The further we ventured within the tunnel, the clearer the screams could be heard—it meant that Bob’s lab was getting closer, and I couldn’t help holding my breath at the thought. We turned into another corner then and arrived at a door, dangling with translucent curtains caked in crimson, and I could see something resembling a surgical table through the curtains.Mary and I both started to tiptoe, and while I held my hammer to my side, Mary unsheathed her katana. Using the tip of her blade, she carefully lifted the curtains, and my eyes instantly turned bloodshot from the strong scent of blood. I almost fainted immediately from the horrors inside the lab, and my stomach was churning even after I came to my senses, whereas Mary was standing beside me, holding herself against the wall as she retched.There were several dissected merpeople corpses laid out in a row over the surgical table. There were mermaids and mermen, but all of them had their eyes gouged out, their belly sliced thr
After I opened every glass tank, the captured merfolk all leapt out immediately, though they merely encircled me in a tidy formation instead of attacking me, and I realized that might be their leader’s scent that lingered on my body. I then saw Asura open his eyes albeit with much difficulty, struggling to climb out of his tank—I could see several gashes on his shoulder that seemed to cut into bone, and though they clearly impeded his movement, he remained tough enough to follow us. Mary’s diversion seemed effective, and I was unimpeded as I led the merfolk in our escape, eventually exiting the hellish tunnel through the trapdoor we entered. The cannonfire was even more violent now and there were flames everywhere, its crimson radiance shining upon us from across the woods. The merfolk that just escaped began to panic and instinctively darted into the woods, leaving me behind.Still, I heard something still crawling behind me just then, and turned to find that it was Asura. He was m
“Dicken, don’t misunderstand! He’s hurt, and I’m just treating him!” I promptly explained as I pushed myself up, and wrapped my hands around Dicken’s thick, powerful tail and pulled him backwards. Be that as it may, Dicken was clearly overcome with rage right then, not to mention he had always been violently possessive. This was really bad!To make things worse, my efforts to stop him failed and Dicken’s tail coiled around me instead, pulling me behind himself as if he was protecting a calf, keeping me away from Asura. However, he would definitely kill Asura if I didn’t stop him, and after looking around, I grabbed ahold of the nearest tree trunk albeit with much difficult, and freed myself from Dicken’s tail ever so slightly. Nonetheless, I was just about to escape up the tree when I slammed into it instead since I was pulling too hard, knocking myself dizzy and almost fainting right there. Still, it was fortunate that my movement had stopped Dicken from continuing to strangle Asur
I nestled my head under Dicken’s neck and inhaled deeply that scent which only he had, fawning over him like a child. At the same time, his lips were brushing repeatedly over my ear, and he took a deep breath as if he had received an answer that satisfied him, while a laugh seemed to be growled out of his throat.His warm breath brushed over the side of my ear, and it felt like he was both tempting me and waiting for something—or hoping that I could do something to prove my confession. This made me even more confident that my dear leader had returned and slowly regenerated on his younger body… because only that scoundrel would seduce me on his own. So, how was I going to prove that?Even as I wondered about that in my head, I suddenly remembered the first time Dicken had asked me to respond to him on Lemenland. Embarrassed, I averted my gaze and licked his pointy ear as if tasting a fresh slice of raw fish, and then bit him—in the next instant, I was pushed down to the ground punis
“Don’t be like that, Dicken. He just needs our help—you’re too paranoid.”I held Dicken’s shoulder, only realizing then that all his muscles were stiffened like steel and would burst out with frightening strength at any instant. Damn it! I honestly couldn’t understand why Dicken could be so hostile towards Asura when he was already maimed, and didn’t he just check if Asura had laid his hands on me? It would be bad if Dicken were to lose control and they started fighting too, and so I wrapped my hands around Dicken’s muscular body, my fingers gently stroking his chest in hopes that it would calm his nerves. Perhaps what I did worked too, since Dicken didn’t do anything else, although Asura suddenly mustered his courage and approached us. The shadows cast by the flames beneath the trees streaked past Asura, reflecting the eye-catching luster of his purple tail. He paused and looked up at Dicken as if he refused to back down, which left me suspecting that he had just been too wounded t
I could see shadows approaching from the distance from between the branches—they were a team of well-trained soldiers led by Bob, and Mary was being flanked by two of those soldiers as she walked behind Bob. It was obvious that her plan did not escape Bob’s cunning gaze, and we were just three people against a group of armed men—saving Mary was clearly very difficult. Moreover, it wouldn’t be an easy task to convince Dicken—the strongest of us—to willingly save Mary.‘Damn it!’ I cursed inwardly as I watched the soldiers get ever closer, since the woods couldn’t hide us perfectly. Still, that was when Dicken grabbed my arm and warily pulled me backwards ever so slightly, whereas Asura remained still, staring tightly where Mary was as if he wanted to just lunge at them to get Mary back.When I reached out to put a hand on Asura to calm him, Dicken seemed to know what I was thinking and took me in his arms first, then clapped his webbed paw tightly over my mouth. I almost made a sound,
Be that as it may, the gods seemed to have picked the right time to prank me—just as I thought that Asura didn’t notice what was going on with us, he suddenly turned towards us and looked directly at me and Dicken. His gaze seemed to stiffen for a moment before he clasped a webbed paw over his nose, as if afraid to breathe in something terrible, and even his tail twitched by reflex. In turn, Dicken threatened him with a strangling gesture, seemingly furious that Asura had peeked with poor timing.That was when rushed footsteps started to approach us and I turned towards it. Mary was approaching, still flanked by two soldiers, and soon arrived close to us and Asura. At that very moment, Mary seemed to be connected with Asura in mind and guessed that Asura was close by, and started looking around. She soon found Asura in the darkness, but in the instant their gazes met, Asura’s gaze changed drastically, while Mary remained exceedingly calm and basically didn’t react at all. Even so, I w
“What did you say?!”I felt my breath get caught in my throat. My grandfather was at the concentration camp? So that was why my family was involved in the plans for the merfolk’s race—my grandfather had been involved from the very start. It was why my grandfather and Dicken had made a pact, and later, Bob had a reason to approach me, offering support for my studies on merfolk. I hadn’t been pulled into the plan for no reason, but had been involved from the very start.I couldn’t allow anything to happen to my grandfather even if it was in this dimension, although there appeared to be no time for us to talk about the old times either—in my agitation, my various physical processes were escalating. My calves were spasming endlessly and I almost dropped to my knees, but thankfully Dicken’s tail caught me. His webbed paw was grasping my wrist gently and firmly, even if his gaze was as ferocious as a reaper from hell, glaring fixedly at the soldiers approaching us.Just as the fishing net