Chapter 171: 163 – A Trip Down the Memory Lane

Chapter 163 – A Trip Down the Memory Lane

I take a glance up at the massive body of the lovely emerald Slime lady after we calm our breaths down with Meru. “How are things on your and Safi’s side?”

Emi grins at me from above and shows thumbs up. “Emi took care of the fish guys in Emi’s part of the village just as Emi said earlier. Safi was slowly finishing too.”

“Great. Regroup with her and go around to see if you can find any survivors. Check on Cornelia and Neira on the way too. They will most likely uphold the ice cage until we let them know that all the Sahuagins are dead. I will take care of things here with Meru,” I instruct her.

“As you wish, Master! Emi won’t let any bad fishes escape!” She salutes playfully and starts stomping away while causing quite some tremors under our feet.

“Won’t we need the Shaman that is still inside her body?” Meru asks from my side.

“He is already dead as far as I’ve seen. Not much we can get out of him. Well, maybe I should inform the others to spare one or two of these bastards if any that look semi-important cross their paths.” I tap my lips while pondering out loud. “But, let’s first worry about the ominous shit right in front of us.”

I do exactly as I mentioned and contact all my teammates to share the new orders and all of them agree to be on the lookout. Emi apologises for raising the lethality of her slime too much but I assure her that it wasn’t a problem since that dude was quite a problem anyway. I’d rather not risk Meru getting hurt if he had some vile tricks up his sleeve.

With that out of the way, we walk closer to the dark patterns painted with the blood of this village’s residents. Those fuckers must have turned all the men, and the women that weren’t taken away, into blood bags. I really didn’t expect to step into cultist shit of this calibre, but maybe I was a little bit delusional after seeing how seemingly clean Umbra’s magic and preparations were, even if still completely malicious.

Thankfully, the full array hasn’t been finished and not all the ugly paths are connected with each other. The Shaman must have been testing the integrity of the already completed parts earlier. It was enough to let Umbra’s dark magic flow through the lines. Who knows how long until they would have completed this thing? An hour or two and we might have been too late.

But, since we haven’t really encountered any Abyssals during our entire underwater trip, I assume that they aren’t activating them as soon as the construction finishes. Perhaps Lumina’s sister wants to avoid bringing the world’s attention to the sea until it’s full of those dimensional doors kindly inviting her spawn into this realm.

Granted, she is the one issuing the commands over this operation. With the existences like the Chieftains that we encountered, I wouldn’t be surprised if a variation more specialised in managing the monsters and strategising was amongst their ranks too. She might be a goddess, but trying to invade a world from so many places at once can’t be so easy. I guess I could ask Lumina the next time we speak how hard it is for her to observe Naharren and keep it in proper balance.

In any case, our current issue is disabling the formation in the least destructive way. I only hope that they don’t explode or implode when damaged. There might not be a single person alive in the village at this time, but it’s still Meru’s precious home. It would be the worst thing to ruin the place she’s grown up in. After everything settles down, this reef might thrive again. Or, at least, it will help some tribe running away in this direction find decent shelter to rest in.

“I’ll take a closer look. Stay here. Be ready to get away if I give you a signal,” I say to Meru, brushing through her dark hair.

She gives me a worried look, most likely considering arguing against the idea of me going alone, but she holds herself back and makes a faint nod. I smile at her and lean down to place a gentle peck on her pretty lips before going ahead. Soon, I’m right in front of the formation’s outer edge and rest my fists on my hips.

“Alright. What do we have here? I could shape the relic into a hammer or something and wreck the ground, but it might trigger an unwanted reaction. I could try wiping the lines off, but since they are all fine while underwater, I might not be able to use anything else than pure friction. It’s definitely some kind of Dark Magic... No, it might actually be Void Magic...” I mumble to myself.

Remembering the fact that I’m technically good with the Void Element for some time already, I start looking at the ominous lines differently. Besides the chains, I don’t really have any special skills or spells related to it. I haven’t really encountered those that much either if we exclude the Abyssals and the gates themselves.

Maybe what I’m lacking is that contact?

I kneel by the first bloody smear and ponder for a moment. It’s possible that I’ll just learn Void Magic at a certain point in the future through my advancements, as it happened with Charm Magic, but maybe there’s a way to shorten that wait. Since the affinity is there already, I should be fine interacting with this. Many things might go wrong but many might also go right.

Deciding that it’s at least worth a try, I first extend my arm and do a quick swipe with my fingers over the dark crimson paint. Almost immediately, I withdraw myself a few steps just in case, but nothing really happens. It doesn’t look like normal touch has any effect on these lines. And, I’ve just confirmed that the blood doesn’t go off that easily either. There’s not even a trace of it on my fingertips and I put some decent strength into it.

Therefore, I come closer again and place my palm over the pattern this time. As expected, there’s not much reaction either. Everything is as cold and unresponsive as it should be. No matter how hard I rub, the blood doesn’t come off or get onto my skin. Whatever that Shaman must have been doing might have made it this way.

But, since I don’t feel anything special like this, I guess I could try prodding the array with mana.

I focus some energy on my fingertips and carefully leak it into the formation. A reaction occurs pretty much the instant I do it. The dark blood gets illuminated where I touch and it starts releasing deep purplish smoke. The entire array doesn’t flash like we’ve seen it do so before and my influence spreads only over the nearby segment.

My fingers feel like they are buzzing, but otherwise, I’m pretty much all fine. Nothing attacks me and the energy doesn’t rebound or anything. I still can’t do anything about the markings even while infusing mana into them so I choose a different approach.

Remembering all the lessons from Cornelia and Ailish, I carefully expand my senses through the point where my fingers touch the blood and try to prod it with my psyche. That proves to be a good guess as the array actually responds to the intrusion. Fortunately, it’s not in a negative way.

While focusing my senses, I can feel the entirety of the formation and tell just how much energy it needs to be activated. It turns out that it can work even without being fully finished but the burden is much, much heavier. The person or mortal entity trying to take it upon themselves would inevitably die in a matter of minutes.

I also begin to understand why they are carving out the hearts of their victims, alongside their genitals. Those organs store the most energy in most humanoid and mammal creatures. Brain technically should count too but it looks like the other parts are just much more efficient for some reason.

So, all the organs are pretty much batteries prepared for the activation, preserved inside small chests definitely padded with something preventing that spiritual energy from escaping into the environment, or becoming contaminated too early. Seems like even the evil breach can’t run solely on evil energy and needs pure mana.

Reading into the patterns with my consciousness as much as I can, I try my best to find the best solution to deactivate or take them down. Anything involving mana is quite dangerous. The array isn’t stable at this stage of its creation. Magic is out, then. Some stronger skills too. Artefacts can also be added to that list. We are slowly running out of valid safe options.

If only we had anything natural on us that could damage the lines...

Wait.

We do.

Smiling to myself, I cut the connection off and stand up. Meru notices that I’m done and comes to my side, glancing up at my face.

“Did you figure something out?” she asks.

“Yeah. It’s tough, but doable. And we need the help of our very special friends.” I grin at her.

“Who?” She slightly raises her brows.

Instead of replying, I stay silent for a few seconds, and the answer makes itself known through heavy shaking of the ground underneath our feet. We turn our heads towards the source of the commotion and watch the two colourful giants jogging our way while making sure that they don’t stomp on any houses, slaloming over the streets.

Safi and Emi quickly arrive in front of us, or rather above us, I should say, and crouch down.

Man, what a sight. Really, not something I’ve ever expected to see.

“You called, Master?” Safi shows a ladylike smile on her mature face.

“Yes, I did. I have a question or two for you, girls. But first, I think you can return to your usual sizes. I bet it’s not as easy, if even possible, for you to use your other skills while in this form,” I answer.

“Master is right. It’s much more draining for Safi and Emi to use skills when big,” the green tomboy adds with a giggle.

Their bodies then start shifting and become large blocks of generally shapeless slime. Something swirls inside them and sends their jelly into a wiggly motion as it shrinks bit by bit. In a matter of ten seconds, they are back to their Greater Slime forms. After that, they become the Safi and Emi that we know in a flash.

“What do you require of us now, Master?” the sapphire lady inquires.

“Emi, I know you can generate acid, but that’s a partially magical effect, right?” I turn to the shorter girl.

“That’s right, Master. Emi has to use mana to do that.” She makes a series of cute, energetic nods.

“I see. And Safi’s main element is water anyway.” I rub my chin. “What about your acidic slime? You can leak some outside, right?”

“We generate the slime that makes our bodies by expending the lifeforce stored in our cores, Master. As long as we don’t run out of it, we can produce more slime,” Safi explains.

“Is it the same lifeforce that dictates how healthy you are?” Meru chimes in.

The blue lady shakes her head. “No, it’s slightly different from the lifeforce known by fleshy races. It can be compared to mana in our case, which when completely runs out, means the death of our cores since they can no longer regenerate the slime. The core can save some of it and hibernate for a long time, but it can’t function without any. We can regain it by consuming things that are alive.”

“Like Sahuagins?” I raise a brow at them.

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“As expected. The army clears the path and they just follow safely.” I rub my chin.

“Correct, Master.” Emi nods. “This Shaman didn’t know about the evil goddess and was just following orders from his superior, who answers before the emperor. Emi can’t say a lot about the Sahuagin Emperor from this one’s memories. They fully respect their leader and perhaps fear him as the strongest Shaman in their tribe, who got even stronger before the conquest.”

“That confirms it. Bastard somehow received help from that sealed goddess.” Cornelia sighs lightly. “Let’s hope that he is still someone we can take down.”

“You are too negative. We have a god on our side.” Neira smiles at her and sends a warm glance my way.

“God of sex doesn’t count.” The charming magician snorts. “Unless Alastair is willing to temporarily change his preferences and stick it into that ugly bastard’s bum for the sake of the universe. I bet he would die of a heart attack after getting impaled by another male’s genitals just like the lesser fodder.”

“I’ll stay with sticking it into your bum if I have a say in it.” I smile wryly. “But, I can’t deny that the prospect of anal assassination isn’t something intriguing.”

A visible trace of rosiness taints Cornelia’s cheeks as she glances to the side, clearly embarrassed about the first part. I choose not to tease her further and focus on the matters at hand.

“What about the locations you mentioned?” I pat Emi some more.

“Emi knows where their main city is!” she exclaims enthusiastically.

“That’s perfect. It saves us so much time, which is crucial in the current state of things.” I put more strength and mana into my show of affection. “How far is it from here?”

“Emi thinks the ship should reach it in a week or two,” she answers.

“Not that bad. We are closer than I would have thought.” Neira nods to herself.

“What about the forces stationed in their capital settlement?” Cornelia inquires.

“Emi doesn’t know exact numbers but the majority of warriors are conquering the waters. Emi doesn’t think the Sahuagins expect anyone to attack them in their home and they were ordered to advance quickly so there shouldn’t be many that stayed behind. The emperor does have a royal guard, though,” Emi continues.

“Sounds like a pain.” I click my tongue. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he and his most loyal goons were strengthened through Umbra’s energy somehow too. We are going to need to be extremely careful and wary of everything and everyone if we decide to launch an assault or an assassination attempt.”

“Are we heading there straight away or do we check the other conquered locations on the path to their main settlement? We might stumble on more Shamans or other important individuals who possess some useful knowledge,” Neira points out.

“That’s something we have to discuss with everyone, including our captain. But, I don’t think defusing every single outbreak formation is an efficient plan. If there are tens or hundreds of them, we might not be able to clear them up before the time to activate them comes. Granted, of course, we can’t know if that’s planned to happen in this decade even, but the fact that Sahuagins began to move and conquer the sea does suggest that things are definitely closer than farther,” I share my thoughts with them.

“Their grand plan might fall into pieces after we cut the goddess’ connection to the leader anyway. Or, the Sahuagins might fall into chaos without their godly emperor. That would certainly make them easy targets to eliminate. I’m sure these waters would be much safer without any of them around. The transport ships get attacked quite often. But, Lianne can tell you more about that,” Cornelia does the same.

“No one really likes them, huh.” I chuckle while shaking my head. “Well, it’s not like I can’t see why.”

We pause the current conversation as Meru returns to our side. “They have decided.”

“That’s good. What did they say?” I ask.

“They don’t want to be a burden to us and slow us down so they will head towards the Mermaid’s place after recuperating a little,” she replies.

“Are they sure they will be fine on their own? I would hate to send your friends away knowing that they might get hurt or worse before they reach their destination.”

“There won’t be a problem if they regain their strength and you have already rejuvenated them a lot. Thank you for worrying so much about them, Alastair. Their group is small so they can travel mostly unseen and they can follow the path we took.” She shows a rare trace of a gentle smile again.

“If you say so. You know your friends better than we do.” I run my fingers through her soft hair. “We will fill you in on what we discussed in a moment. Is there anything you would like to do now?”

She lowers her gaze to think for a bit and soon finds my eyes again. “I would like to visit my old home.”

“We will bring your friends to the ship so the healers revitalise them even more while you go with Alastair,” Neira suggests.

“Thank you.” Meru nods at her appreciatively.

The other ladies move to the survivors and the two of us start slowly swimming towards one of the town’s edges side by side. Sensing Meru’s anxious mood, I slip my hand into hers and squeeze it delicately. She reciprocates the gesture without looking away from the front and I keep stroking her fingers as we continue ahead.

Soon, we descend in front of a small hut made of dark blue coral. When compared to a normal house, I guess it’s something like a single-storey lodge with maybe four or five rooms in total. Not anything grand that would let multiple people live comfortably inside, but surely super climatic and comfy.

The front door is smashed in so it’s more than obvious that the raiders tried to search it for the presence of the owner or other people. Before we walk in, I squeeze Meru’s hand even stronger, letting her know that I’m there for her. Thankfully, we aren’t going in expecting to find anyone dead or alive so she isn’t as emotional as before we entered the reef.

We can immediately spot the signs of Meru’s home being searched. It’s not completely demolished but the damage was done. Some furniture didn’t make it and a bunch of utensils and appliances were shattered. The invaders must have realised that it was empty pretty quickly, perhaps unaware that their companions were chasing Meru and her friends out of the village at the very same time.

“You okay?” I ask as we slowly check every room.

“Yes. Thank you.” She nods faintly. “I didn’t have anything valuable here so nothing important was lost. It still feels sad, though. But, there are many more houses in much worse condition.”

“Your home is beautiful. I really like it. It’s nice and cosy. Perfect for one, maybe two people. You lived alone, right?” I admire what looks to be her small bedroom.

“I did. This house was grown by my parents. They lived in it together before I was born. After I started approaching maturity, they left.” Meru grazes the dresser carved out of pretty, teal stone.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I hug her from behind.

She lets out a barely audible chuckle and shakes her head. “It’s alright. They haven’t abandoned me. They loved travelling and settled down only when my mom got pregnant with me. The moment they were free again from the shackles of parenthood, they resumed their journeys again. I haven’t seen them since that day but I’m not sad. I’m happy that they could return to what makes them happy too.”

“You are such a kind girl, you know? If we ever stumble on your parents, I better make a good impression on them. I hope they wouldn’t think badly of me for stealing their precious daughter.”

“I don’t think they would. During their travels, they met many races. Even if you look like a Human, they would definitely accept you since they know how it works for our species. They would be able to smell my feelings for you and how well you treat my body,” Meru replies with a small smile.

We move around a little more in silence and return outside.

“I have one more request.” She turns to me and looks up into my eyes.

“Speak freely. I would love to grant it.” I pull her closer to me.

“I would like to collect the severed organs of the deceased and spread them throughout the sea. It’s a common custom of many aquatic species. We give the bodies of our people back to nature so that they can feed the plants and animals, helping them continue living on.”

“I see. I promise to fulfil that request of yours. We will also discuss this with Alyssa. Maybe she will agree to take the bodies of the other people too.”

“Thank you.” Meru places a soft peck on my lips.

With one last glance at her home, we head out for the ship. Everyone gathers together and we recount everything that happened since a lot of things took place while we were separated into teams. Each person gets a turn and we all get filled in on the events of the day and the knowledge we extracted from the Shaman.

Alyssa agrees to honour Meru’s people and her crew has nothing against the custom either. They make some space on the deck for the deceased and we respectfully pile the bodies and organs up in that dedicated section. As for the survivors, they decide to depart in the morning after a good night’s sleep. I inform the Mermaids about another batch of guests and they will send some scouts to meet them in the middle.

During late dinner, we discuss what we know about the Sahuagins again and come up with some plans for the near future. The next day, we will depart in the direction of their main settlement. We are going to solve this issue once and for all, hitting two birds with one stone. The sea will be freed of this ugly menace and the evil goddess will suffer a big hit.

Hopefully, she doesn’t notice my meddling.

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