-----
Within an enormous hall in the depths of the Royal Castle of the Aquarius Queendom, dozens of women wearing white clothes surrounded a massive altar. They glanced at the enormous altar, atop it, there was a piece of a Blue Orb, glowing with a mysterious blue light, encompassing the entire room.
The women raised their hands, utilizing incantations to suddenly channel their power into the orb, obtaining part of its powers, or how they called it… "The Sea God's Blessings". The more power they channeled, the more joyful they seemed to be.
And in the center of this entire conglomeration, a beautiful and gorgeous Mermaid channeled such power into her staff, smiling evilly.
"Oh Sea God, give us your grace! To defeat the evil that has come to our domain… We need your aid!"
FLUOOOSH!
Even more energy emerged from within the orb, until the blue color… suddenly began to grow corrupted, growing blacker and redder, and then being absorbed by the woman's coral-made staff.
"Seek them… They… are going… to the forbidden lands…! Do NOT let them… reach the ruins!"
A mysterious and evil voice, coming from the depths of the island and channeled into the orb fragment spoke. The woman smiled, nodding with fascination.
"Yes, my lord!"
She quickly imbued this mysterious power into dozens of pieces of equipment lying over a table right behind her, readying them to be wielded by her servants.
The woman, who had a beautiful crown made of sea jewels and precious metals smiled viciously, as she glanced into the orb's beautiful black and blue aura.
"It shall be done as my lord commands. And soon, we will obtain the last Stigmas… Soon! The Sea God's resurrection shall begin!"
"An Advent of Divinity!"
"The Great One!"
"I cannot wait! It will be such glory, your majesty!"
"Please, make it happen sooner! Sooner!"
As they celebrated, the items were quickly distributed amongst the strongest knights of the Queendom…
"Now go, serve our Sea God with righteousness!"
The knights kneeled before her, showing the Queen their loyalty.
"Yes, your majesty!"
-----
(Drake's POV)
It was early in the morning. I left a few slime and a doppelganger handling the restaurant for now, while there was another protecting the orphanage. We were already reaching the Salty Swamps as we decided to fly over the city while bringing everyone over inside my shadows.
The power of my Shadow Magic and he Ability to store things inside the Shadows have improved amazingly after I obtained the powers of a Vampire Progenitor. Instead of just being named Shadow Storage, the Skill evolved into [Shadow World], which is an ability within the [Endless Night] power of the Unique Skill: Vampire Progenitor.
Like that, I can bring as many as I can silently, while I fly in the skies carefreely, hiding my presence by turning my body into a small baby dragon and covering myself on the illusions powers of Rose, who insisted in helping.
"Are we there yet? This place is a bit scary…" Rose sighed.
"It is all floaty in here…" Coral said. "Is it day or night?"
"Its none, this is a space made by my husband using vampire powers!" Benladann said.
"V-Vampires?!" The two kids were naturally scared.
Vampires have a terrible reputation all around the world after all.
"Don't worry, Vampires are not bad… Well, some were. But we are nice people that enjoy the company of the night and a nice cup of blood every now and then~" Said Ruby at the side of the children, sitting in a throne made of her own shadows while drinking a cup of fresh blood (from a divine monster).
Her red eyes and pale white skin scared them shitless…
"GYAAAAAAHHH!!!"
The two ran away from her because she appeared out of nowhere, of course they were going to get scared!
"Fufu, they're so cute." Ruby laughed.
"Come on now, don't go scaring children!" I reprimanded her, my voice echoed all around the Shadow World.
"Dear, are we there yet?" Benladann wondered.
"I am getting BORED in hereeeee!" Yuki complained annoyingly.
"It has only been like ten minutes Yuki!" Miranda began to reprimand her.
"We're about to get there, don't worry." I said as I glanced down, seeing the vast swamps, the depths were all covered by a mysterious white mist.
"And… huh? What's that?" I said, suddenly noticing something.
I saw a bunch of knights with shiny blue and golden armor marching to the swamps at the same time as I did. They were all loaded to the brim with special equipment infused with the fragment's powers! Or well, the Deep One's powers? Or both.
"What's wrong Drake?" Wondered Ruby.
"Did you saw something?" Yuki asked.
"Lord Drake?" Hector wondered.
"Yeah… We've got company. They haven't noticed us for obvious reasons but somehow they seem to be… following me? Even if they can't see me. Probably some sort of item they've got themselves with." I sighed. "A bunch of knights holding overpowered divine equipment are going to the swamps."
"Wait, what?!" Hector was surprised. "But I thought we've been fooling them this whole time! …Well, this is better than them going to the orphanage or something. Although Miminga and Rakasha are there."
"Yeah, I guess its better if we gather them all together so we can smash them to bits all at once." I said with a malicious grin. "Though they seem prepared for battle at any moment. Let's fly around and see how far they'll go, then well ambush them. They're over a dozen, so all of you will have to fight one at least. Benladann, I'll leave taking care of the children to you."
"Alright." Benladann nodded.
"What about me papa?!" Asked Benladra. "I wanna fight! Fighto!"
"Nn! Me too…" Kate also wanted to throw some hands.
"I brought you two to have some practice fighting monsters but… Well, you've handled them really well back then. You can fight as long as you remain with us." I ended agreeing with them.
Like that, I slowly hovered across the skies, finding the ideal spot to confront them, right in front of the wall of mist where countless smaller ruins are spread around, swarming with monsters.
-----
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆webnovel