Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 837 - 778: The Harsh Reality

The currents were brutally torn apart, and the white figure became a distinctive rage that plunged into the deep sea. The tide continuously condensed into ice, an ice storm stirring the ocean’s tranquility, following the figure’s descent into the deep sea.

The Merfolk reef was located at the very depths of the ocean, a place devoid of light, relying solely on the Merfolk’s night vision to provide visibility, and now, it was even darker. The roaring snow and ice fell into the Merfolk palace, and within the falling ice shards, the former Mermaid Princess, with fury in her heart, intruded into her father’s territory.

There was no distinction between day and night in the Merfolk reef, but at this moment, the palace appeared particularly desolate, with no guards in sight. This kingdom, adorned with coral and pearls, was like a city of death. Princess scoffed coldly; she felt a slight ease without obstacles blocking her path, which was promptly engulfed by her fury.

The Princess returning home was like a harbinger of destruction. Princess stepped into the main hall and saw the majestic figure seated upon the throne. Tears gushed forth, freezing into ice crystals before they could merge with the sea. Step by step, she imprinted indelible ice tracks in her father’s palace.

"Why? Why?!" Pain tore through her heart as she gazed upon that kind and amiable figure, shaking from head to toe, morphing from a proud lady into a sorrowful child, "Why did you deceive me?"

The Mermaid King slowly raised his arms, his face blooming into a fatherly smile, as he did in the past, which in Princess’s eyes, now seemed disgustingly hypocritical and vicious.

"Welcome home, my beautiful child."

No longer affectionately touching the throne as before, Princess stood beneath it, her fingertips piercing through her palm, red blood diffusing into the water.

"Why did you lie to me that it was a blessing! ’Blessing of the Merfolk’? ’Blessing of the Deep Sea’?" Princess’s expression was pale, overwhelmed with pain at the thought of his distorted form, nearly fainting with anguish, "That was my lover, your son-in-law, if you hated him, please do not deceive me, do not torment him like this! Why would you do this! Why!!! Turn him into a grotesque monstrosity, why make my lover suffer a fate worse than death!!"

These words acted like a switch, causing the Mermaid King’s smile to halt; he became like a mechanical NPC, initiating a new dialogue.

"Has it already been completed, my daughter? You have blessed my son-in-law. It’s a pity; I had wanted to meet him in person."

"I will not let you touch him!!!" Princess instinctively retorted, her voice sharp and full of animosity. She herself had bestowed her love with the ’Blessing of the Merfolk,’ a unique magic given by her father to adapt land dwellers to the sea. Yet because of this magic, he had become a mass of flesh that screamed in agony, a despicable monster.

It was then that Princess realized she knew far too little about her own father. And now, the Mermaid King, was about to reveal even more, reality.

"My dear, do you know how merfolk propagate?"

The Mermaid King looked at his daughter lovingly, but in Princess’s eyes, his gaze was filled with madness.

"Merfolk originate from the deep sea; we are the deep sea’s kin, we are the servants of the gods. Our life form is quite different from that of land dwellers; as evolutionary throwouts, the Merfolk do not possess the capability for sexual reproduction. Our ability is closer to our master’s—assimilation, corruption. We cannot bear offspring, but through a corrupted vessel, we can create mutated replicas. With just one seed and a vessel, we can propagate an entire race."

Princess staggered backward, her gaze filled with horror at her father; she understood what he meant.

"Our blessing turns other life forms into ’Egg of Despair,’ a container for propagating Merfolk. My Princess, you and my subjects are all my children in truth. Would you like to meet your ’Queen Mother’?"

Princess collapsed to the ground, her vomit and tears freezing together. The lineage she once took immense pride in originated from chaos and flesh, just like his current state. Princess? Born from filth, where was the princess to be found? Merfolk were monstrous creatures that consumed humans. Her own love, which she believed pure, was conceived in such a corrupted body. Her malevolent father, his voice arose again—Princess hated that voice, but she didn’t know how to deal with him. He was indeed her father, indeed lavishing her with an immense sense of reality.

"My child, you and your vessel have completed your task; now, proliferate the next generation of Merfolk."

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[Shut up!!!]Rage filled his chest, imposing malice upon his own beloved was undoubtedly a misdeed by her father, [I will not repeat this vile bloodline like you! I will not let your filth continue! You monster!!!]

[That is your freedom, my child.]

Thus spoke the Merfolk King calmly as he rose from the flesh bed of the clamshell, stepping out of the shadows to face the terrified gaze of his daughter, smiling gently. Behind him, his lower half, were nothing but twisted and fierce tentacles, churning in the seawater.

[We Merfolk, indeed are, pitiful rejects. The gods granted us life, and for all our lives, we cannot escape Them, our masters. Our existence is for the sake of falling into degeneracy. My personality is descending into corruption, my dear. The Lord is coming back, and we are bound to fall into madness, becoming the flesh of the Lord, the Lord’s fodder, the Lord’s plaything. The other offspring have already degenerated, so I removed them, thinking to see you one last time in the way you liked. But I’ve failed, my little Princess, I’m sorry, in the end, I still lost my reason, longing to gaze upon you more closely.]

The Merfolk King trembled as he walked down the steps, his steps as slow as if time had stopped.

[You have acquired the power of the Giant Dragon, and you shall be my hope. My dear.]

The Merfolk King’s tentacles reached out, while Princess recoiled in disgust. The Merfolk King seemed to understand something, standing on the steps with a smile, with dirty tears flowing from the corners of his eyes.

[You’ve grown up, my daughter.]

[Farewell, my dear.]

Deep beneath the sea, a white light began to shine. Princess looked upward, realizing something, and like a swordfish, she swam upstream rapidly, howling woefully in the water with her throat hoarse.

"No, no, no! Stop, please! My master! White Dragon!!!" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Atop the mermaid reef, the Giant Dragon spread her Wings of Frost, her body erupting in a blinding white light that illuminated the deep sea. She brought the divine mandate, the power of destruction, and declared it solemnly in the tongues of dragons through the tides of the ocean, a language that carried the power of another king, to enlighten all that was in the sea.

[My name is Alicia, daughter of the Father of All Dragons, the devourer Yemotar.]

[This body, this power, are the King of the Earth’s counterattack against the Deep Sea.]

[I am the Wings of Frost, the adversary of the Deep Sea, here I bring down the will of the great Dragon Father.]

[Minions of the Evil God, with your rancid malice, die!!]

[The Eternal End of Frost!!!]

"No!!! No!!!! No!!!!!!"

The light from the dragon’s breath swallowed the dark mermaid reef.

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