The little mermaid who had led Norris here had already hidden far away in a panic.
The Sword Saint Puchi protected Norris behind him. Waving two tentacles, he wove a tight sword net in front of him, blocking all the incoming torrents. "Sephiria, calm down! I really am Elwyn!"
"How dare you insult me like this!" The Mermaid Queen's thoughts were full of anger, the scales on her face lifting slightly due to her agitation. "Did you think I couldn't tell? There are absolutely no traces of polymorph magic on your body!"
"It's not a polymorph; I was resurrected as a mushroom!" The Sword Saint had never felt that speaking a bit of truth could actually be this difficult.
"Since you refuse to tell the truth," a cold light flashed in Sephiria's eyes, "I will find it in your minds myself!"
"Sephiria, don't!" The Sword Saint wanted to dissuade her, but unfortunately, the angry Mermaid Queen wouldn't listen at all.
Sephiria unleashed [Voice of Charm] with all her might.
However, just as the singing voice rose, [Sword Heart] was triggered, and a sharp sword light slashed through the depths of the Mermaid Queen's consciousness.
As if struck by a heavy blow, Sephiria's singing voice turned into a shrill, miserable scream.
She clutched her head tightly with both hands, rolling painfully in the water. Her long hair tangled around her arms, and the water currents she had been controlling lost their cohesion, scattering into strings of bubbles with a splash.
The mental trauma caused by the Sword Heart's counterattack caused her state of mind to collapse, her voice carrying a trembling sob: "Why—why did you have to use him to deceive me! We already have no future—that monster will eat everything in the sea! I just—I just wanted to see that scoundrel one last time..."
"Your Majesty!"
"Protect the Queen!"
Seeing their Queen injured, the mermaids who were originally just watching from afar immediately glared angrily, rushing toward the Sword Saint and Norris one after another.
The Sword Saint didn't fear these mermaids, but he didn't want things to escalate to an unmanageable point.
In the nick of time, he had no choice but to suddenly say: "On the right side of your tail, you were born missing a scale! Back then, you always used a shell to cover it up, afraid the other mermaids would laugh at you!"
Sephiria's headache hadn't dissipated yet, but she forcefully stopped her cries of pain, looking suspiciously at the Puchi tightly surrounded by mermaids. "Even if you say this—"
"You like to sleep floating on your back on the sea surface! And you grind your teeth when you sleep!" The Sword Saint's recounting was rapid and urgent, giving Sephiria no chance to interject. "That time you secretly went ashore and were knocked out by a fruit falling from a tree, by the time I found you, you were almost dehydrated and suffocated! And that time I roasted crabs, it was your first time seeing fire, and you silly..."
"Stop! Stop, stop, stop!" Sephiria suddenly swam close, grabbing the Sword Saint Puchi's mushroom cap. She gripped it so hard that the mushroom cap was deformed, and her ear fins flushed with a faint red blush. "Stop talking!"
The Sword Saint quieted down, and both sides fell silent for a moment.
She loosened her grip, looking at this round Puchi in front of her in disbelief, her voice carrying a trace of hesitation: "He—how could he tell others about these trivial matters too? Who exactly are you?"
Elwyn's mushroom cap twisted as if he had nothing left to live for: "Didn't I tell you? Just as you see, this is what I look like now."
"Could it be that your human appearance from before was a transformation?"
"Wait, wait, wait! What are you thinking?!" The Sword Saint curled his tentacles. "I was originally human! It was only after I died that I was resurrected as a Puchi!"
"Died?"
Elwyn babbled on for quite a while before Sephiria finally understood the situation.
The farce finally settled down, and the mermaids also put away their weapons, but they still vigilantly watched that strange Puchi and the tailless lizardman shrinking his neck behind it.
Sephiria seemed to have completely forgotten the injury she just suffered. Holding the Sword Saint Puchi, she turned him back and forth to observe: "The land is truly miraculous. I always thought resurrection meant coming back to one's original appearance. It turns out you become a mushroom monster!"
"No, generally speaking, one wouldn't become a Puchi—actually, that's not right, the current 'generally' really does mean becoming a Puchi..." Elwyn was manipulated like a toy without resisting, only Norris vaguely felt that he seemed to want to find a hole in the ground to hide in.
After marveling for a short while, Sephiria suddenly hugged the Sword Saint Puchi tightly into her arms: "That's great. To be able to die together with you in the end, that's really great!"
The Sword Saint decisively used his tentacles against her chin to break free.
Her arms now empty, Sephiria looked at the Sword Saint Puchi with a slightly dangerous gaze, but suddenly felt that this kind of rejection was so nostalgic. For a moment, her gaze constantly shifted.
The Sword Saint Puchi tightened the belts strapping his swords: "What do you mean 'die'? Isn't it good to be alive? Aren't you all doing fine?"
Sephiria's expression dimmed: "We are on the verge of extinction, just like our kin who have already lost their sense of self."
Her tone was very flat, as if she had long accepted this fact, and the other mermaids didn't show any surprise at these words either.
"Come with me."
Sephiria pulled the Sword Saint Puchi and swam away, while Norris was forgotten in place.
Just as he felt like a spare wheel and wondered if he should find a place to squat and wait for the results, a few mermaids swam up carefully. Speaking a language Norris couldn't understand, their hands stroked his silvery-white scales.
Elwyn was pulled into a stone cave decorated with corals. Here, over a hundred mermaids were singing in a chorus inside the cave.
The power in their voices gathered and merged within the stone cave, finally spreading out from the top, turning into the thin membrane that enveloped the entire sanctuary.
"Relying on the chorus ritual, we can keep this place hidden. However, this is only temporary."
"This place cannot sustain so many mermaids. For food, we always have to have some mermaids go out to explore."
"However, not only are those monsters outside, even the fish, shrimp, and water plants have been eaten by them until almost nothing remains. Our early stored food is also about to bottom out. When we first pulled you in, we mistakenly thought you were a large edible mushroom..."
"Recently, it has even used our captured kin to create a similar chorus."
"It won't be long before we either starve to death, or our method of sanctuary is broken and we are all devoured by that monster."
Sephiria swam over, holding the edge of his mushroom cap with both hands, looking at him affectionately: "Elwyn, my love, accompany me! If it's you, then there's nothing to fear about death."
The Sword Saint slowly pushed the Mermaid Queen's hands away once again: "There is indeed nothing to fear about death, but we don't necessarily have to die! Just slaughter those bugs and that'll be it."
"Elwyn, I know you are very formidable, and I know that after you went back you were called the Sword Saint by the people. But that monster—I have never seen any creature grow so massive and so evil. That is not something anyone can contend against; even you, the powerful Sword Saint, cannot defeat it."
"From what you're saying, you've seen its entire form and not just a tentacle?" The Sword Saint's focus was clearly different.
Just as the Sword Saint wanted to continue asking, the thin membrane above the entire area suddenly began to vibrate violently. Vaguely, an incomparably evil sound seeped in from outside.
The sanctuary instantly fell into chaos.
Some mermaids had eyes full of anger, planning to fight to the death; some mermaids fled in all directions, vainly attempting to hide; even more mermaids merely waited quietly, having long accepted their fate.
"It finally found us." The vibration of the sonic membrane above became increasingly violent. Sephiria looked at the Sword Saint Puchi, revealing an expression of despondency, reluctance, and a bit of relief. "Elwyn, I know you are unwilling to die with me. I will open a back route for you and your companion. Flee."
"Sigh." Elwyn curled out the four longswords from his back, tilting his mushroom cap to look upward. "I will protect you."
"Elwyn—!" Sephiria looked at the round back of the Puchi, as if seeing the handsome young man from the past.
Right at this moment, Norris walked over scratching his head, looking doubtful: "Sorry to interrupt you guys, but I always feel like this sound is a bit like... Pop."
The thin membrane burst like a bubble, and the shielding effect completely disappeared. A terrifying, disgusting chorus poured into every mermaid's ears.
Before even seeing the enemy, just hearing the sound of this chorus, many mermaids felt their stomachs churn, weakly collapsing to the ground.
"Little mermaids, turn into big bubbles, pop with a gentle poke~"
Countless white tattered sacks slowly floated down from above.
"Ahem." The Sword Saint Puchi sheathed his swords, turned to Sephiria, and said somewhat embarrassedly: "It's not the enemy, it's the Boss..."
Sephiria: ???
(End of Chapter)
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