Chapter 1080: The Mermen
—–
They appeared out of the sea water, walking out of it was if it were completely normal for them, moving from the depths of the salty ocean to the sandy beaches. Their appearances were rather humanoid, but with clear fish-like features. They had pale blue skin, scales covering several parts of their bodies, big gills in their necks, long, pointy ears with membranes, azure or red hair, and big, yellow eyes.
The males had larger, more muscular physiques than the females, while the two females were gorgeously beautiful at mere glance, no imperfections in their appearance at all, almost deceiving, unnatural. They had long claws, fingers connected by membranes. And they had long fish-like tails at the end of their backs, they weren’t quite mermaid-like, they had legs and a more homogenous appearance over than the big contrast between just a human half and a fish half.
“…” I stopped what I was doing and quickly faced them. “Aren’t you mermen? This is the first time I see them in person, do you people often visit the city?”
“A-Ah, no…” Muttered one of the girls, with long red hair.
“A-Actually…”
“Well, we…”
“Um, can we…?”
All four of them were trying to talk at the same time, and they were very nervous! Which made everything even more awkward for no reason. I sighed, quickly stopping their babbler.
“One at a time, explain me why you’re here and what do you want.” I said. “I would also appreciate if you told me who you are, and where did you come from. I had no idea there were Mermen in the nearby oceans. I had expanded my senses quite a lot but found none! Did you just arrive here?”
“Y-Yes, we just did.” The red-haired mermaid girl nodded. “My name is Everose, this is my sister Aqua, and these are our two friends, Halk and Coral.”
“Nice to meet you…” Aqua smiled gently.
“It is an honor to meet the new Goddess of the Seas…”
“Indeed, an honor.”
The two guys bowed their heads while the girls were much more casual. I could already the girls probably had a higher societal position than the guys they brought along.
“I see, pretty names. I am Maria. And yes, I suppose I am the new Goddess of the Sea?” I said. “I won’t hide anything and be brutally honest with you, I killed and ate the previous one.”
“EH?!”
The four mermen quickly stepped back in shock.
Hah! I knew that would be their reaction.
“Were you servants of Oceania? I did know she had quite a lot of them, Divine Sea Spirits mostly, but I had no idea she had mermen servants,” I said. “Well, you see, I became the sworn enemy of most of the Gods, we got into a fight, and I ended killing her… She tried killing me first. Actually she tried ending the whole town’s population. She was really insane, her Saintess also died with her.”
“S-Such a thing is possible?”
“I-I can’t believe it…”
“Oceania-sama… dead?”
“I can’t… I…”
Looks like they liked her? I haven’t checked Oceania memories yet because they’re so convoluted, but I am fairly sure she was never nice to anybody in her whole life, she grew up as just a spoiled brat.
Yet these people loved her? Yikes, now I feel kind of bad and-
“Thank you so much!”
“I can’t believe how happy I am!”
“So it’s true! Oceania-sama is truly dead!”
“Amazing! Thank you so much, oh legendary God Slayer!”
The mermen then prostrated in front of me in reverence.
Ah, of course.
I should have guessed they were going to get happy, I’m glad I was right.
Totally.
“A-Ahahah, okay, okay, calm down.” I giggled. “Anyways, I imagine you live quite far away into the ocean, why did you come here? And specifically towards me? Is it because of my new Divine Throne? Were there responsibilities I didn’t know about?”
“Our original intention was to search for the legendary Divine Oasis Spirit, we’ve heard legends about her!”
“We heard she came from the original world where our ancestors came from, Atlantis!”
“The Divine Oasis Spirit used to be a great Guardian of our tribe!”
“So we wanted to find her so she could help us…!”
“Ah…”
Oof, how do I tell them?
Well, let’s just be rash.
“Actually, you guys are a bit late… The Divine Oasis Spirit died like, thousands of years ago.” I muttered.
“EH?!”
Their reactions were really precious, these people were very naïve and innocent, almost cute.
“Hahah! You guys are so cute. Calm down, she might be dead, but she has a reincarnation, a young boy named Celes.” I explained. “But what did you need the help of the spirit for, anyways?”
“W-We need the help of the ancient hero, the Divine Oasis Spirit… So we could appease the wrath of the King of the Depths…” Sighed Everose.
“The King of the Depths?” I wondered. “Who’s that? Was it one of the monsters I hunted down?”
“N-No, not those! The King of the Depths is a Divine Beast of incredible power!” Said Everose sister, Aqua. “It was once sealed by the Divine Oasis Spirit long ago, but she was unable to defeat it!”
“A couple of days ago, something happened. A brilliant star fell from the skies and impacted the Sacred Grounds where it is sealed, shattering the chains…” Said Everose.
“Since then, the chains have continued to gain cracks, and the horror that once dominated the entire oceans might once more awaken!” Cried Aqua. “Our strongest warriors and magicians are already busy dealing with the never-ending wave of Sea Monsters answering the call of the King of the Depths, we came here looking for help…”
“I see…” I nodded. “A star fell from the skies? What could that be? Do you know something about it?”
“No, but we do remember hearing… A weep, like a cry, when it landed.”
“But nothing else than that…”
“It’s a mystery to us, but most think it might have been sent by Odin, who hates us…”
“Please, new Goddess of the Sea, could you help our tribe? We will offer you anything you want in return!”
“Anything you say…?” I smiled. “Hmm…”
—–
