novelraw Chapter 78
Chapter 78
Luke was startled, and his hands fumbled.
"Stay calm, Luke," Xia Ya reassured him.
He had anticipated this situation; after all, Maengron wasn't a dragon that had been asleep for thousands of years.
He carefully controlled the speed at which the dagger pierced, yet strangely, not a drop of blood flowed out.
Because Luke's chest was empty.
His heart was hidden in the position where Maengron's heart should be.
And the heart of this sea monster was hidden deep in the ocean, locked in a chest on a cursed ship.
In other words, although the dagger had pierced Luke's heart at this moment, the one truly feeling the pain was Maengron, but the source of the weakness was Luke.
Luke didn't know about this; he always thought he was just a normal kid.
"Wha-what's going on, Xia Ya?"
The siblings surprisingly asked the same question in unison.
Their voices were abruptly interrupted by Maengron's roar.
Eight tentacles rose from the water, then slammed down forcefully, sending lake water and sharp stones flying towards them!
"Mia, 'Divine Light Shield'!"
A golden eggshell blossomed from the palm of the girl, enveloping the three of them inside, blocking the waves stirred up by the sea monster.
"In translation, it means, 'It hurts like hell'," Xia Ya wiped the water off his face that he hadn't managed to block, and said to the now stable Luke, "Now it's up to you to truly 'persuade it to leave'. Your sister's shield can hold for a minute, but I won't let her do that, because it would greatly harm her, do you understand what I mean?"
Luke nodded.
"You care for her."
"Yes, she's the angel bestowed upon me by the Holy Spirit."
"But the last time, the angel by your side wasn't her."
"Ahem..."
Xia Ya turned his head slightly awkwardly, avoiding Luke's teasing gaze.
This little brat.
But with that, Luke also relaxed.
He signaled to Xia Ya, who nodded, stepped forward, and took Mia's hand, causing the golden eggshell shield to instantly disappear.
At the same time, Maengron's tentacles slammed down fiercely, and Xia Ya rolled to the side with Mia in his arms, narrowly avoiding the blow. However, his back was pelted by flying gravel, making a crackling sound, and his HP dropped rapidly.
But fortunately, he had a healer in his arms. Mia raised her small hand, and his HP stabilized and began to rise again.
Then the flying debris came again...
Mia healed him again...
And again...
In just a few seconds, he felt like a pool in a math problem, draining and filling at the same time.
It was quite a sensation.
But that wasn't the end of it; several more of Maengron's tentacles swung over, like a four-handed piano performance, and for a moment, sand and stones flew along the shore. The residents of Astan City actually heard thunder during the day... from underground??
Even more bizarrely, although the giant sea monster's movements were wild and its momentum was grand... it carefully avoided Luke.
The boy's body was mostly frozen in an ice coffin, his lips turning pale from the cold.
A dagger was embedded in his chest, gradually sinking deeper with his effort.
With each inch it sank, Luke's face grew paler, and Maengron's movements became more violent, like a person in extreme pain struggling desperately, but it was all in vain.
Luke suddenly stopped, turned his head with difficulty, and through a gap in the ice coffin, locked eyes with Maengron's amber eyes.
For the first time, he saw a pleading look in that monster's eyes.
The boy grinned.
"Xia Ya was right. You are you, and I... am me.
"I'm not as cowardly as you, nor as weak as I thought...
"So, sleep, monster."
The boy's pale lips moved, uttering these words like a victor's declaration.
Then he forcefully plunged the dagger into his own chest.
"Ugh—"
Maengron let out a reluctant whimper, and in an instant, its tentacles drooped powerlessly to the ground, retracting with the last bit of strength, then slowly sinking into the depths.
Although it hadn't suffered any actual harm, only pain, Luke's "successful suicide" put him into a state of suspended animation, and correspondingly, Maengron would enter a similar state of suspended animation.
Luke was the dominant one between the two, as determined by Frederick's rules.
With everything settled, Xia Ya helped Mia stand up from the gravel.
The ice coffin had fully formed, and Luke lay quietly inside, his hands still gripping the dagger.
"Xia Ya..."
Mia tugged at his sleeve.
"You will save him, right?"
Xia Ya smiled, wiping the dust off the girl's face.
"I will save all of you."
...
The Ice Coffin spell Xia Ya cast at level 20 as an Elementalist was applied to Luke, who was level 5. Calculating based on his resistance, it could last at least a week in a low-temperature environment, and the underground temperature wasn't very high.
His real purpose in bringing Mia down was actually to save Maengron, not Luke.
Although the giant octopus wouldn't die, in this state of suspended animation, it would lose control over parts of its body, which would then rot, breed maggots in the water, creating a horrific scene.
The maggots would attract fish from the underground river, which would attract fishmen who lived off them, and the fishmen's commotion would attract the guards...
In short, it was very troublesome.
Mia, holding a staff taller than herself, repeatedly cast Purification and Disease Removal, striving to cleanse all the filth from the giant creature.
The dispersing light flickered, illuminating the dark underground.
With this light, Xia Ya jumped into the water.
He was searching for something on Maengron.
Although this giant monster was introduced to Frederick by Synlos, it wasn't a creation of the Abyss.
How to put it... the Abyss couldn't create such a "handsome" face.
Yes, that's the truth. By sea monster standards (if they have any), Maengron was considered handsome.
At least it was something; what Synlos created wasn't even a thing...
Synlos couldn't explain Maengron's origins, but the Destroyer of Worlds was best at using local creations to destroy the locals. So he removed Maengron's heart, sealed it with Arcane Energy in a chest, and secretly hid the chest on the fastest ghost ship in the Andres Sea, giving the cursed creatures a signal—run! Maengron is chasing you.
The ghost ship ran ahead, and Maengron chased behind.
One didn't eat or drink, endlessly, and the other was a natural monster with almost limitless stamina.
Maengron foolishly chased for ten thousand years, and even with limitless stamina, it was exhausted.
At this moment, Frederick, following Synlos's instructions, ventured into the deep sea and captured this weakened creature.
What Xia Ya was looking for was the container he used, hidden somewhere on Maengron's body.
After diving repeatedly seven or eight times, Xia Ya finally confirmed the location. He dove into the water like a torpedo, not looking back as he plunged into the depths.
A few minutes later, he emerged from the water, holding a small bottle.
About thirty centimeters long, it seemed to contain a small piece of calm ocean.
Above the seawater was a miniature three-masted ship floating on the surface.
The Black Pearl.