Chapter 548 The sea clan (part 2)
Listening to Zander, the corpulent Archknight shark merman heavily stomped making the ground crack below his feet.
"Don't cover it Zander, there were no human corpses in neither of three islands, heck there wasn't even any of their blood spilled, all their stuff disappeared along them, it is obvious that they joined the damn outsiders to kill the ones who took them in!".
The whole room rumbled as the pressure of the shark Archknight was radiated out of his body, allowing Daimon to confirm what he previously supposed.
'They aren't weaker than the decently talented guys at the four galaxies, however they seem to lack both Lord and Arch traits…', he thought.
Seeing the relax and calmed humans, despite the serious accusation made, Vandor saw red, but before he could do anything the Archmage merman Zander once again suppressed him.
"Enough, whatever your orders were, I was tasked by the honorable ancestor himself to treat our visitors as valuable guests, and as far as I remember no one holds more authority, or have things changed in council after I left the main islands?".
Vandor finally calmed down, he still snarked and showed its teeth at Daimon and the others, to then see the elders of the Water Claw tribe.
"Don't lower your guard, no matter how much have they mingled in our tribes, ultimately they aren't members of our race, we are already tasked to face three enemies, why should we tolerate a fourth one".
Having said those words, Vandor turned into a flash of blue light and disappeared, leaving behind a mess to clean up for the Archmage Zander, who turned to see Daimon before saying.
"Don't take it personal, in his youth Vandor was raised in one of the tribes that was destroyed so…".
"Oh, don't worry, I don't believe that idiot is smart enough to spread dissension among the Sea race, so I'm pretty sure he couldn't have come with those words by himself", Daimon wasn't in the mood for this farce, so he stopped Zander from excusing himself.
The Archmage merman remained silent for a moment before sighing, he saw the confusion in the eyes of Alec and the other elders and then raised his hand.
"I see you aren't the typical human… no you aren't even the typical emblem owner, can you show me what kind of emblem you have?".
Daimon casually showed Zander his black Sea Emblem, just for him to have the same reaction as Alec earlier, confusion.
"I have never read or heard about a black emblem, not even in the records that are available for guardians, perhaps the council members or the honorable ancestor have the answers you probably want".
Calvin who has strangely remained silent until now, couldn't help but say.
"Ah, great, another trip in a ship, I swear that I'm going to isolate myself in a cave once we return", as an earth affinity mage, despite Calvin not liking being in the arid desert environment of his native planet, he was more comfortable inland.
"I wouldn't worry about that, due to the urgence of the situation, I was given the authority to use the portal currents, we'll be at our destination in a couple of minutes", said Zander.
"Let's go", Daimon easily agreed, there was nothing he could learn from Alec's tribe, but those old mermen probably knew what was going on in this place.
Zander gave Alec some instructions and then the group returned to the pier where they arrived earlier, to their surprise they saw the ship they stole from the women of the Black Night race, disappearing the moment Daimon stepped foot in the nearby area.
Razer had an idea of what was going on, since he saw Ashelia and the others sinking in Daimon's shadow, but he kept his mouth shut, specially because he saw his father being casually attacked by Vandor earlier, over nothing.
Zander took out a small bottle with just a few drops of water, he let one fall into the sea and portal opened on the surface of the water, which led to a dimensional tunnel that looked awfully familiar for Daimon and his classmates, because it was like the dimensional tunnel that brought them to Neptune and this place respectively.
'I'll take it as a sign of approaching the truth', thought Daimon as he jumped into the portal, followed by the others.
…
The moment they jumped into the dimensional tunnel, they were transported by the high-speed current, it was a wild ride but just as Zander stated it didn't last long.
Of course, Daimon wasn't as na?ve as to believe that Zander used a limited resource like this, just because of the "urgency" of the situation, the mermen probably didn't want others to know the locations of their strongest tribes, especially with what happened recently.
The portal suddenly reached its end and the group was expulsed at the shore, just to be welcomed by a group of armored stingray merman that aimed their spear-like tails at them, one of them an Archmage outstood as he took the initiative to declare.
"According to the orders of the general, the guests are to be escorted to the interrogation room to meet the respective council members and prove their innocence!".
"That musclehead idiot just repeating words is one thing Zander, but these guys are different, they obviously know what the intention behind this "custody" is and are proud of be participating", said Daimon.
Zander frowned, he took out some kind of authority token and showed it to the armored guards that were trying to arrest Daimon and the others.
"Under the authority of the honorable ancestor, these people are granted protection and a friendly treatment, now move aside captain", he said.
"When it comes to security related subjects the maximum authority isn't the honorable ancestor, but the general, who is right now waiting to interrogate these humans, so they will be coming… aghhhh!", not only the captain but the whole unit were suddenly forced to the ground by an invisible pressure.
'Humph, a mere beast at the peak of the initial Archknight rank wants my young master to be the one to seek out for it, nonsense, he should have crawled all the way to Daimon's feet, the moment he set foot in this island', the undead head maid was quite angered, as the shivering three girls of the Black Night race a few meters away from her, suggested.
With his infinity eyes, Daimon saw an invisible shadow hand coming out of his own shadow, to then fly into the direction where the guy who was observing them from afar, was positioned.
"Booom!".
"Aghhh!".
A loud explosion followed by a miserable scream could be heard, the next thing was that the nearby members of the mermen race could see one of their respected figures be dragged out of a pile of debris which used to be a magnificent residence, to then be literally thrown at the feet of a human that was still standing on the sand of the shore.
Naturally such a spectacle drew the attention of all the mermen, specially those that had a relatively decent strength, they were quick to surround Daimon and the others, among them a couple of old men who were also almost middle stage Arch ranks, were the ones that walked at the front.
"What is the meaning of this?", asked one of the old mermen who had the characteristics of a shark, but this one had a horn in its forehead.
"I should be the one to say that, we came here after agreeing to have a meeting with the elders of the Sea clan, and instead we are told we'll be sent to interrogation", casually said Daimon.
"How dare you…", as another of the old mermen that arrived earlier was about to confront Daimon, due to the fact that the one who was observing them was now being disgraced publicly, since he was forced to grovel at Daimon's feet, naturally the soldiers immediately moved to wield their weapons, until an old firm voice could be heard coming from the middle right side of the island.
"Halt", it was a single word and it wasn't accompanied by any kind of pressure, but more than half the soldiers stopped immediately and then kneeled down as a sign of respect, in fact the same applied to almost all the mermen present.
With some exceptions such as the old guys who were demanding Daimon to let the so-called general go, their closest soldiers also didn't relax unlike the others, but the hesitation on their faces was noticeable, at least until a second voice could be heard from the middle left side of the island this time.
"Listen to my brother, sheathe your weapons", listening to the second voice, the hostilities ceased well with the exception of Daimon who didn't let go of the guy that he was stepping onto right now.
"Little friend, I apologize on behalf the general, it has been a rough day, please let him go, I want to have a conversation with you, I'll guarantee your group's security with my own life", said the first voice.
Daimon removed his foot from the head of the general who glared at him with hatred, just for his irises to turn black and his face to contort in horror, but before he could even scream, he fainted.
"General, are you okay?", in the eyes of others, the general lost consciousness due to anger, so they hurried to his side and then took him away.
'I didn't know you could do that, Rita?', inwardly said Daimon, the undead head maid just used something very similar to his Overlord's pride, it was way stealthier and refined than his, as others didn't notice anything at all, while when he uses Overlord's pride, the thing goes out of its way to show off to all.
'It seems that just like Daimon can borrow something from me, I can do something similar~', said Rita, the emotion was obvious behind the voice of the undead head maid, meaning that she probably just learned how to do it and it was probably triggered by accident.
'Oh well, she seems to be having fun', thought Daimon as he put the matter on hold for now, with Zander escorting them to the center of the island, the group didn't meet any other trouble.
Daimon casually observed the island, unlike the ones which they previously visited, this island and probably the other nine that were nearby, were completely built for war, it wasn't that easily seen on the surface, the organization, materials of which the buildings were made and deployed guards that were hiding in the shadows, they clearly have been preparing for the worst.
And the answer to why so much safety measures was shown to Daimon the moment they arrived at what seemed to be this city lord's mansion and entered through the giant heavy doors that protected it.
What welcomed them was a giant open area with exactly twelve seats, two were placed higher than the other ten, not to mention that they were already occupied by a par of old mermen that were waiting for the group to arrive.
"Everyone take your seats, Zander you can stay, the rest wait outside of the meeting room", said the old merman at the right.
Daimon observed the merman who was the one that earlier stopped the two sides from entering into conflict, or more accurately stopping Daimon from wiping all the ones that were trying to imprison his group.
Besides the clearly old age of the old merman, the most eye-catching things were, first, the old merman is a middle stage Archknight and a really talented one, which would explain why he is still alive.
Scars all over the body, a missing leg and a missing arm as well as a burning mark that disfigured half of his face, that was the status of the old merman sitting at the right, they were old wounds.
The second eye catching thing, was the race to which the old merman seemed to belong, Daimon has seen several mermen races so far, the reigning ones appeared to be sharks, turtles, whales and other major magic sea races, but none was as emblematic as the two old mermen sitting at the higher positioned seats, as they were Black Armored shark race merman.
Of course, the hollow suit prevented them from noticing Daimon possessed that lineage as well, another thing is that those two old mermen were quite strong, in fact if they joined hands, they… might be able to fight on par with Thea.
Daimon knows how strong and talented the undead head maid is, which is why he was genuinely surprised that those two old mermen were so strong.
The other old merman was in relatively good conditions, just a missing right arm and scars on the eyes.
The remaining seats were soon occupied by the other elders of the Sea clan, with the exception of the tenth seat which belonged to the general that was sent to the infirmary due to Rita's newly discovered talent.
"First of all, let me apologize for what happened earlier, I'm Galen, the oldest member of the Sea clan alive as of current and the current honorable ancestor, at my left my younger brother, survivor from the same generation next to mine and someone that was granted the rank of ancestor by our creator".
The old merman at the left slightly bowed towards Daimon and the others as he introduced himself.
"Helric, I'm sorry for my son's previous behavior, I'll make sure he is disciplined; however, you must understand that our job is to keep our clan members safe, so if you are our enemies, we will use every mean in our hands to defend ourselves".
"Well, in my case whether we are enemies or not, depends on you, but I do know of someone that is your enemy as of current and the recent deaths are probably something he did, but you already know about him, right?", said Daimon referring to the hero of many generations ago, Ereth.
The two old mermen frowned, which made the other elders turn to see them with confused expressions.
"I have been having a really bad premonition since earlier, but how is it possible, a human doesn't live that long not even someone "like"
is it possible, a human doesn't live that long not even someone "like" him, and according to the previous ancestors they never received revelations of him leaving…", said Galen.
"Well, he didn't die as for his long lifespan, that guy had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, among which a deal with the Nethereals was probably involved", added Daimon.
Helric smacked his only hand on his armrest to then gaze at his brother before saying.
"Brother we have to be wiser than the past ancestors, now we are all under danger so we have to…", as Helric voice raised, his brother shook his head.
Daimon had no interest in the drama that was for sure developing between the two brothers, but he wanted the information they had about both Ereth and also whatever the challenges were.
"I can tell you what I know about your enemy, for the correct price of course", said Daimon.
The elders weren't exactly pleased by Daimon's words but the two old mermen raised their hands to prevent them from saying anything.
"What do you want?", said Galen.
"Information, are you familiarized with the term "challenge"…", Daimon hadn't finished his sentence when the two old mermen let out their mana pressures, which were blocked by Rita's.
"For not being allied with that guy, you say some similar things and apparently have similar tricks", coldly said Helric.
'Of course, since we both are system users', thought Daimon before saying.
"If that's the case, then I'm pretty sure you know that adding a second enemy of that category isn't a smart thing to do, right, or did you didn't learn the lesson back then?".
The two ancestors retracted of their pressure instantly and then gazed at the other members of the council before saying in unison.
"You all, out of the room".
The other elders looked confused but since their two leading figures completely agreed on something for a change, they knew it had to be a really important subject, so they obeyed.
Once they were out, Helric turned to see Daimon before saying.
"How did you know, if you know the history of that guy, you should more or less know how many years have happened since then, there is no way two "mere" Arch ranks would have survived that long?".
Daimon inwardly smirked as he confirmed his suspicions, these two weren't regular members of the Sea clan, sure this race wasn't weak, unlike at Neptune where their lack of Lord rank traits was linked to either their diluted lineages or the strange suppression of the planet for the most talented ones like Annete and the others, they weren't limited in that aspect.
For the races in this place, it was more of they being connected to whoever created them, they had high talents but couldn't progress if they weren't allowed to, as far as Daimon understood they were rewarded for their contributions, just like the women from the Black Night race, and for a being that could create a whole race like that, what was extending their lifespan for a few millions of years.
'People who aren't involved with system users have it really hard to catch up to those who are, however there are other ways to not lose against a system user, like having someone with enough experience or power backing you up', thought Daimon, he perfectly knew about it, as he has a few acquittances who meet those characteristics.
These two have been alive for quite a long time, accumulating experience, learning about their affinities and what was allowed for them to learn about their lineages, hence why they could equal Rita by working together, which taught Diamon two things, first that Black Prison Megalodon isn't a system user and second it didn't trust others.
"Well, I guess Ereth can be a royal pain in the ass, even dead, the bastard he caused a lot of troubles to others, I can imagine what he did to you when he was alive the last time", said Daimon.
"You look too complete to have clashed against him enough to be able to say that, even our creator was unable to return us to our state previous our battle with him", said Galen as he looked at his missing limbs.
"Brother you can't be really thinking off…", said Helric just to be met with Galen shaking his head at him.
"We need the information and he might not be our ally but he is definitely not that guy's ally either", said Galen.
"I'm sorry but I won't participate on this, you talk to them brother, I'll go prepare a warm welcome for that bastard", with those words, Helric opened a portal similar to the one Zander used to bring Daimon and the others here, to then disappear from the room.
"Don't take it against Helric, just like me he was the only one from his generation that survived back then, our creator sent us a lot of children to take care after what happened, but they couldn't replace what we lost… but enough of that, Ereth also came to us to ask about challenges back then".
"However, your emblem is not on the book handed to us by our creator, while Ereth had one that supposedly symbolized being an ally to us, it was the best that could be obtained from our side, challenge-wise meaning, since by clearing it, he got a chance to meet our creator in person, an honor that hasn't even been given to us".
"Due to emerging victorious he obtained the maximum reward, one of the strongest lineages that anyone who is unable to escape from this prison can obtain, the Black Armored shark's lineage", Galen's voice was filled with pride.
And Daimon understood why, certainly the Black Armored shark's lineage was a gold mine and now Daimon realized why Ereth practically took a lot of things from those two mermen.
"Let me guess, he became greedy after meeting the source of the lineage, so he tried to obtain it by killing your race but ultimately realized it was only in you two, what I don't understand is why that creator of yours didn't turn him into dust after what he did", said Daimon which made Galen sigh.
"The best rewards aren't mean to be given twice, even if the challenges remain for future people, after giving Ereth the lineage, our creator had to hibernate, by the time we were able to communicate with him again, it had already happened, however our creator looked for him and punished him even if it took quite some time".
Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask, Half Emperor, Maximum Stellar rank, no matter who he could think off, finding someone in another galaxy while being static in one place, wasn't possible, so that creator was above that for sure.
"Okay, that sure does complement the story, but you still haven't told me what are the challenges", said Daimon.
"Simple, they are tests left behind by the four creators, to enter them one must posses an emblem, and of course we the native races can't enter, only those who came from the outside".
"That being said, the number of challengers that have emerged victorious through the history, can be counted with the fingers of a hand and that is because the entrances to the challenges are custodied by the four races, right below the islands that are spread across the sea", said Galen as he pointed downwards.
"Speaking of the sea, is there a castle below the sea of this place?", asked Daimon which made Galen frown.
"How did you know… forget it, yes there is one, they are the remains of an island we custodied, they sank quite some time ago and we have to leave it, because the magic beasts there are almost as strong as an ancestor level member of our race", he said.
'Well, I guess that decides our next stop', thought Daimon, before saying.
"Give us a ride, the sooner the better, of course I'll tell you a few interesting things you need to know", said Daimon as he smirked, which made Calvin and the others feel sorry for the poor bastard that was about to suffer.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l