Chapter 103: East’s Hero (2)

The head of the mermaid race closed his eyes upon hearing Iron’s words. 

“Trai… tor…” 

He smiled at the unexpected words that came out of Iron’s mouth. Light sparkled in his eyes once more as his spirit temporarily returned after being eaten away by the demons beyond the gate. 

“Did you meet with my God?” 

Iron looked dumbfounded at the head of the mermaid race. 

“My God…? Is that something that you should say? Do you think you’re reasonable?” 

Will the phrase ‘my God’ be appropriate for the God who dreamt of the destruction of the mermaids until the end of his life?

Iron shook his head firmly.

“The one that you refer to as your God died dreaming and wishing for your destruction.” 

“Ah… Did he send you to me?”

The head of the mermaid race nodded his head as if he finally understood now. He finally realized that Iron was there when the Sea Orb shined brightly. Knowing this, the head of the mermaid race smiled. 

“So, he wasn’t lonely at the end.”

Iron frowned when he heard the words of the head of the mermaid race. He also couldn’t understand him after seeing his expression. Based on the expression on his face, it seemed like they knew each other for a long time. 

“Why did you abandon your God?”

“Because my God has no intentions of taking revenge.”

“Was revenge so important that you can even go and betray your God? Was it important enough to sacrifice you and your kind?”

The head of the mermaid race smiled brightly at Iron’s question. 

“I don’t need you to understand. Everyone has their own beliefs. Aren’t the people living in this world living by their own beliefs whether it’s wrong or not?”

“……”

Iron remained silent. He opted not to answer the words of the head of the mermaid race. Even he would walk forward silently despite knowing that it was the wrong path. However, he still couldn’t understand.

“Was it worth betting the future of your kind? Were you satisfied with the results that you have achieved in exchange for the destruction of the mermaid race?”

The head of the mermaid race smiled in satisfaction at Iron’s question.

“My life has been stained with revenge… I betrayed my God and brought darkness into this world. But I do not have any regrets.”

“Crazy shit…”

Iron lifted his sword when he realized that he wouldn’t understand him at all. However, he lowered his arm once again. This was because the head of the mermaid race was already at death’s door. He was already burning the last flames of his life as he vomited black blood down his chest. Iron realized that this was the last embers of his life so he just waited for his last words. 

“Cough! Cough!”

The head of the mermaid race stared at Iron after vomiting black blood. 

“This is going to be the end of the old era. A new era will now begin… The seed of chaos will open the new era.”

“What…?”

Iron frowned when he heard the head of the mermaid race speak as if he was talking about a prophecy. However, the head of the mermaid race quickly spoke up and blocked Iron from speaking any further. 

“The traitors will meet their end. Disaster will fall upon those who have plagued the sea at the end of these traitors. And it can only be prevented by a hero. Desperately and eagerly hope for the birth of a hero! Otherwise, this world will walk towards the path of destruction.”

Iron stared blankly at the head of the mermaid race as he tried to understand and interpret his words. 

“This was what our prophet had said. Our destruction will be the spark that will start the Empire’s disaster and our revenge will eventually be completed.”

“You… You knew your future.”

The head of the mermaid race smiled at Iron. 

“Did God’s power dwell in you? Fufu… I wasn’t able to receive it despite longing for it so much. But it went to the hands of my enemy, the Imperials…”

The head of the mermaid race could clearly feel the sea’s power in Iron’s body as death approached him. He couldn’t help but speak enviously at Iron after feeling the sea’s power, something that he had missed dearly after his body got contaminated. 

“Imperial… listen closely. I will only tell you this in thanks for not letting my God go lonely.”

Iron’s mouth turned shut at the words of the head of the mermaid race. 

“Our destruction will be the beginning of your disaster. If you want to prevent the disaster, you have to let the heart of the sea beat again. If you do that, you might be able to prevent the planned destruction…”

The head of the mermaid race breathed his last at the end of those words. 

Iron sighed after confirming that he had lost his vitality and his breath. He had been holding back for quite a while waiting for him to spit out all of his final words. 

“Hero…”

The hero that the head of the mermaid race was talking about might be one of the other-worlders who came to this world through the God Game.

Something flashed in Iron’s head that brought about a mixed and complicated expression on his face after pondering about the prophecy detailing the destruction of the Empire. 

“Wait… with their destruction, the disaster will begin?”

Iron fell deep into his thoughts as he repeated the words of the head of the mermaid race. He quickly dashed out of the cave as soon as he grasped the meaning of those words. 

“The head of the mermaid race…” 

“Inside the cave.” 

“We’ll secure him.” 

“That’s not important! We have to go straight to the dimensional gate now!” 

Iron ran out after leaving those words. The knight signaled to some of the soldiers to secure the head of the mermaid race before rushing after Iron. 

Iron quickly looked at the dimensional gate floating in the sky above them. He quickly called out the Drake Knight when he saw that something was about to come out of the gate. 

It was the beginning of the disaster just like what the head of the mermaid race uttered like a final will. The being looked like it was the same Sea God that he had encountered back in Ghost Island. However, he was countless times larger as he tried to squeeze past through the narrow dimensional gate. With his size, just one arm sticking out would be enough to be called a disaster. 

The Eastern Commander couldn’t afford to move after dealing with the gigantic shark but it was something that Iron couldn’t stop on his own. Even after the airships and the drake units bombed him and poured flames and magic on him, he still did not budge. Iron knew that there was only one thing that would be able to stop this huge monster from forcibly opening the dimensional gate. 

“Bring me to the Sea Orb right now!” 

Hearing Iron shouting at him, the Drake Knight quickly grabbed onto Iron’s arms and pulled him up to fly towards the Sea Orb. 

“Stop him! Stop him from getting a hold of the Sea Orb!”

“Never let him touch the orb!”

Iron jumped down from the drake and landed on the Sea Orb after seeing the wizards blocking the enemy with all their might. This was the first time that he came to look at the Sea Orb after the mermaids’ God’s death. 

Perhaps it felt a familiar power coming from him? The Sea Orb shone brightly and welcomed him. Seeing the orb reacting to him, Iron injected his power inside.

The heart of the sea that the head of the mermaid race had mentioned was definitely the Sea Orb. If this Sea Orb could exert its original power, then it would be able to stop the Sea God. This was the only way that he knew right now.

“Please!”

Was it because Iron’s desperate wish had reached the depths of the Sea Orb?

A cold breeze wrapped around them as vast amounts of mana flocked to where they were. The will of the sea residing in Iron’s body flowed to the Sea Orb as an enormous power began to swirl inside it. 

Then, Iron’s eyes shone brightly with a white light as his mouth opened to speak.

“This is the power of pure nature.

A power that can purify and exterminate evil.

To annihilate our common enemy, the sea responded to the desperate call of the person who willingly embraced our forgotten God.

We will punish and defeat this evil.”

The words came out of Iron’s mouth but it floated in everyone’s ears just like when the Saintess spoke about God’s words. And these Godly words blocked the Sea God’s fist and all of the contaminated mana and black water that came out of the dimensional gate. 

However, it only blocked it. It did not expel or exterminate it. The bluish energy created from the words from earlier seemed to tell them that it was not the one who would exterminate this Sea God.

Meanwhile, the Sea God forced the dimensional gate open and pushed himself further outside. Before anyone knew it, half of the Sea God’s body was already outside. His huge body had covered the sky. Fortunately, with the help of the colossal energy of the sea, he couldn’t proceed any further than that.

However, at that moment, cracks began to appear in the Sea Orb after it collected huge amounts of energy. 

“Ah…”

Iron couldn’t help but sigh in despair when the Sea Orb, his final hope, started to break.

Am I supposed to just watch the other dimension’s Sea God come out like this?

The moment he thought of this, all of Iron’s divine power started to get sucked inside the Sea Orb. 

And…

―Kirruuuk!

“Thunder?”

Thunderbird suddenly popped out at Iron’s blank call. Then, the Sea Orb broke down and disappeared into a blue light that merged with Thunderbird’s body.

“Keuk!”

When the Sea Orb broke down, water droplets were created around the people on top of the orb as well as Iron’s body which helped them land safely on the ground. 

Iron stared cluelessly at everything that was happening around him.

“Thun… der?”

A huge blue bird covered the sky. 

― Thunderbird’s class has been temporarily increased after embracing the Heart of the Sea.

― Thunderbird has temporarily reached the mythical class.

― Thunderbird will be sealed in the form of an egg for a year in exchange for forcibly raising its class.

― You have temporarily owned a divine beast at the mythical class and have acquired the title: ‘One who Possess a Mythical Class Divine Beast!’. There will be an increase in affinity if you meet with a mythical class divine beast in the future.

The gigantic thunderbird moved and fought in front of the dimensional gate after the series of notifications. The bird had become so huge that it would definitely not lose out against the gigantic Sea God.

The Sea God waved its arm and created a huge tornado made of black water. However, lightning fell down and broke apart the huge tornado. A huge shockwave was even created once the huge wings of Thunderbird and the colossal arm of the Sea God collided. 

The gigantic shark that fought against the Eastern Commander nearby was hit by Thunderbird and crashed to the ground. Even the Eastern Commander suffered from internal injuries from the collision. 

However, the fight between Thunderbird and the Sea God continued without delay. Although the Sea God was struggling to attack, each and every hit was still extremely strong. Thankfully, Thunderbird was able to block every attack with all its might. 

Puerh Islands had become the battlefield between these two transcendental beings. Harsh winds, raging tornadoes and heavy storms were created all over the area from the aftershock of their fight.

And finally… after a few days of intense fighting, everything came to an end. 

― You have earned the achievement ‘Sending a God back!’! Your attacks will have a 5x increase whenever you meet with the followers of the Demonic God in the future. 

― The Will of the Sea has left and Thunderbird will now be sealed.

― The Heart of the Sea now belongs to Thunderbird.

After the series of notifications, a blue egg, infused with the Heart of the Sea, fell from the sky down into Iron’s arms. Iron patted Thunderbird’s egg as if to thank it for fighting against the Sea God with the Will of the Sea. 

“You’ve worked hard, Thunder.” 

Iron looked up at the sky after saying so. 

The dimensional gate was almost crushed after the Sea God was sent back. Even the terrible mermaids had disappeared. All that were left were the void insects, the monstrous creatures and the mutated monsters in the islands. 

He was sure that the Eastern Army would now be able to deal with them as time passed by. Besides, there were other-worlders, adventurers and mercenaries staying in the islands so they would have no problem cleaning them up in no time. After all, they would remain here until they have swept away all of the treasures in Atlantis. 

“It’s really over now.” 

Securing Thunderbird, his main reason for coming here, had already been achieved and completed. In addition, the mermaids and the dimensional gate had been dealt with. So, everything that needed to be solved in the East had been solved. 

“Is it time to go back?” 

Iron mumbled to himself as he looked at the sea. 

Then, a question suddenly popped in his head. It was an unresolved question that remained in his head after hearing the head of the mermaid race’s last words. 

That was the only reason why he was still here.

***

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