I promptly pushed half my body out of the sea to look for him across the surface. Soon, I spotted a familiar figure on the distant sea, his black hair glimmering brightly from the moon’s radiance, his face that floated out of the surface, his cobalt blue eyes carrying the darkness of the oceanic depths.“Dicken!” I cried out at him in surprise and delight, but Dicken seemed to miss my presence entirely and continued swimming straight at Mary—he was drawn to her and the sonar as well.My heart immediately sank, and I charged forward by instinct to stop his advance, just like a reckless young girl who was afraid of her lover being stolen. He stopped from my sudden appearance, but also glared darkly at me as if wanting me not to challenge him.As if I was a sapling which had the guts to provoke its leader.It was true that I had yet to appear in his life in this timeline, and he naturally had no idea that the person who had suddenly come in his way was the progeny and mate he would ch
Once I realized what was happening, I promptly flailed my hands, struggling to swim upwards. However, my chest was like a cookie under the severe pressure of the depths, and the world seemed to be spinning around me before I could make two strokes—with a hundred meters between me and the sea’s surface, I would suffocate and die even before I could reach it. Even so, I kept flailing my limbs, but my movements were slowing down because the lack of oxygen turned my body to lead, and my consciousness gradually turned murky. I couldn’t help smiling bitterly. It seemed that I couldn’t accomplish the mission Dicken had assigned me now.Be that as it may, a shadow suddenly swooped down at me from above just as I was about to lose my consciousness. My eyes widened to find that it was Dicken—he had turned back, and suddenly the pressure on my chest didn't seem that violent, and a flow of warmth reanimated it.In a split second, a powerful arm warped around my body, caring me upwards rapidly.
As Dicken had mentioned, the Black Scale King didn’t actually need a mate, which made me realize that he wouldn’t feel attracted to me. Even so, I yearned so much for him to revert to his perverted ways so that I could get closer with him easily, and plant the scale in his body. His calm appearance at the moment stopped me from trying to provoke him, especially since that tail whip just now had already hurt me extensively—another one and I would probably die instantly. “Tell me… what should I do now, Dicken?” I asked quietly. Dicken’s hands that were still stroking my legs suddenly stopped, his brow leaping high above as if he had heard something unforgivable. A weird look appeared in his dark gaze, before he eventually turned towards me.It was only then that I realized that I had mentioned his name in my prayer. In merfolk terms, I was courting him, which in turn was what surprised him. “Dicken.” Even so, I repeated his name with perfect clarity, knowing what it meant but un
I couldn’t resist throwing my arms around his neck, yearning so much to quickly use this opportunity to hug my lover. As my hands reached tentatively to touch his firm spine, he looked up at me but didn’t shake me off like before, continuing to treat my wound, the tip of his tongue carefully licking my chest. The incision he had made just now immediately healed, the pain easing. My eyes, tracking his movement, couldn’t help lingering on his alluring collarbones and robust chest muscles, a bold idea suddenly appearing in my mind…My body had mutated when Dicken mated with me—did that mean I needed to do the same to transfer the token of existence into him? Reality was that I had lost that scale, which could only mean that it had fused with my physical body, and Dicken was inside me. That was why my idea seemed exceedingly logical judging from current circumstances. In other words, I must now seduce Dicken so that he felt the impulse to mate with me.How embarrassing! I had never tho
I stared unhappily at the spot where his webbed claws were touching, intent on finding out what he was studying… only to realize that circuit-like patterns were appearing on my skin where he touched, as if it had been flashed by a scanner of some sort. The patterns were enfolded in a regular sequence and looked like the projection of a scale, and it would fade whenever Dicken’s claws moved away from my skin—I wouldn’t have noticed that curious change at all if I wasn’t keeping an eye on what Dicken was doing.When Dicken’s paw shifted to my ankles, his serene gaze seemed to stir as if he had noticed something, and I couldn’t help feeling thrilled. “Di—” I awkwardly stopped myself from saying his name, nonetheless seizing the chance to quickly explain, “Do you believe me now? I’m really special, aren’t I? I’m really your progeny…”I paused then, reluctantly leaving out the word ‘mate’ in fear that I would provoke him again. “Dear leader, in the near future, humans would wage a war o
I was anxiously yelling Dicken’s name even as I chased him down—how furious and miserable I was, but there was nothing I could do! I had no place in Dicken’s heart right now, and it seemed that he was trying to rescue those merfolk which had been caught, and leave the portal still opened for the time being. Nonetheless, my stamina began draining away soon enough from the chase, and my speed quickly turned sluggish. I realized that I had to come up with something to assume human form again, or I would be no different from chum in the ocean, vulnerable to being eaten at any instant. Embarrassingly, however, I had yet to find out the circumstances under which I would mutate, since my body seemed to go beyond my control each time I did as if it had been invaded by a virus. Was some sort of stimulation required? If so, was it physical or psychological? I carefully recalled what had happened when I reverted to human form even as I tried to swim towards the depths, hoping that the suffocati
Suddenly, an ear-piercing scream resounded in the skies overhead. I promptly looked up to find an aircraft exploding up in the air, and its wreckage was plummeting like asteroids, bursting into flames over the sea’s surface near me. My mind seemed to go blank from the carnage, while the saplings that had been trying to tear me apart fled. In no time at all, there were hellish flames around me, the aircraft’s debris now basically burning volcanoes over the waves and billowing thick black smoke. I was at a loss and lost my bearing instantly amid the wreckage, uncertain where I should head next.I had to dive underwater so that I wasn’t struck by accident, and looking from below the surface, it seemed as if the sky was a burning crimson. More aircraft debris was raining down as if chunks of the sky itself was crumbling, and I swam as fast as I could in the sea to avoid getting hit by the projectiles. I also happened to see mangled remains of people dropping into the sea and even being kn
I was clearly aware that everything I was going through right then was in the past, but an indescribable rage still erupted out from the bottom of my heart—I felt sympathy towards Mary, just as I felt disgust towards Bob’s callous actions.Meanwhile, Dicken had brought me behind a boulder and stopped, leaning over it as he looked at the distant flames and panted heavily. His determined face was clenching even as droplets trickled down his cheek, and I could feel his pain. My heart pounded just then, and I quickly looked down to find that he was clutching his waist with his webbed paw, and blue blood was seeping out, dyeing the sea a darker shade of blue.“Are you hurt?” I promptly pried his paw away and examined his injury carefully, the extent of which shocked me. There was a gaping hole where dense layers of scales used to cover, and the ones shoved inward were left dangling, just as the flesh beneath was burnt down to the bone—I had never seen Dicken hurt this grievously. Stil