"If I’m not close to the ocean, my heart..."
The Princess covered her chest with her hand, and Shard subconsciously thought of something but then realized that it was the flesh of "Desire" affecting him.
"My heart feels empty and uncomfortable, truly uncomfortable, as if my soul is bound by scorching chains. I try to stay close to the ocean, and this distance is the furthest I can bear. Though the urge is still there, I can feel this red ocean calling out to me, but a few hours are still bearable."
"What does that feel like?"
Shard asked again.
"I can feel that, deep in the ocean, something is calling me, calling me to merge with It."
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath:
"Even if I just close my eyes, I seem to arrive at that giant ancient underwater temple in my dreams, and see that..."
"Open your eyes!"
Shard suddenly raised his voice, Lecia looked at him puzzled.
"Don’t look at that thing anymore, it’s not something good."
The giant mermaid corpse in the temple was a shell once used by the Evil God. Regardless of whether that corpse still holds any power, it is not something mortals should behold.
He gazed towards the end of the ocean, where the yellow sky and the red ocean seemed to blend completely at the edge of his vision. According to the steps of the ritual, after the appearance of the red ocean, that giant mermaid corpse would bring massive waves to completely engulf Coldwater Port.
The mermaid corpse had not appeared yet, and Lecia could still resist the urge to step into the ocean. But once that body came near, Shard worried about the Princess’s condition.
This curse was much stronger than he had thought.
Shard did not leave Lecia’s side but went to look for the Witch, Daknis, or maybe the cult priests by the shore while the power bestowed by the flesh was still waning. He stood with the Princess, watching as the rain fell harder and the violent waves grew more tumultuous.
Amid this sound of rain, Shard felt an unexpected calm. He seldom had the chance to stop like this, to watch the world.
"Speaking of which..."
Lecia spoke again, hesitantly:
"Why does it feel like you’ve been gone for a few hours and your skin looks so much better? What did you encounter?"
Shard thought about that beautiful face that had almost changed his aesthetic, his lips twitched: Discover hidden content at freewebnovel
"Mermaid."
"Mermaid? I’ve heard rumors that the Aphrola Family is related to mermaids. Does Mrs. Hevy Aurora really know mermaids?"
"No, it was introduced by cultists."
Shard touched his own face:
"Has my appearance changed a lot?"
"Not much, just... you look even better now."
Lecia blushed slightly.
Shard had not yet found a mirror to observe his own face, but his physique and appearance had undergone so many changes that even if the people who knew the original Shard met him again, they probably would not recognize him.
In just twenty minutes, the waves that were merely lapping at the beach had almost reached the small garden behind the manor.
As the sky darkened, the color of the ocean grew deeper and deeper. Although the analogy was not quite appropriate, the ocean’s color was gradually changing from that of inferior wine to that of real blood.
Amid the roaring of monstrous waves accompanied by the long sound of conch horns from somewhere unknown, the sound made everyone in the coastal area instinctively look into the depths of the ocean.
The largest tide yet was forming where the sky met the sea. And behind that tide, one could vaguely make out something enormous approaching with the ocean currents.
"It’s finally here."
Shard looked up, his gaze passing through the gaps in the grape arbor, over the grapevines towards the sky. He caught some rainwater with his hand and discovered that the rain falling from the sky was also turning red.
[Outlander, you feel the Desecration.]
"This rain also seems problematic, you—quick, back inside the building."
He immediately turned and said to the two maids, but the Miss Maids shook their heads.
"You, go back."
Lecia also said this, only then did the maids behind her hand the fishing rods to Shard and run toward the building under the umbrellas. Only Shard holding a fishing rod and Lecia holding the last umbrella to shelter them from the rain remained.
Shard’s judgment was entirely correct. As the sound of the mysterious conch horn echoed in the sky, the red rain gradually became sticky, until it was like fresh blood, leaving large, disgusting marks on the ground.
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From the front courtyard of Aphrola Manor, one after another, staggeringly heavy-stepped individuals began walking towards the beach. They paid no attention to Shard and the Princess under the grape arbor. Their eyes were vacant, their faces marked with swollen merman tattoos—just like Lecia’s.
Now, Shard knew where all these Cursed Ones had come from. This abnormal rain could also spread the curse, although not as effectively as the source, the Mermaid Statue.
As the red rain and new victims entered the sea, a dazzling white light pillar shot from the seabed toward the sky in the far distance. Accompanied by the pillar of light connecting the clouds and the ocean, the indescribable female body, simultaneously embodying beauty and hideousness, as though coming through the veil of remote Space-Time, revealed itself from below the water surface.
Around her body, one could faintly see the ghostly silhouette of a vast cluster of buildings. Judging by the height of the buildings, that female figure, showing only her upper body, was about as tall as a five-story building.
Because of the distance, Shard could only vaguely see her features. She and her surroundings, the ghostly ancient stone buildings, were approaching with the waves. The risen wall of water was likely to crash down on half the city soon.
More than a dozen figures flew overhead—Circle Sorcerers from the Church and professors from the Academy. Simultaneously, the giant steamships anchored in the port set out, moving against the tide under the protection of various colors of Spiritual Light, heading towards the monster beyond the waves.
A drumbeat that seemed to make the Earth vibrate abruptly began. It was coming from the direction of the Church of Nature Chapel, and these drum beats, accompanied by the sound of an unknown metallic horn, briefly suppressed the sound of the conch.
Meanwhile, in a location Shard could not see, at the ancient lighthouses guarding Coldwater Port’s coast, they were starting to emit a faint light. Mr. Edmund and more Tower Keepers were coordinating with the Church to adjust the lighthouses, waiting for these ancient coastal defenses to be fully awakened.
Seeing the Giant Mermaid Corpse had already appeared, Shard also wanted to go down to the sea to check the situation. However, Lecia suddenly groaned softly, the umbrella falling from her hand as she clutched her forehead and nearly lost her balance.