Chapter 224: All Sorts of Strange Coincidences

As it turned out, it was really hard to explain to the sea demons using normal logic. Every interaction with them brought a whole new experience on the worldview level. ——Take Tiel for example; Gawain felt that at least one out of every three sentences from her came with a san check[1] during his conversation with this salted fish…

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“Say it more clearly!” Gawain looked at this “mermaid” that was bouncing before him with glaring eyes. “Our worldview is different, I’m telling you. We really cannot understand things that you just blurt out without a head or a tail!”

“It’s just that when the stars are right, the big squid in the deep sea will see a ‘surge’.” Tiel struck the ground of the balcony hard with force. “Although we couldn’t figure out the reason, it seems that the big squid will absorb energy during certain celestial movements. Then, the flesh on the squid corpse will grow rapidly. Within a few days’ time, we’d be able to dig up fuel that was equivalent to the output of several decades. And more importantly, we could open up our bellies and eat. —— And regardless of how much we ate, the big squid would swiftly regrow… Slurp…”

Tiel couldn’t help slurping a mouthful of saliva as she explained, a longing and happy expression showing on her face. “Ah, that is truly a gift from nature…”

However, Gawain became increasingly horrified as he listened at the side. It wasn’t difficult to comprehend the bizarre judgments that the sea demons made since there were pits in their brains. However, he’d vaguely realized what that so-called “surge in the big squid” was from Tiel’s description…

Damn. The “divine remains” in the deep sea would rapidly regenerate when the stars were right… This wasn’t an attempt at resurrection, was it?

However, just from how this bunch of salted fish were still alive and kicking and the world hadn’t been destroyed, clearly, a certain heretic god in the deep sea had not succeeded in resurrecting even till now.

Heidi who was beside her also developed an interest in this topic. Although she had no idea about “the gods being dead” like Gawain and her associative ability wasn’t as good as that of her imaginative ancestor and Rebecca, she still detected some strange, terrifying horror from Tiel’s description. Hence, she could not help but ask, “From your tone, a similar incident has happened many times?”

“Let me think…” Tiel pinched her chin and thought hard for a while. “Ah, it has happened about sixteen times… Other than the first time when we didn’t figure out the situation and ended up in a mess, unable to eat to our heart’s content, we have been able to open up our bellies and feast for several days each time thereafter…”

Gawain broke out in a cold sweat. He was becoming increasingly convinced that his assessment had been right. —— Damn it, the positions of the stars had been realigned sixteen damned times! Sixteen times! A certain ancient god (in Gawain’s opinion it was more likely a heretic god) in the deep sea had shown signs of reviving sixteen times! In the end, it was eaten and made dead again by a bunch of deep-sea salted fish with superb appetites… eaten and made dead again…

So, what exactly the hell were this gang of sea demons? What material were they made of?!

In this struggle that went into the depths of one’s soul, an idea suddenly flashed across like lightning in Gawain’s mind: he recalled a certain “collectible” of his.

He looked at the salted-fish demon before him curiously. “Tiel, if you were to be given a piece of something with similar qualities to the big squid, would you be able to differentiate it?”

“What do you mean?” Tiel batted her eyes. “Do you sell fake meat too?”

Gawain choked for a moment. “…It’s a little troublesome to explain. Tell you what, early in the morning tomorrow— Forget it, it’s indefinite what time you’ll wake up next. Make a trip with me now. I have something suspected to be ‘squid flesh’ here to show you.”

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……

At the same time, in the Endless Sea far from land, the Sons of the Storm were monitoring the movements of the stars, monitoring the condition of ‘Ao’, and also monitoring the changes in the energy fluctuations coming from the deep sea.

The positions of the stars were already right, and concurrently, today was also the day in a year where “Ao’s” energy reaction would be the strongest. The powers of that ultimately mysterious star would stack up with the energy produced by many of the celestial bodies in the night sky. The unique energy that they released together would be a key to awakening the God of Storms.

The ecclesiastics of the Sons of the Storm lined up neatly on the platform, while their deacon stood on the edge of the platform closest to the sea cliff. This deacon draped in black robes gazed at the sea that was getting more and more violent, as if he was gazing at a boundless abyss that was about to devour the entire world.

Would “The Lord” return?

The storm deacon didn’t know what he was truly thinking. He didn’t know whether he was looking forward to the return of The Lord or fearing that The Lord would truly return. But he knew very well that such a conflicted mentality wasn’t exclusive to himself.

Judgment Day would ultimately come, and mortals would find their rightful positions when it arrived —— but what were the rightful positions of the Sons of the Storm? How about the Eternal Sleepers? Or the Oblivion Association?

They embraced the day of destruction because every dark sect believed that they’d found the path that allowed themselves to exist forever when doomsday arrived. They believed that they’d even found the path to advancing and becoming something similar to the gods that were imperishable for eternity on the day the gods devoured the world. But they were ultimately mortals. They couldn’t be sure that their paths were the correct ones. However, it was precisely under the torture of such fear and worry that they, instead, shifted to fanaticism and confidence. ——Only on the arrival of this fateful day would this small group of people be jolted to their senses and abruptly begin to doubt the path they’d been on the entire time.

If the gods were to return, would mortals really be able to survive?

The Sons of the Storm began the ritual on the platform, summoning the powers of the sea to protect themselves. When the Pope’s orders were given, they would become immortal together with the sea.

……

Within the Typhon borders, in the Eternal Sleepers’ concealed temple, the nightmare bishops were also gathered. The failure of the 17th “deep diving” resulted in them losing some subordinate node clusters, but the bishop team was intact. Under the guidance of the Eternal Sleepers Pope, they arrived at the “connecting hall” and built a powerful, connected network of consciousness. They waited for the observation information of the stars and gods from the Sons of the Storm while preparing to activate the “eternal dream-realm”.

……

In the north of the continent, in the Oblivion Association’s underground hideout, Beltira stood amongst the bishops, looking down at the biological tissues that squirmed ceaselessly in the underground rift valley. She watched the archbishop floating above those biological tissues and guiding the powerful energy to be infused into “the body of the fake god”.

The time wasn’t ripe —— every fallen Druid knew this very well. They had yet to gather enough tissues. The Anzu-Typhon war that was planned to be realized before winter this year had also failed to break out because of the obstruction of Duke Ferdinand who had suddenly changed his stance. The flesh-gathering operation within the Anzu borders also failed repeatedly. However, there was no more time left now.

Whether Judgment Day had really already arrived, all the dark sects had to “ignite” their respective final plans in advance. This was radicalism, but also necessary caution.

At a certain moment on this day, the movements of “Ao” finally reached the peak of a year. The powers of the stars also entered this world at the same time.

…

And at this moment, ocean tides surged. The Endless Sea raged and roared like it was boiling. The Sons of the Storm activated the ritual amidst the tsunami. Indescribable forces started to connect them to the entire ocean.

The Eternal Sleepers activated all nodes in the mental processing network. The “eternal dream realm” that had yet to be completed began to connect all consciousness of the believers into the same world.

As the Oblivion Association activated the “body of the fake god”, that powerful polymer of flesh gradually awakened.

Under the deep sea, the God of Storms who had fallen for tens of thousands of years twitched his body —— and this one spasm… was the signal to start the meal.

The sea demons raised their forks and knives—— or pincers and tails for some.

No one knew about the major upheaval that happened outside of human society. The only incident that had some slight connection to it was in the north of the Loren Continent: deep in the mountain range at the southern borders of the Anzu Kingdom, a sea demon named Tiel saw the treasure that Gawain had stored away seriously.

Miss Sea Demon let out a merry cry, “Woo! It’ll definitely be delicious!”

Gawain rushed to grab her tail in time before this salted-fish demon nibbled a hole in the crystal cube. As he casually pulled her backward, he lunged forward and defended that precious divine tissue sample.

“Hey, don’t hide it! Didn’t you get me here to give me more food!” Tiel slapped the ground with her tail irritatedly and then dashed forward, attempting to snatch the crystal cube from Gawain’s hands. “Give it to me, give it to me to have a taste…”

Gawain dodged Tiel’s pounces while shouting loudly, “Stop, stop, stop! I called you here to see whether this thingamajig was ‘a big squid’ or not. Who said anything about letting you eat it?”

“What is there for me to see if you’re not letting me eat it?!” Tiel simply couldn’t get her hands on the tasty snack. The entire fish was close to going berserk. “I missed the dinner party that only happens once every so many years! I thought you were going to make it up for me!”

However, Gawain’s determination exceeded Tiel’s imagination. Regardless of how she jumped around, it was impossible that Gawain would give the only divine sample now to this salted fish demon as supper. And after Tiel finally got tired of jumping, she was finally forced to quieten down. “Let me tell you, this isn’t the ‘big squid’ that we usually dig —— but it does feel quite similar.”

“Not the same?” Gawain’s brow was lifted. “Are you sure?”

“Of course, I’m sure! No sea demon would be mistaken in recognizing the big squid!” Tiel stood with arms akimbo. It was unknown how she managed to prop herself up so levelly with a curved fishtail —— she could hardly stand on two legs in usual times. “In my opinion, this piece of pastry probably fell off a lifeform that is of a species similar to the big squid… Hey, hey, where did you get this? How big are the remains for this thing? Tell me! I won’t eat this piece of processed food. I can go search for the food by myself…”

Gawain: “…”

Are you salted-fish demons a bunch of lifeforms that are even more terrifying than the deep-sea heretic god? Are you people the deep-sea comedian gods?!

“Unfortunately, I only have this one sample in my hands.” After looking dazedly at Tiel for a long while and making the latter tense right down to her tail, Gawain couldn’t help but shake his head as he gave her the bad news. “And I don’t know where to find more of them either. —— This piece has been passed down by us ‘land people’ from a thousand years ago.”

Tiel was aware of the average lifespan of land people. She was instantly startled, “Ha? A piece of pastry had to be passed down for a thousand years? It is said that we cannot waste food, but there’s no need for you people to be this miserly…”

Then, she began to muse: What land people being in hot water? This small cookie piece is an heirloom? Literally broken thoughts and all sorts of nonsense.

Gawain watched such a Tiel and could only feel drops of cold sweat on his forehead. He was completely at a loss of how to explain to this person that divine flesh couldn’t be eaten here. ——He felt that this was literally a problem at the level of humans and gods, survival and extinction, races and fate. But Tiel might highly likely think that this was simply a problem with recipes after she heard this.

For the first time ever since he transmigrated, Gawain felt that he’d lost sanity points…

[1] Sanity check: a basic test to quickly evaluate whether a claim or the result of a calculation can possibly be true