm, to be honest, there were a few human houses secretly cooperating with us, and we had expected their support… but for some reason, those we were most certain would help gave us negative responses."

"What kind of response?"

"Only my father knows. He is the only one who interacts with them directly."

In any case, the conclusion was that aside from Turan’s group, they could not expect any assistance from human wizards.

It seemed that if Turan wanted to uncover more about this, he would have to meet with the merfolk king himself.